Just as progressivism, (by which I mean anglosphere mainstream leftism) descends from the Puritans, via the infamous and conspiratorial Exeter Hall, the Acorn of its day, and “super protestantism”, looks like Nazism is descended from Lutheranism. The apple does not fall far from the tree. Lutherans hated Jews, Puritans hated Christmas and men having sex with women.
Category: economics
Not the cognitive elite
The immensely well paid staff of the World Bank issued a pile of nonsense about European financial problems in which they kept calling a positive feedback loop a negative feedback loop. Obama’s speechwriters issued an equally stupid speech to their black mascot in which they called the Falkland Islands the Maldives.
conservatives are not the only people losing faith in official science
Amgen, the worlds largest independent biotech firm, ran a replication survey on fifty three widely cited landmark cancer research papers. Only six were replicable. If conservatives are losing faith in official science, maybe that is an indicator that conservatives are in contact with reality.
Photoshopping Trayvon
The mainstream media have applied the magic of photoshop to convert Trayvon Martin from a menacing thug who needed killing to a sweet innocent child. Eyes enlarged to reduce apparent age. Nose reduced for cuteness. Chinline on viewer right of image altered to reduce apparent age. Hairline raised for larger forehead, to reduce apparent age and give a more intelligent and gentle appearance. Facial hair reduction to reduce apparent age. Mouth redrawn for gentle instead of menacing expression. There are …
George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin
According to George Zimmerman, he turned his back on Trayvon Martin and was walking away, whereupon Trayvon Martin chimped out and attacked him from rear left. Circumstantial evidence supports this story, (for starters, there is no way a man like George Zimmerman is going to physically attack a man like Trayvon Martin with his fists) and there are no eyewitnesses contradicting it. According to George Zimmerman and eyewitnesses, Zimmerman wound up on the ground, screaming for help, while Trayvon Martin pinned …
Why the elite is dumb and getting dumber
When recruiting people for administration, administrators very reasonably look for past experience on the administration track. To him that has shall be given, to him that has not, even what little he has shall be taken away. However success at the lowest levels of the administration track is at best a poor indicator of intelligence, and in government, and in large schlerotic organizations choked on red tape, is a strong negative indicator of intelligence. Dumb people thrive in an environment …
Technological decay
Earlier I argued that technology in the west peaked in 1970, Tallest building 1972, coolest muscle cars, last man left the moon,though it continues to advance in some other parts of the world: Unreasonable expectations points at another indicator. The most advanced plane ever built, the SR71, was built in 1966, retired 1972. One would have expected stealthed mach three fighters and bombers to replace it, but instead, slower, lower performance stealthed fighters and bombers replaced it. Unreasonable expectations argues …
Why “free†is so expensive
If you are spending your own money on yourself, you care very much how much it costs, and care very much how good what you get is. If you are spending someone else’s money on someone else, aka “freeâ€, you don’t care how much it costs, and you don’t care if it does the recipient good or does him harm. “What if†has found an interesting example of “free†Seems that the government budgeted eleven million dollars to provide free …
The inevitability of murder under government health care
At the age of eighty four, you have a heart attack. The ambulance comes around, it stabilizes you, it takes you, free of charge to the free government hospital, and the free doctors at the free government hospital conclude you need open heart surgery, a stent and a coronary bypass. Now the government can provide the free ambulance, and the free stabilization to everyone. But there is no way it can provide the free stent and the free bypass to …
Yes, ten percent of Netherlands deaths are murder by government.
Yes, ten percent of hospital deaths in the Netherlands are state sponsored murder, involuntary euthanasia. Rick Santorum is attracting a great deal of outrage for his statement that to control medical costs in the Netherlands, ten percent of patients are involuntarily euthanized – murdered to save on medical costs. The mainstream media is producing a pile of articles claiming that he is lying. “There is not a shred of evidence†Anyone who dies in hospital under deep prolonged barbiturate sedation …