Stable Genius Liberal

Grit Trumps Talent and IQ: A Story Every Parent (and Educator) Should Read

according to one Stanford colleague, and a leading voice in the effort to translate into the classroom ideas like hers that self-control and grit, more than talent and IQ, may hold the keys to a better life.

This leads me to wonder, how harmful is active and passive discouragement to growing minds? To what extent are bad schools and subtle prejudices the causes of failure?

Biden Reportedly Calls Tea Partiers ‘Crazy’

Vice President Joe Biden called the tea party “crazy” and said its adherents have “no judgment” during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, CNN reported.

Biden is in trouble for accidentally telling the truth. The GOP has radically shifted to the right and is no longer interested in anything except posturing and profiteering.

Koch Group Sends Fake Voter Information To Discourage Illinois Voters

This is what actual election fraud looks like.

Sam Harris On the Mechanics of Defamation

Why would it be ethical to drop a bomb on the leaders of ISIS at this moment? Because of all the harm they’ve caused? No. Killing them will do nothing to alleviate that harm. It would be ethical to kill these men—once again, only if we couldn’t capture them—because of all the death and suffering they intend to cause in the future. Why do they intend this? Because of what they believe about infidels, apostates, women, paradise, prophecy, America, and so forth.

Aslan and Greenwald know that nowhere in my work do I suggest that we kill harmless people for thought crimes. And yet they (along with several of their colleagues) are doing their best to spread this lie about me. Nearly every other comment they’ve made about my work is similarly misleading.

Shame on Aslan and Greenwald for taking a cheap shot.

Evidence Connects Quakes to Oil, Natural Gas Boom

He said energy companies can try to prevent human-induced earthquakes by avoiding faults when they inject oil and gas wastewater into the ground and by not pumping fluids too quickly into the ground. “You can reduce the risk of large earthquakes through careful monitoring and planning,” Jackson said. “You can’t make it zero, however.”

This isn’t conclusive just yet, but this can no longer be ignored.

The best proof yet that nobody has actually read Piketty’s book

In other words, very few economists believe that Thomas Piketty’s equation r > g explains the rise in US inequality over the past 40 years. The punchline here, however, is that Piketty’s book does not say that r > g explains the rise in US inequality over the past 40 years.

The best criticisms of Piketty have not come from the media or right wing hacks. They’ve come from policy wonks in the center.

Untitled

How Budget Cuts Cost Us An Ebola Vaccine I would have titled this Did Budget Cuts Cost Us An Ebola Vaccine? as it isn’t clear that we any of the 2002 vaccines would have worked nor is it clear that it isn’t just flaws in the NIH priorities. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Far-Right Texas Terrorist Planned Murder And Robbery Spree in the Name of ‘Liberty’

Robert Talbot, Jr.—who was arrested in March after the FBI had closely tracked his alleged scheme to launch a violent “American Insurgent Movement,” including alleged plans to kill police officers, rob armored cars, and blow up mosques—will appear in federal court Friday.

…

where he met the three other members of “Operation Liberty.”

Liberty.

Jim, Another peaceful lover of liberty

If Hong Kongers were allowed to vote, they would vote against the capitalism that made them wealthy …
I urge the Chinese government to drive tanks over the protestors while maintaining the utmost respect for Hong Kong’s traditions and the two systems agreement.

That’s from

Jim’s Blog
Liberty in an unfree world

Yep, another lover of liberty that is totally OK with a state using violence on peaceful protesters.

Secret Deficit Lovers

Deficit scolds actually love big budget deficits, and hate it when those deficits get smaller. Why? Because fears of a fiscal crisis — fears that they feed assiduously — are their best hope of getting what they really want: big cuts in social programs. A few years ago they almost managed to bully the nation into cutting Social Security and/or raising the Medicare eligibility age; they even had hopes of turning Medicare into an underfinanced voucher program. Now that window of opportunity is closing fast.