A person is entitled to change their mind even if there’s nothing wrong with the one they have.
A link to a beautiful photo, if I may say so myself.
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Central bankers around the world are supposed to enact and to implement policy based on mandates such as price stability and full employment. However, some have not only lost their way, but they have lost their minds, as well.
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This Why Evolution Is True (WEIT) post is about an article written by William Deresiewicz in The Chronicle Of Higher Education about the failure of academia. Here is a long passage:
“Over the last 10 years or so, a cultural revolution has been imposed on this country from the top down. Its ideas originated in the academy, and it’s been carried out of the academy by elite-educated activists and journalists and academics. (As has been said, we’re all on campus now.) Its agenda includes decriminalization or nonprosecution of property and drug crimes and, ultimately, the abolition of police and prisons; open borders, effectively if not explicitly; the suppression of speech that is judged to be harmful to disadvantaged groups; “affirmative” care for gender-dysphoric youth (puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones followed, in some cases, by mastectomies) and the inclusion of natal males in girls’ and women’s sports; and the replacement of equality by equity — of equal opportunity for individuals by equal outcomes for designated demographic groups — as the goal of social policy.
It insists that the state is evil, that the nuclear family is evil, that something called “whiteness” is evil, that the sex binary, which is core to human biology, is a social construct. It is responsible for the DEI regimes, the training and minders and guidelines, that have blighted American workplaces, including academic ones. It has promulgated an ever-shifting array of rebarbative neologisms whose purpose often seems to be no more than its own enforcement: POC (now BIPOC), AAPI (now AANHPI), LGBTQ (now LGBTQIA2S+), “pregnant people,” “menstruators,” “front hole,” “chest feeding,” and, yes, “Latinx.” It is joyless, vengeful, and tyrannical. It is purist and totalistic. It demands affirmative, continuous, and enthusiastic consent.
People are fed up, and I don’t just mean people who voted for Trump. . . [The author recounts the story a woman, a black graduate of Berkeley, who called into an NPR station on the air, saying that black people were fed up with being called “racists” when they simply opposed Biden’s policy of nearly open borders.]”
Once again, woke is a cult detached from reality.
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This CNBC article is about yet another retailer backtracking on DEI (Didn’t Earn It) “initiatives” and other woke nonsense, except it’s not just another retailer, it’s Walmart; you know, the largest private employer in the US. The piece lists other retailers who are backing away from these programs, such as Tractor Supply and Molson Coors.
My wonderful wife and I worked for a large investment banking firm. One key tenet in on-boarding new customers is a concept called KYC, which stands for Know Your Customer. The motivation for this idea was to try to prevent fraudulent activity in addition to adding customers who can grow the brand while also fitting the brand. It seems as though companies like Walmart, Tractor Supply, etc. didn’t seem to know their customers when adopting woke strategies. Actually, most of America disagrees with woke.
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This piece from CNBC is about the success of one of my favorite places to eat, In-N-Out. Food service consulting firm Technomic estimates the company is the ninth-largest burger chain by sales in the US DESPITE having locations in only eight states. Of course, two of those are California and Texas, the two most populous states in the US. (In-N-Out is a privately owned company.)
Technomic also estimates that In-N-Out has the highest sales per store in the burger segment. The closest one to our house, about 20 miles/30 minutes away, is almost always packed between 11 AM and 5 PM. (It could be busy even later in the day, but I am almost always home for the day by 5 PM.) That’s one reason I almost always get there before 10:30 AM. Oh, the store hours posted on the door indicate the location opens at 10:30, but it actually opens at 10. I guess that’s part of the mindset that led to the “secret menu,” which is really not secret, anymore.
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Some people–consumed by insecurities, inferiority complexes and resentments–live in a zero-sum world where the only way they can feel better about themselves is to be critical of others.
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I can’t link to the Forbes piece reporting on the new social media ban for those under 16 in Australia because a subscription is required to read it. I can publish some excerpts, though.
The ban—which would allow Australia to fine companies for not preventing children younger than 16 from having accounts—passed 34 to 19 [in the Australian Senate] on Thursday after passing the House 102 to 13 on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. It’s expected to quickly become law, when it will give social media companies one year to prevent those under the age limit from having accounts or otherwise risk being fined $33 million. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the law in an opinion piece Tuesday, positioning “Australia to lead the world” in the safety of young people.
Of course, the big social media companies objected to this legislation, citing “privacy concerns.” They are the BIGGEST violators of privacy in the world!
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This less than recent article from Car And Driver gives much detail about Formula 1’s adoption of synthetic fuels, supposedly to begin in 2026. In the piece is this sentence, “its next generation of engines will be powered by a 100 percent sustainable fuel that F1 later envisions becoming available for mainstream use.”
I have to admit I am a bit worried that, somehow, this will not come to pass as I have not read any recent articles about the change. Anyway, also from the article:
“Instead of continuing with non-renewable gasoline, F1 wants to lead the way toward making internal-combustion engines sustainable. The “drop-in” fuel F1 is developing will be able to be used in any internal-combustion engine without any special modifications. Combustion engines will also continue to be used in the air and sea travel industries—which F1 relies on to carry its cars, supplies, and personnel around the globe—and the series see those as potential applications for the new fuel as well.”
Exxon-Mobil is working on developing synthetic fuels for aircraft, but NOT for automobiles! In a piece published on the Formula 1 website earlier this year, part of it reads:
“…2026 will mark the arrival of a new era for the sport. Not only will there be new cars and new engine regulations, but the mandatory use of 100% advanced sustainable fuels will help pioneer a technological revolution.
These fuels will be game-changing. Known as ‘second-generation’ – because they are not made from food crops or from the land used to grow them – F1’s advanced sustainable fuels must be made from sustainable sources without affecting food production. They could be made from agricultural waste, municipal waste, or forestry waste for example, or by using carbon extracted from algae or captured directly from the air.
As a result, such fuels are carbon neutral. They add no additional carbon to the atmosphere when used, and are designed to be ‘drop-in’ fuels, meaning they can be used in vehicles around the world without modification – not just in Formula 1 cars. The potential to reduce global vehicle emissions using sustainable fuels is enormous.”
The mainstream media, as usual, is committing journalistic malpractice by not reporting on this development. Sadly, large institutions are just as vulnerable to being infiltrated as small ones. While I am not fan of auto racing per se if Formula 1 saves the Internal Combustion Engine from an unnecessary and excessively costly demise then I may start to watch.
#AChangeOfPlans
#WokeIsACult