Category Archives: Media Criticism

Risk-Based Student Loans

An idea whose time should come. But it will be fought tooth and nail by the academic-industrial complex, to protect their phony baloney jobs.

[Update a couple minutes later]

If you’re “investing” in college, think like an investor. Unfortunately, one of the many things that kids aren’t learning in public schools is how to do that.

[Update a few minutes later]

What comes after the bubble pops?

Composite Americans

The latest from Mark Steyn:

Last week, in an election campaign ad, Barack revealed his latest composite girlfriend — “Julia.” She’s worse than the old New York girlfriend. She can’t even be herself. In fact, she can’t be anything without massive assistance from Barack every step of the way, from his “Head Start” program at the age of three through to his Social Security benefits at the age of 67. Everything good in her life she owes to him. When she writes her memoir, it will be thanks to a subvention from the Federal Publishing Assistance Program for Chronically Dependent Women but you’ll love it: Sweet Dreams from My Sugar Daddy. She’s what the lawyers would call “non composite mentis.” She’s not competent to do a single thing for herself — and, from Barack’s point of view, that’s exactly what he’s looking for in a woman, if only for a one-night stand on a Tuesday in early November.

There’s a lot more.

Striking A Nerve

Well, this certainly has gotten Think Progress’s panties in a twist. They’re squealing like a stuck pig. This, from the sort of folks who think that “deniers” should be executed or shipped off to reeducation camps. That said, I’m not sure how effective such a campaign will be.

[Afternoon update]

As I said, I’m not sure that that this is a useful tactic, regardless of how badly the Warm Mongers behave. But as a commenter notes, it is the hit dog that yelps. Phil Plait isn’t happy, either.

Here’s the thing, though. There really are a lot of people in the AGW movement who think exactly like Ted Kaczynski, even if they’re not quite as pro-active in acting on their beliefs, including a former vice president of the United States. It is one thing to be concerned about the apparent results of some doing research in climatology, and wanting to have a reasoned discussion about its potential implications for policy. It is another to seize on them as an excuse to impose a political agenda on people that you’ve been wanting to do anyway, out of the hatred of humanity (Bob Zubrin just came out with an excellent book on that topic). And there are far too many of the latter associated with the climate-change community. Perhaps if that community did a better job of policing and denouncing its own ranks, there would be less pushback like this, and it wouldn’t hit such a nerve.

For instance, I’ll be curious to see what Judith Curry has to say about all this.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

Is forced to admit the truth:

…I couldn’t help feeling that there was a little bit of a syllogism going on; that being that “Left” equals “good,” and “Right” equals “bad,” and therefore anything “Left” couldn’t be “bad” unless it were infiltrated by the “Right.” In my time covering Occupy Wall Street I have seen anti-Semitism, black nationalism, class hatred, and threats of violence; there have been rapes, a few murders, and now some domestic terrorism. One would have thought that these things would be sufficient warrant for a group like the Southern Poverty Law Center to stand up and take serious note, but, as I learned yesterday, there’s one problem: They’re just “not set up to cover the extreme Left.”

But don’t call them ideological.

Of course, the last time I took the SPLC seriously was…never. It’s a shame that anyone does.