February First’s Forum

FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    California police kill double amputee who was fleeing: ‘Scared for his life’

    I don’t care if he did have a knife, how much of a threat can a man with stumps be? He’s certainly not going to get away.

    The Huntington Park department does not use body cameras.

    Convenient that.

    3
  2. Kathy says:

    Yesterday Boeing delivered the last 747, a freighter model to Atlas Air.

    3
  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Stupid human tricks:

    For the second time in two weeks, a sinkhole in a collapsed road in California has swallowed a vehicle after a driver ignored road closure signs, according to law enforcement.

    The two-lane road near Tracy, a city in the Central valley, collapsed earlier this month following weeks of destructive storms that wreaked havoc across the state. The damage and signs warning of the road’s closure didn’t stop drivers from attempting to traverse Kasson Road, which commuters use to travel to nearby Stockton, Manteca and Modesto, according to the local California highway patrol (CHP) office.

    “There are concrete rails across the roadway. It takes a little bit of effort to maneuver around it to get past it,” said Jesse Skinner, a CHP public information officer.

    Still, the office is aware of at least two vehicles whose drivers got them stuck in the collapsed roadway. Over the weekend a truck fell into the hole, prompting police to issue a citation to the driver for traveling on the closed road.

    Authorities appear to be growing increasingly exasperated over motorists’ disregard for the warnings. “It happened again. We can’t make this stuff up,” the CHP office wrote on Facebook. “This was 100 percent preventable. There is no excuse. The signs are clear, visible, and unobstructed.”

    1
  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    David Gay says he lost his job and was left distressed after a Florida sheriff repeatedly accused him of being a fugitive in social media videos created to resemble the popular television gameshow Wheel of Fortune.

    But Gay wasn’t running from the law at any of those times – he was either already in the local jail in connection with a misdemeanor case or had already been released from custody after being given probation.

    Now, Gay is suing for damages in excess of $50,000, accusing the sheriff of having defamed him and unduly causing him depression as well as anxiety.

    Not anywhere near enough. Arrested for 2 misdemeanors, he was in Ivey’s jail on three of the occasions he put Gay’s picture up, and the 4th time he had already been “sentenced to probation under the same terms as before his January 2021 arrest, had been released from custody and was in no way considered wanted.”

    The wheel contains the photos and names of those whom Ivey considers to be Brevard’s 10 most wanted fugitives.

    “All 10 people up here have warrants for their arrest,” Ivey says in a Wheel of Fugitive video that his office posted on Facebook on 24 January. “We want to get them off the street and safely behind bars where they can’t victimize anyone else.”

    After Ivey spins the wheel, he explains the charges against the person whose picture is in a closeup shot of the circular prop after it stops rotating. He urges the purported winner to surrender to his office even as the video explains in a disclaimer scrolling across the bottom of the screen that “suspects may have since been arrested or their alleged charges otherwise resolved or dismissed”.

    Yeah, his own personal absolution of any responsibility.

    3
  5. de stijl says:

    One particular thing bugged me recently – how we chose to spell the word judgment.

    There is no e in the middle. There should be an e in the middle. It should be judge + ment. What moron dropped the e and why?

    Got me to thinking about Noah Webster and English spelling rationalization. Color instead of colour. Center instead of centre. Etc.

    Think about how we spell school or thought and pronunciation versus spelling. English is insane, especially the spelling of it. ESL students must be so confused and rightly so.

    My second language in high school was Spanish. It took a few years to realize it, but once your learn and practice the pronunciation rules, if you see a word new to you you know how to pronounce it. It’s damn easy and rational. You have to guess a bit on syllable stress until you hear it spoken, but once you get the hang of it it super godamn easy.

    In English we have thought and through and tough and slough. English is an amalgam of West Germanic Old English, West Germanic Old Norse, Norman French, Latin and Greek borrowings, and loan words from nearby languages, plus other bits. It is insane. We have left-over spelling that includes remnants of how words used to be pronounced many hundreds of years ago.

    Daughter is spelled that way for a reason that went away. It was pronounced differently way back when. The “gh” was a fricative.

    When I went to college I took French which has an even more fucked spelling vs. pronunciation schema than English.

    We need English spelling reform. Hard c, soft c – pick k for the hard c, ffs. It should be skool not school. City and kuntry.

    I demand reform!

    2
  6. wr says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: “I don’t care if he did have a knife, how much of a threat can a man with stumps be? He’s certainly not going to get away.”

    I know this is an outrage and a tragedy, but all I can think of is King Arthur’s fight with the Black Knight…

    2
  7. Kylopod says:

    @de stijl:

    We need English spelling reform.

    Good luck with that. We can’t even get Americans to switch over to the metric system as literally every other developed nation has. That would be an incredibly simple task compared to spelling reform, because at least with the metric system we know what we’re getting–it’s already been created and is even known to many Americans already. What spelling reform would you propose? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of possible ways to do it. And which regional pronunciation would be used? And how would you deal with effectively cutting future children off from understanding past writing without extreme difficulty, not to mention decreasing communication with other countries? Spelling reform was something that may have made sense a couple of centuries ago, but today it’s a practical and logistical impossibility.

    2
  8. JohnSF says:

    @de stijl:
    In the UK, “judgement” is the accepted spelling.
    Just do as we do, you know it makes sense. 😉

    3
  9. Mu Yixiao says:

    To start off your morning right, I give you:

    The history of the world (according to student bloopers)

    2
  10. Jax says:

    Yay, it’s February 1st! Daddy of the Month on my Chicken Daddy calendar is a quite handsome bearded and tattooed man wearing a pink tutu that matches the pink bow his cute little chicken, Melissa, is wearing. 😛 😛

    It’s also ONLY -12 outside. Feels pretty good!

    2
  11. CSK says:
  12. de stijl says:

    @JohnSF:

    You lot gave us this mess!

    2
  13. @de stijl: English spelling can be pretty ridiculous. I often think about how much of it is pure memorization as the rules do not conform to logic in many cases. I pity those learning it from scratch.

    But, as noted, we are stuck with it at this point.

    1
  14. Kylopod says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: I bet most of you have heard this one already, but the old joke that GHOTI spells fish (the GH in “rough,” the O in “women,” and the TI in “dictionary”) is still a great illustration.

    5
  15. daryl and his brother darryl says:
  16. steve says:

    In some random reading I find this link to energy usage in Australia. No coal since 2017. Roughly 75% of their energy now comes from wind and solar. They have a lot of rooftop solar. While Australia might have some unique features that make it different and more amenable to renewables this is still remarkable and should remind us that there have been major advances in the coordination of different energy sources and improvements in the costs and efficiencies of renewables.

    https://opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=all&interval=1y

    Steve

    5
  17. daryl and his brother darryl says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Florida; like Germany in the 30’s, only hot and humid.
    Brevard County is a special kind of hell.

    2
  18. Kylopod says:

    I once did a college paper about the history of English’s mess of a spelling system, and I recently revived it for a speech at a Toastmasters club. So I know quite a bit about this topic.

    To summarize: After the Normans invaded England, French became the language of the aristocracy for several centuries, while English remained the language of the peasants. Since it wasn’t a language of prestige but of the largely illiterate masses, there wasn’t any uniform standard for the mass of dialects across England, and when the speech was written down, people pretty much spelled words however they felt like.

    The invention of the printing press in the 1400s had the effect of freezing English spelling in time, yet in the centuries that followed there were substantial changes in pronunciation—most notably the Great Vowel Shift in which just about every vowel changed sound. Then there were all the letters that stopped being pronounced, but were retained in writing, such as the k in knee and know, the gh in words like daughter, and the e at the end of words like love. The way we spell English today is pretty much a reflection of the way the language sounded more than 600 years ago. That’s why if you’ve ever listened to reconstructions of how Chaucer is supposed to have sounded, it sounds like a foreign language, yet when you read it on the printed page it’s still pretty understandable.

    Some examples of silent letters in English aren’t even due to pronunciation changes. The b in debt was never pronounced. The word was originally det, but some scholars got the bright idea to insert a b into the word to remind speakers of the Latin root (it’s related to the word debit). That’s just another illustration of how many conflicting motives there have been for imposing spelling changes on the language.

    11
  19. de stijl says:

    Once, I was so desperately trying to flirt with a super gorgeous Venezuelan woman at college and my brain was so discombobulated I asked her the equivalent of “What is time?” instead of “What time is it?”

    Que hora es? Not, Que es el tiempo? Two very different questions. I blanked out and asked her a very deep cosmological question.

    Yes, I am that lame. Still am. I might be the worst flirter you have ever met. I am horrible at it which I found out that some people find endearing and cute so I leaned into that. Being unsmooth can be oddly attractive.

    She shot me down immediately, btw.

    2
  20. MarkedMan says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: After 55+ years of readin’ and writin’, I still only have a 50% chance of correctly spelling any word with an ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ in it. My family insists I am nuts and the “i before e, except after c” is the only rule that I need, but I guess I use different words than they do. In other words, I’m a sufficiently different species, according to science. And don’t seize on the idea that I’m some kinda foreigner, with weird spelling just running in my veins. Despite what my foes say, I’m too feisty for their heinous deprecations, but neither am I too humble to make my obeisancies to the grammar gods.

    (There’s one word in there that breaks both rules!)

    3
  21. de stijl says:

    @Jax:

    -12F with no wind is really no big deal if you are geared up properly. I took a long walk a few days back at -9 and was totally fine (with proper outerwear and appropriate layering.)

    The Norwegians have great saying that translates to “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes”. I like that a lot.

    Bad weather is sometimes the best time to go for a walk. Good boots are a must.

    With wind, different story.

    3
  22. de stijl says:

    @CSK:

    Rage Against the Masheen!

  23. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    A PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENGLISH SPELLING

    For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet.

    The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later.

    Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all.

    Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

    Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli.

    Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

    (often attributed to Mark Twain, but the actual source is likely a letter to the editor of The Economist by M. J. Yilz)

    2
  24. Kathy says:

    In the TNG ep with the Tamarians, “Darmok,” at one point Troi points out to Picard the peculiarities of English spelling. I imagine it written like this:

    Troi: You spell nife with a K
    Picard: I spell knyfe with an N.

    As to Spanish, there is much inconsistency in the use of the letter X, particularly as applied to transliterations of indigenous terms (which are also mispronounced most of the time).

    Long story short, it can sound like the Spanish J, SH, S, Z, and X.

    2
  25. de stijl says:

    @MarkedMan:

    I’m gonna need a receipt for that.

    (Why is there a p in “receipt”?)

    That word looks so wrong it hurts my brain.

  26. JohnSF says:

    @de stijl:
    IIRC it actually was spelt as “receit” in Middle English.
    Googles: aha!

    late 14c., receit, “act of receiving;” also “statement of ingredients in and formula for making a potion or medicine” (compare recipe); from Anglo-French or Old North French receite “receipt, recipe, prescription” (c. 1300), altered (by influence of receit “he receives,” from Vulgar Latin *recipit) from Old French recete. This is from Medieval Latin Latin recepta “thing or money received,” in classical Latin “received,” fem. past participle of recipere “to hold, contain” (see receive).

    The classical -p- began to be restored in the English word after c. 1500, but the pronunciation did not follow. Conceit, deceit, and receipt all are from Latin capere; the -p- sometimes was restored in all three of them, but it has stuck only in the last. The meaning “written acknowledgment for having received something specified” is from c. 1600.

    1
  27. Mu Yixiao says:

    If all y’all want some actual answers on regarding English words, spelling, and pronunciation, I recommend following “RobWords” on YouTube. Fun, short videos explaining a lot of this stuff.

    1
  28. Stormy Dragon says:

    Trump proposes genocidal national ban on transgender existence if he wins 2024

    Here are the proposals outlined in Trump’s genocidal three and a half minute rant:

    Pass a bill that falsely claims there are only two genders, male and female
    Reverse legislation for life-saving gender affirming healthcare
    Ban all education of transgender and non-binary issues in schools nationwide
    Ban transitioning for youth nationwide
    Sign an executive order to end programs for gender transitioning for all ages nationwide
    Criminalize and hunt doctors and educators who try to save transgender and non-binary lives

    3
  29. Beth says:

    I don’t think we’ve addressed the elefant in the room. The English use of “Zed” instead of the proper and correct “Zee”.

    Zedbra, I think not.

    /Bald Eagle screaming intensifies…

    2
  30. MarkedMan says:

    Another datapoint in the “Heinous Crime” or “Unimportant Oversight” debate with respect to classified documents. I just came across a users manual for a product. It is commercially available to just about anyone in the world. There is also a Defense Department version of the product, with a few minor differences, mostly cosmetic. The users manual for the Defense Department document has a Classified marking, and the specific manual in question has been sitting on a shelf in an unsecured area for the past 20 years or more. What is the person possessing this document supposed to do with it? And is it really a heinous crime if the answer is, “nothing”?

  31. Jax says:

    @de stijl: Yeah, it’s been -30 to -40 and colder with the wind chill the last couple days, this -12 and no “air movement” is downright balmy.

    We’ve started calling it “air movement” so we don’t jinx ourselves by saying it’s name out loud. 😛 😛

    1
  32. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @wr: “It’s just a flesh wound.”
    “I cut your bloody arm off!”
    “I’ve had worse.”

  33. CSK says:

    @Kylopod: @MarkedMan: @de stijl: @JohnSF:

    Would you like my receit for “roste pecok”?

    1
  34. Mister Bluster says:

    February is Black History Month

    Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.
    Malcolm X

    4
  35. de stijl says:

    @Jax:

    I once attended a mandatory HR seminar where the presenter used the phrase “talk exchange” instead of conversation or talking. At one point she stressed the need for “frank talk exchange”. I was on board with the content (although it was pretty remedial).

    But the repeated, conscious insertion of the phrase “talk exchange” instead of a perfectly cromulent word annoyed me. Had someone been to a seminar lately and gotten overly invested in the shibboleth instead of the content? Signs point to yes. Shitty, quasi-academic neologism that recaps the definition.

    Frank talk exchange is like saying air movement instead of wind.

    2
  36. MarkedMan says:

    Am I really the first person to comment on the fact that last night Jimmy Kimmel had Mike Lindel on from a remote: the inside of a carnival claw machine at an arcade across the street from the studio. I am not making this up.

    2
  37. de stijl says:

    @Mu Yixiao:

    RobWords rocks! Another person I like is Dr. Geoff Lindsey. Also, Simon Roper. Roper tends a bit towards academic, but he is genius.

    Ecologist is fun, too.

    RobWords is probably the most etymologically focused of that bunch. Interesting and enlightening.

  38. de stijl says:

    @de stijl:

    Spell correct changed Ecolinguist.

  39. Stormy Dragon says:

    The College board censors their AP African American Studies class to cater to Republican demands:

    The College Board revises new AP African American Studies class after criticism

    The official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies that was released on Wednesday downplays some components that drew criticism from conservatives including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had threatened to ban the class in his state.

    In the new framework, topics including Black Lives Matter and queer life are not part of the exam. They are included only on a list of sample project topics that states and school systems can choose from for assignments.

    The revisions also eliminated reading selections by Kimberle Crenshaw, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Roderick Ferguson.

  40. Thomm says:

    Yet again, I know this isn’t as bad as making a moderately successful writer a bit sad, but on top of the total removal of books from some Florida schools to avoid felony charges, the AP AA history curriculum was just watered down to make desantis stop his attacks on them.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/us/college-board-advanced-placement-african-american-studies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

    2
  41. Thomm says:

    For more about the Florida classroom library situation:
    https://mobile.twitter.com/john_jpollock/status/1617012807689551872

    1
  42. Thomm says:
  43. CSK says:

    The title says it all:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-in-even-more-legal-hot-water-after-lying-to-judge-arthur-engeron?ref=home

    And don’t miss Trump’s attack on Ron DeSantis as a “RINO globalist” also at the DB.

    Trump calls DeSantis “disloyal” for daring to run against him.

  44. DAllenABQ says:

    “Rage against the Masheen!” “Tis but a scratch.” Today’s forum has made me actually laugh out loud (alol?)

  45. Just nutha says:

    @MarkedMan: I wouldn’t know, but I never watched Carson, Letterman, or Leno either.

  46. Kathy says:

    @Thomm:

    To stop Florida Man’s attacks on them for the time being.

    1
  47. Beth says:

    @Thomm:

    Personally, I’d like it if Pritzker stood up and told the College Board that their AA Studies class violates IL law and that it’s not going to be taught unless they fix it. Fight back and shove their cowardice back in their face.

  48. MarkedMan says:

    @de stijl:

    But the repeated, conscious insertion of the phrase “talk exchange” instead of a perfectly cromulent word annoyed me

    Honestly, it sounds like your presenter was more interested in “displaying her colors” to others in her field (who probably were not even present) then in concerning herself with her actual audience and whether or not they were understanding the material.

    2
  49. Kathy says:

    @de stijl:

    Frank talk exchange is like saying air movement instead of wind.

    Thermal gradient driven displacement of gaseous, aerosol, and particulate atmospheric contents.

    I’ll show myself out.

    3
  50. JohnSF says:

    @CSK:
    “First, catcheth thy pecok…”
    😉

    1
  51. Michael Cain says:

    @de stijl: “Talk exchange” seems to me to be too close to “verbal exchange” — which tends to mean argument.

  52. Michael Cain says:

    @Kylopod: Plus for the Great Vowel Shift. Must have been hell to live through the e at the end of cane changing from pronounced to unpronounced and being relegated to a signal that the a had changed from short to long pronunciation.

    Now do how English lost gendered articles.

    1
  53. CSK says:

    @JohnSF:
    Well, almost. I’ll translate from Middle English: Take a peacock. Break his neck. Flay him. Draw him clean.

    And then throw him on the floor and stomp on him to make sure he’s dead, I guess. It’s the most violent recipe I’ve ever read.

    1
  54. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: @de stijl: I’m sure I’ve told this story before–it’s one of my bo or ring stories from the past–but one of my grad school professors was part of an evaluation team for a series of books written in what would be phonetic-spellings English for early readers. The goal was to see if a push for tranforming spelling would be justifiable as a way to raise literacy, given that phonetics and phonics rules are a known stumbling block for early readers.

    Alas, it didn’t work because while readers who don’t struggle transitioned to phonetic spellings just fine, the readers who had pretested as struggling found themselves just as at sea–because the words looked funny. Children who struggle with reading seem stranded at the intersection of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. 🙁

    2
  55. Kathy says:

    Work has suddenly, and very likely temporarily, slowed down. Fortunately typing at the PC appears to be work of sorts.

    I fixed the potatoes au gratin. The basic recipe was sound, but I erred in using fresh jocoque and chihuahua cheese. The former is like in between sweet and sour cream, with a yogurty consistency (it is made with lactobacilli like yogurt). It works well in some recipes, but after a long time in the oven it kind of congeals. Chihuahua cheese does melt, but doesn’t stay melted long even when the dish is still hot*.

    So this time I used sweet cream to which I added minced garlic, and marbled Monterrey jack. I also placed some red onion slices among the potatoes.

    Now I’m wondering if I should slice the potatoes much thinner. I’ve a gadget that can make slices only slightly thicker than potato chips. That’s too thin for pan or oven roasted potatoes, but it might benefit a potato casserole style dish.

    On other things, I got one kilo of shelled pumpkin seeds. These are raw, and they taste rather differently than pumpkin seeds should. Years ago someone gave me a large bag of raw peanuts, and I manged to make them edible by placing them in the oven a few minutes to roast. I wonder whether to do the same with the seeds, or to try it in a pan on the stove.

    If the latter, I can add a little olive oil (like, drops of it), and season them with, I’m thinking, garlic powder, zaatar, and paprika.

    *This might have something to do with the fact that it was frozen and thawed.

  56. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @CSK: All that stuff* is done down at the Foster Farms factory near the Kelso Airport. It’s just not illustrated on the bag the chicken comes to the store in. Clear instructions require including all details given that one can’t count on the reader having any background information (such as the negative outcomes from cooking a bird that hasn’t been drawn (gutted)).

    (*At least for the skinless chicken parts bags, I’m not enough of an expert to know if simply removing the feathers is “flaying.”)

  57. Kurtz says:

    Rich Lowry on the revised AP African American Studies curriculum.

    The New York Times has a story up on the College Board stripping out some of the worst elements of its A.P. African-American studies course. The details will matter — and we should wait to hear what Stanley Kurtz thinks — but at first blush, this looks like a major victory for Ron DeSantis, who was willing to endure ridiculous smears to force these sort of changes.

    Let that sink in.

    2
  58. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kathy: I’ve never successfully done it, but pumpkin seeds can be roasted in either a pan in the oven or a pan on the stove. It simply takes more patience and concentration than I’m willing to give to the project. The spices you want to add sound great!

  59. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Kurtz: What? I’m supposed to realize that Lowry is just another RWNJ rather than the “principled and moderate conservative voice” he’s been cast as? That train left the station for me a long time ago.

    2
  60. Kathy says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    I’ll be sure to report when/if I do it.

  61. CSK says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    Yes, but you never see similar instructions in a standard cookbook, except maybe one of those surviving-in-the-wilderness volumes.

    I think “flay” in this context might mean “remove feathers.”

  62. JohnSF says:

    @Michael Cain:
    @CSK:
    From the Great Vowel Shift to the Great Fowl Shift?
    🙂

    3
  63. CSK says:

    @JohnSF:
    Oh, please.

  64. Kathy says:

    Some years ago, as I recall, I sardonically suggested right here that in order for the wealthy to really create tons of jobs, their taxes should be cut to nothing and the government should instead pay them money.

    The second part, it seems, is already happening.

    In fairness, treasury/savings bonds have been around for a long, long time. And the wealthy have always parked some of their money in such instruments. Further, this is how just about all governments borrow money, at least in part.

    The issue would be how much money not paid in taxes by wealthier people and corporations winds up in such bonds. In particular, how much more money has been parked in bonds after the Bush the younger and Benito tax cuts.

    I know determining this wouldn’t be easy. But that’s at least how much taxes should be raised on the wealthy.

  65. Monala says:

    @de stijl: English is actually not that bad. About 50% of English words are spelled phonetically. Another 35% are not spelled phonetically but still have consistent spelling patterns (such as “igh” in sigh, might, thigh, etc.). That leaves 15% of words for which the spelling makes little sense.

  66. Kurtz says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker:

    I give you two:

    For Lowry to form an opinion about history, it needs to be blessed by Stanley Kurtz, a person who is not an historian, before Lowry can call it final.

    It doesn’t require any teasing or analysis of factors implicit to explicit statements to recognize that these public intellectuals propagandists want a white person outside a given field to tell experts how to do their jobs.

    Yes, I know the last few years have rendered dog whistles less necessary, but I am curious how many apologists will pour Clorox in their eyes before admitting one side has been right all along.

  67. Kathy says:

    I think I’ve found a general measure of, well, not stupidity, but of something stupid-like: can a person follow a very simple instruction?

    Here’s the thing, for expense reports I need to upload 2 files for every invoice. To simplify finding the file that corresponds to the invoice, I rename the files using the invoice number.

    So, when someone gives me an invoice for reimbursement, they also need to send the files. I’ve told them all to rename the files with the invoice number only. Nothing else.

    IMO, this is as simple as instructions get.

    9 times out of ten, I don’t get that. I get things like the word “invoice”*, the name of the business that issued it, the purpose for the expense, their name, their dog’s name**, as well as the number. The tenth time, I get all the crap but not the number.

    *Seriously, when sending dedicated invoice files, is it very important to put “invoice” in the file name? Ok, one of the files is a PDF, which is generic (can contain anything). But sent along a reimbursement request, it’s only an invoice file.

    **Not making this up.

    1
  68. Mikey says:

    This is a great move by Hunter Biden, whose private photos were stolen and posted online without his consent.

    Hunter Biden asks for criminal probe into Trump allies for ‘theft’ of data from laptop

    Lawyers for Hunter Biden sent letters Wednesday requesting investigations into allies of former President Donald Trump who they say trafficked in stolen information from his laptop — a dramatic shift in strategy for the president’s son after years of GOP attacks.

    Among the letters, which were obtained by NBC News, was one sent Wednesday to the Justice Department’s National Security Division asking for an investigation into “individuals for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” including Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s lawyer at the time.

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  69. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @de stijl: -12F with no wind is really no big deal if you are geared up properly.

    I have to take exception to this (and am sure Jax would agree) but it is one thing to walk around in -10F degrees or more with layer upon layer, and another thing entirely to work in it. For starters, gloves are a no go. 2nd of all, things react differently to stress in extreme cold than they do in more reasonable temps. I once had a step ladder with no apparent flaws collapse on me at -12 and fell on the rock hard frozen snow covered ground and thought I had collapsed both my lungs (I’d collapsed one before) and thought I was on death’s door for 15-20 seconds and was certain after I had regained lung function that I was still bound for the ER. Turned out I wasn’t. But falling 8′ onto rock hard ground is not for the weak.

    Neither is working in extreme cold or extreme heat.

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  70. de stijl says:

    @de stijl:

    Regarding receipts, at one time I had to be so all over that shit and had to be a part time accountant on top of my actual job. Gotta save all the receipts, keep ’em chronological order.

    For everything: flight, car rental, hotel, lunch, gas, dinner with clients, dinner alone, drinks with clients…. well most everything, some don’t count. It was very confusing and annoying.

    Every month. Expense report was required. It was always a major pain in the butt.

    I was a super cheap when it came to incidentals. I ate at the company cafeteria, or KFC, or Arby’s. Clients loved that. Some had flat per diems which made life way easier.

    The trick is to deal with it daily. Don’t lollygag. If it is at all questionable just eat that and don’t try to expense it. Be responsible and professional. Don’t be an asshole.

    I never gouged or overcharged anybody. I went out of my way to be as cheap as possible. I was honor bound. I ate many expenses that rightfully could have been expensed per the contract but brushed a bit too closely against the line. I chose not to always.

    Hey, pay for travel, lodging, food and we are square. Still have to submit receipts, though.

    I would hate to be an accountant that had to parse contractors’ expense reports. That would suck. A per diem system is way easier for both of us.

  71. inhumans99 says:

    @Mikey:

    I was wondering when Hunter would get along to doing something like this, it is overdue that he goes public saying he was the victim of theft. I suspect this is just the start of Hunter pushing back. I would love to see him drag some of the Congress Critters who want to investigate him into a room to be deposed by lawyers.

    The White House needs to have Hunter’s back and with quiet menace point out to certain members of Congress it is not a good look to treat the son of the U.S. President like shit you scrape off your shoe, especially when Hunter is the victim here. Drag all the weasels who want to jerk off to his dick pics into a courtroom, they deserve no less from Hunter and his legal team.

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  72. de stijl says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I did not intend to insult or belittle. My sincere apologies.

    In my circumstance -12F is not a big deal (depending on wind) because the only thing I do is walk. If you work in it you would respond quite differently.

    No insult intended.

  73. de stijl says:

    @Monala:

    I’m not trying to be passive aggressive or a jackass, just actually curious.

    Where did those stats come from? I would love to view that.

    Is it by word count or usage? Written or spoken?

  74. Kathy says:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’ve wondered about work or exercise in cold weather.

    With all the insulation provided by warm clothing, don’t you get very hot rather fast? Strenuous activity can build up a lot of body heat fast. I wonder if it’s faster than it can dissipate through layers of warm clothes even in cold weather.

    If you do get hot, what happens if you remove a layer or two? I figure eventually you’d get cold.

  75. Monala says:

    @de stijl: I’ve read this in several places and I’m currently looking for the source for you.

    One observation: other languages make use of accent marks to help distinguish words with different meanings that are spelled or pronounced the same. English doesn’t use accent marks, so we’ve used different spellings instead.

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  76. JohnMc says:

    @Kathy: You’re onto it. Rule when backpacking in frigid weather is DONT SWEAT. If you can stay dry, you can stay warm.

    The layering is so you can take stuff off.

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  77. Jax says:

    @Kathy: I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m in and out of a tractor all day. No heat, and missing a major window in the back. At -35 I don’t peel my layers off until I get home, and sometimes it takes two hours with 5 cats on my feet or a hot shower before my feet finally warm up, even with the finest wool socks and expensive Muck boots. My face feels frozen and my body aches like I’ve been frozen.

    A lot of metal that experiences stress breaks at that temperature. Bearings you thought were fine, drive shafts snap unexpectedly, tires go low and you don’t notice until you’re flat. Air compressors don’t like to work at -35, either, so you’re hit or miss on airing the tire up you noticed was going flat.

    BUT….it was only -12 today, and it might be 23 by Sunday! Hoo rah!

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  78. Monala says:

    @de stijl: I found this article, where someone searched for the source of the figures and wrote:

    I’ve encountered references to a 1966 study known as The Stanford Spelling Survey, by Hanna, Hanna, Hodges, and Rudorf, four professors of education who analyzed 17,310 English words and wrote up their research in an article that’s cited over and over and over. From this analysis of less than 2% of English words and a lot of number crunching, Hanna et al. concluded that English is 67% “regular.”

    It’s very interesting that the writer of the article points out that the Stanford Study’s conclusions are flawed and outdated, but still cited frequently with few people knowing where the information came from.

    1
  79. Nigel says:

    @de stijl: The English Spelling Society is concerned with the problems you write about. There is a financial penalty that the English Speaking World incurs for them self as the system generates semi-illiteracy and school failure.
    See: http://www.spellingsociety.org