Althouse: At the Sunday Night Café...

January 8, 2023

At the Sunday Night Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

38 comments:

rehajm said...: So we have game cameras in the yard. The raccoons hog most of the air time. There’s a mom and two youngsters and the kids like to play around so the wife got them a toy- dog sized nerf football. It’s more entertaining than Cowboys-“Commanders”…; 1/8/23, 7:34 PM
JZ said...: Weather app says it’s 21 degrees and it feels like 12 in Green Bay. Ready for some football? Nah. I’m ready for bed. Lion’s season was average.; 1/8/23, 7:38 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Brazil is having a Jan8 instead of Jan6?

Did Trump lead this one too?; 1/8/23, 7:43 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Another athlete just drops on the field of play. This one does not appear to be touched.

Video link to Twitter.

Ironically the news blackouts are bigly helping Twitter's comeback.; 1/8/23, 7:48 PM
rcocean said...: David French, Mr. Conservative, is now a NYT's OPed writer. Rod Dreher must be kicking himself. But that's what happens when you go to Europe and eat oysters instead of staying in the USA and support Joe BIden and drag queen hour.; 1/8/23, 8:07 PM
Dave Begley said...: Saw the movie Babylon. Three hours of terrible. Hard to believe that script got made.; 1/8/23, 8:08 PM
Quayle said...: I have confirmation from my son: the NYT crossword puzzle today was stupid. Control p and Easter egg coloring is Princesdye? Too clever to be called anything but stupid.; 1/8/23, 8:13 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Here is a super-duper unpopular opinion.

"Psychologist Adam Mastroianni dissects the greatest failure in scientific history"

link to Substack 20m audio Worth a listen.

Some of you have probably heard about this already. I know I have. But this guy briefly lays it out better than anything I've read and heard.; 1/8/23, 8:13 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The policeman that that shot dead unarmed jan6 protester is going to be in big trouble. The cop lost his Pelosi protection.

I guess Biden could always just pardon the guy.

Our democracy is going thru a banana republic phase... or something.; 1/8/23, 8:19 PM
Chuck said...: From Twitter:
"As I explained above, pro-Bolsonaro insurrectionists CHEERED when soldiers arrived at the scene, believing they were about to join their side…

… but were soon arrested instead."

https://twitter.com/BrazilBrian/status/1612215910462267394

Strong Michael Flynn/Steve Bannon/Ali Alexander/Mo Brooks vibes.; 1/8/23, 8:44 PM
Lurker21 said...: Emergency Declaration, a Korean film about terrorism on the airways, is quite a good action/suspense movie, though it's the sort of thing that's better seen in the theater.

The Adventurers of Modern Art is a French series that combines animation with archival footage to tell the story of artists and writers in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. I liked it. The Owl's Legacy, also from French television, is Chris Marker's study of Greek culture, mostly ancient, but also modern. It's a quality production, but I'm not loving it. Too many talking heads with opinions, and not enough narrative or expositional clarity. I get the feeling that watching all 6 1/2 hours would be a little like getting an old-fashioned classical education: it would leave one never wanting to hear about ancient Greece ever again.

I also have documentaries about Pauline Kael and about Berlin's Hotel Adlon to get through, and after that, White Lotus.; 1/8/23, 9:16 PM
n.n said...: The policeman that that shot dead unarmed jan6 protester is going to be in big trouble.

No Fentanyl, no vaxxx, unarmed, in a prone position, after failing to bring order to the riot, attempted to escape to a safe space. Cold-blooded abortion is taboo outside of Democrat sanctuary states and clinics.

The cop lost his Pelosi protection.

Pelosi's poodle. Nationwide insurrection in... 3... 2...; 1/8/23, 9:27 PM
n.n said...: "Psychologist Adam Mastroianni dissects the greatest failure in scientific history"

Flat-earth syndrome.; 1/8/23, 9:28 PM
DINKY DAU 45 said...: Bolsonaro gets defeated in Brazil and leaves country without conceding as he campaigned under "make Brazil great again' and claimed it was a "rigged election "when he gets defeated and heads to Mar a Logo to visit the guy who lives there who used the same premise for his demise from office and days afterward the Bolsonaro fans attack the capitol in Brazil claiming election was stolen. WOW what a freakin coincidence Huh! It must be the wannabe be dictator's mantra an MO it seems. The BIG LIE spreads worldwide and the 3rd world antics follow Merikas example. c'mon man; 1/8/23, 10:06 PM
Curious George said...: Bears lose, Texans win, Bears get the #1 pick in the draft.

Packers lose at home to the Lions, no playoffs for them.

A good day. Avery good day.; 1/8/23, 10:44 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Tweet: "Victoria Lee, a rising phenom in mixed martial arts, has #diedsuddenly at the age of 18."

I remember around the time before lockdowns Scott Adams wanted to start a conversation about the number of covid deaths that it would take for the strict lockdowns to be given the ok by people by an understanding public. We didn't have that conversation. The lockdowns and everything that had anything to do with Covid has been decided by health authorities from on high.

My question is now, how many deaths of young and healthy persons, can we sustain before calling for a halt to the vaccination program, which is still going on, with calls for it to be ramped up even. Until we figure out what the hell is going on.; 1/8/23, 10:47 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I thought the Twitter trend #Sickening had to do with the athletes suddenly falling on the field. No. It has to do with the GOP's house of representatives politics.

I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat and declare the trend astro turfed, inorganic, inauthentic fraud.; 1/8/23, 11:01 PM
gadfly said...: Fueled by anger over the federal law enforcement investigation of former president Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of confidential documents and the trials and subsequent imprisonment of some January 6 participants, Republicans plan to institute a new select committee to investigate the investigators.

Trump's appointment of Special Counsel John Durham to expose the FBI was a complete failure that resulted in a single misdemeanor conviction covering two years of supposed investigation and costing $6.5 million. But now it appears that a special committee made up of McCarthy House Republicans is going to spend more money attempting to disprove what Pelosi's January 6 Committee has adequately presented to be organized crime.

Meanwhile, the January 6 court cases continue and new Special Counsel Jack Smith is preparing charges for the leaders of the attempted insurrection, including Donald Trump.; 1/9/23, 2:10 AM
Big Mike said...: I have just read that two more high school principals in Virginia’s Fairfax County have owned up to withholding National Merit Finalist awards from their students in the name of “equity.” In short, they are discriminating against white and Asian students by withholding information that could have helped their college applications and opened up scholarship opportunities in favor of equal outcomes regardless of talent and work ethic.

As I wrote yesterday, Democrats believe that it is okay to discriminate against whites and Asians because the former are evil (did you know 160 years ago white people owned slaves?) and Asians are too smart and work too hard.; 1/9/23, 3:02 AM
lonejustice said...: “The Fake News Media was, believe it or not, very gracious in their reporting that I greatly helped Kevin McCarthy attain the position of Speaker of the House,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

“Thank you, I did our Country a big favor!”; 1/9/23, 6:48 AM
Big Mike said...: @Curious George, and the Washington Commanders may have finally found a quarterback.; 1/9/23, 8:22 AM
Rusty said...: Take your Metamucil, Gadfly. There's a good lad.; 1/9/23, 8:24 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Big Mike:

As I wrote yesterday, Democrats believe that it is okay to discriminate against whites and Asians because the former are evil (did you know 160 years ago white people owned slaves?) and Asians are too smart and work too hard.

This is a good example of how both sides have to lie in order to avoid an unpalatable truth. On the left, differences in racial outcomes are attributed to accumulated privilege and systemic racism. On the right, differences in outcomes are attributed to individual differences in effort and achievement.

In reality, a large component of the racial gap in academic achievement is driven by the differing distribution of cognitive abilities between racial groups. Of course, affirmative action in higher ed admissions is a terrible policy, but so is claiming that the gap can be closed by the individual effort of blacks. Rather, what we need is a society that permits people with limited cognitive abilities to live a secure and respectful life. Unfortunately, between market liberalization and mass immigration, we've been pursuing the exact opposite outcome, reproducing the division of labor on a global scale.; 1/9/23, 8:25 AM
Kai Akker said...: MYTHS OF THE FIFTIES

Maybe it was the Patti Davis Reagan post, maybe something else, but I had seen the link below to an article in the New Criterion on "Myths of the Fifties," and I wanted to read it. Turns out it touches on several recurring themes of the Althouse blog. By Hilton Kramer, from 1993.

Excerpt: Almost twenty years ago, on one of my periodic assignments in Europe for The New York Times, I had a conversation over lunch one day with one of the paper’s older foreign correspondents that made a great impression on me. The war in Vietnam had recently ended—for the Americans, that is...

Rather to my surprise, I was suddenly treated to a long and acute analysis of what was happening to the Times’s foreign news coverage as a result of the Vietnam War. This was a subject that had clearly become a cause of considerable worry and professional chagrin for this writer, whose journalistic experience went back to the Second World War and who harbored few illusions about the kind of suffering and social wreckage that Communism had brought to the millions whose lives it had come to dominate.

The Vietnam War was proving to be a disaster for the Times’s foreign coverage. The paper had to send in all those reporters in relays to cover the war. Many of them were young men who had little or no experience of the world. They knew nothing about politics and even less about war. There were exceptions, of course, but very few. Some had never before had a serious foreign assignment or seen any military combat. At one point the Times had even sent in a fashion reporter from its Paris bureau. Communism was an abstraction to them. They thought the real enemy in Vietnam was the USA. They weren’t Communists themselves, but they proved to be complete suckers for the anti-anti-Communist line that was now ascendant in the Western press. History for a lot of these guys began with the election of John F. Kennedy, and most of them thought Bobby Kennedy was a saint. In Vietnam, they had three ambitions: to get out alive, to win a Pulitzer, and to see America defeated. Their whole view of the world was shaped by Vietnam. They saw the world divided into good guys and bad guys, and we were the bad guys. Then, when they had finished their stint in Vietnam, they had to be rewarded with assignments to more glamorous foreign capitals, where they were likely to understand even less than they had in Saigon, and where they seldom knew the language, the history, or the culture of the countries they were writing about. This was the kind of comic-strip coverage of foreign affairs the Times was now getting. All in all, it was probably a good thing that newspaper readers were now less interested in foreign affairs than they used to be. It was keeping the circulation of misinformation at a lower level than it would otherwise be.

... It wasn’t until a little later, as I watched some of these Vietnam-era correspondents ascend to positions of power on the paper, that I realized they were bringing the same good guy-bad guy scenario, with America as the bad guy, to their coverage of the domestic scene as well.

https://newcriterion.com/issues/1993/6/myths-of-the-fifties

I suspect, with some evidence but no proof, that the foreign correspondent with whom Kramer was lunching was Tad Szulc, the superb war reporter who broke the Bay of Pigs story for the Times nine days before the invasion. Whether that guess is correct, Szulc had a great career and wrote about a lot of subjects, from Castro to Pope John Paul II to Chopin.; 1/9/23, 8:57 AM
Big Mike said...: @Farmer, you don’t know that blacks cannot close the gap on their own; it is an assumption on your part based on cherry-picked studies and your own biases. I have two advantages over you. First, I came of age in the 1960s and met numerous black people who had carved out a middle class life despite Jim Crow, through brains and hard work. That black people score low on tests you choose to reference (i.e., cherry pick) show otherwise tells me that two generations of a pathological and parasitical lifestyle funded by AFDC and hidden by Affirmative Action have smothered initiative, intelligence, and work ethic. Been a long time coming, gonna be a long time goin’. But it’s impossible that intelligence has been bred out of the black population in only two generations.

Secondly, my career was in the real world, not in academia. I have had black managers, black peers, and black subordinates. In my experience, black subordinates will rise to meet one’s expectations — and I have no trouble imagining that if one’s expectations are low, reflecting one’s soft bigotry, then the results will also match one’s (low) expectations.; 1/9/23, 10:02 AM
Humperdink said...: Farmer asserted: " Of course, affirmative action in higher ed admissions is a terrible policy, but so is claiming that the gap can be closed by the individual effort of blacks."

How does one explain the success of blacks who have achieved not only the American dream, but gone on to the top of their desired professions? Luck? Affirmative action? Doubtful.

I would suggest we follow the Japanese model when presented with a problem. That is to ask "why" seven times. The root cause will reveal itself.; 1/9/23, 10:36 AM
Humperdink said...: Mitt Romney: "I have binders full of women."

Karine the Daily Reader: "I have binders too!"; 1/9/23, 10:53 AM
RoseAnne said...: Marc Elias said he was going to sue Ohio for the changes to their election laws. Much has been made of the Voter ID requirement. I've been an Ohio voter for years and a poll worker in the 2022 primary and general elections so I know that an ID has been required historically. Although there are lots of alternatives to using a Drivers License almost 100% used it as their form of ID and no one complained about it when I was working the polls.; 1/9/23, 11:27 AM
J. Farmer said...: Big Mike:

@Farmer, you don’t know that blacks cannot close the gap on their own; it is an assumption on your part based on cherry-picked studies and your own biases.

My assumption is based on the notion of a large heritable component to IQ and that IQ scores tend to stabilize in middle childhood. IQ scores at age 7 are highly predictive of adult IQ scores. To take the most extreme example, consider the population of intellectually disabled. Intellectual disability is considered a lifelong condition, and treatment focuses on social support and case management. We know of no medical or interventions that drastically improves ones intellectual functioning.

First, I came of age in the 1960s

The economic climate of the 1960s was much different than that of today. The US was still experiencing the postwar economic boom, had strong labor protections, a restrictive immigration policy, and a strong manufacturing base. Compare that to the last 40 years where we have pursued market liberalization, moving manufacturing to low-cost countries, importing huge numbers of low-skilled migrant workers, etc.

That black people score low on tests you choose to reference (i.e., cherry pick) show otherwise tells me that two generations of a pathological and parasitical lifestyle funded by AFDC and hidden by Affirmative Action have smothered initiative, intelligence, and work ethic.

The racial achievement gap predates AFDC and Affirmative Action. However, the trend in average black IQ scores has shown a slight improvement over the last five decades, so the scores are moving in the opposite direction of what you claimed.

@Humperdink:

How does one explain the success of blacks who have achieved not only the American dream, but gone on to the top of their desired professions? Luck? Affirmative action? Doubtful.

Because when discussing groups, we're talking about averages and distributions not about every individual member of that group. For example, the fact that the average height for men is taller than the average for women is not the same thing as saying all men are taller than all women. Similarly, the fact that blacks have a higher rate of criminal offending than other racial groups is not refuted by pointing out there are many blacks who have never committed crimes. Although black and white IQ scores have different distributions, there is still significant overlap.; 1/9/23, 12:05 PM
Gospace said...: J. Farmer said...
...
In reality, a large component of the racial gap in academic achievement is driven by the differing distribution of cognitive abilities between racial groups. Of course, affirmative action in higher ed admissions is a terrible policy, but so is claiming that the gap can be closed by the individual effort of blacks. Rather, what we need is a society that permits people with limited cognitive abilities to live a secure and respectful life.

We used to have that. No more. Virtually every organization that provided such security has adopted an up or out policy. I enlisted in 1973. I saw career E3s, Seamen, with 5 service stripes. Used to be a lot of E5 retirees. E5 is often considered the ideal rank in most of the services- senior enough to get out of most working parties and scut work, junior enough to not really being responsible for anything important. Seems all the services have slight different up of out requirements but this in the Navy's:
Rank Total Years Active-Duty Service
E1/E2 4 years
E3 6 years 10 years
E4 10 years
E5 16 years
E6 22 years
E7 24 years
E8 26 years
E9 30 years

Unless you make E6, you can't stay. Now with the recruiting shorfalls, caused for a number of reasons, covid policies, wokeness, etc., these rules are now being relaxed, but how long that will last is unknown.

There are some people perfectly happy staying at the bottom or the middle of the ladder. Not everyone wants promotion and responsibility. But yet, corporations often practice the same. If you don't keep advancing, you're out.

Remember the highly satirical work The Peter Principle? Practicng creative incompetence no longer owrks to avoid promotion. And many coprporartions if you fail in a job you were promoted to, you're out. I worked part time for a major retailer for years. If you were promoted to department head or assistant manager because you were doing a great job in the level below, and couldn't hack it, you were fired. Weren't allowed to return to your previous position where you performed well enough to stand out and be promoted in the first place. Enormous waste of talent.

Recently a new manager at Wendy's got himself fired. Had a longtime employee with Down's syndrome. Perfectly good worker at doing the job he (or she, I don't recall) had been doing for years and years. The locals knw all about the situation. The worker proudly did all the jobs no one else wanted to do. The manager fired the employee because the worker couldn't be plugged interchangeably into any other job. Couldn't fry the fries, flip the burgers, put on the garnishes. But could clean and bus the tables and take out the trash proudly and without complaint. Have a nearby McDonalds with a similar employee. She's worked there 16 years. She's very proud of it. Can't fault her for being proud of a job well done.; 1/9/23, 12:15 PM
Jamie said...: Rather, what we need is a society that permits people with limited cognitive abilities to live a secure and respectful life.

Butt that's not what affirmative action purports to correct. The people gaining entry to a school or a job through affirmative action are not impaired, they're just assumed not to be able to compete against white (and, now, Asian) people in that LBJ footrace starting at the starting line - they are assumed to need a lead.

But because there is way more overlap than gap between average group cognitive abilities, that assumption is racist.; 1/9/23, 4:57 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Jannie:

Butt that's not what affirmative action purports to correct.

That's precisely why I think it's a "is a terrible policy"

But because there is way more overlap than gap between average group cognitive abilities, that assumption is racist.

Imagine Group A had 100 people with a mean IQ of 100, and Group B had 100 people with a mean IQ of 85. Among Group A, 15 people would have IQs below 85, but among group B, 50 people would have IQs below 85. Would you expect an equal level of academic achievement for both groups? In fact, the racial achievement gap reflects the racial IQ gap: East Asians, Whites, and then blacks.; 1/9/23, 7:01 PM
gpm said...: J. Farmer:

Nice to see you back. Don't always agree, but you provide thoughtful commentary from a somewhat different perspective.

--gpm; 1/9/23, 7:30 PM
traditionalguy said...: Big sponsorship of tonight CFP game was teachers against bullies . Then the BullyDogs from UGA proceeded to destroy their opponent. Something is special about that…reality overcomes fantasy. Isn’t that illegal?; 1/9/23, 9:28 PM
Big Mike said...: So now I have lived to see The Bell Curve by Murray and Herrnstein go from being labeled racist trash by all right-thinking (meaning left-leaning) people to being treated as Holy writ by Farmer, and no doubt other lefty extremists, so that they can officially abhor affirmative action while trying to make a case to maintain it.; 1/10/23, 6:23 AM
J. Farmer said...: Big Mike:

So now I have lived to see The Bell Curve by Murray and Herrnstein go from being labeled racist trash by all right-thinking (meaning left-leaning) people to being treated as Holy writ by Farmer, and no doubt other lefty extremists, so that they can officially abhor affirmative action while trying to make a case to maintain it.

Oh brother. This is why it's so goddamned annoying trying to engage with you fuckwits. I disagree with you, and your response is to get personal and petty. Predictable; 1/10/23, 8:48 AM
Big Mike said...: @Farmer, you called me a liar for writing something that, in my experience, is perfectly true. You have called me a “fuckwit” for pointing out, correctly, that once upon a time the use of IQ tests to suggest a genetically-based disparity between races, especially studies that imply black people are genetically inferior to other races, was a sure sign of a bigoted racist. Are you so young that you missed that?

1) I am old enough to remember that affirmative action was originally proposed as a temporary expedient to compensate for discrimination in educational opportunities in the 1950s and earlier. It had been “temporary” far too long. We were told at the time (by Hubert Humphrey in particular) that affirmative action would never lead to quotas (a lie) and would never result in discrimination against other races. Now discrimination against whites and especially Asians is openly acknowledged. There is only one way to end affirmative action, and that is immediately and cold turkey. End the patronization. End it now.

2) You are correct about one thing, Farmer. I am contemptuous of your sophistry. Any reasonably intelligent person can send through your arguments in a nanosecond.; 1/10/23, 10:56 AM
Narr said...: Farmer hasn't said he supports A-A, that I can see from reviewing the thread. In fact, he has called it a terrible policy, largely on Bell-Curvy grounds.

Which is pretty much where I stand too.; 1/10/23, 2:20 PM