THESE IMAGES ARE QUITE STRIKING: Huge superyacht squeezes down narrow Dutch canals. A friend comments that this is proof the Netherlands should operate the Suez Canal.
Archive for 2021
April 22, 2021
IT ISN’T A BLUFF IF IT GETS PUTIN EASTERN UKRAINE EVEN WITHOUT A WAR: Is Russian Military Buildup on Ukraine Border a Bluff?
UGH: India Hits Global Record for Daily New Covid-19 Cases: Health officials say they have detected the presence of several highly infectious coronavirus variants. “India reported more than 314,000 new coronavirus cases, the world’s biggest ever single-day jump of new infections, as the country struggled to keep a surge of infections from overwhelming its healthcare system. Hospitals in New Delhi and other hard-hit cities have been turning away patients and running low on oxygen, beds and other medical supplies.”
WE NEED TO SEE SOME RACIAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY:
Good for the Biden Administration for committing to ferreting out the racism in the Democratic Party!
The whole “City X last had a Republican mayor in [year]” thing has become kind of an all-purpose giggle line for righties (myself included).
But seriously here: Except for a weird one-day thing, Minneapolis has had nothing but Democratic mayors dating back to the early sixties. The City Council (per Wiki), which governs the PD, has 12 Democrats and one Green (and that’s it). The Chief (nominated by the mayor, approved by the City Council) is a Black man who has held the post since 2017, and whom you’d have to guess is not a Republican (not because he’s Black, but because he got the job). And I’d guess you’d have to go way back in time to find a Chief who wasn’t Democrat-leaning.
So who hires these cops? Who trains them? Who disciplines them? Who provides their rules of engagement? It’s Democrats all the way down.
Yes, and they need to be held responsible.
UPDATE: Via a friend:
THE END OF CIVIL SOCIETY: Fired for donating to Kyle Rittenhouse? “In other words, Lt. William Kelly was fired for having an opinion. Again… where is it written in the Norfolk PD rules that officers can’t have opinions?”
You can have an opinion. In fact, you must have an opinion. But it must be the opinion that the Party wants you to have, comrade.
YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO SAY THAT: “No sign that George Floyd was killed because of his race.”
OUT: INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE.
In: BLM protesters rally for ‘victim,’ leave after learning he was white.
CHANGE: Florida House Overwhelmingly Approves Consumer Privacy Bill. “ Florida, the country’s third most populous state, would be the latest to enact consumer protections against Big Data’s ability to harvest personal information about how people conduct their day-to-day lives, including where they shop and eat, what they read and what they share online.”
IT SEEMS TO MOSTLY EXIST IN AMERICA’S MOST ELITE INSTITUTIONS: Michael Barone: The ebbing of ‘the misperception that bigotry is everywhere.’
Plus:
How will future historians explain this? From 2001 to 2014, majorities of Americans, including supermajorities of blacks and non-Hispanic whites, told Gallup pollsters that “race relations” were either very or somewhat good.
Then, after the election and reelection of the first American president of African descent, in each case with majorities of popular as well as electoral votes, perceptions suddenly plunged.
Only around 50% of non-Hispanic whites rated race relations as good in 2015, 2019, and 2020. And the percentage of blacks taking that view fell to 51% in 2015, before Donald Trump’s election as president, and then 40% in 2019 and 36% in 2020.
The short explanation is that August 2014 saw the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement amid protests about the police killing in Ferguson, Missouri, of an 18-year-old black man who had just robbed a convenience store and attempted to seize a policeman’s gun.
How will future historians explain this? From 2001 to 2014, majorities of Americans, including supermajorities of blacks and non-Hispanic whites, told Gallup pollsters that “race relations” were either very or somewhat good.
Then, after the election and reelection of the first American president of African descent, in each case with majorities of popular as well as electoral votes, perceptions suddenly plunged.
Only around 50% of non-Hispanic whites rated race relations as good in 2015, 2019, and 2020. And the percentage of blacks taking that view fell to 51% in 2015, before Donald Trump’s election as president, and then 40% in 2019 and 36% in 2020.
The short explanation is that August 2014 saw the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement amid protests about the police killing in Ferguson, Missouri, of an 18-year-old black man who had just robbed a convenience store and attempted to seize a policeman’s gun.
Floyd’s death generated enormous publicity and a sizable increase in support for the Black Lives Matter movement among whites (to 43% in Civius polling) as well as black people (to 69%). But that support was accompanied by widespread misperceptions of the magnitude of the problem of police shootings of black people. As Canadian political scientist Eric Kaufmann points out, a Quadratics survey in fall 2020 found that eight in 10 black people believe black men are more likely to be killed by police than die in an auto accident. So did 53% of white Biden voters. Only 15% of white Trump voters shared this illusion.
Actually, thousands of black men die in auto accidents annually, whereas far fewer than 100, according to the Washington Post, are killed by police. Similar questions showed similarly wide divergences from reality are apparent on other racially charged questions, and indeed ordinary people often have enormous misperceptions of many statistical relationships.
This misperception exists because people on the left want it to exist, and people in the press want to help.
CHRISTOPHER RUFO: The Shaky Foundations of LA’s Housing ‘Entitlement’ for the Homeless.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump’s Biggest Failure Was In Not Gutting the FBI. “An avowed leftist unloads over a hundred rounds aimed at a gathering of Republicans and the FBI thinks his motive was that he was just looking for a way to off himself. A citizen not in law enforcement who’s only watched cop shows on television knows that this doesn’t fit the ‘suicide by cop’ definition.”
And what happened on January 6 was no “insurrection,” but whatever definition helps push the Left’s narrative is the correct definition.
WHY IS ACADEMIA SO FULL OF HATE AND DISCRIMINATION? A New Systemic Racism? Hiring at some of the country’s elite institutions paints a troubling picture. “Maybe white high schoolers overlooked Princeton this year. But we think there’s a greater likelihood that the university is treating white applicants the way Harvard treats Asians—and that, aware of the way hiring works at the country’s elite institutions, today’s ambitious high schoolers are rushing to discover long lost indigenous ancestors. The understanding of smart young people today that there are material benefits to identifying as a minority should be enough to give the lie to claims of systemic racism—at least against minorities.”
SETI AT HOME, REDEFINED: Alien Artifacts on Earth and in Our Solar System is Possible, NASA Reports.
For over five decades, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has almost exclusively focused on monitoring the sky for signals that could represent a distant advanced alien civilization. However, for as many years, scientists have quietly discussed the possibility that evidence for advanced alien life could be closer than we realize in the form of relics or artifacts.
Largely thanks to technological advances, in recent years, a handful of scientists have slowly started coming forward and saying that the hunt for nearby alien relics is something that merits serious consideration.
After the last year, it would take Klaatu descending the ramp of a flying saucer in Washington to shock most people.
UM: Chris Christie allies: Are you ready for President Chris Christie?
I’ll, er, cross that bridge when I come to it.
CIVIL RIGHTS: “Good for the Biden Administration for committing to ferreting out the racism in the Democratic Party!” “So who hires these cops? Who trains them? Who disciplines them? Who provides their rules of engagement? It’s Democrats all the way down.”
CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: Va. Police Department Fires Cop Over Donation to Kyle Rittenhouse Legal Fund.
I HAVEN’T READ IT YET, BUT I LOVE IT WHEN MY “WRITING KIDS” ARE DOING WELL AND FOLLOWING THROUGH:
From C. V. Walter: Bound to the Alien Engineer.
Mindy’s best friend Molly was a maintenance technician on the Bradbury 12. When Molly went missing, Mindy started looking for answers but all she found were more questions. They were supposed to meet up at Geniuscon, a science fiction convention that attracts people from every walk of life, and she knows Molly’s son Aidan is going to be there. Determined to get in touch with her friend, Mindy tracks down Aidan and meets some of his new friends, the guys cosplaying as big, blue aliens.
The first time he heard her voice, Alvola knew Mindy was the one. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t understand the language or touch her skin, the sound of her voice made his body sing. Determined to meet his mate, Alvola volunteers for the mission to Earth to pick up Aidan and meet with the scientists and engineers that will be their first official contacts with humanity. When Alvola actually meets Mindy in person, his mission becomes to keep her by his side, no matter the cost.
IT DOES SEEM THAT WAY, DOESN’T IT? A Lot More Demand For Racism Than Supply.
THEY DON’T MEAN SQUISHY. THEY MEAN SQUISHED: Neutron stars may not be as squishy as some scientists thought.
THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW MY OBSESSION WITH THE GREAT SNAIL WAR: DAILY ART FIX: Inkulinati Is a Serious Strategy Game Created with Absurd, Hilarious Medieval Art.
Know I must check this out….
I SHOULD HAVE LINKED THIS EARLIER: March 19: Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
To forget is to invite repeat.
AND WHAT HE SAID: Gun Control Stupidity.
WHAT THE MAN SAYS: Again with the “Not True Marxism”.