Blog Archives
1/ My whisky is across the room, and I have a sleeping dog on my lap, so I'll comment on con games and swindles, as promised some days ago.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
2/ Fraud is depriving someone of something, or getting some advantage, by deception—false representation or omission.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
3/ A swindle is a species of fraud, performed within a relationship cultivated for the purpose of fraud.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
4/ E.g. If you turn in fake invoices to your employer, that's fraud; if you got the job with the intention of doing so, it's a swindle.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
5/ A confidence game is a sort of swindle, which is a sort of fraud. But not all swindles are con games. The key is confidence.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
6/ The con man puts his confidence in the mark. He trusts the mark with something, makes her feel like she's getting away with something.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
7/ The mark might feel like she's pulling one over on the con man, or might feel like they are confederates.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
8/ People who aren't greedy might be defrauded or swindled, but they can't be conned. The con relies on the mark's greed.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
9/ You can see the advantage of a con over a swindle: the mark is more invested. Less likely to winkle the con, less likely to drop a dime.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
10/ (As requested.) The difference between long and short cons is not in duration or scope. It's that the long con includes a short con.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
11/ The short con is the con that the con man reveals to the mark, as a show of his confidence in her. The short con is about reciprocity…
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
12/ …if you've read your Cialdini. Once the con man has given the mark his confidence, the mark trusts the con man and feels indebted.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
13/ That trust and indebtedness are what get the mark to open her bank account to the con man.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
14/ I recently watched "Focus," a movie about a con man. But he was really a swindler. I waited in vain for the twist—she was conning him.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
15/ I contend that government is, for the most part, a swindle.
— Hemingway's Shotgun (@MarkWBennett) December 6, 2015
It may seem like I oppose any and all regulation of cigarettes and ecigarettes, but I think this is actually a pretty good use of anti-tobacco energy. Better tax increases, which are probably ineffective, and deceptively named “plain packaging laws” that are repugnant whether effective of not.
While the US continues to go off its rocker on the subject, David Cameron sees ecigarettes as a legitimate path to cessation and an NHS Board has reversed a previous decision to ban ecigarettes on hospital grounds.
In the UK, young people are experimenting with ecigarettes, but non-smokers aren’t regularly using, and according to a survey in the US, American teen users are avoiding nicotine. (Yeah, I’m a bit skeptical on the latter one, but hopeful!)
Coffee reorganizes the brain! Quick! Regulate it! I’ll bet the flavoring they put in it is just to addict children.
This post on the continued strength of piracy makes the faulty assumption that everything pirated should be purchased, but otherwise makes a pretty good point about streaming not being an especially good defense by content-producers against it.
Forensics looks at the link between racial hate crimes and Internet access in the early last decade.
I cannot overstate my complete and total lack of surprise that Japan’s idol industry is sexually coercive. Not entirely unrelated.
Wil Wheaton thinks writers should be paid. I think for Wil Wheaton, that is a good point. Also, Harlan Ellison. The “unique platform” provides more for some than others.
The little cabinet department that could, and did, and almost never found reason to stop doing anything.
I, too, lament the end of the custom of children referring to adults by Mr and Mrs, but that ship has sailed. {A cackling response}
Finland’s schooling sounds almost like unschooling at times, compared to our increasingly rigid regimen.
The TV show Friends is allegedly having a resurgence among New York youngsters.
US News reports on the urban/rural divide on guns. A lot of the interstate comparisons rely a lot on suicide rates. Which is not typically how it is portrayed. There is a similar disconnect on car deaths versus gun deaths.
Many laughs were had at the folks in North Carolina who objected to a solar energy installation for fear it would “suck up all the energy from the sun,” and it’s a pretty ridiculous argument. Dollars to donuts, though, it’s a NIMBY thing and they aren’t well-versed in the NIMBY lingo.
The GAO is accusing the EPA of covertly propagandizing the Clean Water Rule. The CWR got a lot of attention in Arapaho. Uniformly negative, which of course lead to some to wonder why westerners don’t want clean water.
The last of Britain’s coal pits have been shut down.
Monica Potts writes about the downsides to regional economic success, of course referring to pricing out existing residents. If San Francisco wants to help subsidize these folks, I can’t really object so long as they’re not just passing the bill on to landlords. Or asking people everywhere else to help people live in the most expensive part of the country.
Newish mother Bethany Mandel used to like SVU, but can’t really get into it like she used to. I’ve found that being a father has changed the way that I see a lot of TV programs. At some point there will be a post about it.
Are Michael Bay and the CIA conspiring? The comment about one of the Transformers movies being a critique of Obama is interesting. I’d heard it before, but I thought it was one of those cases of conservatives trying to find redemption where they can.
It turns out, legalizing pot leads to more pot-related hospitalizations.
The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at how student loans are subsidizing college athletics programs and its arms race.
Bethany Mandel looks at a study purporting to find that religious kids are less altruistic, and finds it lacking. {More}
How uncharitable is it of me to read this piece as a long, eloquent statement that “I love living in California and hate that other people are ruining it by living here, too.”?
Jason Russell writes of how charter schools may be helping Hispanic kids assimilate.
You never know how much truth there is to a story like this:
One can easily imagine that these sources are from Tebow’s PR department. He has a lot invested in his religiosity. Or it could, you know, be true. Even before I read it in the (lefty-left) comment section of Unfogged, I said to myself “I’ll bet people think he’s gay.”Nothing can deter Tim Tebow from his very public vow of chastity-not even a former Miss Universe.
According to New York Daily News, the Mile-High Messiah has been ditched by his girlfriend of late, the perilously alluring Olivia Culpo. While most men would kill for a shot in the dark with the 2012 Miss Universe, Tebow wasn’t fazed.
Sources say that he stuck to his guns and refused advances made by Culpo, whose taut physique and stunning face are apparently no match for the glory of abstinence. The sultry pageant winner called it quits after two months, when she realized she was fighting an unwinnable battle.
Now, as a general thing, people do choose to be virgins until they’re married. Among the highly religious, as many as one in five do, compared to 3% of the general populace. Of course, many will dismiss that as a bunch of losers who couldn’t get laid if they wanted to. Whatever else one might say about him, Tebow has opportunity. To the point that if he’s not actually having sex, he’s paying an opportunity cost far in excess to the average person. So he must be running a con, right?
My guess is not. Or, if he has had sex, he is being really sparing about it. Because otherwise… I suspect we would have heard about it. Some woman somewhere along the way who felt more jilted than interested in protecting her reputation would have spilled the beans.
That was my take on AC Green, too, when that was a story. It takes a lot of gumption to loudly proclaim your virginity when there are people out there who know different.
To the extent that it is true, it’s hard not to admire his restraint. And there are reasons to wait even apart from religiosity. But it does seem to take some pretty strong religion. And even then, most fail.
As we expand H2B visas, maybe we should consider helping relocate people to these sorts of opportunities?
The Alabama Supreme Court has declared void an adoption by a Lesbian couple. Unsurprisingly, this is going to the Supreme Court.
It’s unfortunate that this Kurt Schlichter piece is so hyperbolic and antagonistic, because underneath the tone is a really good point about the difficulty involved in any gun confiscation. As with unauthorized immigrants, it’s harder to take action when you consider when you consider what would have to be done. Of course, with guns, it becomes a lot easier with a registry.
Women who were fired for being pregnant scored a victory in the courts, though something of a modest one. Meanwhile, an MP in Britain is in trouble for threatening to fire a staff member for taking leave.
It’s hard to monetize being famous on the Internet, because people don’t want to pay for stuff and resent advertisements.
Rachel Lu argues that we no longer see children as regular people, and wonders when we might do so again.
Seattle’s rental market is weakening.
Meet the most bored prisoner in the world.
Gabrielle Glaser takes aim at Alcoholics Anonymous. I hear mixed things about its effectiveness, but I assume regardless it will endure because it makes for good television so it will probably always have popular culture at its back.
According to a new study, if we don’t want young people to smoke, we shouldn’t prohibit youth vaping. I’m… not quite on board with this (supporting an age limit), for what may just be kneejerk reasons or the internalized virtue of the compromise. Also, considering the ethics of ecigarette bans.
Steven Horwitz writes of the fragility of children… a hundred years ago.
Gothamists looks at the Bushwick Polyamory House.
Mr President, I know you’re hard headed, but you’ll never push the building with your cranium. Use your arms like Uncle Joe.
The Facebook declaration by San Bernadino shooter Tashfeen Malik turned out to be mythical, but the prohibition on reading social media posts is in place and it’s honestly rather hard to defend.
Some want Scalia impeached for it, but John McWhorter says that he had a point about affirmative action and mismatch (at least, in certain disciplines). Meanwhile, Sigal Alon at The Nation argues that diversity destroyed affirmative action.
Vox Monday: Crap! Republicans and Democrats think that political identity is fair game for hatred! Vox Thursday: Science demonstrates conservatives buy into conspiracy theories because they’re paranoid cranks!
Ramesh Ponnuru looks at the selective accountability of heated rhetoric and violence.
In the new economy, extreme fiscal responsibility apparently makes you a pitiable asshole.
When it comes to pushing for looser immigrant worker visas, Corporate America really is its own worst enemy. Fortunately for them, they will win out because we all know who opposes immigration.
Woodrow Wilson wasn’t racist despite being a progressive. The two were related.
Donald Trump may have been helped rather than hurt by his Muslim comments. His approvals went up… among Democrats.
Speaking of polls, that one about Agrabah was kind of stacked. Be that as it may, it was successful both in partisan advance and in getting everyone talking about PPP. I expect to see more of this sort of thing.
An anti-war site formerly associated with Jeremy Corbyn is taking a lot of heat for some incendiary articles, including the appearance of: Blaming the west for Paris, praising Daesh’s internationalism, and making an exception of their “no war” policy when it comes to Israel.
Once upon a time, gun control advocates commanded a popular majority. So what happened? Well, tactics and the political map changed. Also, even though the perception of crime is that it’s gotten worse, perhaps the lower crime rates have been internalized to some extent. Whatever the case, people are opposed to the Assault Weapons Ban for the first time in polling history.
This doesn’t sound like a bad deal for a lot of people: Taste whisky… for science!
YouGov looks at what went wrong with the UK election polling, determining that 2/3 of it was expecting energetic young people to actually vote.
A former Romney staffer decided to “troll” a Trump-based focus book, and was pretty stunned and dispirited at what he found. Nate Silver says Trump won’t fade until his coverage does.
Outback of Outback an Outback tows an Outback. pic.twitter.com/ZHiaSxFR4p
— Humblah (@PoguePhilosophy) November 30, 2015
Lyman Stone explains how Palpatine was a failed founder of the Galactic Nation while Paul D Miller and Michael Boyle explain the failures of the rebel counterinsurgency and what they should do next time.
It was certainly a mess, but some of these criticisms of the Galactic Senate actually seem kind of weak to me.
In Jacobin, Sam Kriss argues that there were no Empires and Rebellions, only the evil Force.
A documentary on The War Between The Stars, by Ken Burns. Starring Daniel Drezner and Sonny Bunch.
Scientists explain the Endor Holocaust. Fried Ewoks all around, apparently.
The Kernel looks at what SciFi movies before Star Wars were like, giving some insight into what made Star Wars so revolutionary.
Zachary Feinstein looks at the economics of Star Wars, and why the Rebels failed to capitalize on their success.
It has primary been argued by people on the right that the Empire was actually the defensible good side and the rebellion was full of terrorists, while the left dissented. Maybe this will flip things around. At least as far as Han Solo is concerned.
For the first time in a really long time, we’re going back to visit the family over Christmas. I won’t be absent, but I came to the determination that there is simply no way to keep posting up and enjoy the limited time with the family. Also, I have an insane backlog of Linkluster links. So Linkluster is going to be a daily affair for the rest of the year. There will be other posts here and there, and I very much invite my cobloggers to pitch in.
I will take care to note that the links through this period will disproportionately be those that will have not appeared on Ordinary Times yet or will not appear on Ordinary Times (the latter set more likely than not to be at the top of Linkluster on any given day. Also, Monday’s Linkluster will be a Star Wars edition full of links that won’t be on Ordinary Times.
We’re leaving on Tuesday (though will be pretty busy getting ready between now and then), and I’m getting back on the 31st. Hopefully, I will be rested and re-energized and ready to go on my return.
I tend not to be of the mind that there are too many bowl games, but this year is really testing my patience. Even with my invitationals idea, I am not a fan of 5-7 teams having a post-season. I’m not especially in favor of 6-6 teams. It is a problem that you don’t always know how many teams are going to be bowl eligible, of course. Last year Texas State got burned and this year 5-7 teams are in. The ACC is advocating moving the cut-off to 7 wins with only enough 6-6 teams to fill remaining slots. That seems fair.
The second problem with this bowl season is that the Arizona Bowl will include two teams from the same conference and the Mountain West Conference is irate about it. Understandably so. The NCAA ruled that not only could 5-7 teams go to bowl games, but they would be able to go to their conference’s bowl games instead of being put in a “You’re lucky you’re going bowl game at all” pool. It is another instance of favoritism towards the major conferences at the expense of conferences like the MWC, though the odd thing is that the NCAA had decided not to play favorites when it came to which 5-7 teams could go bowling at all.
The bowl-conference arrangements are the biggest problem with my Invitationals idea, because the bowls have a lot riding on which teams will be showing and a 5-7 Texas is likely to make them more money than a 9-2 Toledo. Which makes doing things by merit difficult.
—
The Mountain West Conference has also made the news by contemplating an expansion, specifically with Rice and UTEP. My initial thought was that Rice seemed like a pretty decent idea for the MWC but a bad deal for Rice, but everyone is telling me that I am wrong.
I don’t think it would be a bad idea for Rice if they went with some other schools, but with only UTEP (800+ miles away) they are off on their own island. Rice has a decent brand, but relatively little following. It would be incredibly easy for them to drop off the map entirely. So while Rice would give the conference ammunition in their next TV deal and some academic prestige and adding two schools would allow the conference to put Boise State in the west, Rice would run a serious risk of sinking further into oblivion. Rice’s apparent interest, it seemed to me, was the frustration of being left behind during the last realignment when their peers (SMU, Tulsa, and Tulane) and their cross-town rival (Houston) all moved on while they were left behind. That sort of frustration can lead schools to believe that they have to do something even if that something is unwise.
However, cruising the message boards it’s pretty much the opposite. UTEP fans desperately want in (which is no surprise), Rice fans really like the idea, and MWC seem pretty staunchly against any expansion that doesn’t include either BYU or Houston. And to the extent that they are okay with expansion, they like UTEP a lot more than Rice. Which makes sense given the geography (El Paso being closer to San Diego than Houston) and history, I guess, but UTEP is a wreck right now and Rice+UTSA would actually make more sense. For Rice’s part, their fans really are desperate to escape their conference. For that matter, fans on Louisiana Tech’s message board want to go with them.
And after being told how wrong I am repeatedly, I’m coming around to the idea that it’s a good deal for Rice. So the ball would be in the MWC’s court.
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It was sure looking like BYU was going to get the coach it wants in Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo. I’m not sure I remember the last time I’ve seen a coach speak publicly as glowingly as Niumatalolo speaks of the BYU job. But he declined. Apparently, BYU wanted him to abandon the offense that had lead to his success.
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Bret Beliema is the worst. Over and over again, the worst.
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Mark Richt really challenged my theory about fired coaches. As soon as Georgia canned him, his phone was seemingly ringing off the hook. The funny thing is that it wasn’t an especially curious fire. Richt had been underperforming at Georgia for years and years. On the other hand, that actually makes my theory less applicable to it. That Richt was fired for underperforming, and not for being a difficult person that the school was looking for a reason to fire instead of a reason to keep, it’s not surprising he had some good offers. None, though, as good as the one he was just fired from. It will be interesting to see how well he does at Miami, where (despite his being an alum) there may be a bit of a culture clash.
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Former USC coach Steve Sarkisian really needs to keep his head low right now, sober up, and wait for a job to open up at Fresno State in a couple years.
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I’m kind of jazzed about the Celebration Bowl, which will be the matchup between Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T of the SWAC and MEAC respectively, which are the two HBCU conferences. I mentioned a month ago that I wish they’d do something like this, not realizing they’d actually lined it up. (I never expect them to do what I think will be a good idea. Now I wish that the Ivy and Patriot Leagues would do something similar.
Los Angeles Bay if the polar caps melt.
Like Marco Rubio, I also enjoy water. If you enjoy water as well, you should also consider voting for him.
Walmart is suing Puerto Rico over a tax targeted in their general direction.
If Trump or Carson wants to make a third party bid, they have until Spring to try. I’d been wondering this myself, but mostly from the opposite angle: In the unlikely event of a Trump nomination, when can the rest of the party find a John Anderson?
Germany and Facebook are teaming up to “put an end to “Hate Speech“. Some Brazilians, however, are taking matters into their own hands.
Don’t fear the brokered convention or anything, but there’s a secret plan to install Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee. Or will it be Ted Cruz?
Conspiracy-fodder: Not only is Donald Trump doing his best to destroy the Republican coalition, but his outbursts seem to be rescuing the Democrats. Honestly, I wonder if this isn’t like Wag The Dog, which for years left everybody believing every military action ever was a head-fake because it coincided with some scandal except that there was always some scandal whether there was a military action or not.
Once upon a time, Great Britain was a part of Europe.
Mark Begich makes the case for allowing oil exports. Paul Ryan is working on it.
Eric Holthaus is really, really excited about the new climate deal. Reading things over, well, if existing projections are accurate I still think we’re looking at less of this and more of this. Also skeptical: James Hansen. Not skeptical: Vox. Also not skeptical: journalists.
Also, Holthaus really likes Bernie Sanders’s climate change plan, except one thing.
Men, it turns out, are lazy.
Scott Weiland’s family would like to ask you not to romanticize his tragedy.
Unlike Jonathan Last, I have no strong opinion on the fact that the new Hulk is Korean-American other than being vaguely glad he’s American, but I don’t think I like the whole “retains is faculties while The Hulk” thing.
Dog 911: what's ur emergency?
Dog: THEYRE PUSHIN THAT LOUD THING AROUND ON THE CARPET AGAIN
Dog 911: OMG
Dog: OMG
Dog 911: OMG
Dog: OMG
— Reverend Scott (@Reverend_Scott) August 21, 2015