Here is Peggy Noonan a couple of days ago: Deep down a lot of hard-core Trump supporters, and many not so hard-core, think it’s all over. They love America truly and deeply but think the glue that held us together is gone. Religion and Main Street are shrinking into the past, and in the Rite ...continue reading "Is the world really all that scary?"
A father writes to "Ask Amy" today about his daughter, who deliberately smashed her cell phone in hopes of getting a new one. What should he do? Here is Amy's answer: Unless you have purchased insurance, replacing this broken phone could be a very expensive proposition (insurance is also expensive, and there is a deductible ...continue reading "Ask Kevin: What should you do about a daughter who smashes her cell phone?"
According to the FBI, here are the number of children in elementary and high schools who are killed each year in active shooter incidents: Since 2000, an average of five children have been killed each year. The trendline since 2005 has gone up from five per year to seven per year.
Good news! When it comes to surgeons leaving random crap in your body after they've sewn you up, the United States has the lowest rate among all rich nations.¹ We're #1! ¹All the rich nations that happen to be part of the Peterson-KFF health system tracker, anyway.
The spittle flecked anger from conservatives over increased IRS funding to catch rich tax cheats never ceases to astonish me. I can understand this kind of anger over big hot-button subjects like abortion or the border, but IRS funding? Here is Dominic Pino in National Review, who is apoplectic over Biden's recent announcement that the ...continue reading "Republicans are furious that the IRS is already collecting more money from rich tax cheats"
During its current war against Hamas, Israel has deliberately forced two million Palestinians into refugee camps. Israel has deliberately leveled half of Gaza. Israel has deliberately denied food and medical aid to civilians. Israel has plainly carried out indiscriminate bombing with little care for who they kill. You can make a pretty good case that ...continue reading "Israel is committing war crimes. Genocide is not one of them."
I wonder if this is true? Over the past year, remote workers were promoted 31% less frequently than people who worked in an office, either full-time or on a hybrid basis, according to an analysis of two million white-collar workers by employment-data provider Live Data Technologies. Remote workers also get less mentorship, a gap that’s ...continue reading "You’re more likely to be promoted if you go into the office. Maybe."
In its never-ending war against government interference with the perfect life, National Review recommends to us today an essay by Matthew Crawford about the indignity of motion-sensitive bathroom faucets. I'd normally try to provide you with an abridged excerpt, but it's really better if you read it in its full glory: It is characteristic of ...continue reading "Sometimes a sink is just a sink"
This is an odd post from Atrios: Remember Libya? A funny forgotten war in which we destroyed a country most likely (whether we knew it or not) to cover up Sarkozy's crimes. No one can offer up a better explanation, anyway, other than the usual liberal humanitarian intervention nonsense which explodes as ridiculous as soon ...continue reading "Yeah, I remember Libya"
Iowa has gotten about a foot of snow during the current storm. According to Research™ an inch of snow reduces voter turnout by 0.5%. Roughly speaking, then, we should expect that Monday's caucuses will see turnout about 5% lower than usual. That's not much, really, and there's no telling what it means in an all-Republican ...continue reading "Snowstorm will reduce Iowa caucus turnout slightly"
Charlie is still in the cone. We've made the mistake twice of releasing him too early, so this time it's staying on until his wound is genuinely better. As you can see, though, it doesn't keep him from a proper snooze. It's a funny thing. Charlie doesn't usually sleep in the bed with us at ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 12 January 2024"
The Wall Street Journal reports today about a new study on learning loss from the pandemic: In kindergarten, students tested in 2023 were about 2 percentage points less likely to begin school at grade level in both math and reading, compared with 2019, data compiled by the testing company Curriculum Associates show. Scores also remained ...continue reading "Kindergarten kids also suffered learning losses during the pandemic"
What a bizarre story we have today. According to the rules of the Sports Emmys, on-air talent is not eligible to win an overall award for a show. (They have their own category.) But ESPN wanted them to win anyway: ESPN circumvented the rule by inserting fake names into the credit list it submitted to ...continue reading "ESPN forced to return fake Emmy Awards"
The Wall Street Journal tells us today that more potent strains of marijuana are producing increased diagnosis of psychosis in teenage cannabis users: Rates of diagnoses for cannabis-induced disorders were more than 50% higher at the end of November than in 2019, healthcare-analytics company Truveta said this week. The trend is contributing to the broader ...continue reading "Cannabis might be causing more teen psychosis. Or maybe not."
Donald Trump decided at the last minute that he would deliver a closing statement at his trial after all. The judge allowed it on condition that Trump stick to the law and the facts, and Trump agreed. This naturally meant nothing. Jonah Bromwich reports in real time: Trump, speaking into the microphone, says the case ...continue reading "Donald Trump just can’t keep his mouth shut"
True crime author Ron Stodghill has a peculiar op-ed in the LA Times today. He's calling out the fact that true crime stories are mostly about white people: Critics of the genre warn that the homogeneity of true crime stories not only reflects racial biases — it exacerbates them.... Journalist Elon Green puts it this ...continue reading "Is the true crime genre too lily white?"
It's inflation day, and the BLS reports that CPI spiked up to 3.7% in December on an annualized basis: Core CPI didn't change much and ended the month at 3.8%. This is obviously not a good report, but as usual, it's a noisy series and a single month doesn't mean much. On a conventional year-over-year ...continue reading "CPI spikes up in December"
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