URLs du Jour

2022-08-25

[Poop]

  • Pictorially, Mr. Ramirez is on target, as usual. But we have words, too. Oh, so many words. Here are a few from Charles C. W. Cooke: Biden’s Student-Debt Bonfire Is a Classist Message to the Uncredentialed: Screw ’Em.

    It seems so arbitrary. Why does Biden not want to do the same thing for loans on trucks owned by plumbers? Why not for mortgages — which, given how heavily it subsidizes them, the federal government clearly thinks are worthwhile? Why not for credit cards or auto payments or mom-and-pop credit lines? The answer, I’m afraid to say, is disgustingly classist: Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are better than everyone else. Because Joe Biden and his party believe that college students are of a finer cut. Because Joe Biden and his party prefer college students to you, and they think that those students ought to be rewarded for that by being handed enormous gobs of your money.

    That's just a slice out of the middle of prime-cut red meat. I hope you do whatever's necessary to Read The Whole Damn Thing, because it's classic.

    Other commentary, excerpt-free, you can get the gist from the headlines:

    Personal disclosure: I had a small student loan about fifty years ago; I paid it back about forty years ago, when I was (relatively) poor. My kids, thanks to their hard-working parents and their own wise choices, escaped from higher education debt-free.

    And now we're all on the hook for the imprudent choices of others, thanks to Wheezy Joe and his enablers like Maggie Hassan.


  • Let's not let Republicans go unbashed today. Jacob Sullum notes the unconstitutional antics of someone who will (probably) be asking for my vote in few months: Ron DeSantis Wants To Edit the First Amendment.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading presidential contender, is skilled at appealing to Republicans who resent the censorious self-righteousness of woke progressives. But instead of defending free inquiry and open debate, DeSantis seems bent on fighting intolerance with intolerance.

    When he signed the Individual Freedom Act (IFA) last April, DeSantis bragged that it would "prevent discriminatory instruction in the workplace," striking a blow against "the far-left woke agenda." But as a federal judge explained last week, the law's restrictions on employee training blatantly violate the First Amendment.

    The IFA was enjoined by a U.S. District Judge who (whatever his other flaws) can read the First Amendment.


  • I'm not deranged. My mother had me tested. Jeff Maurer takes a bold stand: (Fill In the Blank) Derangement Syndrome is Bad.

    Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. I spent Trump’s presidency writing for a late night show in New York; TDS ripped through my community like AIDS went through the bathhouse scene in the ‘80s. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, obsessive, unfunny, self-serious, dragging themselves through the streets of Brooklyn at dawn looking for a Trump tweet to stoke their outrage. And I was arguably one of them (except for the “best minds” part).

    Wokeness Derangement Syndrome is starting to look just as real. More than a few critics of wokeness (or “left illiberalism”, if you want to be insufferable) have gone off the deep end. As with Trump, the concerns are real. But as with Trump, those concerns seem to make some people’s brains unable to process any other information. I think that for every new example of lefty overreach that enters Jordan Peterson’s brain, some cognitive function gets pushed out. I’m worried that one day Peterson will be driving his car, news of some stupid AOC tweet will come on the radio, and he’ll spontaneously forget how to drive.

    Maurer is mildly leftist, but still very funny and honest. Later on, he espouses the classic stationary banditry theory of the state:

    Let’s back all the way up: Why do we even have governments? To issue stamps and declare a national bird, sure. But what else? Their main function is to save us from chaos. When we were living in societies where the strong preyed on the weak, we sought out strongmen who would provide a security-for-fealty arrangement. And sure: The strongman would probably murder you and take your stuff, but that beats having bandits take your stuff and murder you. That’s what constituted choice back then: The ability to choose who would turn you into a corpse and rummage through your pockets.

    That's P. J. O'Rourke-level analysis right there.

    (No, my mother didn't have me tested, but I've always chuckled at the line.)


  • And in more-local news… the AntiPlanner looks at perhaps the only Boston institution doing worse than this year's Red Sox: the MBTA Crashes and Burns.

    The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is crashing and burning, sometimes literally. An Orange line train caught fire a few weeks ago. A Red Line train ran away out of control. The Orange line and parts of the Green line are in such bad shape that they have been shut down at least until September.

    The situation is so bad that various think tanks have proposed putting the agency in receivership, which would mean taking control from its highly politicized board of directors. At least one member of Congress from Massachusetts agrees, saying that the federal government should take control. But it’s not clear that federal oversight of DC’s Metro system did much to solve that system’s safety problems a few years ago.

    As I noted in the comments: Here in New Hampshire, we are on “track” (heh) to get 30 miles of commuter rail up from Lowell MA to Manchester. To be run by the MBTA. What could go wrong?


  • I want one. No, I don't need it for anything.

    In fact, it would be totally impractical.

    And, yes dear, it would probably be insanely expensive.

    But it would be so cool to have a Jetson ONE.

    So much better than MBTA-run commuter rail.


Last Modified 2024-01-30 7:22 AM EDT