Pseudo-Polymath

Good morning. Woo hoo … links!

1. Letter of the law.
2. Ethnic spoils and reparations.
3. Memorial day photo choice by the White House, or ego stroking for the head honcho.
4. Two statements by the White House on energy, one of them is a lie. Logic offers no alternative.
5. Our President is fluent in Hebrew. Wow. Who knew?
6. As nationalization of health care proceeds … freedom suffers.
7. So, have the Philippines turned the corner?
8. A book touted.
9. So what are the child safety so-called experts going to say about this? Hmm?

Good morning.

1. Ms Warren continues to dig. She should, perhaps, stick to unverifiable claims.
2. So … is obesogenic a real word?
3. The good rabbi says the Bible is entirely fiction (and he’s right).
4. In which principles based means paradox based. Wrong “P” word, eh?
5. Highlighting some problems with climate science.
6. Non-statist left … a null set.
7. There’s a theme there, but I think you have to watch it a few times to catch it.
8. Bread.
9. Fast. So, voluntary dangerous games? Good, bad, indifferent?
10. I’m missing something here, how does creating a pro-Romney political ad “damage” the reputation of FOX in a way that the same thing done by the NYTimes creating pro-Obama ads does not damage theirs?
11. An opportunity for magnanimity and grace on the part of the President … we’re watching.
12. OK then. Or just put that in this barrel.

Good morning.

1. I think the recent “downtick” on his graph is the predicted recovery/rise? ’cause it looks like to me his prediction is just all washed up, If the up/down swings are noise, then there has been no appreciable change since summer of ’11. If it is noise the “rise” predicted is the dive downward.
2. Death camps in Poland does not equal Polish Death camps. So, is our President grammar challenged or just trying to offer the worst insults he can imagine to the Polish people?
3. “Limiting principles”, which on examination aren’t limiting, alas.
4. God thinks batman is gay.
5. More calls for Mr Romney to disavow the birthers. What’s missing of course are calls to disavow any number of wacko notions on the left by Mr Obama. Newsflash people, politicians are loath to turn away any votes.
6. For example, Mr Frank thinks having a hoodie was the reason Mr Martin was shot, not because Mr Martin chose to attack a guy sit on him, break his nose, and slam his head repeatedly into the ground … and this a guy who was armed. But … it was the hoodie thing that was the problem. When will Mr Obama disavow that sort of talk?
7. I didn’t make it past point 1, which is so categorically backwards and upside down that … well, why bother going further. If you’ve got the basics backwards you’re not going to get much else right either.
8. On Bain, somebody doesn’t get the point of the Obama/Bain line of attack. To be honest, I don’t either.
9. Discrimination.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial day (at least those in the (US not in retail)).

1. The test approaches, fun with groups.
2. Guns, technology, and considerations of unintended consequences.
3. Up and coming blog post materiel.
4. A cunning plan … if there ever was one such.
5. Terror makes its next move on the strategic board.
6. An unfortunate glitch for the argument that the reason for abortion is lack of contraception.
7. An expert looks at the Zimmerman/Martin kerfuffle and evidence and suggests that Mr Zimmerman will be exonerated.
8. Well, the US figured out pretty darn quickly that a loose Confederacy of States wouldn’t work well, the EU is finding out why the hard way.
9. Death and the gulag in 2012.
10. Lean logistics in the 1860s.
11. Our foreign policy and hard choices not made (extemporizing is not the hard choice).
12. My opponent is an idiot is a yet another rhetorical fallacy. Or is it worse? The operating assumption that disagreements in our world stem from incomplete knowledge is very flawed.
13. Is outrage. And my local defender of regulation-is-a-good-thing should be chastened.

For Memorial Day.

1. From one of the best conservative prose poets.
2. A flyer.
3. Meta-links.
4. A poster.
5. A photo.
6. This photo I found the most striking.

Good morning.

1. Of Party and Church … and of course the rejoinder to the bumper sticker is “of course not, he’s a Monarchist” (Christ is Lord and King).
2. Speaking of bumper stickers.
3. A counter for the “its the social trend/majority” SSM argument.
4. Realtime displays of live data.
5. Cricket race support for the basis of my question on OWS posted earlier.
6. For the numbers fans out there.
7. Call a spade a spade, please.
8. Art imitates art … last night as this was the final day of school, our family watched our weekend movie night film, which was War of the Arrows … which I recommend if you like action films.
9. Homeless but not mindless, in fact quite clever.
10. A home project.
11. A side effect of faith? But, this effect is not helpful.

Well, I’ve got a long drive this morning … so it’ll have to be quick.

1. Some synchronicity noted: Such as when “you are” and “u” “r” convolve which is not unrelated to this.
2. All-you-can eat (two thoughts … all-you-can-eat does (and should not) mean eat-all-you-can … it’s not healthy and that in turn is the answer to the posters question). But this in turn is not unrelated to this.
3. For those unconvinced that the NYTimes isn’t batting for just one side in the elections.
4. Political authority and real authority are not the same thing.
5. If you consider where grant money comes from … would this spell the end of the journal? And is that a bad thing?
6. Democrats firmly behind big corn conglomerates. Money well spent apparently.
7. The election and the South this is on the same point.
8. Some suggestions for graduation improvements.
9. Apparently liberals (a) de-bias issues at the high court uniformly, i.e., when the case is one they want in front of the court and (b) are unaware that cases that come before the court arise not from the court vetting laws that Congress passes, but depend instead on people filing suit who are not members of the same court.
10. 2 more million of the forgotten-if-not-Jewish victims of WWII genocide.

Good morning.

1. An interesting question at the end.
2. Somebody from South Carolina needs to get his facts straight. Taking a failing company and holding it for 8 years trying to give it a chance, is not corporate “rape.” Blaming someone for the eventual failure, which occurs two years after you leave … if the former is rape, what is this mis-characterization? Blood slander?
3. So. Constitutional or just wrong?
4. Why are people so adverse to noting that there are physiological differences between peoples that can have an impact on physical and mental performance.
5. I wonder if this Bishop would be allergic to this Akathist service?
6. Is the question here that you cannot base your meta-ethics on religion? Visit Mount Athos.
7. Tragedy of the commons (ToC), if government was the solution to ToC then why do Communist countries have a worse problem with that than not.
8. Free will.
9. Oh, that’s just silly … nobody’s going to kill the President … Biden is his insurance plan. No assassin in his right mind wants that nitwit to have real power.
10. Mr Obama goes after straw men on the campaign trail. If that were his only reason, then it wouldn’t make sense. If the predicate is false, of course the statement is true. Alas, it is also meaningless.
11. Lunch for the Klingon.

Good morning.

1. How to anger the ordinary man. Tell him his taxes are paying for propaganda to sell policies he doesn’t support.
2. Inter state becomes Intra state.
3. For those still following the Zimmerman/Martin kerfuffle.
4. The Bain attack theme and holding the Democrat party line.
5. “Two tiered” class pricing.
6. The diversity mania and higher ed.
7. Gay in the business world.
8. The don’t make the connections because you don’t have to make good arguments in the echo chamber.
9. Well, for those who think “nonlegal arguments” suffice against the Mandate Constitutional challenge, a slam dunk rebuttal of those notions.
10. Capital shifts.

Good morning.

1. Wind and the photograph. Blaarrrrgggh.
2. Our government, standing firmly against free trade.
3. “Strategy needs enemies” … uhm, a strategy is a broad plan and a goal. I think enemies are not required for either.
4. The problem isn’t that Hobbes and Locke lead to unfortunate conclusions, it’s that their premises were wrong (read some Bertrand de Jouvenel … try On Power as a starter).
5. Born in Kenya … why the lie?
6. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. (and yes a few weeks ago, we watched The Shining for our Family Movie Night). This week we watched Say Anything.
7. Economics and the cloud.
8. Horses asses in space.
9. Kierkegaard on confession. Oh, and Brandon has links too!
10. The war on poverty.
11. Flaunting IQ.
12. A $64 fine?
13. Another book to read.
14. And one more.

Good morning.

1. Grist for the solipsist.
2. Well there you go, the “best case (straw man) argument against gay marriage is unsustainable.” Who’d have thought that straw man arguments were so weak.
3. Why the “H” sound in Greek is just a diacritical mark at the start of the word.
4. The real question is why liberals self label as the “reality based party”.
5. A first question here … try this experiment. Go to a gym with a heavy bag. Start punching. See how much and how hard you have to punch … until you get a quarter inch cut on your knuckles. Then consider that bag was man and the damage you just did to it. Now … requite for me how you can figure the laceration on his hands were trivial.
6. Don’t try this at home.
7. Headscarves.
8. Well, you are correct, you are not supposed to say that. Uhm, so don’t.
9. Almost solipsism. Let’s see, what might “agnostic about the existence of the world” mean? Solipsism would be the akin to “atheism over existence” what then is agnosticism?
10. Mr Scalzi started this, I’d have thought “Feminist Philospher’s” would see the problem, but they didn’t. Here’s a hint … the problem is equating victory/winning/success with money and power and with not merely happiness.
11. “I don’t know” is often followed by “but I can google.”
12. “What I said” … in contrast with our President who has the advantage of having said the opposite as well.
13. I’m unclear on why the disgust. Isn’t that just a chance for testing and witness?
14. The quicksand’s viscosity just lowered for Ms Warren, see here and here.
15. Dating with a bucket of sand with fleas.
16. A song to finish.

At long last …

1. Texting without sight a method … while driving?
2. Of practicing and preaching.
3. So it it witless flaunting of due process or with cognizance?
4. Of ancient arithmetics and modern computers.
5. My name, sinking into obscurity?
6. Well, it may or may not be indicative of Mr Romney’s future prospects, but it certainly says a lot about Mr Obama’s credibility where budget talks are concerned, batting 0 for 600+.
7. I’m skeptical.
8. More micro economics of ranching.
9. Evil?
10. Mercantilism in the White House.
11. Not the Giligan’s Island tour.

Good morning.

1. Words, authors, and locations.
2. Comin’ at ya.
3. In the wrong black book, recall that one thesis I’m exploring is happiness and individual/wealth based societies vs family/shame based one. Chalk this one up for the family crowd.
4. The budget limit zombie rises again.
5. Let’s see … is it ethical? Is it ethical to drive a model of car that, by comparison, gets better mileage, offers better control, and is substantially cheaper. Is it ethical to not do so?
6. One prediction put down for the record (by a conservative who advocates voting for the sitting President no less).
7. Harvard Law’s minority member.
8. Not a good sign when your model looks quite embarrassed to be there.
9. Will there be an apologetic response from the left?
10. Which one should be coy about admitting belonging?
11. In which little substance is code for full of lies and BS.
12. Food for thought.
13. Bureaucrats, credentialed or not, aren’t the inventors, developers, scientists, and engineers who have (or don’t have) the credentials that actually matter.
14. A glass floor in an unusual setting.
15. On that texting-while-driving crises.

Good morning.

1. Same sex marriage and cricket races … or gosh why are the polls always so wrong (and for political science types … apparently “because polls are astoundingly inaccurate instruments” is not the answer. It’s why we call them cricket races after all.).
2. Mr Krugman beats his wife less these days. Oh, wait that was supposed to be this link. I think however the logical fallacy is the same.
3. Domino effects.
4. A Greek popular singer and a change of lifestyle.
5. The atheist worldview and similarities to fatalism.
6. In our money based culture … putting a value on the homemaker.
7. Of guns, control, and revolution.
8. Soteriology.
9. Income inequality.
10. Trade and a book.
11. How to effectively help the third world.
12. Headlines and unintended consequences (predicted).
13. Heh.

Good morning.

1. Some of the pictures are very funny.
2. Is it that all government expenditures not created equal?
3. This is interesting … apparently antisemitism is a PR problem for the Jews, nothing at all wrong with those who hold or promote those notions. It’s the Jews fault. Strange, a fellow and his family can go to church for decades and hear not almost nothing about same sex, well, anything. Wonder where these people get those notions? Perhaps its not from inside the church, but external slanders? (Replace “Christian” with “Jew” and “antihomosexual” with, well, whatever antisemites gripe about and see if you think the reaction by Mr Schraub would be place the blame on the Jews).
4. Here is more the sort of thing you actually hear in churches.
5. A spy and his cover. In the Bush admin the left went ballistic over the “outing” of Ms Plame … this undercover operative … do you hear the outrage? Neither do I. Perhaps the outrage was political and not about the loss of cover by leaking data to the press? Odd that.
6.  Occupy and their faux outrage against big corporations.
7. Dark shadows, then and now and the missing monsters (or monstrous).
8. Our moral president, always doing right by the people.
9. Boys schools and context for the Romney bully kerfuffle.
10. Social construction and empire.
11. Disabilities and happiness.

Good morning.

1. Epistemic insight into that road to serfdom?
2. By your fruit (or not exactly fruit)?
3. Is this on the up and up?
4. Half our electricity … gone? or gone from mind of the left?
5. Hey! I thought Mr Gowers was done with the entertainment. There’s more fun!
6. Saint von Bingen, here and here.
7. Of art, beauty and flaws.
8. Why the horn?
9. Why bother read the fine print … he isn’t an honest speaker in the first place.
10. A language found.
11. A grease, err, Greece fire?
12. An economic indicator?
13. A top ten list.
14. You sir, might be an idiot, I however am a fool.
15. Tombstone.
16. Wind damage.
17. Flexibility and pessimism (or is it realism).

Good morning.

1. Irrespective of the contents of this particular debate, I think Ms Althouse is spot on in noting that any argument that depends/blends on personal anecode is cheapened and weakened. So why is it so often used?
2. Of tea leaves and primaries.
3. And this primary? What of it?
4. A revenue neutral tax? Hows that work? Sounds like no tax at all. Or a linguistic dodge. You can have a revenue neutral tax policy, which entails manipulations of a number of different taxes raising some and lowering others. But you can’t, for example, enact a revenue new tax and have it not be 0. That’s mathematically impossible.
5. A long way of saying pointing out what should be obvious, that the high wage earning management types … work really hard. The pretense is that they don’t work or work very little. That’s amazingly far from the truth.
6. Our state considers its next encroachments on freedom.
7. Reading this, I was wondering if never-had-cable are considered akin to cable cutters?
8. 900k signatures for recall, 1/3 of which didn’t bother even voting in the primary. Odd that.
9. Wrapping up our maths fun for the last week or so.
10. Oh, stop trying to make sense of political rhetoric.
11. Fashion.

Good morning.

1. Starting on a lighter note …
2. Moving to a patriotic one, albeit not for my country but the sentiments translate (literally).
3. Which leads to my question, not exactly about any particular point made by the linked essay, but on the same topic. So many people, and they might be right for all I know, equate political success directly with campaign spending. How does that work? Just about every ad I’ve seen for candidate A (bought by/paid for by candidate A) shifts me more toward the other side. Every call from candidate A makes me more annoyed with him than not. So how then does spending translate into votes?
4. Love your neighbor dude. Try it.
5. Choice.
6. Can you imagine? Government obstruction? Golly.
7. More here, of a different sort.
8. Ho hum? I didn’t see this in any papers. Have you? How about on your other news sources? Why? Why not?
9. Right on the heels of Mr Obama’s speech announcing victory over al-Qaeda.
10. That pay disparity.
11. And some more maths fun.
12. One way to cool your thirst on a long ride. Not the usual way however.
13. A bookend, back to the light with a contrast of sorts.

Good morning.

1. Yep, you need to hold your line, apparently Mr Ferrari has forgotten that elementary point.
2. Tolerance and the much abused “Black Studies”.
3. Mr Krugman (and others) often goes off against EU austerity. Can you spot it? I guess austerity means something besides a cut in spending.
4. A book recommended.
5. A million years of global warming didn’t kill the dinosaurs, why fear a few tens of decades? In fact, this gives support to the climate warm = good hypothesis.
6. Of Parliament and separation.
7. Something, I gather, the pro-choice movement has nothing bad to say about.
8. A tree falls in the forest, see no noise.
9. One view on gay marriage.
10. Checking some results. What do you think the outcome will be?
11. Equine domestication and the Cossack.
12. He “got a few things right” (Mr Obama that is) … starts as damning with faint praise and goes downhill fast when the fact checking begins. Perhaps the article “a”, was unnecessary.

Wheee! A new week! (uhm erhm) Good morning.

1. I concur … and (clickthrough) a little meta-backstory.
2. Familial ties, social or genetic.
3. Of property values and the entrepreneur.
4. 400!? That’s a lot.
5. Some definitions of racism. I still like mine, “it is racist to use race as a criterion where it isn’t clearly warranted.” And yes, selecting for college admissions based on race is racist.
6. Automation and the legal office.
7. Military training and a sim-city variant.
8. Hayekian road to serfdom in a modern context.
9. Yet another Julia.
10. I found this more humorous than perhaps it warranted.
11. A book noted.

Oooh, goody. A chance to link more stuff, make comments, and be misinterpreted.

1. A few comments here on bikes on roads might work. Uhm, I have been stopped by a cop riding a bike, in my case, because he felt “stopping” by doing a track stand (the bike stopped … but I didn’t “put my foot down”, which apparently for the cop means I’ve actually stopped). I’ll add that bike trails along side roads might be nice, but there are two problems, I think when they cross roads they are less, not more safe in that the cars/bikes aren’t really as cognizant of the other’s presence at intersections because they are on separated on the main path and second, lots of roadies are traveling a whole lot further than that short section of bike path. I used to take an 80 mile ride up to my mother-in-laws. Several sections of the path paralleled bike paths for about 2-3 miles of the whole trip. While that path might have made sense for the subdivision along side it, not so much for me.
2. Wheaton stands with the Roman Catholics.
3. Liberals like to point out how much more multiculturally sensitive and aware and open they are. It just ain’t so, just observe these two leading liberal public intellectuals.
4. Courage recognized.
5. I think if you back that question up a bit you’ll find the “what constitutes healthy” a thorny enough question in and of itself without qualifying it.
6. While we’re in the business of thorny definitions, how about defining manufacturing.
7. The wonders of Obamacare and that whole “find out what’s in the law after you pass it”.
8. So, go ahead, follow Ms Warren’s example and check the “African American” section any application or employment form. And while your at it, check the “Cheerful” spot in the sexuality section.
9. Admission of guilt a bit?
10. Full assault mode. Attack attack attack!!!
11. Of economic opportunity and height.
12. Well, don’t worry, “reset” didn’t mean anything to anyone not in Russia either.
13. Well, no. I don’t think it is ever correct to hire a less qualified candidate. Who would? Now, I think the left would tell you that aff/action is to have preferences between equally qualified candidates. But, when they tell you that, alas, they are lying.

Good morning.

1. Over four years late … Obama background begins to be investigated.
2. Politics 101: How not to spin.
3. OK. I get it you didn’t like the paper (linked a few days ago). But, geesh, when criticizing a paper isn’t it bad form to use wrong/bad examples, i.e., house construction is not “bloated” because rents are going up … except why might rents go up? Could there be reasons other than a underultilization of construction resources? Perhaps because people aren’t buying because (with good reason) don’t trust property values to be stable yet? I’m no economist but that argument was just plain dumb.
4. Simple analysis of musical forms.
5. My first thought after seeing this is, well, Biden is worse … what ya complain’n about?
6. A political commentator whose never heard of Sarbanes Oxley apparently. Actually, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You don’t have to scratch hard at all to find anti-business in the beltway.
7. Not enough information and cheap puzzles.
8. Transliteration vs translation and maps.
9. Tort and adultery.
10. Hack spit. SAY WHAT? Let’s see, a policy success for the US, China threatens a man’s wife, he leaves the protection of the US embassy … and that somehow somewhere is a policy success?
11. Tripos (whatever that is) entertainment continues.
12. A good question, what does it take to get a higher rating?
13. What they don’t tell you is high reps (20+) to failure is amazingly painful compared to 4-10 rep to failure weights.
14. Atheists, believers and damned lies akin to statistics.

Good morning.

1. Of revenge and justice. Is motive the only difference?
2. Loyalty Day? Where is the liberal outrage? Where? Hmmm? Let’s see, what if Mr Bush had suggested that?
3. A better way to remember May 1. More links here.
4. More grist for the wind farm/climate discussion.
5. A thought experiment on truth telling.
6. Anti-semitism in Norway.
7. Huh? Insanity on the left coast.
8. Rational huh? Evidence to the contrary abounds.
9. Obama’s politicization of his assassination of OBL noted. The left can explain the crucial difference between “not moving heaven and earth” and “if we have a shot we’ll take it”. Seems like they were on the same page.
10. People densities on the planet projected in space.
11. Nuptials of a different sort.
12. Coolness, noted as no biggie by the left. An essential feature of coolness it seems to me is that coolness is a raising of style and aesthetic over substance. If you think that’s not important … perhaps you also believe that.

Good morning

1. Home brew, geek style.
2. What if not food, then grades?
3. It always comes back to maths.
4. I thought the update humorous.
5. Coming to the Holy Mountain.
6. So. How do we get there?
7. Coercion.
8. Higher education and a point made contra Mr Krugman.
9. Why they rape.
10. Swimming and a race.
11. An economic indicator.
12. Not if, when?
13. Head. Firmly in sand.
14. Get thee to the range.
15. Apropos the recession.

Good morning.

1. Let’s see, if a few percent change in a “part-per-million” gas can change climate can sucking many megawatts out of air movement and changing wind patterns change it? Hmm.
2. World War II and an obit.
3. The use of a second language, use it to consider the pros and cons of your nuptials?
4. This blog series is a lot of fun. Here’s part 1, part2, and part 3.
5. Queen Tamar.
6. Now that the President has decided to hype is “Obama slaying” in the partisan election campaign … details come out that aren’t exactly helpful to his hype.
7. Air vs air and air vs mud.
8. Ms Warren and  on again/off again minority status.
9. Beef, birth, and micro-economics.
10. Deft.
11. An insight into why the “world building” in Hunger Games was scant. (hint: it wasn’t the point)
12. Sleep (deprivation) and perception.

Good morning.

1. Off the beaten track information regarding Mr Wood.
2. Music and … heaven?
3. Misquote is a political strategy, alas practiced on both sides.
4. Our government overreach in action.
5. Beauty and church adornment.
6. Advice and academia from a very fast man.
7. Competition and moving power down not up.
8. Blank bang and the 3-d printing process.
9. Intimations of danger.
10. I disagree. It seems to me that wisdom/fool has a similar relationship as saint/sinner, the more you increase in wisdom the more you feel yourself to be the fool.
11. Yikes. And … it seems to me America and China would have a different reaction in the ensuing tort courts … and I’m not of the opinion that America is better in that regard.
12. Not getting “the sisterhood thing”.
13. Next stop the shooting range?
14. Marines then and now … which approach was better?
15. So, four strikes?
16. And a verse to recommend to close out this list.

Yikes, I’m running late. A few links?

1. A little political humor.
2. Not getting the IVF press.
3. Of drugs, alcohol and policy.
4. Of Obama’s reaching for (more) executive power, here and here. Ya think “ineffective Senate (legislature)” was not a reason Rome went Imperial? It worked so so well for them.
5. So, the BBC takes a story … and where do they go with it? The question is, are liberals offended by this too?
6. A little size disparity.
7. A metaphor for the nanny state? (see item #4).
8. Well, they grow on trees ya know!
9. A question asked, why is this more than a 2 hour trial?
10. A question about Colson and the Watergate kerfuffle.
11. The problem of positive errors.

Good morning.

1. On our American reticence to share our problems (and consequently the impolite nature of noticing others problems as well).
2. On further thought … perhaps it would be better if one didn’t give it further thought.
3. Global warming and some IPCC predictions.
4. While on the subject of warming, “All that’s Fit is News” isn’t that the NYTimes motto? And heck, if the news doesn’t fit stretch it.
5. Missing. Why sundering is a good thing.
6. Weaponized food.
7. How not to correct a stereotype.
8. Yet another remark on the Derby kerfuffle.
9. Shrubbery … I guess the Monty Python/Holy Grail piece wasn’t the last word. The Administration wanted to get some laughs too.
10. More Obamacare Constitutionality issues.
11. “Unworthy priest” is after all enshrined in the liturgy.
12. Our President … a good bad example for industry?