Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

Anyone who knows even the slightest thing about economics.  Not only did we know it was coming, we said this would be the result of the so-called #FightFor15.  Good job, economic illiterates.  I'm sure these newly-unemployed restaurant workers are on your side.

NYC:

Last December, the final phase of increasing the minimum wage in New York City to $15 per hour went into effect. (Well, at least the last stage for now.) It was considered a huge victory for the Fight for 15 crowd and, presumably, a big win for workers, particularly in the foodservice industry. So how has that been working out since then? As the New York Post reported this weekend, the law of unintended consequences has come roaring into play. They feature the story of one taco and tequila joint on the upper west side that’s been doing a thriving business for a quarter of a century. But now it’s all coming to an end, and they’re far from the only restaurant feeling these effects.

Unintended, but entirely predictable consequences.

SF:

San Francisco is known as a haven for good food, but restaurants in the city are increasingly finding it hard to stay open...

"The way people order food, you know online, put a lot of price pressures on us," Mitra explained, "So they took our margins away, so we are giving up 25-30 percent of our prices to the delivery companies."

On top of that, he said, the high cost of living, along with employee benefit requirements by the City, has led to increased business costs.

I'm sure those aren't the only cities.

Not Tired Of All The Winning Yet

Doesn't affect me, but it does affect a lot of my fellow Californians who make a lot more money than I do (and vote the wrong way, too):

On Monday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by four states against the IRS, thwarting four blue states’ challenge against a new $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, also known as SALT...

They alleged that the new limit on the SALT deduction, part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, was “an unconstitutional assault on states’ sovereign choices.”

In the dismissal, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken in Manhattan said the plaintiff states ultimately failed to show that the SALT cap was unconstitutionally coercive or that it imposed on their own sovereign rights...

“The bottom line is this policy is unprecedented, unlawful, punitive and politically motivated — and it must be stopped,” he (NY governor Andrew Cuomo) said. “We disagree with the court’s decision and are evaluating all options including appeal.”

I'm sure the rest of the country is happier not subsidizing spendthrift coastal blue states' profligacy.

How To Apologize

The politically-correct way to apologize is to issue a "non-apology apology", to apologize "if I hurt/offended anyone" rather than "to those I hurt/offended".  It's clearly not sincere, nor is it intended to be so.

This family knows how to issue a genuine apology:

The sixth-grade girl at a private school in Northern Virginia who accused three classmates last week of forcibly cutting her hair now says the allegations were false, according to a statements from the girl’s family and the principal at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield.

School officials met with the girl and her family Monday morning before releasing the statement.

The 12-year-old, who is African American, had said three white boys at the school held her down in a school playground a week ago during recess, covered her mouth, called her insulting names and used scissors to cut her hair.

The grandparents of the girl, who are her legal guardians, released an apology Monday.

“To those young boys and their parents, we sincerely apologize for the pain and anxiety these allegations have caused,” the grandparents wrote in a statement sent to The Washington Post by the school. “To the administrators and families of Immanuel Christian School, we are sorry for the damage this incident has done to trust within the school family and the undue scorn it has brought to the school.

“To the broader community, who rallied in such passionate support for our daughter, we apologize for betraying your trust.

“We understand there will be consequences and we’re prepared to take responsibility for them,” the statement continued. “We know that it will take time to heal, and we hope and pray that the boys, their families, the school and the broader community will be able to forgive us in time.”

Good parenting by example.

University Graduation Rates

When Democrats go after colleges and universities with low graduation rates, or propose that schools have "skin in the game" regarding graduation rates, for some reason they always go after private schools.  Public universities, coincidentally (I'm sure) with staffs who donate overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates, are completely ignored.  While I've stated many times that the government should get out of the student loan business (let banks, whose business it is to determine risk and lend money, lend the money), and that I don't believe universities should have "skin in the game" regarding graduation rates, you have to wonder why even Democrats wouldn't want to discuss schools like this:

In fact, one state is responsible for all four-year public colleges with graduation rates under 1 percent for Pell Grant recipients. The next lowest graduation rate is nearly 4 percentage points higher...

For the 2016-2017 year, the most recent data available, Georgia had five public colleges with Pell graduation rates under 1 percent, ranging from Bainbridge State College (0.0 percent and $6.48 million in received aid) to Atlanta Metropolitan State College (0.6 percent and $8.63 million).

Then there's the good news:

The top five public colleges with the best graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients are big names in higher ed: University of Virginia (90.9 percent), College of William and Mary (89.2), UC-Berkeley (89.1), University of North Carolina (87 percent) and University of Michigan (86.9).

UC-Berkeley received far and away the most Pell money that year among those five: $36.78 million. It was also the only one in those five whose enrollment was more than a quarter Pell recipients.

California universities sound even better:

 “Among the 25 four-year public institutions whose students were awarded the highest total amounts in Pell Grants, the Universities of California at Irvine, Davis, and Riverside had the highest graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients,” the Chronicle reports. “The University of Southern California, Howard University, and Syracuse University had the highest graduation rates for Pell recipients among the top 25 four-year private nonprofit institutions.

An Idea So Crazy It Just Might Work

I'm quite convinced that our school's parents would be the ones that would prevent its implementation:

A school said its total ban on pupils using mobile phones has improved exam results and behaviour.

The ban, which has been running for a year, has “made a massive difference” said Ann Webb, headteacher at Ysgol John Bright, in Llandudno .

The strict rule applies at any time during the school day, even during breaks or at lunchtime. Staff are also asked not to use mobile phones in front of pupils.

Mrs Webb said pupils are now more sociable and concentrate better in lessons.

And she claimed that the ban, which was introduced in 2018, helped pupils get better GCSE and A level results this summer...

“To be fair once we’ve got this rule established it is just not an issue during the school day at all. You will not see a student with a mobile phone.

“I genuinely think the pupils have welcomed the break from social media and, because the situation is clear cut, everybody complies. It’s a black and white rule that’s applied consistently.”

Chair of governors Carla Forfar said: “It’s probably no accident that we’ve had some cracking results this summer, both at A level and GCSE.

Update, 9/29/19: California has a law:

California public and charter schools can now ban students from using smartphones in class and at school, except under certain circumstances.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 272 in early July.

The new law asks all school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to come up with smartphone policies to limit or prohibit student use at school...

The bill’s author, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D- Torrance), said, “There is growing evidence that unrestricted use of smartphones by students in schools interferes with the educational mission of the school, lowers pupil performance, particularly among low-achieving pupils, promotes cyberbullying, and contributes to teenage anxiety, depression, and suicide. .”

Again, I'm convinced that the parents at my school would march with pitchforks if we tried to implement such a rule.  Our district switches from traditional to integrated math and buys the worst possible textbooks, no problem.  Take away someone's ability to text their kid during school, though....

It's Sad When SJW Idiocy Seeps Into The Hard Sciences

I expect social "science" instructors to believe in loony social justice theories, but those of us in the hard sciences--where knowledge and logic are supposed to reign--should be safe from such idiocy:

Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem or pi in geometry class perpetuates white privilege by giving the “perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”

That’s what Rochelle Gutierrez argues in her new anthology for math teachers, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.”

Rochelle Gutierrez is a Professor of Latina/Latino Studies.

One Hit Wonders

An interesting list of one-hit wonders, and I knew them all!

What Will The Penalties Be?

Instead of insisting that disciplinary policies are racist, perhaps we should realize what hundreds of generations of our forebears knew:  that without insisting on rules, humans devolve into chaos.  You don't get better behaved children with less discipline.

This is just a sad story:

A California middle school student has been declared brain dead from injuries sustained during a fight at school last week, authorities said.

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday 13-year-old Diego, whose last name has not been released, was pronounced clinically dead despite "rigorous medical intervention and treatment efforts"...

The video, which was shared on social media, reportedly showed two teenagers punch Diego. As he fell to the ground, his head hit a concrete pillar. Fox 11 reported that that the first teen who hit Diego punched him again before fleeing the scene.

The two students involved in the attack, who have not been publicly identified because they are minors, were arrested on the day of the fight and remained in custody at a juvenile facility, according to the sheriff's department.

Additional counselors will be at Landmark Middle School to help students and staff "cope with the grief that will spread throughout the community," the station reported, citing a spokeswoman with The Moreno Valley Unified School District.

After they deal with the grief, perhaps they'll clamp down on fighting.  Home suspensions, anyone?  Let the parents deal with such idiocy as fighting.

The New New New Math!

If only they'd thought of this back in 1957, when the Sputnik scare galvanized mathematicians to create the first "new math":

Math teachers: What if you could use the colorful stories of comic books to teach multiplication, prime numbers, and linear equations? Would you?

What's that you say? You don't think there are any comics-based materials for math? You say you're jealous of your language arts and social studies colleagues when they use smash-hit graphic novels like Smile, Dog Man, and Maus? You envy your science colleagues when they reach for books like The Manga Guide to Physics and The Cartoon History of the Universe?

Most math teachers don't think that engaging, visually appealing books like these are an option for them.

"Are things like that really out there?" said Brandi Green, who teaches math at Sharon-Mutual High School in rural Mutual, Okla. "Because I'd love to use them."

In the past 15 years, comic books and their longer cousins, graphic novels, have hit the big time in language arts and social studies classes and, to a lesser degree, in science. But they're just now tiptoeing into math classrooms.

No, we're not dumbing education down, not at all.

Soon, No One Will Remember Greta What's-her-name, Either

Do you remember Severn Cullis-Suzuki, the child who addressed the UN about climate issues in 1992? Watch the video:

I just dug up this clip from 1992...

Severn Cullis-Suzuki's speech to the UN in 1992 on climate change sounds an awful lot like Greta Thunberg's in 2019.

I cut the two together to show just how similar the language is....

Thunberg does not present well.  At least Cullis-Suzuki doesn't sound stark raving mad.

Update, 10/8/19:  To use a term that's popular amongst the lefties today, I'm enjoying the intersectionality of this:

Supporting Greta Thunberg is evidence of 'white supremacy', activists claim

Vice Principals Must Be Different Nowadays

Back when I was in high school, students didn't want to go to the office.  They avoided the principal and his henchmen/women, the vice principals, like the plague.  The office was somewhere you didn't want to be.

Today in different classes I was being so unfair to a couple students that they got up, packed their belongings, and told me they were going to go talk to the vice principals. 

In effect, two of my students sent themselves to the office.  That's a new one for me.

Living In The 3rd World

It's 2019, and in the Democratic Peoples Republik of Kalifornia, electricity gets shut off when the wind blows:

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for much of Northern California, including part of Sacramento County, as high winds are set to increase fire danger Monday through Wednesday...

The weather service’s previously issued fire weather watch was upgraded shortly after Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Saturday that it may pre-emptively shut off power in the region.

As many as 67,000 PG&E customers in Butte, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sutter and Yuba counties could be affected by a power shutoff.

That's right. There was a horrific fire last year, and in order to prevent a repeat, Pacific Gas and Electric just shuts off electricity to people in a First World country for up to days at a time. Where else is this done? Is Northern California the only place with high winds and electric transmission lines?

Remember this the next time someone tells you that the rest of the country should follow California's lead.

Update, 9/25/19:  50,000 people had their electricity shut off today.

Free Speech

I'm sure we're all at least a little guilty of letting misdeeds pass if they're done by "our" side, but point and holler and yell when they're done by the other side.  Additionally, what seems perfectly reasonable to us in one instance is entirely unacceptable when the shoe is on the other foot.

So lefties, this one is for you.  Now do you understand how offensive we on the right find burning the flag?  Or is that just why you do it?  (And how do you justify releasing all that carbon into the atmosphere when you do so?)

The Mall

I met a friend for lunch at "the mall" yesterday, and after lunch we wandered down its length so I could use my bank's ATM.  There were tables staffed with Sanders people at both ends of the mall.  I assume this vehicle belonged to one of them:

It's a strange person who likes a politician so much that they're willing to plaster their car with this many bumper stickers.

Causing Anxiety In Children

It's a form of child abuse to cause terror in children, but with our "active shooter drills" in schools and the "earth is dying" crap from the global warmers, that's exactly what's happening:

Children today should be enjoying their youth. They arguably live in the greatest time ever, with unparalleled access to information, connectivity around the globe, advances in health care and tremendous opportunity. But instead of embracing optimism, the adults in their lives are filling them with fear.

In the last few weeks, from town halls on climate change to “climate justice” marches, I have seen scores of children – some teens, some squarely of elementary school-age – proclaim their anxiety about the world ending...

While it is great for children to learn to be responsible global citizens and take care of our planet, there’s a positive and responsible way to communicate that.

I recall in my own childhood celebrating Earth Day, where we raised money to help plant more trees (something that actually helps the environment, by the way) and learned about recycling, all without having the living daylights scared out of us.

Adults can deliver the message of taking care of the planet and have an impact doing so with positive language and outcomes instead of nihilistic ones.

In a sane society, children wouldn't be political pawns.

Update:  A similar view:

The leadership of the climate cult is made up of adults who privately know better and children manipulated by people they’re supposed to be able to trust. They’re a doomsday cult that continually moves the goalposts.

Anti-Religious Bias, or Insanity?

"First, do no harm."  Throw that out in the Demokratic Peoples' Republik of Kalifornia:

Stating that California’s interest in fighting discrimination against LGBTQ residents outweighs the right to impose religious standards on healthcare, an appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against the Catholic hospital chain Dignity Health for barring a hysterectomy for a transgender patient.

The lawsuit was brought by Evan Minton, whose hysterectomy was abruptly canceled by Dignity’s Mercy San Juan Medical Center of Carmichael, Calif., in 2016 when hospital officials learned he was transgender. The hospital took the action to comply with the church’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which prohibit sterilization procedures except in very narrow circumstances.

I guess we can change the Hippocratic Oath from "first, do no harm" to "if it feels good, do it".

This author sees the next logical step as forbidding medical providers from discriminating against those with "transablism":

There is a terrible mental illness known as “body identity integrity disorder” (BIID), in which afflicted able-bodied persons obsess that their true selves are disabled. These tormented people believe themselves to be imposters for having normally functioning bodies and yearn desperately to be made disabled with the condition that they believe their “true selves” to possess. This desire can express as an obsession to have an arm amputated or to be blinded. Some even yearn to have their spinal cords severed so they can be paralyzed and use a wheelchair. So, I ask again, what is the essential difference between a biological male existentially identifying as a female demanding body-modifying surgery and an ambulatory person who perceives her true self to be an amputee also wanting an operation to attain the desired physical state?

Not surprisingly, BIID sufferers don’t see any and are demanding their right to receive body-altering surgeries. There is even a “BIID community,” complete with websites and advocacy memes. Indeed, understanding the raw political power of lexicon, many now call themselves “transable,” an obvious means of equating their own subjective obsessions as the metaphorical caboose coupled behind the racing transgender cultural train. As with transgenderism, policy advocates now assert that BIID is not a mental illness but the consequence of an organic brain condition.

There are lots of anti-social behaviors that are the consequences of "an organic brain condition", but as yet we haven't normalized them (sociopathy being one)--how long will it be before Cali-unicornia does, in fact normalize them? 

This state is Dystopia.

So-called White Privilege Isn't Even A Thing

The total number of students in the audience for the first “White Consciousness Conversation,” held Sept. 10, was nine — but two were students there not as participants but as journalists mainly to observe. One was from The College Fix and another from the Niner Times campus newspaper...

With that, it appears the relatively new “White Consciousness Conversations” at UNC Charlotte, which boasts a student population of nearly 30,000, drew .02 percent of its student population.  link

Why do the rest of us tolerate their silliness?  I for one am willing to let people entertain their silly ideas as long as they don't try to enforce those ideas on me (which, of course, the left always does).  Holding the idea isn't the problem, the fascist desire to enforce those ideas on the rest of us is.

I'm reminded of an old quote about people and their beliefs:

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect the theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

--Henry L. Mencken

A Pareto Diagram

In statistics, and its manufacturing cousin Statistical Process Control, a Pareto Diagram is a chart that graphs problems or errors in a process, by frequency of occurrence.  The bars on the graph are ordered by frequency, meaning the most common problem is shown first, followed by the next most serious problem, all the way down to the smallest problem.  The purpose of such a chart is to show you where you get the biggest bang for your "fix a problem" buck--in other words, you always attack the biggest problem first.

If your global warming hysteria doesn't address China, you're not serious about the climate so-called problem that you claim to care about:

Since 1965, no country has put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the United States. The 264 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide the U.S. has emitted to the atmosphere represented 22.5% of global emissions during that time, and was well ahead of the cumulative 216 billion metric tons from the European Union (EU). In second place among countries was the 188 billion metric tons emitted by China...

China's emissions passed those of the U.S. in 2005, and by 2012 had surpassed the combined contribution of both the U.S. and the EU. Should recent trends continue, China will be responsible for the most atmospheric carbon dioxide in less than 20 years.

Lefties Are Going To Get Whiplash, Changing Their Positions So Fast

Poop and needles all over the streets and sidewalks.  This is San Francisco.

Case in point, San Francisco is a dumpster of feces and used drug needles. Literally, hundreds of thousands of used needles a month get thrown onto the streets and they are overwhelming those tasked with picking them up. California’s ordinances on the homeless are only making matters worse, as the police can not move people off public sidewalks, leading to shanty towns popping up in business and residential areas. There’s even a law which says shop-lifting under $900 of merchandise is only a misdeamenor, which means thieves are able to walk into stores and take whatever they want up to that point with little chance of arrest or pursuit.

It’s just a mess. You know what else it is? Bad for the environment. Used needles, trash cities, and human feces are things you’d think the left would join with Republicans on in agreeing they are bad and have to go. But nah, they are complaining that the EPA is going to cite the violations and start fining cities for not doing their jobs.

Naturally, because Trump must be opposed, this has drawn gnashing of teeth from the left, who’ve suddenly decided they don’t like the EPA anymore after treating it as a sacrosanct, quazi-religious organization throughout the Obama years.

Smart people have said the Left isn't going to like living under the rules they've made--and they don't.

Candace Owens at Hearing on Confronting White Supremacy

This is why conservatives love Candace Owens.  She doesn't cower before liberals, she calls them out on their BS.

Watch the whole thing, it's only 5 minutes long.