Socialism in Education

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/10/02/are-top-students-getting-short-shrift

Public education in this country borders on a Stalinist mentality, a top-down penal state that prioritizes uniformity and conformity over achievement. This policy is justified by referring to the need to socialize students in a way that prepares them for a "multicultural" world. But, America has always been multicultural and there is no evidence that those schools which emphasize achievement first of all things--that such schools produce less multiculturally adapted students. It stands to reason that better education would, ipso facto, induce more adaptability to life itself.

Tyrone the janitor, Shaqweesha the cashier, Billy Bob the handyman, Francisco the yard man--these low IQ types will never make the world a better place. They are labor. The best we can hope from them is labor and that they will avoid the welfare rolls and prison. Those with sufficient wit to win a Nobel Prize or to invent a new technology or to found a business or reinvent one--these highly capable types, who necessarily possess high IQs, ought not to be burdened by an academic environment that includes the left side of the IQ distribution. They slow the process of education, distract the teacher, and are much more prone to bad conduct. And does the presence of 10th percentile IQs in the same room as 95th percentile IQs really bolster the confidence and effort level of the weaker students? The gap is large and consistent, and they eventually get the message. This jumbling together of disparate types eliminates equality of opportunity, while failing to produce the socialist dream (and my nightmare) of equality of result.

The capable figures represent the possibility of progress, from which historically all tend to benefit. Indeed, the poor have benefitted, in terms of quality of life, considerably more than the rich from the last century of progress. And their most important disability in America today is the dependency psychology foisted upon them, perhaps unknowingly, by the welfare state. Using our education system to confer upon the underclass a heightened aptitude for discovering new welfare programs to enroll in--this function may be less beneficial to the American people than a focus on identifying and encouraging the high achievers who form the forefront of societal evolution.

Another Education Success--

--for black America: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06atlanta.html I love that even the NY Times could not resist mentioning that the ringleader of this dystopian fiasco is currently on vacation in Hawaii--though, of course, the top to bottom blackness of those involved was blacked out. The Times' philosophy on race is that it is only mentioned to make whites look bad or minorities look good--otherwise it is racist to mention race. Orwell concisely termed this "doublethink"--an effective element of tyranny. And all this devolves, no doubt, from the religion of egalitarianism and the pressure on the shepherds of the lower orders to live up to it. Overmatched by nature and circumstance, they succumb to the temptation of mendacity--but, how clumsily they fashion their deceptions! Thus we have a natural hierarchy also in the art of lying and a correspondent division of labor. The socialists must tighten their discipline hereafter. Such grotesqueries are painful to all and may even undermine the brilliant, almost self-consistent line of lies dreamed up by the priests of political correctness.

One of My Favorite Laws--

Properly demolished in a law review article by a UPenn law professor (and formerly a practicing neurologist with a Harvard MD--which ought to indicate a still more comprehensive knowledge and authority on this subject): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1795443 This is the only law review article I've ever seen that is both substantively consequential in its argument and a demonstration of moral courage. The vast majority manifest neither quality. I'm betting we won't hear tell of this in the NY Times. To them disparate impact rules are a talismanic solution to the overwhelming racism that explains all black and mexican social pathologies. Considering what happened to Larry Summers and Thomas Watson for similar arguments, this lady ought to prepare for a return to neurology.

The Israeli Method, Improved Version

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/world/europe/11russia.html

One man, one gun, one target, one corpse. A proper hit the Chechen way. Soldiers everywhere and all too frequently have gotten away with too much. It's good to see one of the flagrant psychopaths among them grounded permanently and ostentatiously. It's always open season on war criminals and not only on criminals.

Honey for Honey?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W_iMve4xvg&feature=player_embedded I like the comment from "neotizok." How indeed!

The Last Farmer

http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm Here we have a real citizen-farmer, not an industrial food producer, but a man who owns his own land and generates a sufficient variety of food to live on it exclusively. A traditional farm, in other words. Men like this and farms like these were part of the foundation of this country. Between the various bureaucracies weaving their webs through his life and livelihood and the ingrate public succumbing to the marketing magic of big agribusiness--what happens when this species of American is finally extinct? We are losing both our right and our capacity to sustain any semblance of life free of government support and oversight and intervention. It is a one-way street: citizens are managed and held to account, bureaucracies are the managers and effectively unaccountable. How does this not represent a soft, slow slide into tyranny?

A Delivery for Allah

Obama did the right thing in this case, which also happened to be the common sensical thing to do. Pakistan was exposed, for once, to the contemptuous treatment it highly merits, and bin Laden was granted a quick, sordid conclusion (capture would have been ideal). Should the President be accorded genuflections as a great Hero, as much of the Left insists? I think not. The SEALS who did the raid and provided backup, and their chopper pilots, were the heroes. Obama merely did his job--a new sensation for him.

 

I cannot say this changes my opinion on Afghanistan--the sacrifices being made without any sense of how to win are indefensible--Bush/Obama repeating just the same fundamental, disgustingly irresponsible and cowardly mistake of Johnson/Nixon. The presence of bin Laden in Pakistan, the ongoing base for our foe in the Afghan war, merely provides redundant emphasis on the futility of this fight. The endless government lies about Af/Pak: political correctness in action getting our soldiers killed overseas.

Criminalizing Protection from Criminals

What would we do without the EEOC? To be fair, I think employers are stupid to issue blanket prohibitions on hiring ex-cons--but, I think this decision should be at their discretion. Employers who act stupidly tend not to do well in business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/29records.html

I especially liked this bit:

There is no federal law that prohibits discrimination against people with criminal records. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has set guidelines on how employers can use such records. Because African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities have higher rates of criminal convictions, a blanket policy that screens out anyone with a criminal history will discriminate against these groups, the commission says, and is unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The E.E.O.C. has been a plaintiff in several lawsuits over background checks, and the guidelines have led to a raft of lawsuits against companies under Title VII — at least seven are working their way through the courts.

The Parasite Parade

185 federal welfare programs, plus an uncountable number of state programs--I think, seriously, we should offer welfare prizes, cash rewards for the person who benefits from the greatest number of programs and another reward for the person who receives the greatest yearly dollar value. It would be a hell of a publicity stunt and piss off a lot of working people (not to mention less successful and therefore envious parasites).   http://blogs.forbes.com/peterferrara/2011/04/22/americas-ever-expanding-welfare-empire/

Human Generosity

At least we haven't cut down the deserts or the tundra--

http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/03/global_land_use.html