voluntaryXchange

Jalen Hurts Makes the Most of It

Given his first big chance in the pros, Hurts led the 3-8-1 Eagles over the 10-2 Saints.

And umm … the Saints have the best defense in the league.

And Hurts had almost 300 total yards. Over 100 yards of that was on the ground: the first time the Saints have let any rusher get that much since early in 2017.

I have tried to support Hurts before. He’s an amazing story: the first quarterback to ever take 2 college football teams within sniffing distance of the national championship.

In the Wake of Impeachment

Here’s what I wrote 18 weeks ago:

Why change from a policy of not pursuing cases you can’t win to a policy of pursuing a case you still won’t win?

Because it isn’t about winning, and it isn’t about Trump.

This is all about getting Biden out of the race …

And here we are, with Biden posting a poor showing in Iowa, with speculation of a worse showing in tomorrow’s New Hampshire.

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Back in September, Biden was the front-runner, with Warren closing the gap.

Biden didn’t get dragged through the mud in the impeachment, but you’ve got to think his Q Score did not improve.

Mission accomplished.

Clearly, I was not right about clearing the way for Warren. But, from my perspective, she seems like she’s fading due to self-inflicted wounds.

Doesn’t Anyone Read What They Publish Anymore?

This article from The New York Times contains a combination of letters, presented as a word, that even Google can’t find on the internet. Here’s a screen capture:

Tell me, what is a makingued?

Here is a larger screen capture showing the masthead, title, and authors. The typo is in this last line. It’s hard to spot given the space allocated to the 7 advertisements, and slide show that can’t be minimized (I wonder if a picture is worth a thousand misspelled words, or if that price is higher)?

Not only did this appear in the NYT, I saw it reprinted on MSN.com. Seems they didn’t read it either. Why should I?

Here’s the Google search—193K of complete misses:

I wonder if I’m on some master list now that Google thinks I’m looking up how to improvise explosive devices?

Fake News?

The U.S.S. Fort McHenry was quarantined for 2 months this past winter.

The reason given was:

The ship and crew were originally put into isolation after symptoms of Parotitis appeared in December last year.

Around 25 sailors who caught the virus, which has similar symptoms to mumps …

Folks, viral parotitis requiring quarantine is not similar to mumps, it is mumps.

• Parotitis is inflammation of the salivary glands.
• There are two viruses that do this: mumps and HIV.
• HIV doesn’t require quarantine.

No Really, Does It Get Any Better Than This???

The other day I posted about how any blame for bad policies ruining Upstate New York needs to focus on the fact that 1) for a very long time the state has been run almost completely by the 3 people at the top, and 3) for decades those 3 people at the top have been drawn exclusively from the Downstate area (New York City and its suburbs).

And after posting that, lo and behold one of them was forced out of office this week due to corruption charges.

Hmmm. They’ve now lost a majority of the top 3 on corruption charges in the last 6 months.

Oh … and they had to have an election within the State Senate for a new majority leader. As of Monday, The New York Times noted that there is a broad field of possible successors:

Even if Mr. Skelos were to step aside, the field of potential successors is small, and the next in line is clouded by other controversy: The Republicans’ No. 2 is Senator Thomas W. Libous, of Binghamton, who is facing a federal indictment, accused of lying to federal agents during a corruption investigation.

Other potential candidates include Senator Catharine Young, from Western New York, who would be the chamber’s first female majority leader; Senator John A. DeFrancisco, a veteran legislator from the Syracuse area and chairman of the finance committee; and Senator John J. Flanagan, from Suffolk County, who served 16 years in the Assembly.

Let’s count those folks off: an Upstater, a second Upstater, a third Upstater, and bringing up the end of the list a single Downstater.

Don’t hold your breath about who won the vote: Flanagan, the Downstater.

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Perhaps Mr. Flanagan doesn’t deserve this next bit.

There was this movie that Eddie Murphy made about 25 years ago called The Distinguished Gentleman. In it, a member of Congress dies in office, and the special election for his successor is a con man with the same name who’s campaign slogan is “vote for the name you know”.

What does this have to do with the new New York State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan Jr.? Well, he’s the son of John Flanagan Sr. I’ll let The Times continue:

John J. Flanagan was 25 and a second-year law student when his father — Assemblyman John Flanagan Sr., a well-respected Republican from Long Island — died of a heart attack while jogging near the family’s home in Suffolk County.

It was 1986, and just weeks before an election. But a few days after his father’s death, the younger Mr. Flanagan entered the race, at the urging of party leaders, and easily won his father’s seat.

Gosh. I wish most states were run by people who’d completed their first year of law school.

In Flanagan’s defense, he did eventually complete law school, albeit from a school I’ve never heard of that happens to be singularly successful at producing graduates who end up as member of the New York State Legislature.

Technorati Tags: flanagan,skelos,new,york,state,senate,majority,leader

Takfiri: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

One tidbit is so far unmentioned in the legacy media: Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a takfiri.

A takfiri is a Moslem who denounces another Moslem as being insufficiently devout (here’s a voluntaryXchange post from 9 years ago about takfiri).

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was thrown out of the mosque -- the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center -- about three months ago, after he stood up and shouted at the imam during a Friday prayer service, they said. The imam had held up slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of a man to emulate, recalled one worshiper who would give his name only as Muhammad.

Enraged, Tamerlan stood up and began shouting, Muhammad said.

“You cannot mention this guy because he’s not a Muslim!” Muhammad recalled Tamerlan shouting, shocking others in attendance.

“He’s crazy to me,” Muhammad said. “He had an anger inside.… I can’t explain what was in his mind.”

Tamerlan was then kicked out of the prayer service for his outburst, Muhammad recalled. “You can’t do that,” Muhammad said of shouting at the imam.

There’s a lot of casual talk about in the media about whether Tsarnaev was radicalized.

This has just been answered.

For Moslems, there is nothing more radical than denouncing other Moslems. To go so far as denounce an imam in a mosque during the main prayer service of the week is … off the charts.

There is a weak analogy here to Christianity: it would be unacceptable to denounce a priest or minister during services.

The weakness of that analogy though, is that in Christianity those leadership positions are official — so it’s at least conceivable that someone could perceive that they must denounce someone who is using a position of power inappropriately, and that reasonable people could understand that.

But an imam, in the Sunni faith Tsarnaev was raised in, isn’t likely to any more than a volunteer using his devoutness to lead others forward in prayer.

So Tsarnaev’s actions are more like denouncing a deacon or youth group leader who’s volunteered for a position that requires speaking in front of the congregation. That’s twisted.

Technorati Tags: boston,marathon,tsarnaev,tamerlan,takfir

You Heard It Here First

Here at voluntaryXchange I pointed out about 2 months ago that there was so much oil work going on in North Dakota that it was visible in satellite images. Here’s my image:

Now the Financial Times has noted the same thing. They do not cite this blog. Here’s their image:

I have no idea why theirs is so small, or why it is in false color.

Technorati Tags: north,dakota,satellite,image,oil

Morgellons Is a Delusion

The conclusion of a new study from the CDC published in PLoS One is that Morgellons is a mental rather than a physical illness.

Morgellons is a condition in which sufferers claim itchy, non-human, fibers grow from their skin.

The CDC concluded that the fibers were neither the sign of an infectious agent or of a broader environmental poison. Instead, they seem to be clothing fibers that are merely stuck to the skin … basically lint.

It isn’t a very comforting diagnosis, but the CDC also reported that about half of the one in 25,000 people with Morgellons also had evidence of psychiatric illness.

I first posted about Morgellons 6 of 7 years ago … but I can’t put my hands on the URL at this time.

Technorati Tags: morgellons,cdc

Touche: Recession and Alternative Energy Nonsense

Michael Giberson of Knowledge Problem adding a curious detail to the story of refiners being fined under the EISA for not using a product that doesn’t exist:

… Yes it was the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 {EISA] that gave us the standards blocking the sale of 100 MW 100 W incandescent light bulbs, beginning in 2012. Also, coincidentally, the EISA bill was signed in December 2007 and later the business cycle folks at the National Bureau of Economic Research identified December 2007 at the end of a 73-month long economic expansion and the beginning of the recession.

Do ya’ think they were sending a big fat signal that they just don’t get it, and it contributed to economic skittishness?

Technorati Tags: eisa,energy,independence,security,act,light,bulb,refiner,fine,epa,biofuel

You Heard It Here First

Obama signed a bill removing obstacles to horse slaughter in the U.S.

I wrote about this about 5 weeks ago: do gooders had shutdown the American horse slaughter industry, and the response of cash strapped horse owners was to starve their animals.

Let me clue you in: your noble desire is for the horseowner to buy a bundled good — euthansia and disposal. In managerial economics we point out that unbundling bundles that make them unhappy is a standard way for consumers to trip up clueless management. So you need to ask yourself if you’re comfortable with owners choosing the “starve and dispose” bundle when they find out it’s cheaper.

Hurray for President Obama.

Technorati Tags: horse,slaughter,starvation