URLs du Jour

2018-05-17

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  • Proverbs 13:24 is a famous—albeit often misquoted—one:

    24 Whoever spares the rod hates their children,
        but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

    This is the NIV translation, our default; other, wimpier, translations leave out the explicit reference to the rod.


  • While I cheered the Green Light Free Speech Rating given to the University of New Hampshire by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, I was simultaneously wondering: "Wow, how did that happen?" The College Fix has details: Public university gets stellar free-speech rating by reining in its bias response team.

    “Conduct that is protected by the First Amendment is not actionable under law, or the UNH Student Code of Conduct.”

    This reining in of the bias response team at the University of New Hampshire helped the taxpayer-funded institution earn a “green light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

    The university’s policies have been judged to “nominally protect free speech” with the revision of the “bias incident protocol,” demonstration and posting regulations, the civility code and a residence hall policy, FIRE wrote in a blog post Monday.

    UNH has admirably talked the First Amendment talk; it is to be hoped they prove they can walk the walk as well.


  • A little bit of thought-control totalitarianism from Daniel DeNicola, professor and chair of philosophy at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania: You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want to.

    Do we have the right to believe whatever we want to believe? This supposed right is often claimed as the last resort of the wilfully ignorant, the person who is cornered by evidence and mounting opinion: ‘I believe climate change is a hoax whatever anyone else says, and I have a right to believe it!’ But is there such a right?

    Spoiler: Professor Dan concludes the answer is "no".

    Professor Dan does not venture much beyond that conclusion, but (for the rest of us) the interesting part is: once you've identified an individual with heretical, "dangerous", beliefs, what then? Presumably, since the victim has no right to such beliefs, anything is fair game: imprisonment, involuntary "therapy", execution?

    Non-professor Jonah Goldberg defends "the right to be wrong" here. Quote:

    People are growing intolerant of any dissent from their idea of what everyone should believe. Agree with me and you’re one of the good guys; disagree with me and you’re not just wrong, you’re my enemy, a heretic, a traitor, a bigot. Opportunists recognize that exacerbating this polarization redounds to their own benefit, because at least for now, doing so helps raise money, ratings, clicks, and poll numbers.

    We are a long way off from putting beliefs of the mind to the judgment of the sword, but that is the logical destination of the path we are on, because we have lost faith in the utility of upholding the right to be wrong.


  • Sarah Hoyt has a response to writers like Sarah MacLean who are … altering … their fiction in the Age of Trump: Note to Those Politicizing Fiction Against Trump: Shut Up and Write

    This is me groaning audibly. Look, guys, I’ll read just about anything. Any genre, or lack of genre.

    Let me tell you something. You know what traditional publishing isn’t short on? Leftist propaganda.

    Unless you're Ayn Rand—and sometimes even if you are Ayn Rand—putting political lectures in your fiction is, at best, a sure way to turn off readers.


  • Veronique de Rugy is a little too kind on Seattle when she discusses Seattle's Idiotic Tax on Amazon.

    The tyranny of local government was on full display this week. The culprits are some greedy members of the Seattle City Council. Backed by their union friends, they just voted to impose a "head tax" on large employers, such as Amazon and Starbucks. The real victims, of course, will be the companies' employees.

    Thanks to Seattle's many thriving businesses, its revenue base has been growing much faster than its population. Unfortunately, the City Council is doing what it does best and, rather than look into streamlining and cutting its ineffective spending programs in order to combat Seattle's homeless problem, is looking for fresh cash. Seeing as large companies have it, the council set out to take it.

    Today's progressives do not worry themselves with airy theories of tax fairness. Their underlying justification is

    1. I want money.
    2. You have money.
    3. Therefore, give me your money.


  • Dan Mitchell takes another Political Compass Test. And is slightly bemused at the "somewhat crazy" examples. (Was Benito Mussolini really "far right for economic policy"? No.)

    For what it's worth, my result is here. About the same as Dan's.


  • And are you in the mood for The 50 Funniest Jokes About All 50 States? From Reader's Digest? Well, OK. Here's the Granite State:

    The state motto is "Live Free or Die," which appears on license plates made by prisoners.

    Credited to "Jon Stewart on The Daily Show". Is it true? Yes. Funny? Well…

    New Hampshire is also mentioned in a couple of other jokes, and for what it's worth, I found this classic still amusing:

    After surveying property along the New Hampshire and Maine border, some engineers decided the boundaries needed to be changed. So they stopped to tell a farmer that he was no longer in Maine but in New Hampshire. "Good," said the farmer. "I couldn't take another one of those Maine winters."

    It may help if you imagine that punchline delivered in a broad Yankee accent.


Last Modified 2024-01-25 9:51 AM EDT