Chris: ...the only reason for being upset about this casting decision is racism.
Most remakes of popular movies don't have their lead actress give interviews on how bad the original was. That's just unprofessional. I think the same interview also had her talk about how they've redone the plot so it's now about girl power and how Snow doesn't really need Charming.
To answer Chris' question, the University is under pressure from the student activists to treat that sort of thing and the shutting down of various educational buildings as a normal student protest and largely does.
Various other groups (including Trump) see it as deeply antisemitic and/or criminal and think the University should be using criminal charges and the law to deal with it.
Chris: What are some examples of this discrimination?
Criticism increased when a January 2024 recording of one organizer, Khymani James, saying "Zionists don't deserve to live" was released
...Another protester was recorded holding a sign reading "Al-Qassam's next targets" in front of student counter-protesters holding Israeli flags.
...protesters both on and off campus were recorded targeting Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol...
...protesters at the encampment were filmed chanting "Zionists not allowed here", while another protester called for "10,000 October 7ths". One Jewish student reported protesters saying "kill all the Jews" and "we want one Arab state",
InMD: modern day Russia’s nuclear weapons don’t actually work.
Yes. Nukes require extremely expensive maintenance and go bad over a few years because of half life.
The corruption in Russia is so bad they can't have military tires.
Russia pulled out of the Test Ban treaty and they've made a large number of nuclear threats. They have no reason to avoid testing a nuke and every reason to show they still have them.
They don't even need to announce a test before hand. They could try to set off a hundred nukes one at a time until it works and then claim they only tested that one.
A nuclear test would be a massive step towards winning the war politically. If they still had them they'd showcase it.
We have a lot of people thinking that Russia was a reasonable actor with nukes and the Ukraine was a tiny country who would be crushed easily. Some of that is decades of Russian propaganda. Some is wishful thinking so we-the-West don't need to cut social programs and rearm.
In reality Russia is not a reasonable actor, they don't have nukes, and everything they've said is a lie.
Some of the projects China has "invested" look pretty corrupt and/or poorly thought out where the West has refused to get involved because of poor previous performance.
And one of the typical conditions of a Chinese loan is that it gets paid back first. So if a country has serious fiscal issues and it asks for aid from the West, the West will probably refuse because it'd just go to pay off China.
Ideally we'd have general debt forgiveness from all interested parties, but as far as I know China has thus far refused to join that table.
At best some of this was poorly thought out. More likely it was self serving and we'll see loan sharks-ish behavior.
The World Health Org (which includes the US) already approved this year's flavor(s) at a meeting last week. Manufacturer(s) are already starting the process to make it.
The way to bet is whatever caused the cancellation of this week's meeting is much stupider and mundane than suggested.
...headed down a dangerous path of increased executive power...
This is a statement I bring up whenever Team Blue argues we should use the Fed to force the states to do something and/or increase the size of gov's regulation and entitlements.
Is this nutpicking (i.e. in a large bureaucracy it's expected that there will be miscommunications and dropped balls when dealing with large numbers of events) or is it Trump's minions saying FU to the judge?
If it's "completely lawless" then we should find lots and lots of this sort of thing.
If it's nutpicking (or if you prefer, "never event picking") then this sort of thing has always happened, even under Biden, but we haven't paid attention to it because it's rare.
DavidTC: ...it is accompanied by _overtly bigoted decisions_...
It says a lot about the current debate that I can't tell if "bigoted" means "treating people unequally" or if "bigoted" means "insisting on treating people equally".
That last would mean, "no anti-whiteness training". DEI has the rep of promoting the idea that whites are responsible for inequality because they're white, inequality needs to be measured by outcomes, and whites need to shut up and accept the opinion of minorities on reality.
Chris: black people are approved for credit at a much lower rate.
Serious question, why is that? Modern credit practices are likely run by robots. I'd hope no one put "race" into the math model.
If I'm wrong and someone did put race in there, then that's great news because we have an easy solution
Another possibility is there is a flaw with the disparity studies.
Oh, and please source this. My one minute internet search found lots of studies but they all seemed to have the flaw that they weren't adjusting for anything.
IMHO elite colleges should be stripped of the ability to set racial quotas and we should stop pretending they don't. We outlawed this sort of thing for good reason.
The best solution is daylight.
Have colleges come up with a point system and publish it. If they want to include a "poverty" category in there, then fine but they have to document what they're defining as "poverty".
If they want to include a "discrimination" category then that needs to be "proven discrimination against that person personally" and not "group membership".
An example of what's unacceptable is Harvard's subjective "personality" test which magically all Asians don't do well on and all Blacks do.
Chris: By invoking an individual vs group rights framework, you elide all of those questions entirely, which is awfully convenient.
My framing cuts through the self serving nonsense. "Fair" should be defined at an individual level, not at a group outcomes level.
Chris: The anti-DEI folks seem to fall into two camps...
Put me in camp 3 then. Disparities exist, but that's fine and expected if they're the result of a fair system.
Different cultures have different levels of parental involvement. It is expected for the children of involved parents to do better. That's why various ideologies need to exclude cultural effects.
Similarly a gender pay gap is unacceptable if it's the result of pay discrimination but acceptable if it's the result of free choices.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/3/2025”
Chris: ...the only reason for being upset about this casting decision is racism.
Most remakes of popular movies don't have their lead actress give interviews on how bad the original was. That's just unprofessional. I think the same interview also had her talk about how they've redone the plot so it's now about girl power and how Snow doesn't really need Charming.
"
To answer Chris' question, the University is under pressure from the student activists to treat that sort of thing and the shutting down of various educational buildings as a normal student protest and largely does.
Various other groups (including Trump) see it as deeply antisemitic and/or criminal and think the University should be using criminal charges and the law to deal with it.
"
Chris: What are some examples of this discrimination?
Criticism increased when a January 2024 recording of one organizer, Khymani James, saying "Zionists don't deserve to live" was released
...Another protester was recorded holding a sign reading "Al-Qassam's next targets" in front of student counter-protesters holding Israeli flags.
...protesters both on and off campus were recorded targeting Jewish students with antisemitic vitriol...
...protesters at the encampment were filmed chanting "Zionists not allowed here", while another protester called for "10,000 October 7ths". One Jewish student reported protesters saying "kill all the Jews" and "we want one Arab state",
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Columbia_University_pro-Palestinian_campus_occupations#Allegations_of_antisemitism
On “Comment Rescue: DavidTC on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Unfreezing of Funds”
"powers that be for making".
"
My thanks to the power-that-be to make DavidTC's original post a full topic.
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/3/2025”
InMD: modern day Russia’s nuclear weapons don’t actually work.
Yes. Nukes require extremely expensive maintenance and go bad over a few years because of half life.
The corruption in Russia is so bad they can't have military tires.
Russia pulled out of the Test Ban treaty and they've made a large number of nuclear threats. They have no reason to avoid testing a nuke and every reason to show they still have them.
They don't even need to announce a test before hand. They could try to set off a hundred nukes one at a time until it works and then claim they only tested that one.
A nuclear test would be a massive step towards winning the war politically. If they still had them they'd showcase it.
"
Saul: Am I supposed to argue with [Tate]
in good faith
I wouldn't. Tate does/says controversial things for the point of attracting attention.
Having said that, normally I assume good faith as a matter of policy.
"
We have a lot of people thinking that Russia was a reasonable actor with nukes and the Ukraine was a tiny country who would be crushed easily. Some of that is decades of Russian propaganda. Some is wishful thinking so we-the-West don't need to cut social programs and rearm.
In reality Russia is not a reasonable actor, they don't have nukes, and everything they've said is a lie.
"
It would be much easier to get and pay for Universal HC if HC were much cheaper.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Road maint problems vary wildly by state. NY has massive pot holes that can't be fixed. Florida does not.
At a WAG I'd guess this is some flavor of corruption.
"
Some of the projects China has "invested" look pretty corrupt and/or poorly thought out where the West has refused to get involved because of poor previous performance.
And one of the typical conditions of a Chinese loan is that it gets paid back first. So if a country has serious fiscal issues and it asks for aid from the West, the West will probably refuse because it'd just go to pay off China.
Ideally we'd have general debt forgiveness from all interested parties, but as far as I know China has thus far refused to join that table.
At best some of this was poorly thought out. More likely it was self serving and we'll see loan sharks-ish behavior.
"
China's belt and road program gives loans, not grants. And you need to use Chinese labor and sourcing for your whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative#Debt_sustainability
"
The World Health Org (which includes the US) already approved this year's flavor(s) at a meeting last week. Manufacturer(s) are already starting the process to make it.
The way to bet is whatever caused the cancellation of this week's meeting is much stupider and mundane than suggested.
"
The problem with false accusations is it says more about you than about them. It also detracts from the actual problems this crew will create.
"
That's basically a rumor. We don't know what's going on.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-02-28/health-experts-sound-alarm-as-fda-cancels-key-vaccine-meeting
On “In Times Without Norms, All Laws Fall Silent”
...headed down a dangerous path of increased executive power...
This is a statement I bring up whenever Team Blue argues we should use the Fed to force the states to do something and/or increase the size of gov's regulation and entitlements.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Or more specifically, "several reported incidents" sounds a lot more like "reporting never events" than "FU judge".
"
Maybe a Gas leak?
"
So it's happening at about the same rate as the cops killing unarmed civilians?
"
Is this nutpicking (i.e. in a large bureaucracy it's expected that there will be miscommunications and dropped balls when dealing with large numbers of events) or is it Trump's minions saying FU to the judge?
If it's "completely lawless" then we should find lots and lots of this sort of thing.
If it's nutpicking (or if you prefer, "never event picking") then this sort of thing has always happened, even under Biden, but we haven't paid attention to it because it's rare.
"
Gene Hackman is dead: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewkkkvkzn9o
On “Musk vs Gore”
DavidTC: ...it is accompanied by _overtly bigoted decisions_...
It says a lot about the current debate that I can't tell if "bigoted" means "treating people unequally" or if "bigoted" means "insisting on treating people equally".
That last would mean, "no anti-whiteness training". DEI has the rep of promoting the idea that whites are responsible for inequality because they're white, inequality needs to be measured by outcomes, and whites need to shut up and accept the opinion of minorities on reality.
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Chris: black people are approved for credit at a much lower rate.
Serious question, why is that? Modern credit practices are likely run by robots. I'd hope no one put "race" into the math model.
If I'm wrong and someone did put race in there, then that's great news because we have an easy solution
Another possibility is there is a flaw with the disparity studies.
Oh, and please source this. My one minute internet search found lots of studies but they all seemed to have the flaw that they weren't adjusting for anything.
"
IMHO elite colleges should be stripped of the ability to set racial quotas and we should stop pretending they don't. We outlawed this sort of thing for good reason.
The best solution is daylight.
Have colleges come up with a point system and publish it. If they want to include a "poverty" category in there, then fine but they have to document what they're defining as "poverty".
If they want to include a "discrimination" category then that needs to be "proven discrimination against that person personally" and not "group membership".
An example of what's unacceptable is Harvard's subjective "personality" test which magically all Asians don't do well on and all Blacks do.
"
Chris: By invoking an individual vs group rights framework, you elide all of those questions entirely, which is awfully convenient.
My framing cuts through the self serving nonsense. "Fair" should be defined at an individual level, not at a group outcomes level.
Chris: The anti-DEI folks seem to fall into two camps...
Put me in camp 3 then. Disparities exist, but that's fine and expected if they're the result of a fair system.
Different cultures have different levels of parental involvement. It is expected for the children of involved parents to do better. That's why various ideologies need to exclude cultural effects.
Similarly a gender pay gap is unacceptable if it's the result of pay discrimination but acceptable if it's the result of free choices.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.