The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z69ZhIeRbw?rel=0]
There is an entire generation, maybe two by now, that has had their fundamental human gifts of wonder, ambition and self-reliance beaten out of them by the progressive social engineers that have turned their education into a political brainwashing.
Can I get an “AMEN!”?
Zombie visits a lecture on “Teaching as a Subversive Activity” which one commenter accurately assesses as:
“Should we indoctrinate students with leftist ideologies?” and only after five minutes of talking in circles eventually concludes “Yes.”
But that’s not the QotD. This is:
I am concluding forty years of engineering, primarily energy infrastructure, $2.5 Bn in nukes (24), fossil fuel power plants (48) and decades assessing advanced technologies (what is coming, the technical barriers, costs, etc.). These educational practices are alien to me in my ancient education. Engineering and hard sciences (which means truth) demands rigorous disciplined thinking. There is the right answer to the home work, and wrong answers.
Today, in climate change, nuclear safety, fracking, the current technologies controversies, I continually read many articles which can be summarized as, “Cesium 131 will kill everybody in Japan because I hate GE.” I find it irrational.
Read the rest. And see above.
In relation to yesterday’s Quote of the Day:
I hope it comes in in time for the Dallas area blogshoot! (Click the picture for a link to the source.)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U?rel=0&w=640&h=360]
In comments to Weer’d Beard’s post Mitt Romney Wins the GOP Nomination:
Given how the GOP field has been winnowed, this has really just been a race to determine the form Gozer the Traveler takes.
So this just means the giant Sloar is off the table and means is we’re looking between the moving Torb and the Staypuff Marshmellow man.
— Jack
Edited to add this link to a T-shirt I must have courtesy of WFGodbold.
British expat Phil B. emails from Middle Earth about an Easter event most of us could get behind, a 24-hour bunny shoot!
Guess what the Kiwis do for Easter …
Otago is the bottom right hand bit of the south Island.
Otago bunnies grow BIG (about the size of a hare but proportionately stockier) and are considered a pest. Rules are simple – a team of three, 24 hours, shoot as many as you can in the time. No limit on calibre of rifle, shotgun, method or what state the rabbit is in when it is handed in for counting (i.e. flattened by the Ute still counts).
Doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to the numbers but it pisses off the tree huggers and bunny lovers enormously.
It is usually reported on the 6 O’clock news as the highlight of the Easter weekend news with the scores and discussions about how it was better/worse than last year, record etc. Among firearms afficianados, the subject of rifles, calibres and loads for the ammunition are discussed as avidly as the chances of who’ll win the FA cup in Newcastle.
This year was a little disappointing:
Conditions favoured the rabbits this year at the Great Easter Bunny Hunt in Central Otago, with 10,424 bunnies bagged – the lowest tally for six years.
Teams of hunters from all over New Zealand converged on Alexandra for the 24-hour event, organised by the Alexandra Lions Club.
Their haul was displayed in the town’s Pioneer Park yesterday and the top team out of 36 – the Southern Hopper Stoppers – won the contest with 1035 rabbits.
This year’s tally was less than half last year’s total of 22,904 and event convenor Dave Ramsay said the odds were in the rabbits’ favour this year.
And look at the picture!
OMG! THE CHILDREN!
Well, here’s a couple who brought their kids with them:
The Great Easter Bunny Hunt can have a happy ending – just ask Mike and Kate Evans.
Mike proposed to Kate during the event 17 years ago, and now happily married and living in Arrowtown, the couple are back in the hunt this year in a team that includes son Nicholas and daughter Mikayla.—
Mikayla (7) and Nicholas (11) would be acting as support crew, as “picker-uppers” and maybe doing some cooking or providing hot drinks for the hunters. The family was looking forward to spending some time together “away from any electronic equipment”, Mrs Evans said.
“You get to see countryside that you would never normally have access to and that’s a real privilege,” Mr Evans added.
“It’s a real good weekend, getting out in the fresh air and getting some exercise; spending time with your family. It’s not really about how many rabbits you get.”
Isn’t that nice?
John Derbyshire has been fired from National Review for writing a completely politically incorrect piece entitled The Talk: Nonblack Version. Pretty strong stuff.
Short version:
There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved. — Jesse Jackson
Read this piece by Heather Mac Donald, too.
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. — George Orwell
UPDATE: EXCELLENT discussion of the topic over at RobertaX’s place.
UPDATE II: Eric S. Raymond (and his commenters) have some interesting things to say as well. Take Eric’s quiz. At least one commenter here has failed it.
Well, Bill Cosby has opined on the Trayvon Martin incident:
“We’ve got to get the gun out of the hands of people who are supposed to be on neighborhood watch,” said Mr. Cosby, whose remarks were the first he has made publicly about the case.
“Without a gun, I don’t see Mr. Zimmerman approaching Trayvon by himself,” Mr. Cosby explained. “The power-of-the-gun mentality had him unafraid to confront someone. Even police call for backup in similar situations.
“When you carry a gun, you mean to harm somebody, kill somebody,” he said.
Yes, that’s why the police carry them.
Let me refer once again to Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Modern Policing – specifically Principle #7:
Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
Mr. Zimmerman was doing his duty as he saw it. And he couldn’t carry an entire cop around with him. IIRC, he did “call for backup.” There’s audio of the call, in fact.
An honest assessment would say that this is what we know:
- Zimmerman was out doing his neighborhood watch thing and saw Martin.
- He called 911 and followed Martin in his vehicle.
- When Martin walked someplace that Zimmerman couldn’t follow in his vehicle, he got out of his vehicle and followed on foot.
- ???
- In the process of getting his ass beaten, Zimmerman busts a cap in Martin.
The entire case turns on what happened in the ???, but don’t tell that to the media, the folks playing poker with a deck full of race cards, the victim disarmament crowd, or apparently the frickin’ President of the United States of America.
Or Bill Cosby.
UPDATE: On a related note, whom did you mean to harm, to kill, Mr. Cosby?
It has been brought to my attention that the second Sunday in Apri, the 8th, is Easter Sunday. Consequently, there won’t be a Bowling Pin match that day. Sorry for the short notice.
(I really should check a calendar occasionally.)