WHO JUST ACTED PARTISANLY: A Cincinnati IRS Lawyer Speaks: We Are Democrats, But Nonpartisan Democrats.
Archive for 2013
July 23, 2013
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Lying In The Age Of Obama.
WHAT WILL THEY DO WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT CALIFORNIA, MASSACHUSETTS AND PENNSYLVANIA HAVE STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAWS, TOO? Some of the music industry’s biggest acts are joining Stevie Wonder in boycotting Florida over the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
UPDATE: Illinois has “Stand Your Ground” Too — And Obama Voted For It. Will they boycott White House performances? Dumbasses.
July 22, 2013
CHANGE: Watching a rerun of Mary Tyler Moore where Lou Grant is supposed to be fat — and by modern standards, he’s not fat at all.
THOUGHTS ON THE MARRIAGE WAGE PREMIUM. My favorite bit: “While traditional wives certainly add great economic value to the family as a whole, the specialization argument falls flat in my opinion when considering the question of married men’s higher earnings. The problem with the argument is it assumes married men are free to focus more of their time and mental energy on paid work than unmarried men. If this were correct, married men should then be free to work longer hours and travel more for business than unmarried men. The basic assumption is that bachelors are too tied down focusing on housekeeping, cooking meals from scratch, and doing their laundry to really focus on paid work. This is to put it mildly, counter-intuitive.”
UPDATE: Reader Charles Weigle emails: “When I was a young lawyer, one of the older partners at the firm explained to me that a married man with small children made the best employee because (1) he would do anything for more money and (2) he would rather stay at the office than go home in the evenings. I never did get married.”
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: America’s Best-Educated Kids Don’t Go To School. “The explosive growth in home schooling has been fueled by dissatisfaction with public schools.”
Plus: “With public school students at the 50th percentile, home schoolers were at the 89th percentile in reading, the 86th percentile in science, the 84th percentile in language, math, and social studies. Socio-economic factors may have a lot to do with why home schoolers do so much better. Virtually all have a mother and a father who are living together. Nearly two thirds of fathers and 62 percent of mothers have a bachelor’s degree or higher.”
Increasingly, however, public schools are designed for kids from dysfunctional backgrounds.
MEGAN MCARDLE: Yes, your kitchen needs that Sous-Vide machine. “It turns out that if you’re a meat eater, a sous vide machine is the killer app for meat, including (maybe especially) fish.”
They’re not super expensive. Even the expensive ones are cheaper than, say, an oven. That said, I haven’t bought one yet.
UPDATE: Reader Harris Reynolds (no relation) writes:
Megan is correct about the Sous Vide machine (or as we like to call it in Houston, Susie Veed). Our foodie/Petroleum Engineer son bought one for his Mum for Xmas.
Long story short, it makes chuck like sirloin, sirloin like filet mignon, and filet like buttah.
One side benefit is that it “renders” fatty meat and melts the gelatin out of bones; the fluids left over when you cook 3-day short ribs will make a meaty gel when you put them in the fridge. Come to think of it, you could probably make an aspic with them. In our house, we give the dog (otherwise a picky eater) a couple of tablespoons over her dry dog food, and she’s in doggie ecstasy. Apparently this stuff is The Essence of Meat.
Maybe I should order one.
SO THE OTHER DAY, WHEN I POSTED MY PRAISE FOR THE KINDLE PAPERWHITE, I got something wrong, and reader Peter Briggs emails a correction:
I’ve been an avid reader of your site (and relentless promoter of same) since 2001. Although I’m in Canada and can’t buy things (easily) through your Amazon link, your promotion of their service has led to my wife and I becoming frequent Amazon Canada customers. One small niggle regarding your comment about ”backlighting” being key to the superior reading experience of your Kindle Paperwhite. The Paperwhite (like my Kobo Glo) is lit from above, with the light shining down onto the screen as opposed to coming through the screen as in a backlit device. From all the investigation I made prior to the purchase of my Glo, it was clear that backlit screens stimulate the brain into thinking it’s seeing daylight, making it harder to fall asleep while reading before bed. Thus, the decision to purchase a “front-lit” device in which the light is directed onto the screen rather than outwards to your eyes. Considering how influential your product endorsements are… I thought this point could help make your pitch for the Paperwhite even stronger. Front-lit is the way to go if you’re looking for the best pure e-reader experience.
I actually knew that it was frontlit, I just wrote sloppily. Thanks!
NEWS YOU CAN USE: A field guide to surviving a mass extinction.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The rise of “Predictive Policing.”
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THE ARROGANCE OF A WELL-FED SOCIETY: “Every time I write an article about population growth or poverty, I receive at least one e-mail insisting that there are too many humans on the planet. That erroneous statement is usually followed up with a not-so-subtle suggestion that letting a few people starve to death wouldn’t be a terrible thing, but instead would actually make the planet a safer, richer and more sustainable place. Not many things shock me anymore. But the arrogance and callousness of a well-fed society toward those who are less fortunate always leaves me stunned.”
To be fair, you’re talking about well-fed leftists here, who have always been arrogant and callous. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs! So let’s not consult the eggs. And no complaining that the omelet sucks, comrade, unless you want to be an egg, too. . . .
WELL, GOOD: Despite outcry, stand-ground law repeals unlikely. “At least 21 states have laws similar to that in Florida, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many are conservative and lean toward laws that defend gun owners’ rights. So far, there does not appear to be an appetite in Florida or other states to repeal or change the laws, which generally eliminate a person’s duty to retreat in the face of a serious physical threat. In fact, some states are moving in the opposite direction.”
AT AMAZON, up to 50% off in Tools & Home Improvement.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Yoga To Relieve Desk-Job Strain.
IT’S A BOY.
AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in Home Goods.
Also, today only: 76% Off “M*A*S*H: The Complete Series + Movie.”
MORE THOUGHTS ON THE THIRD AMENDMENT, in my USA Today column for this week.
MOCKING KENTUCKY’S ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THREATENING TO JAIL AN ADVICE COLUMNIST for giving advice without a license.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Economist: Attack Of The Moocs. “Besides providing online courses to their own (generally fee-paying) students, universities have felt obliged to join the MOOC revolution to avoid being guillotined by it.”