A Musing...

There is a strain of eco-zealot that purports to be doing their part to save the planet by either not having children or limiting their reproduction to one child.  These nutjobs are misguided, but worse they are arrogantly condescending, having all sorts of opproprium for those like me, who they disparage as "breeders".

I have neither the time or inclination to troll the back-alleyways of the social media universe, but I imagine that heads are exploding in this community over China's abandonment of the one-child policy. 

The planet just got a couple billion more "breeders", swamping your silly, meaningless self-imposed childlessness.  Suck it, eco-nuts.  Enjoy your childless lives and growing old without the love and attention of the children and grandchildren you never had.

Nobody Is Making Sense in Europe but Orban

While the media like to scoff at him as a "far-right" nutjob, (as they are wont to do with anyone to the right of...well, themselves) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is an articulate voice for European resistance to the million plus uninvited permanent guests descending upon the continent.  Here is the fundamental nub of the argument:

“The German, Hungarian or Austrian way of life is not a basic right of all people on earth,” he continued. “It is only a right for those people who have contributed to it.”

There it is.  Please tell me how someone born in, say, Eritrea simply has a right to come to Europe and avail themselves of all the benefits - hard and soft - that the citizens there have established?? Tell me that.  And then tell me how the concept of a nation state ought to be defined and supported?  These are fundamental questions of human polity and yet lefties sweep them aside with "bromides" as Orban points out.

Less Policing Coming to a Town Near You

Excessive ticketing + Racial tension (i.e. Ferguson, MO) = New state law (with similar one pending in Congress) = Shrinking police forces = ??

The aftermath of racial turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri, is exacting a toll on St. Louis-area communities that built their finances around speeding tickets, thanks to a state law limiting the income they can draw from traffic fines.
The city council of Charlack last week decided the community of 1,400 can’t afford an eight-officer police force under the new law, which says traffic citations in St. Louis County municipalities can’t exceed 12.5 percent of annual operating revenue, down from 30 percent. Policing in Charlack and in nearby Wellston, which dissolved its 23-officer force in May, is now handled by a recently created cooperative of local departments.

As the good Professor would say, "Buy a gun."

ObamaCare Death Spiral

So, I've been predicting ObamaCare's collapse - of its own weight, nothing to do with Republicans - for some time now.  Here is an update.  (H/T Instapundit)

Obnoxious, and Obnoxiously Biased, NY Times Reporter is Wrong

A "F**k you, Jeb Bush" tweet got a NY Crimes reporter reprimanded (of course, not fired, but reprimanded so that the Crimes can maintain the fiction that they have journalistic standards, but not have to actually abide by them).

The guy seems to have a very rigid and unnuanced view of the interplay between social pathologies and economic well-being.  He thinks that you are poor first, and that destroys your family.  Maybe, but there is beaucoup research establishing social pathologies as both a significant cause and impediment to economic mobility and prosperity.  Take it from WRM, highlighted in this old NBfPB post.

Actually, there’s plenty of evidence that unwed childbearing, father absence and fraying kinship and community networks exacerbate the problems of low-income people and make it incredibly hard for them to gain a foothold in the middle class. These are thorny problems that aren’t easily solved by the kinds of government measures Obama champions. So his speech says very little about the ways that strong marriages, family stability, or a robust role for churches in helping struggling Americans improve their lives can all improve economic mobility in this country. These social and cultural factors are arguably root causes of inequality, and it’s a pretty conspicuous omission to ignore that in a presidential speech on the subject.

And, as perhaps Timesman Richardson is unaware, black families were much more economically well-off in the first half of the 20th century, relative to today, when their families were substantially more intact (they may have had other valid social/civic complaints, but that is not at issue here).  The disintegration of the black family is the undeniable salient factor in economic stagnation/deterioration in the black community over the last few decades, despite massive redistributive fiscal policies at all levels of government.

Not sure which is a bigger offense in this case, the guy's unhinged and obnoxious bias or his butt-hurting ignorance.

Final thought, this may be why very few people read the Crimes and it is dying.

UPDATE:  Ahem. and Um-hmmm