If your notion of "pressure" is telling immigrant people that they have to do what they have to do, just like everyone else, then I guess we don't have a disagreement. Odd notion of "pressure," though.
And some of us are "deeply suspicious" of folks who are unwilling to let nature take its course and talk about vague kinds of "pressure" they are unwilling to specify.
"We also didn’t leave it up to previous groups either."
Who is this "we" of whom you speak? And what is it "we" did? Major American cities had German-language public schools until WWI. Just about every group followed a standard pattern of assimilation: first generation largely speaking and reading a foreign language with only halting English; second generation fluent in English; third generation incompetent in the ancestral language. People are smart enough to adapt to the normal pressures of what it takes to get by in America without much input -- whether help or pressure -- from "us." Mine were; I'm sure yours were as well.
I used to follow the sleeping lawyer cases, and became convinced that what was really going on was that if the sleeping lawyer had been awake and, while awake, did as little as the sleeper, courts would not have found ineffective assistance, so why should it be any different if the lawyer slept? But this was too harsh a truth to state baldly.
"The question for me is whether once we give them the option to step into the light, and they choose to stay, will they make the mental shift to begin assimilating?"
Maybe we should let them worry about that, the way we did with previous waves of immigrants.
Despite major changes in my mortgage interest, SALT, and business expense deductions, my total tax bite came out about the same. My refund was about a tenth of what it used to be, and I always liked that $5-6,000 shot coming right after I have paid off holiday and year-end related expenses, but given the smaller bite out of my paycheck over the year, I had less need of it.
Now that Tiger has established that he can be competitive (last year) and win a major (this year), the other golfers on the tour stand to make more money.
It is never a good idea to forget the Rule of Holes. Being a VP of the Society for Women Engineers, almost certainly because the women wanted him to be, doesn't sound like the sort of powerful job you can leverage for sex.
Who first said "every accusation is a confession?" The guy may have been a creep, or he could have been a genuine advocate for women in engineering, reaping the well-earned benefits of his advocacy, or he could have been a man of mixed motives, like most of us. I don't pretend to know, but then I didn't call him a creep.
Same thing for the late 60's and early 70's. But just as every generation convinces itself that it invented sex -- despite the contrary evidence of their own existence and the occasional muffled sounds from the parental bedroom -- every generation convinces itself that it uniquely speaks truth to power, even if it has odd ideas of where power actually lies, not to mention their odd ideas of truth. (I know enough of the history of this stuff to know that I was not the first to notice how certain kinds of activism were great ways to get laid. It worked for the college Communists of the 1930's, it worked in my day -- though not as well as I would have liked -- and it works now.)
They probably never did. I've been watching a lot of 1950's-early 1960's television lately and am appalled by the sexual morality on display. An awful lot of secretaries in tight sweaters and bullet bras living in apartments no secretary could afford on her secretarial salary, and other such Rat Pack/Mad Men corruption.
You can do edgy humor about anyone, but it has to be funny. Don Imus relied on racial stereotypes to lampoon people who actually embodied those stereotypes, like Mike Tyson or Adam Pac-Man Jones. The jokes were crude and racially-charged, but they pointed to something real. Where he got into trouble was referring to the almost all black Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." That might have worked as a joke if the Rutgers players, like Tyson or Jones, had done something to warrant the abuse, but they didn't, so the joke amounted to shouting "N****r," which isn't funny.
Recenly, I re-listened to Lenny Bruce's "Thank You, Masked Man" routine, mainly because a local station has been running The Lone Ranger, which I used to love as a kid. Any dirty-minded 13-year-old boy -- if that is not redundant -- would (and did) come up with the idea that there was something going on between the Lone Ranger and Tonto, but Bruce's routine really didn't amount to much more than "The Masked Man's a fag." (verbatim) Audiences today want more than that, and rightly so.
A fine article. What cultural conservatives too often overlook is that many of the developments that broke down traditions they mourn were the responsibility not of lefty ideologues or SJWs, but of conservative businessmen out to make a buck. Henry Ford, a string of motel owners, and Big Pharma probably did more to create a sexual revolution than Hugh Hefner.
So if veronica had spoken the language of resentment rather than psychology, that would be OK? Or of character rather than trauma? I much prefer the former language myself, though I consider that more a matter of style than of morals.
Just want to make sure I understand the rules around here.
Much of modern politics is driven by resentment of large masses of people who hate other folks for being cooler or classier -- which seems to be jaybird's idea of "elite" -- than they are. There's nothing wrong with pointing out an example that screams to be pointed out.
Maybe it's just that I'm older than most of the folks here, but I have over a half-century of memories -- some deeply personal -- of folks disparaging the morals of anyone who dissented from what passed for political correctness in the Mad Men, Rat Pack, and later eras. And in case no one has noticed, it's still going on today.
Romney got what he deserved, and it had nothing to do with virtue signalling. He had his "binders full of women," and needed them, because he could not credibly claim identifiable, high-powered female supporters who might fill significant spots in his administration. And why do people think his banal comment about Russia made him Thucydides? What he said wasn't wrong, it was vacuous. Nobody needed to be reminded that there was only one country on earth that would have to think for more than 5 minutes before deciding that war or other high-intensity conflict with the United States was a very, very bad idea.
Sometimes a doof is just a doof. And nobody has a right to a pass on it when he puts himself out as a potential Leader of the Free World.
Although I had a casual acquaintance with country music (mostly classic and outlaw), knew who Billy Ray Cyrus was, and had heard of his big hit, when I clicked on the link to Achy, Breaky Heart I realized that I had never heard it until today. Not that I'd missed much, but I try not to be completely out of touch.
On “The Immigration Debate is Over”
Depends on what "it" is.
"
If your notion of "pressure" is telling immigrant people that they have to do what they have to do, just like everyone else, then I guess we don't have a disagreement. Odd notion of "pressure," though.
"
And some of us are "deeply suspicious" of folks who are unwilling to let nature take its course and talk about vague kinds of "pressure" they are unwilling to specify.
On “Wednesday Writs for 4/17”
I do the same thing. I always warn the clients.
On “The Immigration Debate is Over”
"We also didn’t leave it up to previous groups either."
Who is this "we" of whom you speak? And what is it "we" did? Major American cities had German-language public schools until WWI. Just about every group followed a standard pattern of assimilation: first generation largely speaking and reading a foreign language with only halting English; second generation fluent in English; third generation incompetent in the ancestral language. People are smart enough to adapt to the normal pressures of what it takes to get by in America without much input -- whether help or pressure -- from "us." Mine were; I'm sure yours were as well.
On “Wednesday Writs for 4/17”
I used to follow the sleeping lawyer cases, and became convinced that what was really going on was that if the sleeping lawyer had been awake and, while awake, did as little as the sleeper, courts would not have found ineffective assistance, so why should it be any different if the lawyer slept? But this was too harsh a truth to state baldly.
On “The Immigration Debate is Over”
"The question for me is whether once we give them the option to step into the light, and they choose to stay, will they make the mental shift to begin assimilating?"
Maybe we should let them worry about that, the way we did with previous waves of immigrants.
On “Yes, Virginia, You (Probably) Got a “Tax Cut””
Sadly, no.
"
Small for each paycheck, but it added up.
"
Despite major changes in my mortgage interest, SALT, and business expense deductions, my total tax bite came out about the same. My refund was about a tenth of what it used to be, and I always liked that $5-6,000 shot coming right after I have paid off holiday and year-end related expenses, but given the smaller bite out of my paycheck over the year, I had less need of it.
On “Tiger Woods’ Far From Perfect Circle”
Now that Tiger has established that he can be competitive (last year) and win a major (this year), the other golfers on the tour stand to make more money.
On “The Signals and Noise of Virtue”
It is never a good idea to forget the Rule of Holes. Being a VP of the Society for Women Engineers, almost certainly because the women wanted him to be, doesn't sound like the sort of powerful job you can leverage for sex.
"
Who first said "every accusation is a confession?" The guy may have been a creep, or he could have been a genuine advocate for women in engineering, reaping the well-earned benefits of his advocacy, or he could have been a man of mixed motives, like most of us. I don't pretend to know, but then I didn't call him a creep.
"
Same thing for the late 60's and early 70's. But just as every generation convinces itself that it invented sex -- despite the contrary evidence of their own existence and the occasional muffled sounds from the parental bedroom -- every generation convinces itself that it uniquely speaks truth to power, even if it has odd ideas of where power actually lies, not to mention their odd ideas of truth. (I know enough of the history of this stuff to know that I was not the first to notice how certain kinds of activism were great ways to get laid. It worked for the college Communists of the 1930's, it worked in my day -- though not as well as I would have liked -- and it works now.)
"
They probably never did. I've been watching a lot of 1950's-early 1960's television lately and am appalled by the sexual morality on display. An awful lot of secretaries in tight sweaters and bullet bras living in apartments no secretary could afford on her secretarial salary, and other such Rat Pack/Mad Men corruption.
"
You can do edgy humor about anyone, but it has to be funny. Don Imus relied on racial stereotypes to lampoon people who actually embodied those stereotypes, like Mike Tyson or Adam Pac-Man Jones. The jokes were crude and racially-charged, but they pointed to something real. Where he got into trouble was referring to the almost all black Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." That might have worked as a joke if the Rutgers players, like Tyson or Jones, had done something to warrant the abuse, but they didn't, so the joke amounted to shouting "N****r," which isn't funny.
Recenly, I re-listened to Lenny Bruce's "Thank You, Masked Man" routine, mainly because a local station has been running The Lone Ranger, which I used to love as a kid. Any dirty-minded 13-year-old boy -- if that is not redundant -- would (and did) come up with the idea that there was something going on between the Lone Ranger and Tonto, but Bruce's routine really didn't amount to much more than "The Masked Man's a fag." (verbatim) Audiences today want more than that, and rightly so.
"
A fine article. What cultural conservatives too often overlook is that many of the developments that broke down traditions they mourn were the responsibility not of lefty ideologues or SJWs, but of conservative businessmen out to make a buck. Henry Ford, a string of motel owners, and Big Pharma probably did more to create a sexual revolution than Hugh Hefner.
"
So if veronica had spoken the language of resentment rather than psychology, that would be OK? Or of character rather than trauma? I much prefer the former language myself, though I consider that more a matter of style than of morals.
Just want to make sure I understand the rules around here.
"
Memory can be short and selective.
"
Much of modern politics is driven by resentment of large masses of people who hate other folks for being cooler or classier -- which seems to be jaybird's idea of "elite" -- than they are. There's nothing wrong with pointing out an example that screams to be pointed out.
"
Well, yes. You make that sound like a bad thing.
"
Maybe it's just that I'm older than most of the folks here, but I have over a half-century of memories -- some deeply personal -- of folks disparaging the morals of anyone who dissented from what passed for political correctness in the Mad Men, Rat Pack, and later eras. And in case no one has noticed, it's still going on today.
"
Romney got what he deserved, and it had nothing to do with virtue signalling. He had his "binders full of women," and needed them, because he could not credibly claim identifiable, high-powered female supporters who might fill significant spots in his administration. And why do people think his banal comment about Russia made him Thucydides? What he said wasn't wrong, it was vacuous. Nobody needed to be reminded that there was only one country on earth that would have to think for more than 5 minutes before deciding that war or other high-intensity conflict with the United States was a very, very bad idea.
Sometimes a doof is just a doof. And nobody has a right to a pass on it when he puts himself out as a potential Leader of the Free World.
On “And Just Like That, Billy Ray Cyrus is Cool Again”
Although I had a casual acquaintance with country music (mostly classic and outlaw), knew who Billy Ray Cyrus was, and had heard of his big hit, when I clicked on the link to Achy, Breaky Heart I realized that I had never heard it until today. Not that I'd missed much, but I try not to be completely out of touch.
On “Woman Commits Crime, Victim Goes To Jail”
We can be sure that Donald Trump will have DOJ look into this, can't we?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.