FRIDAY short TAKES.

Here comes this week's (somewhat unwieldy) 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.  Kevin D. Williamson smacks one Donald Trump.  "He’s not Ronald Reagan — he’s Brett Favre."

2.  Soporific, boring, Normal-antagonizing public broadcasting.  "They’ve had one too many sermons from one too many condescending, nasal-toned grandee."

3.  "Really dumb," according to Matthew Yglesias.

4.  An empty intersection of race and class?  "If non-rich white voters believe that redistributive policies take money from white people like them and give it [to] racial others, then it will be easier for the anti-redistribution party to prevail in elections; if such voters believe that redistributive policies take money from the rich and give it to working people like them, then the pro-redistribution party will have the upper hand."  It's a grand fiction either way, but that short take takes elaboration.

5.  Put some malaise on that crap sandwich.  "How much financial pain are we going to have to live through to get to the next Reagan?"

6.  Speaking of malaise, "The root of the problem is that Jimmy Carter is the first Process President in American history."  From 1978.  You could have listened to me, dear reader, now you can learn for yourself.

7.  No, you can't write off those New York State and City income and property taxes, plutocrat.  "I can't stress how much that I believe that is a giveaway to the rich."

8.  Kids are screwed.

9.  Tradeoffs, everywhere.  "Democrats can be the party that demands wealthy Americans pay higher taxes or they can be the party that favors [unlimited deduction of local taxes]."

10.  More wisdom from Harvey Mansfield.  “Harvard’s standing has fallen, and I would blame the three evils of affirmative action, grade inflation, and political correctness.”

11.  Lowered standards in the name of equity give equity a bad name.

12.  The technocracy skeptic in me concurs.  "The hybrid driver in me suspects that this won’t be the last gas supply shock."

13.  Efficiency tends to look messy.  Plus a pretty good smackdown of zoning: "Splitting a city into residential, commercial and business zones is like throwing dough, cheese and pepperoni into the different compartments of a bento box and calling it a pizza."

14.  "Deans should not take official positions on contested matters of public concern."  See also entry 18.

15.  The value of being able to make connections, and continue to learn.  "The idea that history isn’t an employable degree is just bizarre."

16.  Compensating differentials exist.  "The wages for a harder, riskier job should be higher."

17.  Back to the Carter years?  "A new malaise is spreading, and it's intentional."

18.  Careers can be destroyed for stepping out of line.  See also entry 14: if the dean issues an official position, that's an orthodoxy.  The competition for research grants also establishes an orthodoxy.  " Any virologist who challenges the community’s declared view risks having his next grant application turned down by the panel of fellow virologists that advises the government grant distribution agency."  That's part of a long and technical article, and it hints at a tradeoff to gain-of-function research.  "Now the logical progression for vaccines is, if you are going to develop a vaccine for SARS, people are going to use pandemic SARS, but let’s insert some of these other things and get a better vaccine."  The research papers are waiting to be written.

19.  Many of the experts whose judgments guide official government policy are living in a fantasy land.

20.  Politics are dangerous to everybody.  "Some say an idiot did get control of it for a while. And some say another idiot is in control now."

21.  Voters should take note.  The malaise is not going to get any better.

22.  Exchange, specialization, and cooperation.  "[P]rivate property rights provide the institutional framework that allows individuals to learn how to compete for goods and resources in a peaceful and productive manner. This peaceful and productive form of competition manifests itself in the form of specialization and exchange, the defining attribute of private property."

23.  Let the ruling classes tremble.  "Now the ruling class is trying to blame those who were right [about the corona tyranny] from the start. Don’t let them."

24.  Enlightened self-interest for the win. “Lockdown jurisdictions were not able to prevent noncompliance, and non-lockdown jurisdictions benefited from voluntary changes in behavior that mimicked lockdowns.”

25.  "Money has a way of clarifying certain things."

26.  There is no such thing as a free bridge.  "The Hernando de Soto span connecting Memphis to Arkansas on one of America’s most important interstate highways is closed until further notice after dangerous cracks were found."  I've crossed that thing a few times, never once paid a toll.

27.  Susan Collins is mugged by reality.  "I always considered the [Centers for Disease Control] to be the gold standard. I don't anymore."

28.  Weltverschlechterer.  Das ist alles.  Prosit.