Hi there, !
Today Tue 12/10/2013 Mon 12/09/2013 Sun 12/08/2013 Sat 12/07/2013 Fri 12/06/2013 Thu 12/05/2013 Wed 12/04/2013 Archives
Rantburg
533711 articles and 1862067 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 65 articles and 122 comments as of 16:56.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Gunmen kill ASWJ Punjab chief in drive-by shooting in Lahore
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
4 15:18 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [3] 
3 02:38 Besoeker [4] 
14 17:55 Rambler in Virginia [6] 
5 04:10 Besoeker [6] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [6]
11 22:16 Barbara [5]
0 [7]
0 [4]
0 [10]
0 [5]
0 [4]
0 [14]
0 [6]
0 [6]
0 [7]
0 [4]
0 [11]
0 [5]
0 [4]
0 [3]
0 [5]
0 [5]
Page 2: WoT Background
4 13:28 Shipman [4]
2 09:19 BrerRabbit [4]
7 18:40 Pappy [8]
4 18:31 Pappy [7]
0 [4]
0 [7]
0 [8]
0 [8]
0 [9]
0 [8]
0 [6]
0 [6]
1 13:26 Shipman [6]
0 [4]
0 [5]
0 [5]
0 [13]
0 [6]
0 [4]
0 [8]
2 04:28 g(r)omgoru [3]
1 20:48 M. Murcek [9]
0 [5]
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 16:09 Bright Pebbles [5]
6 22:17 Crinenter Elmoth9033 [8]
2 10:20 Procopius2k [3]
0 [4]
0 [3]
0 [5]
0 [5]
0 [3]
0 [4]
0 [3]
0 [6]
7 13:21 Procopius2k [4]
1 01:44 Au Auric [3]
0 [5]
3 02:01 gorb [5]
Page 6: Politix
14 20:38 Glenmore [5]
12 20:32 Glenmore [7]
4 16:27 swksvolFF [7]
7 19:38 Angie Schultz [7]
6 15:38 JohnQC [4]
"Micro-aggression"
by Fred

Grouchy Old Cripple picks up on something I had intended to comment upon but then set aside for other things, probably less important.

He refers to the tale of the perfessor in Caliphornia who made so bold as to correct the capitalization and spelling of a (privileged) minority student. The resulting foofaraw at UCLA, formerly an institution of learning set off the usual sort of mau-mauing.
The act of correcting a black student was "micro-aggression," according to the members of the student group "Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color," which launched a sit-in during a subsequent meeting of the class.
This is the first instance in my entire life of encounter with the term "micro-aggression," but it is one which I'll add to my ever-increasing vocabulary, not all of which consists of bad words.

Let us ponder for a moment the literal meaning of the term: an aggression which is microscopic. It is too teeny-tiny to be seen with the naked eye, something in the category of a whack on the elbow by a gnat, perhaps even a hefty blow delivered by a parmecium.

This is Eric Margolis on steroids... No. Wait. It's simply the logical evolution of Eric Margolis and his description of a nation laboring under repression so subtle as not to be felt.

At some point, probably in the time of our grandchildren or great-grandchildren, they're going to deal with this kind of ideological aggression, which is not micro at all. The pendulum will swing the other direction, the tumbrils will roll, and their own grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be shocked at how blood-thirsty they're going to be.
Posted by: Fred || 12/07/2013 22:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO, long past time for macro-aggression.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/07/2013 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  But it wasn't "microaggression" at all when the elementary school that he went to let him get all the way to UCLA without learning how to spell or capitalize.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/07/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#3  At some point we will look around and find that certain groups within the US are undereducated and thus unemployable because they used the race-card to slide through school. This is akin to the hot blonde who learned she could get by with a wink of the eye. There are some who continued to do the work and study hard, but the easy way out has to be pretty enticing.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/07/2013 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  "There are some who continued to do the work and study hard, but the easy way out has to be pretty enticing." For some of us, the hard way out was the ONLY way out.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/07/2013 15:18 Comments || Top||


Britain
British press horrified as London's new mayor dares to proclaim the truth
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Boris Johnson, the irrepressible mayor of London, said some provocative things the other day to a private think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, and political London -- mostly the scribblers, anyway -- has been in a tizzy since.

The mayor playfully invoked Gordon Gecko, who exists only in a movie, and his economic philosophy that "greed is good" to make the point that intelligence, ambition, inspiration and above all perspiration is the irresistible driver of prosperity for everyone. He observed that some people are smarter than others, and that the 2 percent pulls the 98 percent into the good life. To the consternation of conservatives in the government and the left-wing columnists and commentators, the mayor is still upright and walking around.

The 98 percent should be grateful to the 2 percent and not spend a lot of time cultivating resentment. "Some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy," he said, "and keeping up with the Joneses is, like greed, a valuable spur to the economy." This reflects an unremarkable understanding of what was once called human nature before the liberals -- "progressives," they call themselves now -- decided that the state can install a better nature than God did.

Mr. Johnson then went even further. He said nice things about Margaret Thatcher, who has never been forgiven in certain of these precincts for pulling Britannia out of the deep coma imposed by a welfare state that had reduced an empire to "a little England."

The mayor sometimes talks less like a mayor than a newspaper columnist, which he is as well, for The Daily Telegraph. The squeals from the left and the harrumphs from the right after his Maggie Thatcher remarks may be less about the interpretations of his message than about the folly of electing a newspaper columnist to high office. Instead of bashing the rich, he wrote the other day, "we should be offering them humble and hearty thanks. It is through their restless, concupiscent energy and sheer wealth-creating dynamism that we pay for an ever-growing proportion of public services."
Posted by: Fred || 12/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Schizophrenia most often includes hallucinations and/or delusions, which reflect distortions in the perception and interpretation of reality.


Me thinks, we have observed a "swing".

Posted by: Au Auric || 12/07/2013 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Praise for Maggie Thatcher, eh? Sounds to me that maybe Boris has been reading a little Hayek or Milton Friedman. Or maybe he just woke up one day and realized he no longer believed what one might call a lot of stupid shit. "When I was a child, I thought as a child..."
Posted by: SteveS || 12/07/2013 2:30 Comments || Top||

#3  "progressives," they call themselves now -- decided that the state can install a better nature than God did.

The failure of Obamacare thus once again proves, there is a God.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/07/2013 2:38 Comments || Top||


Economy
Detroit and the impact on pension reform
[NYPOST] 'Nothing distinguishes pension debt in a municipal bankruptcy case from any other debt."

These thirteen words come from a ruling this week by US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. In strictly legal terms, they're part of a larger decision that does little more than confirm the obvious: bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
is bankrupt.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 12/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As Detroit goes, so goes the nation (bankrupt cities, no exception)

Posted by: Au Auric || 12/07/2013 1:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Those who leave their jobs before retirement -- between 40 and 50 percent of teacher do so within their first five years -- lose out big-time.

Er huh....yea, all by design, Ponzi design. Same-same for SSI recipients who waive their eligibility to accept benefits at age 62. Has no one ever played POWERBALL ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/07/2013 2:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Detroit is testament to the fact that arithmetic always wins in the end. You can shuck and jive, you can hope and lie, you can demagogue and cook the books, but when the chickens come home to roost, it will be numbers they carry in their tiny little beaks.

Detroit is only the first, the bleeding edge of auto-apocalypse (heh, Detroit, auto...). It won't be the last. Others are swirling the bowl even now...
Posted by: SteveS || 12/07/2013 2:51 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope one of the impacts of this pension "reform" - is rather a collective coming to one's senses. Promising to pay what cannot possibly be paid will only come to disaster in the end, exactly like all Ponzi schemes.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/07/2013 4:01 Comments || Top||

#5  My hope as well Anguper. In his new book 'Things That Matter' the Hammer opines that, and I paraphrase a bit here...."everything eventually boils down to politics. If the politics are not right, nothing will be right". To the Hammer's boiling down statement I might also add, simple mathematical probabilities.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/07/2013 4:10 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Global-warming 'proof' is evaporating
[NYPOST]
Posted by: Fred || 12/07/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, it is .... when I was in school it was called --- one thing --- today another... same thing /diffent day .... Global Warming = Anyone can talk about the weather, but no one can change it.

Posted by: Au Auric || 12/07/2013 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Reports yesterday from fly-over near New Harmony indicate nearly of foot of global-warming just before dinner.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/07/2013 2:45 Comments || Top||

#3  You guys just don't understand: extra snow is just weather. Summer heat, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes - those are climate.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/07/2013 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  We've had between 1 and 3 inches of frozen solid Global Warming here in Fort Worth. It's 19F outside, no sign of a thaw today.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 12/07/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  There never was any proof, just some highly shonky theories.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/07/2013 10:55 Comments || Top||

#6  BP, don't forget the highly shonky computer models, highly shonky data collections and very highly shonky subsidies.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/07/2013 12:52 Comments || Top||

#7  GIGO, man, all GIGO.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/07/2013 13:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Don't forget the highly shonky data correction and tweaking, so that things come out the way you expect them to.
Posted by: KBK || 12/07/2013 15:27 Comments || Top||

#9  GIGO is a best case.

Future prediction relies on Data.

Future-Future prediction relies on Predicted Data (with increased errors over just those in the data).

So say the model and data are a laughably high 95% right.

After 14 "loops" the data content is 48% and error has grown 47%!

Basically because of this unavoidable "complex climate modelling" on a computer is basically an expensive form of dice.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/07/2013 15:50 Comments || Top||

#10  That's true, but we must always error on the side of stone-cold-crazy. It's some sort of damn rule.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/07/2013 15:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Imamean "ACt" but yawls knew that (I hope).
Posted by: Shipman || 12/07/2013 15:56 Comments || Top||

#12  You guys just don't understand: extra snow is just weather. Summer heat, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes - those are climate.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/07/2013 16:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh, some understand, Rambler. My civil engineering newsletters are full of cities, towns, and states setting up (costly) programs to help deal with 'climate change'-'especially after "Superstorm Sandy. I'm sure they are all funded by the Feds.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/07/2013 17:20 Comments || Top||

#14  Bobby, I'll get worried when Denver and Albuquerque set up a program to deal with rising sea levels.

As Glenn Reynolds says, I'll start believing it's a crisis when the people who tell me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/07/2013 17:55 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
8Arab Spring
3Govt of Syria
2Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
2al-Shabaab
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2Govt of Pakistan
1Boko Haram
1Moro Islamic Liberation Front
1Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
1al-Qaeda
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda in Africa
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Ansar al-Sharia
1al-Nusra

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-12-07
  Gunmen kill ASWJ Punjab chief in drive-by shooting in Lahore
Fri 2013-12-06
  52 Killed as Militants Storm Yemen Defense Complex
Thu 2013-12-05
  At least 20 killed in attack on Yemen's defense ministry
Wed 2013-12-04
  Top Hezbollah Man Killed, Israel CreditedBlamed
Tue 2013-12-03
  Islamist attacks prompt 24-hour curfew in Nigeria's Maiduguri
Mon 2013-12-02
  North Yemen fighting kills more than 120
Sun 2013-12-01
  41 killed, 22 wounded in latest attacks in Iraq
Sat 2013-11-30
  Tuaregs Declare Return to War against Mali Army
Fri 2013-11-29
  Air base blast near Sebha kills at least ten
Thu 2013-11-28
  15 Islamists with suicide belts detained in Moscow
Wed 2013-11-27
  US warns Karzai it may leave no troops in Afghanistan
Tue 2013-11-26
  Libyan Militiamen Battle Government Forces in Benghazi
Mon 2013-11-25
  More than 160 killed as Syrian rebels try to break siege
Sun 2013-11-24
  Nuclear deal reached with Mad Mullahs™
Sat 2013-11-23
  Belmokhtar deputy killed in Mali


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
18.117.72.224
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (18)    WoT Background (23)    Non-WoT (15)    (0)    Politix (5)