[American Thinker] The ordinary person is constantly being lectured and disparaged by intellectuals rooted in academia where Democrats massively outnumber Republicans. It is useful, lest there be some misunderstanding, to stress that I believe that intellectuals, including professors, can be a good thing. Indeed, they are essential to the development of civilization. I am one myself. There is nothing I love to do more than study the great philosophers, psychologists, social theorists, and literary figures. However, intellectuals have certain inherent limitations. First, they tend to think they know more than they do. More importantly, they tend to believe that their intellectual accomplishments make them morally superior to less educated people, hence the contempt expressed by so many in our "elites" for Hillary’s "basket of deplorable" in "flyover country".
Aristotle argues that the aim of studying moral philosophy is not just to become a better thinker but to become a better person. Immanuel Kant makes similar claims in his Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. In "On Liberty," John Stuart Mill claims that only those who think through the issues rationally, like a philosopher, can know what is morally good. But does being an intellectual, even a "philosopher" (if one can still find one), make one better suited, as Aristotle puts it, to know "the good for man" and thereby become a better person?
Leo Tolstoy, the world-famous Russian novelist, was well familiar with the limitations of the intellectual elite. After having been one for a long time, he came to believe that many intellectuals, despite their elaborate programs of self-glorification, were often greedy narcissistic people of bad character. In his Confessions, Tolstoy explains that he came to believe that, ironically, the meaning of life is not understood by the people who write the celebrated books of the year on "the meaning of life" for fame and fortune, but by "the poor, the simple, and the ignorant, the pilgrims, the monks ... and the peasants."
#5
Well, as I've mentioned here before, "believing in yourself" is the foundational tenet of all "self improvement" scams. Ask Liz Holmes. Ask the all-star list of "shakers and movers" on the Theranos board. It works great until it doesn't. Then the bag holders lose everything and / or go to jail. The rest scatter for the hills, to turn up later on MSLSD talking about why all Trump supporters must be shot as part of the Ukraine Liberation War to End All Wars™ / Stomp Out COVID In Our Time Crusade™.
10% discount for khaki wearers and RayBan subscription customers.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 4:17 Comments ||
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#6
Pop quiz: Do you think Jeffrey Epstein "believed in himself?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 4:28 Comments ||
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#7
Extra credit: In 250 words or less, how did that work out for him?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 4:29 Comments ||
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#8
I've always wondered how anyone simply designates himself as an intellectual, just because they attempt to interpret someone else's opinions and maybe write theses on thought processes of now dead men.
I'd rather be smart, in the moment really, than populate my mind with conflicting, even diametrically opposed ideas of people who will never see the world again.
If I can know at any given moment what God thinks about a certain thing... now that'd be something to study for.
'For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' - Gawd
#9
The Wizard of Oz: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.
#11
Lots of those who fancy themselves intellectual are merely pseudo or faux intellectual, having the patina of the thing due to a certain kind of education without having the intellectual rigour. Anyone who says, “The science is settled,” for instance. I grew up among the real thing, and they were great fun. But when I followed Mr. Wife to Cincinnati, I discovered myself happier in the somewhat more real world of corporate America.
Certainly, as we saw by the complete surrender, indeed enthusiastic adoption, by the academies of fascism/Nazism and Communism in their respective countries, and of Wokism in the West in the current period, the one pedestal intellectuals as a group consistently fail to mount is moral superiority.
#12
A truly intelligent person is humble by dint of their high understanding of how much they don't know.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 10:19 Comments ||
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#13
In my "lived experience" (did I say that right?), intelligence and moral character are independent variables, and I'd rate moral character as the more important of the two by far. In other words, if I've got to be in a foxhole, I'd rather be in a foxhole with a trustworthy guy with an IQ of 90 than with a Hahvahd PhD who'd stab me in the back for the slightest advantage.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/21/2022 10:28 Comments ||
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#14
/\ Discovering what one does 'not know' appears to increase dramatically with age. By the time you reach the age of 70, you become amazed at the longevity coefficients of both helpless and stupid.
I have now reached the point where being referred to as a stupid SOB has become a jovial term of endearment.
#15
When asked "What makes someone and expert?" Marilyn Vos Savant replied "An expert is someone who not only knows as much as possible about a subject, but also knows which of that stuff is wrong."
Thinking about the "expert" causing much of the nation's ongoing pain right now, one Tony Fauxi, I'd have to say he fails the second part of Marilyn's definition handily.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 10:38 Comments ||
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#16
The smartest person in the room is the one who says "I don't know the answer to that, but I do know who to ask / where to look to find out."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 10:43 Comments ||
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#17
Good for you if you have the patience to sit through all those boring classes at the university and you have a family that will support you while you do. But many of the rest of us decided it was better to go to work.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/21/2022 12:15 Comments ||
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#18
It all starts with the question a true "intellectual" always asks himself/herself:
What If I'm Wrong?
Remarkably, almost all of the so-called intellectuals (especially "Progressives") seem utterly incapable of conceiving even the thought of being wrong, much less questioning themselves and their rigid belief system.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts. -- Betrand Russell
#19
Well, a person can be anywhere from chastened to embarrassed to be wrong. If they have a moral compass. Your progressive, OTOH, simply refuses to accept their elevated self might be misinformed, incorrect or willfully ignorant. They waste no time getting down to the only posture they know: hating on you for making them look bad.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 12:28 Comments ||
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#20
In my day an expert was anybody more than 50 miles form home with a briefcase necktie and a sport coat with padded elbows...
[Business Insider] The World Health Organization on Friday warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over and said there's a possibility of new variants.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that vaccinations and the fact that Omicron has turned out to be a far less severe variant are "driving a dangerous narrative that the pandemic is over."
"But it's not. Not when 70,000 people a week are dying from a preventable and treatable disease," Ghebreyesus added.
"Not when 83% of the population of Africa is yet to receive a single dose of vaccine," he continued. "Not when health systems continue to strain and crack under the caseload. Not when we have a highly transmissible virus circulating almost unchecked, with too little surveillance to track its evolution."
Ghebreyesus also warned that the world should prepare for the potential of more variants to arise.
"In fact, the conditions are ideal for more transmissible, more dangerous variants to emerge," he said.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, more than 65% of the total population of the United States is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, meaning either two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for those age 5 and up.
#2
Meh. Given they’ve been trying to gin up a panic over the danger of Omicron on the grounds that it is less severe but more easily transmitted, their definition of dangerous is so broad as to be meaningless. On the model of Anthropogenic Global Warming, in fact.
"...hazards caused by human action or inaction. They are contrasted with natural hazards. Anthropogenic hazards may adversely affect humans, other organisms, biomes, and ecosystems."
"A flurry of new studies suggests three doses of a Covid vaccine — or even just two — can provide long-term protection from serious illness and death."
Gee, I seem to recall a State of the Union speech coming up-- just a week from tomorrow, in fact.
Can another "Mission Accomplished!" declaration be far off? Supported by the mysteriously sudden appearance of "a flurry of new studies."
Which actually vindicate and repeat, in the main, what Dr. Robert Malone has been saying for months. In time for Brandon's SOTU on March 1. Convenient.
These mendacious, incompetent fvckers' heads are spinning so fast, they'll achieve vertical lift soon
#8
Such brazen, obvious liars. Almost as clownish as the CDC.
Or Scotland's public health bureaucrat-squirrels -- concerned about "misinterpretation" of the data, thus they have to hide it from public view. To hell with these moronic liars.
Concern about the misinterpretation of hospitalization data broken down by vaccination status is not unique to the C.D.C. On Thursday, public health officials in Scotland said they would stop releasing data on Covid hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status because of similar fears that the figures would be misrepresented by anti-vaccine groups.
"Misinterpreted."
"Misrepresented."
"Misinformation" and even "malinformation."
[Our Finite World] We have been told that intermittent electricity from wind and solar, perhaps along with hydroelectric generation (hydro), can be the basis of a green economy. Things are increasingly not working out as planned, however. Natural gas or coal used for balancing the intermittent output of renewables is increasingly high-priced or not available. It is becoming clear that modelers who encouraged the view that a smooth transition to wind, solar, and hydro is possible have missed some important points.
Let’s look at some of the issues:
[1] It is becoming clear that intermittent wind and solar cannot be counted on to provide adequate electricity supply when the electrical distribution system needs them.
Early modelers did not expect that the variability of wind and solar would be a huge problem. They seemed to believe that, with the use of enough intermittent renewables, their variability would cancel out. Alternatively, long transmission lines would allow enough transfer of electricity between locations to largely offset variability.
[2] Adequate storage for electricity is not feasible in any reasonable timeframe. This means that if cold countries are not to "freeze in the dark" during winter, fossil fuel backup is likely to be needed for many years in the future.
One workaround for electricity variability is storage. A recent Reuters’ article is titled, Weak winds worsened Europe’s power crunch; utilities need better storage. The article quotes Matthew Jones, lead analyst for EU Power, as saying that low or zero-emissions backup-capacity is "still more than a decade away from being available at scale." Thus, having huge batteries or hydrogen storage at the scale needed for months of storage is not something that can reasonably be created now or in the next several years.
[3] After many years of subsidies and mandates, today’s green electricity is only a tiny fraction of what is needed to keep our current economy operating.
More at the link
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2022 02:16 ||
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#1
Look who invested. The elites. I'd bet you they got a nice return.
[Spectator via Lucianne] Sorry Democrats, Your Problem Isn’t Messaging. The voters know the difference between specious talking points and effective policies.
As the midterms loom, panicky House Democrats are painfully aware that the political portents do not favor them. They have been consistently behind on the generic congressional ballot, and their fate will be profoundly influenced by President Biden’s abysmal job approval numbers. Consequently, they badly need competent guidance from their leadership. They aren’t getting it. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is instead telling its members that their policies are not the problem. According to a recent Politico report, the DCCC insists that the source of their woes is GOP "culture war attacks" and the solution is better messaging.
[PHAL] Drivers greatest begin bracing for an additional surge in gas costs amid the battle between Russia and Ukraine and years of under-investment by the oil business, warns one veteran vitality strategist.
"My guess is that you are going to see $5 a gallon at any triple-digit [oil prices] ... as soon as you get to $100. And you might get to $6.50 or $7. Forget about $150 a gallon, I don’t know where we will be bv then," Energy Word founder Dan Dicker mentioned on Yahoo Finance Live.
Dicker mentioned oil costs might shoot greater to $150 a barrel, or in line to the "super spike" highs from 2007.
Oil costs have been red-hot currently as geopolitical tensions rise between Russia and the remainder of the world.
WTI crude oil has climbed 13% in the previous month to $94 a barrel. Russia produces 10 million barrels of oil a day, the equal of 10% of worldwide demand. Any lack of that oil on account of geopolitical points might trigger a tightly equipped market to grow to be tighter, pushing costs for the hydrocarbon up.
The march up in oil has pushed gas costs additional greater from already elevated ranges.
#2
Don’t forget the saudis drove the American frackers out of business by flooding the market with oil. Americans shut down wells permanently. They had more effect on oil prices today than Biden.
Not to be argumentative, but "permanently" might not be the right word. When the price per barrel goes into the $90. or higher range, pumps begin to go up and down again. One hundred year old "stripper wells" are pumping right now in the midwest.
#4
You might be right. I have read it is cost prohibitive to restart a wellhead. Not like flipping a switch. Sometime it cost more to run a well than it produces.
Just drove thru Kansas and Colorado and a lot of Wells were not pumping.
Maybe an oil guy can chime in.
Low production wells (10-20 barrels per month or less) do NOT pay for operating costs. They are however, seldom plugged. The pumps just remains idle, or "non-operating." Pumps can be removed or suction rods can be pulled (see graphic).
Plugging a well however, does not mean it can never be operated again. 'Water flooding' a formation (an extraction effort) can push oil into pools and existing wells that can become operational once again.
As an aside, buying farm land can highlight the facts of oil and mineral rights. Seldom are mineral rights sold with the sale of farm land. Farm land can be sold numerous times and pass through generations of heirs without oil or mineral rights being relinquished. Legal firms make extensive efforts to contact oil and gas mineral rights heirs in attempts to "buy out" their interests. Sometimes the heirs will take the cash and run.
A second aside. Oil and gas production, or wells need NOT be on your land. As a land owner, you may have what is referred to as "community interest." The oil in a given formation may lie beneath your farm or property, therefore giving you community interest in nearby wells and leases. Such arrangements can very from state to state.
Hope my 'oil patch' rambling hasn't bored anyone :-(
Back Better: this is an estimate based on current prices. Actual charge will be dependent upon material receipt and current gas prices. All estimates are subject to change and should be considered out of date 7 days after issued.
"Surely KS, you jest."
It has crossed my mind to do away with paper listings and price tags and hang a digital board.
[Pirate's Cove] At the end of the day, the main culprit in all this is China, for intentionally or unintentionally releasing COVID19. Not because someone at a bat or something. After that, you can blame politicians and bureaucrats and such "public health officials" for stoking too much fear, locking things down, shutting businesses down, and then keeping it going too long. Not just here in the U.S., but, many 1st World nations. Of course, some nations are recovering better than others. The U.S. was recovering well till Biden took office. Now? Not so much.
You’re already paying more for groceries and gas. Here’s where consumers will feel the next round of ’sticker shock.’
Consumers may already be reeling from higher prices for things like groceries and energy, but S&P Global Ratings says inflation has more surprises in store.
"Packaged food and household products companies have yet to pass through all of their price hikes, and so consumers will likely face more sticker shock before prices stabilize," wrote Sarah Wyeth in a note published Thursday.
"As grocery and gas bills increasingly squeeze budgets, we expect that consumers will defer some expenditures and switch to less-expensive brands in the second half of the year."
The U.S. inflation rate has reached a 40-year high of 7.5%. With prices heading north, some shoppers are already tightening their belts with the help of off-brand everyday goods.
But for many shoppers, government stimulus programs and other COVID-related conditions have offered a cushion.
Hmm, so all those programs are just pushing the pain off, and, really, making the coming pain worse.
#2
Ask Frank about his new truck.
I was window shopping replacing mine when the seat belt broke(?). A diesel one ton today, with the same capacity I need, would cost more than my first house in 1985.
#3
Back in the 60s, I could get a McDs basic hamburger, small fries and small drink for 45 cents. Yesterday, it was $4.50. However, back in the 60s I paid with a silver quarter and two silver dimes.
According to this site, that quarter at this moment is worth $4.31 and the dimes $1.72 each. So, technically its cheaper today than back then.
In ancient times when rulers would put base metal in the coinage it was known as 'debasing the currency'. Today, it's call Modern Economic Theory.
#4
Got to remember, the CCP didn't trust the units in Beijing to put down the Tienanmen demonstrations, they imported troops from provincial units from outside the capital.
#8
The June 4 incident is remembered the most, but the June 2 incident is forgotten. The communists did indeed order local units to open fire on the protesters. They instead refused to do so and talked to the protesters, some units handing over their weapons. I wish this fact were better known.
The communists brought in a parachute unit from Guangdong. They were willing to do the dirty deed.
#9
?Que? IIRC at one time the Germans, and other NATO countries, had more tanks in Canada than the Canadian Army did -- for training purposes. There just isn't very much open land in Western Europe that you can drive tracked vehicles over that doesn't have crops planted on it -- $Money$ for repairing the landscape gets expensive very fast.
[PJMedia] Back in September 2021, Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan... reassured Americans that the Afghan refugees whom he was bringing into the United States would be as benign and harmless as Aunt Harriet. Old Joe’s crack team (no, not Hunter) of experts would make sure of that by "conducting thorough scrutiny — security screenings for everyone who is not a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident." Well, here’s a shocker: Biden, one of the world’s least trustworthy human beings, lied again: Not only were most of the refugees not vetted at all, but on Thursday it came to light that at least fifty Afghan refugees with "potentially significant security concerns" were admitted to the United States with no problem, and are here now. Thanks, Joe!
Wait, it gets worse. The Defense Department’s inspector general reported Thursday, according to the Washington Times, that not only did Biden’s handlers bring these security risks into the country, but now they have no idea where they are: "It looked at a sampling of 31 security risk evacuees identified as of Sept. 17 and found only three could be located." Nor is that likely to be the extent of the problem: "Tens of thousands more names remain to be checked."
Continued on Page 49
[PJMedia] Sheriff Michael Chapman of Loudoun County, Va. got an unpleasant surprise recently from Old Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences. So does Afghanistan, aka Biden's Bungle... ’s handlers. On Thursday, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) published a blurb that reveals the truly astonishing extent of the administration’s high-handedness, dishonesty, carelessness, and recklessness in its resettlement of Afghan refugees in cities and towns all over the United States. Without any prior warning, Loudoun County officials were told that 2,000 Afghan refugees would be arriving in the county in just over two weeks and that 2,000 more would be arriving every month after that through September. In what will come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention for the last thirteen months, Chapman and other Loudoun County officials found the Biden team to be disingenuous, uncooperative, poorly prepared, and worse.
"On February 4, 2022," says the Sheriff’s Office blurb, "the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) received an unannounced visit by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Protective Service (FPS) in which it learned that approximately 2000 Afghan refugees, per month, were slated to arrive at the Washington Dulles International Airport during a window beginning as early as February 19, 2022, and extending to September 2022." This gave them just two weeks to prepare for the influx. "DHS/FPS regional personnel advised the refugees would be transported by bus to the National Conference Center (NCC) where they would stay until their ultimate relocation elsewhere in the United States. DHS/FPS estimated that no more than 1000 refugees per month would remain at the NCC at any given time until September 2022. The refugees, for the most part, would enter the US from Qatar
Continued on Page 49
[JPost] Earlier this month, Amnesty International published a report accusing Israel of apartheid.
On February 1, Amnesty International accused Israel of apartheid. However blatantly false the charge — as even noted by the head of Israel’s leading Islamist party — the allegation exposes more about Amnesty’s hypocrisy, incompetence, and anti-peace narrative than it does about reality in Israel.
Context is important. Though Amnesty claims its apartheid report "took four years" to complete, its timing is awfully suspect. The report emerged just a year after the latest peace deal under the Abraham Accords, and it begins with a discussion about events from 2021.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2022 00:00 ||
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[WSJ] LONDON—Vikki Spit’s partner of two decades received his first Covid-19 shot in early May. Two weeks later, he died from a condition doctors for the 48-year-old former punk rock musician attributed to a rare vaccine side effect.
Ms. Spit now lives alone in a north England farmhouse, home to the couple’s rescue pets. Finances are tight. She struggles to maintain the online art-resale business her partner, who went by a single legal name, Zion, had started. She’s learning to drive—a task that had always fallen to him.
"Sometimes putting a kettle on seems more than I can manage," she says. Ms. Spit is now among hundreds in the U.K. and elsewhere applying for government compensation for suspected injury caused by Covid-19 vaccines. Tough to swallow...
She is part of a very small, little-discussed community of pandemic victims: those who have suffered—or had family or loved ones suffer—from rare but serious vaccine side effects recognized by doctors, regulators and researchers. They say they feel lost in wider Covid-19 statistics, which have shown vaccines to be extremely safe and effective for most of the population.
"The problems are extremely rare," said Kurt Weideling, whose wife, Nicola Weideling, 45, died in the spring in Southampton, England, from a condition doctors cited as a vaccine side effect. "That doesn’t make people any less dead."
Faced with the gravest health crisis in memory, governments deployed newly developed vaccines in record time. Many countries indemnified pharmaceutical companies that made the shots, with some governments promising to consider compensation for suspected Covid-19 vaccine-related injuries.
#1
This became very real to me a week ago tomorrow. The symptoms, as reported by the victim's widow appear to be identical. He was an organ donor, so an autopsy was not possible.... or so she was told by the authorities. Cause of death (SCD), sudden cardiac death. Nothing follows.
Test population? Yes, of course. My certificate is here on the desk somewhere.
[PJ] According to a study from a team at Texas Christian University, there is an apparent link between the strength of an individual’s immune system and how attractive they are.
This isn’t exactly the best news I’ve heard, and I’m inclined to be skeptical, but the link between attractiveness and health has been speculated on for a long time. This study claims to be more comprehensive than past research and examines the link between physical appearance, health, and immune function.
The research team had 159 TCU students and local community members photographed without make-up and each had a blood test to measure the strength of their immune systems to fight disease and infection.
Nearly 500 people were then brought in to rate members of the opposite sex based on their attractiveness based solely on their photograph and no other information.
"Interestingly, the study finds men and women have very different ideas about what makes a face attractive and healthy. Researchers found that, on average, women rated men with higher levels of NK (natural killer) cells as more attractive. These cells play a key role in fighting off and killing bacteria," reports Study Finds. "Men, on the other hand, found women with lower NK cell levels in their blood more attractive. Study authors believe the reason for this is women with lower NK levels generally have higher estrogen levels — a hormone important to sexual reproduction."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Spectator via Lucianne] Sorry Democrats, Your Problem Isn’t Messaging. The voters know the difference between specious talking points and effective policies.
/\ Exactly correct Xyz. 
[PJ] According to a study from a team at Texas Christian University, there is an apparent link between the strength of an individual’s immune system and how attractive they are.
