Uncouth Reflections

Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

• I got a kick out of this Steve Sailer piece on the Niall Ferguson-John Maynard Keynes controversy.
• Hoping to eventually pick up this new release from TASCHEN. I love TASCHEN. I just wish I wasn’t too much of a cheap skate to buy most of their books.
• Should we pay people to cook at home? Not sure I understand the concept. Home cooking is already incentivized — it’s cheaper. Often healthier, too. And yet people aren’t doing it. Would taxes change that?
• A taste of the horror that is toy shopping with a feminist. Somehow, this woman thinks that boys playing with lawnmower toys and girls playing with shopping cart toys will consign her daughters to a lifetime of servitude.
• In the wake of a the Boston Marathon bombing, a terrorist act by a couple of radical Muslim immigrants, the Southern Poverty Law Center has sounded the alarm about homegrown militia groups, which have recently increased by 100 million percent or something along those lines. Lest we forget, the linked piece reminds us that the SPLC is a non-profit organization. Founder Morris Dees seems to be living pretty well on those non-profits. (H/T Jack Donovan)
• If you’re a big, important person — in Moldbuggian terms, a pillar of the Cathedral — and you get in some trouble, what you’ll want to do is organize a committee or a board or a review of some kind. Then you’ll want to staff it with other Cathedral pillars who are more or less sympathetic to your aims and biases. These folks you appoint will love the exposure you’ve given them — they’ll be honored to be looked to as experts and above-reproach investigators. And when they assign their underlings to investigate your activities, they’ll likely find . . . not a whole lot — especially if they don’t even bother to question certain key actors. (As our president knows, when faced with hard questions, the best defense is to never allow yourself to be questioned.) From that point forward, whenever the press — another arm of the Cathedral — asks one of your mouthpieces about the controversy, he can wave his hands and say: “Doncha know that was looked into by a highly respected team of important and prestigious so and sos? This issue has been put to bed. What are you stupid or something?”
• Bitcoin for boobies.
• I’m pretty sure the rise in obesity correlates pretty closely with the rise in the popularity of fake butter (i.e., margarine). But we’re not supposed to notice that. We’re only supposed to know that butter is bad, like whole milk and red meat and eggs and lots of other stuff that people have enjoyed eating for thousands and thousands of years. We’re also supposed to know that the government encouraging us to eat around 87 helpings of carbs every day has nothing whatsoever to do with obesity and diabetes. I’m glad I know all this stuff. It’s good for me.
• All your database are belong to us. I wonder: Will this be the Trojan Horse that big government needs to regulate the internet in a more stringent manner?
• It’s funny how easy it is for people to read the emotions of other mammals. This video is a case in point. I can see that the cat is feeling relaxed and pretty happy, and that he’s looking to engage in some friendly cuddling. The owl, though — I have no fucking idea what’s on his mind. Birds and reptiles are just really goddamn alien.
• Related.
• Just how accurate are wine tasters? I’m sure there are many who are quite good at what they do. Still, it seems to me that being an “expert” — in any field — comes down to being able to convincingly act the part.
• Related: An incredible story from last year involving wine forgery.