Ending “gun-free” zones.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
The Smugness Of American “Liberalism”
A rare (and long) self-aware commentary from Vox.
My two cents: 1) As always, they keep using that word “liberal.” I don’t think it means what they think it means. 2) The demonization of Kim Davis (including her appearance) reminded me very much of the way Linda Tripp (the only person who told the truth in the Lewinsky affair) was treated. So this is nothing new.
Hamilton Stays
…and Andy Jackson is replaced by Harriet Tubman. I’m actually surprised. This makes too much sense for this administration.
I love this: Replacing the genocidal founder of the racist Democrat Party with a gun-toting black Republican woman. https://t.co/nS1KPx4Hnl
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) April 20, 2016
[Afternoon update]
Oh, good lord, Ben Carson is an historical idiot:
Ben Carson criticized the decision to replace former President Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill on Wednesday, saying Jackson was a “tremendous president.”
“I love Harriet Tubman. I love what she did. But we can find another way to honor her,” the former presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon said. “Maybe a $2 bill.”
What part of Jackson’s presidency does Carson like the best? The hogs in the White House? The slave owning? The ethnic cleansing of the southeast? The founding of the racist Democrat Party?
Title IX
As Megan McArdle tweeted, it’s almost like college administrators think that Stalin’s show trials got a bad rap.
The Wages Of “Critical Theory”
College students cannot explain why a 5’9″ white guy isn’t a 6’5″ Chinese woman.
Remember, they’re putting themselves into tens of thousands of dollars of non-dischargeable debt for this sort of “education.”
Empty Dorms, Empty Mansions
Bezos’s Space Vision
Alan Boyle interviewed him on stage on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s the transcript.
What he said may have been new concepts to many, but they’re all ideas that go back decades. The difference is that he’s funding them himself, and not waiting for the government to do it.
Locovorism
I think worshiping local foods is stupid; our ancestors were all locovores, of necessity (unless you call hauling a mammoth carcass miles an import). Their diet generally sucked.
But I’m amused to see how rife with fraud the movement is.
Space Exploration’s Impact On Society
The NASA History Office has issued a new book, that is quite long, but has some interesting-looking essays in it.
Russian Actors And Seminar Callers
An interesting theory about the Trump phenomenon:
No doubt some of the protestors at Trump events protesting against Trump were also paid protestors. But what if much of the social agitation online for Trump is manufactured?
On radio, I assure you it is. Last Tuesday night, my radio show saw a wave of callers calling in to complain about what I was saying that very night on radio. The callers assured my call screener they were listening. The calls were coming from area codes all over the nation and they were very angry about what I had just said on the radio that very night about Trump.
I was on vacation. The guest host had been talking about local matters and had not even mentioned Trump. Hello, seminar callers. Likewise, many of the calls to my radio station demanding I be fired or disciplined for insulting Trump have come from people making statements about my radio show that clearly indicate they have not listened to the show or the station.
Similarly, whenever I get a wave of emails attacking me for things about Trump, frequently the same IP address pops up. On Twitter, the waves come from people with rarely used or new Twitter accounts that are suddenly all in for Trump — every tweet an attack against someone or Trump propaganda. More often than not, the accounts have pictures of someone other than the the person tweeting and most do not use real names.
Certainly it could be people with low social connectedness, as Michael Barone has noted, but it sure seems odd to suddenly get a a wave of #whitegenocide tweets from accounts that are just suddenly active and all in to attack people who oppose Trump.
Donald Trump right now has support from about 35% of the smaller of the two American political parties. That is different from 35% of the nation as a whole. His polling is so terrible, Utah, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, and other states become in play for Hillary Clinton in ways they would not with a different candidate.
But his supporters are convinced they are actually a majority because they have entered an echo chamber (and a cult) where everyone agrees with them, they are the loudest voices, and they don’t see anyone online who can stand up to the overwhelming presence of Trump support. Everywhere they turn there are more people just like them.
Given that Trump has only the support of a third of the smaller of the two American political parties, that level of support makes no sense unless there is more than meets the eye.
I think this is definitely a part of it.