I… get the argument here, but no. You can paint it as a collective action problem, but you can’t really paint it as honorable or noble. Relatedly…

A goat at a Tim Horton’s in Canada was arrested by the RCMP, who I am sure were very apologetic to the goat about the inconvenience.

Jay d’Brooklyn makes the uncomfortable argument that despite the outrage at the horrifying and evil nature of it, there’s not much we can do about Afghanistan’s boys.

The Governor of Alabama and his wife are getting a divorce.

Jesse Singal is not impressed with the UN report on cyberharassment.

Katy Perry is a pro.

In a piece about replacing John Boehner, Voteviewblog reveals something interesting: as southerners have switched parties, the ideological divide between southern and northern congresscritters has become larger in the GOP than in the Democratic Party.

I’m not a fan of Trump, but autographing protest signs is pretty cool. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, has the political smarts of a walnut.

The Democratic Party’s says it has a 200 year history fighting for civil rights, but starts its history right after Woodrow Wilson.

What will the presidential candidates look like in 2025? USA Today is on it! Rand Paul seems to look more presidential with age. It seems to overestimate how much hair I suspect Ted Cruz will have.

I’ve been saying pretty regularly that the appropriate analogous Republican primary isn’t 2012, but 2008. It’s good to see the New York Times making the connection, right down to the hazard of Rubio being Romney. (Trump as Rudy, Jeb as McCain, Cruz as Huckabee, and Carson as Thompson.)

John B Judis looks at the Middle American Radical that’s propping Trump up.

German mayors are looking to build up for incoming refugees. Which is better than kicking people out of their homes, I guess, though the political tide in Germany may be turning as the number of refugees climbs to 1,500,000.

When it pays to be Syrian, migrants will become Syrian. The Danes are concerned.

Refugees are less than impressed and Nordic countries are squabbling among themselves over the issue. {More}

Cities are trying to figure out what to do about the prospect of snake people moving to the suburbs when they have kids.

GM didn’t kill streetcars. At least, not all by itself.

Raj Chetty’s “income mobility map” is really quite flawed. I pointed in out last year, and Uncle Steve is pointing it out now.

Hospitals are looking for slightly less unfriendly ways to get paid.

I wonder if we’ll have meticulously detailed digital replicas of all the cities, at some point in the future.

You can go too solar, it turns out.

I’d never heard of the MOVE bombing. Had you?

Romania may end bribery by legalizing bribery for physicians. Which is apparently sort of a thing in Hungary.

A sort of real life version of Wyatt’s Torch in Pennsylvania, albeit without the ideological symbolism.

This is definitely true for me: Once a superior product is available, I stop worrying about breaking what I have.

How mustard gas lead to chemotherapy.

According to math, aliens are likely to be about the size of bears.

Half of Democrats, and over a third of Republicans and independents, believe that hate speech should be a criminal offense.

Ramez Naam writes of the disruptive power of renewables.

A snake person quest, in cartoon form.

Immigration officials have a checklist of what to look for when trying to detect their equivalent of green card marriages. Some are saying it’s problematic.

Conor Williams writes that liberal opposition to inequality ends where their schools begin.

If the NFL is dissatisfied with the training that quarterbacks are receiving in college, there is a rather straightforward solution to this.

Sometimes, TV shows have to either temporarily replace cast members or cute things up.

I had a dream about a particular ex-girlfriend after reading this Onion article.

Russell Saunders reports that science is getting closer to figuring out why some people just don’t die from smoking.

According to a new-ish Rand study, food deserts are not the cause of the obesity epidemic. Relatedly, poor people don’t eat more fast food than the rest of us.

This leaves me torn. On the one hand, aggressive copyright enforcement. On the other hand, memes. How do you pick a side in that one?

TNR explains how patent law is jacking up the costs of car repairs.

The state of Georgia cannot copyright its own laws.

The Microsoft Zune is no longer in production, and the subscription services are no longer available. So if you have one… now what?

Sunny Hundal argues that excessive British secularism is isolating British Muslims and feeding Daesh.

Whether you get formally married or not, the decision to long-haul it really ought to be made actively and not passively.

Shannon Chamberlain lost some serious weight, but don’t compliment her on it.

If we want to help minorities, maybe we should buy them a car.

The combination of automatic birthright citizenship and the requirements of expatriates to pay taxes makes for a troubling combination for young Americans born abroad.

For Hit Coffee readers going back to the Age of Half Sigma – as well as anyone who isn’t HBD-averse – you might find this (in which Jayman introduces himself to the people of Unz) a treasure trove of interesting stuff.

Do you fondly remember the Rockford Files? Well, now you can download the famous answering machine messages (or listen to them on YouTube). I was more of a Simon & Simon guy.

Median household earnings for African-Americans are lower in Minnesota than Mississippi.

A Detroit neighborhood is looking for a few good squatters.

Hungary, the site of much resistance to the refugees, looks like be getting another 40,000.

Croatia opened its arms to refugees, only to quickly close them.

And even Germany has its limits, and they’re not alone.

Paul Romer says “Let them come and they will build it.”

Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead. Rather, things to do in California when your bank thinks you’re dead.

Some industrious Russian youths did not accept their prison walls. Also, they wanted a Jaguar.

Some folks in Sunnyvale, California, are suing a family with an autistic child to have said child declared a “public nuisance” and kept out of public. The family moved out, but the neighbors have not dropped their case.

A look back at the Unabomber’s manifesto.

Halo, a producer of ecigarettes, has a pretty great piece on vaping etiquette. The vaping community needs more of this.

Cato takes a look at the pros and cons of guaranteed national income.

It looks like the geeks are giving up on the fake island.

So, as some suspected, it turns out that Tanya Cohen was not real after all.

Kevin D Williamson writes the editor notes that he wishes the New York Times foreign desk editor had written.

Anthony Weiner lasted only a couple weeks at a PR firm, only to be canned. The PR firm being a PR firm, they tried to minimize the conflict by suggesting it was mutual, but Weiener was having none of it.

Those Ashley Madison leaks sure were funny, weren’t they?

ICP vs FBI, cntd.

This bothers me more than the pig.

I was wondering about this: Deez Nuts may have committed a campaign violation.

Before Donald Trump ruined everything, Jeb Bush ruined everything.

Big Mountain Jesus emerges victorious against some atheists who wanted it gone.

In case there was any uncertainty, Kim Davis’s cause is a political loser, and actually threatens more credible cases. Also, in case you wondered what the marriage licenses look like.

So when can we start donating to Brian Mason’s County Clerk campaign? The slogan writes itself: “Mason ’18: He does his job.”

Meanwhile, in the next county over, the County Clerk is not Kim Davis.

Zaid Julani passes on a story of some Georgia cops refusing to move to a racist call, and explaining that no, they won’t investigate cases of a single white kid in a car full of non-whites.

Europe may be looking at wave upon wave of refugees.

According to Margaret Wente, Sweden is presently feeling the pinch, having some difficulty with assimilation and integration.

It’s… really hard to look at these pictures and come away with the belief that however things turn out, it’ll be bad. With neither the support to let them in, nor the resolve to keep them out, the result is inevitably that it’s going to be a long time before they feel close to being “home” at wherever they’re headed, but that also that’s where they’re nonetheless going to be.

Median household earnings for African-Americans are lower in Minnesota than Mississippi. This could be related to the refugee debate see also, Maine).

In the infamous Planned Parenthood videos, the organization feared the kinds of headlines that the New York Times might run if their actions were publicized. Turns out, they needn’t have worried.

Freddie deBoer has a couple of good pieces on some of the lefty tendencies towards ideological conformity.

The folks at 538 discuss their bets for the GOP nomination. For my part, I’d Buy Cruz (a lot), Rubio (some), Kasich (a little). Sell Jeb (some), Trump (to almost 0), Fiorina (to almost 0), Carson (to 0), Huck (to 0). (These odds laid down on 9/19)

I wonder what would happen if a kid took this clock to school.

The Clintons and Haiti.

My wife and I have been muttering on the small size of our recycling bin, but it turns out smaller may be better.

Here’s a nice story of a program in Tennessee to help foster kids adjust to their post-fostered lives.

John McWhorter argues that we need to start accepting a paradigm-shift in writing, that people are going to start writing more how they speak.

Behold, the accomplishment of the ramen noodle.

Tyler Cowen believes that Canada desperately needs a research and development cluster to stay relevant, going forward.

Here’s an interesting study on rats and empathy, which discovered that rates will forgo chocolate to save a drowning comrade.

I already knew this, but in case you didn’t: Don’t get sick or injured in July.

Aaron K defends the infamous Armored Daredevil costume. Though not perfect, I actually thought it was pretty great and a step up from the typical costume. On the other hand, I think the first Jean-Paul Valley Batman costume was superior to Bruce Wayne’s in every way, but at the same time it just wouldn’t have worked as a permanent costume. Maybe Armored Daredevil couldn’t work, either.

Money doesn’t equal happiness. When it comes to lawyers, at least.

Cracked looks at why modern CGI looks so crappy.

Paul Campos writes more on the subject of college costs.

I somehow missed this when it first came out in January, but a lot of what we think about Republican primary strategy – especially in 2012 – is wrong. To wit, there is little upside to Republican candidates shifting to the right in the primaries, and his decision to do so did not actually seem to change perceptions of where Romney stood on the left-right axis (which was considered closer to most voters than Obama!)

Vox has a list of five times that network executives were right to clip creative wings. The only one I disagree with is Jack on Lost. I think the series would have been better without him.

As commented recently by Peter: Uber, but for Big Yella.

Amiga Computers turns 30. For those of you two young to remember, in technological terms the Amiga was the iPhone of personal computing. I remember seeing them long past their prime, in the mid-90’s, and they still blew Windows and Macs out of the water.

Steven Horwitz writes about the politics of nostalgia, formerly the province of the right but having since infected the left.

Cracked looks at suicide in the Age of Twitter.

So here’s the thing… while such a relationship is entirely and utterly inappropriate, and the man should never be able to teach again, if the young lady is willing to marry the guy in order not to testify against him, I can’t say I am in favor of trying to prosecute him whether they can make a case without her testimony or no.

Good news in Mexico? Murders are declining. Bad news in Mexico, the economy is struggling. The two were supposed to be connected.

Driverless cares are, really, only the beginning.

This is pretty brilliant: Just Another Day In Hell.

It turns out, if you remove something unfavorable to liberals in the description, it may be that your social science work is more likely to be published.

The ISIS Sex Slave Market, from the point of view of the slave.

Jim Gilmore’s stealthy stealth campaign is something I still can’t quite grok.

Jonathan Coppage writes how Brad Pitt hindered New Orleans’ recovery.

As we celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s term as the longest-reigning monarch, Seth Mandel explains why Americans are so fond of the Queen.

Who isn’t sold on Kim Davis’s plight?: Rod Friggin‘ Dreher isn’t.

I’d known, vaguely, that Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D-PA) was in trouble. I had no idea that the scandal was so weird, though.

Robert Greene II writes of the southern identity that Jimmy Carter and Julian Bond tried to forge.

Employers have to be careful not hire unauthorized immigrants, but not too careful, or it may cost them.

I missed out on what was probably my last chance to own an Amazon Fire Phone. Not that I really wanted one, but for $10-30? Yeah, I would have done that. Anyway, people gettin’ laid off.

Michael Brendan Dougherty argues that immigration may be the definining issue of the 21st century. I think that’s probably more likely to be true than his belief that Romney and Mormons can save the GOP.

I bet this would be worth five points in the GOP primary in August a year before an election.

In an article about problems in the conservative coalition within the GOP, Daniel McCarthy and Nate Cohn make a point frequently made by Michael Cain, which is that establishment candidates win the GOP nomination on the shoulders of blue states.

The New Republic makes unexpected arguments against getting Syrians in (and also, in favor of Chris Christie against Bruce Springsteen), and against Kim Davis going to jail.

This piece on why Gulf States aren’t accepting Syrian refugees made me more rather than less sympathetic about inviting some here. And Syrians might prefer Europe to both the US and the Gulf States anyway.

If we’re looking for a relative success story for refugees of war, Bosnians in St Louis may be an example that could give Detroit hope.

Germany is getting a lot of good press for taking in so many refugees, but some of it may be that they so desperately need young people. And UK, for all of its faults, may be putting itself at a disadvantage by going about it in the more morally admirable way.

In what has to be the most obvious headline of 2015, the New York Times fears that the influx of refugees might help the far-right politically. Ya think?

We were taught that getting married later in life is better for marital prospects. While this is true up to a point, it may have its limitations and there may be such a thing as waiting too long.

This post, about overdevelopment of low-cost housing, would be a lot more interesting if it told us where it is.

North Carolina farmers are buying grain from Brazil because moving it by water in the US is made unfeasible by the Jones Act.

Alan Moore, grand innovator of superhero fiction, has come to believe that they are a cultural catastophe.

Late last year, Shinzo Abe’s government was linked to some far-right hate groups (“Kill, kill Koreans”).

Laura Seay and Alex de Waal discuss how to help people victims of international violent conflicts.

I didn’t know anything about King Edward VIII other than the whole “Eddie the Quitter” thing. I definitely didn’t know about the Nazi thing.

Tanzania has lost 2/3 of its elephant population in the last four years.

Micro-apartments are making a splash in the midwest. I’ve done the “micro-apartment” thing, of sorts in small-town Deseret.

Trees will make you feel younger and wealthier.

I’m actually just a slight bit sympathetic to this spoiled young lady, if her story is accurate: her parents really should have taught her better.

Samuel Liu looks at the self-segregation of Silicon Valley between white and Asian students.

Buffalo may be making a comeback.

The West Is Best! And the South is cool, too.

The next couple of images are Ashley Madison-related, paying customers and amount paid per capita.

So, Colorado, what have you to say for yourself? (It looks like Alabama has comparatively few people spending a lot of money. Not sure what’s up with that.