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Open thread 10/6/22 — 44 Comments

  1. “They lie to you every single day….”

    ‘Struth…(except that he forgot to add “…about EVERYTHING!”
    (Well…maybe we should cut “him” some slack and make that “…about PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING!”…)

    Case in point: from the ‘ “I” Intend To Take This Country Apart And “I” Don’t Care What You Do To Try To Prevent “Me” ‘ Dossier….
    “Biden Rips ‘MAGA’ Republicans After Court’s DACA Ruling”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/joe-biden-maga-court/2022/10/06/id/1090698/

  2. MAGA seems to have morphed—make that “TRANSFORMED”—inevitably(?) into MBGA and then MCBA….

    Make Biden Great Again!
    “Dick Morris: Biden’s Coming ‘October Surprise’ — Count on It!”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/morris/midterms-october-surprise-joe-biden/2022/10/05/id/1090626/

    Make China Great Again!
    “China Links to US Nuclear Research Site Raise Alarm”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/michael-waltz-china-los-alamos-national-laboratory/2022/10/06/id/1090717/

    …and there are 23 letters still to go…

  3. I’ve worked with and for women all through my career. Many were very driven, career-oriented types. A few were able to successfully balance career with being a Mom, generally those who had children early in their careers. The women who waited until their 30s to have their first child almost invariably followed a pattern of working right up until their due date and departing with assurances of their return from maternity leave. Sometime soon after birth, the reality of the big lie hit them and they opted to be a stay at home Mom.

    The problem for the small companies where I worked was that there weren’t other staff available for backfill, so the remaining team members picked up the extra work. When the expectation of a return from maternity leave disappeared, a lengthy hiring process ensued during which team members continued picking up the extra work. As frustrations mounted, key staff would depart and the cycle would repeat. Call me a troglodyte if you wish but, when a baby bump appeared on a team member who fit the profile mentioned above, I started looking for other opportunities so I had a fallback position if needed.

  4. There is a cloud of people (“influencers”?) on YT and other social media pointing out that some of the Olde Wisdom still applies.
    Jordan Peterson, of course.
    I’ve been enjoying RealFemSapien, she’s a strong advocate of living life differently from our current Narrative.

  5. When female impersonators (FI’s) are trotted out to “perform” in elementary schools, how is it that the women’s groups say nothing at all?
    These FI’s are caricatures of women with their gaudy outfits, over the top makeup and semi or totally lewd antics. They literally portray women as a mix of sex object and a clown.
    Is this not demeaning to women??
    How do school boards, teachers – many (most??) who are females allow this?

    Speaking of women who claim to speak on behalf of women; notice how the “squad;” that is AOC, and her other three female pals in congress do not say
    one F’n thing about the situation in Iran, where women there are protesting against the govt’s treatment of women, forcing all women to wear govt. mandated head wear and protesting the death of one women who died in police custody, who was arrested for not refusing to wear the govt. mandated head wear.

    What we are witnessing here in this country is a very small percentage of individuals who are in positions of power and authority imposing their ideology, beliefs, morals, etc. upon the vast majority of the people; the vast majority of whom reject what they are being forced to tolerate.

    Eventually the majority should prevail – if history is any guide – but history also shows that it can take a real long time; 50 to 100 years. This is plenty of time to completely destroy a society / nation, before it can begin to resurrect itself.

  6. Dr Peterson has a variety of youtube video shorts where he discusses this and other related information. I highly recommend them.

  7. Nonapod,

    News coverage is certainly trending. Always be skeptical. The year shark attacks became the biggest story in America shark attacks were actually down.

  8. Just finished reading Louise Perry’s new book, _The Case Against the Sexual Revolution_. She is a New Statesman columnist and a “campaigner against male sexual violence,” so is coming at this from a (originally?) leftist angle. She dedicates her book to “The women who have learned it the hard way” (including the author herself).

    Coming of age at the dawn of the sexual revolution, shortly after Roe, I reached her conclusions decades ago. But her updating of what the “scene” is like these days is truly depressing!

    She does hold out hope, in the final chapter, that “the pendulum is going to swing, big time.” So much misery certainly would seem to suggest it should, but…

  9. Personal covid update: my wife’s side of the family seems to be having covid run through them like wildfire..BiL, SiL, 2 nephews. Symptoms are similar: a headache and a mild cough; that’s it. However, for that family, if they feel even the slightest sick, they immediately get a covid test….and yep, all positive. And yes the are all fully boosted. Of course they then go into quarantine until they test negative.

    A few weeks ago I had a headache, a bit tired, and felt “out of it”. Lasted 3 days, then I felt better. Never crossed my mind to get tested. So I probably had covid. It’s endemic at this point. We’ve probably all had it or are soon to get it.

    Numbers wise, the cases are dropping continuously for the past 3 months. GA has almost no cases as of this week’s reporting. If my family is an indication, it’s out there, not a bad illness in general, and if you aren’t tested, you don’t show up as a case. I think most people aren’t getting tested at this point.

  10. Nonapod-

    Apparently murderous knife attacks against young school children are common place in today’s China, but–as with many other less savory aspects of Communist China–the government has been able to cover this situation up.

    Why, in particular, attack young children?

    Well, as has been explained in the video below, not only is this revenge by someone who has nothing against those who have much in society, but, as well, in China your children not only carry on your family lineage, but are also–in a Chinese Communist society which has no social welfare system–insurance that you will be taken care of in your old age .*

    Thus, attacking and killing someone’s descendants strikes at the root of their existence and future.

    And these sorts of attacks have been going on for a long time. **

    * See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEjsGj-NTFw and also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwge0nwY4qY

    ** See, for instance, here https://www.foxnews.com/world/knife-wielding-man-stabs-28-children-3-adults-at-kindergarten-in-china-2nd-attack-this-week

  11. physicsguy – I think we all have those friends and/or family members who are testing for COVID everytime one of their kids has the sniffles. It makes gatherings a real pain.

    The other unpleasant part of the game is hoping that circumstances won’t allow them to blame you!

  12. With regard to China–

    Just by happenstance I ran across this Youtube video yesterday, in which someone talks about and presents data describing what he says is the inevitable demographic collapse of China, due to the dire demographic and socio-economic consequences of their misguided one child policy.

  13. P.S.—

    I’d imagine that China’s leaders, if faced with an assured demographic collapse, and the ruination of all their grand plans for China to regain it’s rightful place as the foremost nation on earth—all coming to fruition because of their misguided policies—and flailing about, might take it upon themselves to make some disastrous foreign policy and military decisions.

  14. Snow:

    I am guessing you were looking at one of Peter Zeihan’s videos. I find his material very persuasive, although he was initially firmly in the *Ukraine cannot win* camp. Can you post a link?

  15. Our COVID update. There is no question that last July it went through our son’s family–he, his wife and our 2 grands. They weren’t tested because we don’t buy-in to the tests at all, but the symptoms told the story. My husband and I were there repeatedly helping out, no extra precautions, just the usual common-sense approach. We never got it. Didn’t get anything last January when something we thought was COVID went through their family. Living our lives with the IGG seriologically-tested anitbodies successfully healthy with no illness repeats. But here in Los Angeles we can’t go into Building & Safety or the DWP because we are not vaccinated. I couldn’t get my haircut at J C Penny’s for a number of months, while people that were newly vaxxed could show up and did so. No one among our children and their spouses has received the vaccination and at this point we have reason to believe everyone has had it.

  16. @A.Patriot-What field are you in? I’m in medicine, and I can speak for myself and for every woman doctor I personally know well enough to discuss (15?). We all finished medical school, and most residency (not me, I had my first my last year of residency) prior to having children, and every one of them returned back to work. Some of us, myself included, worked 3/4 times, but we all worked and had families. Many of us married to other doctors-one of the other of the couple *generally* cut back hours; it was not always the wife, but usually one or the other did. 30 years later, many are still working. These families didn’t have a lot of outside interests, as their time revolved around kids and work. On the flip side to your comment, back then in medicine, we had no maternity leave. I took my 4 week vacation allotment and went back to work; my experience was typical. Five years or so later, there was maternity leave and even one week paternity leave; now it is crazy (it seems to me) the other way, where men have as much paternity leave as women have maternity leave.

  17. “They” lie to everyone about everything but this is one of the lies that hasn’t really taken root. First, I know a lot of women (actually most of the women I know) who have kids and a career. It’s not an either/or situation. Second, I totally get why women wait to have kids until they are secure (or more secure) financially and don’t want to rely on the man in their lives to support them. That’s Just common sense in the face of uncertain financial times and unreliable humans, not indoctrination. Third, there are some saddening efforts to urge women to prioritize career and self over kids but I don’t see that it’s really taken hold. Women, and society in general, still value having kids even if this is not reflected in trendy culture. I do see that people in general, men and women, have prioritized personal comfort and lack of controversy in their lives over being responsible parents and, as a result, we have a generation of absolute disasters coming of age, but that’s a different topic. Fourth, there are much more compelling arguments about how “they” treat women, such as allowing men dressed as women to dictate what and who is a woman. Degrading childless women as gullible cat lady losers is just tactically stupid and unnecessarily divisive. Lastly, you can’t do social engineering from a minority position.

  18. My mom was a career educator, a grade school teacher. She went straight back to work, but I don’t know how long maternity leaves were, back then. I know several women that have followed career paths, but almost none of them are without families. I wonder how big the demographic slice Dr. Peterson is speaking of, really is. I would guess it’s about as big, proportionally, as the male executive slice is. Guys with no home life, and living for the job.

    When I’ve worked for big companies, one thing I’ve noticed when I was a middle manager (where you’re constantly dealing with staff) is that you have to be a little careful of taking on young women in the more function critical roles. The interviews need to be carefully done. Because sometimes young women who are newly married are looking for a ‘big-company’ position in order to harvest those juicy benefits. It’s always a crap-shoot: Hire some sharp young lady with drive and focus, then *BAM* 6 months later, just as she’s settled in and gotten fully productive with her role, she announces she’s preggers. With lower-level type jobs in accountancy or HR or support services, this can be accommodated more easily, but for a project engineer, for example, it’s not so easy to cover – often projects are chronically short-staffed as it is. I know this sounds terribly misogynistic, so just to be clear, I fully support the need to maternity (and paternity) leave, and just speaking from the standpoint of project delivery, of course.

  19. I know quite a few young woman who stopped working in order to raise kids and who previously had been quite work-driven.

    I also know many who cut back on work, and of course some who kept right on working at the same level. I do believe that Peterson is describing a very real phenomenon, but I don’t know how large it is. I also believe that even many women who continue to work feel a vast amount of conflict over it, ordinarily more than men feel (although many men do experience conflict and would like to work less than they do, in order to have more time for family).

  20. @Tina Retired now for almost a year. 35 years in IT prior to retirement. I’m glad to hear of your experience – wish mine had been similar.

  21. ” I do see that people in general, men and women, have prioritized personal comfort and lack of controversy in their lives over being responsible parents and, as a result, we have a generation of absolute disasters coming of age, but that’s a different topic.”

    No, it’s not. It’s part and parcel of the same damn thing. Crawl out of your categories and take a look at the vast landscape of decimation, disaster, and denial.

  22. When my son was in Little League, everyone in the office knew I left early on game days. Period. But then I was once called unmanageable too.

  23. @A. Patriot and @Neo Well, I still feel conflicted. My husband not at all. I do wish I had more time off (maternity leave?) to enjoy my post partum state but that’s how it was and we all took our lumps back then. I worked 3/4 time (still too much-doctors for many years worked crazy hours-not so much now as they have a more corporate mentality, and maybe that’s ok), but a few gals continued full bore. For my daughters I’ve recommended when they have kids that they work part time, or even take a long break (both professionals and married to professionals). I’ve never called myself a feminist but lived my life how I chose; but maybe I chose poorly. I am retired now, and were I to do it again, I’d have worked less when I was younger

  24. Jordan Peterson is despised because he is so sensible and defies The Narrative(TM) calling it out for what it is.
    Bjorn Lomborg is another one who’s far too sensible to be heeded—even when he’s trying to meet The Narrative(TM) halfway.
    No, he must be ridiculed…and canceled…
    “Bjorn Lomborg: Ill-advised ‘net-zero’ emissions policies are netting worldwide pain;
    “New World Disorder: The better answer to climate change would be to invest in green energy”—
    https://nationalpost.com/opinion/bjorn-lomborg-ill-advised-net-zero-emissions-policies-are-netting-worldwide-pain
    Key grafs:
    H/T Blazingcatfur blog.
    ‘…The United States has gone all-in on its own net-zero ambition with the most expensive climate change policy in its history. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration plans to spend $369 billion promoting low-carbon energy and electric vehicles. [Should one ask “Biden” CUI BONO??] This vast expenditure will have a negligible impact on climate change: the money spent will reduce the global temperature rise unmeasurably, possibly by as little as 0.0005°C.
    ‘Little wonder that emerging economies are balking at the expectation they emulate these terrible policies….
    ‘…India has realized that trying to achieve net-zero carbon emissions “would entail astronomical costs” and would in fact require a “complete transformation” of its economy. In a scathing rejection, the environment ministry notes that doing so “could derail our development plans.”
    ‘In fact, India found that this policy would be so costly for the country that to even make a start on the process, New Delhi would need the West to pay one trillion dollars. India and other developing countries have also banded together to jointly demand another $1.3 trillion in “climate financing” every year by 2030, over and above what rich countries have already promised….
    ‘…Fortunately, there are far smarter alternative approaches. The best long-term strategy would be to dramatically increase investment in green energy research and development. This approach would be much more effective while likely being 10 times cheaper than the approach taken by North America and Europe….’

    Looks like both Peterson and Lomborg are looking for logic and reasonableness in all the wrong places…

  25. “These families didn’t have a lot of outside interests, as their time revolved around kids and work.” Tina

    A family life that revolves around its children has it exactly backwards. The parents are the family’s ‘sun’, the children the family’s ‘planets’.

    As for a life that revolves around work… Well, “No one on their deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I’d spent more time at work’.” attributed to Arnold Zack, popularized by Paul Tsongas

    In life, too narrow a focus limits us strictly to the ‘road’ ahead, preventing our seeing the ‘land’ through which we travel. Our lives are a journey. One from birth to the passing off of this mortal coil.

    A journey consists of far more than its destination.

  26. “The best long-term strategy would be to dramatically increase investment in green energy research and development.

    A good start would be to attempt to power a city like Sacramento, California (the state capitol) totally with wind and solar. Let the Democrat legislators and governor eat their m own cooking :-). This is an experiment that needs to be successfully run before the nation sets out on such a policy. Give them four years to demonstrate their success.

    A parallel experiment would be to build a Thorium nuclear plant and power a city in a red state. Say, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Giove them four years to prove the power project as successful.

    These are practical experiments that could prove quite a lot about which direction the world needs to go for energy in the future. (I’m giving the climate alarmists some credibility about CO2’s effects. But only because there is no way to prove them wrong short of observing climate change for another100 years. They demand action. Well, this is action that will show whether their demands make any sense.

  27. Peterson said the comments, a huge number, were all vitriolic.
    This is not a surprise. Explain the results of someone’s actions and…be accused of telling them what to do. The vitriol is likely exaggerated due to a feeling he’s right and they are feeling it, maybe subconsciously.

    My mom was a teacher who quit when married–followed my father from one post to another until he shipped out–and didn’t start up again until the youngest of us was in third grade. Then she was a substitute teacher at the school my sister was in. Some years, it cost us, but my folks wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  28. Jan. 25, 2022,
    “President Biden said Tuesday that no U.S. or NATO troops will be sent into Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion…”

    Friday, 25 March 2022, “WH Clarifies: No US Troops in Ukraine After Biden’s Comments”

    “The Intercept: US secret operations in Ukraine by decision of Biden”

    “The Intercept website quoted current and former US officials as saying that secret US operations are being carried out inside Ukraine, according to an undeclared decision by US President Joe Biden.”

    https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-10-06-the-intercept–us-secret-operations-in-ukraine-by-decision-of-biden.BJ-7iWbhfo.html

  29. The towns and companies that say they are ‘100% wind & solar’ have not in fact dropped their connection to the grid. They sell power to the grid when they have more than they can use and buy it back when the sun is down or the wind is still. They are effectively using the grid as a storage device and, in most cases, I’m pretty sure they are not paying anywhere near a fair price for the capital equipment they are tying up. There may be an exception to this somewhere, but I kind of doubt it.

    There is a legitimate trial going on in one of the Canary Islands. They are completely isolated, so no energy exchange with any external grid. They have a lot of wind, and also have an extinct volcano that they use as a pumped-storage reservoir. Fortunately, they retained their diesel generator for backup, because over the course of a year, they’re only getting about 50% of total kwh consumed from the wind and the hydro turbines that work in conjunction with the reservoir.

    Very few places have a convenient and pre-formed uphill reservoir for pumped storage.

  30. Fox News is almost giddy about the Wash Post story coming out that Hunter Biden might be indicted for lying on a federal form for a gun purchase, and that he might not have paid taxes.

    It seems to me there are another half-dozen charges that he SHOULD be charged with, like the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but it would be good if he were charged with something, anyway.

    When I heard about the Wash Post story, I had an epiphany of sorts: AH HAH, I thought, this is what was on Biden’s mind in Florida when a hot mic caught him bragging that “no one fu*ks with a Biden”.

    His statement made no sense when it was first made public (Wednesday, IIRC), but if he had just learned that his son — “the smartest man I know” — was about to be indicted for a federal crime, it suddenly makes sense. Because after all, “no one is above the law”, as we have been hearing from many Democrats in Congress. If only they believed that.

  31. The three chess prodigy Polgar sisters, who became two Grandmasters and one International Master, all married, had children and retired from chess.

    The youngest, Judit, who reached #8 of the top players in the world, lasted the longest, retiring from the game at the young age of 38.

    Good for them.

  32. Re F and Hunter, head of the Biden crime family —The wash Post headline on the 6th reads “FEDERAL AGENTS SEE CHARGEABLE TAX, GUN CASE AGAINST HUNTER BIDEN”.

    FNCs Watters takes 9 minutes to set the bigger and Really Big context for this story — the highlights (in truth, lowlights) are stunning even to those who’ve followed it, methinks,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZGCCratXk

    But charging will come after the election — undoubtably “balanced” by Federal charges against ex-Prez Trump…so, get your good news where you can, while you can.

  33. JohnTyler near the top on female impersonators, don’t forget: Black Face / Woman Face parallel insults.

  34. @ David Foster > “The towns and companies that say they are ‘100% wind & solar’ have not in fact dropped their connection to the grid.”

    I read a long post recently, by Francis Menton, discussing the few alleged totally-renewable locations, and none of them really are. For one thing, all of them import food or commodities made in locations that are still fossil fueled.
    Including their wind and solar equipment, and probably the pumps and pipes for filling the volcano reservoir.
    Imagine that.

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-10-2-without-a-demonstration-project-or-feasibility-study

    The thrust of the post addresses JJ’s observations.

  35. @ Richard Aubrey > “Peterson said the comments, a huge number, were all vitriolic.”

    I think he was speaking about another video or talk. The comments on the video Neo linked were overwhelmingly in agreement with his thesis about women preferring motherhood over career when faced with the choice.
    Not that women can’t do both, but if it’s one OR the other, the kids win.

    Which is one motivation for the greedy capitalists to support the abortion activists, and willingly pay for or otherwise facilitate abortions for their worker bees.
    (Analogy chosen deliberately.)

    FWIW, I worked full or part time through five births, as a computer programmer or instructor in college programming courses, and only quit when we moved to another state because the overhead of setting up the necessary social support system was too high. I was already signing most of my paycheck over to care-givers for the ones not in school, but had a lot of neighborhood and church back-up for days when either I or the kids were sick. If I could have kept treading water until they were all in school, I probably would have, because then it’s much easier when they are away all day. However, I worked in small settings or 9-5 jobs where I didn’t have to compete with the 80-hour workaholics.

    Water under the bridge now, but I don’t regret being a professional mother working from home.
    My product line was small but high-quality.

  36. Getting back to Ukraine and Russia:
    J E Dyer has two posts that delve into areas not generally covered by the punditry.
    And certainly not by the Main Propaganda Media.

    https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2022/09/23/uranium-jerky-angle-on-ukraine-part-vii/
    Small excerpt to give a hint of the topic:

    It’s important not to overstate the significance of Ukraine’s self-sufficiency push as a potential factor in Vladimir Putin’s policy decisions. But there’s a hazard in understating it too. That’s in part because uranium is one of several key resources and access arrangements Ukraine seeks to optimize for the purpose of achieving functional political independence from Moscow. It’s also because Kyiv’s main partners for this enterprise are in Europe and North America.

    There is a lot of time between her posts because of the depth and complexity of her analysis.

    https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2022/10/06/toc-ready-room-6-october-2022-ukraine-or-the-world-in-a-pickle/
    Most of the post is about the “packaged propaganda” feeling to the narratives from both the West and Russia (and Ukraine to the extent it diverges from the West’s orthodox line).

    The point here is not to take a stand on who’s guilty of what. It’s to make the essential observation that the fight in Ukraine in fact has aspects of a cartel fight; there’s been fierce competition as well as collusion, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, between cartel bosses in Russia and Ukraine, and those currents run unfettered through Ukraine’s national politics. To suggest that they’re not a core feature of Ukrainian state operations is to look, shall we say, poorly briefed.

    And the current U.S. president has had documented, indisputable family business ties to oligarch-linked business in Ukraine since the last Russian invasion in 2014. I don’t think this “cartel wars” drama is by any means the only factor on which the course of events in Ukraine hinges. What we think of as “real” politics, with ideologically and philosophically defined views of priorities and interests, is certainly present. But it is never, at any time, operating outside the effects of cartel corruption, with oligarchs controlling resources, money, and access to the levers of power. (As an aside, note that the appalling destruction and brutality Putin has visited on Ukrainians in the occupied portions of the East bear an interesting similarity to some of the mass slaughters and population subjugation of the cartel wars in Mexico and Central America. The message being sent is as much that of a syndicate kingpin as of a 1940s-era Communist takeover – or a Roman-style burning, razing, and sowing with salt.)

    The difference between Putin and Zelenskyy, on one hand, and the American public on the other, is that Putin and Zelenskyy see the syndicate-crime outline very clearly. They know the environment they’re operating in. That doesn’t mean Putin is right in any particular thought he has about Joe Biden, but it does mean Americans staking out sides are frequently wrong in the thoughts they have about the overall Ukraine situation. It’s not the case that it’s about Putin hating “democracy” (he’s perfectly satisfied with it as long as he can manipulate it, which makes him no different from George Soros), any more than it’s about Maidan Ukrainians being in their essence a fascist cabal, as Putin alleges.

    It’s about power, geography, and those facets of human nature we probably understood somewhat better before Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill came among us.

    And then the most current development, the pipeline sabotage (as validated by Sweden today; sorry, Lawdog, you had me convinced it was poor maintenance):

    It appears to have been a professional job, but that doesn’t mean it was executed by the military force of a nation-state. That’s essential to keep in mind. It isn’t necessary to have the kind of assets Russia has in the Baltic Fleet complex to bring this off. Drawing conclusions from the mere existence of capability isn’t warranted in this case. Anyone could actually have done it using national military assets: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, etc. Or a non-Baltic power with forces deployed to a Baltic host. Doesn’t mean any of them did.

    To the cui bono? question, the answer seems to be: those pushing extreme climate alarmism, whose project is to stun and rapidly transform the world with drastic hits to our energy arrangements. I don’t think it was megaphone-waving street activists though. This was a deep-pocketed attack.

    The possibility of the pipeline perps being really committed (aka insane) environmentalists did occur to me, and I was discussing that with AesopSpouse just this morning. I don’t think we’re unique, but it hasn’t had a lot of play in the pundit-sphere.

    ICYMI: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-russia-not-invited-nord-stream-investigation-2022-10-06/

    Swedish Security Service says ‘gross sabotage’ indicated
    Investigation shows detonations at Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines
    Russia says not asked to participate in investigation

    Details behind their paywall.

  37. Sarah Hoyt’s post yesterday has some things to say about balancing work and life.
    https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/10/05/i-come-to-praise-work/

    Since Obamacare made hiring people more expensive, companies are reluctant to add to pay roll. It’s more effective to work the people you have half to death.

    The other side of this is not giving people more hours than for part time, so you don’t have to pay health care.

    I know it’s fashionable to pile on millenials, but all those I know work hard, and often in indivious [typo] positions.

    And part of all this is that the attitude of the companies is “Do exactly as we say, or else.” Yes, even now with the so called labor shortage. And even when what they want is patently impossible.

    And so…. So we see silent quitting. We see a lot of people, mostly women, (particularly those with kids) choosing to stay home, which is probably a wash even on medium paying jobs. We see people who are so tired and burned out they can barely function.

    And none of this, none of it, amounts to the best productivity.

    The truth is the culture has gone poisonous. Squeezed by the government, businesses squeeze employees. Convince that millenials are slackers, we demand the impossible of them.

    And then we’re shocked the “no work” movement appears. As stupid as it is, so is what they’re reacting against.

    And we wonder why millenials aren’t marrying and having kids. Most of them don’t have the time for a social life, and the married ones often lack energy for their spouses.

    Let’s give the kids the benefit of the doubt.

    I’m not one for collective action, and I’m not going to suggest a general strike. That’s what we’ll get if we don’t do something about it.

    First, let’s stopped the macho culture of “I work all hours of the day, and barely see my family” is a good thing. (And women are often more macho than men.) Work is work and necessary, but there is life outside work.

    Second, let’s agitate to get government’s foot off business’s neck. Because yeah, businesses can be asses, but government mandates don’t help anything.

    Third, let’s figure out alternatives, and create alternative work pathways. Indie. Job sharing. Whatever.

    Let’s dispense with the idea that a company making unreasonable demands is better than a government making unreasonable demands.

    Can your boss demand you work the occasional weekend? Sure. It happens. Should your boss demand you work seven days a week and hem and haw at giving you Christmas off? Oh, heck no. (My husband ran into this when we were thirty.)

    All the movies, everything picturing a “career” as the most important thing in your life are wrong.

    Most jobs aren’t a career. They’re just work. (Like if I made crafts. Just work.)

    Work is dignified, and it’s important. It gives shape to life. And paying your own way makes you an adult.

    But life isn’t work. There is more to life than that. And until we start seeing that people should have a life beyond and beside work, we’ll see the reaction of trying to say all work is bad, or of “silent quitting.”

    Yes, in the days ahead a lot of work might be required of us in order to survive. But there is a difference between that and make-work pushed at us because someone in charge can do it. And most people do know the difference.

  38. Hunter Biden’s “indictment,” if it happens at all, will probably be for the equivalent of jay walking vs the multiple, heavy duty charges that could be leveled against him, if the Justice Department were really trying to adhere to the law and do it’s job.

    My bet is that he will be indicted, he will either be acquitted of these light charges or there will be some sort of minor punishment, and then Biden, Democrats, and everyone on the Left will be saying, “case closed,” “let’s move on.”

    Or, he will be indicted and then there will be a blackout on any further news about progress on this “active case,” and any prosecution will just fade away and disappear down the memory hole.

    As well, I’m betting that there will be no tie in to President Biden, or the rest of the Biden family.

  39. Aesop. I think he was referring to his discussion of hard-driving women when they hit 29/30.
    It’s not an uncommon response.
    When told that THIS is going to be the likely result of a behavior–which you don’t want to give up–and it’s a negative result, it’s blown off as being told what to do. This has extra cayenne pepper in it when it’s “with our bodies!”.
    This has the effect of negating any consideration as to whether the predicted result is reasonably predictable or likely negative.
    As such, it’s pretty obvious the predicted result is not only correct, it’s obviously correct. Otherwise, the discussion would be about whether the prediction is correct and, if so, actually negative. But those are losers, being so obvious, and so have to be blown off.

    Happens not infrequently.

  40. “I don’t think it was megaphone-waving street activists though. This was a deep-pocketed attack.”

    So, China, then.
    1) No. 1 manufacturer of solar panels.
    2) Leaves them as only market for Russia.
    3) Get to blame U.S.

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