Whom needs grammer: or sentence structure anyhow?

I remember when I put Tom Clancy down. He was writing about eco-terrorists, and the leader of the fascist Vegans ate egg-salad sandwiches.

If you are writing about eco-terrorists, this is not a mere detail. Either you understand the subject, or silence your keyboard.

Now, as an adult, I play the game as needed for the sake of my company. But it took many years to manage to stamp down my desire to let zingers fly whenever and wherever some poor shmoe deserved it.

I miss the good old days. I had one teacher to fulfill a Distribution Requirement (Deborah Tannen was her name, "He Said, She Said" was her fame) who started one lecture as follows: "Men oppress women in every culture in the world. We will look today at conversation to see how this is done."

Conversation?! Where MEN oppress WOMEN?! Who knew!

Later that semester, she argued that there are no original ideas, just original context (apparently this is liberal orthodoxy). I argued strenously, to derisive laughter from the gaggle of girls. Powerful stuff, laughter.

An hour or so later, Tannen pulled out one of her academic works, and said "this is really the leading book in the field." To which I jumped in, "Yes, but it isn't original."

I live for moments like those. And then I went to the registrar, and pass/failed.

... nit.

"toed the line"

I have never been able to resist the Good Fight. So I got into the Ivy League despite a 3.3 GPA from a profoundly left-wing, earth-worshipping crunchy granola high school. And since I continued my evil ways in College, my GPA suffered there, too (though it was A- territory). I am quite sure that many of my professors actually feared me. One of them actually tried to suspend me for arguing against Affirmative Action.

Ah, but that is the joy of being some writer for the New York Times, and knowing that when you put ink to paper, people will treat the result as the Word from On High.

I am often quoted in the press. Without exception, every single article about me/my company (unless they send it to us first for fact-checking), contains at least one major, entirely avoidable and unnecessary, factual error.  And these are business, technology and engineering writers and editors!

The vast majority of those who write for a living do not really get around to understanding the subject matter.  

Science is absolutely, thoroughly contaminated by government dollars. Instead of doing science, scientists do grant proposals.

I saw recently that the average age of grant recipients is now pushing 50 - when it is well known that innovation happens with the young. Governemnt science grants are a racket involving those who disperse and those who receive.

As far as I am concerned, government money is a talent sink: smart people get hooked on the money and the process, and their lives end up being wasted. And all the while, they continue to believe, with the fire of True Believers, that without government money, nobody would ever do Basic Research.

Teachers tend to be liberal and possess only mediocre intelligence. They usually rely on appeals to authority to win even the simplest discussions.

It is a recipe for limitless stupidity.

The moment the Fed stops buying government bonds, the whole house of cards will start to collapse.

Reducing demand for bonds will force interest rates to rise. Rising interest rates will multiply the debt burden, forcing more borrowing, more interest rate hikes, etc.

It can all go very bad, very, very fast.

The only solution is the one for which we have no national appetite: reduce spending by at least $85 billion per month, effective immediately. And then keep the rates low for as long as possible to starve the massive tail and let it inflate away at a <10% annual rate.

It is not sinful to be naked.

The only reason nakedness leads to embarassment is that a woman's naked body  is not usually how she sees her soul. 

Clinton did not look odd. But he was clearly a sociopath.

Why does it have to be sexual?

I had a thread on this: http://ricochet.com/member-feed/Why-do-Women-dress-their-daughters-like-Whores

In which I wrote:

if a boy finds a girl attractive, she, especially if not yet scarred by experience, instinctively thinks the boy actually likes  her . After all, women see themselves much more as a unity than do men: a woman’s dress and appearance is her conscious projection of how she sees herself, while a man has little difficulty separating his appearance from his actions.

...

But the modern world has gone a step further. Because our society values appearance above all else, women have learned that their bodies are far more important than their souls. And when they think of themselves that way, the reality follows.

...

So when the “rest” of us encourage our daughters to dress modestly, we do it because we want our daughters to project an image of themselves that includes elegance, an image that puts her soul on equal footing with her body. If she dresses that way, then it will help her to think of herself that way,

The thing I love about this song is that he puts on blackface to "blend in." The joke is that the song, words and music, is from the yiddish theater. So the Jazz Singer features a Jew impersonating a black man by singing Jewish music.

I have one friend in particular who is astonishingly well plugged-in, spiritually speaking. He gets vibes from places and events and people that are absolutely freaky-accurate.

He is endowed with spiritual sight.

I have no claim to clairavoyance, but my life is chock-full of serendipitous events.

I once booked a ticket for someone, and to save something like $75, he was booked on an extra leg and a horrible layover. He was real mad at me - until the flight he had wanted crashed on take off.

I had no idea or premonition. Things just worked out that way. And it has, for me, countless times. On my own, I am nothing special. But when G-d acts through me.... watch out!

Thanks for the shout-out!

Tesla is artificially sustained by subsidies. There is no long term path to a  moneymaking electric car company.

I never have enjoyed the voices of women who think whining is singing.