I wanted to blog about the PayPal kerfuffle last week, but we’ll, I’m out of pocket. So, I’ll post a Reason article about it. When Eugene Volokh is concerned, I sit up and take notice. I don’t keep money with PayPal, and it looks like I’m going to be winding down my use of it for other things.
Reason has a good overview of the ESG movement in the corporate world. Stakeholder is one of those concepts that have been twisted into a club against the business community. Worse, they seem to be wielding it against themselves to impress people who hate them regardless.
The Verge has an article on Microsoft abandoning the Office brand. It’s transitioning to Microsoft 365. Eh, I’ll still probably refer to the core apps as “Office”.
For a couple of light items to round out this week’s links:
Gizmodo talks about a new gaming chair from Logitech and Herman Miller. Personally, I’m more amused by the collaboration than the actual product.
Finally, The Wife found this listing for a cat advent calendar. Not treats for your cats, but a bunch of tiny cat figures.
Government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. … In face of the modern tendencies toward a deification of government and the state, it is good to remind ourselves that the old Romans were more realistic in symbolizing the state by a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle than are our contemporaries in ascribing the state all the attributes of God.
Germany’s economy ministry announced on Friday that it had temporarily taken over Russian oil giant Rosneft’s subsidiaries in the country. Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing account for about 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity, the ministry said in a statement.
I keep seeing this whole thing on the European continent spiraling out of control. And I don’t trust any of the current leadership to have the aptitude to derail it.
The newest development comes in the form of a specific merchant category code for retailers of firearms and ammunition, breaking them out from the broader category of specialty retailers in which they were previously included. The code makes credit card purchases from such businesses much easier to track and potentially exposes buyers and sellers to harassment.
The new code is touted as an anti-crime measure, but its advocates don’t specify how tagging all transactions by associated vendors will identify suspicious activity.
One of the hosts on Words and Numbers commented that the only way to avoid this was by paying cash – until the government makes it illegal to purchase guns and ammo with cash. I don’t know how they would do that, but these days I put nothing past them.
Last week, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) sent a comment letter to Lauren Poe, Gainesville’s mayor, recommending that the city withdraw a provisionally approved zoning amendment that allows two-, three-, and four-unit homes to be built in neighborhoods that were once zoned exclusively for single-family homes.
About the only thing the state housing codes should do is state a baseline of structural stability. Beyond that, let the localities figure out the housing mixes depending on the needs of the community. We are very good at providing housing for those above and below the working class – which is a huge concern where I live.
This week’s final link is Hot Hardware’s article regarding BackBlaze’s comparative failure rate analysis of SSD vs HDD. For those who don’t know, BackBlaze is a cloud-backup company that’s known for reporting on the performance of the various drives they use for storage.
“At this point we can reasonably claim that SSDs are more reliable than HDDs, at least when used as boot drives in our environment. This supports the anecdotal stories and educated guesses made by our readers over the past year or so. Well done,” Backblaze notes.
First, from US News & World Reports an article on how detrimental the school closures were for the kids.New federal data – the first comparing academic achievement from before the coronavirus pandemic to now – shows unprecedented drops in math and reading scores and the largest setbacks for students in more than half a century. Way back in March/April of 2020, there might have been a case for closing the schools. We didn’t know enough about how COVID was spread, how dangerous it was, and who it impacted the most. However, as we learned more, it was clear that the biggest obstacle to opening the schools were the unions who wanted their members paid for not having to go into the schools. I think we will be feeling the ramifications of this for a very long time.
And here’s another on embracing the prepper mindset. Seriously, hasn’t the last two years kind of proven it’s probably a good idea to have some extra supplies on hand? As reader David says in his articles at Blue Collar Prepping, “Some is better than none.”
From The Reload, comes an article on a recent survey of gun owners. According to the article, this was the largest survey done with more in-depth questions. So, what did it find? Gun owners are more diverse, they are carrying more, and they often own the same weapons and magazines that many want banned. Oh, and they are possibly more than 1.5 million defensive gun uses annually.
Quockerwodger – A type of wooden puppet. Colloquially used in the late 19th century to denote a politician acting on the instructions of an influential third party rather than the best interests of his constituents.
Salman Rushdie was brutally stabbed before he was about to give a talk on free speech. From the USA Today article: Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie of The Wylie Agency, said the writer was on a ventilator Friday evening, with a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye he was likely to lose. The article says a suspect was taken into but authorities did not have any indication of a motive. Hmm…. I mean, it couldn’t have anything to do with the death decree the Iranians put him under decades ago, could it?
Speaking of New York, there are indications of a breakout of polio. There was a chance, a good chance, that polio could have been eliminated – much like smallpox. Instead, the US government co-opted polio workers. Which, of course, became known. Which, of course, meant certain local populaces wouldn’t take the vaccine. Which, of course, is expanded by the anti-vax movement.
Next a some Reason articles that came to my attention:
First, DC Circuit upholds the bump stock ban. From the article: It concluded that the new reading of the law—which contradicts the position that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) consistently took before then-President Donald Trump demanded that the agency ban bump stocks by administrative fiat—is “the best interpretation of the statute.” Even with the NYSRPA ruling, we have years of court cases to see how that decision will filter out among the courts.
In the vein of government knowing better comes an article about how politicians are trying to zone out mobile homes. From the article: From Texas to West Virginia and almost everywhere in between, you’ll find zoning laws that aren’t so subtle in banning mobile homes and mobile home parks altogether. From urban to suburban to rural areas, legislation is being considered and often passed into law that tacks on costs, makes it harder to own a mobile home, and in many cases makes it untenable to ever build a new mobile home park. In my particular opinion, mobile homes are the payday loans of the housing market. They’re flimsy and overpriced and have many hidden costs that hurt the people they’re supposedly aimed at. None of which means I think they should be illegal. I’d much rather have a bunch of mobile home parks than the disaster of people not being able to find any shelter.
There’s a cat café up in Tampa. And if you really like the kitty you’re playing with, you can adopt it. I may have to take The Wife up for this.
Via The Brother comes an ArsTechnica article about a recent Excel esports competition on ESPN. Okay, first, I find it highly amusing that ESPN turns one of its channels into ESPN8: The Ocho once a year with a focus on “seldom seen sports”. Second, I find it amusing that it does feature a dodgeball competition. Third, I fucking adore an Excel competition – and it is just as amazing as I hoped.
Finally, a video that amused me more than it probably should:
This is a weird time in politics. Both of the major parties are being swept by their extremes, and its turning politics less about solving issues and more about performance art with state-sanctioned violence.
Those who have defended the move argue that sticking it to Disney in this matter demonstrates that the Republican Party is willing to “fight” and will thus represent a victory for conservatism. But this is silly. Admirably, Governor DeSantis has already fought Disney, and he has already won. The policy about which Disney chose stupidly to complain is now Florida law. It passed both houses of the state legislature; it was signed by DeSantis, who had been correctly defiant in the face of Disney’s gripes; and it enjoys the support of broad majorities of Floridians. There is no need for the Republican Party of Florida to salt the earth here; it has prevailed in every particular.
Just as DeSantis is using his position as governor to prepare for a run for the White House, we have Nikki Fried suing over marijuana users being prohibited from possessing firearms. While I personally agree with this move, I do not believe for a second that Fried is doing this out of personal conviction. Other than the personal conviction that she doesn’t want to be a felon for holding both a medical marijuana card and a concealed weapons license. Considering all the money she’s taken from gun control groups, as well as all the clusterfucks she’s thrown into the CCW system.
Second, a semi-secret organization spying on Americans- the post office.
Lastly, an article on the failure of gun control studies. Not just that they failed to show gun control works, but that the vast majority were just badly done studies.