URLs du Jour

2018-03-02

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  • The Proverbialist remembers: "Hey, I haven't mentioned sluggards recently. Man, I hate those guys! Let me write down Proverbs 15:19…"

    19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns,
        but the path of the upright is a highway.

    Bible Gateway's keyword search tells us that there are 14 occurrences of "sluggard" in the Bible, and they are all in Proverbs. No guarantees about getting to them all.


  • The University Near Here can keep a secret when it wants to: UNH refusing to release the names of finalists for president. And this is irking some outside agitators:

    Leaders of the Seacoast National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union are demanding more transparency in the search for UNH’s next president.

    On Monday, it was announced that the presidential search committee had selected finalists to be interviewed by the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees.

    That committee will make the final hiring decision.

    The NAACP and ACLU want to ensure the new guy ticks off all the Progressive boxes for "diversity". Their statement is here. John Small, Chair of both the Board of Trustees and the search committe makes his argument for secrecy here. We link, you decide.

    Disclaimer: Pun Son is on the search committee. I can assure you that he's not blabbing anything to anyone, including Mom and Dad.


  • On the national front, Reason's Alec Ward tells us that Ben Carson Spent $31K on a Dining Table, and 5 Other Times Trump Cabinet Members Wasted Your Money.

    On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials spent $31,561 on a custom hardwood dining table and chairs for Secretary Ben Carson's personal offices, violating a department policy capping office redecoration expenses at $5,000.

    A career agency employee alleged she was demoted from a high-level position within HUD after she repeatedly refused to approve expensive office redecoration plans being pushed by Carson's wife, Candy. A department spokesman told reporters that Carson was not aware of the purchase, but did not believe the price was too high, and would not be returning the table.

    Yes, one of those Deep State Swamp Dwellers actually tried to save you some money, taxpayer. Other money-wasters: Steve Mnuchin [Treasury]; Ryan Zinke [Interior]; David Shulkin [VA]; Scott Pruitt [EPA]; Tom Price [ex-HHS].


  • I bet you've wondered: Is Trump's big stupid mouth a real problem? Fortunately, Patterico provides the answer at RedState: Yes, Trump’s Big Stupid Mouth Is A Real Problem.

    Let’s review the bidding. Trump has said so many crazy things in the last 24 hours, a writer doesn’t even know where to start.

    But start he does. Pick the quote that most offends you; for me it's his accusation that Senator Pat Toomey is "afraid of the NRA" for not falling in line with some gun-controller hysterical talking point.

    But there's more.


  • At NR, Veronique de Rugy discovers: The Swamp Is Alive! It Is Alive!

    The beauty of the modern age is that you can just turn on your TV and witness live how cronyism works.

    Just a few hours ago, President Trump hosted a “listening session” with steel and aluminum executives, whom he had summoned to the White House. Right there, on live TV, we witnessed these CEOs pleading for government support that will inevitably result in higher prices for consumers of steel and aluminum. And, as we all sat there, stunned, we watched the president grant their demand and make policy on live TV.

    Who's being protected by protectionism? The answer is: "Almost certainly not you."


  • At Reason, Steven Greenhut deals with a topic I've long found of interest: Are Health Advocates Finally Wising Up About the Nature of Risk?

    It's a fascinating topic. Every year, the Isle of Man—a self-governing British dependency in the Irish Sea—hosts a motorcycle race that zooms through the island's gnarled, twisting roadways. Competitors in the Tourist Trophy are routinely killed, with the total death count on the Snaefell Mountain Course hitting 255. It's amazing reading accounts of this risky contest.

    I doubt that Americans would tolerate such a dangerous spectacle. But we do accept everyday activities that have a high body count. Nearly 89 Americans die each day in car crashes. [2019-05-16 Update: Broken link fixed. In 2017, the US fatality rate was slightly north of 100/day. Thanks to Tony Arevalo who suggests his own infographic here.] And 13 motorcyclists are killed in the U.S. daily on top of that, but risks for bikers are far higher when one factors in vehicle-miles traveled. Motorcyclists account for only 0.6 percent of the miles traveled yet riders account for 21 percent of all vehicle fatalities, according to the National Motorcycle Institute. Bikers are 38 times more likely to die in an accident than people in cars.

    And you can engage in risky behavior just walking around. See the recent report of record-high pedestrian fatalities. (But maybe that's due to weed.)

    Anyway: Mr. Greenhut goes on to make the point about advocates "wising up" to the fact that just about any substitute nicotine delivery system is less risky than combustible cigarettes. More generally, though, policymakers need to come to grips with the fact that there's a wide range of risk tolerance in the adult populace. In a free country, how do you deal with that?


  • Facebook is stupid, part 1249: Facebook Threatens Satire Site Babylon Bee over CNN Story That Snopes Rated 'False'

    Christian satire site The Babylon Bee received a terse warning from Facebook this week after the "independent fact-checkers" at Snopes reported that one of the site's humor articles was "false."

    Adam Ford, who runs The Babylon Bee, was warned by Facebook that a recent satire article about CNN "contains information disputed by (Snopes.com) an independent fact checker." Repeat offenders, Ford was told, "will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertized [sic] removed."

    Pun Salad links to Babylon Bee a lot, but neither I, nor, I assume, any reader would mistake their hilarious articles as containing "facts" ripe for "checking".

    Nevertheless, here's the article: CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication.

    In order to aid the news station in preparing stories for consumption, popular news media organization CNN purchased an industrial-sized washing machine to help its journalists and news anchors spin the news before publication.

    The custom-made device allows CNN reporters to load just the facts of a given issue, turn a dial to “spin cycle,” and within five minutes, receive a nearly unrecognizable version of the story that’s been spun to fit with the news station’s agenda.

    And, yes, here's the Snopes "debunking".

    Although it should have been obvious that the Babylon Bee piece was just a spoof of the ongoing political brouhaha over alleged news media “bias” and “fake news,” some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally. But the site’s footer gives away the Babylon Bee’s nature by describing it as “Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire,” and the site has been responsible for a number of other (usually religious-themed) spoofs that have been mistaken for real news articles.

    Wouldn't it be better if "some readers" were simply encouraged to be less stupid?

    But I can't help but wonder if "some readers", dismayed at the Bee's conservative slant, intentionally put the Snopes/Facebook wheels in motion to achieve the desired threatening result?


  • And finally, a nice article in the Laconia Daily Sun about retired Brigadier General Donald Bolduc.

    His company commander discouraged him from leaving military service and entering a civilian law enforcement career, telling him, “I really see you as a sergeant major. I just don’t think you’re going to be successful as a police officer.”

    “I took that as a challenge, and as a compliment, because all of the officers in my company were West Point, except for one, and that’s the one everybody liked. ... I decided to go active duty. I’m very proud that I’m from New Hampshire, the Live Free or Die state, from Laconia, the son of a farmer, grandson of a farmer, went to a small school, learned small community values, learned good ethics, learned to be a God-fearing man, learned that no one is going to give you anything for free and, if they do, you should be suspect of it. While the odds were against me to make general officer, I will do that, but I didn’t do that without the help of many, many people.”

    Good for him.


Last Modified 2024-01-25 10:10 AM EDT