One More Bit Related to Charlottesville

Posted on 20 August 2017 by eehines

…and the attack on Southern heritage (according to some, who have nothing to do with any hate group) or on symbols of slavery and oppression (according to some others, who also have nothing to do with any hate group). This one is by Steven Hayward of Powerline:

So we seem to be on our way to tearing down every statue related to the Democratic Party’s largest achievement in American history—the Confederate States of America. Funny how the Confederate battle flag, and now statues, didn’t start to come down until Republicans became ascendant in southern states. Democrats who had a monopoly grip on the South for decades had lots of time to take these steps, but didn’t. You’d almost think they were opportunists.

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The Communist Worker’s Paradise

Posted on 19 August 2017 by eehines

Here’s an example, People’s Republic of China style. Including the fact that gender discrimination in the workplace is illegal in the PRC, while its governments at all levels blithely ignore those laws.

[A]bout 22% of women have experienced severe or very severe discrimination when seeking employment, according to Zhaopin Ltd, an online recruiter. … That percentage rose to about 43% for women with graduate degrees.

And

A trawl through job listings on Boss Zhipin, the recruitment site, showed some tech companies state explicitly that positions are just for men.

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Obamacare and Drug Abuse

Posted on 18 August 2017 by eehines

From a Wall Street Journal op-ed, come a couple of very telling statistics regarding the opioid addiction epidemic.

…overdose deaths per million residents rose twice as fast in the 29 Medicaid expansion states—those that increased eligibility to 138% from 100% of the poverty line—than in the 21 non-expansion states between 2013 and 2015.

And

There were also marked disparities between neighboring states based on whether they opted into ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. Deaths increased twice as much in New Hampshire (108%) and Maryland (44%)—expansion states—than in Maine (55%) and Virginia (22%). Drug fatalities shot up by 41% in Ohio while climbing 3% in non-expansion Wisconsin.

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The Racist Double Standard

Posted on 18 August 2017 by eehines

The NLMSM and the Left, and too many virtue signaling Republicans are decrying President Donald Trump for his castigation of both sides for the violence inflicted during the Charlottesville protest riots last weekend. The image below, though, gives the lie to that false crying and that demand to call out only the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Nazi wannabes for their part in the violence.

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Quotas

Posted on 17 August 2017 by eehines

German businesses better add women to their governances. Or else Germany’s Großer Bruder will do it for them. Regardless of qualification.

Big German companies need to put more women on their executive boards, said Germany’s Women’s Affairs Minister Katarina Barley. The official threatened legal measures if the firms fail to fix the problem within the year.

Bad idea.

Quotas just stigmatize those who got in via quota, whether they were truly qualified for the position or not. And those who are not, and so fail, only strengthen the stigma. Quotas are especially damaging to black women. My GP was contemptuously treated as a twofer in med school because she allegedly filled two squares: she’s a woman, and she’s black. It stinks.

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The Moral Relativism of the Left

Posted on 17 August 2017 by eehines

It doesn’t matter whether the Left is our own gang or Germany’s—they carefully are insisting that their hate groups are legitimate while those claiming to be on the right are terrible. And they distort the facts while they’re about it, so lost in their own bigotry are they.

This cynical distortion is from Deutsche Welle (the author of the piece didn’t have the courage to sign his name to it, as do other authors of DW articles):

In his comments, Trump also appeared to show sympathy for the white nationalists’ efforts to preserve Confederate monuments—the issue that had started the confrontations, as a monument depicting Civil War General Robert E Lee was being removed in Charlottesville.

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Bogus Beef

Posted on 16 August 2017 by eehines

Congressmen don’t pay their interns. Who knew?

At least 174 of the 184 lawmakers who support legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour do not pay their interns, according to a recent Employment Policies Institute analysis.

It’s a bogus beef, though. Folks employed in minimum wage jobs are low-skill workers doing low-value work, and they’re doing it to build general work experience and ethic, to earn summer spending money, to earn money for college, to build a resume, to supplement an existing family income.

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Why am I not Surprised?

Posted on 16 August 2017 by eehines

The International Institute for Security Studies has the story.

North Korea’s missile programme has made astounding strides over the past two years. An arsenal that had been based on short- and medium-range missiles along with an intermediate-range Musudan that repeatedly failed flight tests, has suddenly been supplemented by two new missiles: the intermediate-range Hwasong-12 and the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Hwasong-14. No other country has transitioned from a medium-range capability to an ICBM in such a short time. What explains this rapid progression? The answer is simple. North Korea has acquired a high-performance liquid-propellant engine (LPE) from a foreign source.

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We’ll See

Posted on 15 August 2017 by eehines

In an unprecedented move against North Korea, China on Monday issued an order to carry out the United Nations sanctions imposed on the rogue regime earlier this month.

Of course, in the days immediately following the first meeting between President Donald Trump and the People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping, just after Trump’s inauguration, the PRC acted like it was going to start honoring then-existing sanctions against northern Korea.

That turned out to be just an act. Is the present “order” serious, or is it just another empty gesture?

We’ll see, indeed.

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Right Idea, Wrong Target

Posted on 15 August 2017 by eehines

Charlottesville, VA, Mayor Mike Signer (D):

I’m not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

True enough; that is where last weekend’s sorry events began. The identity politics of the last eight years by the White House of ex-President Barack Obama (D) and by his mentee, Democratic Party White House hopeful Hillary Clinton, and those associated with the two created the conditions that caused the rioting in Charlottesville last Friday and Saturday.

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