FRIDAY short TAKES.

Here comes this week's roundup of posts that caught my attention, generally because they could be reduced to one pithy remark, which too often was buried in the concluding paragraph. Follow the links for elaboration. Sometimes that includes a refresher on fundamental Cold Spring Shops.

1.  Don't complain (about the play-in tournament). Win more games.

2.  The streets are productive assets.  "We've priced parking too low for decades."  Sometimes, though, the small details are annoying.  "Parking is a public good, but it isn't free."  I call dibs.

3.  Unser Giftzwerg.  "With Trump gone they assumed they could rule as before, spend as before, lecture as before."  When a whiny self-styled progressive is all "Give us what we want, or PEOPLE WILL. DIE." it's useful to have multiple influential voices, not necessarily in public office, telling them to pound sand.

4.  Tyler Cowen, "Republicans understand that their party’s base wants Trump-like ideas and methods, with or without the man himself."  That's in part a response to Democrats and their "poorly designed" technocratic responses.

5.  Speaking of poorly designed technocratic responses, "How can there be any expectation that people trust 'the science' when bureaucrats citing said science continue to mislead for political purposes?"  See also "False information was peddled by 'civil servants' invoking unchallengeable expertise."

6.  Steven Hayward, "Colleges won’t rid themselves of the many repulsive ideologues who have ruined them until the pain gets too great for their boards of trustees to tolerate."

7.  "We were encouraged to jump on a bandwagon of deceit."  That included never learning technique.  "In the fine arts, we were told, we were beyond trivialities like accurate representations, traditional techniques, and displays of competent craftsmanship."

8.  The Biden muzzle: "Team Blue's version of the Make America Great Again hat."

9.  Is Brad Polumbo asking for pragmatic populism?  "The problem with the right-wing culture warriors is that they end up devoting their time and energy to distractions like kneeling & pronouns instead of socialism that could destroy the economy, lockdowns that ruined lives, & threats to our constitutional order like court-packing."

10.  Anomie and alienation are subjective.  "Bad for all of us when people think they're entitled to our tax money if bureaucrats don't get them the exact job they want."

11.  Too bad Hamas destroyed all the casinos in Lebanon?  "Mighty Babylon fell in 539 BC. If you’re wondering how this current mess resolves itself, ask a Potawatomi, if you can find one."

12.  Be sensitive to trade-offs.  "Pursuing one goal to the utter exclusion of all others is not to make a choice but to run from it. It’s not leadership; it’s abdication."

13.  There are some parts of the Universe it's wise not to invade.  "Maybe we are best watched from a safe distance."