6/02/2019

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was one of those fifty-fifty weekends, weather-wise. Decent weather on Saturday followed by so-so weather today, including some heavy showers.

BeezleBub and I managed to get the Official Weekend Pundit Runabout, aka The Boat, launched and to its summer berth just before the weekend. There had been some issues that had required the boat to be pulled from the water for some additional work. There are still some issues we’re working on, but minor ones that won’t prevent its use.

One small issue we did have was our slip, that being a number of cleats and uprights were missing, making it difficult to tie off the mooring lines to secure The Boat to the dock. The owners were notified and they hoped to have the problem squared away some time during this coming week.

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We been watching the deterioration of our institutions of higher learning as feelz have been replacing logic, reason, and science. The latest victim of just such deterioration is Williams College where students’ Social Justice ideology is overriding science.

The Atlantic published a piece Tuesday by a biology professor at Williams College who offers her perspective on how students at the school have changed in the past couple of years, coinciding with Trump’s election. Luana Maroja said she never had any trouble teaching students about basic biological concepts like heritability before, but now some of her students are putting their social justice ideology ahead of science.

It’s difficult to imagine the arrogance of an 18 or 19-year-old student telling their professor she ought not to be teaching. But that sort of arrogance seems par for the course when it comes to campus Social Justice Warriors.

This is something that Bret Weinstein, a former biology teacher at a similarly progressive school, has warned about. The students are getting these verities from the humanities departments and trying to apply them to everything, including the sciences. It sets up an inevitable showdown where what can be discussed about what is becomes limited by student conceptions of what should be.

Facts, evidence, data, experiment results, and experience hold no sway with this kind of SJW. Only what they want to be true, even if it defies the laws that govern existence (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.), is important. They want to live in the world of Harry Potter, not the world of muggles. Too bad for them the former doesn’t exist despite how hard they try to make it so.

In their delusional state they make the rest of the world miserable. Maybe it’s time someone take them over their proverbial knee and give them a long overdue spanking.

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Do you need yet another example of just how far the SJW rot has set in within the halls of academia? Then here’s one for you.

A business professor at the University of Utah was reported to university administrators for “assigning too many historical texts written by influential male economists of the past.” Yeah, male economist like Smith, Hayek, and Friedman.

Apparently, the student didn’t think the professor delved deeply enough into their ‘sexist’ beliefs. Of course, the same student didn’t bother to detail those sexist beliefs allegedly held by the economists.

The student continued: “Many of these figures are of great importance. But at what cost do we continue to plant the seed of sexism in the minds of individuals? But especially in a course and college that is already deemed to be a ‘boys club’, continuing those teachings, and those teachings being delivered by a professor of [his] character is dangerous.”

“As a top university in the nation, I believe we have a duty to lead by example. Pave a new path and right the wrongs of those before us. Some may argue enduring this type of behavior is what needs to be done to play in the ‘big leagues’ of male-dominated fields, such as business. And I can agree to play the game to some degree, but if an opportunity to help change the game presents itself, you take it. [My] professor’s behavior and certain choice of text have greatly affected me both emotionally and academically.”

The student still had not delineated the sexist beliefs of the economists in question or how economic theory is sexist. (She didn’t come right out and say it, but her rhetoric certainly implies that she thinks economic theory is sexist by nature and that somehow endless apologies must be made by all male business/economics professors for the still undefined sins of Smith, Hayek, Friedman and others.

If that student is that sensitive to things like this then I must suggest that she withdraw from the university and seek treatment at one of the other fine state institutions in Utah. It is obvious to me that she is not capable of dealing with the real world.

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Seeing the large field of Democrat hopefuls running for president, one would think that at least a few good (and feasible) ideas would be put forth. Instead we’re seeing the same old stale and unworkable ideas being repackaged and put forth as something “new and improved”.

What’s worse is that the ideas aren’t really ideas. “They are feelings. Strongly held feelings, mind you. But feelings, nonetheless”

Take health care. There is only one interesting public policy question there: If we paid for care in a different way (for example, through taxes instead of fees for services rendered) would health care become cheaper, better and more accessible?

Would you believe that Democratic presidential candidates have no interest in even discussing this question?

They assiduously avoid telling us how national health insurance would be paid for or how it would work – except to assure us that there would be no lengthy waits for care or lack of access to modern medical technology, as there is in Canada. But how do they know nothing bad would happen, if they refuse to think about the details?

Throw out a good sounding idea, provide no details about how it is supposed to work, ignore how it will be paid for, and hope ‘the rubes will buy it’. Yup, sounds like standard Democrat campaign tactics to me.

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This isn’t news to anyone paying attention over the past few years.

Green Energy Incentives Are Failing To Keep The Lights On.

Australia has gone heavily into renewables and its finding that they don’t work the way promised, have created a growing grid instability and an increasing number of blackouts. The push to go ‘green’ has had just the opposite effect of the one intended, with higher emissions of carbon dioxide as consumers are driven to install generators in order to ensure a stable electrical supply.

How has the Australian government responded to the issue? Not the way most would expect, with it finally confessing that green energy doesn’t work and is adversely affecting their economy. Nope, it looks like they’re going to double down on stupid, even with the big shakeup after the recent Australian elections.

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And that’s the new from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is being fickle, summer is still only sorta-kinda here, and where Monday has returned far to quickly.