Pseudo-Polymath

Well, worked hard enough that I think I can come home (sort of) a day early, Thursday night instead of mid-day Friday.

1. Our press missed another one. Or did I miss the flood of reporting and in depth analysis (I don’t think I did).
2. Spot on, for myself Cassian trumped Augustine and I crossed the Bosporus.
3. A proposal. Comments?
4. So … do you think it worked or not?
5. Western Europeans should not be proud.
6. Speaking of which, … a suggestion.
7. A bad anti-gun argument, which makes a case for women to be armed and trained, which I’m (just) guessing wasn’t the point.
8. Boredom. Never a problem with the universe, which is endlessly fascinating, but with you. Kids don’t appreciate being told that however.
9. Liberals will never ever believe that even though true.
10. So, why illegal (besides government is up to it’s normal tricks, e.g., being stupid). And seems to me you should be signing things to get not refuse liability coverage. Our society has it bas-ackwards.
11. Hack. Spit. (all I have to say, except geesh Biden is contemptible)
12. No, no no. Democrats are the cargo cultists in that analogy, Kerry is the faux airplane.
13. Pride in your country, eh?
14. Love of sport.
15. Criticism of Pickety (HT).
16. A good response to the “plagarism because of PTSD” excuse.
17. If you didn’t think people were incredibly weird … just sayin‘

From the city of Henderson, affixed to the somewhat ghastly garish city of Los Vegas comes … links

1. Re Piketty.
2. Non-violence and guns, what you didn’t know, part one and two.
3. Ballet noted.
4. The unimpressive Mr Kerry’s impressively bad idea. The “bad” is the reason for the repeated adjective.
5. Foodly notions.
6. Surprise, not.
7. Diogenes failed to find an honest man. Liberal’s arguing that the “state” in the Obamacare mandate included the feds … are evidence he’d still be looking. Liberals who argue that way are impressively dishonest. Look when you specifically design a thing to exclude the fed subsidy as an incentive to get states to buy in … then you can’t down the road argue you mean to include fed subsidies. You just can’t, and retain any sense of respect.
8. Won’t end well.
9. A top ten headline.
10. What is it.
11. Failing, as so many do, to replace “terrorist” with synonyms like “mass murderers” and/or “serial killers”. Because that is what they are. And no, “this isn’t personal it’s political” doesn’t excuse mass murder. Sorry.

Gotta run.

Man. It’s hot down South, especially when where you work isn’t air conditioned. I kept wiping sweat from my laptop keyboard today.

1. Hmm.
2. or should the be Mmmm.
3. So. Is turnabout fair play?
4. Up up and away.
5. First off … as far as I can see Putin and Russia have nothing to gain (and perhaps some to lose) by doing so. Anybody out there think they can see a gain for them? If not, then this is not a surprise.
6. Let’s see, those who study gun violence find said violence has little sensitivity to gun control legislation yet the left promotes that above all else to control said violence. A pattern emerges. Stupid travels in packs.
7. Statism and its effects.
8. I travel quite a bit. This I’ve never noticed.
9. Mr Dungy’s remarks. If Mr Dungy had said, “I wouldn’t want to draft the President’s son (assume for a moment the President or some similarly famous individual had entering the draft as a prospective 5th (!!!) round offensive linemen) because of the press and attention and non-football related distractions surrounding him.” People would nod understanding. Guess what. Same thing here. You people who want to find a bigot under every rock … are practicing what you wish to detract.
10. From the opinion, the salient quote. Principled objections?
11. A film noted. I think it’s important to point out, realistic gun behavior (unlike the film in question) improves not detracts the story, the drama, and the tension. It works in books. Why doesn’t the US film industry get that?
12. Musing on the future.
13. The other way the “health care costs” are bent down. And it’s not a good way, which is to say eschewing progress.
14. Demographics.

G’day

1. So. A bad year for Malaysian airlines, a flight from Kuala Lampur to Amsterdam (I believe) was shot down over the Ukraine.  True to form the talking heads say stupid things, here and here. “May be a tragedy” Hmm. What more do you need to know to figure out that this was not a tragedy but a horrible act of terror. And “Hell to pay”? What?! You’re going to do what!? I’ll make my prediction on the outcome of this. The conventional wisdom or generally accepted wisdom of what actually happened will be a lie. Decades down the road when the truth comes out, it won’t be the story that you hear a month or two from now.
2. Here is some reaction from the East.
3. How Obamacare bends the cost curve. They didn’t promise which direction it would bend, eh?
4. Not what you want to see.
5. Probably not a site to warm the cockles of the hearts of the pro-abortion crowd. (with that in mind … )
6. A suggestion for a best piece. I’d go with Shostokovich’s 10th.
7. From the crowd that misunderstands the Constitution and Bill of Rights. When it doesn’t make a difference a thing should be allowed, not restricted. Hint: Where gun laws are relaxed it leads to no perceptible increase in gun violence. Duh.
8. The UN and legal responsibility.
9. Imaging the earth’s interior.

G’day.

1. This is said a lot (that good teachers don’t insist a student “believe”, or pretend to believe, what the teacher believes to get a good grade). I don’t think it is true. A commentor remarks that this may not be true in science but is in philosophy. Let’s see a student decide that predicate logic is random nonsense and see how that flies. The point is, that even in philosophy or other “soft” sciences you can’t just believe whatever you want willy-nilly and pretend that’s just your opinion … so you should get a good grade no matter what you say. I’m not saying this well. The point being all fields have parts which are bedrock, which make up the framework of discussion and are not negotiable. Then there are those points on which reasonable people can differ. You can’t disagree that 1+1=2, but you can on the axiom of choice. Same goes for Philosophy, Econ and other such fields of study.
2. Continuing with the right’s inability to grok what the left is all up in arms about with respect to Hobby Lobby, e.g., how is “not buying you something” an imposition.
3. Of what interest would the justice department have in a parade (answer: Constitutionally speaking none at all). Y’all on the left can now explain.
4. So. Does that conservative pass the liberal Turing test?
5. Betcha it won’t be sold here.

Hmm. Slow news day?

So, emergency run Sunday night through today to a customer site. Ahm back.

1. To distinguish from the amphibian crises.
2. A description of liberal attitudes.
3. Summertime homework.
4. Grist for the marriage discussion.
5. Sounds likely, although I think the correlation is that increased wealth leads to more consumption and wealth tracks also with green.
6. Two dismal wizards disagree.
7. Qualified is not a high on the Democratic voter’s list of concerns.
8. When I was growing up, reading the books, honor was important and I still think it is. Killing your children however doesn’t remotely connect with any notion of honorable actions that I’ve ever heard of. It would be nice if the right meaning of honor became the primary one again.
9. Tis true.
10. He rode and tried to get back in the bunch for almost an hour. Remember that.
11. I suspect caffeine and alcohol and sugar aren’t on this list.
12. Put these two posts together, here and here.
13. A book noted. another one of a different sort.

Ho.

1. The first sentence highlights a thing I never have understood, the hardship chic, recovering poor/drug abuser/alcoholic/what-have-you as a good thing.
2. Almost certainly fictional but I laughed anyway.
3. That immigration thang, #3 is the salient point. This an attack.
4. D&D strikes again. Speaking of which.
5. Glub.
6. Content and intent. Apparently only the latter is required.
7. Turnabout in politics remains not fair play. The rest of us disagree.
8. Why?
9. For those who think net security is never needed.
10. A worse job than yours … assuming that the guy who has that job isn’t reading this.
11. Hmm. Knowing how long you have to wait makes a big difference.
12. Subway.
13. Advertising done right.

A little late, ’cause feedly seemed to be down.

1. Voter Id coming back into the news.
2. But this probably won’t be. Hopefully, ’cause it sounds like sound and fury signifying very little.
3. Works for me. And I should be ashamed, I guess.
4. That right/left ire, a clue to a possible cause.
5. More Clinton backstory.
6. Sexual “harassment” and poorly thought out guidelines.
7. A book noted.
8. Something for the affirmative action fans.
9. The party ‘gainst women.
10. No.
11. So. There’s a “border crises”. Lots of talk. Allegedly for some reason which nobody seems to talk about suddenly (?) thousands of unaccompanied minors are flooding across our southern border. Why? It seems odd to me that nobody at all seems to be talking about that. When you have a bacterial infection you take antibiotics and not drugs to combat fever. Because that’s the root cause.

Fourth of July last weekend.

1. Just remember, bloating and excessive urination.
2. This silliness is making the rounds.
3. It’s on my bookshelf (and bucket list, if I had one).
4. Yikes.
5. A bad use of the word “but”.
6. Of Primping and display. I’m unimpressed by the whole experiment. Men who “shave below the neck” are swimmers and bodybuilders. Gosh that’s a horrible thing to emulate. Cyclists shave their legs.
7. Doctors and basic math and logic.
8. Don’t worry, famous jurists make logic errors ala little Sonia.
9. Word.
10. Religion and life.
11. Nature photo-bombing.

So, after midnight last night, power was restored. Now the Hurricane Sandy/Katrina survivors are not impressed by 30 hours (but with fresh water and gas) as something to note, and it wasn’t that bad, but … it is nice to have power again nevertheless.

Links?

1. Something liberal school administrators (and politicians) have trouble understanding.
2. Case in point.
3. A weak defense of Ms Clinton’s rape defense case.
4. Weather.
5. Two lists, one with everything not that is not a empty hard vacuum and the other list has everything else. Not very useful, eh?
6. And then … I met Mr Clinton.
7. So, I’m going to not remark overmuch on the Hobby Lobby decision which brought a big explosion of stupid from the left (e.g., “this mean if I have a religious call to kill this decision allows that” (Chicago Tribune columnist … hint: no it doesn’t) or Gosh why do companies like Hobby Lobby not object to viagra (Pheminist Filosophers … hint: a closely held company could … but consider what you’re asking about … d’ya think you can find a real religion worshiped in this country by any plurality that doesn’t favor fertility and family over killing children and fetus? Theology and life vs death. Not very hard to imagine.) This post, is the closest to an intelligent response from the left, but strikes out on point 5, in which he somehow forgets the reasoning that was allowed sort of in point 2 … that is the court found that the burdening of beliefs was not tenable (for closely held corps) when non-burdened alternatives exist, which they did as it was allowed already for others. Or in other words, see the first itemized point in this post.
8. Here’s someone who believes the IRS “lost” all those emails by 6 independent computers all “happened” to be eaten by their respective dogs. The point is moot, as the most reasonable response is to allow that the matters which these emails where to have “cleared up” is, on failure to produce the requested data, that it means the accusation is deemed to have been found true.
9. So, if true, the IRS under Obama has been totally corrupted by partisan bias. Welcome to the new world, in which the left has decided a partisan IRS is a good thing. Wonder if they’ll still feel that way the next time we have President from the right. After all, everyone does agree that turnabout is fair play … that’s axiomatic, right?
10. A statistic.
11. This point might also be recalled during homosexuality is sin discussions.
12. On the poverty and Ms Clinton affair. I also read Mr Clinton has offered that “we were 7 million in debt” … ahem. Mr Clinton, I’m pretty sure your debts were all covered (off the books, IRS-wise) by selling pardons in your last week or so in office.
13. I disagree with this SCOTUS ruling. I’d offer that no union should be able to collect “dues” from any non-members. Ever. Under any conditions. Not one penny. That’s just wrong.
14. My interest has waxed … we’re getting closer to the finals. For what it’s worth, I’m rooting for the Netherlands (mostly because they skated so well in the winter Olympics).
15. A fellow blogger under duress.
16. It can order. It cannot compel.
17. If this is news for you. I’ve got more … kindergarten is over. Grow up.

Thor’s Day?

1. Why those of us with less talent drift to the slow twitch sports where discipline and good training can put us at least in the pack.
2. A foreign view.
3. A biting remark (hint: what threat … or else we will taunt you a second time?)
4. Beauty in the eye of beauty specialists from other countries.
5. There’s an explanation for the IRS email problem.
6. Nanny state curtailed.
7. A cop not honoring his responsibilities.
8. A point which the green movement finds somewhat perplexing.
9. Apparently by making a “extreme” (ridiculous? incompetent?) argument Obama and his admin intentionally worked for a 9-0 ruling against themselves. Believe that and you’re one of the few who believe the IRS accidentally lost those emails.
10. Now there’s a dumb idea. Here’s a better one, to disambiguate “hot” (use spicy, thermy and hot for the three common meanings. As in habanero peppers are spicy. Coffee out of the machine is thermy, and that girl over there is hot).
11. But, you know, she’s not running … hah!

Woo. Tomorrow US/Germany FIFA, eh?

1. Getting close to Japanese bushido (goal in life is a good death) or Christian thoughts (that you will not perfect your life without (a) God’s intervention and (b) not in this life). Well, that’s how I saw that quote.
2. Saurovka.
3. Yet thousands and thousands of 500 foot tall windmills taking terawatts out of wind energy out of the atmosphere will have no climate effects.
4. In part because the security industries continued existence depends on them actually not solving the problem.
5. Back when fossil fuel burning industrialized Woolly Mammoth society endangered the planet.
6. Fire them all.
7. Resistance to antibiotics.
8. A little cuteness.
9. Except the man was stupid enough to not notice while finding his gate, boarding and talking to fellow passengers.
10. Actually it’s not criminal. However a Volokh poster the other day did point out the actual consequences, which are interesting to consider (but I’m not finding the link). The upshot was that in a court of law if you fail to produce expected evidence like this with no excuse the ruling is that the expected evidence is held found to be against you. Which in this case means the IRS emails should be viewed in the absence of their production, as indicating both White House involvement and intentional political motivations. Glad they settled that so firmly, eh?
11. One of the world’s demographic time bombs.
12. Just one election.
13. One of the two Benghazi scandals involving Ms Clinton. The other being her claim that she had no involvement in the security arrangements, which is either a lie or evidence of law breaking (by statute the Sec of State must sign off on all embassy security details).

Hey.

1. Pretty.
2. Left wing smear machine, first step, misinterpret.
3. The President’s tendency to fabulous talk, first step, attack the straw may.
4. Hmm. Here’s to hoping that “married” doesn’t mean what it sounds like it means.
5. A very very strange custom noted.
6. Heh.
7. An interesting trend.
8. There may be substantial problems with Mr Cruz, as viewed by left or right … but this particular leftist manages not to note a single one in his diatribe. Seriously looks like Satan and takes long showers!?
9. Of profit and place, a map.
10. A life without hardship and a few millions banked away will do that.
11. Bad men can make art and science and stuff. Do we connect the two and reject it on account of source? Or not.  I’d have to say, not … after all Jesus came in to the world to save sinners, of whom I am first. And as I am first of such, seems to me to reject another sinner’s attempts at doing good would be uncharitable.

G’day.

1. Missing the point, badly. Not a few prophets were willing to tell “the Jews” they were going the wrong way (hint: Jesus was yet another Jew). Odd that. Mr Schraub (a Jew) isn’t afraid to tell Christians when he thinks they were wrong. Perhaps he thinks turnabout is not fair play. It might be observed however, the point in question (that Jesus criticized fellow Jews might be better served to point that we should not fail to criticize other Christians when they stray … hmmm to what might that be applied?).
2.  Markets everywhere, and everywhere markets appear the state tries to rear its ugly head, apparently.
3. Liberal elite and their cargo cultic magic, noted.
4. Our mainstream media acting cliquish and stupid. Idiots abound.
5. “Cheese, Grommit!” says Wallace.
6. Biden, “I’m not rich” (just really dumb). No investments at all. Dependent forever on the kindness of, well, the public till.
7. For the past 25 years, in a continuous trend, gun violence has been trending downward (while gun ownership has risen). However, facts and trends don’t matter to the real gun nuts. Guns and firearms give you the heeby-jeebies isn’t an argument for the curtailment of other peoples liberties. More people die on motor cycles than by gunshot. Should those be banned?
8. Apparently Roman Catholics don’t exchange a kiss of peace during their services.
9. Forgetting the Civil War. Woops.
10. Yeah. And Swiss cheese can’t be from Wisconsin. Oh, wait.
11. Failing to give consent during a drunken encounter … compared to what the rest of the world calls rape.
12. Speaking of rape, this has been making the rounds.
13. And this too is not unrelated. That brings the old colonial British anecdote to mind, in which a British fellow was ordering the arrest of the people who had burned a widow on the death of her husband. He was informed this was an ancient custom of their people. He replied that it was an ancient custom of his people to hang people who burn women.

Well the Midwest has been having a spate of T-storms. Last night’s flight suffered a few delays, but eventually I got home.

1. Entropy is the clue, I’d think.
2. Heroism.
3. Echoes of that seminal Ratzinger/Habermas debate (the debate text can be purchased as a book, btw).
4. Professional students, literally.
5. If you intentionally misunderstand and then pretend insult … that’s a form of lying.
6. Liberal academics on employment push the “do what I say, not what I do” tactic it seems.
7. Much of this post might be right, but it ends with an absolute falsehood, “The widespread availability of high-powered military-grade weaponry does not keep us secure from tyranny ” … uhm. Hello? high powered military grade weaponry is illegal, scarce, and anything but widespread and available. Sorry. Fantasy doesn’t help you make your point.
8. The actual trademarks you can freely use now.
9. Cyber-warfare, electoral variety.
10. 2 against 55.
11. He probably regretted both.

Woo, going home tomorrow night. 14 hours ahead of schedule.

1. A self-referential (somewhat hilarious) remark by Ms Clinton. Seriously though she’s right, the left elite should not terrorize the rest of us.
2. Higher education and some more self-referential remarks by another left elitist.
3. Somewhat in the same vein, an employee becomes an actual loyal employee, when apparently he figures he’s doing something else. Color me confused.
4. Who in their right mind thinks it was accidental (or actually lost) … but setting that aside, that brings up the other side of the coin, i.e., those document saving standards they’d like us to keep … well? If y’all can’t do what you force us to do, well … (hack spit) words fail!
5. On that same topic, at the end points 1-6 … well only 2 seems right. Five an indictment of the current President. Regarding #4 … there should be lots and lots of copies of those “missing” emails on different, uhm, tapes and servers.
6. Dog. Wagged. Just like with Mr bin Laden.
7. A story. (HT) 21st century Tinkerbell.
8. Some FIFA stats.
9. Well, as for the last two panels, the guys you realize are talking about guns, sports, or beer … the girls about, well, people they know. There is a difference (viva la and all that)
10. Not mentioned in this list is how many the Ukraine gave up when Clinton assured them the US had their back. Bet you they regret giving them up now, eh?
11. In which “they are paid” apparently doesn’t mean “have a job” which it normally would I’d think.
12. Germs.
13. What is learned from studying history.
14. Snowflakes chance you know where of that.
15. Dismal indeed.

Well, back in Georgia. Probably still very busy. Go-Live tomorrow morning.

1. Getting cooperation in foreign affairs, a tale of two Presidents.
2. On that topic, here’s a rumination on a possible theme, Bush made a mistake in Iraq (and highlights the error) compounded and made worse by Mr Obama.
3. But don’t lose this point.
4. When goverment forgets what rights mean and who’s working for whom.
5. Why identity isn’t substance or property, but ontology and relationship.
6. Missing repentance in a list.
7. Recent Lerner lie lost the left. Probably only the loons remain on that fence-post.
8. Some meta-linking but that billboard (and response) is a hoot.
9. Anyone surprised?
10. Explody stuff.
11. One way to explain the popularity of climate alarmism.
12. What is ISIS?
13. On not quitting.
14. A scholastic experiment.

Yo. Without much ado … links?

1. Family matters and geography.
2. ’cause doing that sort of thing what politicians like she do all the time, you’re just supposed to pretend it’s not so.
3. A policy and the effect as predicted.
4. The part that claims to be “friendly to women” isn’t. If one suspects the primary reason that party claims the other party is unfriendly to women is to provide cover for their own sins … you’d be right (oh, the other reason is that they, to paraphrase Mr Obama figure little girls grow up dreaming they will kill their babies and that sort of thing is women-friendly).
5. My #1 daughter bought some ghost-pepper salsa. I’m not a fan. But, it makes for interesting viewing.
6. I had a joke in mind when I saved this link. But I forgot it. You can roll your own.
7. That probably goes the other way too.
8. Dubious claims noted.
9. In the “say something positive even if it makes no sense” mode, the President claims the GOP electoral results likely to stiffen House Republican’s willingness to compromise means they will be more willing to compromise. Riiiight. One wonders if he even read the statement before he made it.

And another day done.

1. Go. My one intuition from playing a little Go in high school is that it teaches you recognize a  non-winning position and abandon that before losses mount. Looking at Japan in WWII, playing the game doesn’t translate that skill to real life.
2. It was a liberal tenet that fighting terrorism was a legal not military matter. To bad that presumption is both wrong and one held by an administration for almost a decade. (stupid or evil, eh)
3. Why the left large brained administrators like euthanasia. Solves the GOMER problem.
4. For the carbon entranced.
5. Piketty problems.
6. Taiwan and Tiananmen (HT)
7. Color me unsurprised.

Well, links?

1. Stupid scholastic tricks.
2. In a barely comprehensible move, an openly sexist site bemoans sexism.
3. This is not unrelated, i.e., sexism noted.
4. Obamacare continues to be a disaster.
5. Just think some publisher paid her money to write that tripe. As for myself, it would take a great deal of money to convince me read even a little bit of it. I suspect that is true of a lot of people. Which makes it confusing why a publisher would want to publish such things. She is however, quite color blind when it comes to money.
6. This book however, looks interesting.
7. Speaking of books, this is what happens when two administrations in a row ignore David Petraeus’s book on counter-insurgency. Particularly the importance of other governmental agencies and specialties be engaged in rebuilding and enriching the country in question.
8. Ice sheets melting, CO2 not implicated, oops.
9. So I missed this when I sojourned in the wilderness. Did you?
10. Medical ethics.
11. Stupid liberal reactions noted.
12. Two speeches.
13. Screw the nanny state. Just stop it now!
14. Why not “and”?
15. Awesome illustrations.

Ho.

1. Economic considerations for net neutrality.
2. So … yuck or not?
3. Crystalline structure and permanence.
4. Government leads to wickedness. Why the left wants more of it, is the mystery.
5. Well, he hasn’t … but the reason isn’t laziness. There’s no constituency at risk … that is the impact on the midterms is minimal if it doesn’t become a scandal. So, ergo, it doesn’t matter.
6. How supporters of aff action and other less good ideas (reparations) justify racial barriers against Asians.
7. Bang bang she said.
8. Huh?
9. The Crimean prize.
10. Fair play.
11. Choices and life.
12. Journalists being dumb, noted.
13. I’m pretty sure they all knew what was going on. I keep hearing “I thought they were looking out for me.” This is a lie. You, they, and everybody else around were focused on getting you back in the game. It’s what you wanted. It’s what they wanted. It’s what you got.
14. Inflation.

G’day

1. Ms Palin makes a point, highlighting those on both sides of the aisle as hypocrites (those on the left who went after Ms Palin but find this abhorrent when aimed at Ms Clinton and the reverse on the right).
2. “Deep concern”.
3. Uhuh.
4. Let ‘em run free, get hurt and all that.
5. Drones.
6. Top speed vs cornering, … recall the Zero in WWII, eh?
7. The elderly.
8. A demographic prediction charted.
9. India, anointing and international elite opinion.
10. Bad science.
11. Smash, bang, hack.
12. On Piketty.

Wooh. Light at the end of the tunnel … one more day of silly hours (then travel and work Saturday). Ain’t life grand?

1. Unemployment measured before the thought police got put in charge of the government. Kinda like how the census just “happened” to change how it measured important Obamacare metrics so the next data set will not be comparable with past ones for judging the effectiveness of the program (or should that be programme).
2. Speaking on Obamacare, here’s how it’s bending that cost curve. First of many would be my prediction.
3. Other news on that front here.
4. Two on the Sterling kerfuffle, here and here.
5. Wonder why bike racing is awesome? Go no further and just watch.
6. Oy vey! The mountains are moving because of global warming  (Yikes! Catastrophic! Skary!)…. uhm wait. A 6000 foot mountain has a measureable .. 1-3 millimeter height variation (out of a seasonal 2cm shift) and that’s something that is …. well, move on. Nothing to see here (literally). (and by the by, the “human” cause of that  … just unsubstantiated rubbish).
7. More climate news here.
8. Country or not-country?
9. Yikes.
10. Drug tests.
11. “Russia had serfs long after everyone else had abandoned serfdom” … uhm, Russia freed the serfs concurrent with the start of the Civil War. I mean, there are lots regrettable things that you can pin on Russia in her history (see 20th century) but the mock serf thing at a time when you had slaves? That makes no sense.
12. Well, to be honest, physicists have been returning (absent evidence) to super-symmetry for 50 years so far … not because of new evidence but because it is (a) cool and (b) solves a lot of vexing problems.
13. Hmm. I thought the saying was “out of the mouths of babes … come all manner of things.”

So. I’m East of Atlanta … alas I think I won’t have time for anything but work.

1. So, I’m thinking that the missing prelude to Brave New World is how did they get to a seemingly benign completely autocratic regime … seems our rulers figure if you toss a frog in boiling water it will object (jump out) but if you slowly heat the same water …. (case in point) (and yet one more)
2. Yikes.
3. A truly weird portrait .. oh, and they ride bikes.
4. Da science is settled, just hold that thought, even if causes dissonance. Oh, and one more on climate.
5. Embarrassing for the science educator establishment. Akin to a Natural History museum putting cavemen and T-Rex in the same diorama.
6. From the loony left.
7. Calling them!? Call a spade a spade doesn’t make it a spade. It was a spade before it was called out.
8. Speech police continue. Don’t worry about actions. Just the speech.
9. This is not unrelated.
10. Corrosion resistance put to the test.
11. Leadership and culture (compare to our President and his failed ‘teaching’ moments)
12. A question asked.
13. And some of us voted for him. Who is he? Well, he (and she) is in the beltway and there are hundreds of them.
14. My #1 daughter would strenuously disagree with the message on this sign. Her sister might concur however.
15. Added to my reading inbox.
16. The end of (your) days and … a homily for those around those at the end of their life.

Hmm. Feels like Wednesday already. Yikes. Must have been a long day.

1. Ms Clinton on guns. So, what does one of these liberal chuckleheads say when asked, “So, over the last 20 years gun ownership has steadily risen and gun violence has steadily fallen. What is this thing you think you need to fix?” Seriously. Why do they push this nonsense?
2. The beltway gets the press it deserves.
3. For the dirty deed’s done dirt cheap as a long term job opportunity.
4. But here’s how not to do it.
5. Exactly. Actually the PC speech thing is an interesting paradox. Those PC speakers typically despise the Victorian and the Victorian ethos. Yet they have appropriated their methods. A primary thesis behind the Victorian emphasis on manners (and if you don’t see a parallel between manners and PC speech rules you aren’t watching) was that correct the manners and the thoughts and interior ethics will follow the habits so engendered. How many PC speech enthusiasts like those applauding the Eich/Sterling/&c kerfuffles also reject that same Victorian thesis.
6. A picture perfect illustration why “education” on contraception isn’t the fix it is pretends to be.
7. Moving on up, err, out.
8. Oh, please. Get real.
9. Freedom of speech is not (not not not not) a “collective” right. (Added: See this as well)
10. Which is why laws like this likely will not stand.

G’day.

1. or go play soccer. Sounds like the right answer.
2. Foreign policy.
3. Deontology (I think) and lying.
4. So, being incredibly stupid can be illegal.
5. Sooo soo shtupid. The Palin haters probably are cringing.
6. Demographics.
7. Guess I’ve gone over to be part of the problem, eh?
8. Heh.
9. This is in the news. On the other hand, if something which occurs is easily predicted that means it’s not exactly an unintended consequence. (2nd link fixed)
10. Going back the bandwidth question … it the internet faster than a station wagon of (these or 128gig micro-SD) driving to the West coast faster or slower than the Internet.
11. Booze.
12. Forgetting he murdered young girl(s?) by burying them alive.
13. Hamster fun.

So dinner was late (after the evening workout) … and subsequently my blog-read time before bed became read-a-little. Anyhow, links?

1. Some more thoughts on the NBA/Clippers kerfuffle.
2. Betcha he muffs it.
3. “Improve the current process” uhm, ever heard of a gun? They are quite reliable and inexpensive.  And, while I proposed this somewhat in jest years ago, I often think it might be the solution. Who about a federal statute limiting the applicability of capital punishment to those who profess belief in the afterlife.  (more on that here … including some background on the inmate for whom a botched execution is something of a logical consequence of his crime).
4. Speaking of legal issues. This vid has been making the rounds. And it highlights a need for caning or whipping for people who pull crap like that (see also “depends on what the definition of what “is” is”). How about a statute, you pull that crap and you get a dozen with a cat-o-nine. After you’re out of the hospital you can return to your deposition.
5. Location, location, location. Heh.
6. So. If that descriptions sounds like a job you’d love, come on in. It is in fact the job I love.
7. That looks like a very cool idea, until you realize storage/transmission losses probably are higher than mechanical ones.
8. Speaking of cool …
9. A loss of one of the great ones.
10. A voice returns to the blogosphere. In an (alas) interesting place.
11. The only thing strange is how much you liberal big government types misunderestimate how much many hate the welfare state.
12. Libertarian stupid notions (the open borders nonsense) meets the real world consequence of same.
13. Oh. Joy.
14. Against puzzles for the ageing brain.

G’day. Links?

1. So. The Sterling kerfuffle moves into the second stage, here are two view (one and two). I’m a little concerned about the notion that you can have that much damage done by having a private conversation recorded, sans context, and voila. Ruination. Seems to me public actions should have those kinds of consequences, not private conversation. Just never argue a devils advocate position … ever.
2. Well, I live in Chicago .. and while I don’t follow basketball, for what it’s worth in January they were expected to finish last in the East after losing Deng and Rose. They finished far ahead of expectations. That remains true.
3. Wind.
4. How the President should not argue.
5. A public service reminder.
6. The Benghazi cover-up … and it’s a success. Why was it a success? Because, I think,  the “video” story was believed by the gullible, the tribal, and the wicked. So if you bought the video story, which were you?
7. A school to notice.

So. How about some wordy links?

1. Teh racism. Or not, eh? So, this Sterling fella. Apparently for 10-15 years, “everybody knew” he was prone to make similar remarks (source: ESPN radio Mike/Mike this morning). The recording the NBA will “announce their actions/sanctions” was illegally made. Which is apparently not important to the left. At least this time, unlike the last with the Wisconsin Sentator’s remarks, they aren’t claiming teh racism for comments which were basically exactly the same thing as the President’s own remarks. Somebody smarter than me can tell me how/why those who think taboo’s in general are bad and should be tested at the same time are busy erecting new taboo’s?
2. Speaking of making words taboo. The UK doesn’t like freedom of speech.
3. Oh, it’s not misanthropic. That’s the wrong word. It’s elitist.
4. I have to say there’s a critical flaw in Mr Martin’s thesis. He asks whether Gondor after defeating Sauron went on to kill all those “baby orcs in their baby orc cradles”. Orcs are monsters. They aren’t men. Solzhenitsyn coined the phrase that the line between good and evil goes though every man’s heart. That doesn’t hold for orcs (and other monsters). No good there. Just evil. Killing baby evil monsters isn’t morally tinged with doubt whether they will grow up to be a good orc or not. There is no doubt.
5. Here’s an example with by itself disproves its thesis. Kinda like a Barack Obama speech.
6. Mr Challies is wrong yet again. That’s both far too complicated and just plain wrong. In this book, it is recounted that Father Arseny had a vision during some torture. He could see all those around him, with a flame inside them which represented the “light of Christ”. A church which fails is one that forgets fostering that light in all around you isn’t everyone’s job is one that fails. It’s as simple as that.
7. For the Palin fans, this time with a twist. My frequent commenter Boonton is one such “Palin fan” but most of my “Palin fan” remarks go to reasonable things Ms Palin has said. This time, what she says is unreasonable, but Mr Boonton has painted himself in a position vis a vis euthenasia in which his opposition to torture is no longer tenable, that is to say if you think dehydration of the infirm is an acceptable way to kill your beloved father, then your objection to waterboarding becomes incoherent. Unless you figure Jesus injunction that we love our enemies as a corollary means we should treat as enemies those who love and are loved by us.
8. So, up north the ice is melting … finally.
9. For the gun control crowd. The masters have different rules than us plebes, eh?
10. So, by the Gini metric income inequality has not increased apparently. So, sounds like those who find this a problem might be in the Mark Twain “lies, damned lies, and statistics” camp.
11. An interesting case to foster ethics discussions.