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

White Americans have No Recognized Nationality

Another instance of one of my favorite laws in action. http://isteve.blogspot.com/2011/04/disparate-impact-discrimination-against.html Where does this stuff come from?   Moldbug's theory: 1. Academia tells the civil service and the media what to think 2. The bureaucrats (that is, the professional political class) and the journalists use these ideas to formulate an ideology to "guide" the politicians. 3. The politicians pass laws in accordance with "their" ideology, that is, the ideology they are spoon fed by the media and the civil servants (making occasional exceptions for special interests and polling purposes). 4. The bureaucrats transform these laws into regulations that can be acted on.   Now, who constitute the elite of academia and the civil service and the media?

Death by Office Chair, Death by Shift Work

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/2009/05000/Sitting_Time_and_Mortality_from_All_Causes,.5.aspx I'm surprised they found such a strong correlation here. It looks to be a quality study. Even the physically active have a 40% kick-up in mortality between the never-sitters and the almost always sitters. For the obese it's much worse: the mortality rate jumps fourfold. Most of the increase in risk for all sub-categories occurs between those sitting half the day and those sitting all day. So, if you keep to your feet half the day, you avoid almost all of the risk from sitting. This may be part of the reason: "Marc Hamilton, Ph.D., one of Katzmarkzyk’s colleagues, suspects it has to do with an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which breaks down fat in the bloodstream and turns it into energy. Hamilton found that standing rats have ten times more of the stuff coursing through their bodies than laying rats. It doesn’t matter how fit the rats are; when they leave their feet, their LPL levels plummet. Hamilton believes the same happens in humans." It may be that inadequate LPL causes blood fats to accumulate in the bloodstream, which may cause an inflammatory or clotting effect. There was also another study on this issue, comparing street car or trolley drivers who stood on the job and bus drivers who sat. All I remember is that it appeared to be a well-controlled study, the standers lived 5 years longer than the sitters, and most of the sitters' excess mortality was from cardiovascular disease. One more touchstone worthy of mention is a study, at least reasonably well-controlled, that indicated a 5 year survival advantage for those who consistently slept well and at night compared to those who slept poorly most of the time.

Specialness

special beast, special talents, very special narrative http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

The Chinese are not Stupid, Americans are: part 3852

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/110403_anarcho.htm A parlor game: what new policy will the socialists introduce to further undermine this country, or rather to accelerate a process already well underway? In the grand scheme of history, Americans at large have not exprerienced a wake-up call since WWII. The requirements to achieve this are that it should be a major and dramatic threat--also, that its basic meaning should be comprehensible to the citizenry (the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example, mustered ramifications beyond the common scope of mind). Maybe national bankruptcy will suffice--though higher taxes seem more likely to happen in the foreseeable future. The collapse of Pakistan is another possibility, or war with Iran. Short of the negative shock of proper scale, this nation will persist in squandering its patrimony and thus decline ever further into decadent self-indulgence.