Saturday, February 28, 2015

Still believe in public education?

A physics teacher has re-tasked his lesson plan to cover racism and "privilege, and social justice," exactly what one would not expect in a physics class. If public education wasn't doomed before, it certainly is now.
A high-school physics teacher has developed his own six-day curriculum that he uses to teach about institutional racism, privilege, and social justice as part of his seniors’ physics classes. The teacher, Moses Rifkin of University Prep in Seattle, has also been promoting the lesson plan to other high-school science instructors.
I never thought I would see the day when you couldn't trust a physics teacher to, you know, teach physics. I guess I grew up in a different world.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Climate change as religion and dharma

The head of the IPCC is accused of sexual harassment.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), resigned today following accusations of sexual harassment by a former employee at the energy think tank he heads in New Delhi.
... 
Pachauri, 74, did not travel to Nairobi this week for the IPCC meeting due to a police investigation into a complaint filed Feb. 13 by a 29-year-old employee. According to to the complaint, she accused Pachauri of sending text messages and emails since September 2013 that were inappropriate (ClimateWire, Feb. 19).
Oops. Emails full of naughty words being exposed to the public? Say it ain't so.. Well, can't really call this "climategate" 2 or whatever. The only anthropomorphic heat being generated is the legal mess Pachauri is finding himself in. Let's face it, if she's got sexy emails from him he's done.

The best part for me though, is when he announces that his work is not just his job, it's his religion.
"For me the protection of Planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission," he wrote. "It is my religion and my dharma [duty]." sic
 That's the most blatant admission from any "climate change" politician I've ever heard.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

What would you prefer?

This?
MEDFORD, NY (CBSNewYork/AP) – A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.
... 
Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives, Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived. 
Or this?
PINCH, W.Va. – A pharmacist in Pinch who was forced to make an incredibly difficult decision when an armed robbery turned deadly is speaking out and sharing how his faith is helping him through the ordeal. 
...
Eight people were inside the pharmacy in Pinch when the suspect came through the door about 9:45 a.m. 
Kanawha deputies said the man, identified by Kanawha deputies as Terry Gillenwater, 25, of Quick, was wearing a mask over his face. He stood in line for a few moments before producing a handgun and pointing it directly at the counter workers. 
Radcliff said he was standing just a few feet away. He drew his own weapon, firing three times, hitting the suspect twice and one shot actually hit the man's gun as he was aiming to fire back.
When violence descended on him, Mr. Radcliff was able to save eight lives, including his own. Facing the same situation, four disarmed innocents in New York had no chance and were slaughtered. I know what choice the families of the victims in New York would make. It's the same choice I would make, and any sane person would make.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Did you think it couldn't get worse?

I certainly felt that way. I thought we'd allowed our gender to be run into the ground, and that modern masculinity was dead, replaced by some kind of pseudo-pan-sexualism. I wrote about it two years ago.
I saw a young man at the market today. He was decked out in black flannel, black leather, black jeans, black shoes, he had black hair and a black beard, and he wore earrings. His pants were skinny girl jeans - tight, black girl jeans. He had his feet slipped into black girls slippers with little brass studs (spikes) all over them, and and his black flannel shirt was untucked and covered by a tight leather biker jacket, zipped all the way up. 
If this is the state of man, I fear for the species.


I was wrong. You were, too, if you think that men wearing women's pantyhose (male leggings) was the end of our gender.

Behold, the male dress - complete with knee high frilly boots:


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

What would you change about the tax code?

The first five things I would eliminate from the tax code are:
  1. The ACA/Obamacare penalty.
  2. The taxes on tips.
  3. The taxes on gifts, no matter the size.
  4. The estate tax.
  5. The refundable tax credits - if you don't pay it in, you do not get it back.
    • I would be OK with these being converted to non-refundable.
Remember that all individuals are already taxed on their income. Taxing a gift (to a person or to an organization) is double taxing that income. Fuck that. And the same for the estate tax. I get taxed all of my life, and at the end of my life they want to confiscate more? Fuck that and fuck them.