COLLUSION: Chinese Surveillance Giant Complicit in Uyghur Genocide Joins UN ‘Sustainability Initiative’: UN Global Compact calls on members to ‘make sure’ they are ‘not complicit in human rights abuses.’ At least, not unless it pays well.

HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS?

The fuck?
I thought this was a parody account at first. https://t.co/iXkc31yFRF

— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) February 12, 2024

Reality being confusable with parody is a constant problem of the current era. And of the current administration.

What this is meant to distract from: Biden Refuses to Take Cognitive Test at His Annual Physical.

“HUMANITARIAN CONCERNS” ARE ALWAYS JUST A SMOKESCREEN FOR THESE PEOPLE: When Hating Israel is Your Priority: The loudest voices bemoaning Palestinian suffering decline to call on Hamas to release the hostages and surrender.

GOOD: Amici Support NCLA’s Stance at Supreme Court in Major Social Media Censorship Injunction Case. “Forty-five Members of Congress, 16 states, state legislators, former government officials, journalists, attorneys, media personalities, academics, activist groups and research organizations have filed 27 amici curiae briefs supporting the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s position in Murthy v. Missouri against government-directed censorship. NCLA is asking the Supreme Court to uphold a preliminary injunction granted by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that bars White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Surgeon General’s office officials from significantly encouraging social media platforms to censor lawful speech. The Circuit court upheld key components of a preliminary injunction order issued by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who described the Administration’s scheme as ‘arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history’ and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.'”

Reminder/Disclosure: I’m on the advisory board of the NCLA.

BURIED, LIKE AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Where Are All the Headlines When ‘Free Palestine’ Is On a Shooter’s Assault Weapon?

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: The election was rigged. Biden is incompetent. Time for consequences.

AMERICANS WILL USE ANY UNIT OF MEASURE TO AVOID THE METRIC SYSTEM: Corgi-sized meteor as heavy as 4 baby elephants hit Texas – NASA.

OPEN THREAD: Don’t be cruel.

GLOBAL COVERAGE IS COMING: Satellite operators join forces to chase direct-to-smartphone opportunity.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Rare Human Case of Bubonic Plague in Oregon Confirmed by Authorities.

MICROBIOME NEWS: The Invisible Defense: Gut Bacteria’s Surprising Role in Combating Flu and COVID-19.

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.?

BRYAN CAPLAN: What if the main economic return of college is marriage to another high earner?

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.

“FOLLOW THE SCIENCE:” UCLA medical school assignments call for abolition of borders, says crisis ‘imagined:’ The required readings advocated for ‘no borders’ policies.

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.