TOM MAGUIRE ON Nick Kristof and Woody Allen.
Archive for 2014
February 2, 2014
MISSOURI’S GOVERNOR, JAY NIXON, IS A DEMOCRAT. He’s also unmentioned in this story. Would that be the case if he were a Republican?
AT AMAZON, New Arrivals in Home Decor.
Plus, up to 75% off on Select Watches. I love my Timex Ironman, mostly for the Indiglo. It means I’m never without a flashlight. Helen got me a fancy Tag-Heuer watch as an anniversary present a few years ago, and it’s lovely, but I really only wear it on dressy occasions.
Also, today only: Pioneer SC-1323 7.2-Channel Network Receiver, $599 (57% off).
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Silencing The Opposition.
WORK: Elites embrace the “do what you love” mantra. But it devalues work and hurts workers.
There’s little doubt that “do what you love” (DWYL) is now the unofficial work mantra for our time. The problem with DWYL, however, is that it leads not to salvation but to the devaluation of actual work—and more importantly, the dehumanization of the vast majority of laborers.
Superficially, DWYL is an uplifting piece of advice, urging us to ponder what it is we most enjoy doing and then turn that activity into a wage-generating enterprise. But why should our pleasure be for profit? And who is the audience for this dictum?
DWYL is a secret handshake of the privileged and a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment. According to this way of thinking, labor is not something one does for compensation but is an act of love. If profit doesn’t happen to follow, presumably it is because the worker’s passion and determination were insufficient. Its real achievement is making workers believe their labor serves the self and not the marketplace. . . . If we believe that working as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur or a museum publicist or a think-tank acolyte is essential to being true to ourselves, what do we believe about the inner lives and hopes of those who clean hotel rooms and stock shelves at big-box stores? The answer is: nothing.
Well, there’s work, and then there’s work. Work need not be self-actualizing to be valuable, to the worker and to others. But even when you love your work as much as I love mine, there are days when you’d really rather just stay in bed.
EUGENE VOLOKH: Louisiana restriction on handgun possession by under-16-year-olds passes “strict scrutiny.”
An unsurprising, and likely correct, result, but it leaves much unanswered for future cases. Here’s one particular question: Louisiana law also generally forbids concealed carry in public by 18-to-20-year-olds, because concealed carry licenses are available only to people age 21 and above. Would this be constitutional, too, on the theory that even 18-to-20-year-olds “exhibit a sometimes transient lack of maturity, impetuosity, suggestibility and vulnerability”? Or would the rule be different for people who today, and for the last 40 years, have been viewed as full-fledged adults?
We’ll see.
THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW: Judge removed from divorce case after sending one party a Facebook friend request. “According to the Wall Street Journal, Chace’s lawyer alleged that when she denied Schoonover’s friend request, the judge retaliated by giving her most of the marital debt in her divorce, and giving her husband, Robert Loisel Jr., a larger alimony award.”
HOW WASHINGTON WORKS: Congressman Michael ‘I will break you in half’ Grimm is literally indebted to K Street giant Patton Boggs.
Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., recently famous for threatening violence against a reporter, is under scrutiny for campaign finance matters. His recent campaign finance filings show he owes more than $416,000 in legal fees to a law firm (h/t Dave Levinthal). That firm happens to be K Street kingpin Patton Boggs.
Grimm sits on the Financial Services Committee. The firm to which he is indebted represents Citigroup, Visa, AIG, Prudential, Goldman Sachs, and many others under his committee’s jurisdiction.
I’m sure he’s totally impartial.
SCIENCE: The Low-Carbohydrate Diet and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Evidence from Epidemiologic Studies. “Recent randomized controlled trials document that low-carbohydrate diets not only decrease body weight but also improve cardiovascular risk factors. In light of this evidence from randomized controlled trials, dietary guidelines should be re-visited advocating a healthy low carbohydrate dietary pattern as an alternative dietary strategy for the prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors.”
February 1, 2014
TODAY IS ANDREW BREITBART’S BIRTHDAY.
You might want to watch this interview of Andrew that Helen and I did at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, in 2010. I think it holds up pretty well.
I’d like to see those Breitbart Is Here Posters appear again.
SUPERBOWL SEX-TRAFFICKING CLAIMS: Basically, dishonest marketing by sleazy nonprofits and their political cronies.
A now familiar feature of this coverage, wherever the Super Bowl is held, is an abundance of stories, from Reuters to CNN, reporting that the event will cause a surge in sex trafficking to capitalize on the influx of fans and tourists.
Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey and co-chairman of the House anti-human trafficking caucus, and Gov. Chris Christie announced a law enforcement crackdown. Cindy McCain, in advance of next year’s Super Bowl in Arizona, flew in to stand at Mr. Christie’s side, declaring that the Super Bowl is “the largest human-trafficking event on the planet.”
The problem is that there is no substantiation of these claims. The rhetoric turns out to be just that.
No data actually support the notion that increased sex trafficking accompanies the Super Bowl. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, a network of nongovernmental organizations, published a report in 2011 examining the record on sex trafficking related to World Cup soccer games, the Olympics and the Super Bowl. It found that, “despite massive media attention, law enforcement measures and efforts by prostitution abolitionist groups, there is no empirical evidence that trafficking for prostitution increases around large sporting events.”
Even with this lack of evidence, the myth has taken hold through sheer force of repetition, playing on desires to rescue trafficking victims and appear tough on crime.
Lying profiteers, posing as saviors.
ROGER SIMON: D’Souza Debates Ayers At Dartmouth.
I GUESS HE FIGURES WOMEN ARE LOUSY AT MATH: Obama Must Know That 77-cent Figure Is Bogus, So Why Does He Keep Repeating It? “What is wrong and embarrassing is the President of the United States reciting a massively discredited factoid.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Tenured Faculty Layoffs Coming at Albany Law School?
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WHEN YOU EAT YOUR SUPER BOWL GUACAMOLE, YOU’RE SUPPORTING GENUINE HEROES: The Avocado Uprising: Mexican growers in the world’s avocado capital chase off violent extortionists. “In November, a band of Tancítaro residents wielding wooden clubs and old hunting rifles joined forces with well-armed vigilantes from nearby towns to run off most members of the Knights Templar, a criminal gang allegedly involved in extortion, kidnapping, rape and homicide throughout the state.” The people, united, will never be defeated.
JON BISHOP: Where Does The Left-vs.-Right Fight Come From? It’s a review of Yuval Levin’s The Great Debate.
PSYCHOBIOTICS: How Gut Bacteria Mess With Your Mind.
GALLERY: People And Giant Waves.
NEW HAMPSHIRE BILL WOULD require that jurors receive nullification instructions.
AN ANDROID APP THAT warns when you’re being watched.