Extra! Extra! The Ten Second News Links We’ve Overlooked!
There’s a phenomenon where someone writes an essay about this or that but someone else wants to discuss something that has not yet made it to Ten Second News.
This is unfair to everybody involved. It’s unfair to the guy who wrote the original essay because, presumably, he wants to talk about his original essay. It’s unfair to the guy who wants to talk about his link because it looks like he’s trying to change the subject. It’s unfair to the people who go to the comments to read up on the thoughts of the commentariat for the original essay and now we’re talking about some other guy’s links.
So!
The intention is to have one of these on the Sidebar at all times. If you want to talk about a link, post it here! Or, heck, use it as an open thread.
And, when it rolls off, we’ll make a new one. With a preamble just like this one.
Report
No takers? OK, I’m not normally a punster, but I’m thinking something along the line of “fishing is a sport of hurry-up-and-weight”, or maybe “how did they find out? someone must have had a large mouth”.Report
Lets play a game.
I will post a comment, and the moderators can decide if it is a troll who should be banned, or an upstanding respectable Republican:
“I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead and they have already started the killings.”Report
Can I play?
“Are you this stupid or just this much of an asshole?”Report
I’m so hoping this is a quote from President Biden to Steve Doocy.
Or Governor Newsom to Governor DeSantis.Report
Kazzy to Jaybird.Report
Bzzt!
First rule of the game:
The quote needs to come from a candidate or elected official, or prominent media figure.Report
How about these rules: post a news link, or comment on a news link.Report
Eh, it’s an open thread. Chip can talk about the stuff he finds personally interesting.Report
I see your google fingers were tired yesterday:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/marjorie-taylor-greene-deceptively-tells-112654834.htmlReport
Yep, I said that and I stand by saying that. When someone acts the way Jaybird does — showing so much blatant disrespect toward others here — I’m going to call it out. You want me banned? Make the case and let the powers that be decide.
Oh… and I am not affiliated with any party or political organization so I no membership — upstanding or otherwise — to be questioned. So the game doesn’t really work here. Wamp wamp.Report
I only brought it up to demonstrate that the difference between an opponent who’s reasonable and an opponent who should be banned is often our feelings of camaraderie with them. I don’t want you banned, although I’m surprised that comment was allowed to stand. It was a low point, you’ve got to admit. You and others are so obsessed with what you perceive Jaybird’s motives to be that you forget to discuss the topic. And I’ve been on the receiving end of that “how dare you judge me, I’m a teacher” thing. Also, I’ve never taken Chip’s new game the way he wants it to be taken, so I wasn’t using you as a sample Democrat.Report
Yes, multiple people thoughtfully engaging with Jaybird’s argument and him just hand waving all of that away is a low point. I met him on his level, which seems rather obviously intended to antagonize people he disagrees with.
It’s not that we’re obsessed with his motives… it’s that we foolishly think maybe today is the day he has sincere motives and we write thoughtful replies to him only to have the rug pulled out from under us that yet another thread has devolved into his nonsense. I’m stupid for taking the bait but let’s never forget who keeps setting the track: one of the primary powers here who’s actions go perpetually unchecked.
I have never said, “How dare you judge me, I’m a teacher.” What I have said is that if you are wanting to understand what is happening in schools, maybe you should listen to people who spend their lives in schools.Report
You’re describing what it feels like to interact with an INTP if you don’t understand him. If you take the time to look it up, you could understand him. Or you could block him. Or you could complain about him. I’m not 100% impressed by your choice.Report
Well, here is how it tends to go…
Jaybird: “Here’s a thing that’s totally happening and means really important things!”
Someone else: “Let me help you understand what’s going on there because it isn’t actually happening the way that report says its happening and it means something different than the conclusion you’re drawing.”
Jaybird: “YEA BUT STILL!”
Other Person: “Well, actually, no, that isn’t true either and here are the reasons!”
Jaybird: “Oh so I’m even MORE right than before?”
Etc, etc, etc.
Yes, we could just ignore him. But it seems problematic if the culture here is such that people can post things I’m pretty sure they know are inaccurate because they know they can spin it to paint their ideological enemies in a negative light. Basically, the site here becomes propaganda… with much of it coming from one of the head honchos.
If we don’t want to set an expectation where people engage sincerely, so be it. But that seems to be at the heart of this little project here so it flummoxes me that his behavior remains allowed unchecked.
I mean, in the thread in question, Jaybird alternately argued that we absolutely had to extrapolate from one data point to the world writ large when that was convenient to his argument AND that it was totally unfair to ask him to extrapolate from multiple datapoints to larger trends because, hey, you just can’t extrapolate. In that scenario, he is either far less intelligent than I thought because he doesn’t understand how to draw basic conclusions OR he is being an ass and intentionally manipulating the conversation because he isn’t actually interested in finding light, but generating heat.
Which, hey, everyone has their bag. But, again, I thought this place was supposed to be different. And we’ve banned people for that very behavior.Report
You have to understand. Some years ago Jaybird posted on how he was rigorously and explicitly trained, in the name of God, no less, in effective techniques of intellectual dishonesty. Silly me, I thought he was confessing, not bragging.Report
Please understand, from my perspective, the argument was something like this:
“White Flight is happening in Brooklyn.”
“It’s not White Flight! It’s merely people who have the money to do so not coming back!”
And those were the parameters of the argument.
Not whether the phenomenon was happening, mind. Everybody agreed that there were fewer people there than at the start. We even agreed on their demographics!
We just didn’t agree on the *FRAMING* of the phenomenon.
For the record: I had a scientific paper arguing for the framing that I held. You can read it here (warning: PDF), if you want.
The arguments against me took the form “you don’t have kids” and “you’re not a teacher and I am”.
I’m 100% fine with the attitude that my evidence isn’t enough to get you to change your mind but I’m kind of surprised that you think that your evidence should be sufficient to get me to change mine.Report
“The arguments against me took the form “you don’t have kids” and “you’re not a teacher and I am”.”
If this was all you were able to derive from the multiple comments made by multiple people in opposition to your framing, than it is clear you do not even read those comments except insofar as you can cherrypick quotes to misinterpret.
The phenomenon is that public school enrollment is down. Something I showed you was a NATIONWIDE phenomenon, with multiple factors.
And you just kept arguing that the one factor that you wanted to harp one — which was present in a single school district — was the reason for everything. Except when it wasn’t the reason. Except of course that it WAS the one and only true reason.
So, yea, I repeat the question: Are you that stupid? Or that much of a dick? Because at this point, it seems clear to me that those are the only two explanations for why you behave the way you do.Report
And you just kept arguing that the one factor that you wanted to harp one — which was present in a single school district — was the reason for everything
This doesn’t exactly understand the argument.
For one, I acknowledged that the numbers were down all over.
The numbers were down *MORE* in the district that changed policies.
Politicians reversed the policies. They made a big deal about how they were reversing the policies. Like, they got stories in the New York Times talking about how they were reversing the policies.
Note: These were not “what you are describing as happening is not happening” arguments. They were “there are a lot of reasons what you are describing as happening is happening and they aren’t limited to the reasons you’re giving”.
Which is interesting, as far as it goes, but I don’t think that it goes particularly far.
The argument “this isn’t White Flight! It’s *CAPITAL* Flight!” strikes you as a huge and important distinction.
It strikes me as a distinction without much of a difference (granted there is one… but it’s not a large one).
And the fact that the politicians are making a big deal of reversing the policies in order to bring the capital back strikes me as being pretty strong evidence for the policies being the driver behind the delta in the single school district where the policies were changed and all of those other districts in driving distance that had not changed policies.
And the emphasis on anecdotes and personal attacks in response to this isn’t really doing a whole lot to get me to say “maybe the policies didn’t mean anything at all”.
Because, as far as I can tell, you’re not arguing that the policies didn’t mean anything at all.
You’re just arguing that I’m putting more weight on them than I ought (and prematurely, given all of the churn in the numbers that covid is giving and how we won’t know whether we know anything for another 5 years).Report
You’ve now had two people accuse you of overplaying the teacher card. Maybe there’s a third explanation.Report
I don’t think any reasonable person would say that Marjorie Taylor Green is either upstanding respectable. That would be like saying that, say, Rashida Tlaib or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an upstanding, respectable Democrat. Safe districts can elect some real clowns sometimes.Report
Yah well, as long as she’s inciting crowds to hunt people like me, I’m not giving her a break. Though I suppose I should what with the divorce and the cheating and all.Report
The GOP could’ve ran a primary against her, and have every Congressperson, Governor, etc. endorse that opponent, spend millions of dollars (since there literal billionaire donors w/ money sitting around) via SuperPAC’s and if that failed, run that candidate as an indpeendent, even if it means giving the seat away to a Democrat for 2 years.
Failing all that, she could be stripped of her committeeships, and have all funding the party controls within the House taken away from her, etc.
The GOP refused to do this, and they’re allies seem OK with her being part of the party. Despite what she continues to say, because despite claiming Democrats are killing Republicans, no Republican has disavowed or her endorsed her Democratic opponent.Report
The part of the article that *I* went there to read was the part detailing the five states that have this on the ballot in November: Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The five states are all explicitly allowing for recreational use.
Arkansas, Maryland, and Missouri has polling showing support for the measures in the high fifties. (Missouri in the low sixties!)
There is no polling for North Dakota.
South Dakota is polling under 50%.Report
I plan to vote yes but I don’t think it will be much of a watershed in Maryland. Small amounts have been a civil offense similar to a traffic ticket for some time. We also already have California style witch-doctor legalization where obtaining a prescription is effortless.
Nevertheless I feel obligated, what with my arrest for possession in a past life. No one else should go through the shake down again, even if the chances of that are already a lot more hypothetical.Report
The main thing that I keep hoping is that enough states pass it to get the AG or DEA to say something like “okay, fine, we’ll make it schedule two”.Report
Yea more and more it creates weirdness in areas where federal and state law overlap. Funny thing is I’m not sure federal law enforcement really cares or feels any pressure. It’s a special breed that goes into that kind of work. That and I think no matter how you look at it loosening up at the federal level will result in less work, less relevance, less influence. I think the only way it will happen will be when Congress makes them.Report
What they really need is for Congress to change the finance laws so that dispensaries and stores can do regular sorts of banking.Report
Definitely wouldn’t hurt.Report
I haven’t partaken but I understand NJ dispensaries are cash only.Report
Almost certainly. Because marijuana is an illegal drug at the federal level, banks and credit card companies face serious legal risks if they allow the use of their networks for transactions. A couple of states have tried workarounds like debit cards or other bank-to-bank transfers, but that gets tricky.
Colorado had to rush through a change in law once it was discovered that the Dept of Labor was not allowed to accept cash payments for unemployment insurance premiums, and the dispensaries couldn’t open checking accounts.Report
Oklahoma was going to have recreational on the ballot this fall, but Question 820 (too bad that the number 420 had already been used) didn’t get on the ballot in time, because apparently the proponents of it didn’t get the required signatures in time. (“Awwwww, maaaaaaaaaaan….”)
I expect recreational to be just as shoddily managed and rushed-because-of-tax-revenue as the medicinal* was.
(*medicinal in name only; I’ve been told some dispensaries have doctors on call that are very handsy-outsy with the cards)
I would have far less issues with it if it hadn’t been done in such a laissez-faire way where it’s far harder to get a bottle of sherry too cook with in this state than it is to get any number of MJ productsReport
Yeah, Colorado’s rules for what will allow you to get a Red Card has stuff like “insomnia” and “back pain” and “diarrhea” on it. What will *NOT* let you get a Red Card? PTSD.
“So why don’t people just show up at the doctor and get a Red Card after saying ‘it hurts when I do this’?”
Well, getting a Red Card means that you are part of a database now. This database is available to the state government and being on it is grounds for termination for a number of state jobs. Like, I have a friend who works for CDOT and he told me that he can never get a Red Card because he’ll be fired the next day.
Recreational? You can buy recreational and all you need is proof of age.
“Well, why would you get medicinal instead of recreational?”
Well, without getting into the 7% of people who actually use medicinal medicinally, it’s that medicinal costs about 2/3rds of recreational. Spend $32 instead of $50 for the same product! Over the course of a decade, that can really add up.Report
Ditto federal employees everywhere.Report
I figure here, because of the taxes (one of the reasons for the rush to legalize in an otherwise deeply paternalistic state was “oh the tax money!”) that a lot of enthusiasts are still using their local weed guy. And given the number of houses I still see with tinfoil up over some/all of the windows, I assume there are still plenty friendly local weed guys.
not sure legalizing for recreational will do much other than that we’ll have 50 dispensaries instead of 30 in town.Report
Yeah, there’s that too. I remember that Oregon or Washington did something like try to get rid of medicinal entirely. “There’s just marijuana, smoke ’em if you got ’em.”
This allowed them to jack up fees/taxes that they wouldn’t have been allowed to touch if they were talking about medicine.
It got shot down, of course.Report
Troll or Republican?
Is McConnell approving all of these Trillions of Dollars worth of Democrat sponsored Bills, without even the slightest bit of negotiation, because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am strongly opposed to them, or is he doing it because he believes in the Fake and Highly Destructive Green New Deal, and is willing to take the Country down with him?
In any event, either reason is unacceptable. He has a DEATH WISH. Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!Report
The Billionaire’s boy club: https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/10/1/23381257/elon-musk-texts-twitter-billionairesReport
NASA’s official blog on the Artemis moon project:
In addition to the oft-mentioned batteries for the flight termination system, there are at least a half-dozen subsystems that are either approaching the end of their planned lifetime in stacked configuration, or have passed their rated lifetime and are on waivers. These include things like thruster fuel and the batteries in the ride-share payloads.
The most problematic known issue is the solid-fuel rocket boosters. The seals between segments were originally rated for one year once they were stacked vertically in January of 2021. In January 2022 a one-year waiver on that was issued, which is bearing down on us. There are also potential issues with the unknown state of the propellant after almost two years of Florida heat and cold. If there’s a decision that the boosters need to be replaced, a considerable part of the rocket will have to be disassembled, and the delay will run for some months.
The biggest concern in the online community seems to be that there may be unknown end-of-life factors that the project planners didn’t believe would come into play. Is there a limit on the number of times the crawler can safely move the rocket and portable launch pad before it needs major maintenance? Is there a limit on the number of times the rocket can be moved before there are structural risks?Report
Whilst out on my Sunday late afternoon jog, I passed a dinky little house for sale. About 1000 square feet, 2 bedroom, 1 bath. Very nice kitchen with a lot of counter space. They’re asking a little under $400,000.
Checking other houses in the neighborhood on the Zillow, it seems like houses are now staying on the market for more than a week and I see a bunch of “price reduced” on there. This one knocked off $20k. That one knocked off $50k.Report
My neighbor’s house lingered on the market for a bit before it finally sold. 5% mortgage interest rates after getting used to 2-3% will do that to ya. 5% is still a pretty decent deal.Report
I only knew it was for sale because it had a realtor sign in front of it.
For a few years there, realtors didn’t put signs up. Why bother? You’d just have to take it down again in a couple of hours.
They’re showing up again.Report
there are a few houses in my town that have had realtor signs up for weeks and weeks; I assume there’s something undesirable at the house or they priced it higher than what the market would bear. For a while at least, my town was bimodal in house prices: relatively inexpensive (less than $120K) places, but that were small, required work, and were usually in a part of town where most people would rather not live, or places well up over $200K in nicer areas and more move-in condition.
I know; I looked when I had renovations happening on my place this summer and was suffering serious regret about sinking my literal life savings into them and I wondered “could I have just bought a new place and moved for cheaper” and no, no I could not have.Report
https://slate.com/business/2022/09/how-high-interest-rates-are-changing-the-housing-market.html
“Wages aren’t keeping up. Another way to think about this, said Alex Hermann, an analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, is that in the spring of 2021, a U.S. household needed an annual income of $80,000 to afford the median home. By this summer, that number was up to $115,000—a 44 percent jump in one year. As a result, the number of renters with the income to afford mortgage payments on the median home has fallen from 10.2 million last year to 5 million this year. And mortgage rates have gone up another point since.
Result: Buyers are dropping out of the market, with the number of pending transactions down by 24 percent since this time last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Renters may not like the fact that the median rent is up by 20 percent in two years, according to Redfin, but they probably aren’t likely to go house shopping, either. Both because they can’t afford it, and because confidence in the housing market—confidence that you’re making a good investment—is at just 46 percent, according to Freddie Mac, down 20 points from last spring.”
In contrast, we bought in 2019 and were able to reduce our interest rate twice in 2020-2021.Report
I said this the other day but it’s relevant here too:
When we last bought a car, we sat down at the guy’s desk and he asked us “how much are you looking to pay a month?”
I’m sure that he had plans if the answer was $500/month, $300/month, and maybe even $125/month (sure, it’s for 150 months, but only $125!).
We got set up with our credit union so we did not need to finance through the dealership. But there are going to be people who will be out shopping for a mortgage who are making the cold hard calculus of “how much can we pay a month”.
Here’s a simple mortgage calculator. Play with the knobs, if you want.
Let’s say that your upper limit is $2000/month. Let’s say that you’re putting down zero dollars.
An interest rate of 5.1% lets you purchase a house for $290,000 and have a payment that squeaks just under $2000.
$1,978.72 (but that includes PMI.)
An interest rate of 2.9% lets you purchase a house for $370,000 with no money down and pay $1,977.55/month (including PMI).
2.2% is $80,000 worth of house.Report
Jogged past it again today. Still got the sign in front of it. Talked to Maribou about it and she looked it up on the Zillow and it was purchased in *AUGUST* for a little under $300,000.
Guy bought it, revamped the roof and kitchen, changed the front door, marked it up $100,000.
House has not yet flipped.Report
I usually change up my Sunday afternoon jogs and go different routes to mix things up. See different trees, see the park, see different drug dealers sitting on different stoops… but this house has grabbed me. I need to go past it every Sunday now.
Still for sale. Checked the Zillow. It’s had its price lowered.
The flippers have officially started getting pantsed.Report
Disgusting:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/opinions/trump-house-republicans-investigation-biden-2022-obeidallah/index.htmlReport
“Until now, little has been known about the woman whom migrants said identified herself only by her first name, “Perla,” when she solicited them to join the flights. A person briefed on the San Antonio sheriff’s office investigation into the matter told The New York Times that the person being looked at in connection with the operation is a woman named Perla Huerta.
Ms. Huerta, a former combat medic and counterintelligence agent, was discharged in August after two decades in the U.S. Army that included several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military records.
A Venezuelan migrant who was working with Ms. Huerta to recruit migrants confirmed her identity, and a migrant in San Antonio whom Ms. Huerta had unsuccessfully sought to sign up identified a photo of her in an interview with The Times. Several of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard photographed her during the recruitment process in San Antonio, according to Rachel Self, a lawyer representing the migrants. Lawyers working with them were able to match those photos with others online and in social media belonging to a woman named Perla Huerta.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/02/us/migrants-marthas-vineyard-desantis-texas.htmlReport
There’s something oddly appropriate about a former COINTEL operative being the person on the ground for this. Talk about a false flag operationReport
I think you are assuming too highly of her claim for being counter-intelligence. We know that Republicans like to inflate this kind of stuff.Report
The Army spokesman quoted by the Times – as well as in other sources – read her service record which included COINTEL as her final MOS in the Army. I doubt the Republicans are making that up.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marthas-vineyard-migrants-perla-ex-military-officer-1234603974/Report
Troll or Republican?
I think a lot of what the left supports is satanic. I’m sorry, it’s in direct objection to God… I’m a man of faith, I was raised in the church, this stuff is satanic.Report
Define “a lot”.Report
For starters that’s not Chip’s quote.Report
I know, and if you want to play his quote game, feel free.Report
You asked him to define a term that isn’t his to define. Since its a Tucker Carlson quote, perhaps ask Carlson.Report
Chip posted that quote presumably because he thinks it’s hard to identify it as the work of a troll or a Republican, right? That means he has some feelings about the quote. If he wants to talk about the quote, I’m giving him an opening.Report
No. Chip keeps posting these quotes to document who in Republican circles is saying these things. Its further documentation of the deep rooted nature of the GOP as anti-democratic fascists. He’s also sort of inviting a counter of Democrats saying similar things.Report
I didn’t get his memo. I was taking him at face value.Report
Oh, and it looks like it’s not a quote from Carlson.Report
I sit correctedReport
The game is to find quotes from influential people (candidates, elected officials or prominent pundits) which would, if written by a normal commenter at OT get one banned as a troll.
This is one from a guest of Tucker Carlson, to which Carlson replied, “I agree.”Report
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.Report
So yeah, it’s what I said, and not what Philip said, so thanks for correcting me.Report
Por que no los dos?Report
In today’s story with “of course”, Walker paid for a girlfriend’s abortion with a check: https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-life-herschel-walker-paid-for-girlfriends-abortion-georgia-senate
“A woman who asked not to be identified out of privacy concerns told The Daily Beast that, after she and Walker conceived a child while they were dating in 2009, he urged her to get an abortion. The woman said she had the procedure and that Walker reimbursed her for it.
She supported these claims with a $575 receipt from the abortion clinic, a “get well” card from Walker, and a bank deposit receipt that included an image of a signed $700 personal check from Walker.
The woman said there was a $125 difference because she “ball-parked” the cost of an abortion after Googling the procedure and added on expenses such as travel and recovery costs.”Report
Why are we telling elementary kids that they get to choose their gender this week? Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry? We’ve lost our minds.Report
Not now, North Korea. Jeez louise.Report
Courtesy Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice, the Dobbs decision working exactly as intended:
Tennessee Republican says IVF docs can be prosecuted under abortion ban
Sara’s doctors told her not to worry about the language of the law, that they planned on doing business as usual. “But I am worried about it!,” she told me.
To be certain, she emailed her state representative, Rep. Ryan Williams. Over email, Sara asked how the law would impact her IVF treatment:
“Can I discard my embryos and it not be considered an abortion? After reading the Human Life Protection Act, I realized it stated that ‘life’ begins at the moment of conception and not implantation. So, are the embryos considered ‘life’ during IVF?”
Rep. Williams responded that “life does begin at conception either in the womb or in the IVF clinic,” and that any doctor who discarded unused embryos would be violating state law. (Tennessee’s ban made abortion a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.)
https://jessica.substack.com/p/we-just-want-to-be-parents
Teen girl denied medication refill under AZ’s new abortion law
A 14-year-old Tucson girl was denied a refill of a life-saving prescription drug she had been taking for years just two days after Arizona’s new abortion law had taken effect.
14 year old Emma Thompson has debilitating rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis which has kept her in and out of the hospital for most of her life. She relies on methotrexate to help tame the effects of the disease.
But methotrexate can also be used to end ectopic pregnancies, to induce an abortion and that’s where the problem arises.
“As a mother who has had to deal with my child being very ill most of her life, I was scared, I was really worried,” said her mother Kaitlin Preble. “I was shaking. I was in tears. I didn’t know what to do.”
The pharmacist deliberated for 254 hours before filling the prescription, out of concern for possibly violating the new law.
In both cases, the laws were having exactly the intended effect.
Not banning IVF or lifesaving rheumatism drugs, but in casting a shadow of fear and uncertainty over the entire medical field, forcing doctors to always self-police and err on the side of caution rather than do what was best for their patients.Report
Second link posted separately to avoid triggering spam filter:
https://www.kold.com/2022/10/01/teen-girl-denied-medication-refill-under-azs-new-abortion-law/Report
Glemm has a tweet that can only be met with “no duh, what do you expect?” https://twitter.com/mrfrankthetank_/status/1577395929568710687?s=20&t=3v8FJYCxa-WR643VyhUG3QReport
The Times ran a story about an NYU professor fired after students petitioned admin for how difficult his class was. The story seems designed in a lab (intended) to prove everyone’s priors.
The only thing I can add is that I would have almost certainly failed organic chemistry under most circumstancesReport
I *DID* fail organic chemistry! Well, I got a D.
It’s why I switched to Philosophy.
SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT THE HUMANITIES… but it gives C’s instead of D’s for failing students.Report
All the talk about how hard organic chemistry is made me really want to take it, but I could never fit it into my schedule.Report
People are supposed to fail Org Chem. Its the class where you find it if you actually have some game and can function in the biomedical field or if you were just a genius in your own mind teenager with pushy parents.Report
I’ve probably told this story before…
I was in the pure math PhD track at the University of Texas. Due to an oddity in Texas state law at the time, there were always about twice as many in-state people admitted to the program as the department could actually handle. The analysis class was the fail-out class for first year grad students. The instructions given to the professor teaching it were, “Make it as difficult as you can without leaving yourself open to reversal by the dean.” The assigned text was an excellent reference book, but terrible teaching text. The order of material in class was completely different than the text. The professor lectured to the board and didn’t take questions. By the end of the first week, I had a tape recorder sitting on my desk while I transcribed what he put on the board, then replayed it later. Half the students failed and were kicked out. I got a borderline A, but was so turned off by the entire process that I changed programs.
Changing an undergraduate minor is a snap. Changing from one graduate program to another between semesters is a much more “interesting” process.Report
In response to this story, I’ve seen doctors claim that org chem is essential to their practice and others claim that they never use it. I suppose the issue is why is it a weeder class. Is it really to cut those who would be bad doctors or is it just another way to reduce supply and therefore keep medical doctor income high?Report
Is passing the bar really necessary to be a lawyer?
How often do you use bar stuff, anyway?Report
I use the subjects they teach on the bar often. The bar exam itself is probably not necessary. Organic Chem is a bar to medical school. The lack of residency spots is a post-medical school bar.Report
I used to be more ambivalent about the bar but in the face of what seems to be a persistent, widespread attack on the idea of rigor I’ve come to support it. Yea, passing the bar doesn’t suddenly grant you some magic power you didn’t have a couple months before when they handed you your JD. But becoming a lawyer does give you the ability to very much take major facets of other peoples lives in your hands, even if not all lawyers go into practice that involves that kind of thing. If you can’t study and pass a little high pressure test you have no business doing that. People have become such babies about it and in a situation where the industry is still incredibly saturated it’s good to exercise some gatekeeping.
Medicine may be a bit different given that if anything we’re under producing doctors. But, it’s also ok for some things to be difficult, and to deny access to marginal performers. Not everyone is cut out for everything, and that’s ok too.Report
There’s a saying that 80 percent of advertising is useless, but you don’t know which 80 percent. I’d calculate (though my knowledge of what’s on the bar exam is probably obsolete) that any lawyer except for narrow specialists will eventually use 40-50% of the bar stuff, but you can’t tell which 40-50% in advance. Only litigator needs to know Evidence and most litigators don’t need to know trusts and estates — unless you end up trying will disputes. Most lawyers will eventually need at least basic contract or tort law, though civil practitioners don’t need to know criminal law and procedure. Criminal lawyers can get away with not knowing the Uniform Commercial Code. I needed to know it when I was in private practice, but not as a government lawyer.Report
I’m not a lawyer, and I’ve never gone to law school or taken the bar exam, but there’s a common myth in software development that you don’t need to know stuff because you can look anything up. The problem with this is that there’s all kinds of stuff out there that you wouldn’t think to look up unless you already knew about it. You don’t have to memorize the details, but you need to understand the general layout of the information available, and a conceptual framework to hold everything together.
I imagine that law works the same way, although it’s probably less systematic.Report
Exactly. That’s one of the reasons so many law school exams are open-book. Unless you are already half-way to the answers — we call it issue-spotting — you would never be able to look them up in the time allowed.Report
Not sure how it is in other states but the MD bar has a portion where they give you facts and a small ‘law library’ with dummy statutes, regs and case law to apply. Or at least they did when I took it.Report
That sounds like a good idea, but it probably started after my time. (In my time, the law was hand-carved on stone tablets.)
What did you think of it?Report
I passed on the first try so I guess I can’t really complain about it can I?
More seriously it was probably the most (only?) realistic simulation of actual legal work in the entire thing. So I would rate it as good, in that it tested the ability to complete rudimentary legal research and apply it to some simple facts. IIRC it included some red herrings and somewhat misleading and irrelevant information and resources that made it more realistic.Report
I had two of those on the California Bar each was 3 hours. The California Bar called them performance exams. IIRC, New York only had a much smaller one at 90 minutes.Report
This was like NY. It wasn’t officially broken up from the other essay questions but the barbri recommendation was to spend about 90 minutes on it.Report
This happened in my theory of computation (the one that covers stuff like automata theory and algorithmic complexity) class in college, but it was a new professor instead of one with decades of experience. On the first test, six weeks in, the whole class did so badly that they replaced him and started the whole class over with another professor. If there was a petition, I wasn’t involved, and nobody asked me to sign one, so I’m not sure how it all got started.
I wonder what happened to him. I hope he got a second chance.Report
Interesting!
And, get this, he’s asking the Attorney General to look into rescheduling it!
Report
One down, Daylight Savings to go.Report
Not quite. Not yet, anyway.
I’ll wait until it gets done before I start praising him for doing it.Report
Still, looks like Uncle Joe is making a play for the essential JB vote.Report
He absolutely is!
The “in case of emergency, break glass” is finally seeing a hammer.Report
Heh, I’m not a MJ issue supporter… but this reads like JB wrote it.
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1578097875480895489?s=20&t=2ZK2ECMGSM5LUe4m29IJZAReport
Huh.
Report
And how pissed off must Trump be?
“You know, we were going to do that! So, technically, this was my idea. I have the best ideas. Ideas so good that Biden is doing them!”Report
Here’s a fun thread from November, 2016 in which I argued that one of the ways to reschedule Marijuana was going through the Attorney General.
So many memories.Report
Yeah, that one in particular caught my eye.
My political comment to drum-up some wailing and gnashing of teeth is that I still think y’all are underestimate the detrimental effects of pot, even if it’s a legal substance…
So, I’ll call this par for the Biden presidency… do the ‘easy’ stuff your people will like, but not the hard stuff to make it a good policy for the long term.Report
There are detrimental effects of pot. Absolutely.
I’m suspicious that the detrimental effects are less than the detrimental effects of Prohibition have been.
Doubly so, given my experiences with wandering around Colorado over the last couple of decades.Report
Different detrimental effects… so both statements could be true… or another way of putting it is that I’m not entirely sure you could even measure the differences comparatively.Report
Well, in Colorado at least, we’re in a place where everybody for whom it is very important to get their hands on it is able to get their hands on it.
So all of the downsides of legal pot surround me.
But the dispensaries cannot do banking easily and there is still the threat of federal sanction for any of the growers out there. So about half of the downsides of illegal pot.
And… well, the downsides of legal pot mostly include people blowing their smoke into the middle of the street while I’m trying to enjoy my afternoon jog.Report
I’m of course with Jaybird on the core question but it will be interesting to see what this looks like in a low solidarity society with a shaky welfare state and commercial speech having some constitutional protection.Report
All psycho-active drugs can have bad effects. One good thing about pot is you can’t overdose on it. Given the ubiquity of pot my guess is the people who have the worse effects are already using it. Newbie’s who haven’t used due to it being illegal are not craving it and are prob drinking.Report
One (War on Drugs) is detrimental to society. The other (smoking too much pot) is detrimental to an individual, and potentially others.
I’ll take the latter.Report
Doesn’t New York have a statue that talks about this?
Report
“Consumption of red wine above or double above the guidelines played protective effects against the COVID-19.”
Just sayin’.Report
I suspect that preferred alcoholic beverage is acting as a proxy for ability to work from home and/or compliance with NPIs and vaccination recommendations. It’s possible that there’s something in wine that acts as a protective factor, but “wine is associated with reduced risk and beer is associated with increased risk” is exactly the kind of thing you would expect if beverage choice were acting as a proxy for some sort of social/behavioral factors.Report
Dreher outdoes himself: https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1578369704137105413?s=20&t=3gREDD8RQfszIhDbZac7TwReport
Good Lord…Report
Only a strong internalized taboo against homosexuality kept Dreher on the straight and narrow? I don’t know. My genitals often respond to things about which I have a strong internalized taboo, though I don’t act on them.
My genitals do not, however, respond to well put-together men, so I never face the question whether to act on it. Not that I claim any credit; that’s just the way I (don’t) roll.
Maybe Dreher works differently.Report
My view on Dreher has always been this. There is an alternative universe Dreher that left the Bayou at 18 with his Talking Heads L.P.s. and never looked back. This Dreher is currently the coolest uncle to his nieces and nephews and living in some city like Brooklyn, Portland, or Seattle. This Dreher may or may not be gay. There are tons of heterosexual guys with Dreher’s physiques and aesthetics but none of his hangups and obsessions or bigotries.Report
I remember once reading someone’s theory on why odd fetishes are more common among men than women. (I have no idea if that statistic is true or not.) First, 17-year-old men/boys have erections often, for no apparent reason. Second, we all have a pattern-matching engine in our heads that’s always running, trying to correlate things. So, the second or third time a 17-year-old has an erection while playing a pinball machine, his brain puts the two together as “Pinball machines are sexy and a turn-on!”
That they used pinball machines as the example shows how long ago I encountered this.Report
Report
I try not to remember how it was at 17 now that I’m old. Too depressing.Report
It is good that this happened.
I’m sorry that all other avenues had to be exhausted first.
Report
Explosion damages bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/08/crimea-kerch-bridge-attack-explosion-russia-ukraine/Report
In a grotesque “interview” with Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, Stewart attempts to compare gender dysphoria to pediatric cancer, attacking her for trying to stop the mutilation of underage children.
This is the face of evil.
What a sick freak. We are now at the point where major leftwing figures openly lobby to chop the breasts off of little girls and chemically castrate boys, and if you disagree, you are somehow a “science denier.”Report
D’Souza running defense for Walker stating “are you going to believe those Demycrap lies?”
https://thedaybreakdaily.com/herschel-walker-controversy-we-need-to-be-very-wary-before-we-fall-for-the-lefts-standard-play/Report
A lot of people are going to believe him because admitting they are and were wrong takes too much of traits they don’t have.Report
He spends more of the piece arguing that people can change.Report
Sure they CAN, but WILL they? If the social/emotional cost is too high, they are not likely to do so.Report
To the extent any learning happens from the Herschel Walker situation I assume it would only occur if he is defeated. It’s one thing to run a person with apparently severe mental health issues in a safe seat, another entirely to allow such a person to give away a highly winnable race in what is starting to look more like a swing or at least swing-able state.Report
Georgia’s sitting Republican Lieutenant governor agrees with you:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/opinions/herschel-walker-scandal-georgia-senate-gop-duncan/index.htmlReport
The problem with this kind of argument is that different people have different values and different estimations of what is better (or worse) than what.
Report
I think you misread the audience of that essay, which is the ‘in this house we believe crowd.’ To the extent it’s kinda off it’s due to the pretense that those voters are up for grabs. But as a soft lullaby for paying NYT subscribers? It makes perfect sense.
For normal people the argument for Biden is bipartisan accomplishments like BIF and innovation and competition act, plus ‘common sense investment that the Republicans lack the vision for’ like the IRA. That and hey you don’t have to watch the great orange toupee picking culture war fights that ruin football! NYT doesn’t know how to be normal anymore, what with it being overflowing with the neurotic ivy league children, but that’s not really news.Report
If the neurotic ivy league children are getting wobbly, that’s a bad indicator.
This essay seems to be an indicator that the neurotic ivy league children are getting wobbly.Report
Maybe. But I don’t think they’re distributed in a way that makes them super meaningful from an electoral perspective. I also don’t think Biden is, was, or ever will be someone they get excited about.Report
Electorally, they get as many votes as anybody.
But I also assume that they’re the equivalent of “influencers” in the professional managerial class sphere.
Ezra Klein founded Vox, for goodness’ sake. He’s a Kardashian!Report
I hear you. But if we base it on the results of their primary endorsements I’m not so sure they’re influencing that many people. I’m not even sure that the people the Democrats need to influence read the NYT.Report
If these people had half the influence everyone likes to think, Elizabeth Warren would be cruising to her second term as President.
The Elevator Lady is far more representative of the Democratic voter.Report
My questions would be something like:
Why are the neurotic ivy leaguers getting nervous?
(I suspect that my answers to this involve stuff like the approval ratings and inflation and gas prices. That sort of thing.)
So what does the Elevator Lady think?
I imagine that she’s frustrated with stuff like inflation and gas prices but still likes Biden.
Now the only question is whether there are only two groups of voters or if there are three of them.Report
Aren’t neurotic people nervous, by definition?
At this point, with the polls showing possible outcomes ranging from “Democratic Trifecta” to “Republican Control Of House And Senate”, you can kinda argue for anything in any direction.
Trump’s rallies are more sparsely attended- Bad News for Republicans!
Inflation continues- Bad News For Democrats!
Abortion continues to be front and center- Bad News For Republicans!
Gas Prices May be Going Up- Bad News For Democrats!
Polls Trending Towards Democrats- Bad News For Republicans!
Fundamentals Still Favor Republicans- Bad News For Democrats!
You can pick any one of those and mount a pretty serious argument for or against.
But without any rigorous data, its all just barstool prognosticating.Report
That’s a pretty ableist thing to say.
But without any rigorous data, its all just barstool prognosticating.
True. And we’re also likely to prefer prognostications that stroke our priors nicely than rub them the wrong way.
Why, just holding a prognostication in our heads for a moment is a good way to find out what our priors actually are, deep down.Report
This is what I’ve said here and elsewhere, that Republicans believe that, virtually nothing can be worse than a Democrat at any level of government.
They will accept corruption, incompetence, graft, and even direct financial suffering to themselves, rather than see the hated Outrgoup win.Report
You and Ezra seem to be in accord!
I hope you enjoyed the endorphins from him confirming your priors.Report
Wait a second – that’s exactly the argument that Klein is making in the other direction.Report
Yes, I understand why Republicans would like to imagine themselves to be a hated Outgroup.
Unfortunately, all they have to do to be welcomed as fellow citizens is just embrace their neighbors as equals.Report
I’m not talking about the spin, I’m talking about the argument itself. Klein’s argument was that people will support Biden because of opposition to the alternative. You read that and walked away thinking it said people will support Republicans because of opposition to the alternative. It’s a noteworthy phenomenon, like a political dyslexia.Report
Not “Alternative”, but “Hated Outgroup”
Democrats are opposed to Republican policies. Republicans are opposed to Democrats.Report
And since there’s nothing that can convince you otherwise, we leave it at that.Report
We don’t need to settle for the lesser of two evils. We can get the evils to obstruct each other.Report
The persistence of racism in our culture:
Racist remarks in leaked audio of L.A. council members spark outrage, disgust
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-09/city-council-leaked-audio-nury-martinez-kevin-de-leon-gil-cedilloReport
And, here it is:
Nury Martinez steps down as L.A. City Council president
“I ask for forgiveness from my colleagues and from the residents of this city that I love so much. In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. I hope that you will give me the opportunity to make amends,” Martinez said. “Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/la-city-council-president-nury-martinez-steps-down-audio-leak
Sort of relating to the conversation Pinky, Dark and I are having about culture, this is what enforcing cultural norms looks like.
She disrespected a group of citizens, and is being punished for it. Its not all that different than a school bully being made to stand in the corner and apologize, except on a bigger scale.
A culture that refuses to enforce its principles becomes not much more than a gang of thugs with the color of authority.Report
The problem isn’t that she disrespected a group of citizens. It’s that she disrespected the wrong group of citizens.Report
When someone says “Gee Chip, why do you always accuse Republicans of being motivated by racial resentment?” I’m gonna point to this comment.Report
Don’t point to Nury Martinez, though. It’ll get confusing if you do that.Report
What confuses you?
I’ll be happy to explain.Report
It’s the issue of a Democratic Politician doing something bad and then you arguing about how this proves something or other about how Republicans are bad.
I mean, when I was growing up, there was a church that we made fun of because every single sermon, every single Sunday, was about the Grace of God. You think the sermon was about the Sermon on the Mount? Nope! It started there but went to the Grace of God. David and Bathsheba? Grace of God. Jesus in the Garden? Grace of God. Stewardship month? Okay, that spent a little more time on Stewardship but, still, it ended up with Grace of God.
Anyway, Nury Martinez stepped down following some of her comments being made public?
This just goes to prove that we need to legalize pot.Report
You do seem confused, but to such a degree I’m afraid I can’t untangle this. Sorry.Report
Well, I’ll let you get back to talking about how Nury Martinez’s comments being made public demonstrates Republicans being motivated by racial resentment.Report
Then you misunderstood Brandon”s comment, I’ll wager.
Brandon, help us out here. Did you mean that
1) you find it ok if people insult the “right” races
or
2) our culture finds it ok if people insult the “right” races?
If the former, then Chip has an argument. If the latter, then I don’t think he does.Report
I’ll point to this comment as well.Report
OK, but why?Report
What is the “right” race that you mention? The one that can freely be insulted?Report
Martinez insulted blacks and Oaxacans, so not them. I assume that Brandon considers whites to be safe targets.Report
And thus my comment.
Republicans have this sulking grievance that white people are somehow victims.Report
Again, stripping the drama from your statement, you’ll find that both parties consider the other to be biased. That’s not proof of anything deeper.Report
It isn’t deep at all.
Republicans consider white people to be the aggrieved victims of bias.Report
And Democrats consider every non-straight-Christian-white-male to be the aggrieved victims of bias. Not every Democrat, just like not every Republican. But those observations don’t necessarily lead anywhere meaningful.Report
Amazing, in a thread specifically about how several powerful members of government were using racial slurs while discussing how to exclude black and indigenous people from power.Report
Wait, who were these powerful members of government?
Were they elected or appointed?Report
Doesn’t matter. What matters is that they were Republicans, they had a specific plan to discriminate against minorities, and they got away with it.Report
Well you could start with Senator Tommy Tuberville’s comment sin Nevada last week . . .Report
So, the people that Chip was talking about weren’t the people in the story he was talking about at an event he didn’t mention on a subject that isn’t related.Report
Did he say something about Nury Martinez?
Or are we no longer talking about her and wondering why in the hell anybody would even bring her up?
Wait, lemme guess… “Nury Martinez? BSDI!!!!”Report
Alright, you’re losing the plot.
I’ll diagram it.
1. I said that several powerful people, Democrats, were making racial slurs.
2. Brandon and Pinky diverted the conversation to claim how white people were the victims of bias and safe to insult.
End of diagram.Report
Missing from your diagram was your comment:
“When someone says ‘Gee Chip, why do you always accuse Republicans of being motivated by racial resentment?’ I’m gonna point to this comment.”
I was replying to that. And that was your launchpad for making this about Republicans.Report
OH! You have words in there that you said you said last time but I must not have seen them.
The inclusion of those words that you said you said makes things clearer, thank you.Report
I’m happy to keep the focus on the Democratic members of the LA City Council.
As I said at the outset, this is a demonstration of how prevalent racism is in American politics.
No one is immune from it.
But its also a good demonstration of how the Democrats police their ranks, and exile people like this.Report
No one is immune from it.
We used to be able to point out that there were a handful of groups that could *NOT* be racist. Bigoted, sure! But not racist. Racism requires a certain amount of something or other. (I admit, I didn’t understand the argument well enough to recreate it. It just hammered on how members of some groups were incapable of racism.)
Is that gone, now?Report
What you mean “we”, white man?Report
People caught up on the latest lingo with regards to policing the accusations of others.Report
To wit:
Bass, Villaraigosa join call for unity and healing after racist remarks by L.A. councilmembers
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-11/bass-villaraigosa-martinez-racist-audio-leak
The meeting was convened to build unity and bridge the racial divide after a recording surfaced of City Councilwoman Nury Martinez making racist remarks in a meeting with two other councilmembers and a prominent labor leader.
Martinez, who referred to a Black child as a “changuito,” or little monkey, and to Oaxacans as “short little dark people” in the recording, stepped down as president of the L.A. City Council and has taken a leave of absence from the council.
…
At one point in the recording, Councilman Kevin De León appeared to compare a white colleague’s handling of his child, who is Black, to Martinez holding a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Bass and her opponent in the mayoral race, Rick Caruso, are among the many politicians who have called for Martinez, De León and Gil Cedillo, the third councilmember in the conversation, to resign.
The fourth person on the recording, Ron Herrera, resigned from his post as president of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation on Monday night….
The meeting took place as protesters flooded the L.A. City Council chambers, chanting, “We’re with the Blacks,” and, “Shut it down.”
“With the Blacks” refers to the initial conversation
in which Martinez sneered at George Gascon and said said “Forget him, he’s with the blacks.”
That’s two out of the four who have already stepped down. Very likely that all four will have their careers permanently ruined as a result.
The Biden administration is now calling for Martinez to resign.
Again, when we talk about etiquette and social norms in a multicultural society, this is what it looks like when they are enforced. Not pretty, but effective.Report
Not just Martinez! Not anymore!
Report
Dark Brandon takes no prisoners.Report
No one is immune.Report
I don’t know why you insist on trying to reason with Chip. I speak three languages and got an 800 on the verbal SAT, but I still don’t have the words to express how little intellectual respect I have for him and his fellow travelers. But since you asked, it’s the second, of course.
To be clear, I don’t personally feel like a victim. I’m doing fine. I’m not personally offended by left-wing bigotry. I don’t care what trashy people think of me.
I do care that the trash has not been taken out. I resent the corruption of science, education, journalism, and my country by midwits in the thrall of a pseudoscientific ideology which is so trivially falsified as to make it clear that not one of them has made the slightest effort to step outside the evidentiary Potemkin village needed to sustain the myth.
Then there’s that whole mess with Trump and co. on the other side. I feel like the bread in an inside-out s*** sandwich.Report
Thanks, from inside science, for the vote of confidence. As “trash” that I assume you want “taken out” do remember that this language us the exact language of biggots, fascists and others everywhere who want only their views represented in a society – and often by force. If you don’t want to be in the middle of that sandwich, perhaps you ought to rethink your stance.Report
I found Chip fascinating at first. Recently, my operating theory has shifted from “liberal who simply doesn’t understand what conservatives believe” to “conspiracy thinker”, and I find that less interesting. I think I can see differences between some of the regular libs on this site but lately I’ve been mistaking a one for another. I don’t know if that means they’re blending in their thinking or I’m paying less attention. I think this rapid-fire 10 second format brings out the most reflexive in all of us.Report
I’ve concluded that he’s really just a bullshitter, in the Frankfurtian sense. None of us get paid for commenting here, so if we do it we must be finding some other benefit — I think Chip just wants to say things that feel satisfying and self-justifying in the moment, and he’s just not bothered about whether his argument makes logical sense, or if there’s any solid evidence for it, arguments for other viewpoints, consistency with other things he’s said, etc. A little like Trump, ironically.Report
I do care that the trash has not been taken out. I resent the corruption of science, education, journalism, and my country by midwits in the thrall of a pseudoscientific ideology which is so trivially falsified as to make it clear that not one of them has made the slightest effort to step outside the evidentiary Potemkin village needed to sustain the myth.
Whenever someone says “Gee Chip why do you always say that Republicans are motivated by resentment and grievance?” I am going to point to this comment.Report
Hooray! Mexicans are white!Report
Kanye wants to go Defcon 3 on Jews and earned the approval of Elon Musk and the House GOP committee: https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/kanye-elon-trumpReport
*Death Con 3Report
More open anti-Semitism from Republican politicians: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/us/politics/mastriano-shapiro-antisemitism.htmlReport
I can’t get to the article, but the only thing I’m seeing online is that Mastriano said he went to a “privileged” school and his kids went to the same “privileged, exclusive, elite school”. Sounds like something people would say about Romney or Trump. I mean, if there is something anti-Semitic, I’d condemn it, but I can’t find it.Report
Its a Jewish School. not just elite, Jewish. And one that has 60% of its student body on aid and scholarships. One that historically hosted Russian Jews escaping communism.
Jeez – do you really not know how anti-Semitic dog whistles work?Report
Are you familiar with Pennsylvania politics? The whole Fetterman / Oz race (except for health issues) has revolved around whether the candidates are “one of us”. Fetterman’s schooling (elite, no less), his job as a mayor in a blue-collar town, Oz’s questionable PA status – that’s been the whole race. That’s how Pennsylvania is.
If two things play out similarly, and one of them isn’t an anti-Semitic dog whistle, then there’s no reason to think the other one is. That’s the beauty of the “dog whistle” analogy. it literally refers to something that the participants can’t hear, but one of them is assuming must be there. I have a hunch that anyone who won’t vote for a Jew didn’t need to hear the phrase “elite school” to figure out that Shapiro is Jewish.Report
Clearly you don’t actually understand dog whistles in politics, so here I’ll Merriam-Webster it for you:
Through much of the history of the last 2000 years or so, Jews have been denegrated by being called elite, priviledged etc. Its the most polite anti-Semitism you can use in the English language. And yes, its meant to directly communicate to Pennsylvanians that Shapiro is not “one of them” because he’s Jewish.
https://www.ajc.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2021-02/AJC_Translate-Hate-Glossary-2021.pdfReport
I was having fun with the literal meaning of dog whistles in order to highlight a point. An accusation of a figurative dog whistle is the worst kind of attack against an opponent’s suspected motives, because it doesn’t have to be found in the opponent’s actual words.
Nothing in your comment constitutes a reply to my earlier comment: “If two things play out similarly, and one of them isn’t an anti-Semitic dog whistle, then there’s no reason to think the other one is”.Report
they aren’t playing out similarly – one of them involves a member of a group that is routinely dog whistled at.Report
The results are playing out similarly with a “control group” of a Christian and an “experimental group” of a Jew. You just acknowledged that by saying that the difference is “one of them involves a member…” rather than “one of them got treated as…”.Report
The NY Times on the openly anti-Semitic attacks from Doug Mastriano: “Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, has rattled a diverse swath of the state’s Jewish community, alarming liberal Jews with his remarks and far-right associations, and giving pause to more conservative ones.
Some of those voters have recoiled from Mr. Mastriano’s opposition to abortion rights under any circumstance, or from his strident election denialism. But the race between Mr. Mastriano, a state senator, and his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Shapiro — a Jewish day school alum who features challah in his advertising and routinely borrows from Pirkei Avot, a collection of Jewish ethics — has also centered to an extraordinary degree on Mr. Shapiro’s religion.”
So anti-Semitism is only a Jewish issue?
Compare this to how it discusses the Ohio Senate debate:
“The Senate campaign has been spirited and may be close, which is remarkable considering the Republican bent of the state and the commanding lead that its Republican governor, Mike DeWine, has in his quest for re-election. But Mr. Ryan has a tall order: He must persuade hundreds of thousands of Republican voters to cast their ballots for a Democrat in a year when the Democratic president is unpopular and the economy is faltering.
Mr. Vance, after a heated primary season, has been accused of coasting through the summer, and he entered the debate with low expectations. But he knew the bar was low for him to prove himself palatable enough to ride Mr. DeWine’s coattails and the broader political winds. He most likely did that.”
What is wanting to institute minority rule in perpetuity and outlaw abortion when gas is over 4.50 a gallon, am I right?
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/10/10/us/ohio-senate-debate-ryan-vance
Pathetic.Report
In case you were curious about the state of the DoJ’s Hunter Biden Investigation:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/politics/hunter-biden-investigation-federal-prosecutors-weighing-charges/index.htmlReport
A whole slew of folks in the US no longer care about ideas, debates or even norms. All they acre about is winning.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/politics/midterm-elections-fraud-poll/index.htmlReport
As a matter of logic, if a team is expected to win a game, isn’t it more likely that their loss would be caused by bad officiating than their opponent’s loss?Report
So you believe Donald Trump’s claims that he lost in 202 due to fraud?Report
This may be the 100th time: no.Report
But you accept that these of your fellow travelers are correct in assuming, before the game is even played, that the officials will throw the game to your opponents, as opposed to your team being outplayed? And you see these two things and entirely consistent?
Fascinating.Report
No, I don’t. My comment was a matter of logic, and I described it as such. If the Republicans are expected to win the House, and they win the House, it’s less likely that it would be a sign of fraud, right? I expect the Democrats will holler “voter suppression” rather than “fraud”, but even so they’ll probably not be yelling as loud because a Republican win is expected.Report
If Democrats win the House when Republicans are expected to win the House – which isn’t looking so sure anymore – it will no more be a sign of fraud then Donald Trump loosing to Joe Biden was because of fraud.
And your officiating analogy is flawed – bad officiating in sports can still be overcome (and in most cases is) by expert play calling. Tennessee shellacking LSU this last weekend certainly had its share of bad plays, but Tennessee outplayed the Tigers even as the unranked underdog. That’s not an indication of fraudulent officiating sufficient to throw the game.Report
Maybe I’m overstating this. So let’s step back. At a minimum, can you agree that an underdog win is more likely to raise suspicions than an underdog loss?Report
Not PRIOR to the game, which is where we are now. And even post game – not in most sports. Teams have bad days. The Cliché in the SEC for football is that Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee can all have one good Saturday against a way better opponent. The only suspicion it raises when it happens – as it did this last weekend – is that the superior team was badly coached. There may be bad officiating as part of that, but the usual suspicion is the underdog got up for the game, not the officials threw the contest BEFORE it started.Report
Its also worth noting that bad officiating is not indicative of active fraud. As with Mr. Trump’s loss, calls not going your way means officials are human, not nefarious. This polling says a sizable block of Republican voters see Democrats as nefarious with no evidence.
Put another way – Hillary Clinton’s campaign shot her foot off tactically and strategically and lost to the less qualified, less prepared candidate (who we now know never expected to win). The disinformation campaign the Russians were demonstrated to have carried out against her was an added wound.Report
I think the “Extra! Extra! The Ten Second News Links We’ve Overlooked!” idea is good… but it kinda breaks after a few days.
Perhaps we should consider a “Week 40: Open Links and Comments” model instead. Put a weekly identifier in there for the bleed-over (and for the historians of the internet who will comb our archives for ancient wisdom).Report
Hrm. Okey doke.
Pick a weekday.Report
Dealer’s choice… but maybe a fresh thread on Monday?
If Linky Friday ever came back, that would be a good combo too.Report
Am I imagining it, or are these threads crowding out the article-and-comment dynamic here in the same way that Twitter sniping drowns out meaningful dialogue?Report
Crowding out?
Hrm. Open threads are going to invite off-the-cuff comments to a degree that a well-thought out post won’t.
That’s practically a benefit. Especially if we need a place for people to post off-the-cuff thoughts.Report
I am a conservative. I am grumping. This cannot be avoided.Report
Angela Lansbury has diedReport
My wife (a long-time Lansbury fan) and I went to see the Broadway revival of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, featuring Angela Lansbury as the mystic Madame Arcati. At one point, the wife of the lead character, a successful mystery writer, is talking with Mme. Arcati and, with Lansbury downstage center, mentions that her husband is starting a new mystery novel — about a mystery writer who solves real-life crimes.
The audience waited in anticipation, wondering what Lansbury, famous for playing mystery novelist and “real”-life crime solver Jessica Fletcher would do with this hanging curve ball.
She did exactly the right thing — nothing. She took a few beats, blinked her eyes, and went right into her next scripted line. To great hilarity.
I’ve used what she taught me in some productions I’ve acted in.Report
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