URLs du Jour

2018-02-15

Code City, Panel 8

■ More Proverbial oral metaphors in Proverbs 15:4:

4 The soothing tongue is a tree of life,
    but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

I know the Bible, especially Proverbs, is supposed to contain divinely-inspired wisdom. But verses like these are bromides any random idiot could write.


■ Steven Pinker has a new book out, title Enlightenment Now, and I'm a fan, probably gonna buy it. But I wonder if you can't read most of it by jumping from publication to publication for articles adapted from the text. (Commercialism: if you buy Pinker's book via this link, I get a cut! Even better: buy it and send it to me as a gift! Shipping address here!)

Anyway, here's a good excerpt at the Chronicles of Higher Education: The Intellectual War on Science

The highbrow war on science continues to this day, with flak not just from fossil-fuel-funded politicians and religious fundamentalists but also from our most adored intellectuals and in our most august institutions of higher learning. Magazines that are ostensibly dedicated to ideas confine themselves to those arising in politics and the arts, with scant attention to new ideas emerging from science, with the exception of politicized issues like climate change (and regular attacks on a sin called "scientism"). Just as pernicious is the treatment of science in the liberal-arts curricula of many universities. Students can graduate with only a trifling exposure to science, and what they do learn is often designed to poison them against it.

A wide-ranging, somewhat infuriating, informative article. Recommended.


■ What does Trump's new budget plan prove? Veronique de Rugy at Reason answers: Trump’s New Budget Plan Proves He Won’t Even Pretend to Care About the Debt.

Presidential budgets are usually declared dead soon after their release. President Trump's budget for FY2019, however, was dead before it even arrived. It was doomed by the horrendous budget deal that was made by congressional Republicans and Democrats—and then signed by Mr. Trump himself. Even still, the budget is yet another sign of how little this administration cares about maintaining the barest pretense of fiscal responsibility.

Veronique finds that even with the Rosy Fiscal Scenarios typical of budget projections, the administration couldn't hide the vast oceans of red ink that will be needed for the upcoming deficits.


■ 'Tis the season, apparently, for Progressive nanny statists to come out and nag. My Google LFOD alert chimed for a Concord Monitor column penned by one Nick Perencevich that managed to be childish and ghoulish: If you skip the helmet, give an organ.

I would hope that those individuals who take the risk of not protecting themselves with a belt or helmet would at least carry an organ donor card in their wallet and also inform their families that they are willing to be an organ donor. It would be great if those who take “Live Free or Die” literally in their seat belt and/or helmet choice could at least do something good for those in need or an organ.

Possibly, Rep. Dan Haynes of Merrimack, who is quoted in the editorial as being strongly against the seat belt law, would consider passing a law saying that individuals dying from the lack of a seat belt or helmet would automatically become an organ donor no matter what is in their wallet.

It has been observed that Progressive totalitarians view individuals as, essentially, the property of the State. Perencevich's proposal doesn't do anything to disconfirm that observation.


■ But that's not all! Another Progressive Nanny, state rep Timothy Horrigan (D-Durham, of course) has proposed another bit of legislation designed to shove people around "for their own good": Soda on children's menus could fizz out in New Hampshire

Fewer children will wash down their chicken fingers and fries with soda if a bill limiting beverage choices for restaurant children's meals gets through the New Hampshire Legislature.

The bill would apply to restaurants that serve children's meals that bundle together food and a beverage for one price. Drinks served with such meals would be limited to milk, 100 percent juice or juice combined with water, plain water, or flavored water with no sweeteners. Customers still could purchase soda or other sugary drinks on the side.

Tim has, no doubt, witnessed Other Peoples' Children consuming Too Much Sugar right out in public! This must be stopped!

One of the bill's sponsors told a House committee Wednesday he realizes opponents will portray it as a move toward a "nanny state." But he took a different view.

"A nanny is a person who cares for, protects and teaches small children, so being a nanny is not necessarily entirely a bad thing," said Democratic Rep. Timothy Horrigan. "If this bill is passed, children will be protected from the unhealthy effects of artificial sweeteners and excessive sugars, and they will learn to develop healthier dietary habits.

Tim embraces his nannihood, so a small brownie point—that brownie made without sugar or artificial sweetners—for him.

At a Friendly's restaurant in Concord — where the beverages offered with children's meals include soda topped with candy — Jim Foley was having dinner with two of his grandchildren Monday. He wasn't a fan of the proposed restrictions.

"Where do we live?" he said, in a nod to New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die" motto. "It should be the parent's choice."

Gosh, leaving dietary choices up to parents? Sounds dangerous!


■ And the Babylon Bee reports the insights of "local Christian man Clay Bernard": ‘Theology Doesn’t Matter,’ Says Man In Bold Theological Statement.

At publishing time, Bernard had declared no one could ever be absolutely sure about anything, a fact about which he was absolutely sure.

No further comment needed.


Last Modified 2018-12-27 4:41 PM EDT