Apple doesn’t even make it to a footnote in computer history without Steve Jobs. Technologies are not quite dime a dozen. People who know how to blend invention with the needs of the market are rare.
The US is no longer a country, a unified coherent whole, the homeland of a people with a common history and a common purpose. Large parts of its landmass is instead being turned into a campsite, where the campers are given votes so that the productive can keep passing on a significant part of their incomes to the government to bribe the new campers with. Here’s the story: Obama opens fraud-ridden benefits programs to illegal immigrants:
President Obama’s unilateral executive action on immigration will make hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, illegal immigrants eligible for federal transfer payments. That will be done primarily through two widely used programs — the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, and the Additional Child Tax Credit, or ACTC.
As it turns out, those two programs are already among the most corrupt and fraud-ridden in the entire federal government. A newly-released report from the inspector general of the Internal Revenue Service confirms that the EITC is plagued by fraud (which was already well known) and also reveals for the first time that the ACTC is even worse.
The two programs, intended for low-income workers, are what is known as refundable tax credits. That means they give workers a tax refund that is larger than their tax liability. So a family with a tax bill of $1,000 might receive an EITC “refund” of $5,000, meaning the family doesn’t write a check to the government but rather receives a check from the government. The ACTC works similarly for low-income workers with children.
Supported by both political parties over the years, the programs were intended to encourage work and strengthen families. Their growth has been extraordinary in recent years — payments increased 40 percent from 2007 to 2012 alone. And now both are beset by staggering levels of fraud. . . .
In fact, the president obscured what is happening by telling the covered illegal immigrants that if “you’re willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you’ll be able to stay. …” In fact, for many of those affected, “willing to pay your fair share of taxes” actually means “willing to accept an assistance check from the government.”
If past practice is any guide, the Obama administration will likely start an aggressive, multilingual campaign to encourage illegal immigrants affected by the president’s action to apply for as many benefits as possible. And if not all of them are actually eligible to receive the taxpayers’ money? Well, no one will be checking that too closely.
You tell me where this ends? That the productive will forever remain content to share their wealth with millions of others who have not contributed a single dollar over and above what they have taken is not a longterm proposition. How and what circumstances will bring it to an end will remain the mystery for now, but I suspect not for long.
Tim Blair has gone after the critics of Hal Colebatch’s Australia’s Secret War: How Unionists Sabotaged Our Troops in World War II which had the audacity to win the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, or at least shared one with someone else. This has apparently sent the unusual suspects off into a frenzy.
What is astonishing to me is that the sabotage continued past the Soviet Union entering the War. We had the same problem in Canada, but the moment that the Soviet motherland was under attack, everything changed in a nanosecond. That unions were still at it in Australia long after, and especially out here where we were all by ourselves in the South Pacific, shows an insanity that defies description.
Yet in the Orwellian world we seem to inhabit, apparently nothing is ever settled if it in any way is discrediting to the left. You cannot even mention that Alger Hiss was just maybe perhaps possibly a Soviet agent without bringing half the world down on your head. So I won’t.
The interesting part about this episode is that the left understands how important it is to fortify the line and never concede anything ever no matter what. The critics of Colebatch’s book would have to do an awful lot of research to seriously erode the evidence that has been brought together by a serious scholar, which is what Hal Colebatch is. It is the usual demonstration effect. Do not go there if you know what’s good for you. So once again I won’t.
You should ride with this one to the end. It is only 6:36.
The video is about selling but if you think of the competition involved, you will see the closest imaginable parallel to politics. All parties of the mainstream are driven towards the middle. That, of course, assumes that everyone is evenly distributed along the beach. But if most potential customers are on the left and far left side of the beach, that is where the “middle” will end up.
I am posting this before I have watched it, but it she is as sensible in conversation as she is in her written work, this will be near two hours of deep interest and insight. The transcript is here.
There are many forms of unfairness in life and this is just one. This is the title Socioeconomic status and the growth of intelligence from infancy through adolescence and here is the abstract:
Low socioeconomic status (SES) children perform on average worse on intelligence tests than children from higher SES backgrounds, but the developmental relationship between intelligence and SES has not been adequately investigated. Here, we use latent growth curve (LGC) models to assess associations between SES and individual differences in the intelligence starting point (intercept) and in the rate and direction of change in scores (slope and quadratic term) from infancy through adolescence in 14,853 children from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), assessed 9 times on IQ between the ages of 2 and 16 years. SES was significantly associated with intelligence growth factors: higher SES was related both to a higher starting point in infancy and to greater gains in intelligence over time. Specifically, children from low SES families scored on average 6 IQ points lower at age 2 than children from high SES backgrounds; by age 16, this difference had almost tripled. Although these key results did not vary across girls and boys, we observed gender differences in the development of intelligence in early childhood. Overall, SES was shown to be associated with individual differences in intercepts as well as slopes of intelligence. However, this finding does not warrant causal interpretations of the relationship between SES and the development of intelligence.
This is the news report to help you understand the point: Does poverty impact intelligence? Deprived children are 6 IQ points worse off than wealthy peers – and the gap widens with age.
Poverty affects the intelligence of children as young as two, a study has found – and its impact increases as the child ages.
Deprived young children were found to have IQ scores six points lower, on average, than children from wealthier families.
And the gap got wider throughout childhood, with the early difference tripling by the time the children reached adolescence. . . .
The results, published in the journal Intelligence, revealed that children from wealthier backgrounds with more opportunities scored higher in IQ tests at the age of two, and experienced greater IQ gains over time.
Dr Sophie von Stumm, from Goldsmiths, University of London, who led the study, said: ‘We’ve known for some time that children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds perform on average worse on intelligence tests than children from higher SES backgrounds, but the developmental relationship between intelligence and SES had not been previously shown.
‘Our research establishes that relationship, highlighting the link between SES and IQ.
‘We hope that our findings will drive future research into the specific mechanisms and factors that underpin the link between SES and IQ and thus, contribute to widening the IQ gap.’
Women apparently like to read books written by women. Here’s the detail:
Of the 50 books published in 2014 that were most read by women, 45 were by women and only 5 were by men. (And one of those 5 “men” was Robert Galbraith a.k.a. JK Rowling!)
But then there is this on the opposite side of the bar:
Of the 50 books published in 2014 that were most read by men, 45 were by men and only 5 were by women. In other words, 90 percent of books read by male readers are by male authors.
All to be expected, I suppose. So let me marry this piece of news with this hilarious story from The Globe and Mail of a few years back that comes under the deceptive title, The English Assignment.
On the Tuesday morning following Labour Day, rather than listening for the 8:50 bell to ring, I will be casually chatting over a steaming cup of sweet, frothy something with a close friend and former colleague at a neighbourhood coffee shop.
It won’t be our first Day 1 of school spent not at school. But our conversation will doubtless return to reminiscing about our days in the classroom.
I gave my Grade 12 English students a memorable assignment in the late 1990s, one that I used again several times.
I found the idea buried in a professional journal. It’s a prime example of John Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
An English professor from the University of California described it in her instructions to a first-year English class: “Today we will experiment with a new form called the ‘tandem story.’ The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story.
“You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph and so on, back-and-forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely no talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.”
Here’s what two of my students turned in. Let’s call them Marla and Neil.
The Tandem Story:
(First paragraph by Marla) “At first, Betty couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favourite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Bruce, who once said, in happier times, that he also adored chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Bruce. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question. She’d switch to chai.”
(Second paragraph by Neil) “Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Bruce Harrington, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Zontar 3, had more important things to think about than the neurotic meanderings of an air-headed, asthmatic bimbo named Betty with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. ‘A.S. Harrington to Geostation 17,’ he said into his transgalactic communicator. ‘Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far …’ But before he could sign off, a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.”
(Later in the story: Marla) “Bruce struck his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Zontar 3. ‘Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,’ Betty read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. … ”
(Even later in the story: Neil) “Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Meribian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted, bleeding-heart peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through parliament had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. … The prime minister, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the floor of the Arctic Ocean, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, pathetic, stupid Betty.”
(Marla) “This is absurd, Mrs. Melnicer. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.”
(Neil) “Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centred, tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. ‘Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of freakin’ TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I’m such an air-headed bimbo who reads too many Jackie Collins novels!’ ”
(Marla) “Brain-dead jerk!”
(Neil) “PMS witch!”
(Marla) “Drop dead, you neanderthal!! ”
(Neil) “In your dreams, you flake. Go drink some tea.”
Time for the teacher to interject.
(Mrs. Melnicer) “I really liked this one. Good work!”
Since the objectives of the assignment focused on the appreciation of another’s point of view, the building of respect for another’s opinion and heightening motivation to continue a meaningful dialogue, what took place seemed to the students a dismal failure.
However, in terms of meeting the objectives I had set for the assignment, and fully knowing where their “mistakes” were going to take us, the exercise couldn’t have been more successful. Or more fun!
Every good teacher – every effective leader, for that matter – knows that it is from our mistakes we all learn. It follows, then, that failure is something to celebrate; it is the very soil in which learning grows and knowledge blooms.
Both students received top marks.
I must say that if this were true, you could never hope for peace and the Western world would be under more threat than anyone is prepared to say:
Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf-Bibeau, the crackhead turned Jihadist spawned by the mating of a Canadian immigration official and a Libyan Muslim Jihadist, just wanted peace.
He told a co-worker, “There can’t be world peace until there’s only Muslims.” Then he tried to usher in peace, the Islamic way, by opening fire near the Canadian parliament.
Meanwhile in Israel a reporter interviewing Arab Muslim settlers in Jerusalem found that they too wanted peace. On their terms. “Yes we want peace,” one of them said, “but peace means no Jews.”
When negotiating peace with other cultures it’s a good idea to make sure that the words you are using mean the same thing. Most Muslims and Westerners want peace. But to Westerners peace means co-existence. To Muslims, peace means the end of your existence.
Ideas carry heavy cultural baggage. Peace in the West summons up images of Armistice Day, of the Christmas Truce of WW1 in which French, German and English soldiers could share meals and play soccer together. It carries with it the subversive idea that both sides realize the war isn’t worth fighting.
Such a subversive idea has no place in Islam. The Jihad is at the heart of Islam. To question the holy war is to also question the faith. When war is religion then peace through setting aside war is heresy.
A depressing article. More of the same in the video below:
It is only occasionally that a story is crafted in just such a way that it is possible to see past the veneer and into the economic horror of what being down and out in the United States can mean. Welcome to “The Jungle.” is the title. This is truly living in a state of nature in the middle of Silicon Valley.
Living in “The Jungle” means learning to live in fear. Especially after dark, when some people get violent. The 68-acre homeless camp in South San Jose is considered the largest in the United States. It’s a lawless place.
“When something goes wrong, you have to have some kind of backup,” says Troy Feid, pulling out a machete that he carries up his sleeve at night. “Just having it says ‘Don’t mess with me.’ ”
Feid, an unemployed union carpenter, lives in a fortress of netting and plastic tarp with a cat named Baby. He’s one of the 278 people who’ve claimed a spot in the thicket of cottonwood trees along Coyote Creek. He first moved here four years ago when he ran out of work.
The 53-year-old carpenter made good money at the height of the Silicon Valley construction boom in the 1980s and ’90s. He built movie theaters and installed ceilings in the new offices of high-tech companies that put San Jose and the rest of Santa Clara County on the map.
“All the buildings around here, you know, I probably worked on them,” said Feid, who was making up to $35 an hour in those days. Then came the dot-com crash in 2000, bankrupting dozens of Internet companies and drying up construction work. Feid lost his apartment and bounced around for years, living in people’s garages as he remodeled their homes. In 2009, a friend kicked him out and Feid found himself on the streets. All he had was his motorcycle and a few tarps.
“You build everything up … then you lose your job and then everything falls apart again,” Feid said. “At least here in the creek you know what your status is.”
The number of people living in the camp has tripled since Feid first moved in. The Jungle now has a Spanish-speaking section, and up the creek is the Vietnamese enclave known as Little Saigon. The explosive growth has led to more violence and filth. Dogs rummage through heaps of garbage and human waste.
“It’s disgusting now,” said Feid, who makes a bit of money fixing generators for other residents to power their cell phones and televisions. The $200 he gets each month in food stamps covers most of his meals, and the rest he gets from dumpster diving. He points to two garbage bags next to his bedroom door filled with expired Power Bars and Chex Mix.
There’s more of the same at the link. Instapundit, where this story was found, makes the ironic point, “Silicon Valley: American’s Future?”
Law of Markets 