Thursday links
Thursday, October 11th, 2012- Obama staffer: vote early and often. (H/T O)
- Those prescription drugs in your emergency kit might last longer than you think. Maybe decades longer. (I’d be cautious, though, especially with antibiotics.)
- Why is the Taliban so scared of little girls? And why are Muslim leaders always so quiet about monstrous acts like this?
- So, Barack, you wanna debate civil liberties?
- Why do Ashkenazi Jews tend to have such high IQs? Interesting speculations.
- I’ve been having trouble getting around to several things, including a review of Wendy McElroy’s new book, The Art of Living Free. So just let me say a big amen to Wally Conger’s review.
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October 11th, 2012
Most prescription Rx is dated by the military standard, which supposes and the worst storage standards imaginable. I have pain killers that are five years old and still work just fine even though the use by date was some time in 2010. If drugs are stored in a cool, dry place they can last for years beyond their use by date.
October 11th, 2012
The shelf life of various medicines are generally very conservatively rated-most will last a couple years past their expiration date, but it’s a gamble. Asprin that smells like vinegar is gone, but cough medicines seem to hold up well. I suppose temperatures/humidity have a lot to do with it(would keeping them in the fridge/freezer extend their lives?).
As to why Ashkenazi Jews tend to have higher IQs? My guess is genetics, influenced by other factors-mainly high expectations. We’ve all seen what low expectations can do, couldn’t high expectations work in a positive manner? Just a guess.
October 11th, 2012
“For the Taliban, an outspoken, freethinking 14-year-old girl is the beginning of the end.”
This.
October 11th, 2012
Ashkenazi Jews: It’s not the average IQ I find so impressive (I generally clock in in the 135-140 range, and I’m still a complete screw-up) as the list of _accomplishments_.
Taliban: Clearly their masculinity is threatened by girls whose clitorises (clitorisii?) are bigger than their penises.
October 11th, 2012
“we haven’t talked about the fact that my opponent feels comfortable with Washington making decisions about women’s health care that women, Michelle tells me, are perfectly capable of making themselves.”
This from the man who passed Obamacare?
Women who buy the nonsense that government health care will give them choices REALLY need to talk to some veterans, and see how much choice they have with VA health care.
October 11th, 2012
Politicians who dictate to people what foods they will and will not eat, are claiming their opponant will “take away women’s choices”. Yeah, not Orwellian at all…..
October 11th, 2012
I’ve just received the last catalog from Lindsay Books. I said the last catalog, not the latest one, the LAST one. The publishing owner has announced his coming retirement beginning the day after Feb. 28. So the company is going the way of Loompanics. A shame.
http://www.lindsaybks.com/
For those of you who don’t know. This is a book company which published books on how to make and build stuff, some from scratch. Mostly focusing on metalworking, blacksmithing, some woodworking, basic electrical stuff. Even some stuff on how to make booze. ; )
October 11th, 2012
Jim, I got that catalog today, too. I’ve been buying and _using_ Lindsay books for twenty years. On the one hand, I’ll miss them. On the other hand, I’m glad for him that he can _afford_ to retire.
Get books while you can (although it looks like someone is already arranging to pick up some of Lindsay’s stock): Jim didn’t mention some of the stuff they carry: homesteading, general self-sufficiency, home-built wind power, battery care, charcoal production, wood/producer gas systems, food preservation, sausage making, cheese making…
Most of what they sell are old, copyright-expired tech books, so the techniques generally don’t call for the latest modern whiz-bang tools (and if you need specialized tools, they’ve got books on building _those_).
October 12th, 2012
The taliban’s misuse of a religion, anti Western anything fear, only thinly disguises outright barbarianism and an intense hatred for women. It may turn out that in the haste to shut up Malala (so she wouldn’t influence any of her peers) they launched the “beginning of the end of themselves” that could result if she dies. Assuming the (rest of the) women have the courage and strength of conviction; what has happened to Malala (alive or dead) could be the rallying point to trigger a change in how their women are treated.
That’s my wishful thinking more than an expectation of changing centuries of “the way things are”, unfortunately.
October 12th, 2012
Good links today, Claire, especially the Daily Caller and Reason links. Wanted to pass a link along to you, but couldn’t find an email address anywhere. An interesting, if scary, article on American Ideology: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/10/american-ideology-we-dont-prac.html
As for the comments I keep hearing/seeing on group X hating subset Y of the population, I had someone point out to me years ago the fact that many things perceived as hate are only in fact positions and actions taken on the basis of deeply held personal beliefs specifically which include the concept of a soul and some sort of eternal punishment.
To the subject at hand – The Taliban don’t hate women. They fervently believe that various things displease the being that they think created everything, and that allowing those things to exist creates a mortal danger for them and their loved ones, some of whom are women.
The hate isn’t the cause. The hate is a symptom.
October 12th, 2012
“They fervently believe that various things displease the being that they think created everything, and that allowing those things to exist creates a mortal danger for them and their loved ones, some of whom are women.”
So they’re sort of like Liberals and Obama, then. With beards and unusual headwear.
October 12th, 2012
Mike, thanks for the link. I saw that PBS piece yesterday but didn’t, and still don’t, know what to make of it. Aside from the fact that the writer is an 85-year-old ultimate insider, I don’t perceive it as … well, saying anything. I mean, aside from the fact that so many of us fail to worship government enough. But then, we knew that.
But you said a bunch with those comments about the Taliban and similar fanatics.
I’m with the folks hoping this latest outrage is the beginning of the end not just for the Taliban, but for bloody fanatics the world over. But not holding my breath …
October 12th, 2012
Jews were banned from owning land in most of Europe right up until the late 1700′s. They were also barred from most agricultural enterprise. Ironically it is why they ended up cash rich whilst most European ‘nobles’ were land rich but cash poor. Consquently they took out loans from Jewish banks and moneylenders. When the ‘nobles’ latest venture or war failed it became a good time for a pogrom! After all you don’t have to repay loans to the dead or banished. It is also why many Jews went into law and medicine as these professions were not regulated by the guild system but more by results. I suspect that this need to be intelligent, hardworking and creative has more to do with the matter than any ‘ magic ‘ DNA. It hasn’t stopped them being the world’s whipping boy though!!!
As for the Taliban they are just following the literal word of Mohammed. In today’s daily mail there is another story about child brides in Afghanistan. But again the west fails to undertstand that they are merely following mohammmeds example as he married aisha when she was 6 and consummated the marriage when she was 9. On a side note Saudi law accepts that the age of puberty for girls is 8 3/4 but for boys it is 12. The reasons for this are quite transparent though one must not offend Muslim sensitivity! My first wife who passed away a couple of years ago was from Gaza and though from a Christian family could recite examples of such backward islamic laws all day long.