Elsewhere (268)
Will Gu on the deep and worldly wisdom on offer at Scripps College:
The college will be hosting two Venezuelan officials next week at a three-day speaker series praising the “grassroots initiatives” of the country’s totalitarian government. The officials, Venezuelan Consul-Generals Antonio Cordero and Jesús Chucho García, will be speaking to students on “African solidarities,” “coups and imperial wars,” and the country’s vision for “a new society rooted in political participation, communal economies and democracy.” The description adds that the event is “for all who are interested in economics that serve people not profits.” Venezuela is still facing mass food shortages as a result of its government’s economic illiteracy. People in Venezuela have lost an average of 19 pounds from recent food shortages… The event description does not mention whether the two Venezuelan officials will discuss their country’s rampant corruption problem, the government’s dire financial situation, or the rapid devaluation of Venezuela’s currency to the extent that the government cannot afford to pay for money printing services.
Related: this, and, rather tellingly, the first item here.
Cathy Young on debate and its enemies:
When about 30% of college students favour censorship, it should be a cause for alarm — especially because that’s up from 22% two years ago. Moreover, 53% of students believe “promoting an inclusive society” is a higher priority than protecting free speech rights. Over a third say it is sometimes acceptable to shout a speaker down, and one in 10 approve of violent disruption. The last figure may seem small, but it means some 2 million collegians in the United States believe it can be okay to use violence to stop speech they don’t like. That’s not good news.
Gail Heriot on racial discipline quotas and perverse media narratives:
A Government Accountability Office report finds that boys are disciplined more often than girls in school. It also finds that African-American students are disciplined more often than white students and that whites are disciplined at higher rates than Asian Americans. Of course, the New York Times covers it with an utterly misleading headline “Government Watchdog Finds Racial Bias in School Discipline.” Here’s what the NYT didn’t say: Just a few days ago, another government report showed that African-American students self-report that they have been in a physical fight on school property at a rate more than twice the white rate. Overwhelmingly, the aggregate disparities in school discipline are the result of differing rates of misbehaviour, not bias.
And Heather Mac Donald on the same.
Readers unfamiliar with the consequences of ‘progressive’ racial discipline quotas should take a look at this item here, and also this one. Both offer vivid illustrations of leftist psychology given power – and by vivid I mean ludicrous and horrifying. Such that the groping and choking of teachers and the setting afire of students’ hair are excused on grounds that “African-American boys” are more “physical” and “demonstrative.” Amid the inevitable chaos and degeneracy – including a dramatic fall in maths and reading scores, and a rapid rise in assaults and classroom thuggery, up to and including actual riots – amid all this, critics of the policy are smeared as racists, while “white privilege” guilt hustling is made mandatory. And while terrified teaching staff console themselves with free emergency whistles.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
But God help you if you venture into the countryside and need to ask for directions.
I’d take my chances. :p
If they truly believed their own words, that it’s the weapon’s fault, they wouldn’t be threatening the old man with prosecution, would they?
I’d take my chances.
I should point out that aside from the navigation issues, which were largely the result of every place name being rendered in Klingon, we had a good time. We’d hired a large stone cottage in the middle of nowhere. The nearest village, the name of which escapes me, was basically a post office and a pub. There was, I recall, a very obliging local farmer who checked we were okay for firewood. And at night the view of the Milky Way was quite remarkable.
My father, a retired Marine (but continuing reservist fighter squadron CO) once told me that he did not keep a gun in the house because he didn’t want to face the horribleness of having shot some bloke trying to steal his car.
But later, at a different location, he was bothered beyond tolerance by kids parking and boozing in front of his house, so he wandered out to the curb one night with a heavy pick-axe over his shoulder, and a “friendly” German Shepard. The teens left. Amazing how the word got around….
I shudder to think what might happen to me were I to replicate that feat (because I’m now living at the exact same location) in today’s California.
The articles of impeachment focused on the fact that Andrew Minik had helped to organize a memorial to victims of illegal immigrant criminals.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10738
“And when I say revenge, they will go armed with whatever they’ve got — guns, knives.”
No, no. They can’t do that. We banned guns, remember?
Are travellers the same people who are called gypsies in Europe? There are a few thousand gypsies in the U. S. too, though I’ve never met one, or if I did he wouldn’t admit to it.
Contrary to popular belief, Tarot cards were not invented by gypsies. I’m about as gypsy as Donald Trump and if you cross my palm with silver I’ll read your cards. I was always the fortune teller at Halloween parties. 🎃. I say “ was” because nowadays every Goth chick has a pack in her purse.
No, Travellers are Celts of some variety. Gypsies/Roma are of India subcontinent origin. We do have Travellers here in the US. A bit thick in the Scots-Irish areas of appalachia, NC/SC/GA. Similar nature. They tend to show themselves after hurricanes, offering to do roof repairs and such on the cheap, getting paid up front, and then disappearing. FWIU, they do quite well for themselves and pretty much inbreed. Heard some scary stories about them up in north GA.
WTP,
We do have Travellers here in the US. A bit thick in the Scots-Irish areas of appalachia, NC/SC/GA. Similar nature.
We had a clan of “Travellers” here in SoCal back in the 1960s, and my family is unfortunate enough to share their name. They were infamous enough that my father dared not use his surname in his business ventures (even after he’d earned a sterling reputation as an honest and expert British car mechanic).
Decolonise your language, peasants.
So anyway, in your-host-is-much-more-shallow-than-you-thought news, after skipping through some of the Zuckerberg coverage, the big question I have is who cuts his hair?
I mean, would chucking a few quid at a stylist be out of the question?
Decolonise your language, peasants.
Our aggrieved Miss Crocker:
What ? You expected something else ?
I should point out that aside from the navigation issues, which were largely the result of every place name being rendered in Klingon, we had a good time.
Indeed, I was making a subtle reference to my upbringing, most of which was in rural Wales. I know exactly what it’s like.
I mean, would chucking a few quid at a stylist be out of the question?
Jumpin’ Jeebus on a pogo stick! IS ZUCKERBERG WEARING A TIE???
A sign of the Apocalypse, if you ask me.
Jumpin’ Jeebus on a pogo stick! IS ZUCKERBERG WEARING A TIE???
Clip-ons and ones somebody else tied for you don’t count, and I’d bet the farm it was one of the two.
On the difference between complication and complexity.
Should be required reading for advocates of AI and social engineering alike.
“Clip-ons and ones somebody else tied for you don’t count, and I’d bet the farm it was one of the two.”
It looks real to me, which only leaves… well, I suppose he can afford to pay people.
“You know that silly phrase “he/she throws like a girl”?…No one, male or female, throws like a girl.”
Actually girls DO “throw” like girls. Most women don’t actually throw. They will raise the object to shoulder level and then push it away from their bodies. They actually “putt” rather than throw. The vast majority of boys get it right from the outset.
Jumpin’ Jeebus on a pogo stick! IS ZUCKERBERG WEARING A TIE???
A sign of the Apocalypse, if you ask me.
Not even. If you check any publicity photos involving the headline phrase of meets with, he more or less always turns up wearing a tie . . .