For the record I don't disagree with any of that. I don't think there's some grand conspiracy. I do however think there's a cultural shift among parents, which I'd wager is most pronounced among those able to send their kids to $65k/year schools, combined with risk aversion due to increased litigiousness over the last 40 years, plus probably some weird level of stuff coming out of all the graduate credits a lot of teachers have to take to get a raise, which itself is coopted by administrators in self interested ways.
And it isn't like you don't come across plenty of parents caught up in some kind of vaguely political paranoia and and catastrophic thinking. A lot of adults probably could also stand with way less screen time themselves.
You and to a degree Chip are the ones responding like there's some kind of moral panic. I don't think screens, or crazy risk aversion, or overwrought concern about emotional well-being is going to kill anyone, nor do I think that tablets, smart phones, or modern video games are going to create a generation of psychopaths and/or totally useless and effette weaklings. I'm not Tipper Gore and I'm not someone who subscribes to the idea that children need to be raised by drill sergeants. However I do think these things have a good chance of working in concert to produce a lot more overly anxious, neurotic adults with a lot of trouble finding happiness. YMMV as to whether you care about that but if that's the case just say so instead of arguing against straw men.
Heh, that was about elementary aged students, Chip.
Back in the 90s in high school I did a lot of smoking pot and cigarettes, chasing girls, and trying to get adults to buy me beer. Got into plenty of stupid trouble with various authority figures and other teens and I shudder to think at a number of things we got away with in automobiles.
My assumption then was that we were downright tame compared to our post 60s predecessors. But look if you think we're in a better place now I'll let you make that case.
There's some of that. However I also think culture and technology has really changed things. I've come across studies suggesting that risky behavior is part of human development and that closing it off with safety-ism and screen based childhoods may be a driver of the decline in mental health reported by teens and young adults.
That doesn't mean we need to totally let everything go but there's a point where it starts doing more harm than good. FWIW the principal at my kids' school made a major point at back to school night this year that anyone not letting their kids have unstructured low or no supervision play time need to get comfortable allowing it ASAP.
My take is that the safety-ism operates as the default but that a person can still mostly opt out of it. The catch is that opting out takes planning, effort, and at times resources. I am also of course not operating in the world of people able to send their kids to these types of schools so no idea what the norm is for them. Though part of the reason we do Catholic school is because we find they haven't ever heard of the kind of thinking expressed in that email, not that there aren't other trade offs.
I think it's as simple as women in the UK not having to chose between defending their reproductive rights and the rights they have carved out to sex segregated spaces more generally. One greatly outweighs the other, and understandably so.
If there is a surprise result in Harris' favor one would have to assume Dobbs is the main factor, maybe in combination with the GOP nominating obviously ridiculous people down ballot like Robinson and Lake.
That's because the conservative media is still about 1000 times worse when it comes to these problems. All you have to do is look back to the time Tucker Carlson (of all people) got laughed off the stage for his ridiculous suggestion that maybe conservatives should attempt to establish media institutions with their own, independently earned credibility. If they did that how would they ever sell gold coins to elderly people verging on dementia?
I give that a big maybe. There are other moments where I might have applauded the decision. However I'm not sure it helps regain credibility if it looks like a pre-emptive, cowardly, and probably futile move by ownership to avoid adverse treatment of other business interests by an incoming illiberal administration.
I also think you might be misunderstanding the nature of the credibility problem. Yea there's an aspect that stems from a work force dominated by the same milieu of Ivy and SLAC grads with stupid leftist political commitments. The bigger problem IMO though is that the WaPo lacks identity.
In absence of that it's strategy has been to try (and fail) to out NYT the NYT, which is maybe the one big legacy outlet that's found a way to navigate the larger disruption of the newspaper industry. Maybe this is the first step to correcting that problem. Maybe they will start bringing in some different people with different philosophies. Maybe they're on the verge of unveiling a coherent editorial vision of what the paper should be that isn't the JV NYT. Time will tell. But I would say that if they are not doing that then this is pretty meaningless. You'd be better off throwing whatever little weight you have left behind the politicians that aren't promising to go to war with you for totally capricious reasons.
After the euphoria subsided I actually felt kind of bad for Bears fans. For almost 25 years under Snyder I watched Washington be on the other side of that kind of thing constantly. Not just losing but losing in utterly inexplicable, odds defying ways. I have been there and it is awful.
We probably had something like 300 trick or treaters last night and I love it. Not the whole neighborhood participates but most do and with lots of enthusiasm which is great fun. I was so in the spirit I carved 3 jackolanterns instead of my usual 2.
As for us my oldest is with my MIL tonight. Sadly her father/my wife's grandfather passed last Sunday. Hopefully some time with her grandson cheers her up.
With the lighter load we'll stream some From (highly recommended for horror fans). When my wife and the little guy inevitably pass out I may go up the street and get some beers and games if darts in.
Tomorrow back to adulting with Costco, soccer party, then me versus the kids solo for dinner while the wife is out with her mom and sister. Sunday flag football and hoping to see Jayden Daniel's annihilate the Giants.
I think the best thing the Democrats will be able to do in the immediate future is play defense at the federal level and support state initiatives against the prohibitions and near prohibitions. I believe there are 10 state level referendums coming up along the the general election, including some in very red states. If even some of those are successful I think the writing for hard bans will be pretty well on the wall.
If Harris loses I think you're right that illegal immigration will have been among the top two or three reasons. However I think it's interesting that as best as I can tell she's one of very few top Democrats to actually say what the message should have been, and in a very high profile way:
In a news conference alongside Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, she warned against illegal migration to the US, saying: "Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders."
She added: "If you come to our border, you will be turned back."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57387350
This is an area where there seems to have been room to run against the Biden admin, with a good soundbyte and everything, but for whatever reason they haven't.
Not to make it overly personal but my wife and I went through this several times (albeit thankfully much earlier in the pregnancy). The goal would be to get somewhere you can get help, not waste time fighting with people who can't.
I know that's been your take on this but I still don't get how you can lay so much more blame on the people trying to comply with the law than the ones who wrote it.
Yea I throw it out there as the starting point of some kind of compromise. I have no idea how this works in other states, never having voted in one, but I've been doing early in person for years. It is the exact same experience as election day except no lines.
I could see agreeing to something along the lines of voting has to be in person, at a facility meeting certain minimum process and security standards, BUT you also have to maintain a minimum number of locations, meet some kind population based and geographic proximity requirements, and have a mandated minimum number of early voting days and (relatively long) operating hours. You can still have exceptions for exigencies but you can also put limits on what those are without fairly being accused of suppression. And maybe to your point there's a rule that says votes are collected but nothing counted until day of. Not wedded to this particular concept but definitely open to ideas for making things less contentious.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Final Thoughts Before November Fifth”
For the record I don't disagree with any of that. I don't think there's some grand conspiracy. I do however think there's a cultural shift among parents, which I'd wager is most pronounced among those able to send their kids to $65k/year schools, combined with risk aversion due to increased litigiousness over the last 40 years, plus probably some weird level of stuff coming out of all the graduate credits a lot of teachers have to take to get a raise, which itself is coopted by administrators in self interested ways.
And it isn't like you don't come across plenty of parents caught up in some kind of vaguely political paranoia and and catastrophic thinking. A lot of adults probably could also stand with way less screen time themselves.
"
You and to a degree Chip are the ones responding like there's some kind of moral panic. I don't think screens, or crazy risk aversion, or overwrought concern about emotional well-being is going to kill anyone, nor do I think that tablets, smart phones, or modern video games are going to create a generation of psychopaths and/or totally useless and effette weaklings. I'm not Tipper Gore and I'm not someone who subscribes to the idea that children need to be raised by drill sergeants. However I do think these things have a good chance of working in concert to produce a lot more overly anxious, neurotic adults with a lot of trouble finding happiness. YMMV as to whether you care about that but if that's the case just say so instead of arguing against straw men.
"
Heh, that was about elementary aged students, Chip.
Back in the 90s in high school I did a lot of smoking pot and cigarettes, chasing girls, and trying to get adults to buy me beer. Got into plenty of stupid trouble with various authority figures and other teens and I shudder to think at a number of things we got away with in automobiles.
My assumption then was that we were downright tame compared to our post 60s predecessors. But look if you think we're in a better place now I'll let you make that case.
"
There's some of that. However I also think culture and technology has really changed things. I've come across studies suggesting that risky behavior is part of human development and that closing it off with safety-ism and screen based childhoods may be a driver of the decline in mental health reported by teens and young adults.
That doesn't mean we need to totally let everything go but there's a point where it starts doing more harm than good. FWIW the principal at my kids' school made a major point at back to school night this year that anyone not letting their kids have unstructured low or no supervision play time need to get comfortable allowing it ASAP.
"
My take is that the safety-ism operates as the default but that a person can still mostly opt out of it. The catch is that opting out takes planning, effort, and at times resources. I am also of course not operating in the world of people able to send their kids to these types of schools so no idea what the norm is for them. Though part of the reason we do Catholic school is because we find they haven't ever heard of the kind of thinking expressed in that email, not that there aren't other trade offs.
"
I think it's as simple as women in the UK not having to chose between defending their reproductive rights and the rights they have carved out to sex segregated spaces more generally. One greatly outweighs the other, and understandably so.
"
If there is a surprise result in Harris' favor one would have to assume Dobbs is the main factor, maybe in combination with the GOP nominating obviously ridiculous people down ballot like Robinson and Lake.
"
Probably so.
"
People that want me to stop laughing at the limousine lefties can stop cultivating them any time. But anyway, back to the clouds.
"
This kind of sh*t is just terrible for children. That people pay 65k a year for it is insane. Everyone should be fired.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/28/2024”
Dicks out for Harambe.
"
That's because the conservative media is still about 1000 times worse when it comes to these problems. All you have to do is look back to the time Tucker Carlson (of all people) got laughed off the stage for his ridiculous suggestion that maybe conservatives should attempt to establish media institutions with their own, independently earned credibility. If they did that how would they ever sell gold coins to elderly people verging on dementia?
"
I give that a big maybe. There are other moments where I might have applauded the decision. However I'm not sure it helps regain credibility if it looks like a pre-emptive, cowardly, and probably futile move by ownership to avoid adverse treatment of other business interests by an incoming illiberal administration.
I also think you might be misunderstanding the nature of the credibility problem. Yea there's an aspect that stems from a work force dominated by the same milieu of Ivy and SLAC grads with stupid leftist political commitments. The bigger problem IMO though is that the WaPo lacks identity.
In absence of that it's strategy has been to try (and fail) to out NYT the NYT, which is maybe the one big legacy outlet that's found a way to navigate the larger disruption of the newspaper industry. Maybe this is the first step to correcting that problem. Maybe they will start bringing in some different people with different philosophies. Maybe they're on the verge of unveiling a coherent editorial vision of what the paper should be that isn't the JV NYT. Time will tell. But I would say that if they are not doing that then this is pretty meaningless. You'd be better off throwing whatever little weight you have left behind the politicians that aren't promising to go to war with you for totally capricious reasons.
On “Weekend Plans Post: We’re Getting It Back”
After the euphoria subsided I actually felt kind of bad for Bears fans. For almost 25 years under Snyder I watched Washington be on the other side of that kind of thing constantly. Not just losing but losing in utterly inexplicable, odds defying ways. I have been there and it is awful.
"
Trans Atlantic would definitely be cool.
Normally I'd say it's probably nicer to ship out of FL than anywhere up here... but for the fact that it's clear and 78 degrees.
"
We probably had something like 300 trick or treaters last night and I love it. Not the whole neighborhood participates but most do and with lots of enthusiasm which is great fun. I was so in the spirit I carved 3 jackolanterns instead of my usual 2.
As for us my oldest is with my MIL tonight. Sadly her father/my wife's grandfather passed last Sunday. Hopefully some time with her grandson cheers her up.
With the lighter load we'll stream some From (highly recommended for horror fans). When my wife and the little guy inevitably pass out I may go up the street and get some beers and games if darts in.
Tomorrow back to adulting with Costco, soccer party, then me versus the kids solo for dinner while the wife is out with her mom and sister. Sunday flag football and hoping to see Jayden Daniel's annihilate the Giants.
"
You guys shipping out of Bmore or did you go all the way out to Norfolk?
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/28/2024”
One thing that drives me kind of crazy is how tough it can be to find him quoted at length.
Soundbytes make him sound way more coherent than he actually is.
"
I'm not trying to be charitable to Trump but it reads to me like he's calling her a chicken hawk. Which, I mean, is factually true.
On “What If Kamala Wins?”
I think the best thing the Democrats will be able to do in the immediate future is play defense at the federal level and support state initiatives against the prohibitions and near prohibitions. I believe there are 10 state level referendums coming up along the the general election, including some in very red states. If even some of those are successful I think the writing for hard bans will be pretty well on the wall.
On “The Way Through is Donald Trump for President”
If Harris loses I think you're right that illegal immigration will have been among the top two or three reasons. However I think it's interesting that as best as I can tell she's one of very few top Democrats to actually say what the message should have been, and in a very high profile way:
In a news conference alongside Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, she warned against illegal migration to the US, saying: "Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders."
She added: "If you come to our border, you will be turned back."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57387350
This is an area where there seems to have been room to run against the Biden admin, with a good soundbyte and everything, but for whatever reason they haven't.
On “Open Mic for the week of 10/28/2024”
My understanding is that in TX the provider could be charged with a felony.
"
Like Phil said that would not achieve anything.
Not to make it overly personal but my wife and I went through this several times (albeit thankfully much earlier in the pregnancy). The goal would be to get somewhere you can get help, not waste time fighting with people who can't.
"
I know that's been your take on this but I still don't get how you can lay so much more blame on the people trying to comply with the law than the ones who wrote it.
On “What If Kamala Wins?”
Yea I throw it out there as the starting point of some kind of compromise. I have no idea how this works in other states, never having voted in one, but I've been doing early in person for years. It is the exact same experience as election day except no lines.
I could see agreeing to something along the lines of voting has to be in person, at a facility meeting certain minimum process and security standards, BUT you also have to maintain a minimum number of locations, meet some kind population based and geographic proximity requirements, and have a mandated minimum number of early voting days and (relatively long) operating hours. You can still have exceptions for exigencies but you can also put limits on what those are without fairly being accused of suppression. And maybe to your point there's a rule that says votes are collected but nothing counted until day of. Not wedded to this particular concept but definitely open to ideas for making things less contentious.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.