MY YOGA TEACHER HAS COVID AGAIN, FOR LIKE THE FIFTH TIME, AND SHE’S HAD FOUR SHOTS: Keeping COVID-19 in check will likely require periodic boosters. Nor is this unusual. I think the “periodic booster” approach is flawed. What we need is a better vaccine.
Archive for 2023
April 4, 2023
THE IVY EXILE: Stand, Columbia! “Can anything be done to salvage higher education? Structurally not much, with too many true believers and perverse incentives baked into the system. But that segment of university leadership and tenured faculty who privately know better could certainly show some more courage in standing up for freedom of expression, and concerned alums get a lot more involved. Like many formerly great institutions Columbia still retains capacity to be better than it is, with such resources and talented people around.”
Better than it is is a low enough bar to be achievable.
WELL, THE DROUGHT’S OVER FOR NOW: California’s snowpack is among the deepest ever. Now get ready for the perilous ‘big melt.’
I got caught during a roadtrip in a big melt after New Year’s 1996-97. A five-plus hour drive from Arcata to Reno ended up taking two-and-a-half days, thanks to a detour as far south as Fresno (from Redding) to avoid the floods.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: After NPR’s Major Layoff, Employees Accuse CEO Of Racism.
Triggered employees leapt into Zoom’s chat feature and declared [CEO John] Lansing’s reaction “racist.” One wrote, “Civility is a weapon wielded by the powerful.”
In a wonderful reap-what-you-sow moment, another employee posted a link to an NPR segment titled “When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color.”
Sounds like Lansing better voluntarily commit himself to an inpatient DEI program — and quick.
In 2022, NPR’s David Folkenflik wrote an article about NPR’s “struggles to retain high-profile journalists of color. Hosts have complained to the network’s leadership of pay disparities along racial and gender lines.”
At the time, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said, “That sounds systemic, and weird, considering 99 percent of NPR’s programming is about promoting equity.” His segment included a brief yet tasty sampling of the madness in NPR’s programming.
Why is the institutional left such a cesspit of racism?
READER FAVORITE: Glocusent LED Neck Reading Light, Book Light for Reading in Bed. #CommissionEarned
THAT’S ON THEM: Chicago Voters Go to the Polls Today With Little Confidence That Anything Will Change.
Timeless excerpt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…”
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
Chicago is past the point where even the right lizard wins very often.
NEWS I HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: Surgery may be enough to treat men with testicular cancer.
MARK JUDGE: America needs care of the soul.
Perhaps we should not have given the soulless care of our institutions.
SILICON VALLEY BANK WAS A ONE-OFF, THEY TOLD ME. THE BANKING SYSTEM IS FINE, THEY SAID: Biggest U.S. Banks See Huge Deposit Withdrawals.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The College Doom Loop. “If you listen carefully wandering by any college administration building, you can hear the slow panic building about declining enrollment, largely for demographic reasons, but maybe because more Americans are starting to reject the self-serving cliche that everyone must go to college. The Wall Street Journal/NORC survey noticed here last week released a second round of data showing that the public is growing increasingly skeptical about the value of higher education. Gee—I wonder why?”
When the left seizes control of an institution, it will fail. And the failure should be encouraged, as a kind of cauterization.
Also, well, you know.
SPACE: Virgin Orbit Files For Bankruptcy, Looks For Buyer.
In an April 3 filing, Virgin Orbit said it decided to begin Chapter 11 proceedings “in order to effectuate a sale.”
Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit CEO, said that after failing to secure additional financing, “we ultimately must do what is best for the business.”
“We believe that the cutting-edge launch technology that this team has created will have wide appeal to buyers as we continue in the process to sell the company. At this stage, we believe that the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward to identify and finalize an efficient and value-maximizing sale,” Hart said in a statement.
To help fund the process and protect its operations, Virgin Orbit has received a commitment from billionaire founder Richard Branson’s Virgin Investments Limited for $31.6 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, Virgin Orbit said. Once approved by the bankruptcy court, the DIP financing should provide Virgin Orbit with the necessary liquidity to continue operating as it tries to find a buyer.
Sad, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now.
THE 20: New 11 minute documentary from the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal masterfully captures the huge importance and significant impact of the 20 members of the House of Representatives who took a stand and forced genuine change in Congress.
THE NEW TOLERANCE AND ACCEPTANCE LOOK AN AWFUL LOT LIKE THE OLD DO AS I SAY OR ELSE: Tolerance and Acceptance: Wyoming Dem Posts Vile Trans Murder Threats.
PUTIN’S STUPID WAR: The Russian Military Is Destroying Itself In Ukraine.
The British Military Intelligence has assessed that “a significant minority” of Russian casualties in Ukraine have been caused “due to non-combat causes.
Non-combat deaths are normal on a battlefield. But Russian Telegram news channels report “extremely high” numbers of deaths linked to alcohol consumption and crime.
“Other leading causes of non-combat casualties likely include poor weapon handing drills, road traffic accidents and climatic injuries such as hypothermia. Russian commanders likely identify pervasive alcohol abuse as particularly detrimental to combat effectiveness,” the British Military Intelligence assessed in its latest estimate on the war.
Although completely foreign to Western professional miliary forces, alcohol consumption is an integral part of Russian culture, especially Russian military culture.
“However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations,” the British Military Intelligence added.
I’ve written time and again that Kyiv/Western estimates of Russian casualties are likely inflated, but serious problems with alcohol and poor discipline in the Russian military are as old as the Russian military. A year of heavy combat with very little to show for it probably isn’t helping.
IMAGINE HOW WE USED TO THINK FOREIGN-TRAINED DOCTORS HAD AN INFERIOR EDUCATION: University at Buffalo medical school puts ‘antiracism’ at center of curriculum.