Sobering Thoughts |
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Comments on politics, the culture, economics, and sports by Paul Tuns.
I am editor-in-chief of "The Interim," Canada's life and family newspaper, and author of "Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal" (2004) and "The Dauphin: The Truth about Justin Trudeau" (2015).
I am some combination of conservative/libertarian, standing athwart history yelling "bullshit!"
You can follow me on Twitter (@ptuns).
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Saturday, February 28, 2015
Businesses hiring people with physical and mental disabilities The Globe and Mail has a feature in its Report on Business section on hiring people with physical and mental disabilities. The Globe reports: In the United States, drugstore giant Walgreen Co. has hired more than a thousand people with disabilities – from those with Asperger’s to obsessive-compulsive disorder, mobility challenges and schizophrenia. The company began targeting disabled workers in 2007 with a pilot project at a distribution centre where a third of its employees had a disability. The chain soon discovered that job performance was just as high among those with disabilities, while absenteeism was half that of typical workers and retention was twice as high. Workers with disabilities now comprise 10 per cent of the staff in Walgreen’s supply chain alone. Other multinationals, like Best Buy, have studied Walgreen’s efforts and are now replicating them. They’ve had to make some modifications and accommodations, but not costly ones. The Globe highlights Mark Wafer, who owns six Tim Horton's franchises: Now, he added, if he had two job candidates with similar skills and education, he would hire the one with the disability. He cited figures that showed his stores were better at making money and had lower absenteeism and a better safety record.Employee turnover has been the big difference. His stores have less than half the turnover of his competitors and not just among workers with disabilities, but all staff. A more inclusive work environment, he said, helps with retention and productivity for everyone.The average tenure of an entry-level Tim Hortons worker is 1.3 years. Among Mr. Wafer’s staff with disabilities, the average is seven years. That’s partly because since disabled people have such a hard time finding a job, they are less likely to leave for another. And turnover is expensive. It costs $4,000 in training and lost productivity for each new worker, he said. The Globe quotes Paul Clark, executive vice-president at Toronto-Dominion Bank and chair of the bank’s people with disabilities committee, who says: "What we typically find with people with disabilities is that the accommodation requirements on average are actually quite minimal. And I don’t even mean monetarily. I mean to put in place – the complexity is actually quite straightforward." Even if you assume there are benefits to a more diverse workplace that can better serve customers at almost no cost to business, you have to believe there is some sugar-coating on this story. That doesn't mean the benefits do not outweigh the costs, but the article seems to be selling the idea of a cost-free upgrade and that makes me dubious. Sign of the times Market Watch's list of "6 signs the selfie craze has gone too far" includes a selfie toaster. Innovation brilliance or egotism run amok? What a great day for college basketball University of Northern Iowa (#11) vs. Wichita State (#10) right now, with the Missouri Valley Conference on the line. This will be most people's first look at UNI which has a chance at a three-seed with a win today (and winning the MVC tournament). A big Big 12 contest between Baylor (19) and West Virginia (20) that will have serious tournament seeding implications. Just a game separates #7 Arizona and #13 Utah in the Pac-12 standings (and again, there is March Madness fallout although Arizona's hold on a two-seed seems more dependent on winning or not winning the Pac-12 tournament). Syracuse is unranked and banned from the tourney, but they play #4 Duke in what will be a great match. And #1 Kentucky faces what might be their biggest obstacle to a perfect season before the NCAA tournament, against #18 Arkansas. Before the Wildcats beat Mississippi State this week, FiveThirtyEight determined Kentucky had a 74% chance of finishing the regular season with a perfect record and a 26% chance to finish a perfect 40-0 and, of course, winning the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Before March Madness begins, the Razorbacks are probably the only team to stand in the way, both today and during the SEC tourney in Nashville. Do you think the Liberals have buyer's remorse? Robert Fife tweeted earlier this week: "Sources say Jean Chretien is unhappy @MPEveAdams begged for phone call from him & promised confidentiality & then tweeted it". Conservative Party Trudeau-meets-Putin caption contest Enter here. The sophisticates like Bruce Anderson will hate this kind of politics. That alone should recommend it. What Charles Murray can teach liberals Noah Smith, who didn't like The Bell Curve, learned a lot from Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Smith writes: Before I read Coming Apart, I was relatively unconcerned with the situation of the American lower middle class. I knew that their incomes had slightly declined, and that their economic risk had increased. But compared to people in poor countries, they seemed very well-off. Also, they weren't particularly nice people in high school. So I pretty much disregarded their problems.Coming Apart totally changed my mind ...Anyway, Coming Apart is all about the social problems of the American lower middle class. They have broken families and poor health, and are disengaged from their communities. If you read the book, you will be convinced by the numbers that these things are really happening. The same problems are not happening to the upper middle class. The lower middle class matters, too. Coyne on social conservatives and pundits Andrew Coyne has a marvelous column in the National Post that shouldn't be remarkable but it is. Coyne takes issue with columnists who not only criticize the views of social conservatives, but condemn them to silence because their views on abortion or sex ed or whatever are not politically expedient: Now it’s entirely possible that my colleagues are right — right, not just in their aversion to social conservatism on its merits, but also in their apparent conviction, common to most pundits, that the position they think is right is also the politically winning position. They’re wholly entitled to think that, as they are also entitled to think that winning should be the priority.I’m just not clear why they insist the so-cons should adopt the same priority. Perhaps it is the duty of a party leader, as they suggest, to enforce “iron-fisted” party discipline on dissenters, to the point not merely of whipping votes but “prohibiting debate.” But why is it the duty of journalists to help them? When did we enlist as party whips?Me, I think so-cons should be so-cons. Or at least, I think they have a right to be: not only to think what they wish, but if they think it is important and right, to say it out loud, and to try to persuade others to believe it as well. Indeed, for members of Parliament, I might almost say it was their obligation: for there it is not only a matter of being true to themselves, but of representing their constituents. Coyne also defends radicalism -- "often more thoughtful and well-considered than moderatism" -- and thus more importantly, the idea that journalists enforce, namely that politics be fought within the 40 yard lines. I find it amusing that many of the journalists who bemoan lower voter turnout are the ones who want to circumscribe the issues that many voters care about. End gerrymandering In the Wall Street Journal Bill Mundell and Charles Munger Jr., a pair of California fair redistricting activists, make the case for independent commissions to draw the lines for congressional districts. The only state that does this is Arizona (although Arizona state legislators still appoint the commission). There is a ballot initiative in California to get a similar commission but which would go further and ban elected politicians from appointing commission members. These are good ideas. Ending gerrymandering is great and these efforts should be supported. Better yet, we should, as economist Steven Landsburg advises (in More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics) to redraw the districts according to the alphabetical lists of all voters, rather than by geography. It would make pandering to specific groups (race, class, profession, industry, etc...) more difficult. Sinatra song of the century Mark Steyn looks at "All of Me": "All Of Me" disappeared for a decade or so - until Billie Holiday retrieved the song in 1941 with an interpretation that seems to be somewhat equivocal about the all-or-nothing love and sits perfectly poised between the downbeat lyric and the upbeat tune.Sinatra was a great and attentive Billie Holiday fan, and he surely heard that record. And three years later, on a "V disc" for the troops, he recorded it for the first time, in an Axel Stordahl arrangement that doesn't give Frank enough of a point of view on the song. Another three years passed and he tried again, this time with George Siravo and a jazzy little combo, whose piano intro sounds like it's leading you to a darkened side-street to some dive where some dumped loser is singing out his troubles. The band's great, particularly Clyde Hurley's trumpet. And the second chorus is a kind of duet between Sinatra and Babe Russin, whose tenor sax seems to be egging Frank on to really let rip. And it dawns on you that it's the perfect Sinatra song: he was cocksure and swaggering, but also the first male singer to project, seriously, vulnerability and loneliness and heartache. Hence, "All Of Me": a song for the swaggeringly vulnerable, for cocksuredness as a defense against heartache. Friday, February 27, 2015
Progress: fewer children under five are dying Reason's Ronald Bailey: The folks over at Wired are reporting the good news that kids around the world are much less likely to die before age 5 than they were in 1990. This happy conclusion is based on data derived from a January study in The Lancet on the global burden of disease. The Lancet reported that 7,608,500 kids died in 1990 before reaching their fifth birthday. That number had dropped to 3,665,700 in 2013, a decline of more than 52 percent. Why? Mostly because fewer kids are dying from various communicable diseases and starvation. The Wired article points out that there are vaccines against many of the diseases now in retreat. I suspect that improved nutrition also enables some kids to fight off infections better. More at Wired and The Lancet. Sports controversies Most sports controversies are silly. They are necessary to justify a dozen sports channels, fill air time on the full-time radio sports-talk shows in every U.S. city, and to provide content for the SI/ESPN websites. Will Leitch of Sports on Earth has "February's Dumbest Controversies." They have to do with athletes on Twitter and the weight of other athletes and seven other things most of us sports fans have forgotten about already. Except, perhaps the silliest controversy which will have legs because it's A-Rod and it's a New York team. Social media and elections I see on Twitter that political consultant Jaime Watt said the "'Honest answer is we don't know' what effect social media will have on the 2015 federal election." Over the years I've talked to a lot of political staffers, party workers, and consultants and all them admit they have no idea how to do social media to engage voters (beyond their hardcore base) although everyone points to the two Obama presidential campaigns as an example of social media being used successfully for fundraising. Reaching out to non-committed voters is virtually impossible. My best guess is that social media is useful to engage media who still filter the message in traditional ways (newspapers, television news, radio). And that has diminishing returns considering how few people read the paper or watch the evening news anymore. It is amazing that after 20 years of the internet and a decade of social media that 1) the traditional media hasn't figured out a viable plan on how to profitably deliver the news and 2) the political class hasn't figured out how to reach new voters. These are smart, well-compensated experts and they are clueless about how this little thing called the internet and how it affects their jobs. Second bananas in pro wrestling Grantland has it's second banana bracket going and when it started I wondered why Marty Jannetty was the only pro wrestler on it. There are many others and Arn Anderson is a great pick. I would have had NWA (as #2 to the over-rated comic-book-in-a ring WWF). Anyway Grantland's Masked Man has an all-too-brief look at wrestling's second banana, many of whom ended up forgotten. Yeah pro wrestling is stupid (always has been) and really sucks now, but it was also a lot of fun and a big part of the formative years for a lot of adolescent males. Grantland should have had better representation than just Jannetty. CPAC I'm ignoring the Conservative Political Action Conference. Warning to everyone, especially journalists: reaction to possible 2016 contenders at CPAC is not relevant. Most of the candidates were providing red meat for a conservative audience that isn't representative of Republican primary voters. Journalism! The Daily Caller asks the tough questions: "Is Sofia Vergara’s Younger Sister Hotter Than Her?" Profile of Raghuram Rajan Finance and Development, the quarterly magazine of the IMF, profiles Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. It traces the trajectory of a brilliant career. His "recent" research: With the global economy relatively calm—the turmoil finally subsiding from an Argentine default at the end of 2001—Rajan was able to step up financial sector research and explore how to integrate financial sector issues into the IMF’s economic country models. This might have seemed doable given that the IMF already had models for handling fiscal and monetary issues. But creating a model for financial issues turned out to be much tougher. As a result, while Rajan is credited with laying the groundwork, the issue is still very much a work in progress, not just for IMF researchers but for hundreds of academics.The big difference is that a decade ago creating such a model lacked urgency, whereas now it is a high priority. As Rajan wrote in a Project Syndicate column in August 2013: “In the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, macroeconomists tended to assume away the financial sector in their models of advanced economies. With no significant financial crisis since the Great Depression, it was convenient to take for granted that the financial plumbing worked in the background. Models, thus simplified, suggested policies that seemed to work—that is, until the plumbing backed up. And the plumbing malfunctioned because herd behavior—shaped by policies in ways that we are only now coming to understand—overwhelmed it.” And about putting research in action: Rajan may have made his career in the United States, but he never forgot India, making it a frequent topic of speeches and research. He says that he was drawn to economics because it offered a way to help India enter the “pantheon of nations.” In 2008 he got the chance to help shape India’s financial sector when he chaired a high-level government committee on financial sector reforms. The committee report, “A Hundred Small Steps,” suggested that the RBI should target a single objective—low and stable inflation—rather than juggling multiple mandates (such as inflation, the exchange rate, and capital flows).It also proposed that India promote the availability of financial services—including credit, saving, and insurance products—to a wider number of people (especially in rural areas, where most people lack access to formal sources of credit and insurance); reduce the heavy government presence in the banking system; and step up foreign participation in its financial markets.In September 2013, he took the helm at the RBI, after five years of advising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Chicago and a year as chief economic advisor in the Finance Ministry in Mumbai. At that point, India’s markets were in turmoil because of rising inflation, large fiscal and current account deficits, and a slowdown in growth. But he moved quickly to stabilize the rupee, reduce inflation sharply, and build up foreign exchange reserves—earning him the sobriquet “rock star” in the local media. He also wasted no time in laying the groundwork for adopting an inflation target and is pursuing many other reforms suggested in “A Hundred Small Steps.” ...Rajan now has an opportunity afforded few academics—to put in practice what he has long preached. The RBI (as well as central banks in other emerging market economies) may not be the most powerful car on the block, but for Rajan, this chance to be an exemplary driver is the opportunity of a lifetime. Men and women and last meals The Daily Beast reports on the differences between the meals of men and women facing death row. Women favour salads (and vegetables and fruits) and desserts. Over the last 35 years, about half of executed women ordered no last meal, while another ordered just coffee and another a mere bag of chips. Meanwhile, "executed American men, on the other hand, often order belt-busting meals with no leafy greens in sight." The Roman collar in the naked public square Randy Boyagoda, a professor of American Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto and author of Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square, writes in the Wall Street Journal about the importance of Fr. Neuhaus -- and religion -- to America's public square: [T]he book that first made Neuhaus famous, “The Naked Public Square,” published during the 1984 presidential campaign. The effort was inspired by what he regarded as the dangerous and unwelcome efforts of fundamentalist Christians to impose their terms on American public life by exercising political influence through organizations like the Moral Majority.Their rise, Neuhaus wrote, “kicked a tripwire alerting us to a pervasive contradiction in our culture and our politics. We insist that we are a democratic society, yet we have in recent decades systematically excluded from policy consideration” positions and proposals informed by closely held Christian beliefs.Neuhaus sympathized with their grievances—over abortion and gay rights, challenges to school prayer and to Christian displays in public, and the coarsening of American culture. But he rejected their solution because the groups, he wrote, saw no reason “to engage the Christian message in conversation with public and universal discourse outside the circle of true believers.” Neuhaus instead affirmed the core premise of Enlightenment political thought: the differentiation of public authority into separate, autonomous spheres that valued individual rights.He argued that the strongest support for these rights came from the Judeo-Christian tradition’s foundational conviction: We are made in the image of God. Demanding absolute obedience to political dictates, whether in the name of God or something else, would undo centuries of political progress, and goes against God’s own gift of free will to every human person. Thursday, February 26, 2015
Wild Rose changes leadership race in the biggest way imaginable as the campaign begins The Canadian Press reports: Alberta's Wildrose party has picked March 28 to announce its next leader.The Wildrose had originally planned to hold a leadership vote in June, but the party decided to move that up to be ready for what is being speculated will be a spring election.Telephone balloting is to take place over 12 days beginning March 16 and the winner will be announced at an event in Calgary. How is it fair to change the leadership race by moving up the election by more than two months? Favours the front-runner who is supposedly former MP Brian Jean. Beer and wine freedom The Toronto Star reports: Craft brewers and cideries in Ontario would be able to sell each others’ products under a private members’ bill reintroduced Thursday by Progressive Conservative MPP Todd Smith.The same rules would apply for Ontario wineries and craft distillers, said Smith, whose bill will put more pressure on Premier Kathleen Wynne as she ponders how to ease restrictions on alcohol sales at the Beer Store and LCBO in the spring budget. It's passed second reading with the support of the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives, but is opposed by the NDP. It will now go to the finance committee for hearings. This story barely rises above 'dog bites man' National News Watch headline: "Deborah Coyne, Trudeau leadership rival and mom of half-sister, joins Greens." More accurate headline: "Nobody academic Liberal loser joins irrelevant loser party of nobodies." Will Costco vs. Whole Foods/Holt Renfrew voters be the Tim Horton's vs. Starbucks divide of the 2015 election? Huffington Post reports: The Prime Minister does not often give sit-down interviews — except at the end of the year, when he typically speaks to a very select number of news outlets... and Costco magazine.Costco Connection, the "lifestyle magazine for Costco members," was able to capture some of the PM's valuable time. In their March/April issue, the magazine published a two-page spread featuring an "exclusive" interview with Harper from last December. Terri Schiavo and Jeb Bush Bobby Schindler, brother of the murdered Terri Schiavo, writes in the Wall Street Journal to defend former Florida governor Jeb Bush who heroically did whatever he legally could to protect the life of Terri Schiavo, who 10 years ago next month, suffered death by court-ordered starvation and dehydration. Bush is being attacked in the media right now -- as he was in 2005 -- for being a rogue who trampled the law to pander to his right-to-life base, but in fact he was seeking a review of the facts just as he would in capital punishment cases: So what did Gov. Bush actually do that was supposedly so egregious? Under what was known as “Terri’s Law,” he was legally permitted to seek “to clarify the facts” in a court case that appeared to many to have clearly defective judicial orders and irregularities. That is what he did—for which he was immediately and viciously attacked.Having clarified the facts, and having been advised that without food and water Terri would slowly starve and dehydrate to death, he sought as governor to have her case “reviewed”—very much as he had been asked to do, and did, in capital-punishment cases.This same motive prompted the U.S. Congress to get involved. Their reasoning was that if mass murderers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy could have their cases thoroughly reviewed by federal courts in cases that had run through the normal appeals process at the state level—surely an innocent, brain-injured woman facing a death sentence ought to be given the same basic right. This view received unanimous consent in the Senate, including from then-Sen. Barack Obama , which he later characterized as a “mistake.” Republican views of Obama The Washington Post reports (via Twitter) that six times as many Republicans consider President Barack Obama a Muslim than a Christian (54% compared to 9%). Could Illinois portend the future for America? George Will looks at the challenges facing new Republican Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner -- unfunded pension liabilities, a government workforce that is 93% unionized, and sleazy careerist politicians -- but also the opportunities for change, concluding: An Illinois governor (Adlai Stevenson) once said, “Cleanliness is next to godliness, except in the Illinois legislature, where it is next to impossible.” If Rauner emancipates Illinois from government organized, through its employees’ unions, as an interest group that lobbies itself for perpetual growth, so can other states. And the nation. Illinois political fact of the day: four of the previous nine governors went to prison. Wesleyan University offering LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM housing NRO's Katherine Timpf reports: For the culturally ignorant among us, “LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM” stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, flexual, asexual, genderfuck, polyamorous, bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, sadism/masochism.”The name of this super-inclusive, social-justice-hero of a dorm is “Open House,” and it is meant to be a “safe space” for self-identified LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM students, according to the university’s official website.Of course, some students may feel their sexual orientation or gender identity is so unique that it could never fit into one of the 15 categories represented by those letters. So, in order to make sure no one ever feels discriminated against, ever, the webpage also clarifies that Open House is “for people of sexually or gender dissident communities” in general. The problem with names that list so many groups is that inevitably it leaves someone out. But at least those interested in student housing catering to "genderfuck" now have a place where they do what they do. 'Green Party Could Be Excluded From Upcoming Election Debates' So reports the Huffington Post. Please, please, please be correct. Elizabeth May adds nothing to Canadian politics. And while we're at it, the Bloc Quebecois with their telephone booth-sized caucus shouldn't be in the English debate (at least), either. Hint at the 2015 federal election campaign Fundraising letter from the Tories begins: Here’s a simple question: Do you want to pay more or less in taxes next year? This is the question you’ll face in October. How will you answer? Is that a winning election theme for the Harper Conservatives? Probably. Justin Trudeau has talked up "investing" in infrastructure for three years and the Tories will have a simple question for him: how will you pay for it? Voters aren't stupid, they'll want if not a specific plan at least some sort of clue from Justin Trudeau; Junior's only apparent idea is cutting back on the tax cuts the Harper government is promising. Wednesday, February 25, 2015
It's the 21st century so ... Funerals for robotic dogs, after which their "organs" are retrieved to be recycled. Horny teenagers are not child pornographers Excellent piece at Hit & Run by Lenore Skenazy on how too-broad anti-child pornography laws are resulting in teens with criminal records for the indiscretion of sexting. Sending naked pictures of oneself is a dumb idea for teens, but it shouldn't be a crime. No 2 Trudeau campaign Campaign Life Coalition and the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform have launched a pro-life campaign against Justin Trudeau. The 'talkies' were also the 'singies' Mark Steyn's latest Sinatra Song of the Century is "The Continental," during he offers this brief diversion: The Academy Awards and talking pictures had showed up more or less simultaneously in the late Twenties, but it took a while for the Academy to acknowledge that songs were a bigger part of the new Hollywood than, say, title cards (an Oscar category that lapsed pretty quickly). Eventually, the industry figured out the obvious - that the movie business was also in the music business. When Con Conrad and Herb Magidson stepped up to receive the first Academy Award for Best Song at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles eight decades ago this week, the new Oscar was a reflection not only of the success of the nascent genre of film musicals but also of the post-Wall Street Crash geographical shift of the music business: The big studios had not only signed up most of the top songwriters and brought them out west, but they'd also either acquired or started their own music publishing houses. For the next twenty years, the motion picture industry became a key supplier of America's hit songs, always as important as Broadway or Tin Pan Alley and often more so. Tyler Cowen's conventional views Tyler Cowen typically posts slightly more esoteric views but today he has a list of ten "Totally conventional views which I hold." His views and my insta-reaction in italics: 1. Scott Walker and Jeb Bush are the most likely candidates to win the GOP nomination. Me: Yes. 2. The GOP won’t try to repeal Obamacare, see #Syriza. Me: Yes but no. 3. The Supreme Court will rule against the current version of Obamacare and send the matter back to Congress. Confusion will result. Me: I hope so and probably. 4. During the upward phase of the recovery, monetary policy just doesn’t matter that much. Me: Seems correct. 5. We are still in the great stagnation, for the most part. But with nominal gdp well, well above its pre-crash peak, it is not demand-based “secular stagnation.” It just isn’t, I don’t know how else to put it. And the liquidity trap is still irrelevant and has been since about 2009. Me: I'm agnostic on the great stagnation and dubious about Cowen's other claims. 6. There is modest good news on the wage front, but so far it doesn’t amount to a fundamental shift in regime. Following the monthly squiggles doesn’t tell us much. And since wage trouble dates from 1999 and arguably earlier, I don’t attribute much of it to debt overhang from the recession. Me: Correct. 7. Edward Snowden is both a hero and a traitor. Me: Cute but yes and yes. 8. Syriza still has to try to make a Greek economy work with roughly the same means their predecessors had. I don’t think they can do it, and I am sticking with my recent Grexit prediction, which by the way had an 18-month time horizon on it ... Me: Greece will exit Europe but the timeline is unclear. This might be more wishful thinking on my part. 9. No one knows what to do about ISIS or Putin. The latter is a bigger danger than the former ... Me: True on the first part and a hard call on the second. As a matter of prudence I lean toward over-estimating the threat of ISIS and under-estimating the threat of Putin because getting those policies wrong in the wrong direction could be catastrophic. How 'Madden' is made FiveThirtyEight's Neil Payne has an incredible article on how the Madden games are made. It is long and you should click on whatever you can click on. There are now more than double the number of traits to make video game players than there were 15 years ago but it seems that Madden NFL 11 was "peak traits" for the franchise. Highly recommended for fans of the video game, football fans, gaming fans, and data nerds. Proof that politics is BS The CBC reports, "The Conservatives are pushing to devote just three meetings to hearing expert testimony on the government's proposed anti-terrorism bill when it goes to the public safety committee for review." A government truly interested in getting the best policy would listen to various experts, consider their testimony, and wouldn't put a time limit on it all. All parties do it when in power and certainly the opposition can play politics and grind out proceedings with lots of questions. But a three-day limit on listening to experts on a matter as important as C-51 indicates that what the experts have to say is less important than going through the theater of committee hearings like it matters one lick on what the final bill will look like. McGinnis shoots John Cale Rick McGinnis took pictures of John Cale -- portrait and concert -- in 1987. The pic that appeared in Nerve is excellent. Cale was a co-founder of the Velvet Underground. If the World Health Organization did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent it The Washington Free Beacon reports on the World Health Organization's latest foray into politics: The World Health Organization (WHO) developed a “European nutrient profile” to be used by countries in order to ban the marketing of desserts. The “Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Programme in the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and the Lifecourse at the WHO Regional Office for Europe” developed the model.“This model is designed for use by governments for the purposes of restricting food marketing to children,” the report said. “When determining whether a food product may or may not be marketed to children, a government (or food company) should take the following steps.”The model then divides foods into 17 different categories, detailing whether or not they are allowed to be advertised to children.“Identify which food category the product falls under,” the WHO said. “In some case this will be very clear according to the food category name (for example, breakfast cereals; yoghurts). In other cases, it may be necessary to reference the ‘included in category’ or ‘not included in category’ columns, and/or check the customs tariff code number.”Categories for milk and cheeses fell under grams of fat-based limits, while fruit and vegetables received a blanket statement of “permitted.” ...Banned without exception are pastries, croissants, cookies, sponge cakes, wafers, fruit pies, sweet buns, chocolate covered biscuits, cake mixes, and batters.The list goes on: “Chocolate and other products containing cocoa; white chocolate; jelly, sweets and boiled sweets; chewing gum and bubble gum; caramels; liquorice sweets; spreadable chocolate and other sweet sandwich toppings; nut spreads, including peanut butter; cereal, granola and muesli bars; marzipan.”Advertising for ice cream, frozen yogurt, ice pops, sorbets, and energy drinks would also be banned ...The model would also apply to restaurant advertising, in which case every menu item featured would have to meet the necessary nutrition qualifiers. Several European countries already restrict the marketing of food and the WHO model is voluntary. Stop the presses! Fashion changes Business Insider reports that "many traditional apparel retailers are struggling" because millennials wear brands like Nike, Under Armour, and Lululemon all the time, not just when doing leisure activities. Marshal Cohen, a clothing industry analyst at NPD, said "This is no longer a trend – it is now a lifestyle that is too comfortable, for consumers of all ages, for it to go away anytime soon" and "There is an underlying sense of rebellion that comes through in today’s fashion." Really? Or are they just being practical because wearing uncomfortable slacks and a collared shirt to work is just stupid? The idea that some clothes are or aren't professional is arbitrary and often decided by joyless assholes. Trends change and Lululemon pants will, one day, disappear, too. Al Sharpton, race-based poverty pimp who exploits personal tragedies Blazing Cat Fur: Here’s Project Veritas’ new video showing how the families and attorneys of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown really feel about Rev. Al Sharpton.Additionally, local clergy and others express their opinions about how Sharpton exploits tragedy for personal gain. The video is here. Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Open Nominations gets Liberals sued. Again. The Ottawa Citizen reports top brass in Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party are being sued by a former Grit candidate, party leadership contender, and candidate wannabe David Bertschi: Bertschi filed a claim against Liberal campaign co-chairs Katie Telford and Dan Gagnier and the party’s national director, Jeremy Broadhurst, alleging they defamed him over a contentious nomination fight in the riding of Ottawa-Orléans.Bertschi had sought the nomination as Liberal candidate in the riding and was initially approved by the party’s “green light” committee.But Telford and Gagnier later rescinded their approval, citing unpaid debts that lingered from his long-shot bid for the Liberal leadership and another defamation action involving a U.S. gossip website, which they claimed he hadn’t disclosed.With Bertschi knocked out of the race, Trudeau adviser and former Canadian Forces general Andrew Leslie was acclaimed as the candidate ...He does not describe the statements he alleges are defamatory and instead says they were set out in the libel notice he sent in November, which has never been made public. That notice referred to a letter sent by Telford and Gagnier to a limited number of people within the party.Because of this alleged defamation, Bertschi claims he suffered “diminution of his personal, professional and political reputations.” Backroom politics prevented Christine Innes from getting a nomination in Toronto riding to make room for party favourite MP Chrystia Freeland. Innes and her husband Tony Ianno, sued Trudeau and Ontario campaign co-chair David MacNaughton, over a letter they allegedly sent about the couple's elbows-high style of politics. It's pretty clear that the Green Light Committee will nix candidates or the leadership will target possible nominees when they get int he way of star candidates the party wants to showcase. Freeland is on Trudeau's economic advisory committee and Leslie in on his defense and foreign policy advisory committee. Judges have to give out longer sentences than juries would prefer to dish out Jacob Sullum has a post at Hit & Run on a Cleveland judge polling jurors on a sentence for a man convicted of possessing child porn. Only one of the 12 jurors wanted a jail sentence as long as the federally mandated minimum five-year sentence and the average suggested prison term was 14.5 months. This leads Sullum to conclude, "current sentences do not reflect public opinion so much as the opinion of mindlessly tough-on-crime legislators." Probably so. At EconLog, David Henderson explains why this matters: First, this issue has a huge economics aspect. Those who are consigned to prison for years take a huge hit on their lifetime income and wealth.Second, for all the talk about the top 1%, there's not nearly enough talk about the bottom 1%. A large fraction of the bottom 1% are in prison, and a large fraction of that fraction should not be. Both quote an Iowa judge who observes that juries are reluctant to give long prison sentences, even in conservative parts of Iowa, even among juries who do not deliver verdicts of not guilty. Algorithms and love Tim Harford is skeptical that dating websites are more efficient at matching the right couples than just dating lots of people to find an appropriate mate. Harford would love for math and data to be better than just dating a lot, but he doesn't see it. Me: computers are probably better at matching compatible pairs but human ego gets in the way. The divorce rate among friends and acquaintances my age is lower among those matched by online dating services than those who met in more traditional ways; most of them met through religion-specific or ethnicity-specific dating services, which probably accounts for important selection factors. All that said, no computer would have ever matched me with my high school sweetheart and lovely wife. A more dynamic economy The American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis collects the 16 ideas for a more dynamic US economy from venture capitalist Marc Andreessen's "tweetstorm" with policies ranging from "More Montessori & Montessori-style, free-form, and/or project-based K-8 public & private schools" to "more interdisciplinary college programs" from "implement tax credits for child care services for working parents" to "eliminate tax credits for corporate debt." The disability-insurance policy disaster Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, writes in the Wall Street Journal about how disability insurance incentivizes not working, as evidenced by the fact "the percentage of the working-age population collecting disability insurance benefits has more than doubled to 5.7% in 2014 from 2.7% in 1984" which will result in Social Security’s $150 billion disability-insurance program becoming insolvent next year. Demographics play a small part, but it's mostly policy: Once Congress opened the door, incentives pushed many individuals through it. For less-educated workers, the typical annual disability package of almost $15,000 in cash payments and another $9,000 in Medicare benefits—coupled with the ability to earn more than $13,000 from work without losing benefits—can be attractive. High-school dropouts are one-half to two-thirds more likely to apply for disability than college graduates, regardless of health status, according to a January study published by economist Courtney Coile of Wellesley College.Most individuals who begin receiving disability will never return to the workforce. In any given year less than 1% of beneficiaries leave to return to work. Yet research published by the Social Security Administration, the Rand Corp. and others has shown that many have at least some capacity to work. Columbia University economist Til von Wachter and his co-authors found in a 2008 study that about 50% of rejected disability applicants age 30-44 return to work. For these reasons, the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board in 2006 urged reforms “directed to self-support, independence, and contribution.” Monday, February 23, 2015
'Moody’s says Ontario has a spending problem' The Toronto Star reports Moody’s Investment Services’ report released Monday noted that Ontario’s debt burden has gone up every year since 2009 and compared that to Quebec where debt has remained stable ...Moody’s said Ontario’s cost control designed to return the province’s budget to balance is subject to “execution risk.”“The province’s persistently large deficits and its tendency to delay the most significant attempts at expenditure restraints to the latter years of its projected timeline for returning to budgetary balance, increases the risk that the province will be unable to achieve its goals,” the report stated. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa's response to the report? "There is no change," in the budget. "I’m staying the course," claiming the budget will be balanced by 2017-18. Freedom Dominion won the defamation case against them Via Blazing Cat Fur, the decision and comments by Jay Currie, who said: Connie, Mark, Roger Smith and Dr. Dawg should never have let this matter get to Court. But it did and as a result, and at great cost to all of the parties, we now have a roadmap for online conduct. The defence of fair comment has been slightly extended and the question of “context” driving the meaning of particular words considered.I am delighted that Free Dominion won and the win was well deserved. But it was a damned close run thing. As BCF says, "Free Dominion has won an important decision – for all of us." Europe's declining Jewish population Pew Research via Conrad Hackett on Twitter: Europe's declining Jewish population (millions)1939 9.51945 3.81960 3.21991 2.02010 1.4 Justin Trudeau plays politics with assisted-suicide My thoughts on a new Liberal motion calling for a rushed debate on doctor-assisted suicide over at Soconvivium. 'Real World Development Indicators, version 2.0' Chris Blattman has 11 indicators to better understand "real world development" including: Number of tall buildings not occupied by the government or United NationsProbability that the President/Prime Minister seeks medical treatment in own country ...Percent of undergraduate students taking a real major, rather than development studies A non sequitur about early sex ed in Ontario Journalist Michael den Tandt tweets: "Ontario parents/grandparents mortified/outraged about sex ed for primary schoolers: Had a good look at your Netflix offerings lately?" Which is why many parents don't let their kids watch TV unsupervised. Be a better traveler and increase your happiness by recognizing that time is worth more than money Bryan Caplan suggests keeping some commonly packed items at the homes of family and friends with which you visit frequently. This makes sense to me. (We have a closet reserved for both our in-laws at our house.) But this reminder is useful beyond the application of "permanently stor[ing] one trip's worth of supplies at each destination": [I]f you have the means to travel in the First World, out-of-pocket costs should be secondary to your time, effort, and aggravation costs. That should be a guide for travel packing in general, and probably numerous other activities. We over-value our money and under-value our time. ISIS Jessica Lewis McFate and Harleen Gambhir, both of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, write in the Wall Street Journal about how ISIS is "executing a complex strategy across three geographic rings" and is no longer a mere regional threat: Last week’s Pentagon briefing outlined plans for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake Mosul from Islamic State, also known as ISIS. This strategy largely assumes that if ISIS is expelled from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, pushed out of Anbar province and degraded in Syria, the organization will collapse because its narrative of victory will be tarnished and its legitimacy as a “Caliphate” will end.That may have been true some months ago. But ISIS has adapted more quickly than U.S. strategy has succeeded, and it is pursuing a deliberate strategy to offset its tactical losses in Iraq and Syria with territorial gains in the Mideast and globally ...The ISIS cancer has metastasized, as the al Qaeda cancer did before it. The two are now competing to see which can kill more people faster. It is past time to recognize the scale, scope and magnitude of the enemies America and its allies face and develop clearly stated global, regional and local strategies to fight them. Not sure what that encompasses quite yet, but I'm pretty sure the leaders of most western democracies do not recognize the scale of the challenge. And the Oscar for Chutzpah goes to ... From Breitbart's live blog of the Oscars: 10:03 – Millionaire Actresses Whoop-Whooped Wage Equality Tonight…But only after carefully handing their $150,000 swag bags to an assistant. Unfortunately Breitbart doesn't name names. And I was watching The Walking Dead/Talking Dead. Sunday, February 22, 2015
Record cold temperatures in America ... Blame global warming Legal Insurrection links to a Washington Post story from earlier this month: "What the massive snowfall in Boston tells us about global warming." It is true that "warmer oceans have atmospheric consequences" but when a story quotes the heavily disputed Michael Mann, you have to wonder. Mann says, "Sea surface temperatures off the coast of New England right now are at record levels, 11.5C (21F) warmer than normal in some locations." Hmm. "At some locations" means Mann could be cherry-picking data, like he does for the start point of his (in)famous hockey stick graph. Anyway, the Post also quotes, Kevin Trenberth, a climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research: "Warmer waters off the coast help elevate winter temperatures and contribute to the greater snow amounts. This is how global warming plays a role." Except the warmer winter temperatures resulting in more snowfall doesn't jive with the record lower temperatures many cities are experiencing. The Legal Insurrection post also notes that "warming is better for humanity and the needy suffer most during cold weather," so even if global warming is happening (likely) and caused by human activity (still debatable), it isn't necessarily a bad thing, and even if it is bad thing (unlikely) it isn't necessarily worth the cost to try to prevent. Fragmentation of electorates Tyler Cowen links to Economist articles on the fragmentation of the British electorate and offers several theories as to why this is happening: voters are acting like (smarter) shoppers, the internet, the declining quality of political leaders, the replacement of the "left-right" axis with a "libertarian-authoritarian" one. In the 1950s, the Liberals and Conservatives won 97% of the vote, but polls suggest they'll combine for just two-thirds of the vote in May's election. We've seen this in Canada with the "Pizza Parliament" of the 1993 election, but there seems to be a shift away from fragmentation in the past decade with the merger of the parties on the Right and decline of the Bloc Quebecois. For years I have been debating with people about the possible fragmentation of U.S. politics, with me arguing against the likelihood of a major third party emerging. I'm still dubious but it does seem likelier than it has since World War II. Cowen says politics (in the U.S.) will get more interesting, and not necessarily in good ways. FIRE interview with Lenore Skenazy The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education interviews Lenore Skenazy on the over-reaction by educators to supposed dangers to children, like when a school suspends an elementary school student for biting a pop tart into the shape of a gun. Questions that don't get asked The Spectator of London: "A survivor of the Copenhagen attack speaks: 'If we should stop drawing cartoons, should we also stop having synagogues'?" That was asked by Danish writer Helle Brix. Sinatra Song of the Century Mark Steyn looks at "Chicago" -- "that toddling town," you must remember is not "My Kind Of Town." Saturday, February 21, 2015
Sex ed & Liberal scandal Mark Towhey suggests that Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government is using a scandalous early sex ed curriculum to distract the public from her party's outrageous scandals. Justin Trudeau: does he have a hidden agenda? Rex Murphy says in less than a 1000 words what I do in about 200 pages in my forthcoming book on Justin Trudeau: Murphy looks at "a number of backtracks, contradictions and a pattern of evasiveness or equivocation on big issues" that raise the specter of whether Junior is being honest with voters about what he intends to do with power if he ever is entrusted with being prime minister. You can still win a copy of the book by coming up with a fantastic title for it. The previous paragraph describes what the book is about, while raising the question whether Justin Trudeau is hiding his agenda or just not very bright, a pretty face who mouths platitudes. I don't reach a conclusion because I genuinely don't know whether to fear him for being the second coming of his radical father or worry that he is an intellectual light-weight that isn't up to the job. I really can't tell. If you have ideas for a title/subtitle, email me at paul_tuns [AT] yahoo [DOT] com or send me a direct message on Twitter. This is on my reading list (for October) Markets without Limits: Commercial Interests and Moral Virtues by Jason F. Brennan and Peter Jaworski, who recently auctioned the dedication for the book. It comes out October 4. 2015. Americans still produce stuff Donald Boudreaux points to a Federal Reserve graph that shows U.S. industrial production at an all-time high. That certainly contradicts the usual economic narrative. Germany ready to let Greece go? Tyler Cowen has a number of the links about Greece and Europe, but the most interesting one is in German; apparently Athens has four months to get its house in order or face an orderly exit. That seems unlikely although Bloomberg has a story about the Maltese Finance Minister saying Germany is ready to let Greece go. Edward Scicluna said: "Germany, the Netherlands and others will be hard and they will insist that Greece repays back the solidarity shown by the member states by respecting the conditions ... They’ve now reached a point where they will tell Greece 'if you really want to leave, leave'." Free citizens defending themselves The Daily Caller reports: Tulsa has had 11 homicides in 2015, nearly half of them by regular people acting legally in self defense, Tulsa World reports ...This year’s slew of regular people defending themselves is a huge spike from the previous year. In 2014, only eight self-defense homicides occurred in Tulsa, and police were responsible for six. None of the homicides this year have been at the hands of police. The Tulsa World says of Oklahoma's Stand Your Ground law: Enacted in 2006, the law extends broad protection to Oklahomans who think someone entering their “dwelling” might use physical force against them. The law even specifies that the victim need not be in fear of his or her life — use of deadly force is protected as long as the victim has “reasonable belief” the intruder might use “any” physical force, “no matter how slight.” 'Why 1995 is the Year that Created the Future' W. Joseph Campbell, author of 1995: The Year the Future Began, is interviewed for Reason TV. Headline of the Year? Selective editing of a sub-head yields "Political Ambition Limited Orgy Involvement." Related, what Radley Balko calls the "Salon-iest Salon article ever": "Sex orgies of the 1 percent: What really happens when the rich and powerful gather for group sex." Friday, February 20, 2015
The condom credit cards for kids LifeSiteNews reports: The National Health Service (NHS) is expanding a program dreamed up six years ago by the Brook Advisory Service, a UK "sexual health" organization targeting teenagers, that gives boys as young as 12 a condom "credit card" or "C-card," allowing them to receive free condoms at sport fields, clubs and barbershops.Under the expanded program the C-Cards can now be obtained by boys or girls as young as 13 from schools, libraries, health centers and pharmacies, without parental notification.The program is already in place in many urban areas across the UK and, according to the NHS, will be introduced shortly at locations throughout West Sussex.Upon showing the card, a child is given 12 condoms, sexual lubricant and a how-to-use information sheet. Those aged 16 and over can use the card six times while 13 to 15 year-olds can use it three times, after which the card must be renewed. Can Ontario lead again? BMO Nesbitt Burns looks at the Ontario economy and wonders: "Can Ontario Lead Again?" Skip to the conclusion and chief economist Douglas Porter says yes, but don't expect miracles. However, several drags on the economy described in the body of this economic focus suggests otherwise: lack of industrial capacity, high taxes, and unfavourable demographics. Notable fact: Ontario's economic growth hasn't been above the national average since 2002. Douglas suggests that will change in the next year. Perhaps, but only because Alberta and Saskatchewan isn't growing as quickly, bringing the national average down. If that's Ontario "leading" then Canada is in for some difficult times ahead. The not-getting-it-and-that's-okay community Five Feet of Fury pointed to a Wired.com story on asexuals: [T]hey’re exploring an unconventional idea: life without sex. Or mostly without sex. They’re pioneers of an emerging sexual identity, one with its own nomenclature and subcategories of romance and desire, all revolving around the novel concept that having little to no interest in sex is itself a valid sexual orientation. Rae tells me she’s an aromantic asexual, Sean identifies as a heteroromantic demisexual, and Genevieve sees herself as a panromantic gray-asexual.Not sure what these terms mean? You’re not alone. The definitions are still in flux, but most people who describe themselves as demisexual say they only rarely feel desire, and only in the context of a close relationship. Gray-asexuals (or gray-aces) roam the gray area between absolute asexuality and a more typical level of interest. Then there are the host of qualifiers that describe how much romantic attraction you might feel toward other people: Genevieve says she could theoretically develop a nonsexual crush on just about any type of person, so she is “panromantic”; Sean is drawn to women, so he calls himself “heteroromantic.”If the taxonomy seems loose and even confusing, it’s because the terms were created almost wholly online, arising on gaming-site forums and a nest of interrelated Tumblrs, blogs, and subreddits. They don’t necessarily describe fixed identities but serve more as beacons for people to locate each other online. While the rest of the world was using the web to invent and gratify new pervy thrills, these people used it as a wormhole out of a relentlessly sexual culture. It might be the only corner of the Internet that is not laced with porn. I prefer that people not define themselves by their sexual preferences and practices, and question whether defining oneself as asexual really helps one escape the "relentlessly sexual culture." Thought of the day Alex Tabarrok wonders whether "sufficiently advanced logic is indistinguishable from stupidity." Economic thought of the day Greg Mankiw writes about The Economic Report of the President and a number of historical counterfactuals it presents. Mankiw says: 1. If productivity growth had not slowed after 1973, the median household would have $30,000 of additional income today. 2. If income inequality had not increased after 1973, the median household would have $9,000 of additional income today.So, which is the bigger problem? Should economics (the "science") guide the moral argument? Thursday, February 19, 2015
I bet this is true of all health facilities OneNewsNow: "New York abortion clinics inspected less often than pizzerias." Who says Canadian politics is boring NDP MP Pat Martin buys cheap underwear, misses procedural vote because he has to adjust himself or something like that. As Aaron Wherry said, his excuse for missing the vote in now part of the permanent record of Parliament in Hansard. Bet this gets more play on CBC's Power and Politics panel segment than Elections Ontario saying there was an "apparent contravention" of the Ontario Elections Act anti-bribery law by the Kathleen Wynne Liberals; that report was sent to the Attorney General to decide if there is enough to charge Pat Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed Jr. Inside the sausage factory Two interesting article on American politics. The National Journal: "When a Clinton 'Ally' Isn't an Ally at All." The subtitle explains it: "Dozens of freelancing Democrats are posing as Clinton confidants, and it’s mess-making for her real team." Remember this when you read political stories with unnamed sources. And sometimes named sources. Always ask yourself about the credibility and motivation of the source. Sabato's Crystal Ball: "Why Outside Spending Is Overrated." It's subtitle is "Lessons from the 2014 Senate Elections." Money is not determinative in electoral success as winning elections has more to do with relative party strength in a state than does money spent on candidates. Beyond the scope of this article, it is likely that money determines political success, namely which cronies get rewarded. Crony capitalism is so ingrained that the cronies do not even need to approach government as supplicant The Globe and Mail reports: Quebec’s economy minister said the province stands ready to provide financial assistance to Montreal plane and train maker Bombardier Inc. if its balance sheet deteriorates.“We have money available to finance Bombardier customers. If Bombardier needs that money for its liquidity, we can work with them on that,” Jacques Daoust told reporters outside the Liberal caucus in Quebec City Wednesday.An aide to the minister said the province has not received any specific request for assistance and therefore the government “doesn’t know what [the company’s] needs are.” This should be shocking, but it isn't. The #1 #2 Grantland's latest Bracketology is to determine the best second banana. I'd have a final four of Scottie Pippen, Stringer Bell (edging out George Costanza), Spock, and John C. Reilly (eking past Canada). Nothing from The Simpsons? Marty Janetty probably shouldn't be the only wrestling representative. The upside of no Sun News Warren Kinsella's column is no longer in the Toronto Sun. It might return, but the ownership change for the Sun chain of newspapers means the Sun News personalities no longer appear in the paper until the whole thing gets worked out. Kinsella wants to start a podcast for "progressive contrarians" by which he means assholes who are always wrong. The most miserable states Business Insider reports on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index for 2014 which finds that the most miserable states in the U.S. are in the South and Midwest. Interestingly, Alaska and Hawaii rank 1-2 overall. South Dakota is tops in the continental United States. It's time to win the ideological war (and real war) on radical Islam The Wall Street Journal editorializes: The useful analogy here is to the Cold War, when the world was also challenged by an ideology that professed its superiority over an allegedly decadent West. The difference then is that Western leaders didn’t shrink from describing the evil of that ideology and defending the superiority of our way of life. The same needs to be done now.This will have to include more sophisticated arguments to counter radical Islamism. Jihadist ideology has gained millions of adherents because it makes fundamental claims about personal virtue and social justice. Countering that narrative requires something more than making an appeal, as State Department spokesperson Marie Harf did this week, to working on “root causes” such as insufficient schooling and job opportunities in the Arab world. There is little or no correlation between poverty and Islamist extremism, many of whose most notorious figures are wealthy and well-educated.It will also require far more support for reform-minded Muslims, from granting political asylum to persecuted Muslim intellectuals to funding civil society groups seeking to spread liberal concepts of individual liberty and religious tolerance.Above all, we need to recognize that the strength of radical Islamists is directly correlated to their battlefield success, and the growing perception that they are the strong horse against moderate Muslim leaders. Communist ideology lost its appeal when it was seen to fail against the prosperity and freedom of the West. Islamic State will lose its allure when it is defeated and humiliated in the arena it cares about most, which is the battlefield. Mr. Obama and other Western leaders must summon the will to win the war on the ground, or they will find themselves in permanent retreat in the war of ideas. I do not assume that any western leader is actually ready to conduct the war of ideas against radical Islam. As Mark Steyn often says, we lack the cultural confidence to fight for our civilization. The jihadists certainly don't, which gives them a huge advantage in the long game. Living history vs. reading history Mark Steyn: But you've got to be careful: in France, in 2015, you can be beaten up for being seen with the wrong kind of book on public transportation. As Max Fisher says, we could all stand to read a little history, and the Jewish Museum in Brussels has a pretty good bookstore, but, if you swing by, try not to pick one of the days when they're shooting visitors.This is Europe now, 2015. What will 2016 bring, and 2020, 2025? And yet France or Denmark is all you've ever known; you own a house, you've got a business, a pension plan, savings accounts... How much of all that are you going to be able to get out with? These are the same questions the Continent's most integrated Jews - in Germany - faced 80 years ago. Do you sell your home in a hurry and take a loss? Or maybe in a couple of years it'll all blow over. Or maybe it won't, and in five years the house price will be irrelevant because you'll be scramming with a suitcase. Or maybe in ten years you won't be able to get out at all - like the Yazidi or those Copts.If you're living history as opposed to reading it in a sophomoric chatroom with metrosexual eunuch trustiefundies, these are the calculations you make - in Mosul, in Raqaa, in Sirte, in Sana'a, in Donetsk, in Malmö, Rotterdam, Paris... If this seems all a little over-the-top for you, just pause for a minute to consider what if? What if Steyn is right? It is easy to dismiss the worst-case scenarios but the worst-case scenarios can happen. And even something significantly short of the worst-case scenario can be really, really bad. We aren't talking about sub-optimal outcomes here; we're talking about actual lives being lost because they are Jewish lives. Reading is fine. Living is better. Morrissey on Ramones Not sure how I came across this 2012 BuzzFeed article: "Teenage Morrissey’s Scathing Review Of The Ramones." Steve Morrissey was 17 and his review was titled, "Ramones are rubbish." Trying to make sense of Justin Trudeau's carbon tax Justin Trudeau spoke at the Petroleum Club in Calgary a few weeks ago and it was lost in all the coverage of Eve Adams' floor crossing. In Maclean's Paul Wells finally gets around to the speech and he doesn't think it -- or at least the carbon policy he talked about there -- makes a lot of sense: When Stéphane Dion campaigned on a federal carbon tax in 2008, he liked to claim it was revenue-neutral: Any money raised through his tax would pay for carbon-reduction policies. He had trouble justifying that claim, but at least it was attractive in theory. The feds collect money, the feds disburse money.Trudeau has decided to cancel the first half of that formula. This seems problematic.Under the Trudeau policy, the provinces would collect money, and the feds would send them more money to—to—to make up for the money they could have raised with a more stringent emissions standard. This is an innovation: the first revenue-negative carbon pricing scheme.Clearly, the money to pay for Trudeau’s new Canada Green Transfer (my name for it, but admit you like it) would have to come from somewhere. Maybe it could come from a tax on legalized and regulated marijuana. But Colorado’s experience suggests a low ceiling on the available revenue: Colorado’s state government brought in $44 million in pot revenue in 2014, equivalent to about $308 million for a population the size of Canada’s. That’s not huge money.Maybe the provinces could pay for Trudeau’s green transfer. They’re the ones collecting revenue through a carbon tax, after all. But a cash transfer from the provinces to Ottawa to pay for a cash transfer from Ottawa to the provinces sounds complex, to use the gentlest available word. Unemployment can change personal behaviour As obvious as some of the findings in this study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, are -- personal characteristics become measurably different after losing one's job and being unemployed for an extended period of time -- the sad thing is that for many people they become more unemployable. For example: With respect to conscientiousness, the longer men spent without jobs, the larger their reduction in this trait, which is also tied to enjoying one's income, according to the researchers. In comparison, women became more conscientious in the early and late stages of unemployment but experienced a slump in the middle of the study period. The researchers theorized that women may have regained some conscientiousness by pursuing non-work-related activities traditionally associated with their gender, such as caregiving. 'The slow death of the Boeing 747' Quartz reports that Boeing's 747 is losing popularity among the major airlines: The scheduled passenger capacity of the Boeing 747—as measured in available seat miles—dropped below that of the double-decker Airbus A380 for the first time ever in 2014. Published schedules through 2015 show airlines will continue to increase their use of the A380, and reduce the use of 747s. Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Below zero (interest rates) A few weeks ago I linked to several articles about negative interest rates. TD Economics has a short (five-page) report on negative interest rates and the plausibility of the Bank of Canada could have rates headed below zero. Economists Derek Burleton and Leslie Preston conclude: Europe’s experience has thrown the assumption that zero is the lower bound for yields out the window. But, it is highly unlikely that Canada is going to follow suit. If economic conditions worsen, the Bank of Canada has plenty of room to cut rates and still keep the overnight rate in positive territory. 2016 watch (Rand Paul edition) Reason's Robby Soave: "Rand Paul Likely to Announce Presidential Campaign on April 7." As Soave says, "Assuming Paul does run, it will be exciting to have a strongly libertarian-inclined candidate in the race — not merely as a contender, but as a highly plausible frontrunner." Even those who find his foreign policy a little off-putting should welcome the discussions on important, fresh issues; most politicians play it safe, especially ones with any kind of legit chance to win. Rand Paul doesn't play it that safe. American political debate might be spread farther than the 40-yard lines in 2016 and that's good for democracy. All that said, Paul appears to be a frontrunner only if you squint your eyes a bit and it's not hard to imagine the Republican elite and base coalescing around a single candidate to stop the libertarian-minded Kentucky senator. Capitalism liberated women At the Foundation for Economic Education, Stephen Davies, a program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies, makes the case for capitalism as a liberating force for women. Davies argues, "Women have gained a capacity of self-direction and a range of opportunities and options that were denied to their predecessors." He notes that women were "liberated" from the biological consequences of sex through technological advances like birth control, but (more importantly) also became less dependent on men because the economy placed less of a premium on physical strength thereby decreasing the natural advantage men had. Davies provides only a cursory examination of the most important factor: Later on, modern capitalism produced a suite of devices and innovations that physically freed women from the demands and limitations of domestic labor. To take one example, the modern washing machine freed women from the need to spend one or often two entire days of each week doing laundry. Other domestic appliances had similar effects. The innovation of entrepreneurs liberated women from the time-consuming chores that took up much of the days of mothers and wives. This shouldn't be underplayed but Davies seems to think birth control was more important. L'Osservatore Romano was correct in 2009 when it said that the washing machine did more to liberate women than The Pill. Fighting back Five Feet of Fury on the importance of responding in the comments sections of articles: If anyone’s in a fisking mood and wants to join me in debunking the various liberal myths about McCarthy (and, yes, the Crusades and the Inquisition), we (there’s another smart person) could use your help.We have to take back the culture, people. This is one way to do so. And "fact-checking" movies. A conversation with photographer Jonathan Castellino: seeing things in new ways and some great advice for everyone The Leica Camera Blog talks to Jonathan Castellino, a Toronto photographer and friend of mine. Many of you won't have much time for his philosophy of urban life, landscape, and images, but I wanted to highlight two aspects of his work and some great advice he offers that applies to everyone. First, his work: Cities are also layered, with many converging landscapes, and yet we tend to have a somewhat unified view of their structure. The fact that there are different, conflicting and yet overlapping cities within cities, as it were, is difficult to convey in any single image. The visualization of this is manifest in some of my more recent work, where I show the multiplicity quite literally, in the use of overlaid images. Second, about his work: People often wonder about my work in terms of legal access. Trespassing is not actually essential to my work, and people overstate its importance because of a misplaced fascination with its allure. Exploring is really about seeing things in a new way, not going to a place you shouldn’t be; it happens when you change your perspective. It is only when I later step back from the work, and take stock of both the physical and artistic journey, that I can unify both through images. Lastly this, which is excellent advice for everyone: Q: Did any particular person or body of work influence or inspire you?A: While I am certainly moved by the work of many of photography’s masters, it is the community of friends that I shoot with that inspire me the most. Not just by their work, but by their constant encouragement. If you don't have friends that inspire and encourage you, you should (at the very least) expand your circle of friends. Unnecessary laws (Ontario and guns edition) The Ontario legislature will eventually get around to considering Bill 24 is "An Act to amend the Highway Traffic Act and the Civil Remedies Act, 2001 to promote public safety by prohibiting driving in a motor vehicle with an unlawfully possessed handgun." If the guns are unlawful, the person can be charged with possession of an illegal firearm. There is no need to further punish an individual because they happen to have that firearm in the car. This is an attempt by the Ontario Liberals to look tough on crime, appear that they are making the streets safer, and curry favour with anti-gun downtown Toronto voters. Failed state vs. failed policy Economist and blogger Tyler Cowen on Greece leaving the Eurozone: "I am not sure there is any fix, and the expression “failed state” comes to mind. The momentum here does not seem to be positive." Economist and Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tweets: "We area Europeanist party that simply rejects a failed policy." 'The hits keep on coming' with McWynnety A letter to the editor by former DJ Gary Megaffin to the Waterloo Region Record highlights the lowlights of 12 years of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne: "Ornge, eHealth, gas plant cancellations, the sensitive email deletions, the Green Energy Act boondoggle, scandalous Pan Am Games bonus perks, the Smart Meter fiasco, monstrous escalating debt and now the OPP investigating possibly illegal Sudbury election moves by the Ontario Liberals." McWynnety worse than Mulroney or Chretien. Elliott touts her momentum The Christine Elliott campaign emailed supporters with this message encouraging them to help sign up new members: "With enthusiastic endorsements from Vic Fedeli, Lisa MacLeod, Hon. John Baird, and Senator Marjory LeBreton these past couple of weeks, it’s clear that we have the momentum leading into the February 28 Membership deadline!" I wouldn't count the backing of two quitters and a Mulroney-era retread as momentum. Baird is an actual prize, but that's just one-quarter of the endorsements she's highlighting. Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Who was that fella, Bob Feller The New York Times reports on the closing of the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, Iowa. I didn't know there was a Bob Feller Museum nor am I a fan, yet it made me a little sad to find out it was closing. It was one of the last three stand-alone player-specific museums; there are six others tied to larger institutions. The remaining two stand-alones are the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum, near Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, and the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library in Greenville, S.C. The Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame, in Hernando, Florida, near Tampa, opened in 1994 but closed in 2006, four years after Williams' death. The article is interesting throughout, touching how we remember great players from the past, the connection of these players to their (often smaller) communities, what to do with artifacts when institutions such as these close, and small-town tourism. (Van Meter was not far off the interstate but competed John Wayne's hometown and the bridges of Madison County for tourists traveling through Iowa.) Of course, the article will also be of interest to Feller and Cleveland Indians fans. The Liberal Party is reduced calling out the government over tweets The Canadian Press reports: A veteran Liberal MP has written to Treasury Board President Tony Clement seeking assurances that federal ministers communicate in both official languages on social media networks like Twitter.Stephane Dion says in his letter that according to the government's communication policy, institutions must ensure that communications conform to the Official Languages Act. I'm not of the school that says there are more important issues with which Dion should be concerning himself -- say the economy, oil prices, ISIS, domestic security, whatever. I'm of the school that this issue doesn't matter at all. I'd prefer to know Dion's view on carbon pricing and what kind of carbon tax his home province of This is exquisite rationalization. Was Kathleen Wynne trained by Jesuits? The CBC reports on Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne's defense of a party operative and political staffer who is the center of an OPP investigation on whether Pat Sorbara bribed a candidate (with a job or appointment) to step aside for the party's favoured candidate: Wynne says Sorbara's role as the Liberal campaign director is separate from her duties in the premier's office, so there's no need for her to resign during the police investigation. Sorbara is accused of offering Andrew Olivier an appointment to make room for former federal NDP MP Glenn Thibeault, who ran for the Liberals in the recent provincial by-election in Sudbury. Sorbara is accused of speaking for the premier. Wynne, who previously said there was no specific offer of a job, now claims a distinction that is irrelevant, even laughable, considering the allegations. Furthermore, saying the the controversy didn't resonate with local voters because they elected the Liberal, doesn't cut it either. There is a police investigation. Sorbara should be placed on leave. Jean Chretien dealt with scandal brilliantly by refusing to give an inch to the critics, simply denying wrong-doing, and shrugging off the temporary bad headlines. Wynne is dealing with this scandal similarly and she is not likely to suffer any political consequences. But there is still the issue of what is right and wrong, which should matter even in politics. People should be held accountable even if they can get away with their alleged crimes. |