FRIDAY short TAKES.

Academia delenda est.  "Harvard unabashedly shot from admitting brain power to brain dead in the blink of an eye."  We're on to the scam.  "While our modern academic class is largely parasitical and counter-useful, they have perfected the art of self-serving logical gymnastics."  We're done turning over the wampum.  "What is the point of having f*** you money if you don’t say f*** you? Especially to people who hate you while taking your money?"

If ignorance is a disease, Harvard Yard is the Wuhan wet market. pic.twitter.com/BKDBUZbcZm

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) October 21, 2023

The weekly round-up of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.

1.  We must cut the crap.

2.  Reality is the ultimate superpower.

3.  The common schooling.  "The constant relaxation of academic requirements dulls the intellect of American students."

4.  Fail.  "Because had we gone and this failed, then, you know, the United States failed, Biden’s presidency fails, et cetera, which would be a legitimate criticism."

5.  Fail.  "Standard climate models are rejected by time series data on global temperatures."

6.  Public affairs on Sunday.  "The sermons of the chin strokers, those armchair anchors and armchair generals and armchair pundits."

7.  An overdetermined explanation?  "The decades when the American masses enjoyed their fastest income gains—in the middle of the 20th century—were also the decades when immigration was near historic lows."

8.  Never enough.  "Taxing the 1% to indefinitely assure modest financial security for the 99% is blindingly logical and fair, and overwhelmingly popular."

9.  That noonday lid.  "When the call to worship issues each day from the mosque near the White House, Biden answers it as the Call to Nap."

10.  Rents sought, rents generated.  "Big government tends to work out well for people with big bank accounts."

11.  The new rules.  "This is the cancel-culture world they created."

12.  We know.  "In Major Shift, NIH Admits Funding Risky Virus Research in Wuhan."

13.  Reject the false binary.  "The Tories’ woes have very little to do with any great enthusiasm for Labour."

14.  Reality in Vienna.  “We’ve let in too many of the wrong people.”

15.  Barack Obama, empty suit.  "He’s out of public service, and if he has nothing more than this to offer, he should stay out of public discourse as well."  By his fruits shall we know him?  "Obama, the most successful black man in the history of American politics, spent his two terms telling black people they were victims and that white people were responsible."

16.  Indispensable nation?  "Empty claims about the 'Rules-Based Order' cannot answer this question."

17.  Unintended consequences.  "Candidates are chosen by primaries, a 'democratic' reform we may wish to rethink."

18.  Oops.  "Power in America, the Democratic Party, was always happy to take our money and our votes, and ask us to wait in the Outer Office."

19.  Current Affairs on Patreon.  "It's like NPR but it won't put you to sleep."  Talk about a low bar.

20.  The generalization is straightforward.  "Islamophobia—that is, the word itself—is meant to silence you."