Month: September 2022

Following the Science at Columbia University

by philg

Prepping for a deposition last month in an inter partes review, a guy joined the call who is in his first year at Columbia University’s Law School (he knows enough about patents that it would make more sense for him to be teaching at Columbia, but that’s irrelevant for our purposes). Of course, after asking whether his student loans have already been canceled, I asked what percent of the righteous Ivy Leaguers were wearing masks in class. “100 percent,” he responded. “It’s required for at least the first few weeks of the semester.” Are the Scientists wearing N95 masks? “Cloth masks aren’t allowed, but you don’t need an N95 mask. A surgical mask is okay.”

In “COVID-19 Precautions for Fall 2022”, Columbia says “Students are required to be vaccinated” and “Masking will be required everywhere indoors when the COVID-19 risk is high”, but apparently this is an add-on idea that somehow the first part of the semester is the riskiest (students will get cleaner every day that they spend in the respiratory-virus-free environment of Manhattan).

What is our young colleague going to learn? Let’s check in at

They have a statement on the Supreme Court’s latest outrage:

This opinion is a devastating setback for the long-term struggle for sex equality, bodily autonomy, civil rights, and basic dignity for all. While we do not expect progress to be linear, we do expect our highest court to serve as gatekeeper to the foundational values in which our nation is rooted—equality, liberty, dignity, justice—rather than using their power to dismantle well established constitutional norms, causing the pain and suffering of millions in its wake.

Restrictions on abortion are a fundamental equality issue because: (1) Abortion is singled out for more onerous treatment than other medical procedures that carry similar or greater risks; (2) Restrictions further perpetuate harmful and discriminatory gender stereotypes that limit equal participation in society; …

(Is there a medical procedure that carries greater risks to a 33-week-old baby than abortion care (perfectly legal at all stages of pregnancy in Maskachusetts)?)

What if he wants to save $25,000 on his third year? The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page:

The Fellowship in Support of Careers in Racial and Social Justice, provides a $25,000 grant in the fall of the 3L year to J.D. students who intend to pursue racial justice legal work after graduation and/or students of color who intend to pursue other social justice legal work after graduation.

So the tax-exempt federally-funded institution will allocate these $25,000 grants according to race and/or willingness to follow Justin Trudeau’s example. This has to be legal/Constitutional since the Law School knows everything about law.

Separately, here’s an ad posted within our local Costco:

“Air is life. Make it perfect.” Columbia Law School seems to share this perspective. Make air perfect by adding a saliva-soaked mask in front of your face!

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The working class buys a mini-split air conditioner for a homeowner in our old town

by philg

Congress and the Biden administration have signed up the working class to pay for the laptop class’s new electric cars ($7,500 each) and also for the gender studies degrees, and attempted degrees, earned by the children of the laptop class (“no one with a federally held loan has had to pay a single dollar in loan payments since President Biden took office”; studentaid.gov).

These programs raise the question “What else can we make a working class renter pay for?”

I was chatting with the owner of a $2 million house in our old town in the Boston suburbs. She had a mini-split air conditioner installed in an accessory apartment that she will be renting out at the fabulously high market rates now due to property owners. I asked her how much it cost. Her response:

$8800. ENTIRE cost rebated by MassSave. Free mini split.

Several of my homeowner friends up in Massachusetts are making huge profits from their rooftop solar systems. The general rate-payers, including the working class renters, have to buy electricity from them at full retail rates or higher, depending on when the systems were installed.

One friend lives in a 12,000-square-foot compound. He installed a solar system in 2016 that, due to subsidies from those who did not own property and/or did not install solar, was completely paid for within 4.7 years. It is now yielding an annual profit of 23 percent of the after-tax-credit 2016 cost.

I get paid double the value of the electric. I get to both use it and sell it after I use it. I know that makes no sense, but Democrats make the rules in MA.

He tried to explain a complex system in which he fake-sells his clean power to companies that want to fake-claim that they use all renewables, but my head was spinning from all of the market distortions.

Perhaps New Jersey runs the same system. Here’s a car with NJ plates (maybe a coronapanic refugee?) that wonders “I don’t know how many freeloaders I can afford??” (If the driver is part of the working class, Joe Biden just added a lot of college graduates to the list with his cancellation of student loan debt!)

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Rainbow Flagism in Norway

by philg

This was supposed to be the big year for Rainbow Flagism in Norway. Tourists are promised Queer Culture Year 2022:

My 2SLGBTQQIA+ celebration experience got off to a reasonable start. Although I did not notice any rainbow flags in the airport, the underground train station carried an “Oslo PRIDE” backlit billboard:

Once above ground, however, I discovered that the entire city has fewer rainbow flags than a typical white heterosexual suburban town in the Northeast USA. Private initiative in the direction of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community is apparently rare. In fact, I never saw a single private home or automobile displaying the rainbow flag. Here are the only businesses that I observed conforming to the U.S. norm (a restaurant, a bar, and a bookstore with a balloon and umbrella):

As in the U.S., the progression from Christianity to Rainbow Flagism is a short and easy journey. At the downtown cathedral:

The city government itself has painted some benches in a rainbow pattern. King Christian IV of Denmark, the founder of modern Oslo, loved music and dance. Here he is with a bench commemorating his love of Broadway shows:

The Munch museum did not have any rainbow flags, but the bookstore featured the standard Holy Trinity of Victimhood:

I’m not sure if this is desecration of the sacred symbol or not:

If the neighbors aren’t displaying the proper flag, one can wear it:

The Oslo City Museum has an exhibit devoted to Queer Culture Year 2022. A school class for 9th and 10th graders was required to create artistic “queer products”:

A “Gay Kid” is defined as “a boy or a girl who will fall in love with a person of the same sex later on in life.” This statement contains quite a bit of heresy against 2SLGBTQQIA+ dogma. There are only two genders for children? Gender ID and sexual orientation are not fluid?

For completeness, from the adult-oriented content of the exhibit:

The Scandinavian Leather Men sign fails to note the CDC’s Scientific monkeypox-at-the-bathhouse advice: “Leather or latex gear also provides a barrier to skin-to-skin contact; just be sure to change or clean clothes/gear between partners and after use.”

Compared to the Scandinavian Leather Men, how much fun can a heterosexual cisgender man have? Here’s Gustav Vigeland’s example of inner peace achieved via fatherhood:

The Nobel Peace Center bookshop offers some Pride-themed material:

The history museum had an outdoor PRIDE exhibit, but it had been taken down and the only remnants were posters and some books:

(I am confused as to why Frida Kahlo, who became famous after marrying an old guy who was already super famous in her chosen field, is a “hero”. Is her method of getting to the top of the art world something that we think the typical young artist can replicate?)

Where Norway seems most deficient is in restroom labeling. The implication, even in buildings that were completed in 2022, the country’s Queer Culture Year, is that there are only two genders. From the Munch museum (opened 2021):

From the National Museum (opened 2022):

I never saw an “all-gender” or “gender-neutral” restroom.

That’s the report from the world of jet lag. I feel that I am almost accustomed to the time zone here and, naturally, it will be time to get on the Norse Atlantic 787 back to FLL tomorrow.

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A Corvette Z06 order at $90,000 over sticker

by philg

Here’s a new car being sold for $90,000 over sticker. In other words, the dealer gets $100,000 in profit while General Motors accepts perhaps $15,000 in profit.

I still can’t figure out Why aren’t cars (and pinball machines) auctioned as they come out of the factory?

At least the above consumer who signed the deal accepted that vehicle prices are dynamic. Why keep pretending that they’re not?

Separately, who else would love to have a Z06 for trips to Publix?

Related:

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