Albert Einstein supposedly said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Perhaps relying on a misunderstanding of Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the progressive left can hold that if they just keep doing the same thing — albeit spending more of Other People’s Money while doing so — their oh-so-noble policies will work where they haven’t worked before. The progressive left are complaining that more conservative urban policies won’t work, but they are being implemented because liberal and progressive policies didn’t work! Continue reading
Category Archives: Culture
Crazy people are dangerous Whenever there is a truth that you cannot tell, that is a truth you must tell!
My very good friends on the left used to love, when presented with a fact which challenged their assertions, to use the expression, “The plural of anecdote is not data.” I, of course, pointed out that an ‘anecdote,’ if confirmed, actually is a datum. A few years ago, Barry Ritholtz writing in The Big Picture, reported:
Which brings us back to anecdotes: As it turns out, the original quote about anecdotes had a very different context, and a much more nuanced meaning. It is attributed to Ray Wolfinger, who was a political scientist at the University of California-Berkeley.
Wolfinger’s original statement was quite literally the very opposite of what we all have been using. He had actually said “the plural of anecdote is data.” This should affect the way we think about and use data.
Mr Ritholtz noted the problem of selection bias. Yes, he used as an example, shark attacks are dangerous, and frequently lethal, but the vast majority of interactions between humans and sharks do not result in sharks attacking humans. I am reminded of General ‘Buck’ Turgidson’s statement in Dr Strangelove, “I don’t think it’s fair to condemn the whole program due to a single slip-up.” And that leads me to the obvious question: just how many of these data points does it take to destroy the narrative? Continue reading
Volunteer firemen run toward the fire when others run away, and they take action while others just take pictures with their cell phones.
In the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, a portmanteau word from Russian: политический руководитель, romanized: politicheskiy rukovoditel; transl. political leader or political instructor) is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit to which they are assigned, with the intention of ensuring political control of the military.
The function first appeared as commissaire politique (political commissioner) or représentant en mission (representative on mission) in the French Revolutionary Army during the French Revolution (1789–1799). Political commissars were heavily used within the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). They also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1991, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945 as Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere (national socialist leadership officers).
Being associated with such militaries, perhaps the concept of a political officer isn’t one which should be admired in a free republic like the United States, and you’d certainly think that such a thing would be a concern for a volunteer fire department. But, if you thought such a thing, you’d be wrong. Continue reading
Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the rectum here] to do things right
Is Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins (D-Philadelphia) an [insert slang term for the rectum here]? The city’s left are aghast that Mrs Mullins has promised that the city government will not provide even a single dollar for the syringe exchange program to ‘reduce harm’ to the junkies who shoot up in Philly’s streets. And while I have yet to see an official editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer opposing the Mayor’s announced policy, the newspaper’s coverage certainly seems slanted in that general direction. We have previously reported on how almost everyone supports drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation, but they prefer it to be in other people’s neighborhoods, and how even in Democrat-controlled Philadelphia, the City Council passed an ordinance which bans ‘safe injection centers in all council districts except one. We also noted that, despite residential opposition, the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer have supported the concept of ‘safe injection centers and been opposed to efforts to ban drug treatment centers in specific neighborhoods.
Mayor Parker proposes cutting nearly $1 million in syringe exchange funding for Prevention Point
The shift is part of Parker’s promise to end the city’s financial support of programs that provide sterile syringes to people who use drugs.
by Anna Orso and Aubrey Whelan | Income Tax Day, April 15, 2024 | 12:02 PM EDT | Updated: 4:11 PM EDT
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration wants the city to cut nearly $1 million of funding to Prevention Point, a large social services organization in Kensington, as part of her promise to end the city’s financial support of programs that provide sterile syringes to people who use drugs. Continue readingMayor Cherelle Parker Mullins, from her Facebook page.
I support A15’s goal of an end to the war in Gaza, but I want to see that war end with a complete Israeli victory!
I can certainly appreciate them protesting outside of the Infernal Revenue Service building in Philadelphia. What they are protesting, however, is not something I support.
Protesters block traffic in Center City, calling for an end to war in Gaza
Organizers said the action is part of A15, a global campaign calling on U.S. officials to stop supplying arms to U.S. and end the taxpayer-funded siege in the Gaza Strip.
It’s all about the Benjamins
Tadej Pogačar, from his UAE Team Emirates bio.
Our family, especially our younger daughter, are fans of professional cycling. Our daughter knows all of the major players, and if my interest is more for the scenery on the European road races, I still know something about the sport.
How fanatic are our family? While watching the Tour of Scotland on television in 2022, my wife and daughter decided, upon seeing a quaint looking hotel in Ballater, Scotland, that they had to go there, which they did in October of that year. I didn’t get to go, but it worked out for me because, when our older daughter called from Kuwait, and said she got four days leave and was going to Jerusalem, I had a perfect excuse to join her there, and no one could object that it cost too much money!
The two best cyclists in the world are Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and Tadej Pogačar from Slovenia. Mr Vingegaard rides for Team Visma/Lease-a-Bike, while Mr Pogačar is the number one rider for UAE Team Emirates. Mr Pogačar won the Tour de France in 2020 and 2021, while Mr Vingegaard won in 2022 and 2023. Alas! Mr Vingegaard was injured in a serious crash on Stage 4 of the Tour of Basque Country on April 4th, and while it’s not impossible, it is unlikely he’ll be in shape to ride in the Tour this year.
One of the primary goals of the corporate, and in the case of UAE, government, sponsors is publicity, as bike racing is especially popular in Europe, and there’s nothing that the sponsors like more than seeing their emblems featured prominently on television. And with Mr Pogačar, the UAE Team Emirates logo will be very prominently featured on television!
NBA puts logo of anti-gay government’s airline on its referees, including two who are gay and trans
Bill Kennedy and Che Flores are gay and trans NBA referees. The NBA has put Emirates patches on them despite anti-gay laws.
Perhaps his disability was that he was just plain stupid
My good friend Robert Stacy McCain has a new post, Biden’s Gun Control Policy Won’t Work, about the President’s attempt to close the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’ which is, as Mr McCain pointed out, “a propaganda phrase invented by the anti-gun fanatics who want to prevent law-abiding citizens from defending themselves.”
But the part which interested me most was further down:
Anthony Wade was 34 when he died March 29 in Sparks, Nevada, after shooting a cop who pulled him over for a traffic violation. Police on Friday released video of the incident, during which Wade fled after shooting the cop, crashed his car, ran on foot, broke into two different homes where he attempted to hide out, and ambushed police when they came after him. Anthony Wade was a convicted felon who, as such, was prohibited from owning firearms. He’d been a criminal his whole life: Continue reading
No Riots: Dexter Reed will not get his George Floyd moment And a gunfight at the Eid al-Fitr Corral.
Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier (D-Philadelphia). Photo from her city biography page and is a public record. Click to enlarge.
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, said in a statement Wednesday that the incident was “heartbreaking” and called on lawmakers in Harrisburg and Washington to pass gun safety laws “that will stem the flow of guns into our neighborhoods.”
Robert Stacy McCain has the story of 26-year-old Dexter Reed, Jr, formerly of Chicago and now a resident of Hell. Mr Reed: Continue reading
Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the rectum here] to do things right "Nice guy" policies have led to disaster in our urban areas
We have previously reported on how almost everyone supports drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation, but they prefer it to be in other people’s neighborhoods, and how even in Democrat-controlled Philadelphia, the City Council passed an ordinance which bans ‘safe injection centers in all council districts except one. We alson noted that, despite residential opposition, the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer have supported the concept of ‘safe injection centers and been opposed to efforts to ban drug treatment centers in specific neighborhoods.
Well, here they go again! Continue reading