Category Archives: Social Commentary

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Space

This Won’t Be Good For The Rocket Racing League

31 Comments

Many people have been killed and injured at the Reno Air Races. It was a vintage plane (reportedly a Mustang) and things can go wrong. The rocket racers will be more modern, and presumably safer, but there will be a lot of emotional arguments against allowing a crowd anywhere near them after this.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s some video. Looks to me like it could have been a lot worse — the pilot seems to have tried to minimize the damage. I’d hope do the same in similar circumstances — I suspect it’s a natural reaction. You don’t want to die, but you don’t want to fly into a crowd, either.

Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Phone Harassment Bleg

27 Comments

I got an email from a friend:

I am fairly at my wits’ end (short trip, I know). Perhaps you have someone reading your blog who can help. The situation is this:

Since early July, my company has been getting about four or five calls a day from #209-382-7432. When the phone is answered, an ear-splitting howl comes out of the earpiece. Nothing else. If one calls that number, it’s a robot answering for free magazine subscriptions.

I called the phone company. The “harassing calls” department says you have to have a police incident number before they can trace the call, and they will not inform you of who is placing the call, only law enforcement. So I called the county sheriff, got an incident report, and called the phone company back. For a month we reported all harassing calls. The phone company then called us and said “Yes, you are being harassed and we have notified your local law enforcement.” (Note that they did not tell the harasser to stop.) But the sheriff can’t do anything because the 209 number is not in my county. I have not seen the incident report because it’s not my business. No I am not making that up.

The harassing calls department at AT&T is bloody useless. AT&T does not care if you are being harassed. It’s not their problem and they will hang up on you if you ask them why not. And they will not return phone calls asking for clarification.

So I called our attorney. He suggested I call the FBI. I did. The FBI said they do not deal with harassing phone calls, try calling the FCC. The FCC hasn’t a clue what I am talking about, and why don’t I complain to AT&T?

Do you sense my level of frustration here? My people are being harassed daily and I can’t get anyone to take me seriously. Can anyone who reads your blog help? Have any advice, or knows of another avenue to pursue? I’m lost.

I’ve no idea, but maybe some reader does.

Business, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Affirmative Action

7 Comments

…and its immorality. People who advocate it are the true racists. As Glenn says, it’s all about exploiting ignorance, and the difference between that which is seen, and that which is unseen. Of course, as a commenter notes, the most devastating impact on the nation of affirmative action to date is that it put a mediocrity in the White House.

[Update a while later]

Debates and racial preferences.

Education, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Kindness Over Education

5 Comments

Virginia Postrel has a column about Harvard’s bizarre PC loyalty oath:

Course registration versus niceness; success versus compassion; “attainment” versus kindness. Something is missing from all these dichotomies, and that something is the life of the mind.

Where in the list of ranked values are curiosity, discovery, reason, inquiry, skepticism or truth? (Were these values even options?) Where is critical thinking? No wonder the pledge talks about “attainment.” Attainment equals study cards and good grades — a transcript to enable the student to move on to the next stage. Attainment isn’t learning, questioning or criticizing. It’s getting your ticket punched.

Just one more sign of the decline of the academy, as costs continue to rise.