You Reap What You Sow

NPR layoff meeting turns into a tempter tantrum and accusations of racism and systemic bias.

Sounds like irony, something that left NPR a long time ago.

In The Old Days (Like 5 Years Ago)

They would call this a cult. 

A Film Review Site

To check out. 

Democrats

Will say Trump is an existential risk to the republic but also that they prefer him to run instead of DeSantis because he's less likely to win the general. 

Hard to take them seriously. 

Lesson From SVB

Is what Warren Buffet has been saying all along: hold T-Bills (ie short term treasuries).

Define Wokeness

The hip thing for liberals at the moment is asking people to "define wokeness." Here's a shot: a belief system for neurotics with daddy issues.

Girl Married Herself, Got Tired of it and Divorced Self a Day Later

It's called sologamy. And it's rough.

Two Things At Once

Yes, I'm sure "real" trans people exist where a very small population of human beings are born with some type of brain wiring where their birth body is disconnected from how they see themselves. But also, that kid in a California middle school who changed their pronouns in 2018-2023 is to 99% probability - not actually one of those people.

Question

All this news about the bank failure and what we could've done to prevent it - ie more regulation, less pumping $ into the system, etc. Is it possible that we did things basically right and a bank can fail? I guess I don't see the problem with it. Of course 250K and below depositors get their money back. The bigger depositors, in my opinion, should need to sweat a little. Shareholders should get wiped out. Each of these groups were taking on risk. 

Maybe a bank run every once in awhile is a good thing. It'll make people appreciate the institutions that function and how we should protect them and be careful.

Really, I just don't mind a little chaos in these systems so I can buy some distressed assets. 

I Know What My Solution Would Be

1/3 of Stanford Law school protests their dean - they want a heckler's veto. 

I'd expel every single protestor and offer admission to the next group of students. They don't have the right to shut down speech they disagree with. This is the only way to get wokeness to stop. And stop it will because they only thing worse than anti-racism and inequity for these people is loss of status.

Logging

Film: Tokyo Drifter

Genres I will basically watch no matter what: artistic crime film (almost any Michael Mann film, Drive, Melville), serial killer in obscure location (Memories of Murder, Holy Spider, True Detective), middle aged man goes nuts (Falling Down, Unhinged, John Wick)...I'm sure there are others. 

A jazzy final scene where a guy tells a girl a drifter can't settle down. I'm so easy to please. And the dolly shot of him leaving the scene into the shadowy hallway. Come on now...

Film: Licorice Pizza

Rewatch the first half...one of my favorite first half of a movie in recent times. Maybe my favorite PTA chunk of a film?

Teenage Mental Health

At least people are paying attention now to teenage anxiety and mental health stats. Most common explanations: iphones, social media, etc. 

These are not wrong, but only part of the equation. My take: the adults in their lives and in the media constantly lying to them is taking a toll. 

Too Hilarious

NBC story on DEI layoffs in the corporate space. My favorite quote:

Another survey showed that Black employees represent only 3.8% of chief diversity officers overall, with white people making up 76.1% of the roles. Those of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity make up 7.8% and those of Asian ethnicity make up 7.7%

So I guess the question is: who will make sure the DEI folks are DEI? 

Progressive Teaching Methods

Important to understand what happened here. Teachers found teaching reading the effective, classical way a wee bit boring and perhaps difficult. So they overhauled the way reading was taught so it'd be more fun for the teachers. And the results are a lot of freaking kids can't read.

You just keep YOLOing lady teachers. Thanks for your contribution to destroying our society!