Megan McArdle.

As James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds,” pointed out, when a large group acts as though a complicated problem is a no-brainer, that doesn’t mean the solution is obvious; it means something has gone badly wrong. The specific failure might be as banal as groupthink or as worrying as the possibility that some of the gushing endorsements were due less to deep conviction than fear of offending professional colleagues.

Either way, despite Romero’s accolade, the discussion of whether to prioritize essential workers was anything but robust. The committee left only 10 minutes for it, during which not one of those 14 intelligent and dedicated health professionals suggested adopting the plan that kills the fewest people. Nor did anyone run out of time to make that point. Ten minutes was actually a little too much for what turned out to be a pro forma opportunity to get on the record endorsing the plan, and particularly its emphasis on racial and economic equity in health care.

Political correctness trumps science.

Read it.

Hammer tech.

Read it.

The woke totalitarian mob has come for Professor Robert George at Princeton. The offense he committed was in the form of a poll question posed via Twitter.

 

ZMan is not impressed.

A popular aphorism on this side of the great divide is a line from the poet T. S. Eliot who wrote “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” Most of the time it is part of a general critique of the age, with regards to the human condition. Our betters, rather than face the reality of the human condition, concoct comfortable sounding fantasies to explain the inequality of man. The reason Johnny can’t read, for example, is because of some flaw in the schools, not the mating decisions of his ancestors.

Reality avoidance is a modern problem. In recent times it seems to have become something of a plague on society. Movies and television have shifted from fantastical tales of human achievement, like space travel, to comic book tales of god-like creatures saving the child-like humans from reality. Mainstream politics is one fantasy camp screaming at the other fantasy camp over their imaginary differences. The mass media makes fantasy literature look like a technical manual.

Read it.

What you need is an Exhale bladeless ceiling fan.

I have four.

Read it.

Back in the days before the Great Awokening, when our rulers would at least put up a logical pretense for why they had to screw us over, we were told immigration was necessary to prop up our old age retirement programs because American citizens weren’t having enough kids to support them on their own. In a world where social programs turn children into financial liabilities for all but the poorest Americans, it almost seems like anti-natalism isn’t an unintended consequence but rather the intention.

Privileged Oppressed People Say Silent Speech Is Peaceful Violence. Or Something

“Systemic Racism,” the Patriarchy, and Rushton’s Rule of Three., by John Derbyshire

Soccer Club Demands Fans Who Booed BLM Undergo Re-Education Courses Before Being Allowed Back

BBC Diversity Czar: ‘White Privilege’ is a Fact, You’re ‘Never Judged on Your Race’

Understanding Black Americans: Don’t ask liberals

Inside The Bayesian Priory

Massachusetts city to post climate change warning stickers at gas stations

EU Turns to Magic to Progress their Clean Energy Agenda

Girl Scouts Rebuke Boy Scouts in Escalating Recruitment War

Amazon Hires Lobbying Firm Connected To Biden’s Top White House Adviser

Bernie Sanders Dodges Jon Karl’s Question On Whether It Was ‘A Mistake’ To Turn Down Original Stimulus Proposal

Illegal Immigrants In Virginia Can Apply For Driver Privilege Cards Starting Jan. 1

A Student Mob Took Over Bryn Mawr. The College Said Thank You

Norway outlaws hate speech against trans people  “Hate speech” meaning anything that a possible victim construes as criticism.

California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M  Your tax dollars at work.

“Their Careers Are Over”: Cornell Student Reps Targeted For Opposing Efforts To Defund/Disarm Campus Cops

Seawriter: My Covid Adventure

The New COVID-19 Strain Is A Political Disaster Of Our Own Making

German Pilot Draws Giant ‘Sky Syringe’ As Vaccinations Begin

Fauci Predicts A Return To ‘Some Form Of Normality’ Next Fall  Or maybe the one after that….

Top US Health Officials Warn of Post-Holiday Virus Surge  Keep on panickin’.

2020: How COVID Was Used To Change The World Forever

Unsolved Murders On The Rise In 2020 Due To COVID-Related Challenges

Pandemic Changes More Than Where We Work and Live

The CDC’s failed race against covid-19: A threat underestimated and a test overcomplicated

MSNBC’s Cross: Trump Like ‘Ghetto’ Residents Who ‘Trash’ Their House!

‘Sh*t Happens’: Geraldo Rivera Rips Into ‘Entitled Frat Boy’ Trump Over Post-Election Behavior

Pat Toomey: Trump’s Legacy Will Be ‘Chaos And Misery And Erratic Behavior’ If He Doesn’t Sign COVID Bill I doubt that Trump listens to Pat Toomey.

Bernie Sanders Says ‘Pathologically Narcissistic’ Trump Should Sign Stimulus Bill As-Is, Negotiate $2,000 Later  I doubt that Trump listens to Bernie Sanders, either.

Frank Luntz: Republicans May Lose Senate ‘Because Of What The President Is Doing Right Now’  I think the last time Frank Luntz was right about something was during the Reagan administration.

Jake Tapper: Kayleigh McEnany ‘Lies The Way That Most People Breathe’

CNN Skips Presser With Hero Cops, Ops to Relive Their Trump Gripes

Jake Tapper Says Trump Scared A Lot Of His Colleagues Away From Reporting The Truth  I guess the truth doesn’t matter so much to them, then.

Read it.

The cells of all multicellular organisms rely on the organelles called mitochondria to make their biochemical fuel — all multicellular organisms except mistletoes, that is. Not only do their mitochondria produce little if any of this fuel, they’ve lost many of the genes needed to make it. In the few years since botanists discovered this anomaly, scientists worldwide have tried with no more than limited success to figure out how mistletoes pull off this trick.

Read it.

President-elect Joe Biden has a pony problem. During the primary, Joe Biden bizarrely responded to a woman who asked why voters should believe that he could win a national election by saying “You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.” That encounter came to mind when Biden this week mocked Fox reporter Peter Doocy, who violated the virtual news blackout on the Hunter Biden story. by asking about the scandal. Biden immediately walked off stage and then stopped and said “Yes, yes, yes. God love you, man — you’re a one-horse pony, I tell you.”

Read it.

fau•ci
/?fowCH?/

Noun

A lie intended to protect the image or status of the issuer of the lie usually by express or implied reference to credentials.
“when questioned about the costly failure of his program, Gov. Walz tossed a Fauci at his questioners by calling them unqualified to judge.”

Verb

To lie in order to evade accountability for previous lies.
“Gov. Cuomo faucied us about his handling of nursing home COVID cases.”

University of Michigan’s IT department suggests terms like ‘picnic’ and ‘brown bag’ are offensive

WashPost Warmly Welcomes Newest Radical to ‘The Squad,’ BLM Leader Cori Bush

Three Men Including Rapper Broke Into Florida Home And Sexually Assaulted Woman, Police Say

Exclusive: Donald Trump’s Martial-Law Talk Has Military on Red Alert (Newsweek) Which is obvious nonsense.

Military leaders are ‘conducting high-level talks amid fears Trump could invoke martial law’ (Daily Mail) Which is obvious nonsense.

CNN, MSNBC Let Cuomo Slam Trump on COVID, Skip Over Sex Harassment Claim

Trump’s border wall was a complete waste of time and money (Washington Post)

Guardian Gaslighting: Liberal Rag Denies Trump Fans Suffer in Hollywood

California Doctor Fired After Writing Letter Criticizing Lockdown Orders

Report: 15 Die Waiting In COVID-19 Testing Backlogs At South African Border

Report: Governors Angry at Congress, President for COVID Relief Stalemate  GIVE US FREE STUFF!

First Case Of Mutant Coronavirus Strain Detected In France

MSNBC-Backed Smear: ‘Nothing More American Than A Gaudy, Expensive Party That Kills People’

Moderna COVID Vaccine Swells Cosmetic Facial Fillers in Some

Miami Mayor Touts City to Lure Wall Street Firms

The War on Covid, by Audacious Epigone

‘New Normal’ Arrives – Singapore Airlines Launches COVID-19 “Digital Health Passport” For Passengers 

France Forced To Postpone “Health Dictatorship” Vaccine Legislation

Japan Issues Complete Ban On Non-Nationals Entry To Battle ‘Super COVID’ Strain

Scientists Scramble To Identify Culprit Behind Covid Vaccine Allergic Reactions

Study suggests great earthquakes as cause of Arctic warming

The other side of sea level change

Study: Dangerous Global Warming Could Occur by 2027  President Trump will handle it.

Read it.

In the United States, anyway, it is generally understood, though seldom mentioned in polite society, that the less distinguished one’s academic institution, the more likely one will insist upon the honorific “Dr.” And that’s for Ph.D. degrees. The degree of Ed.D.—officially a “doctor of education”—is, let’s be candid, more a certificate than a degree. Yes, one is entitled to the title “Dr.” But it’s only a short step, or half step, up from those entertainers and purveyors of boutique soaps who style themselves “Dr.” or “Doc”: “Dr. Bronner,” for example, or “Doc Watson.”

In this country, in most situations, “Dr.” is an honorific properly reserved for medical doctors. We understand that there are notable exceptions—“Dr. Henry A. Kissinger” comes to mind—but exceptions do not make the rule.

Read it.

Today, we look at some of the most outrageous celebrity quotes of 2020.

Read it.

A new study at the University of Chicago has shown that elaborate protein structures accumulate over deep time even when they serve no purpose, because a universal biochemical property and the genetic code force natural selection to preserve them.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

They can’t even give it a rest on Christmas.

Americans suffer at Christmas while Trump golfs and sows chaos  (CNN)

Trump gives America chaos for Christmas (Washington Post)

Op-Ed: It’s never too late to become a Democrat (Los Angeles Times)

The Trump appointee Biden needs to get rid of on day one

‘This Must Stop’: Detroit Launches Sanctions Campaign Against ‘Kraken’ Lawyers

Trump ‘Will Be The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’: Al Green Slams President’s Veto

New York can’t buy its way out of blackouts

Climate Scientists to Request Political Representation on the Arctic Council

CBS Frets Too Much E-MAILING Contributes to Global Warming

Sea-level rise from climate change could exceed the high-end projections, scientists warn  As they have for the last twenty years. Still waiting for land prices in Malibu to start dropping. Still waiting for NYC to be under water.

ICU Nurse Walks Out of Hospital After Eight-Month COVID Battle

A Very COVID Christmas: Visualizing The Pandemic’s Impact On Festive Spending

“Plague Island”: Media Uses Xenophobic Anti-British Cartoon To Depict COVID

New Study Suggests Asymptomatic COVID Patients Aren’t “Driver Of Transmission”

Leaked Docs Reveal How China’s ‘Army Of Paid Internet Trolls’ Helped Censor COVID-19

South Asian Group Targets Perdue for Mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ Name  I am not making this up.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Complains About Rudolph, The Misgendered Reindeer

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Slams GOP ‘Jerks’ After Rubio, McConnell Get Vaccine

BBC Publishes Cringe Guide For “Talking To Conspiracy Theorist Relatives” At Christmas

Victor Davis Hanson.

After Nov. 3, the meaning of some words and concepts abruptly changed. Have you noticed how new realities have replaced old ones?

Media cross-examination of the president is now an out-of-date idea. The time for gotcha questions has come and gone. Why ask a president whether he is a traitor or a crook when you can focus on his favorite flavor of milkshake or compliment him on his socks?

The old pre-election truth was that new vaccines take years to develop. The new postelection truth is that it’s no big deal to bring out new vaccines in nine months.

Impeaching a first-term president after his first midterm election—on a strictly partisan vote, for political reasons other than the Constitution’s “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”—is now a terrible idea.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Read it.

4. “Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out.

…

8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online.

…

13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find better recipes.

…

27. Discipline is superior to motivation. The former can be trained, the latter is fleeting. You won’t be able to accomplish great things if you’re only relying on motivation.

…

30. If you listen to successful people talk about their methods, remember that all the people who used the same methods and failed did not make videos about it.

Severian looks around.

We’re seeing the intersection of “information velocity” and “fantasies of competence.” It won’t end well.

Read it.

Eventually I’m going to get around to thinking through and writing up my view that while misguided Millennials lean heavily progressive at the moment, the next generation of young people is going to swing sharply to the right out of rebellion against the stifling conformity of the progressive left that went into hyperdrive this year. In part I’m taking in the lessons of M. Stanton Evans’s first book in 1961, The Revolt on Campus, which argued a similar point. It is quite striking how well that old book holds up and applies today.

Jonah Goldberg.

Taken literally, I endorse the phrase “listen to science” wholeheartedly. Scientists have important things to say to policymakers and citizens alike — and let’s not forget that in a democracy, voters are policymakers, too. A well-informed electorate is a useful check on ill-informed politicians.

The problem, however, is that the people who say “listen to science” tend not to mean it literally but figuratively, and worse, intermittently.

New Study Shows Islamist Violence Remains Top Terror Threat

NYT Retracts Hit Podcast ‘Caliphate’ After Determining Alleged ISIS Executioner ‘Concocted’ His Entire Story

Nigerian Schoolboys Rescued Days After Being Kidnapped

Court Acquits Muslim Men Accused Of Parading Naked Elderly Christian Woman Through Streets

Greece Arrests 2 Alleged Turkish Spies After They Surveilled Naval Bases

US Embassy Comes Under Rocket Attack In Baghdad, Anti-Missile Defenses Active

UK Finally Acknowledges the Obvious

I Am Not an Apostate From Islam, I Am a Free French Citizen!

For Want of a Shoe

Another Junk Currency, the Iraqi Dinar, Bites the Dust

Former Olympic Boxer Kabary Salem Accused Of Murdering His 25-Year-Old Daughter

Israel-Morocco Pact Brings Western Sahara Dispute Back Into Focus

Israeli Submarine ‘Openly’ Crosses Suez Canal Toward Persian Gulf As Iran Tensions Soar

Switzerland: Honor Violence Against a Gay Son

Your Infidel Christmas Insults Allah!

REPORT: Police Say Migrants In Bosnia Set Fire To Tents, Looted Equipment After They Were Kicked Out Off Refugee Camp

Bringing It All Back Home

Court Orders Release of Man Charged in Daniel Pearl Killing

Outrage After Pakistani Court Releases Convicted Murderer Of Journalist Daniel Pearl

This Week in Racism: Tiki Bars

Fired Googler says she was told heavy Baltimore accent a “disability”

‘Open Or Go Bankrupt’: Gym Re-Opens In Defiance Of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Partial Lockdown

REPORT: COVID-19 Patient Beats Roommate To Death For Praying

‘Gym Owners Are Feeling Left Out’: California Yoga Studio Owner On Small Businesses During Lockdowns

18-Year-Old American Girl Jailed For “Selfish & Arrogant” Breach Of COVID Curfew In Cayman Islands

Judge Upholds Maryland County’s Indoor Dining Ban

WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website

‘The High Priest Of The COVID Cult’: Tucker Carlson Pans DC Mayor’s ‘Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Day’ Declaration

We’re Being Told South Africa’s “Scary” Mutant COVID Is Even More Dangerous Than The UK’s “Super COVID”

‘I’m Their Meal Ticket’: California Councilman Is Keeping His Outdoor Dining Open To Help Employees Despite Ban

1000s Of Trucks Still Stranded In UK As French COVID-Testing Rules Spark “Chaos”

REPORT: Fauci Admits He Lied Because ‘Country Wasn’t Ready’ To Hear The Truth

Nigeria Sees Emergence Of Possible New COVID-19 Mutation

Dr. Fauci, Straussian

NYC’s Oldest Restaurant Survived The American Revolution And A Bombing. Its Owner Says Cuomo’s COVID Restrictions Could Be Its Downfall  I have eaten at the Fraunces Tavern. It’s loss would be a tragedy.

Did Fauci Just Admit He Lied About Herd Immunity To Trick Americans Into Vaccine?  Does that surprise you?

The CDC’s Affirmative Action Eugenics for the Coronavirus Vaccine

Restaurants That Refused To Shut Down After Gov. Tom Wolf’s Indoor Dining Ban Lose Lawsuit

Chris Cuomo Says Biden Should Use Inauguration To Publicly Shame Trump

Trump may be fading faster than you think (Washington Post) Or maybe not.

Pence Should Remove Trump From Office on Sunday (New York Magazine)

WORST OF 2020: The Media’s Trump Derangement Syndrome

China’s Green NGO Climate Propaganda Enablers

Biden Expected to Lean on States in Fight on Climate Change

British Government Contracts Firms To Make COVID “Freedom Passports”

The ‘Squad’ Managed To Tank Democratic House Races — And Gain Influence

While Congress Squabbles over $2k, They Packed the Stimulus Bill with Pork

CNN: Amend Constitution To Prevent Trump Or Anyone Like Him Having Power Again

Read it.

Florida shows us all what basic competent state government looks like. The extreme lack of competence in New York is simply shocking.

Read it.

Georgi Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff has come under fire for refusing to disclose details about his personal finances and investments, including media deals he made with state-owned news outlets in Qatar and China.

The 33-year-old trust fund Democrat is facing GOP Sen. David Perdue in one of two crucial Peach State races which will decide whether Democrats control the upper chamber of Congress, as the New York Post reports.

Read it.

It would appear that the police are defunding themselves.

Read it.

The chairman of China’s Yoozoo Group Lin Qi, an executive producer on Netflix’s upcoming high-profile sci-fi adaption “The Three-Body Problem,” is currently hospitalized in Shanghai after what a police report indicated Wednesday may be a deliberate poisoning carried out by a colleague involved in managing that IP.

The Other McCain.

t is arguably racist to invoke the “dindu nuffin” meme here, but because Raphael Warnock is a Democrat running for Senate, any criticism of him is therefore automatically racist, so it doesn’t matter.

Read it.

A bevy of Wall Street executives, bankers and fund managers are abandoning New York for Florida, embracing the Sunshine State over metropolitan New York as the coronavirus pandemic has eliminated many benefits of working from a global financial hub.

Since legions of finance industry employees began working from home in March, Florida’s warm weather, low taxes, affordable space and quick, easy flights back to New York, when needed, have elevated its status.

Read it.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has been celebrated in American media as a socialist dreamboat, often compared in progressive sex appeal to our own Barack Obama. This broke out again (to conservative mockery on Twitter) when Politico reviewed the year in Canada with a reflection on how Trudeau’s beard was capital-S “Significant.

Another Affirmative Action Fake,

New “Squad”-Member Jamaal Bowman Says Capitalism Is “Slavery By Another Name”

Va. Judge Rules Black Defendant Can’t Get a Fair Trial in Courtroom Largely Featuring Portraits of White Judges,

PBS’s Alcindor: ‘Large Majority’ of Trump Fans Fear the ‘Browning of America’

Detroit Sues Black Lives Matter Members, Says They Endangered ‘Lives Of Police And The Public’

REPORT: Employee Kicked, Punched, And Has Her Necklace Stolen After Facemask Dispute

Biden Wants To Pick Boston Mayor Marty Walsh For Labor Secretary, But Is ‘Concerned’ About Him Being White: Report

George Floyd mural at closed Portland Apple Store will be preserved and donated

Racist Sharpton Claims the ‘White Church’ Is ‘Sinning’ for Not Teaching Critical Race Theory

Nevada Family Sues Charter School Over Allegedly Racist Curriculum

Rich Americans Scramble To Move Money Ahead Of Biden Tax Hikes

Cuomo Enacts Automatic Voter Registration To Ease New York Voter Sign Up  Automating future vote fraud.

Losing Democratic Candidate Who Is Asking House To Intervene In Election Was On Chinese Payrolls, Financial Disclosures Show

Omar, Tlaib and AOC Demand Facebook Remove 100% of ‘Anti-Muslim Content’

The Top ‘Owners’ Of America’s President-Elect Joe Biden

Google Warned Scientists About Disclosing AI Research on Race, Gender, Facial Analysis

Gavin Newsom Appoints First Latino California Senator, Gets Slammed For Reducing Black Women ‘From One To Zero’  Except that Jumbalaya Harris isn’t black.

New Jersey Challenges New York Tax on Residents Working Remotely

Spotify Employee Accused of Deleting Joe Rogan’s Alex Jones Interview

Miracle: Government Feeds Five People With Just 2.3 Trillion Loaves And Fishes  Babylon Bee.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio Says Police Will Visit UK Travelers To Confirm They’re Quarantining

Blackburn: House Democrats Used Stimulus Bill as ‘Pathway to Socialism’

REPORT: Cops Quitting At ‘Unprecedented’ Numbers In Portland

NJ Joins New Hampshire in Commuter Income Tax Case