This is an Open Trackbacks Alliance open post. link to this post and trackback. See the OTA and Linkfest Haven links below the (very) short roundup of posts that have caught my eye. (Hey, I’ve been mostly outa the loop for a coupla days, ‘K? :-))
Alexandra notes a kinship with Mark Steyn (she’s right; they are intellectual sibs :-)).
Beth asks, Is Peace Moonbeam a Fraud? Well, with a name like that, I’d certainly hope so…
“Dave the NCO,” writing in over at Jerry Pournelle’s place, notes the mystical powers of literacy. 😉 He points to an article by John Derbyshire (though unfortunately not with a link) that has gems like this:
“…a few years ago, when I complained to my Wall Street boss, a lady with a degree from a good university and a six-digit salary, that in giving me a project to complete without the proper means to complete it, she was asking me to make bricks without straw. She stared at me uncomprehendingly. “Bricks? Straw? What on earth are you talking about, John?””
Yep. Communicating with the subliterate is like making bricks without straw, indeed.
Why is Africa “poor”? Read this. Western Civilization is better. And one of the key principles of the West can be seen lacking in Africa… and it’s one that’s both essential to creating a society of growing wealth and one that’s particularly despised—in theory and loudmouthed pronouncements and rules affecting other people—by the disingenuous liars and the useful idiots of the Left…
Oh, and you’ll see this too, if you page around enough on Pournelle’s site:
Chicago schools require Drivers Ed for blind students.
I can’t make this stuff up. No one can. Who has an imagination that depraved fecund?
Random Yak holds forth with an English/History lesson. “…when all the sway of earth shakes like a thing unfirm…” and all that. 😉
Yeh, I know there’re lots more (including some good posts linked in on Monday and Tuesday). Link in with some of the good ones I’ve missed, OK?
Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at
Linkfest Haven.
Diane’s got a linkfest post up, too. Go check it out and link there, as well.
WOOT! David! I rarely look at TTLB anymore (yearight) but:
TMH’s Bacon Bits: #160
third world county: #162
Hey neighbor! 😀
Um, if that was crass, then please delete.
😀
Now, back to worky work… 😯
TMH, yeh, sorry about parking my trailer home next to your antebellum manse. I know it has to affect property values to have a coupla cars in the front up on blocks, the hounds baying at squirrels and coons all hours o’ the day n night, etc., but what can I do about it?
It’s a Federal program.
Shewwwwt. Y’all know how muuch it takes ta heat this hea little home? Un.Be.Lievable. 😛
If you say the obvious reasons why Africa is poor then expect to be called a racist. The cradle of civilization and yet there was no written language in sub-Saharan Africa. I don’t believe it has as much to do with intelligent levels as it does with environmental conditions. In sub-Saharan Africa, there was little change and little reason to adapt. I’m sure nutrition also played a part.
Iran Watch: Go to the back of the class. You didn’t read the linked article before you commented here, did you? While there are legitimate reasons to argue that the mean “g” of sub-Sahara Africa is lower than the mean “g” of say Europe (the primary reason being that it IS, by all measurements) and that the actual brain capacity of SSA occupants is meaybe one deviation lower than that found in the Med or Europe, that’s not anything I was pointing to (and what the argument specifically pointed to) was a cultural problem.
Read the article before you pop out with the racist card. Heck, re-read my post for a clue, since your comment doesn’t seem to indicate you’ve even done that much. Key comment in my post:
“…one of the key principles of the West can be seen lacking in Africa? and it?s one that?s both essential to creating a society of growing wealth and one that?s particularly despised?in theory and loudmouthed pronouncements and rules affecting other people?by the disingenuous liars and the useful idiots of the Left?”
Key word: principles. As I said, it’s a cultural thing, much as the Islamic culture lacks?and has always lacked?other things the West had had, things that, lacking, compel Islamic-dominated countries to just naturally be less than the West in creativity, productivity and overall societal wealth.
“If you say the obvious reasons why Africa is poor then expect to be called a racist.”…this isn’t the ‘race card’. This wasn’t even directed at you. Any time someone mentions disparities between black and white there are people who will play the race card. This is only meant as a general observation. Don’t take this to heart as you obviously have(past experience?). My comment was about evolutionary factors and geographic effects on social evolution. You talked about culture and I only tried to bring in a different viewpoint. Next time I’ll talk about Roseanne or the Cleveland Indians since they seemed to be more relevant. Later Einstein.