Something for the Day
As I go out to meet the ravening hordes.
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the_triumph_of_the_maternalists/14346#.UqY4hyeQM24
Except they’re not ravening. They’re hyperventilating.
Which they wouldn’t be doing if they hadn’t left their term papers to the last minute, and beyond.
15 Responses to 'Something for the Day'
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Alas! The problem is clear and the solution uncertain. There is immense personal satisfaction–not to mention quite a lot of money–in treating people like idiots and telling them what to do. There’s not much of either in treating them as free, responsible adults–especially if you’re the sort of person who has wanted to be in government since middle school.
As for the hyperventilating students, I was about to suggest it was the outcome of their study habits, but on reflection I’m not so sure. If you had really good students, they’d be pestering you about changing the A- to an A, or recommendations for this or that award or special program. You might have just as much hyperventilation on average, which suggests a personality quirk. Those are harder to fix. Good luck!
robert_piepenbrink
10 Dec 13 at 12:09 pm
I love Spiked. They often come up with interesting stuff. I particularly liked IanB’s comment a few scrolls down below the article. We’ve been round these buoys before and people of a certain age will recall the residual effects of the earlier wave quite well. (Prohibition, Elliott Ness and all that.) It’s the recurrent epidemics of emotionalism wot dun it.
Mique
10 Dec 13 at 4:30 pm
“So when there are accusations of rape, alleged victims should be entitled to special treatment, such as a right to anonymity and even – as is now the case in California – the right to refuse interview, deposition or discovery requests made on behalf of the accused.”
That started me thinking about standards of evidence.
Does anyone remember the “recovered memory” stories about rape? or the sex abuse at day care centers?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria
And I would like a reference for the claim about California.
jd
10 Dec 13 at 6:24 pm
Further to my last:
http://judithcurry.com/2013/12/09/pathological-altruism/
The opening quote pretty muc says it all, really. (BTW, Judith Curry is that most hated of all global warming skeptics, an actual climate scientist who doesn’t blindly follow the IPCC herd.)
Mique
10 Dec 13 at 6:53 pm
This has absolutely nothing to do with Jane. I just thought it might amuse.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/snow-falling-in-australia-in-summer-that-is-all/story-e6frflp0-1226775945701
jd
10 Dec 13 at 10:22 pm
Sort of apropos, courtesy of Christopher Snowden: http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/alice-thomson-fool-or-knave.html
Mique
11 Dec 13 at 8:23 pm
And the lighter side of the news: Kathleen Sebelius, the cabinet officer with primary responsibility for the healthcare.gov website disaster, says that everyone ELSE connected with it should be investigated:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/12/11/Sebelius-calls-for-investigation-into-healthcaregov-development/UPI-78071386772661/
She also wants a subordinate agency to appoint a risk management officer to look at their IT programs. Now.
You know, when you’re not in the civilian side of government, catastrophic failure often has consequences.
robert_piepenbrink
11 Dec 13 at 9:59 pm
re the Alice Thomson article. My suggestion for reducing health care cost is don’t provide antibiotics or ICU care to anyone over 75. (and I’m 77).
As for the health care website, I would like to know how many changes were made to the specifications after the contracts were signed and when the final specifications were frozen?
jd
11 Dec 13 at 11:52 pm
Just came across this. Words fail me!
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2013/1211/Experts-question-school-s-decision-to-suspend-6-year-old-for-kiss-video
jd
11 Dec 13 at 11:56 pm
Another hijack. The crazy, crazy world of “environmentalism”:
http://joannenova.com.au/2013/12/ok-to-kill-endangered-birds-yes-if-you-are-a-windfarm-greens-seem-to-be-fine-with-that/#more-32195
There are deeper constitutional issues involved in this. The Rule of Law is getting very tattered these days in our western democracies.
Mique
12 Dec 13 at 7:50 pm
Reducing health care costs. I stand by my earlier proposal that we provide free drugs to the retiring Boomers–Heroin, LSD, Meth and anything else they can think of, right down to baggies of “fruit salad.” This should thin the ranks enough to restore Social Security (state old age pensions) and Medicare (state medical care to the elderly) to solvency.
As for the rule of law, in the and of Presidential waivers, there is no such thing. There is only the will of the Political Class as expressed by their elected representative. It’s democracy of a sort, but freedom isn’t on the agenda.
robert_piepenbrink
12 Dec 13 at 8:19 pm
Back to Health care
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the_disease_of_public_health/14204#.Uqur5Y3hxiE
(hey Jane, I think we’re getting out of control!)
jd
13 Dec 13 at 10:25 pm
Re-hijack alert. More from Spiked:
http://tinyurl.com/mgcd7zs
Mique
17 Dec 13 at 8:43 pm
another hijack! What is the hijack record for this blog?
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2013/12/26243/
One view of how US policy looks from down under.
jd
19 Dec 13 at 7:47 pm
And I lost the link I was going to insert. Ah, well…
JD, as regards yours, I think the author missed some things. The Iran deal, like Munich or START, will be good or bad depending on what people do now, and what the alternatives were. I’m not convinced that aw Iranian bomb was ever preventable without an invasion, and a contained Iran, if we CAN contain the threat, will be far better than the consequences of the invasion.
And I don’t think, looked at in terms of GDP and military resources, that we’re looking at a serious decline in America’s reach and punch yet. We looked much worse in 1980, but a change in leadership could and did reverse the “decline” very quickly.
But the leadership is a serious problem, and I’m not trying (this time) to pick on the present administration or “progressives” more generally. We have pretty well an entire leadership class regardless of party incapable of making quick decisions, let alone quick painful decisions, and desperate to avoid letting any of their own bear the consequences of failure. That’s a much harder thing to overcome than diplomatic or military reverses, and tends to be more fatal. In the ten or 15 years going into WWI, Russia had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. France had won a huge victory over the British Empire in 1783,and that British Empire–not to mention KMT China–were major winners in 1945. But the underlying weaknesses caught up with all of them in very short order–houses built on sand.
My great fear is not that the United States will fall to a foreign power in an apocalyptic war, but that we will suffer a serious defeat–something on the order of Cannae or Manzikert–and find we no longer have the unity and strength of will to come back from it.
Quick! What battle broke the power of Western Rome? I can’t name it either. There was just less and less willingness to defend it–and less and less to defend–for about a long generation following Adrianople. Stilicho tried to rally the defenders, and was beheaded for his pains–by the Romans, not the Goths. We may go down in fire and sword, but I think more likely our grandchildren simply won’t be Americans.
It can still be reversed, but the process grows more difficult and more painful with every year we put it off.
robert_piepenbrink
20 Dec 13 at 4:58 pm