Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, March 7, 2023
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24 comments
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).
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A man tried to open an airplane door and then stabbed a flight attendant with a broken spoon:
A man allegedly stabbed a flight attendant, tampered with the plane on a Boston trip
Not sure what is in the air lately (pun intended), but yikes, the number of stories about airlines is a bit…disconcerting.
Artwork referring to abortion removed from Idaho public college exhibition
1st Amendment? What 1st Amendment?
And if that leaves you unimpressed…
You go, Jimmy.
@OzarkHillbilly:
That little shit…
/joking
/not joking
/mostly joking, kinda
@Beth: Heh… It’s not personal for me. 😉
@OzarkHillbilly: Kudos to the kid, but this also serves as a reductio ad absurdum demonstration of the meritocracy arguments about who should get admitted to the elite schools or be appointed to high courts. Is little Jimmy one of the brightest kids around? Sure! Does he have the life experience necessary to understand the ramifications of the laws he will be learning about? Seriously unlikely.
Judge orders far-right Republican to pay legal costs in Arizona election lawsuit
More of this please.
@MarkedMan: Does he have the life experience necessary to understand the ramifications of the laws he will be learning about? Seriously unlikely.
Of course he doesn’t. And?
@OzarkHillbilly:
Obviously he needs to be nominated to the SC as soon as possible.
@OzarkHillbilly: My (I guess, strained) analogy was appointments to the Supreme Court. There is an argument that we should only take the “best” candidates for clerkships, then lower court appointments, then circuit court and finally the Supreme Court, with the best being defined by some numeric score and list of academic and other legal achievements. “Best” should include ability to understand the real world ramifications of what you are ruling on.
@Sleeping Dog: Heh, if I had to bet, I would bet that after he gets his JD he decides to go in an entirely different direction. I know a number of lawyers who made that change later in life.
@MarkedMan: I was coming from the broader perspective that most newly minted lawyers* have very narrow and sometimes stunted life experiences. If all they’ve ever done is go to school, how could it be otherwise?
* a buddy of mine didn’t go to law school until he was in his 30s. He was a hell of a flatpicker, arguably one of the best in the country, who for reasons of luck and bad timing never hit it big. He was done with being a starving musician. He had a lot of life experiences.
Super powerful ad from Vote Vets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9xqczlMqSM&t=89s
@Jen:
Here’s a video of the incident:
http://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-man-accused-of-trying-to-open-door-of-boston-bound-plane-stab-flight-attendant/43219064
Winter kind of got tired, I guess, and left early.
Two weeks from the vernal equinox, the official start of Spring, we’re already reaching temps of 29 C. The lows are quoted as 9 C, which is cool, but that’s around 4-5 am. By bedtime it’s still warm.
I’ve trouble sleeping when it’s warm. Not so much the temperature, as the inability to huddle under a heavy cover.
@daryl and his brother darryl: I can only attest to San Antonio military bases but all I see anymore, if anything, on the public space TVs, is HGTV.
https://twitter.com/BennyAce/status/1632999278502354944
Donald Hoffman, the owner of the Mela Restaurant in Gettysburg, wanted to serve drinks called a Caucasian cocktail and a Negro cocktail to customers. When he told his staff, they walked out en masse.
@Kathy: I’ll happily trade you. I’m hoping this morning is our last -15 until next winter. Some of the daytime highs in the next ten days are even supposed to get close to 32!! 😛
@Jax:
I don’t think I’ve enough blankets for that.
Or that such a trade would be possible.
Yesterday was the first time in two months I woke up thirsty during the night. And it had to happen when I left the glass of the water on the side table rather than the nightstand.
I don’t think I reported back on the attempt to roast pumpkin seeds.
I tried it on a pan, which fit about 250 gr. of seeds. It worked perfectly well at medium heat, stirring occasionally. From time to time one would pop, but overall there was little sound and no movement. Adding a spice mix was easy and it spread all over rather well.
Since it worked, I finished off the kilo bag over a few weeks, and did not attempt to roast them in the oven.
Update on the business jet turbulence fatality.
The piece says the cause of death ws “blunt force injuries,” meaning the poor woman hit something inside the plane very hard. This suggests a sudden drop. The piece also mentions an issue with the pitch trim. That could also cause a sudden drop, with or without turbulence.
THE DUMBEST PHONE CALL OF THE WEEK — Student Loan edition
So, during the height of Covid I defaulted on a student loan, private student loan. Business got a little slow, I lost my mind, we were all there, it was bad. I finally am starting to get a bunch of stuff in order and business is looking up, so I took their call.
They asked if I was going to pay it off; I laughed.
They asked if I would just send money in; I laughed.
I said, I know I defaulted, I’m ready to start making payments again, I don’t need any concessions, I just need a path forward to clear the default and resume life.
They said no. My only choices are, 1. Pay in full (not possible), 2. pay whatever and stay in default (Dumb), or 3. continue to ignore it.
I asked them, what’s the downside to just ignoring it? Are they going to do anything? No downside, no enforcement, no nothing, just interest and penalties growing to an absurd figure.
They tried to pull a fast one on me and compared it to a mortgage foreclosure and claimed that once something went into foreclosure, that was it, nothing to do but lose the house. I laughed and said they were lying. As an attorney I know a bunch ways to resolve a default that doesn’t end in losing a house. They laughed.
Last week I took out an unsecured personal loan for my business. My credit score isn’t great and when asked, I told them the non-performing loan was a student loan. Bank laughed and wrote me a check.
Well….the snow on my roof started melting off. The evidence is the giant leak in one corner of an addition to the original house that’s a 90 degree angle. And by giant, I mean, it’s pissing water. There’s no way to get up to that part of the roof to try and knock the ice/snow off. 😐