... which is why the Times, like other major newsrooms, should tell their employees to get off Twitter entirely:

https://t.co/JpQvjBN0Mz

(Yes, I am tweeting this. Enjoy the delicious irony. No, really, sit with it for a moment. Roll around, until your skin tingles from its mildly caustic properties.)

(I am now on a Twitter campaign to get major institutions, including my employer, to tell employees to get off Twitter. I don't expect it to work. But a girl's gotta try.)

(Given that I am a right-wing columnist, in an overwhelmingly left-wing industry, people are bound to be suspicious of my motives. *Mutter/cough/something something et tu cancel culture?* Understandable. However ...)

Ironically, my conclusion was not inspired by conservatives complaining about "cancel culture". It was inspired by conservative editors and other institutional leaders of my acquaintance complaining about the corrosive effect Twitter was having on their institutions.

(1/19) @philvischer & @SkyeJethani, I saw your video that questions whether overturning Roe is the key to reducing abortion.

Glad you're interested in the data. Evidence from the past 40 yrs shows electing pro-life candidates has helped reduce the U.S. abortion rate by over 50%

(2/19) Overturning Roe is not an all or nothing proposition. Since 1973, Republican-appointed judges have not succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade. However, Republican-appointed Supreme Court judges have upheld a variety of life-saving pro-life laws. These include:

(3/19)
-Public funding limits on abortion
-Parental involvement laws
-Informed consent laws
-Waiting periods
-Partial-birth abortion bans

Meanwhile, judges appointed by Democratic Presidents almost always vote to strike down these common-sense, life affirming, pro-life laws.

(4/19) My 2018 @LozierInstitue shows that there is a very good body of academic research which shows that these incremental pro-life laws reduce abortion rates and save lives.

(5/19) In your video, you never mention the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the federal government from funding elective abortions through the Medicaid program.

There is a body of research which shows that limits on taxpayer funding of abortion reduce abortion rates.

Not ok: “humans can’t change sex”
Ok:

Not ok: “women menstruate”
Ok:

Not ok: “only women have a cervix”
Ok:

Not ok: “my life was shaped by being female”
Ok:

Not ok: “pregnant women”
Ok:

A great father is a great teacher

Here are five critical thinking skills you must master, so you can one day teach them to your kids

=THREAD=

1. Pattern recognition

Figuring out “what things have in common”

Our brains are pattern recognition machines. We constantly analyze the similarities between people, events, and scenarios to make decisions. Pattern recognition is how we deduce danger. It's also how we prosper.

1a. Pattern recognition

Example exercise:

Say your son loves baseball. Ask: what do all the great hitters have in common? What do they all do the same? What do they do differently? When does a manager usually come out to the pitcher’s mound? Why do you think that is?

2. Reverse engineering

Figuring out “what’s required”

It’s nearly impossible to create anything if you can’t first picture it in your mind. Effective thinkers begin with the result in mind and work backward to determine what steps they need to take. The whole informs the parts.

2a. Reverse engineering

Example exercise:

Say you’re building a birdhouse. Before you begin, ask: what will we need to DO to build this birdhouse? What materials might we need? How will we get them? What instructions might we need? How will we find them? What comes first? Why?

DC Coup Analysis Thread 1/

I am doing my 'first thoughts' review & analysis of the Trump attempt of a Dictatorial Coup of America we just witnessed in DC the past few days. This is the first in a SERIES of THREADS. This looks at 'what happened'. This sets the stage

DC Coup Analysis Thread 2/

Before Wednesday 6.1.2021 Trump had been PLANNING and organizing that event. Trump knew it was date when Congress certifies Biden's victory to become next President. Trump is dumb enough, gullible enough & delusional enough to think it could be undone

DC Coup Analysis Thread 3/

Trump KNEW he had lost the actual popular vote. He had sent Giuliani to try to overturn several State elections which failed. Trump had come to believe, that on 6.1.2021 Congress COULD overturn the popular vote, and make Trump the President.

DC Coup Analysis Thread 4/

Any sane adult who tried to tell Trump the truth, was met with a petulant child who puts his hands over his ears and yells 'lalalalalala, I can't hear you'. Sadly a group of sick bastard liars egged Trump on into his delusions like Giuliani, Ted Cruz..

DC Coup Analysis Thread 5/

...Sadly a group of sick bastard liars egged Trump on into his delusions like Giuliani, Ted Cruz, Hannity & Lindsey Graham - convincing Trump that he CAN BE MADE PRESIDENT inspite of losing the popular vote, through that date 6.1.2021 in Congress

We think of this planet, the sun, our solar system, all of this around us as a somewhat stable even static background against which we live.

But our star and solar system have a temporary impermanent existence just like we do. The sun is about half-way through its lifespan...

After about 4.5 billion years of life so far, our sun is living through a relatively stable part of its life in middle-age.

But in about 5 billion years it will run out of hydrogen. It will expand to become so large that it will envelope the Earth.

After enveloping Mercury, Venus, and perhaps even Earth our sun will burn as a Red Giant in its final phases of life.

Over millions of years, a blink of an eye relative to its lifespan, our sun will flash and shrink and grow and shrink again and change our entire solar system.

Cold planets far away from the sun might be warmed, and ice may become atmospheres or oceans on them.

As the sun ejects mass, creating a planetary nebula, the core will heat up and then cool.

Eventually our sun will be a white dwarf.

For trillions of years the white dwarf that used to be our warm, life-giving, sun will radiate away all of its remaining energy. Cooling, dying, crystallizing, until it is dark and lifeless.

A black dwarf, the corpse of our sun, will be all that remains.

In his recent article, @cjsnowdon claims that England's November lockdown was a good example of lockdown effectiveness. Let’s look at that claim using the ONS death-by-date registration data which have now been updated for the relevant period.

Although there is some uncertainty over the average lag between infections and death, we should expect any effect of lockdown to be visible in the deaths series after about three weeks.

If the 5th November lockdown had been effective, we might expect a beneficial effect on the deaths trend from about 26 Nov and an adverse effect from about 23 Dec, reflecting the relaxation on 2 Dec.

So what actually happened?

Nationally, deaths peak on 21 Nov, 16 days after the lockdown, almost certainly too early for that to be the cause.

Deaths increase again from 4 Dec implying infections increased right in the middle of the national lockdown.

That increase may be due to the new variant, but we would still expect to see a steeper increase 3 weeks or so after lockdown was released. In fact, there is little if any clear effect on the trend.

When liars like @HawleyMO scream "Cancel Culture!" and "WOKE!" because they are discovering liars and those who attack democracy are in a Consequences Culture, remind them of all the people they tried to cancel for opinions or mistakes, not lying or attacking democracy:.../1

...
1. Dixie Chicks
2. @kathygriffin
3. @Toure
4. Chis Matthews
5. Graydon Carter
6. Bill Maher
7. New York Magazine
8. New York Times
9. Washington Post
10. CNN
11. MSNBC
12. CNBC
13. Dallas Morning News
14. Arizona Republic
15. Univision
16. Apple
17. WSJ editorial board.../2

...
18. Jonah Goldberg
19. NFL players who kneel
20. Harley Davidson
21. Paul Krugman
22. Chuck Todd
23. Facebook
24. Twitter
25. Nordstrom
26. Bed Bath and Beyond
27. TJ Maxx
28. Estee Lauder
29. AT&T
30. Bloomingdale's
31. Rep Tim Rice
32. Cindy McCain
33. Jeff Flake.../3

...
34. Doug Ducey
35. Simon & Schuster
36. French Fries (yes. French fries.)

...the majority of these "cancels" arent because the targets engaged in lying or attacks on Democracy. Many are because they had a political opinion that didn't express fealty to GOP's God King.../4

...or because they expressed an opinion that proved right (France didn't want to be part of the Iraq War, Dixie Chicks criticized Bush for engaging in Iraq War) - a war that the GOP NOW agrees with France and the Dixie Chicks about (And do their best to blame dems for it).../5

Comparing two environmental regulation

Preventing emissions vs improving water quality,

Which one better?

https://t.co/zLrVNWIPXm

What is the Difference?
We certainly often hear the term better to prevent than cure. Of course, we all agree on that. But what about improving quality, is that better than preventing?

A researcher named Dan Pan tries to compare 2 different regulations on environmental impacts.

One of the regulations is based on environmental quality limits. the other is based on the market, but we will call it improving water quality because it gives reward and punishment on environmental performance.

Preventing Emissions:

• Restrictions or closings of companies that violate environmental quality standards

• Restricted areas must protect their water

• Implementing comprehensive water conservation

• Strengthens water recovery and protection

Improving water quality

Give awards to mayors whose evaluation scores are good, and adequate, whose evaluations are bad. There are several parameters defined in determining water quality such as: COD intensity, water quality, and industrial wastewater standards

Seen a lot of people aver the following, "but where are the jobs?" in response to someone asserting the need to incentivize the movement of our people from agriculture to industry.
Well, here's one major part of the big answer: Labour reforms.

Thread👇

I think people haven't fully realised the potential of inducing flexibility in labour laws and reducing the regulatory cholesterol that has tarred our system for decades.

Rajasthan State government introduced the labour reforms in 2014 wrt +

+ raising the threshold levels for applicability of different acts, dispute resolution etc. (Refer to images for a more detailed understanding of the reforms)

Based on this, the Economic survey of 2019 (Chapter 3) notes the following improvements in Rajasthan's MSME network:

1. India has a major problem of dwarf firms i.e. firms that remain small despite being old and are not able to employ more than 10-20 workers.

Well, after the reforms, Rajasthan has witnessed a significant rise in number of firms with more than 100 employees as compared to the rest of India. (refer graph)

2. The number of factories establishing with more than 100 workers were growing on an average of 3.65%, +

I've been working my pitch to better explain how I think we can better understand/eliminate sexual harassment and assault in our force. Buckle up for a thread; also usual disclaimers that I'm not a psychologist, therapist, sociologist, doctor, or lawyer. (+usual TWs) 1/

I suppose what I’m asking for is your feedback, your thoughts, and your criticisms- particularly if you specialize in one of these areas- but try and take it easy on me… understanding my expertise lies in decades of military leadership and not the social sciences. 2/

I believe that fundamental to our understanding is the idea that Sexual Harassment and Assault lie along a "Objectification Spectrum;" (taken from John Rector: recommend). One end of the spectrum is the ideal state of enlightenment, inclusivity, empathy, trust, & equality. 3/

On the other end lies a fundamental lack of empathy, lack of respect for ones existence, dismissive of social and physical autonomy, failure to respect consent, and ultimately, complete dehumanization; all which set conditions for sexual violence to occur 4/

Constantly tugging at us along this spectrum are psychosocial factors driven by our upbringings, societal constructs & influences, psychological makeup, experiences, peer groups, and overall worldview. In this case the most important are toxic masculinity, misogyny, & sexism. 5/

Is it possible to fight against totalitarian statists without ever compromising conservative "principles?" Is it better to play "fair," and constantly lose? Can you grapple with monsters without becoming a monster? That's the question at the heart of the schism on the Right.

While the B sides of the Western phil canon wait here is a thread on The Pantokrator Xenon, the Byz hospital that you cannot hear a lot about at the usual places

The Pantokrator Xenon was established by John II Komnenos in 1136 as a part of the Pantokrator Monastery. Its purpose: to heal the sick of Constantinople

At the same time and the same place gerokomeion (home for seniors) was founded. Xenon and gerokomeion had diff functions

We know a lot about the functioning of the monastery and its charitable institutions thanks to the Typikon of the Imperial Monastery the Pantokrator: the constitution drafted by John II Komnenos

The facilities: no private rooms, 50 beds in 5 sections: fractures and wounds (surgical ward), diseases of the eyes and intestines, ward for women, and two wards for men with other illnesses

People who haven't studied guns tend to assume that the evolution of small arms towards an assault rifle was in someway inevitable.

I'm here to say that this doesn't follow.

In this thread, I'll pickup on the US crossovers I referenced but didn't cash out in my last thread

1/

If you look closely, there is a tendency among some scholars to erroneously link 3 things:

-the qualities of the infantry

-the soldier's capacity to think & use weapons independently

-& the notion of a democratic values

2/

This really struck me when reading Stephen Biddle's really interesting (but obvs I don't agree with it)

The problem with that argument is its underlying technological determinism that implies only democracies can really produce the type of soldier capable of employing weapons like assault rifles.
4/

The argument makes little empirical sense but it also demonstrates a misunderstanding as to how technologies emerge into the military organisation.

5/