URLs du Jour

2018-01-13

■ Anybody want to bet whether Proverbs 16:5 will have something insightful to say about modern-day events? Let's see:

5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart.
    Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

To quote the last words of a book I've never read: "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

But I'm sure the Lord does not detest the proud-of-heart girl in today's Getty pic.


@JonahNRO's G-File is on Trump's "shithole" comments: Authentic Asininity. He disdains (of course) the arguments of both the Resistance and the Trumpkins. Here's the real issue:

The long-term threat to conservatism and, by extension, the GOP is profound. Young people — the largest voting bloc now — are utterly turned off to the Republican party. That doesn’t make them right, but that’s irrelevant. Their opinions are hardening every single day, even as old white people shuttle off this mortal coil.

I don't care much what happens to the Republican Party any more, except that in that it's supposed to be the go-to party where principled devotion to the Constitution, individual liberty, and free markets matter. Instead, it's now identified with Trumpism and casual bigotry.


■ At Reason, Christian Britschgi finds another know-nothing GOP state rep: Arizona Legislator Wants to Yank State Support From Groups That Don't Like 'Free Markets'.

This week, Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe (R – Flagstaff) introduced a bill that would designate "American free-market capitalism" the state's official "political-economic system", and declares the legislature's intent "that taxpayer dollars not be used to promote or to provide material support for any political-economic system that opposes the principles of free-market capitalism."

Among other criticisms, Britschgi makes the pointed query: "What free market group worth its salt would be accepting government support in the first place?"

But the more substantial criticism is: Why is Rep Thorpe doing this when he could be introducing legislation that would actually support principles of free-market capitalism?


■ Matt Labash, writing in the Weekly Standard reviews The Book That Ate Washington. The whole thing is good, but I thought this was very good:

Personally, I’ve enjoyed reading Wolff over the years. You can call him many things […], but never dull. I do not know Wolff nor can I vouch for his credibility. Though I should add that a mutual acquaintance of ours, after spotting an anecdote he’d casually tossed off to Wolff turn up in Fire and Fury, reported this to me of Wolff’s seemingly slack methodology: “[He got it] from me, which I got from a woman on the beach in Florida, who heard it in a carpool line. Literally. I had no idea he was including it. That guy is a serious bullshit artist. Wow.”

I.e., an historian uniquely qualified to report on the Trump Administration.


■ Megan McArdle comments on the ideological skirmishes out west: Silicon Valley Will Pay the Price for Its Lefty Leanings. Can you spell b-o-y-c-o-t-t?

To be sure, boycotts are rarely all that effective. But most boycotts involve minor matters of policy. This is about tribal identity. Google fired a conservative for writing a rather anodyne memo. If it turns out that the company was at the same time tolerating truly vicious conservative bashing in its internal systems—well, no one wants to give their hard-earned money to people or companies that are violently bigoted against them.

Perhaps even more importantly, conservatives vote. They elect legislators and public officials whose actions can deeply affect Google’s business. In general, Google has gotten much friendlier treatment from American regulators than from the EU or China. But American government is currently heavily dominated by Republicans who are unlikely to want to be nice to a powerful corporation whose internal communications suggest that it views advancing a progressive agenda, and bashing conservatives, as part of its corporate mission.

And of course, there's this other bit of evidence that Google does see conservative-bashing as part of its corporate mission…


■ The Daily Caller is rightfully steamed about Google's new "Reviewed Claims" feature, deployed sloppily and asymmetrically against conservative sites. They report: Washington Post: We Didn’t Attack The Daily Caller, and Don’t Know Why Google Is.

Google’s relatively new “fact check” feature proves there’s something fundamentally wrong with at least some of its highly influential algorithms, after an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation found that the widget is both blatantly biased and tremendously faulty.

For example, "reviewed claims" that the reviewed source never made. And, to support that judgment, quoting "fact-checkers" that never mention the reviewed source.

I can't wait to ride in a car that's driven by Google-designed "algorithms". Just let me put on my crash helmet first, and arm the ejection seat.


■ Something called the "Science Channel" has a show called "How the Universe Works", narrated by Mike Rowe. One Rebecca Bright, noting some non-Progressive things Mike Rowe has uttered in other venues, demanded: "Cancel this fools [sic] contract and get any of your scientists so often on the show to narrate it."

And Mike Rowe responded to Ms. Bright. And it is a thing of beauty. Just one paragraph:

Anyway, Rebecca, my beef with your post comes down to this - if you go to my boss and ask her to fire me because you can’t stand the sound of my voice, I get it. Narrators with unpleasant voices should probably look for other work anyway, and if enough people share your view, no hard feelings - I’ll make room for Morgan. But if you’re trying to get me fired simply because you don’t like my worldview, well then, I’m going to fight back. Partly because I like my job, and partly because you’re wrong about your assumptions, but mostly because your tactics typify a toxic blend of laziness and group-think that are all too common today – a hot mess of hashtags and intolerance that deepen the chasm currently dividing our country.

Let me make explicit what I usually only imply in these posts: Read The Whole Thing.


■ I've been linking to the Babylon Bee a lot. Because they're funny. And, in good fun: Republican Party Publishes New, Improved Edition Of Jesus’s Beatitudes. Which beginneth:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down, placing his AR-15 rifle on a rock nearby. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He said:

Blessed are the corporations, for they shall receive corporate welfare at the expense of the taxpayers.

Blessed are those who are triggered over the slightest criticism of President Trump, for they shall be comforted by Fox News.

And more. I'm pretty sure even Paul Ryan would laugh.