The WHAT boy's NBA?

I missed this story when it first came out, but today on FoxNews, Peter Thiel, the billionaire entrepreneur who founded PayPal and financed Facebook, has been appealing to entrepreneurial college students to put their college plans on hold to start businesses. He's offering $100K to 20 students with workable ideas to put those plans into practice, setting aside their college plans for two years.

This led me to a Slate article by Jacob Weisberg, which - in addition to misreporting Theil's intent - tosses in a bit of racism that has apparently gone overlooked in the media, who, as twisted as they are, don't even see their hypocrisy.

Thiel's program is premised on the idea that America suffers from a deficiency of entrepreneurship. In fact, we may be on the verge of the opposite, a world in which too many weak ideas find funding and every kid dreams of being the next Mark Zuckerberg. This threatens to turn the risk-taking startup model into a white boy's version of the NBA, diverting a generation of young people from the love of knowledge for its own sake and respect for middle-class values.

(emphasis added)

Say WHAT? First of all, there is no "non-white boy's" version of the NBA. It's integrated, which for Weisberg's benefit means "anybody with ability can play." Nor is there any racial or gender-based component whatsoever in Thiel's proposal. Weisberg begins with the completely racist bias that presumes that when we're talking about good ideas for the marketplace, these will come from white males. Weisberg's assumption is despicable, as is his attitude and his inaccurate article.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Weisberg plays the race card at every possible opportunity. He played it in the 2008 elections (and was proven wrong); he plays it against the Tea Party; he plays it even here where it's completely inappropriate. He uses race as a weapon of first resort and has the nerve to whine like a baby when someone notices. If nothing else, his writing teaches us that if he points his finger hard enough at others it's OK for him to be a bigot on his own time.

Discounting his cheap ad hominem attacks, Weisberg takes Thiel to task for nothing more than having consistent values and putting his efforts behind them, unlike the typical Conservative Republican ("hands out of my pocketbook, but I'll legislate your lifestyle") or Liberal Democrat ("give me your wallet, and I'll pay lip-service to staying out of your private life so long as you live it the way I think you should.").

From Thiel's own lips, the request is to defer university for two years, something ignored by Weisberg. The offer is extended to 20 students who are 20 years old or younger.  The reason for the offer is clear: Thiel does not confuse a degree with intelligence. If you have an idea and you have it now, this allows you to take that idea to market with a lowered barrier to entry. It doesn't matter who or where the idea is from.

Furthermore, Weisberg accuses Thiel of

"...the desire to clone oneself—perhaps literally in Thiel's case. Thus Thiel fellows will have the opportunity to emulate their sponsor by halting their intellectual development around the onset of adulthood, maintaining a narrow-minded focus on getting rich as young as possible, and thereby avoid the siren lure of helping others or contributing to the advances in basic science that have made the great tech fortunes possible."

Pot, meet Kettle. Weisberg believes that it's OK for liberal educators to clone themselves ... that's contributing to "intellectual development" when done in a university setting by academicians... but it's not OK for anyone else to do that, because any learning or development obtained from anyone except people just like you is "halting their intellectual development." Also he clearly indicates that taking an advance to market and actually earning a tech fortune does not make "the great tech fortunes possible." Note also his opinion that starting a company and providing jobs, products, and services isn't "helping others."

Wow... racism, sexism, hypocrisy, and ignorance, all in one Weisberg article!

Unfortunately, Weisberg doesn't stop there. You have here the added assumption that you actually need a university education to develop intellectually, with the implication that you cannot make anything of yourself without it. Not doing as he does is a diversion from "middle-class values".  This is the sort of sort of dumbshit Newspeak snow-job that has been perpetrated by the people whose job it is to sell these educations. Be clear: it is not the job of a university to educate... it is the job of a university to sell education. That is how they earn their salaries; it's how they buy groceries; it's how they pay the rent. It is in their vested interest to convince you that you should spend thirty thousand dollars for a French Literature degree so you can settle for a job at the video store (because God knows there's a burning need for French Lit majors) rather than continue your father's plumbing business and earn $60+ per hour. Meanwhile the French Lit major forks over half a day's wages when he needs his drain unclogged.

Entrepreneurial spirit and innovation isn't limited to Internet billionaires... they are firmly rooted "middle-class values" shared by the plumber, carpenter, electrician, hardware-store owner, grocer... etc. IOW, these values are shared by the actual middle-class, who own businesses and employ people and make it possible to live civilized lives; if not by Weisberg's imaginary middle-class populated entirely by academicians, journalists, and theoretical scientists. The point here is that these pseudo-intellectual Leftists have made a career of belittling people who have simply chosen to take their lives in a direction that the Leftists themselves would not have chosen. This is the basic lie behind the Leftist ideal of "personal freedom"... your freedom of choice is tolerated only so long as it is the "right" choice, as decided by your betters.

Here are a few news flashes, folks, in list form:

1. You don't have to be a white male to have a good idea.
2. You don't have to be a white male to start a company.
3. A university education should undertaken if it gets you to your goal. It is not a necessary requirement for acceptance and self-worth. If obtaining the degree does nothing to further your goal, then you should waste neither the money nor the time. Instead, you should apply it toward starting your business or even paying your rent. You should not be made to feel guilty about that.
4. Your "intellectual development" does not halt should you choose to do something other than buy a university education.
5. Thiel's foundation is designed to shepherd 20 young entrepreneurs over a two year period. It is not an appeal for mass exodus from college campuses.

Thiel has spent his time creating wealth and creating jobs through the practical application in the marketplace of excellent ideas; he is a successful entrepreneur who has expressed an interest in bettering society by providing opportunities to people who would otherwise see those opportunities pass by. Some people will avail themselves of these opportunities. That is their choice. They don't need to be lectured by the likes of Weisberg... one more hypocritical Left-wing elitist, racist, sexist windbag.


(Lest you think I'm lobbing this in from the far Right... think again. There's plenty of hypocritical nonsense on that side as well. But today I'm talking about Weisberg. And if you want to be a French Lit major... more power to you. I used it only as an example of people who attended college for no purpose other than obtaining a credential.)

Never Forget

Quack medical device ads make me sick

It must be the season for quack medicine ads.

Once again I've seen a never-ending parade of ads for i-Renew bracelets. I don't think I can add much to what Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal says about them, except to say this about the i-Renew "balance demonstrations": I got exactly the same results from people by having them hold an astounding new breakthrough "iridium amulet". In actuality the "amulet" was an arcade token in a velvet bag. People will fall for anything with the right pitch and a little applied leverage.

Remember Q-Ray bracelets? Same scam, different pitch. They're still around, sold for unbelievable prices, but they've toned down the marketing since they had to hand back $64.5 million in refunds and $22.5 million in net profits for false advertising. There's a superficially identical product out there called the Balance Bracelet.

The new kid on the block is the Power Balance bracelet. This one's not even trying to be credible. It's a little plastic bracelet with a cheap hologram embedded in it. The pitch?

WHAT IS POWER BALANCE?
Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.

HOW DOES THE HOLOGRAM WORK?
Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.

Yes, they've managed to put "energy fields" and "technology" and Eastern philosophy in the same pitch, with holograms standing in as a cheap technological substitute for crystals. The bottom line on how it works is, ancient Chinese secret. Because, of course, we all know the legendary efficacy of ancient Chinese holograms. And it's important for us to know that it's founded by athletes because who else would know more about holograms and "energy fields" than jocks who want your money?

Does it work at all? Sure, placebos give some people the confidence they need to perform at the very same level they could have performed at with confidence alone and no bracelet. These work to exactly that degree. If they work to any further extent, then it is the responsibility of the peddlers to demonstrate, through scientific testing, that they do. Testimonials mean exactly nothing.

Keep in mind please, that the hologram diffracts visible light frequencies, and faces away from the body, blocked by the plastic bracelet in which it's embedded. Also keep in mind that I've personally demonstrated similar, if not identical, results using nothing more than a brass token in a bag and some not-very-fancy confidence patter. Be it with magnetism, "ionization", holography, or just plain magic, all of these products claim to do the same thing... they all "manipulate the body's natural energy field". Obviously this "energy field" is a highly malleable thing, to be affected by so many disparate influences. I think it's pretty clear that the only influence that matters is wishful thinking.

Oy veh. These are just the bracelets. I could rant all day on the bottles in the pharmacy, plainly labeled as follows:

"These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease"

Even though they're marketed for precisely those purposes. In fact, I think I will rant all day. Another day.

The Left Flunks Econ 101

The Wall Street Journal has published an article by Daniel Klein, who is co-author of a survey of economics. The results of that survey are astoundingly clear, though not surprising at all to those of us who are conservative Libertarians.

First, the links:

The Wall Street Journal Article.
The author's abstract at Economics Journal Watch.
The PDF of the actual report, including links to the raw data and the survey form itself.

The conclusion is unequivocal: the Left doesn't understand economics. They just. don't. get. it. This isn't just suggested by the data, or implied... the gap in their understanding is deep and wide. Even though the respondents were given every possible break -- "not sure" answers were counted the same as correct ones -- Progressives and Liberals got more than 60% of the questions wrong, on the average.

The text of the PDF clearly discusses the results, as well as caveats in the methodology, but some of what interested me were the results listed in an off-hand way in tables at the end of the report. For instance, out of 8 questions, on the average,

• Obama voters got 4.61 wrong. Only Nader and McKinney voters scored worse. It was no surprise to me that Obama was chosen by people who have a poor understanding of economics. I think he's seriously challenged in that respect himself. People in the know voted "No."
  
• Democrats got 4.59 wrong. Only the Green party scored worse. Libertarians and Republicans scored best, with 1.29 and 1.61 questions wrong, respectively.
• African Americans scored worse than any other ethnic group, with 4.26 questions wrong on the average. I didn't find this surprising, not because of their race, but because Blacks overwhelmingly tend to be Democrats. I believe the score was bolstered by those Blacks who aren't Democrats. By the way, Asians scored best.
  
• Athiests and Protestants scored best of the various religions identified, with 1.91 and 2.4 questions wrong, respectively. "Other/No Affiliation" (i.e. people who are spiritual but non-denominational) scored the worst by far, with 4.09 questions wrong. I don't find this surprising at all... I think it's self-evident that the amorphous "touchy-feelies" aren't very well connected to reality to start with.
  
• Of the Protestants, Born-again Christians tended to score better than those who were not born-again (2.03 to 2.72 questions wrong)
• People who go to church scored better. This is a direct correlation... the more often you attend church, the more likely you are to be economically enlightened.
• Married people score best of the various marital statuses (2.72 questions wrong). This applies only to traditional marriages: people in "civil unions" or "domestic partnerships" scored worst by a large margin (4.05 questions wrong)
• People who identified themselves as residents of "America" scored best (2.25 questions wrong), while those who identified themselves as residents of "The Planet Earth" scored worst by a large margin (4.59 questions wrong).
• Families with members of the Armed Forces score better (2.68 vs. 3.06 questions wrong).
• NASCAR fans score better than those who aren't (2.43 vs 3.06 questions wrong) Perhaps this puts to lie the stereotype of the NASCAR fans as a bunch of drooling hicks... keep in mind that those stereotypes are propagated by people who don't know as much about economics themselves!
• People who frequently shop at Wal-Mart scored much better than those who never do (2.24 to 4.24 questions wrong, respectively). This isn't much of a surprise to me... the snoots who won't shop there aren't likely to know a thing about saving a buck. It's pretty clear that the people who shop there aren't stupid about economics... but their detractors may be.
• Households with union members score worse. Duh. We hate unions here in the South. Maybe that has to do with us being NASCAR-lovin' churchgoers who respect the military. Or maybe we just recognize it when a group is trying to subvert economic realities to their own benefit, and we don't like the injustice of it.
  
• In direct proportion, the results are correlated to income. The less you make, the less you're likely to know about economics. Again, not surprising.
  

Keep in mind that all of these results are true for the people who are likely to respond to the survey. The authors surmise that this self-selection may skew respondents to the higher end of the IQ scale. One might conclude that these results come from the smartest of those people polled. That thought should scare you to death if you're a Democrat.

For what it's worth, I personally am a Libertarian Protestant who voted for McCain. I am traditionally married; an ex-USAF staff-sergeant who frequently shops at Wal-Mart, likes NASCAR, and makes a decent living. By all rights, I should have scored 100%... and I did.

Warnings on the Constitution? Give me a BREAK!

As reported by FoxNews, Wilder Publications believes it's necessary to put a disclaimer on the founding documents of this country, including the Constitution of the United States, the Federalist Papers, and the Articles of Confederation (precursor to the Constitution).

Wilder apparently believe that these documents are in danger of being pulled from library shelves because they may be offensive to some readers. So in order to forestall a perceived potential offense among a hypersensitive minority, they have decided to guarantee the offense of the mainstream public. Astounding.

The disclaimer reads as follows:

"This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work."

In an interview with FoxNews' Trace Gallagher, Wilder company spokesperson Warren Lapine indicated that the company had received repeated complaints about the values expressed in the documents and had written the disclaim simply so that they didn't have to keep explaining that values differed 200 years ago.

I'm not buyin' that sad, ignorant argument. These documents are the basis of every freedom we have. They are the only authority under which any of our elected or appointed officials are empowered to act. If we live in a better world than our ancestors did, it is purely because of the values that they codified in these specific documents. There is no reason whatsoever that parents should sit down with their children for a political correctness indoctrination session before allowing these documents to be read.

A disclaimer, BTW, is intended to defend against legal liability. These documents ARE the law. Not only are they the law, they are, by every definition, above any law created under their authority. The disclaimer is therefore absolutely worthless from a legal standpoint; its only arguable worth being its propaganda value. Perhaps Wilder simply thought the country was more politically numb than it is.

Sadly, from long experience I have come to recognize that these forms of "trial balloons" when sent up by the Far Left, are positive indicators of the tactics that they will bring to the mainstream 20 to 30 years from now. To that end they confuse - deliberately or not - the prevailing morals of the day with the ideals expressed in the Constitution by these same men in their attempt to build a future better than their present. Expect to see more of this argument, that the founding fathers' views were somehow offensive; and especially expect to see it couched in the assertions that "everybody knows" this to be true. This gradual re-definition of mainstream opinion through bold assertion and repetition has been their modus operandi for decades. Don't let them do it to the Constitution.

In the meantime, my own response is to boycott Wilder Publications. I've seen blogs argue that they shouldn't be punished for simply pointing out the misogyny and racism of our founding fathers. These people miss the point, which is that Wilder should face the economic consequences of suggesting to their readership that free and unfettered access to these documents should be restricted to only those who have somehow been properly prepared for them. THAT'S the offensive portion of this disclaimer. This is a government of the PEOPLE... no portion of the governmental process should be walled off from the citizens of this country, and don't you ever, ever forget it.

Let Wilder remain a small publisher or go out of business. Should you wish to add your voice to those reviewing Wilder's publication of these documents on Amazon.com, here's the link.

Vincent and the Doctor

I'd have reviewed this episode of Doctor Who, but Den of Geek has done it already and said everything I would have.

Here's the Review.

I will say this... BRAVO, Tony Curran. And BRAVO, Bill Nighy.

BTW, if you know nothing about The Doctor, you're culturally deprived. Here's a primer.

World Lupus Day (UPDATED)

Jules Sherred would like you to know that she has lupus. But more than that, she'd like you to be aware of what Lupus is and what it does to the people who have it. So much so that she's started a virtual gallery to bring awareness to lupus.

Those of you who know me know that I don't jump headfirst into every cause... I pick my battles with care. And I'm picking this one. Not only is Jules a good friend, but my sister also has lupus. And it's a nasty, painful, persistent thing. So I'm going to ask you to follow the links above, educate yourself a little about lupus, and maybe get involved in some of the very neat projects that Jules and friends have planned for the event.

Even if you don't take part in the event, you'll have learned something new, and that's always a very cool thing. Do it, please.

UPDATE:
Y'know, I've decided that just spreading awareness isn't good enough. I want to do something tangible. So here's my project for World Lupus Day. I mentioned above that my sister has lupus. So she's getting some "get out of chores free" cards that she can use on a day when she's just really not feeling up to it. Here's a copy of the card, in case you want to use it to help out your own friends with lupus. Click on the card to make it bigger and print a copy (I made it fit on a 3x5 card at 300dpi, but you may need to scale it
Click on the card to make it bigger and print a copy (I made it fit on a 3x5 card at 300 dpi, but you may need to scale it to your printer. The ones I printed have my name and phone number on them, but I've replaced that with lines here so you can write in your own. If you want to edit the card, then here's a link to the original graphics. You'll need the GIMP to edit it. (don't worry, it's free).