Don't wait until everything is just right.
It will never be perfect.
There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions.
So what.
Get started now.
With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger,
more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.
Mark Victor Hansen
Earlier One-Off Post: Ben Carson? A Mixed Review
Tweet of the Day
When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.- Lyn Yutang. RE: @realDonaldTrump, Election 2016, & the GOP
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 8, 2015
Highways and bridges should be funded by user fees, the Fed should not monetize the debt, and no subsidies to banks. https://t.co/CcUL852QLR
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 8, 2015
A Keynesian government stimulus is, pure and simple, a self-serving, self-righteous rationale to bribe voters and reward special interests.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 8, 2015
Given aging developed nations below a TFR of 2.1, ECONOMIC GROWTH, not State reproduction policies, is the answer. https://t.co/mEsCj6b5R9
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 8, 2015
George Will's next book should be called Killing Bill O'Reilly's Reputation. Hack? The writer of formulaic Killing X.https://t.co/lDN19UT1Wq
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) November 9, 2015
Image of the Day
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| son to his mom after learning of his dad's adultery |
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| LMAO |
[See We Are Capitalist's FB post for references.]
Today, we put to rest the myth of socialistic paradise, Denmark. At the end, we'll consider the real reason Danish people are happy.
To start, we can see that this includes a selection bias (cherry picking) - Denmark is just one data point. Do variables, such as free healthcare and tuition, continue to correlate with happiness when considering other countries? The answer is no.
A quick check of countries with free healthcare and college tuition shows that most of them fall below the United States in happiness, which is at (17) in the world. Just a few examples of these more-subsidized but less-happy nations include France (25), Germany (26), Italy (45), Poland (51), Russia (68), Greece (70), and Pakistan (81).
There should also be some caveats around these "free" programs. The first is that these are paid by the citizens through taxes. The cost of taxes shouldn't be omitted.
The model is also falling apart in places like Denmark. Subsidized programs required bottom-heavy populations (more workers and fewer retirees). In Denmark, the birth rate is now an "epidemic" at just 1.7 per family, below the 2.1 needed in order to maintain the population. The county is becoming more top-heavy, forcing it to reduce the benefits in the meme. For example, there are now admissions requirements for free childcare since there aren't enough spaces for everyone.
The bottom two are also factually incorrect. The claim Denmark has a $20 minimum wage is laughable. PolitiFact debunked this, "There is actually no minimum wage in Denmark ... unions and employer associations negotiate minimum wages...the Danish "minimum wage" of $20 or $21 is actually an average of all minimum wages across a variety of sectors. That means many Danish workers will be working in companies or industries that have a "minimum wage" lower than $20 or $21. And that undercuts the notion of a "minimum wage," which is supposed to be a floor for wages." Also, Denmark has an official workweek of 37 hours per week, not 33. This number is closer to the 40 hour workweek in the United States.
So why are the Danish happy? It can be probably explained by genetics. The closer people are genetically to the Danish, the happier they are. This is a statistically valid argument (unlike those of the meme) since it adjusts for Gross Domestic Product, culture, religion and the strength of the welfare state and geography. The trend even holds for ethnically-related people in the United States.
Now we know. Spread the facts next time someone suggests we should adopt the Danish policies.O'Reilly v. Will on "Killing Reagan": Will Wins....
George Will is the best columnist and commentator in America. He's one of 3 reasons to pay attention to Fox, the other two being Stossel and Napolitano. He is also seriously pissed at O'Reilly for writing a biography that pays lip service to Reagan's Presidency but basically suggests that Reagan increasingly was barely functional after the attempt on his life, spending days watching television. I read a number of posts including Meese's before writing this brief blurb. I myself have not read O'Reilly's book and will reserve my final judgment, but there are a lot of red flags. I have written journal articles and book chapters that have more footnotes than this book; he and his researcher did not register at the Reagan library with original records; they did not interview Reagan's key staffers (they excuse this, suggesting the staffers are biased, but make much of a retracted memo, largely based on unvetted rumors from disgruntled ex-staffers of fired Chief of Staff Donald Regan. I've read meticulous biographies that have taken years to write, and yet O'Reilly and his partner seem to crank out the latest Killing X book at a pace of one a year.
The clip below is epic; O'Reilly spends the first couple of minutes bitching that Will didn't call him before publishing his piece and continues to rant that the book had some nice things to say about Reagan (which Will acknowledges in his piece...)
Political Humor: Trump's Monologue
Guest Post Comment: Politico: Carson didn't even apply for admission to West Point
As I've written elsewhere, he was in need of a better editor. I have no doubt that he would have gotten a nomination--and likely an appointment--but the military academies at the time had no med school options, and he would have had a post-graduation multi-year commitment, deferring his med school opportunities. But he never said or implied that he had applied or had been nominated. At some point he became aware of the military commitment associated with an appointment. The most likely explanation is that he was encouraged to apply and told his chances at an appointment were excellent. But only a small percentage of nominations are accepted, appointments are made in May and are not unsolicited.
Sometimes we tend to simplify things in communicating to our audience. For example, while I was on the UWM faculty, I was informally approached by a faculty recruiter for the technical communication program of a PAC-10 university about an unlisted faculty position and encouraged to apply. (I decided to remain in my MIS discipline.) It's one of those little face-saving dances; technically, the university never made me a formal offer; in fact, I never set foot on the campus. But it was unsolicited, and they all but told me the job was mine if I wanted it. So in discussing this with others, I might say that the university offered me a job. Technically if someone fact-checked me, the university would probably say that they never made me an offer, and that would be accurate.
I don't think turning down a hard-to-come-by military academy appointment (maybe 1 in 8 candidates is accepted), worth up to $400K in today's economy, is something you say to puff up your resume; the fact of the matter is that he won admission to a well-respected Ivy League school, which has something like a 6% admission rate. He had nothing to gain by bringing up the military academies.I got flamed in response. My edited response follows:
Some ignorant boob without any real knowledge of the subject, not mentioning names but the post in question time stamped at 2:32 am. There was at the time a definite Medical School option. The higher up in the class that you graduated, the better your choice of assignment. There was ability to go to medical, dental and law school, straight out of The Academy. All that was required (besides acceptance into a medical school, a simple task given ones class rank and the backing of the USG/USA) was a commitment for another four years (at that time, I think it changed to 5 a couple years later. As in 4 will get you five, or vice versa depending on viewpoint.
This is from West Point (note that I specifically fact-checked this source before publishing my comment; link follows):
"Since the medical school program was introduced for the Class of 1979, ten to twenty members of each class have proceeded directly to various medical schools. A number of these have attended the Department of Defense Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USUHS)."
For the record, Carson earned his bachelors in 1973.
http://www.usma.edu/chemistry/sitepages/medical%20school%20option.aspxPolitical Cartoon
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| Courtesy of the original artist via IPI |
Aretha Franklin, "Call Me"
Negative and Positive Rights
Positive Rights vs. Negative Rights
What are the differences between positive and negative rights? This #LearnLibertyClassic explains how they differ and how they interact with one another.
Posted by Learn Liberty on Sunday, November 8, 2015
Political Humor
What a Donald J. Trump presidency would actually look like, courtesy of Saturday Night Live.
Posted by National Review on Sunday, November 8, 2015
Trade Improves Our Standard of Living
Foreigners Are Our Friends | Econ Chronicles
How is foreign trade like innovative technology? They both make all parties better off. #LearnLibertyClassic
Posted by Learn Liberty on Friday, November 6, 2015
