AGELESS WISDOM: Adam Smith at 300. Some of the smartest scholars and liveliest writers on Adam Smith will be convening to celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth. The conference, at the Union League Club in New York City on September 13th, is open to the public, with tickets at $75 apiece. Dan Klein, Anne Bradley, Dominic Pino, and David Bahnsen will be discussing The Wealth of Nations, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and more from the father of modern economics. For a sample of Klein’s thoughts, here’s a podcast of him being interviewed by James Howard Kunstler on the viciousness of left-wing politics — what Klein calls “lefpotism.”
Archive for 2023
August 31, 2023
BOB GRABOYES: Does Plessy Linger Still? “It is productive to identify continuing sources of discrimination, measure the extent of their damage, and seek effective mitigation strategies. Unfortunately, many proponents leap over those steps, assuming on faith that any measured disparities (in health, wealth, employment, etc.) prove systemic racism. They thus dismiss alternative etiologies, such as genetics, personal choices, and measurement errors. They demand policies lacking evidence of efficacy, vilify those who question their conjectures, and advocate breathtakingly authoritarian prescriptions.”
Well, to be fair, the authoritarian prescriptions are the point, the various issues and doctrines used to justify them are just excuses.
WHY THE MEDIA DOESN’T TALK ABOUT SWEDEN ANYMORE: Sweden’s ‘Laissez Faire’ Pandemic Policies Paid Off. Sweden, which the media denounced in 2020 as a “pariah” and a “cautionary tale” because it stayed open and and told its citizens not to wear masks, has come through the pandemic with the lowest rate of excess mortality in Europe, as Johan Norberg shows in a Cato Institute report. All the more reason its public-health leaders deserve a Nobel Prize.
BAD MEDICINE: Testimony, or Evidence? Glossing over the damning facts and the lack of evidence for gender-transition treatments.
DEAL OF THE DAY: SERMAN BRANDS Money Clip Wallet. #CommissionEarned
ADAM COROLLA: Gov’t, Media to Run COVID Playbook for Climate Change. “The perfect storm is, agitate and frighten the citizens, especially the moms … then, people in power go, ‘now I get to act and I’m gonna start shutting stuff down.’ Anybody who brings up anything contrary, I will make sure they’re stamped out. We’ll go after them … anyone pushes back.”
WHY YOU’RE STILL SINGLE: You probably aren’t even trying. “It is reasonable for a quarter of singles to not want a relationship for whatever reason. What is not so reasonable is for the vast majority of those who do want one to not be making any attempt at finding one. . . . There is the stereotype of the person (usually but not always a woman) who goes on dates constantly, finding an endless string of losers. The data here suggests that this essentially is not a thing, or that if you do that it works.”
Plus: “Causation could however go either way. If no one single is trying, that could be because everyone who tries will succeed. Or it could be because a lot of people are doomed to failure if they try, and they have learned this so they stopped trying.”
I predict strange new respect for arranged marriages.
And: “Awkward shy rejection-sensitive pimply Asian guy asked 100 girls out on a date. 19 said yes! 10 were lesbian. Concludes that he got over his fear of rejection in a single day.” When I was in college, fresh off my first breakup, I read a magazine article that said ask out the first five women you see that you find attractive. I did that, and they all said yes. One I wound up dating for a while; the others were nice but no real chemistry. But I did get over my fear of rejection. I recommend this to others, though among today’s undergrads asking someone out in person, except at a bar or a frat party, is now seen by many as “creepy.” So are minor age differences like a 19 year old dating a 21 year old. In fact, I think they’ve been trained to see most heterosexual interactions as creepy. This is not by accident, I expect, but it’s pretty destructive given that the vast majority of people are in fact heterosexual.
WELL, IT WON’T BE FOR LACK OF TRYING: Media Can’t Memory-Hole Wuhan-Educated UNC Chapel Hill Killer.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR HILARIOUSLY SHOWS HOW TO WRITE ABOUT THE CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX WITHOUT TRIGGERING BIG TECH CENSORS: 1,600 Scientists Humiliate the Climate Ghouls Once and for All.
WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF SEXISM AND OPPRESSION? Female Professors Sue Vassar College, Alleging Gender-Based Salary Discrimination: Vassar, founded as one the country’s first women’s colleges, pays women 10% less, lawsuit says.
Five female professors at Vassar College filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging one of the oldest degree-granting institutions for women in the U.S. discriminates against female faculty by slow-walking their promotions and paying them less than their male peers.
The women filed the proposed class-action suit against the Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based college in federal court in New York after trying to work with the school for more than a decade to address the pay disparity, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs are asking for back pay to 2015 on behalf of all women currently or formerly employed by Vassar as full professors. They are also calling for a new system for evaluations and promotion.
During the 2021-2022 school year, male professors earned an average salary of $153,238 while female professors earned $139,322—or 10% less, according to the suit. The pay gap has ranged between 7.6% and 14.6% since 2003.
Representatives from Vassar couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Andrew Luna, executive director of institutional research at Austin Peay State University, who has researched faculty pay and gender gaps, said the difference could be explained by the distribution of men and women across disciplines. Business, science and technology faculty positions tend to pay more than faculty positions in the humanities, he said
Kelly Dermody, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that while the data in the lawsuit doesn’t take into account pay variation between disciplines, the plaintiffs, which include professors who teach African-American history, physics and psychological science, allege the pay gap is also present within departments.
The suit alleges women are paid less when they are hired and then promoted at a slower pace based on an biased and subjective evaluation process for compensation and promotion. The process includes peer reviews and student reviews. The average merit rating for female professors is 2.24; for men it is 2.41.
Obviously we need to shut the whole thing down until we figure out what’s going on.
THE EARTH NEEDS MEN: Masculinity and Art. [VIDEO].
In all realms, including art.
BUT ONLY FOR THE “CORRECT” SIDE NO DOUBT: X to Allow Political Ads Ahead of 2024 Elections.
Elon seems to have missed that putting a WEF puppet in charge has just made X the same old twitter again — says she who is so throttled it’s not even funny.
REAPING THE RESULTS OF PROGRESSIVE POLICIES: Inside San Francisco’s ‘dens of death’ as liberal city faces drug crisis.
SO, THE THING ABOUT REAL-ESTATE IS YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU GOT UNTIL YOU TRY TO SELL IT: Donald Trump ‘grossly’ exaggerated net worth – by as much as $2.2B in one year: NY AG.
THEY DRIVE UP COSTS WITH EXCESSIVE REGULATIONS AND BAD ECONOMIC POLICIES, THEN USE THE PREDICTABLE RESULTS TO DEMAND MORE BAD POLICIES: Company selling tiny homes from $130K sparks critics: ‘This is the new affordable housing market’.
PROBLEMS OF GEREONTOCRACIES: Mitch McConnell freezes up again during Kentucky press conference.
WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO GO? NEW JERSEY? Malliotakis renews calls for Staten Island to secede from NYC as outrage over migrant crisis continues.
ABOUT TIME SOMEONE FOUGHT BACK: Middle schooler allowed to display ‘Don’t tread on me’ patch after mom accuses school of violating his First Amendment rights.
POLIS’S COLORADO WANTS TO TREAD ON YOU: The meaning of the Gadsden flag, ‘Don’t tread on me’ symbol that got Colorado boy briefly booted from school.
MORE INTERFERENCE IN THE ECONOMY WON’T GET US OUT OF THE HOLE THAT INTERFERENCE IN THE ECONOMY CREATED: Biden proposal would give overtime pay to 3.6 million more US workers.
SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED. BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE: ‘Mugshot Merch Sales Have Spiked’: Trump Spokesperson.
THAT HASN’T WORKED OUT THE WAY THEY SAW IT HAPPENING … Maine Hospital Fired Nurses for Refusing COVID Shots—Now It’s Begging Them to Come Back.