Read This. No, Seriously.

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My Secret Life as a Reporter for “Doll Reader” Magazine

It’s not long. It’s the story of a woman who graduated with a double major in Women’s Studies and English who wanted to be a Journalist (capitalized on purpose – it was her calling!) for the Washington Post, but ended up writing for a collectible doll trade magazine and discovered that the B.S. that had been poured into her head her entire life actually was B.S.

The sheer arrogance and disdain she admits to towards people she considered beneath her (and that’s pretty much everyone she worked with) is TEXTBOOK for the Anointed Left.

She managed, at least somewhat, to overcome it. Reality has a tendency to do that.

The Eduocracy is Worried?

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Harvard Magazine warns of the damage homeschooling can do to children.  Note that they used the Bible as one of the books, and that the cartoonist cannot (apparently) spell “Arithmetic” correctly.  Note that more than one critic of compulsory government schooling has pointed out that one tenet of the architects of “Public Education” was reducing the influence of parents on their own children to better condition them as good cogs for the social machine.

I Don’t Think the American People will Willingly Surrender Their Firearms

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Over 342 MILLION background checks since 1999.  Not all new gun sales go through the FBI.  Some states do it internally.  Not all background checks involve the sale of a firearm.  Some may represent the sale of more than one firearm.  Not all firearm sales are of new firearms.

But I think The Narrative™ that there are only about 300 million firearms in private hands is well and truly busted, since as a nation we’ve been buying guns for 230+ years, not just the last 20.

And look at March, 2020.  Largest number of background checks in a month, EVER. Closest previous record was December, 2015.  What precipitated that again?  We’ve had more background checks in the first three months of 2020 than in the entire YEAR for 1999 through 2005.

And all the guns that have been purchased?  I don’t think the people who bought them did it with the intention that they’d give them up if asked nicely.

Quote of the Day – Robert Heinlein Edition ca. 1984

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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

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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

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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

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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.