Time for another of these:
A Moment of Zen
Category: Uncategorized
Quote of the Day – Robert Heinlein Edition ca. 1984
From an interview in the WaPo from September 5, 1984, In the Strange Land Of Robert Heinlein:
You can go to a cocktail party on the campus of a major university and be asked three times what sign were you born under. And we’ve got citizens in this culture who honest to God believe that professional athletes and actors are important people with opinions worth paying attention to!
And
I’m not convinced that we’re going to make it. I’ll bet on the human race. I’m just not sure about the United States of America.
Analysis: Truer today than ever.
Education Quote of the Day
Seen at Instapundit by Robert E. Wright of the American Institute for Economic Research:
As I recently argued elsewhere, America’s educational system has not prepared us for the government power grab because it does not create enough Emersonian independent thinkers or, frankly, even adult thinkers. Due to the extreme Left bias of higher education, many of America’s college graduates remain intellectually infantilized to the point that they can do little more than Tweet ignorant hate at any idea that does not accord with Progressive mantras.
Analysis: True. Read the piece in that second link.
Let’s Try This Again
First time in awhile where Blogger borked a post. Let’s try this post again, originally titled “Democracy Worship Again.” Retitled, “You know, we’re just not reaching that guy.”
From a comment thread at Quora:
James Briggs
Those who claim that America is a republic, not a democracy are opposed to democracy. The former Soviet Union was the kind of republic that the Federalists want.
Kevin Baker
And you base this on…?
James Briggs
The words we are not a democracy says it all. Those who deny American is a democracy do not want it to be a democracy.
Kevin Baker
This is known as circular reasoning. While I will grant that the words “we are not a democracy” mean exactly that, it’s quite a logical leap to the position that those who say it want a Soviet dictatorship. Care to elaborate?
James Briggs
Those who oppose democracy want a dictatorship. Those are the only two choices we have at this time.
Kevin Baker
Well, my time of taking you seriously has certainly come to a middle.
Democracy = 1 person/1 vote. 50%+1 of a population can vote for anything – the banishment of all left-handed redheads, for instance. Since left-handed redheads are a distinct minority, they have no recourse. They’ve been outvoted. Then there’s gang-rape. Should the victim acquiesce simply because they’re outvoted?
Here’s something I like to remind people of who extol the wondrous desirability of DEMOCRACY!!:
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding on what to have for dinner.
A representative republic is 50,000 wolves and 40,000 sheep voting 50 wolves and 40 sheep into office to decide what to have for dinner.
A constitutional republic is a similar situation but with a constitution saying that lamb cannot be for dinner, with a Supreme Court of 5 wolves voting against 4 sheep to determine that mutton is not lamb.
Liberty is well-armed sheep protesting the vote.
So as for your assertion that there’s only a binary choice: 1=Democracy, 0=Dictatorship, I disagree wholly.
I thought we were finished, but he replied!
James Briggs
Your spurious examples have been used by those enemies of the truth from time immemorial. it is like the old canard that Hitler was elected. It is in the people’s interest to vote what is best for the people. They may be mistaken but it is better to be ruled by a fool who is on your side than by a genus who is your enemy. The fact is democracies always win in the real world. Germany was destroyed by the experts who rejected democracy and put Hitler in power. We have just seen the demise of the Soviet Union a republic that was not a democracy. Then Venezuela had the same results. Now we undemocratic Islamism take the stage and you have learned nothing.
Kevin Baker
Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
HE REPLIED AGAIN. (And upvoted my comment!)
James Briggs
Thank you but as you have been so nice I feel that I should add to my point. Those who make decisions fall into two groups those who know the answer and those who don’t. Statistics assumes that mistakes are random and cancel each other out while those who are right are all going vote in the same direction. Groups of people voting have been able to beat chess masters. I wish I could find a journal article on this issue but I was unable on short notice. Best wishes.
Yeah, I’m done with that particular wall of knowledge.
Our Collapsing Schools, Part 6.02×10²³
How Low Can Higher Education Go? by John Ellis from “Minding the Campus.” Highly recommended. Just a taste:
One study after another has found that (recent college graduates) write badly, can’t reason, can’t read any reasonably complex material, have alarming gaps in their knowledge of the history and institutions of the society in which they live, and are in general poorly prepared for the workplace.
RECENT. COLLEGE. GRADUATES. The ones who DIDN’T drop out.
Brought to you by Brawndo® The Thirst Mutilator™! It’s got what plants crave!
RTWT, where you will find this: “The goal of schooling is not considered to be instructional, let alone intellectual, but political.” And weep.
In Relation to My Previous Post…
…I’ve Been Thinking, there’s this: Stay Alive, Joe Biden, a piece in The Atlantic published day before yesterday.
Key graphs:
Democrats—some independents, and some Republicans too—were terrified and furious at the prospect of another four years of Donald J. Trump. And as the weeks of the primary season ticked on, it became clear that there was one option to forestall that possibility, and his name was Joe Biden.
Through it all—the fairly awful campaign events and confusing statements and garbled debate performances—the idea of the former vice president has somehow remained consistent, and apparently convincing, as both Trump’s inverse and co-equal. Senator Bernie Sanders may still be in the race, but this is a detail. Democrats have chosen Biden as their vessel for Trump’s defeat, and that choice is the entire point: The vanquishing matters more than anything else.
—
Biden’s team appears to understand this, and to believe that what matters most now is keeping their candidate alive in the American imagination as an alternative to Trump. His appearances these days have an almost parallel-universe quality to them: Biden’s audience-less remarks from his home in Delaware have the suggestion of an Oval Office address, and their content seems intended to offer a glimpse into the twilight zone where someone else, someone more empathetic and capable, is president. It’s as if Biden is telegraphing to his public: You have already imagined that I can beat Trump; now imagine what it will be like when I am president.
For the foreseeable future, there will be no more speeches in front of hundreds, or lines of people waiting to shake Biden’s hand. There may not even be the glossy fanfare of a convention with a prime-time address. But, truthfully, all those things were always sort of beside the point. Like on that morning in McClellandville, and countless other ones besides, Biden was never really convincing anyone on the stump—his political power at this point is an idea, held collectively, about how to defeat Trump. The work now is to keep that idea convincing enough, for long enough, among as many people as possible, for the corporeal man to actually win.
“Keep their candidate alive in the American imagination….”
See also: Ace of Spades
And this:
Great minds and all that.
I’ve Been Thinking…
…Yes, I know that’s a dangerous thing, but….
The DNC has, for all intents and purposes, once again rigged their Presidential Primary and selected Quid Pro Stumblin’ Joe as their candidate of choice.
And as we can all see, Joe’s having…issues. The only other contender is Comrade Bernie, and they ain’t having any of that.
Does this remind you of anything? It does me. In 2002 New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli was running for re-election. He had the Party’s nomination. His name was on the ticket. Problem was, he was being investigated for ethics violations, and it was patently obvious that he had no chance of winning re-election.
So on September 30 – just weeks before the election – the Democrats substituted Frank Lautenberg. Lautenberg hadn’t run, had not campaigned in the slightest. Torricelli had run unopposed in the primary. Lautenberg was just… picked.
When the DNC figures out that Biden cannot win, who are they going to just… pick? And how long are they going to wait?
UPDATE:
OK, I’m convinced. I’m betting that at the last possible minute Andrew Cuomo will “sacrifice” his NY Governorship to take up the heavy burden of being the Democrat Nominee. He’s already being groomed for it by the Church of State:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s PowerPoint Talks Are Oddly Reassuring
UPDATE: Will the Democrats Junk Joe? April 1, but not a joke.
That. Is. AWESOME
Seen at Facebook:
I have moved to Rocket City (Huntsville, AL) and have taken a job at a large firearms manufacturer near Redstone Arsenal. When I told my new boss that I would be installing a large Saturn V model at my desk, he proceeded to show me this custom AR-15 rifle that my company created a couple of years ago as an award to a supplier. The LUT was 3D printed in-house. Needless to say, this Space Hipster was quite awe-struck!
As am I:
The Saturn XV
Quote of the Day – Adaptive Curmudgeon Edition
From his post The McDonald Girl’s Story:
For whatever reason, I’d never before understood the beatific wonderment of youth. This child, who was clutching a buck’s worth of sugar water, had a direct line to the joy of the universe. It was amazing; in the true sense of the word. I stood there astounded and speechless at the complete, naïve, guileless, joy of a happy child’s smile.
It was then that I started to understand. This is why adults raised children. This is why they tolerated crayons on the walls and dirty diapers and Barney videos… this was a real, unfiltered, direct link to heaven.
She was so happy. And I was too. I was delighted to have noticed such a moment. I saw and truly understood… joy.
RTWT.
Quote of the Day – Jordan Peterson Edition
Jordan Peterson being interviewed by Helen Lewis for British GQ, rapid fire questions:
Lewis: “How would your life have been different had you been born a woman?”
Peterson: “Multiple orgasms.”
Lewis: “That’s pretty good.”