Archive for 2023

FAKE NEWS:  Before the Commission on Civil Rights releases a report, we try to agree on findings and recommendations.  It’s hard.  But for our report on Anti-Asian Racism, the Commission was able to muster a majority in favor of a limited number of recommendations.  That’s progress–at least for those who like to see a little bipartisanship now and then.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t done us a bit of good.  The Commission’s staff recently issued an “infographic” on the report that lists “Key Recommendations for Action.” But with one exception, they’re not the recommendations the Commission actually agreed to.  We figured in that it was a mistake of some sort.  But no.  When four Commissioner informed the Staff Director of the problem, we expected he’d fix it quickly.  But he has declined to do so.

The bureaucracy is out of control.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? The New York Times Help Wanted: Looking for an AI Editor to Start Publishing Stories: Six Figure Salary.

The New York Times boast all the news that’s fit to print. That news used to be written by humans.

But it looks like the Times is going let bots do their journalism. They’re looking for “a senior editor to lead the newsroom’s efforts to ambitiously and responsibly make use of generative artificial intelligence.”

I’m not kidding. How the mighty have fallen. It’s on their job listings.

Have we reached the end of civilization now?

“This editor will be responsible for ensuring that The Times is a leader in GenAI innovation and its applications for journalism. They will lead our efforts to use GenAI tools in reader-facing ways as well as internally in the newsroom. To do so, they will shape the vision for how we approach this technology and will serve as the newsroom’s leading voice on its opportunity as well as its limits and risks. “

Here are the qualifications for this job, which pays between $180,000 and $200,000:

Based on previous attempts at integrating AI into journalism, this won’t end well: CNET used AI to write articles. It was a journalistic disaster. Or as Steve spotted yesterday:

NEO: Hating the Israelis and Jews even more after the October 7 attacks: why?

The more the Palestinians and Hamas rage and commit barbaric mayhem, the more terrible the Israeli offenses must be that sparked the rage – at least, that’s how the minds of the Left’s Romantics operate. And “Romantic” is not a compliment.

(2) Related to #1 is that cognitive dissonance is mentally painful and people ordinarily seek to resolve it not by changing their minds about something but figuring out a way to adjust to the new information and keep their old belief system. This article discusses the phenomenon:

“Western activists for Palestinians”, he added, “are dedicated to two nearly theological precepts: that Israel is evil, and that no Palestinian action is ever connected to any Palestinian outcome”. Hamas’s gruesome attack, he concluded, “poses a threat to this worldview, and the only way to resolve it is by heightening Israel’s imagined malevolence. The terrorist atrocities don’t trigger a recoiling from the cause in whose name they were carried out; they lead to an even greater revulsion at the victim.”

It’s as though there’s a balance scale in which the greater the Palestinian offense, the greater Israel’s crimes must have been in causing such a reaction. That way the person’s belief system is kept intact. The MSM leads the way on this.

The amount of antisemitism pouring out of American colleges as been astonishing to see over the past couple of weeks: Campus antisemites are vile but administrators who protect them are just as complicit. “Crazed college students taught delusions about Israel being ‘occupied land’ or an ‘apartheid’ state will also always exist. Again, the issue is less the brainwashed students than administrations that have perpetually given a pass to language that distorts the truth and threatens Jewish students. These kids have been beaten up — both rhetorically and physically.”

Plus ça change:

DON SURBER: Of course Harvard supports terrorism: The school’s always been a hotbed of bigotry.

Palestinians invaded Israel on October 7 — a holy day for Jews — and raped women, tortured men, murdered grannies, beheaded babies and burned people alive.

The reaction by Harvard was to hold a vigil three nights later for Palestinians. Harvard’s anti-Semitism is so strong that I am surprised that Hitler wasn’t a graduate. Maybe World War I interrupted his classes on Aryan Studies and Teutonic History.

I’ve been told that it’s always okay to punch a Nazi. We’re gonna have to do a lot of punching, I guess.

OPEN THREAD: Happy Friday!

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAR LEFT:

When conservatives were being canceled over ‘micro-aggressions.’

When genocidal antisemites supporting Hamas get canceled now.

ATF IS CONSISTENTLY ONE OF THE WORST FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, WHICH IS NO SMALL ACCOMPLISHMENT: The ATF’s Prosecution of Larry Vickers Was About Headlines and a High Profile Scalp.

The ATF wants to imprison a decorated American soldier for a series of victimless crimes, even though the federal regulations he’s accused of violating may not be constitutional, and questions about ATF’s potential involvement in the case remain unanswered.

The same federal agency that ran guns across the border into Mexico – which were used by drug cartels to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and scores of Mexican nationals – believes that retired special operations veteran, Larry Vickers, needs to be locked up, even though none of his weapons ended up in cartel hands. . . .

Much has been made of Vickers’ guilty plea, but all it likely means is that he lacked the millions of dollars needed to mount a proper legal defense. Unlike most defendants, federal prosecutors have unlimited resources. Vickers’ case was investigated by the ATF, FBI, IRS Criminal Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, after all. Most likely, he simply didn’t want to bankrupt his family.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland publicly thanked two prosecutors specifically for “their work on the Vickers guilty plea.” This was a big win for the government, because by pleading guilty, Vickers saved prosecutors from having to answer some uncomfortable questions.

This is why I think that any charge made that does not result in a conviction should require the government to pay the costs of defense. It should be pro-rata, so if they charge you with 100 things and only convict on two, they should pay 98% of your defense costs. This would discourage overcharging.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: No Playing Around, It’s ‘The Florida Man Games.’ “This week we have the introduction of the first-ever Florida Man Games, how not to show the police what you’re packing, and the Indiana stripper who will do anything for work (but not that).”

I’LL TRUST ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MUCH MORE WHEN IT STOPS BEING SO STUPID:

It does make you wonder what else AI is baking into Google’s results.

IS MIKE JOHNSON RIGHT IN THIS ‘TIME FOR CHOOSING?’ – It’s hard to miss the numerous ways in which Mike Johnson’s sudden emergence on the national political scene recalls that which occurred 59 years ago today when Ronald Reagan delivered “The Speech” that launched him on the road to the White House.

FAIL, BRITANNIA: UK’s £100 Billion Rail To Nowhere. “All rationale for HS2 vanished, leaving the UK with a multi-billion pound bill just to slightly reduce travel time between London and Birmingham.”

If you don’t have the time or inclination to watch a video, Lawrence Person has done his usual excellent job of breaking out the bullet points.

MIDDLE EAST BURNS AS STATE DEPARTMENT CELEBRATES ‘INTERSEX AWARENESS DAY:’ Either these people — the Biden Administration appointees at the State Department and much of the career foreign service ranks — are as tone-deaf as a rock in the middle of the Sahara, or they are purposely putting their ideological obsessions ahead of life and death. The Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles reports.