29 Sunday Aug 2021
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Why, No
20 Sunday Sep 2020
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Testing Out
I’ve always enjoyed the Andover Townsman, but this editorial has me scratching my head.
Not stressing over a high-stakes college admissions test is to a high school junior what sleeping late is to a Saturday morning. If the apparent demise of SAT and ACT scores as benchmarks of young human potential were reduced to an analogy once favored by the authors of those exams, maybe it would look something like that.
Or maybe not. The point is it doesn’t matter anymore, now that colleges and universities are changing their admissions rules so that the scores are optional or not considered at all. For teenagers assembling college applications, whether the school of their dreams wants them as much as they want it now is less likely to be determined by mastery of algebra, logic problems and archaic vocabulary.
Then what does determine admission?
I get it, partly: the SAT, like almost all of the schools, is completely debased and nearly useless. Yet and still, as a recent California study demonstrated, it is still one of the best measures of how well a student may perform in college (what’s left of the colleges) – better than (worthless) HS grades even. Of course, those are just facts. Facts used to be viewed with logic – which, these days, is a problem.
“Pretty soon, all you’ll need to get into college is a pencil. Got a pencil? Get the fuck in there, it’s physics.” – George (Lord, we miss him) Carlin.
11 Thursday Jun 2020
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on The CSA Strikes Back
I advised leaving the monuments to Western Civilization alone. Irrational and hateful actions still have consequences.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The sister of a man who was hit by a Confederate soldier statue said Thursday that doctors put him into a coma as they treated him.
Medics took Chris Greene to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital Wednesday night. He was at a protest at the Confederate monument in Olde Towne Portsmouth when people starting tearing it apart. At one point in the night, some of the people pulled down the statue which landed on Green.
One inanimate object did more to fight back against the legions of hell than all the police and useless Republicans in the whole country. The heathens have plans to rip down the Washington Monument in DC. At 555 feet and thousands of tons, imagine how much of the rabble it could take out.
Nothing is safe. They hate anything Confederate, American, or white – and, apparently, most other things. They vandalized Churchhill’s statue on D-Day. They’ve even designated PAW PATROL as “racist.” There’s no way anyone other than a statue could reason with these cretins – it’s on their mental level.
PS: Here’s to hoping Mr. Greene makes a full and speedy recovery and that he learns something from the experience. He just might. There is no such hope for the failed GOP.
24 Tuesday Sep 2019
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on The End of Education?
This insanely idiotic and evil proposal would do it.
Labour party members have voted to commit the party to integrate private schools into the state sector.
The motion calls for funds and properties held by private schools to be “redistributed democratically and fairly” to other schools.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it would help build “a more cohesive and equal society”.
But Boris Johnson called it a “pointless attack” on education, based on a “long-buried socialist ideology”.
The vote by members signals a desire for the policy to be included in the next Labour Party general election manifesto.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Brighton, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said “tax loopholes” that benefit private schools would be scrapped by a Labour government in its first Budget.
That includes the withdrawal of charitable status, other public subsidies and tax privileges.
That’s not just from the Labour manifesto…
I don’t think, even in a Britain without BREXIT, there’s a danger … yet. In America, many would love to try something similar. I’m surprised they haven’t gone after homeschoolers already. Now, it’s a little late. But, just remember that these lunatics and agents of the devil are always, always trying to undermine, corrupt, plunder, and destroy.
What would Tom Ironsides say? Do?
29 Monday Jul 2019
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on TV Kills the Brain
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This has been an accepted fact for decades. Now, some try to put an anti-Nationalist spin on the phenomenon.
To estimate the effect of cable television on I.Q. scores, the Norwegian scholars analyzed data on the introduction of cable network infrastructure by municipality. They calculated years of exposure to cable by considering the age of eventual test takers when cable became available in their municipality. They controlled for any potential geographic bias by comparing siblings with greater or less exposure to cable television based on their age when cable infrastructure was put in.
They estimate that 10 years of exposure to cable television lowered I.Q. scores by 1.8 points. In related research, Mr. Hernaes finds that exposure to cable television reduced voter turnout in local elections.
This is all partly true. But, the truth goes deeper, into hard neuro-science. TeeVee acts literally like a digital narcotic. It turns off certain brain centers, sometimes with lasting effects. If lower rhetoric and trash nonsense account for the 1.8-point drop, then how much else can be attributed to diminished physical capacity in the brain? Better not to find out. Turn off the tube!
18 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on The 2033 Idiotmobile
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Eric Peters on the “entertaining” future of the automobile.
H.G. Wells wrote about a time machine but Aldous Huxley – author of Brave New World – may actually have had one. And used it to to travel to our now, jotted down a few notes and then returned to the early 20th century to write his chirpily depressing picture of what tomorrow will look like:
A world of endiapered adults who remain perpetual children, perpetually distracted by imbecile pursuits – because distracted imbeciles are much easier to herd than conscious, thinking adults are to bayonet-prod in the desired direction.
Well, here we are – almost.
Talking cartoon characters will be displayed inside the automated cars of the impending Future – to keep the endiapered imbeciles within droolingly quiescent and vacuously smiling as they are meatsacked to whatever destination the controllers input. Perhaps the mall.
Perhaps, in time, somewhere else.
They won’t know the difference and – far more important – won’t care. They will be entertained.
This is no kidding. It was on display at the CES Technology Trade Show in Shanghai last week. Not one but several former (or soon-to-be) car companies, which are transitioning into “mobility” companies – had kiosks and PR people on hand to show the wares.
The automated car will become a kind of Boob Toob on wheels, with “virtual reality experiences” embedded within to keep the meatsackeds’ minds off what’s happening without – and generally.
A neighbor just bought a new car, and a nice one too. We chatted about what I might like as a replacement for the old 19th Century buggy. I can’t think of a single new car that excites me. Cartoons won’t help. But, the people… The people will end up demanding this.
02 Thursday May 2019
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Facebook Bravely, Boldly Fights White Supremacists!
By banning them. Specifically, the following evil, white-washed, right-wing, Nazis have been thrown off Zuck’s spy site for good: Louis Farrakhan (black Muslim), Alex Jones (friend of Louis Farrakhan the black Muslim), and Milo Yiannopoulos (gay Jew).
Facebook announced Thursday afternoon that it had designated some high-profile people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who’s notorious for using anti-Semitic language, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as “dangerous” and said it will be purging them from its platforms.
Jones and his media outlet InfoWars had previously been banned from Facebook (FB) in in August 2018, but had maintained a presence on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. On Thursday, Jones and InfoWars will be barred from Instagram as well.
Other people banned Thursday include fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson. Also included are Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018.
“We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNN Business. “The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”
I need to call WP (much as I hate too) and see if there’s some way they can remove the little FB button from my posts. And, I’m going to request that MB stop promoting my TPC columns on FB (his call, totally). As for the newly banned, I say “Great!” No fan or supporter of either of these three men – or anyone with a triple-digit IQ – should have any connection to the Devil’s Anti-social Site. Consider yourselves honored, gentlemen.
21 Sunday Apr 2019
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on The “Business” of Playing God
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This may be the final article I link to from “Business” Insider (or, maybe in the future, Business Insidious):
We’re altering the climate so severely that we’ll soon face apocalyptic consequences. Here are 11 last-ditch ways we could hack the planet to reverse that trend.
Geoengineering is a term that refers to technology that can alter Earth’s natural cycles to cool down the planet. It’s being increasingly discussed as a potential way to address climate change.
Putting mirrors in space, capturing carbon dioxide, and seeding clouds with particles are all ways of manipulating weather or the atmosphere.
But some scientists and politicians think geoengineering could damage the planet or lead to war.
Here are 11 strategies researchers have put forth to hack the planet and combat climate change.
Eleven ways, that they don’t even understand, to stop a problem that doesn’t exist. As always, this crap is about fostering communism and nothing else.
The apocalypse is still just around the next corner. But! Now the people that told us aerosols were destroying the planet via the skies, want to flood the sky with aerosol to save the planet. This is more religious than scientific and the priests, acolytes, and followers are utterly insane.
Ms. Woodward and her “experts” are right about one thing – with or without Marxist meddling, there will be war. That’s where the apocalyptic consequences come from.
19 Friday Apr 2019
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Investigate Facebook and Zuck for Theft
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Inadvertent? Right. Here’s the Farceberg outrage of the day minute: 1.5 million accounts robbed of email contacts.
Facebook harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts.
Since May 2016, the social-networking company has collected the contact lists of 1.5 million users new to the social network, Business Insider can reveal. The Silicon Valley company said the contact data was “unintentionally uploaded to Facebook,” and it is now deleting them.
The revelation comes after pseudononymous security researcher e-sushi noticed that Facebook was asking some users to enter their email passwords when they signed up for new accounts to verify their identities, a move widely condemned by security experts. Business Insider then discovered that if you entered your email password, a message popped up saying it was “importing” your contacts without asking for permission first.
At the time, it wasn’t clear what was happening – but on Wednesday, Facebook disclosed to Business Insider that 1.5 million people’s contacts were collected this way and fed into Facebook’s systems, where they were used to improve Facebook’s ad targeting, build Facebook’s web of social connections, and recommend friends to add.
Why do the police always take Zuck’s word about these “inadvertent” mistakes? Smells kind of like theft to me. 1.5 million consecutive 1-year prisons sentences should do as punishment.
Anyhow, I’ll bet it was more than 1.5 million and it was more than just email contacts. If, for some strange, low-IQ reason, you’re still on FB, do at least check your “secret” file to find out exactly what they admit they have on you.
Strike that… If you’re still on the Zuckbook, then just keep looking at those pics and “reading” all those worthy Russian trolling attempts. You don’t need privacy nor need you be worried about anyone invading it; small minds aren’t worth reading.
21 Monday Jan 2019
Posted in News and Notes, Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on The Corrosive BS of American Academia
As seen and chronicled by an American academic, Prof. Christian Smith of Notre Dame’s School of Sociology:
I have had nearly enough bullshit. The manure has piled up so deep in the hallways, classrooms, and administration buildings of American higher education that I am not sure how much longer I can wade through it and retain my sanity and integrity.
Even worse, the accumulated effects of all the academic BS are contributing to this country’s disastrous political condition and, ultimately, putting at risk the very viability and character of decent civilization. What do I mean by BS?
BS is the university’s loss of capacity to grapple with life’s Big Questions, because of our crisis of faith in truth, reality, reason, evidence, argument, civility, and our common humanity.
BS is the farce of what are actually “fragmentversities” claiming to be universities, of hyperspecialization and academic disciplines unable to talk with each other about obvious shared concerns.
BS is the expectation that a good education can be provided by institutions modeled organizationally on factories, state bureaucracies, and shopping malls — that is, by enormous universities processing hordes of students as if they were livestock, numbers waiting in line, and shopping consumers.
BS is universities hijacked by the relentless pursuit of money and prestige, including chasing rankings that they know are deeply flawed, at the expense of genuine educational excellence (to be distinguished from the vacuous “excellence” peddled by recruitment and “advancement” offices in every run-of-the-mill university).
BS is the ideologically infused jargon deployed by various fields to stake out in-group self-importance and insulate them from accountability to those not fluent in such solipsistic language games.
…
Read on and on about what BS is in higher “education.” Understand that, “the long-term corrosive effects on politics and culture can also be repaired only over the long term, if ever. There are no quick fixes here. So I do not speak in hyperbole by saying that our accumulated academic BS puts at risk decent civilization itself.”
Hope remains:
… We will need people with the capacity to retrieve and revitalize the best of higher education’s past and restructure it organizationally in ways that are most effective in the future.
History gives us some reason to hope that creative women and men will, over time, develop fruitful experiments and build new institutions that lead to a reblossoming of excellent higher education worthy of the name and help revitalize culture and political life. …
I’d like to help with the retrieval and revitalization. In addition to posts like this, a very few of you know of my ongoing covert work in this area. And, boy, does it need work.
PERRIN LOVETT 