The New Coffee Room

klot is slightly less loveable than one might hope.

@jon-nyc said:

Seems like the woke might complain about it too. By excluding Europeans from the map, it's basically saying they're actual Americans, not 'ethnics'. 'Ethnicity' is for other people.

If they haven't complained by now about the fact that Europeans can't talk positively about their heritage, then they're not going to. It's been an existing irony for decades. Far from new to this map situation.

The gym I got a day pass to in Florence was not good, staffed by deliberately unhelpful eurotrash, taking their hourly smoke breaks outside. Little or no air conditioning. No water fountain. Top floor with the free weights was sweltering. The people working out were nice, but the staff was deliberately unhelpful garbage. I had heard that Florence people were generally into fitness, but you wouldn't know it from that gym.

Better than the hotel "gym" though.

None of which is relevant to the point, and none of which klot is smart enough to understand why.

Beware the Streisand effect. I'm sure it would feel good to pretend that the major networks not covering it will do something to remove it from the public consciousness, but that is wish casting.

Mamdani's ethnic map of NYC. 30 ethnicities, two of which are traditionally low melanin. Ukraine and Poland. No mention of Italians or Irish. Quiet part said out loud. Most of you with European heritage don't really have any heritage at all. If you think you do, then you're racist.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/mayor-mamdani-s-map-of-nyc-immigrant-neighborhoods-sparks-outrage-for-ignoring-little-italy/ar-AA27vM6o?ocid=BingNewsSerp

@jon-nyc said:

@klot Are you trying to tell us that the picture of McConnell with Elvis, The Duke, and Michael Jackson is AI generated???

Seems pretty cynical.

Klot echoes my understanding of the issue. Which is to say, protein is a non-issue for kidneys in healthy people.

@89th said:

@Horace said:

Sort of the polar opposite of self-serving motivated trash like Why Does College Cost So Much.

Hey, was it here? I can't recall, but the author Feldman back in 2010 had worked with me to help with his book cover design. I think he used to post in TNCR back then. Looking back, my design was garbage, glad it wasn't used!

Doesn't ring a bell.

I think Jon has mentioned the fact that school loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy as well. Making the loans less risky for the lender and thus the money to pay for college easier to get.

Then there are ties to Caplan’s book about how the signal is prerequisite for a career, artificially inflating demand for the “education”.

@Klot said:

@Horace I put words in your mouth there. You called one book good and one bad — never said the theses conflict. Question still stands: which explains more of the actual tuition curve?

I see no reason to doubt the common answer of administrative bloat.

I did not mean that the claims are mutually exclusive.

Klot is referring to Bryan Caplan’s The Case Against Education, which is excellent and very readable. Sort of the polar opposite of self-serving motivated trash like Why Does College Coat So Much.

I think it's also about falling rocks.

public servants gotta publicly serve.

@Andrea-B First comment is a conspiracy theory. The country has gone mad.

George would appreciate the helmet.

Candace talks so much about how "they think we're stupid", that's such a cornerstone of her rhetoric, I have to believe that of all the pundits out there, she has deliberately targeted the double digit IQ crowd (half the population is a nice chunk of economic value). Dumb people want to feel smart, she has that exactly right. It's a powerful attractor to her show.

Never been a huge fan of the "selflessly serving your country" narrative for politicians or, to a lesser extent, military. In a capitalist society, there's no obvious distinction between private sector successes and politicians in terms of the value to the country. Politicians are compensated highly with power and respect and ultimately, access to money one way or the other. Graham had a very successful career. The notion that it means something one way or the other about his moral character just on the basis of the military -> politics path in the abstract, is a stretch. Few count police officers amongst those who devote their lives to public service, but those who do their jobs correctly have more of a claim to devoting their lives to public service than do military or politicians, on the basis of sacrifice to compensation ratio.

I'm only talking about today's military of course. The kids who volunteered for WW2 are a different story.