GLOBAL COVERAGE IS COMING: Satellite operators join forces to chase direct-to-smartphone opportunity.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
February 12, 2024
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Rare Human Case of Bubonic Plague in Oregon Confirmed by Authorities.
ROB HENDERSON: America’s Lost Boys and Me. “Single parenthood appears to be especially detrimental for boys, while having married parents is particularly advantageous.”
THEY’RE JUST IMMIGRANTS SEEKING A BETTER LIFE, AND BRINGING DIVERSITY IN EXCHANGE: Alien invasion: Non-native earthworms threaten ecosystems.
LUXURY BELIEFS, LUXURY LIFESTYLES: Freddie DeBoer: Polyamory is a Luxury of the Affluent, Just Like Everything Else We Have and Do: “X works better for the most educated/accomplished” is just generically true.
That was true with drugs like LSD, heroin, and cocaine, too. Of course, “better” doesn’t mean “well.” But generally speaking the better-off have more reserves, financial and otherwise, to support them during risky behavior.
An alternative take: You Don’t Hate Polyamory, You Hate People Who Write Books.
Yesterday I criticized The Atlantic’s recent invective against polyamory (subscriber-only post, sorry). Today I want to zoom away from the specific bad arguments and examine the overall form of the article.
The overall form was: “I read a memoir about polyamory, everyone involved seemed awful and unhappy, and now I hate polyamorous people.” This is a common pattern. Sometimes, if someone’s very careful, they read three or four books about polyamory. Everyone in all the books is awful and unhappy. Then they conclude they hate polyamorous people.
But this is an unfair generalization. They should hate people who write books. . . .
I know many people in happy, successful, polyamorous relationships. None of them write advice books. If they did, they would say something vapid, like “Treat every day as a gift from God.”
The actual best-known polyamory advice book is More Than Two, by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert. A few years after it was written, Eve and three of Franklin’s other partners accused him of abuse, which he vehemently denied and turned back on her. Every so often I check to see how things are going, and one of them has come up with some new volley against the other.
In retrospect, I think it’s not surprising that the best-known relationship advice book was written by people in a terrible relationship. Terrible relationships have a way of making you overanalyze your relationship dynamics. They encourage you to come up with lots of strategies for dealing with conflict, given all the conflict you’re constantly getting into. They happen when you’re the sort of person who over-promises and under-delivers, which is also the kind of person who can write an exciting-sounding book shilling something.
Well, maybe you should just hate the kind of people who write books on relationships. Plus: “Not all memoirs are written by narcissists. Some are written by activists. This is not an improvement.”
And this sounds right: “I think this goes beyond polyamory. The people I know from various oft-discussed groups – transgender, super-religious, autistic, rich, etc – are all nicer and more normal than their public representatives would lead you to believe.”
WE MUST CLOSE THE GRENADE LAUNCHER GAP! Only One Country Fields A “Sniper Grenade Launcher.”
HMM: “Both women and men preferred lower-pitched voices for partners in long-term relationships or marriage. Additionally, the lowest-pitched male voices sounded more formidable, particularly to younger men, and older men tended to associate the lowest-pitched voices with higher prestige.”
I guess this is good. I was singing along at a birthday party a couple of weeks ago and a woman congratulated me on my beautiful, melodic bass voice, which was a surprise. I’ve always been more of a baritone.
TO BE FAIR, THEY GREW UP IN A HIGH-TRUST SOCIETY: Older adults rely more on trust in decision-making. It could open them up to scams.
I HAVE NOT BEEN OVERJOYED WITH RECENT PRODUCTS OF CHINESE MEDICAL RESEARCH: Chinese genetic study seeks to make generational medical discoveries.
NO MENTION OF IMMIGRATION IN THIS STORY: Measles and tuberculosis should be long-forgotten. Why are cases rising in the U.S.?
ATTACK AND DEFENSE: My latest Substack essay is on the prospects for a 10/7 attack on America, and what to do about them.
As always, if you like these essays, please sign up for a paid subscription.
HIGHER EDUCATION’S DIVERSITY PROBLEM: The Only Higher Ed Employee To Give $1,000 Or More To Trump’s 2024 Campaign: A Tax Professor.
SUPPOSE THAT JOE ISN’T ACTUALLY ALWAYS WRONG, BUT THAT’S THE WAY TO BET: IDF Rescues Two Hostages in City Biden Wants Israel to Leave Alone. “The ABC News report interestingly included Joe Biden’s warning to Israel not to go into Rafah, at least not without a ‘detailed plan’ on how to protect civilians. Biden and his team tried employing that inversion in Gaza City and Khan Younis as well, arguing that fighting a war that Hamas started was somehow de-legitimized by Hamas’ strategy of using civilians as human shields. This week, Biden all but demanded a halt in the IDF’s march on Hamas’ last significant Gaza stronghold.”
Neither our friends nor our enemies listen much to Joe anymore.
WE CAN HOPE. HECK, I HOPE IT COMES TO AMERICA. The Last Latin American Revolution: Javier Milei’s early success in Argentina is a harbinger of what may soon be coming to the rest of Latin America.
THE ENEMY WITHIN: Anti-Israel protesters take over library at Cornell, police called in.
There should be consequences for disruptive behavior. There would be if these were Trump supporters.
CONSEQUENCES MATTER: ANALYSIS: Eliminating failing grades incentivizes laziness.
DON SURBER: Let newspapers die: They dropped objectivity and with it credibility. “The total circulation of all newspapers in the United States is 20 million. That is one newspaper sold for every 16 people. Even if 3 people read each newspaper, that means more than 80% of the country does not read a newspaper. Just 14 years ago circulation was 45 million. . . . Total revenues are down from just under $50 billion in 2005 and 2006 to a little more than $20 billion today. On Thursday, Tucker Carlson released his interview with Putin. Within just a few hours, the interview attracted 100 million views. By Saturday night, it topped 185 million views — which is 7 times the combined circulation of every newspaper in America. . . . One reason newspapers are failing to maintain their circulation is their failure to maintain their credibility. Trust in all news organizations fell from 76% in 2016 to 58% in 2021. It is not that the media gets the story wrong; it is that the media seldom admits it was wrong.”
YEP, THEY JUST CAN’T COVER IT UP ANYMORE: Documented: Biden’s memory loss dates to 2015, 25th Amendment territory.
Flashback: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.
STACY MCCAIN: Joe Biden’s Punch Line Presidency. “As several commentators have noted, this finding — and the fact that Hur recommended no criminal charges, despite the clear evidence of Biden’s guilt — raises questions about the federal effort to prosecute former President Donald Trump for very similar offenses. When you consider the extent to which ‘get Trump’ has been the organizing principle of the Biden administration since Day One, this is a significant setback to that aspect of their agenda. But that wasn’t the worst of it. . . . That Biden has ‘diminished faculties and faulty memory’ is not really news to anyone who’s been paying attention, but having it stated so clearly in a Special Counsel’s report? ‘Republicans pounce!'”
He was diminished and faulty when he ran in 2020, they just covered it up. Now they’ve stopped, pretty much in unison across the entire establishment.
Flashback: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.
CLARICE FELDMAN: Mann v. Steyn, Free-Speech Travesty.