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And Another Thing

Elections, Politics

Before we get dragged into another pointless argument with the Usual Suspects, let us remind ourselves what the three purposes of a secure Voter ID card are, namely that you are:

  • a U.S. citizen, and therefore entitled to vote
  • alive, and
  • can only vote once.

It’s really that simple.  Now ask yourself the simple question:  who would be against such a simple concept, and why?

The next step is a lot more, shall we say, punitive.  Considering that the above constitutes one of the principle freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution (i.e. that citizens are entitled to vote), then I would suggest one final step:

Any U.S. House Representative or Senator who votes against this measure should be immediately removed from their position because they have betrayed their oath of office, and must be subject to a recall vote in their state or district.

Frankly, I’m sick of fucking around with this nonsense — fraudulent votes, stolen elections, voter negation and all the rest — and it’s time we put an end to it.  Immediately.

Pretty Much Illiterate

Education, Seen On Campus, Snowflakes

Then there’s this tale of woe (read it all for the full horror):

College students are increasingly unprepared for serious study, with some professors recently reporting they are illiterate, raising significant questions about the overall quality of American education.

“It’s not even an inability to critically think,” Jessica Hooten Wilson, a Pepperdine University professor, told Fortune. “It’s an inability to read sentences.”   Wilson described that she is trying new pedagogical methods to convey the same information.  “I feel like I am tap dancing and having to read things aloud because there’s no way that anyone read it the night before,” Wilson stated. “Even when you read it in class with them, there’s so much they can’t process about the very words that are on the page.”

Yeah, I know all about that.  I think I’ve told the story of how Connie (as Global Director of Training at a Great Big Accounting Firm) had occasion to review some of her earlier training materials.  These, she discovered, were about 80% text and the rest graphics.  Only five years later, the ratio had been completely inverted:  80% graphics and the rest text.  (And just so we know who we’re talking about, the trainees all had Masters degrees in either Finance or Business.  Not yer typical Fem Studies or Art History grads, these.)  When she tried to arrest that development and include more text, all that happened was that the training became less effective:  less absorption and poorer retention.

So none of the above are at all surprising to me;  only the extent is somewhat shocking.

At some point, all learning, innovation and civilization itself is going to plateau (or worse, #Muslims) instead of increasing with each generation, as before.

Socrates had it nailed.

The Last

Bucket List

In Comments about watches yesterday I alluded to some of the things I’d get to keep me company in my dotage, courtesy of Powerball.  Call it the Self-Indulgent Bucket List, if you will, because whatever would happen to them after I croak, I care not.

Here are the current front-runners:

BMW Z8

Restomod Land Rover 110 (note the engine replacement)

Grulla Royal (pair)


(For those who don’t know these Spanish guns, I think Grulla are the absolute best value for money today.  They make actions for several other shotgun companies — like Holland & Holland — and they’re absolutely gorgeous to boot.)

More to come, as I think of them.