Ripple

A water drop and ripples

A lighter-note comment on the uses of AI.

By Justin Katz | May 30, 2024 |

We’re in heavy times, these days, what with our system of government collapsing around us, so sometimes we need a change of soundtrack or cinematic distraction.  Finding new entertainment, however, has become more-difficult, too.  Very little music feels fresh, and movies are terrible. On those rare occasions that I’ve thought to watch a new movie,…

A water drop and ripples

This was a great moment in Jerry Seinfeld’s Duke commencement speech.

By Justin Katz | May 28, 2024 |

I do think he should have followed the line about his family correcting his joke with “thanks grandma,” but who am I to kvetch?

A water drop and ripples

Forced integration is not the way to solve segregated outcomes.

By Justin Katz | May 28, 2024 |

The problem at the heart of well-meaning progressive policies is that they tend to ignore second-order effects.  They want outcome X, so they push policy U and ignore that side-effects V and W also happen, and consequences Y and Z might not prove desirable.  Housing mandates, for example, require on their face that we cede…

A water drop and ripples

Don’t forget the importance of audience for mockery.

By Justin Katz | May 22, 2024 |

This video of some proverbial “frat bros” mocking some antifa clowns brought to mind Saul Alinsky’s encouragement toward mockery of the opponent: Preparation for conflicts is crucial, however.  The mockery worked because the antifa were outnumbered and in somebody else’s element.  Mockery is a group activity.  You must have a group.

A water drop and ripples

A policy of “socially transitioning” children without their parents’ consent…

By Justin Katz | May 17, 2024 |

… leads me to the conclusion that whoever is controlling education policy wants young adults to be ignorant and emotionally unstable: I’m glad people are starting to pay attention, but I’m not optimistic anything can be done.  I couldn’t believe when this policy filtered down from the Obama administration a decade ago.  And I still can’t…

A water drop and ripples

Chanting murder in another language is cheating…

By Justin Katz | May 17, 2024 |

… but it’s illustrative, at MIT: I should note from the replies to the tweet that some people are contesting the translation, saying it’s “death to Zionism,” not “Zionists,” which supposedly makes all the difference.  On the other hand, some commenters say the chant references “Jews” in places where the translation says “Zionists.” I’m not…

A water drop and ripples

I’m getting worried about how obvious it is our monetary system is largely fictional.

By Justin Katz | May 13, 2024 |

It’s bad enough that the Biden administration has convinced a generation of young Americans that tens of billions of dollars of their debt can just disappear with no effect because the debt didn’t really exist, anyway, but the Chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisor’s being unable to sound coherent when asked why the government borrows…

A water drop and ripples

This has been RI’s preferred budgeting method for the past 15 years.

By Justin Katz | May 13, 2024 |

They limp along hoping for a catastrophe that gives Democrats in Washington, D.C., an excuse to borrow waves of cash for one-time windfalls: It’s understandable that politicians and bureaucrats would incline this way, but it’s inexplicable that anybody continues to believe giving increasing amounts of power to people with these incentives and this history of…

A water drop and ripples

Keep an eye on the progress of violence.

By Justin Katz | May 8, 2024 |

Note something about the riotous behavior reaching American campuses, as Ted Gehring spotlights, here: The last go-round of riots took place mostly in urban areas, this one has been on campuses. Granted that they’re often in urban areas, but their attack on colleges seems like the revolutionaries’ taking another step.  One or two more and…

A water drop and ripples

Questions get complex when you upend social (and biological) fundamentals.

By Justin Katz | May 8, 2024 |

This video of a police interaction with a young couple entered my awareness at a moment of reduced willpower, so I watched it.  Although it escalates from a towed car to an arrest and flirts with even more-dangerous outcome, the entire twenty minutes is primarily a display of young adults, feeling their economic oats, whose…