A Scary Must Read

Re: education.

Rights

Students have a right to argue against Charles Murray. They have a right to ignore Charles Murray. But they don't have a right to silence him or suppress his speech. Who is teaching these people civics? Did they misread the First Amendment? Shit, if Adolph Hitler rose from the dead and wanted to come talk at American Universities, we would let him.

More Important Than Ever

We need Chappelle more than he needs us.

If anything, Chappelle’s personal mission in comedy is to seek the truth, even if it hurts. He refuses to be constrained by political correctness and hurt feelings. Rather, he wants his audience to think, consider, debate, discuss, argue, and react to the world we live in. There are many sides to a particular story, and each one needs to be investigated intelligently, forcefully — and above all, humorously.

That’s something many conservatives support, and should always support in a liberal democratic society — even if it took a liberal comedian to remind us of this fact.

Feminism

Radical vs. Universal vs. Intersectional

The problem with feminism is similar to the problem with Islam. All the passion and energy of the movements are with the radical and fanatical. The main ideological battle is won. The majority of people in Western societies believe in gender equality. Perhaps there are still some marginal areas of improvement and dust up elements, but the lunatics are exploiting this trivial stuff to hijack the cause and are steering the agenda. And a good 25% of "feminists" refuse to acknowledge and speak out against this issue in some dusty old show of solidarity. Similarly, a good 25% of Muslims, while not fanatical or radical themselves, believe in solidarity with the radical elements and lean more towards them in their hearts than they do with liberal values. This, to me, is the battle of hearts and minds that need to be won. I don't consider losing an option here.

NBA

The debate: is the NBA awesome or weak sauce today? The biggest proponent of the weakness argument is probably Charles Barkley, but I hear it all the time. Imagine what the Bad Boy Pistons would do to Curry? Today's NBA is weak because of the hand check rules. Now, normally, I'm sympathetic to the idea that the past is underrated and the present overrated, but on this one, I'm in the camp of the NBA is much better today than in the past. For one principal reason: the shooting. The shooting is SO much better today. The primary goal of basketball is to get the ball in the hoop. Yes, defensive is important. And in the old days, I thought rebounds were the most important technical aspect of the game. I just don't think that is true any longer. You ask what Curry would do to the Bad Boy Pistons? I say shoot over them.

"Trump Is The Worst"

Does the media and the people going around shouting at the top of their lungs that Trump is the worst President ever realize that no one is listening to them except the folks who already believe the same?

Chappelle = Back

Not his peak, but his Netflix show is quite good.

The funniest bit, is unsurprisingly, sparking internet outrage. Fuck those people. He imitates in classic Chappelle fashion what it would be like if you're buddy pitched to you going transgender. Ah. Genius.

Fake News

They'd have more credibility, if they were actually credible. This is pretty bad.

Internet Outrage

I don't mind the photo at all.

Unimpressive

The Republicans have 7 years of fantasizing about dismantling Obamacare and during that time, couldn't come up with a workable plan? Jesus, what a clusterfuck this insurance thing is.

Is anyone considering basically just scratching the entire system for a two tiered idea-

1) Barebones universal coverage for everyone with an enormous out of pocket max funded by taxes to prevent medical bankruptcy and super awful long term health problems, plus --

2) Private insurance supplements to be bought on the private market and get the employers out of the system altogether. They can add an insurance "benefit" to wages or simply pay people more.

On Myths

A good section from this article:

I fear that libertarians have their own version of the Progressive myth. Progressives often believe that ever-growing tolerance and health insurance coverage are the future, if only bad Republicans could be defeated in political battle. It turns out that the “default settings” on complex societies are much tougher to manage than that, and now around the world left-wing and progressive political forces are in retreat, perhaps permanently so. Libertarians, in turn, toyed with the idea that competition from trade and globalization would make liberty-based gains increasingly hard to reverse. A libertarian society might not be guaranteed, but we could push and claw in that direction, knowing that a certain base standard of liberty was pretty sure to command public loyalty and institutional support. That framework also has been looking worse since about 2000; the year here can be debated, but today’s political problems are obvious.

Libertarian thinking relies too heavily, IMO, on the power economic incentives. Of my many misunderstandings re: human nature, the assumption of rational behavior of individuals is one of the things I was most wrong about. I think humans tend to behave instinctually, which is quite a different thing than rationally.

NBA Rest

The true issue is NBA tickets are too expensive and too "special." All these professional sports sold out the ordinary fans for corporate money (all of which is tax deducted, ridiculously). The tix cost too much and thus the fans expect too much. Of course the NBA players and teams should have the right to rest their players. It's an 82 game season plus a long stretch of playoffs. Stupid discussion. If Adam Silver is concerned with the fans, he should figure out a way to take some of the TV money and put it towards making tix prices reasonable.

Strange Article

In the LA Times today about a waiter asking a woman for "proof of residency."

It's basically a grievance piece about racism and the absolute terror someone of Mexican heritage must go through on a daily basis. The story - a waiter asked for their documentation - doesn't, to my mind, hold up to any scrutiny or common sense. Has a waiter ever asked anyone from documentation? Furthermore, should a waiter ask me for something ridiculous, my response would be, "Go get me a fucking glass a water." A waiter is not in any type of position of power. What is the problem here? Say this story were true (which I doubt) - does it basically amount to - "there was a waiter who was an idiot?" Is this news?

And lastly - just a thought - for those concerned with an abundance of racism against Mexican-Americans - wouldn't an orderly immigration HELP this issue? Wouldn't an improved immigration system that seemed to work, help alleviate the citizens concerns of living amongst illegal immigrants? Just a thought.

Pretty Much Right

The US political system will crumble or at least suffer when the middle class disappears.

We need to feel apart of the same country to succeed as a country. And all the fractured groups are lining up in the type of factions the founding fathers warned us against.

Not A Bad Idea

I don't see this as a bad idea for healthcare: universal coverage for catastrophe.

What would the limit be? 20K? 50K? How much would insurance cost to hit that 50K number? It's at least a simple, interesting idea.

Logging

Film: Hacksaw Ridge

A bit old fashioned, but I liked it for that reason. How long before no one remembers or cares about the sacrifices made by American men in WW2? Feels like our society is headed in that direction and I don't have a tremendous amount of confidence if we were to face such an enemy today that we'd be able to emerge victorious. I guess that makes is good we have nukes? I don't know.

Aye, Aye, Aye

Who is the Ringer hiring as writers? This is totally ridiculous.

The phrase “ideological diversity” is a Trojan horse designed to help bring disparaged thought onto campuses, to the media, and into vogue. It is code for granting fringe right-wing thought more credence in communities that typically reject it, and nothing more.

Thus denying anyone can disagree reasonably on ideological grounds. Notice the reductio-ad-absurdum she uses in the article:

History is littered with horrible ideas that aren’t worth poking holes into during a question-and-answer session. “The earth is flat,” for instance. “Castrating homosexuals is an acceptable punishment for homosexuality.” “Slavery is good.” “Women’s suffrage is incompatible with democracy.”

Notice that exactly NONE of these ideas are the ones being pushed by speakers on campus, or the President, or really, anyone other than Kyrie Irving.

George Washington

It was only a matter of time before they go after him.

Jesus, the balls on these people.

UPDATE: This is who they're fucking with.

Thank The Lord

For this woman.

It is an absolute outrage how so many pampered, affluent, upper-middle-class professional women chronically spout snide anti-male feminist rhetoric, while they remain completely blind to the constant labor and sacrifices going on all around them as working-class men create and maintain the fabulous infrastructure that makes modern life possible in the Western world. Only a tiny number of women want to enter the trades where most of the nitty-gritty physical work is actually going on—plumbing, electricity, construction. Women have played virtually no role in the erection of those magnificent towers in every major city in the world. It's men who operate the cranes or set the foundations or wash windows on the 85th floor. It's men who troop out at 2:00 AM during an ice storm to restore power to neighborhoods where falling trees have brought down live wires. It's men who mix the stinking, toxic cauldrons to spread steaming hot tar on city roofs. Last year in a nearby town, I drove by a huge, chaotic scene where emergency workers in hazmat suits were struggling with a giant pipe break, as raw sewage was pouring into the street. Of course all those workers up to their knees in a torrent of thick brown water were men! I've seen figures indicating that 92 per cent of people killed on the job are men—and it's precisely because men are heroically doing most of the dangerous jobs in modern society. The bourgeois blindness of feminist leaders to low-status working-class labor by men is morally corrupt! Gay men, on the other hand, have always shown their awed admiration of working-class masculinity and fortitude. It's no coincidence that a buff construction worker in a hard hat was one of the iconic personae of the gay disco group, the Village People, during the Studio 54 era!

Logging

Film: Logan

One of the better superhero films. Essentially, a superhero Western. First half is near great. 2nd half less so. Loses a bit of propulsion and I didn't go for the entire finale all that much. Audience seemed to love the final moment. I thought it was okay. Mangold is a funny filmmaker. Near great quite a few times. Definitely one of the more solid studio filmmakers working today.

Yes

VDH diagnoses the problem with contemporary politicians.

The Bloomberg syndrome is a characteristic of contemporary government officials. When they are unwilling or unable to address pre-modern problems in their jurisdictions — crime, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate transportation — they compensate by posing as philosopher kings who cheaply lecture on existential challenges over which they have no control.

As I was thinking earlier today, for all the Americans who think the United States is the problem in the world, then you probably do not have very big problems.

More Stories of Liberal Hostility on Campus

At St. Olaf and Pitzer.

Students need to start standing up to the other students immediately if they are classic liberals or simply believe in the 1st Amendment. These campuses feel like they're turing into a Margaret Atwood novel.

The IYI Crowd

Egg freezing for millenials.

Lisa Besserman, a 32-year-old tech startup founder who is considering freezing her eggs to focus on her career, says the idea of a millennial-focused “boutique” is more appealing than a clinic. She’s “on the fence” about whether she wants to be a mom, but knows for sure that she wants to preserve her options. “I would feel very bad to be in the same room as a woman trying desperately to get pregnant,” says Besserman, who splits her time between Buenos Aires and New York. “In a sense I would feel selfish to say, ‘I have the ability [to have kids], but I’m putting that on hold’ … that would really take a toll on me psychologically.” Right now, the only thing that distinguishes Besserman from the women she doesn’t want to upset is time. If and when she wants to use her eggs, she will have to undergo the same often nerve-racking experience many women struggling with infertility turn to: in vitro fertilization. But clinics like Extend allow their clients to temporarily suspend that reality.

A sign of being an IYI (intellectual, yet idiot) is to opt for the risky, expensive, and more complicated choice over the simple, time-tested one. In this case, that would be to make a decision like an adult (whether you want a family) and if so, find a good guy and settle down.

But hey, freedom...

Amazing

Gender reversal teaches uncomfortable lesson.

The professors began the project assuming that the gender inversion would confirm what they’d each suspected watching the real-life debates: that Trump’s aggression—his tendency to interrupt and attack—would never be tolerated in a woman, and that Clinton’s competence and preparedness would seem even more convincing coming from a man.  

What happened, however, was quite different. Audiences in two sold out performances were shocked. They liked Brenda King and distrusted Jonathan Gordon!

Woops. This reminds me of the story of how the game Monopoly was created. The woman who made the game thought it would make people realize the evils of capitalism, but instead, it became the most popular board game ever and a celebration of capitalism.

The uncomfortable lessons in this are many - 1) Clinton benefited from being a woman (she would not have otherwise been a candidate) and 2) Trump is a much more skilled politician and speaker than coastal elites would like to acknowledge

There are more, but I'll stop with those.

A Shout Out

I give a shout out to all the women who decided not to get wrapped up in ridiculous virtue signaling today and instead did what everyone else does: went to work. This includes the people at my son's daycare who work, so that my wife and I can get our work done.

That Was Quick

ESPN is going down in flames.

I remember not long ago, it was the greatest success story in media. I no longer subscribe.

Feels Like I'm Watching a Dystopian Novel

A video of the events at Middlebury college. Notice what happens when Murray comes to speak.

Bear in mind what is happening here: Murray was INVITED to speak on campus. Student protesters showed up and silenced him by not allowing him to speak and be heard by other students and faculty. There is no wiggle room here - this is an assault against the First Amendment, perhaps the most sacrosanct of all American political ideals. The students could all be sieg-heiling and I'd be equally worried.

If I were affiliated with Middlebury college, I would strongly consider resigning in protest, transferring schools, and never giving them a cent again. This, to my mind, is awful beyond words.

I Agree With This

"But an alternative perspective, bracing at times, is to simply to compare positions in absolute terms, and that makes a lot of Trump’s views resolutely ordinary in the broader sweep of American history."

Perhaps it is the current borderless culture that is radical and not Donald Trump. Just a thought.

A Day Without Women

I've been tangentially hearing about this...and I can't say that I know what it is exactly. But am I wrong, but isn't a day without women in the workplace essentially a return to American norms before the 1940s-50s?

I read about a school that will be shutting down for this day because the women teachers won't be working. I wonder how the moms of the students will feel.

Also - as a general rule - for any of those considering sitting out a day of work (for whatever reason), I encourage you to wikipedia Wally Pipp.

Protesting

The Middlebury professor who was assaulted details the events on Facebook.

It's of note the people leading these protests refuse to read Murray. I suspect there is a subconscious aspect to all this political protesting - a dislike of reading and doing homework - but wanting what are the traditional "results" of doing the work - the intellectual validation of being "smart." There's a reason this all happens at colleges in an "intellectual" environment. And this trend - of not doing HW/reading - but also wanting the validation - was something going on back when I was in college. There was a certain type of student who was proud to write essays professors would give high marks to without having done the reading (or only skimmed it). I feel like not wanting to do work goes back to the beginning of time, but at least in the past, those who didn't do work took their gentleman "C's" and didn't complain about it. Nowadays, kids want to not do the work, but also get A's. That's the problem.

Thoughtcrime

In Middlebury.

They always cite outside agitators, but if that were the case, why aren't the students protesting the agitators? Or doing something to stop them?

Open Borders

For anyone who believes in open borders, I suggest, as an experiment throwing a party where EVERYONE is invited and see how it goes.

One of my old ideas is that in college everyone ought to be required to throw a party to learn how to be a host, be generous, and learn how not to get your shit stolen.

Andrew Sullivan

Is a depressive, scattered, and whiny. And also occasionally, the best writer out there.

His latest column begins with what has come to typify him - an overreaction to Trump - and then ends with a succinct, beautiful section about what ails Western culture.

And more and more, I suspect, the shifting winds of this merciless global economy and the impact of mass migration are bringing about similar changes all over the West. This beautiful but deeply sad story about how a provincial town in France has slowly died — as its young people flocked to cities, as its shops were supplanted by a supermarket, says a lot about the moment we are in: “Down another street is the last toy store, now closed, and around a corner is the last independent grocery store, also shuttered. Walk down the empty, narrow streets on some nights and the silence is so complete that you can hear your footsteps on the stones.” The town, Albi, is not alone.  

In America, as Charles Murray has shown in his extraordinary book, Coming Apart, the young and the smart and the talented — the people who would once have formed the core of these small towns — have long since fled to distant colleges and cities. They don’t come back. They would once have been the police chief or the town librarian or the school principal. They once helped make the town a well-run place with a clear identity, where the same families and networks lived together, died together, belonged together. These connections have attenuated … as economics supplants culture, as efficiency erases the individuality of inefficient places, as Amazon rips the heart out of shopping districts, as the smartphone removes us from physical space, and as many more immigrants and their culture alter the feel of a place in ways that disorient those with memories and loyalties.

Memo To World

Kaepernick will stand for the national anthem. I guess racism is over now.

Or, is Kap trying to get a job as he was just released by the Niners and signed with new agents.

Remember folks: this was always about him and never about an issue.

Stephen A Smith

I don't know what's going on, but Stephen A Smith is growing on me.

I used to find him and Skip Bayless almost unwatchable in their absurdity, but I think with Max Kellerman, I like him a whole lot more. Max is more the straight man and allows Stephen to do his ranting. But something about their new show has made me realize Stephen A's content is good quality - he's got good sources, good information, and good sporting analysis.

Anyhow, love this bit linked to above about Adrian Peterson being a souped up Frank Gore. Max's reactions are hilarious. Love Stephen A and his ridiculous passion.

Now They're Protesting Charles Murray

At Middlebury College.

This happens when kids stop reading books in favor of social media.

And who's next to be silenced, you ask? The answer is everyone.