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The Ivory Tower Effect

The US has too many PhDs.  You see this in the silliness of extreme DEI positions, overwrought intersectionality theories, the number of scientific paper that end up retracted, and confusing gender in language with gender in biology.    We got into this mess with the best of intentions - Of course! After WW2, when the men stated to be released from the military, the economy couldn't really absorb the sudden increase in the workforce.  Part for the solution was to pass the GI Bill.  Increasing college graduates in the 1950s served at least 2 purposes.  First, it removed bodies from the labor market, especially in the "blue-collar" fields, which allowed wages to increase for this part of the population.  Second, it increased the educated population and the scientific pool of expertise, allowing expanded experimentation and increasing the knowledge base rapidly.  However, much of this expanded base of college educated individuals was supported by the...
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"Temporal Arrogance"

 People do and have done all kinds of things -  and people from other cultures and times think that much of what they do is horrible and beyond human understanding.  But is it patently unfair - more, it's completely unreasonable - to judge people of other times by the standards of today.  It displays an arrogance and ignorance of history that is  - or should be generally condemned. Examples are multiple. Slavery is considered a horror beyond understanding by all "right thinking" people today.  And I agree - after all, I am a person of my time.  But to condemn all in the past who practiced or were accepting of slavery is to condemn pretty much the entire human race.  Slavery has been a feature of pretty much every culture in history that was wealthy enough to develop class systems.  Selling conquered peoples was a standard way to make war pay for itself.  Selling children was a standard way to help a poor family survive.  Raidin...
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Settled Science

 Read this article ( https://www.science20.com/hontas_farmer/transgender_science_is_settled_science_it_does_not_support_your_ideology_or_bans_on_care-256467 ) on "Real Clear Science" and strongly disagree with it. First, any article that claims that an area of science is "settled" is almost surely wrong.  Science isn't "settled" - it's evolving as more information becomes available. Second, the area of "transgender science" is hardly settled, when the research is fragmentary and contradictory in many instances.  This article does not make any effort to present contradictory data, when such data does exist ( https://areomagazine.com/2022/01/05/race-is-a-spectrum-sex-is-pretty-damn-binary/#f+876674+2+2 , https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56601386 , https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids ). Finally, Nations have been pulling back from treatment of minors with any drugs and (especially) surgery ( https://www.tabletmag.com/sec...
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Violence and cultural disorder

 It's really frustrating that our political system doesn't seem to allow real discussion.  The killings Uvalde are a symptom of a much broader issue in our culture.  It is not a healthy one - especially for our youth.  Everything from the high proportion of single parents, to the "Trans" movement, to abortion, to video games and culture, to guns is almost designed to confuse youth trying to understand where they stand in the world.   You have to start with the basic truth that youth are not ready for fully reasoned thought.  On different issues both the left and the right agree on this.  The left makes this clear when talking about guns or religion in schools, while the right makes the point when talking about the trans-movement and abortion.   Then you have be sad about the lack of willingness on both sides of these debates to discuss options that are outside the "official positions".  The left seems to want no restrictions on abor...
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Impacting Russia without military action

 1.  Stop all imports from Russia - especially oil 2.  Immediately increase oil drilling/fracking in the US 3.  Halt any closures of nuclear power plants and expedite more 4.  Cut Russia off from all international banking. 5.  Stop all exports to Russia
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Education and Achievement

 Lots of recent discussion about "elite" schools that require rigorous tests for admittance.  The complaints center around the "under-representation" of certain racial/cultural groups - typically Black and Hispanic - and the "over-representation" of others - mostly Asians.  The most common "fix" seems to be to lower that standards to assure a "representative" mix. I have so many problems with this that it's hard to know where to start.  First, Over and Under representation based on race is a distorted measure.  It assumes that there are differences in racial scholarship that are based upon race itself.  So the very beginning assumption is racist.   Second, the culture of the individuals towards learning and academics is disregarded completely.  Anyone of any race that is raised to value learning and academics has an advantage over anyone of any race who is not raised to value learning and academics.  The tales you can hear about Bla...
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Thought crimes

I really dislike "Hate Crimes" laws.  The killers of  Ahmaud Arbery are justly going to prison for life - 2 of them without parole (a most immoral act, but that's the subject of a different post).   Now, for the same action, they are on trial for Federal "Hate Crimes", which basically seems to mean they said nasty things about Ahmaud's race.  But that's perfectly legal under the 1st Amendment.  It is legal to use any language in a non-confrontational situation (i.e., when "fighting words" are likely to trigger a fight) And that's my issue.  This law just seems to be a way to double punish individuals for one action.  And to punish them for speech, even thought, as well.  I don't think people should be punished twice for the same action, and I really don't think they should be punished for speech, or what's the point of the 1st Amendment?
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