Ok. Back to it, after all, I haven’t stopped reading and saving links, just reporting them. So, what’s in the backlog.

1. Here’s a x-mas suggestion for the old-calendar practitioners who haven’t gotten anything yet. (For those who don’t know, much of the Easter Orthodox are still on the Julian calendar 13 days later than the Gregorian until the end of the century. This is why the Orthodox Easter/Pascha is so wildly different from the West, as both are based on the full moon after the spring equinox, but … when that equinox is changes by 13 days).
2. Mr Degrasse’s 8 “books everyone should read“. Yikes.
3. I haven’t a clue whether Mr Schraub disapproves or approves but, geesh, anyone who holds Israel and ISIS as morally equivalent is ethically blind and should be regarded functionally as a psychopath.
4. Here is another equivalence, possibly slightly less morally suspect.
5. Yet again, repeat ad infintum, the argument against torture is not gotten via consequentialism.
6. I’m not up to speed on hate speech and the legal status of same, but as a layperson one would be lead to suspect that “hate speech” should involve in some way, you know, actual hate or even mild dislike.
7. Speaking of which, there are plenty of liberals who clearly hate conservatives. I wonder if their hate-speech microscope will be turned on themselves in this regard?
8. Union labor and why it sucks so often.
9. Very cool.
10. Graft and equalite, liberte, fraternite (and buckets of blood).
11. A gun (which is sort of on my wish-I-had-one list)

One reflection here. For myself, I think a more succinct way to put it is, the meaning of Christmas is Easter and the Resurrection.

So, Dr Gruber, not a politician. Ya think? This gets much mileage in the press and the liberal politicians are going distance themselves from him as if he he were scalding acid. Abortion as eugenics, to be applied to minorities, hmm. That’s palatable, albeit Ms Sanger was in the camp too I think. Regarding Mr Gruber, the outrage is confusing. I mean, here is a guy who admits selling Obamacare on falsehoods. But I mean, why is the right acting all put out? Those lies were not believed by the right, but by the left. Why is the left not outraged that they were sold a bill of goods? Politics remains very confusing for me.

Some IQ specialist thinks he has evidence that intelligence is not nuture but nature, which will alas irk the (mostly racist) race theorists no end (see this too). So, if it comes out that intelligence (and therefore success in school) are due to nature not nurture, can we stop with the stupidly high inheritance taxes that the left thinks are necessary to stop the “rich” from having unfair advantages?

I wonder what this sort of graph but instead for the WWII Germany/Soviet Eastern front wars would look like. It would be appalling I think. Appropos of that and in the discussion which mention Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo. But like most of the Western canonical history forget that Russian led armies sacked Paris in 1814. The same poster (rightly) mocks those college students of today who are so so so ignorant of history it seems.

Regarding Ms Feinstein and her “release” of CIA investigations on torture. The left’s thesis (which is badly flawed) is (a suggested thesis of her report) is that torture doesn’t work, ergo we shouldn’t do it. Actually historically it seems very very likely that when done efficiently with an understanding of what you are up to, it works and works very well. See Mr Fernandez excellent book  No Way In (or read about the Gestapo and well, anywhere they operated). Look. Every single time a resistance cell loses a member to the torture using establishment everyone has to find a new safe houses, move and so on. Why? This wouldn’t be so if torture was ineffective. But. It is. The argument against torture is not that it isn’t effective or cost effective but that is immoral. It is wrong. That is the only argument needed or which should be used against it.

Mr Schraub has some silly things to say on the topic, some remarks on that include (below the fold ’cause it’s long): Read the rest of this entry

So, Mr Obama is going to offer his “executive order” on immigration tonight. Constitutional scholars are going to offer their opinions. But I’m going to give you a homework assignment, in two parts no less.

Part 1. Imagine a Democrat held Senate/House and a GOP conservative President. Craft what you might see as an abortion executive order that would elicit the same <em>Constitutional</em> objections regarding balance of powers between Congress and Executive as are debated by, say, the Volokh lawyers in the wake of Obama’s immigration order.

Part 2. If you honestly did the homework of part one, explain why (if GOP) you support the part 1 proposal but object to Mr Obama’s proposal or, if a Democrat why you support Mr Obama but reject the GOP proposal.

(note: if you are “consistent” and oppose/support both, this is probably a sign you didn’t honestly complete part 1).

Ms Althouse has some interesting remarks regarding this kerfuffle (I’m going to assume those readers aren’t hiding under baskets and know the actual subject of this particular kerfuffle, which dealt with particular details on an engineer’s shirt during a press release after the successful landing of a satellite on a comet). Mr Reynolds (Instapundit) points that the landing on a comet by a satellite is more important than what a person wears and the “feminists” (or some feminists) were hijacking this event. Ms Althouse in an attempt to “be provocative” suggests:

And I will be more provocative: In the broad span of human culture, fashion is more important than space travel.

She is in some ways correct, in other ways not. I will return her provocative remark by noting that which is important about fashion, is exactly the same as what is important about “space travel” or landing on comets. What is important about fashion is man’s search for beauty. This is the central search in science, space travel, and much of engineering. The search for a beautiful solution is not far adrift from the cathedral (architectural beauty) or fashion (beatiful people/clothing). Beautiful clothes and in general the quest for beauty is precisely what was achieved in a different field (aerospace engineering) as what is sought (and I’d offer rarely found) on the fashion runway. Fashion is not “more important” than space travel. Landing spacecraft on comets is the height of fashion for those who don’t do color and form, but instead do maths.

And I disagree that wearing that shirt is “an attack on feminism”. Feminism celebrates such displays, witness vagina displays, slut walks &c. I’ll also disagree with Ms Althouse that he intentionally “made a statement” by wearing that shirt. More likely, given the engineering culture, is that is was the top “button down” (read as ‘fancy’) shirt in his drawer or closet.

Two films recently have been very similar (and this afternoon I saw the second, even though it’s been out for some time). Elysium and In Time are very similar. Both feature a totalitarian control on magically efficient health care. In both access to this is highly restricted. In both of them health (or immortality) access is highly restricted. Why? Population pressure is explicitly mentioned on one, but it is not clear that this is the problem they might pretend. As an extreme, Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time are all immortal by a technology long lost and long forgotten. Our hero in that story is unusual, he’s the only person alive who was “born”.   Read the rest of this entry

Ms Clinton trumps everyone on the stupid-meter.

If there is any justice, listen to Ms Clinton. This has to be one of the top 10 stupidest things said by a politician, “business doesn’t create jobs”. Honey, the only thing creating jobs are businesses.

And she doubles down with “trickle down doesn’t work”. Uhm, “trickle down” is Democrat slang for growth. And if you think growth doesn’t help, then why aren’t we all stone age subsistence farmers? Oh, we’re doing quite a bit better. Why? Hmm, that would be that growth thing.

If anyone votes for her now, they’re deluded.

Change of plans. I was going to write about Mr Yannaras next essay. But on reflection I ended my remarks on his essay prematurely last night. What were some of the points he made (discussion below the fold): Read the rest of this entry

At long last, more links.

1. More CO2.
2. Yikes.
3. I have to say, vis a vis corn, that comparing corn grits and cream of wheat and how hungry I am four hours later in the morning, corn beats wheat hands down.
4. The minority leader and doing self parody right. Man, she has teh stupid in buckets, eh?
5. Some politicians around the globe, however, are make Ms Pelosi look less worse.
6. Neat interior design.
7. Tranadol found in trees, or more precisely, not found in trees. Interesting though.
8. ‘cuse me, any “theory of tattoos” has to include “alcohol was involved in the decision making”.
9. Heh.
10. On banning prayer at games. Reminds me of the Soviet era story of the pols proclaiming to the crowd how religion in the USSR was dead and gone … somebody in the crowd shouted “Christ is Risen” and the whole crowd responded back automatically “He is Risen Indeed”.
11. Looking into the near future crystal ball, optimistically.
12. Relics of the Cross.

Whoo.

1. Ms Bathory was close.
2. Human’s are nothing if not adaptable.
3. Remembering 9/11 and something about it you probably didn’t know.
4. Max-Sec in the deep south.
5. Yikes.
6. More yikes.
7. Constitutional authority … but don’t worry, Mr Yoo is for it.
8. Unintended consequence (but … easily predicted consequences should not be unintentional. So is it an intentional consequence then?)
9. The wrong air force.
10. Mr Kerry, “if you don’t study” … comes back to haunt, eh?
11. Let’s see, it is “regrettable” that a guy who thinks it OK to offer that the Israeli Prime minister would wear the teeth of Palestinian children publicly doesn’t get tenure … Hmmm. What’d that site offer on various conservative remarks that lost people jobs or positions?
12. Incoherence from the left, noted.
13. We’re waiting for the really really cool lightning bolt.
14. Liberal much? Geesh. So, do you think that next week they write an essay comparing Mr Obama to Joseph Kony? ‘Tis about as logical and as outrageous.

Yet another hotel.

1. Some theology.
2. Some things the police has for which they have no reasonable need.
3. Some history if you follow the linked link.
4. Well, TR said (I think) “walk softly and carry a big stick.” Our knucklehead in chief has a variant of that phrase, which alas, is stickless.
5. More here.
6. Some jokes all with the same punch line.
7. Crime and punishment.
8. Global warming.
9. Cool. (probably literally as well)
10. Nature’s beauty (and the beast).

Good, err, day.

1. A post sort of against profiling. Profiling is racist when the criteria chosen are inappropriate. if race is a factor predictive of crime then race is not an inappropriate criteria. In setting a defensive line, you put your forces where the bulk of the attacks are expected. This isn’t “profiling”.
2. Rape culture.
3. Scraping the ugly barnacles from the underside of civilization as a job.
4. The prior reality is why “slower to draw” is a death sentence for many.
5. Fun and snow.
6. Somebody fulfilled their photographic bucket list.
7. Government waste examined.
8. ‘gainst mines and IEDs … a tool.
9. The constitutional right to be an ass. Wonder if the left would be defending that U of I Urbana professor if he wore that in public (and not at work).
10. Apparently 83% of American’s are out of their freaking minds. Or the poll is just another damn cricket race. I’d rather the law went the other way.
11. Embrace your coming disrespectability. There’s even a beatitude about that.

G’day, hump day (of my 15 day workweek) is over.

1. More grist for the Ferguson discussion.
2. Here too.
3. Some silliness. Signs like this are pertinent, when people who accidentally do this roam the earth.
4. Film.
5. I’d go with #10, #9 and #1.
6. Some basic points in theology which everyone should agree, here and here … but a whole lot of people get stuck on them.
7. Piketty points.
8. Confused about the outrage. So ‘splain it for us, eh?
9. Well, you always have the two choices, are they stupid or evil?
10. I don’t see what’s wrong with being liked because you are smart. Do you?
11. Very cool.

Travel travel.

1. So. I sorta missed a lot of Ferguson kerfuffle. Aside from the “we’re angry, scared, and affronted … therefore let’s loot lots of innocent bystanders shops” logic fail. Very few facts are out so most noise and nonsense seems to me to be just that. This however, may give some useful information going forward.
2. In the context of Ferguson, liberals still striving to keep the black man down.
3. Of course, she’s waiting for the GOP field to flesh out. (or not)
4. Mr Perry was indicted apparently. So, if the GOP was not behind the indictment … explain why since everyone (pundits and others) “knows” that an impeachment of Mr Obama would (a) not lead to a conviction and (b) aid the Democrats in 2014 midterms, why do the similar (presumably Democrats) think that a weak indictment of Mr Perry which (a) would not lead to conviction and why the don’t think the “b” supposition is also not true.
5. The wisdom of our press.
6. An answer to the eagles in book one LOTR question.
7. I ordered the book … (see item 2 above … alongside the why do liberals hate Asians?)
8. Well, guesses 1-10 are wrong, and likely somewhat bigoted. The right answer is “one who forgets (a) “judge not lest you be judged” and from which follows the question who is the righteous judge, to which we know the answer.
9. The greatest sentence? The Orthodox Christian answer would be the Jesus Prayer. A physicist would say Emmy Noether’s theorem.
10. Drones on the move.