ROBIN HANSON: Beware Moral Fashion. Like regular fashion, it’s easier to follow it, then when fashions change to laugh at the old ones and say “times were different.”
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
June 1, 2024
ARNOLD KLING: Are Chatbots Dangerous for Teachers?
Personally, I think they can be a source of useful and amusing ideas, like this one from Google’s Gemini AI:
I mean, honestly, this is much better than the reality. Make it so!
READER BOOK PLUG: Reader William Stroock has a story in Hooves, Tracks and Sabers!: Tales of Alternate History. His story is Standoff at San Miguel, “in which a troop of US Cavalry Scouts tracks down Pancho Villa.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Fat Sex Therapist’ compares fitness trainers to Nazis, children’s dieting to sexual assault.
LAWPROF STEVEN CALABRESI: President Donald Trump’s Manhattan Convictions are Unconstitutional.
SCHEDULED FOR 12:25 PM EDT: Boeing will launch its 1st Starliner astronaut mission today after delays. Here’s how to watch it live online.
JOHN HINDERAKER: Another Officer Down. “One post-Floyd recruit was Jamal Mitchell. Mitchell joined the MPD a year and a half ago. Just days into his tenure as a police officer, he made headlines by saving an elderly couple from a burning building. Last night, he was murdered.”
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Poor economy shoves Biden reelection into loser category. “The public’s suffering from President Joe Biden’s inflation-plagued economy has sunk to the level that cost former President George H.W. Bush his reelection. Economic confidence under Biden is stumbling anew, and Gallup, which has studied the matter for decades, said it is down to levels seen in 1992, when Clinton adviser James Carville famously scribbled ‘The economy, stupid’ on a whiteboard.”
JESSE SINGAL: On New York University’s Utterly Cringeworthy Attempt To Get Protesters To “Educate Themselves.” “To a certain type of bland midwit, all political disagreement can be boiled down to a lack of education. Not on their part, of course — but rather on the part of their ideological adversaries.”
Educating people is supposed to be NYU’s job.
FLASHBACK: Marxists’ Apartment A Microcosm Of Why Marxism Doesn’t Work. “The lack of funds and the resulting scarcity breeds not only discontent but also corruption. Although collectivism only works when all parties contribute to the fullest extent, Foyle hid the existence of a $245 paycheck from roommates so he would not have to pay his back rent, in essence refusing to participate in the forced voluntary taxation that is key to socialism. Even worse, Dorff, who is entrusted with bill collection and payment, recently pocketed $30, a theft he claimed was ‘for the heating bill’ but was put toward buying drinks later that night.”
STALINIST SHOW TRIALS DON’T REQUIRE LOGIC: The Prosecution’s Story About Trump Featured Several Logically Impossible Claims: Whatever Trump did after the 2016 presidential election, it seems safe to say that it did not retroactively promote his victory.
A New York Times editorial concedes that “many experts” have “expressed skepticism about the significance of this case and its legal underpinnings, which employed an unusual legal theory to seek a felony charge for what is more commonly a misdemeanor.” Yet the Times also claims the jury found Trump “guilty of falsifying business records to prevent voters from learning about a sexual encounter that he believed would have been politically damaging.” How did records created in 2017 “prevent voters from learning” about the Daniels tryst before they cast their ballots the previous year?
Nor does the New York Times.
Related: It’s Time to Go After the Left More Ruthlessly — and Truthfully — Than Ever Before.
MATT TAIBBI: Trump and “Falsely”: In the wake of Donald Trump’s verdict, a questionable trope goes over the line. “Even opinions can be “false” now, and furthermore remarks can be so dangerous, they can’t even be shown. Experts: Trump Said Bad Thing We Won’t Publish is the standard.”
Well, if they published it, lots of people might agree with it.
May 31, 2024
OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.
SKYNET SMILES, OFFERS CANDY: Strange Discovery Suggests Children Trust Robots Over Humans.
YEP:
“If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books…
— Kerri Kupec Urbahn (@Kerri_Kupec) May 31, 2024
Related: Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is A Crime.
HMM: Statin Therapy Decreases Older Adults’ Risk of Death. “Statin therapy was defined as specific statin drugs, and outcomes included major CVDs, all-cause mortality, and adverse events. Follow-up was conducted until outcomes, death, loss to follow-up, or the end of the study. The data showed that in all age groups, initiating statin therapy was associated with a lower incidence of CVD and all-cause mortality, even among the older population aged 85 years or older. In addition, statin use did not increase the risk for adverse events, such as myopathies and liver dysfunction.”
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Dear Penny: Should I Work More to Support My Anti-Capitalist Boyfriend? “He’s also been railing against capitalism and work in general, which is fine in a political argument, but this is our reality and he needs to make peace with it. I want to build a life with him, but he’s talking about taking a year off of school now, and when I asked him what he would do with that time off, he said he might work, but he wasn’t sure. If this happens, I’m terrified I’ll be the only one earning money and having to complete my degree at the same time.”
And people say you don’t learn anything in college . . .
AN OFF-ROAD EV SEEMS LIKE A STRETCH WITH TODAY’S TECH: Jeep Wagoneer S EV Not Jeep-y Enough? Check Out the Off-Road Trailhawk Version.
OH, I HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA: What’s The Purpose Of Your Carry Pistol?
BYRON YORK: Trump verdict a triumph for election denial.
And election interference. If any other country were pursuing trumped up and obscure criminal charges against the leading opposition figure less than 6 months before an election, we’d be mocking them as a banana republic. Guess what? We’re a banana republic.
SEE HOW IT GOES: Doctors use transparent skull replacement to monitor brain health.
IT’S SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW AT 12:25 PM: NASA to stream coverage ahead of planned Boeing Starliner launch.