ECONOMIC ILLITERACY REIGNS:
WATCH: At a California Senate candidate forum, Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee said she wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $50 per hour.
Spoken like someone who knows nothing about economics.
pic.twitter.com/16piJUwZlh— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) February 13, 2024
FLASHBACK: Live Long and Prosper, If They Will Let You.
MICHAEL BARONE: America’s Dysfunctional Overclass. “What does America’s overclass think of the rest of us? The short answer is ‘not much.’ They think ordinary people’s splurging on natural resources is destroying the planet and needs to be cut back forcefully. And that the government needs to stamp down on ordinary people enjoying luxuries that, in their view, should be reserved for the top elites.”
And that’s not speculation. That’s what they said themselves when asked by Scott Rasmussen.
OPEN THREAD: Enjoy!
SOLAR ECLIPSE JAM: Solar eclipse jam: How to avoid getting stuck in traffic on April 8, 2024.
GENOCIDE IS NORMAL IN HUMAN HISTORY: Ancient DNA Reveals a Tragic Genocide Hidden in Humanity’s Past. “The rise of farming in late Stone Age Europe was no smooth transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles but a bloody takeover that saw nomadic populations wiped out by farmer-settlers in a few generations, a new study has found. ‘This transition has previously been presented as peaceful. . . . However, our study indicates the opposite. In addition to violent death, it is likely that new pathogens from livestock finished off many gatherers’.”
THIS MAY WELL BE TRUE, BUT IN THE CURRENT POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT YOU KNOW THAT “THE SCIENCE” WILL SAY SO REGARDLESS: Mifepristone abortion pills can be safely delivered with telehealth.
HIGHER EDUCATION BLOAT: Former Penn President Shatters Record For Highest-Paid College President: $22,866,127.
Congress should cap compensation for nonprofit executives, including higher ed executives.
ARNOLD KLING: Jews and Communism: Sketching the history. “The more attached a Jew is to Jewish texts and Jewish practice, the less likely it is that he will be sympathetic to Communism.”
NOPE: Are Brand-New Tesla Cybertrucks Rusting in the Rain? “It’s the sort of twist that makes for a compelling schadenfreude read. And yet, the culprit may not be suspect Tesla steel at all. Instead, maybe we can blame trains.”
READER FAVORITE: TruVision Readers Computer Reading Glasses – Blue Light Blocking Readers. #CommisionEarned
AT AMAZON, Shop the President’s Weekend Sale. #CommissionEarned
THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Elderly volunteer, 90, claims she was forced out of MS Society job for asking about pronoun usage.
An elderly California woman claims she was forced to step down from her volunteer position of 60 years after she asked for clarity on the use of pronouns.
Fran Itkoff, the 90-year-old leader of the Lakewood/Long Beach Self-Help Group, was told her organization would no longer be affiliated with the National MS Society after her “failure to abide by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guidelines.”
Itkoff, who has won multiple awards for her and her husband’s work with the organization, became confused one day after she saw several people sign their emails and letters with their names along with their chosen pronouns.
“I was confused, I didn’t know what it was, what it meant,” Itkoff told the social media account Libs of TikTok. “I’ve seen it on a couple of letters that had come in after the person’s name they had the pronouns, but I didn’t know what that meant.”
The nonagenarian, however, did not get a clear answer.
“Finally I was talking to her and thought I would ask ‘what does it mean’ and let her tell me,” Itkoff said. “She said that it meant ‘they were all-inclusive,’ which didn’t make sense to me.”
The “De-Gleichschaltung” may be beginning, but it’s sure taking it’s time getting here en masse.
HOW DARE YOU!
"If you want to end it, then quit using it."
Senator Markwayne Mullin utterly demolishes smug eco-zealot's ill-informed crusade against plastics, in one of the most epic, one-sided verbal beatdowns yet witnessed.
"You can choose to not use plastic… If you believe it, then… pic.twitter.com/b9nWm2QuWt
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) February 17, 2024
FANI WILLIS IS REALLY CREATING MAYHEM AMID THE ATLANTA BAR: Bradley worried about losing law license by testifying.
Terrence Bradley says he’s concerned about losing his law license if he testifies about his former client, Nathan Wade. Bradley says the State Bar of Georgia told him that “any communications” he had with Wade could be covered by attorney-client privilege.
Merchant says Bradley can testify about his knowledge of Wade outside the divorce, such as what Bradley observed as Wade’s law partner. She says Wade waived certain attorney-client privilege when he acknowledged his relationship with Willis in court filings.
It’s a clown show all the way down.
CHARLES COOKE: On the Peculiar Coverage of the Kansas City Shooting.
That this was not a “mass shooting” in the way that that term is typically used, but was an argument between two illegally armed minors that turned violent. This isn’t pedantry; it matters. When determining what to do about crime, it is important to understand the nature of the crime in question. From what I can tell, the aim of the two alleged shooters was not to hurt or kill those around them; they just didn’t care if they did. That does not describe most “mass shooters.”
* * * * * * * *
Once again, the media is exhibiting a chronic lack of imagination in its coverage of gun-related crime, which is invariably marked out by a fanatical obsession with gun-control and a total lack of interest in anything else.
Read the whole thing.
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Washington State Democrats add ‘Hamas amendment’ to Holocaust education bill.
Earlier: The rise and rise of Holocaust envy: “Where once racists accused the Jews of inventing the Holocaust, now the demand is that the Jews share the Holocaust. Yes, the Jews can have remembrance of their genocide, says [Anshel Pfeffer of Haaretz,] but first they must agree to ‘share it’ with other victim groups.”
THE EROSION OF FINANCIAL PRIVACY. And every other kind.
DOJ SUES TENNESSEE OVER LAW INCREASING PENALTIES FOR ENGAGING IN PROSTITUTION WHILE KNOWINGLY HAVING HIV. I’m starting to think the Justice Department might have a different set of priorities than your average American might expect.
NOW OUT: Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life . #CommissionEarned I just read the book this week; it is good and makes some interesting points. One is that the labor participation rate for those 16-24 has decreased steadily. One reason is that student loans are now being used as a source of spending money and bill support in lieu of working; 30 percent of borrowers in 2011 thought this to be true. I guess after seeing how the government borrows like there is no tomorrow, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. And of course, with student loan forgiveness, this trend will get worse.
THIS IS WHY AMERICA IS COMING APART AT ITS SEAMS: An Axios analysis of Gen Z this morning prompts my latest PJ Media column.
Cheerios Chemically Castrating American Public With Impunity:
Hmmm, maybe there’s something to this after all. Exhibit 1, Your Honor:
I mean, if they messed with Cheerios, would you put it past Big Cereal to tamper with Wheaties? If they tell me Captain Crunch is the same, I may have to shoot myself.
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