MIDDLE SCHOOL REINFORCES SOCIAL STRATIFICATION.

Another day, another post featuring commonplace observations becoming controversial.  Today, the commonplace comes from an academic abstract, "Relations Among Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health During Early Adolescence," from the June 2013 issue of Social Development.

The current study examines whether being high in gender typicality is associated with popularity, whether being low in gender typicality is associated with rejection/teasing, and whether teasing due to low gender typicality mediates the association with negative mental health. Middle school children (34 boys and 50 girls) described hypothetical popular and rejected/teased peers, and completed self-report measures about their own gender typicality, experiences with gender-based teasing, depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image. Participants also completed measures about their peers' gender typicality, popularity, and likeability. Results indicated that popular youth were described as more gender typical than rejected/teased youth. Further, being typical for one's gender significantly predicted being rated as popular by peers, and this relationship was moderated by gender. Finally, low gender typicality predicted more negative mental health outcomes for boys. These relationships were, at times, mediated by experiences with gender-based teasing, suggesting that negative mental health outcomes may be a result of the social repercussions of being low in gender typicality rather than a direct result of low typicality.

It's reassuring, I suppose, to have peer-reviewed research confirming what those of us who survived middle school or junior high have long known.

I do know that a middle school is a toxic environment in which kids try to recalibrate their place in the social hierarchy. Almost everywhere, the kids who have athletic potential might head it up. There might be cliques, with all the sometimes nasty dynamics of insiders and hangers-on, taking shape. There might be opportunities, somewhere, but not universally, for kids who show some kind of academic talent, or perhaps promise in the performing arts.

Then there are the kids who ... well, are none of the above.

Adolescence is like that, and the junior high pecking order might persist all the way to fraternity and sorority rush.

Today, though, it's an upper-division reaction essay out of the University of Oklahoma, rather than a correction or clarification about the world of greasers, freaks, jocks, and nerds that makes the commonplace observation controversial.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT'S SOCIALIST REALISM.

Common Dreams contributor John Murphy, deacon of the Church of Government, sounds the alarm.  "We Must Save the ‘Sistine Chapel of the New Deal’ From Trump Destruction."

No, we're not talking about a chamber where Cardinal Electors assemble in conclave, rather, we're talking about a superfluous nest for bureaucrats.

Painted figures haunt an empty building. A boy leaning on a pair of crutches. A father and son wandering a barren railroad track. A nuclear family at a picnic table. These poignant scenes were painted by two of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century, Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. No one is around to see them. They are on the walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, DC, one of forty-five federal properties currently earmarked for sale. The staff who worked in the building have been mostly fired, furloughed, or relocated. Only the murals remain—and perhaps not for long.

The Cohen Building has been called the “Sistine Chapel of the New Deal” for its ambitious mural cycles. Shahn and Guston, as well as Seymour Fogel and Ethel and Jenne Magafan, gave indelible form to New Deal tenets: the dignity of labor, the benefit of public works, and the need for a social safety net. A detail of Fogel’s Wealth of the Nation, painted for the lobby, is on the cover of my survey of New Deal art: it crystallizes the period belief in the mutual power of mind and muscle to secure a prosperous future. If the Cohen building is sold, these masterpieces of public art will be in peril. As Timothy Noah has reported, a private developer is unlikely to bear the cost of renovating and maintaining the building, much less the murals. It would be cheaper to tear the whole thing down.

Our President's efforts to drain the swamp and hive off superfluous bureaucrats and buildings are more symbolic than substantive as long as rent-seekers covet real estate along the National Mall, such as the Cohen Building along Independence Avenue.

THE RECEIVERS ARE THAT GOOD.

The true professional concentrates on eliminating errors.

One of the referees from the Thanksgiving game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions had an intriguing explanation for wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks’ touchdown play.

The highlight took place early into the second quarter. Wicks caught a 22-yard pass from quarterback Jordan Love as he had a great contest from the Lions defender. He maintained his balance while keeping his feet inside the end zone, preventing them from going out of bounds.

Lions reporter Colton Pouncy interviewed the NFL’s Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth after the game. One of the topics involved Wicks’ touchdown, which the referee explained why they upheld the call.

“What did you see on the second quarter touchdown to Dontayvion Wicks that led you to confirm he had possession of the ball and both feet in bounds?” Pouncy asked.

“The ruling on the field was a touchdown. We saw control with his right foot down and his left down in the end zone and then a third step out of the end zone,” Butterworth answered.

“Was there any discussion about a bobble?” Pouncy followed up.

“No. These receivers are that good. He controls the ball with his hand. But with his hands or arm above his body, while pulling it down, by rule, he can actually pull that ball into his body as he completes the process of a catch,” Butterworth replied.

Yes, on Thanksgiving, and Lion defenders can still get away with pass interference.

There is enough in the definition of a "catch," particularly that "completing the process" part that the next spectacular catch you see might not, after review, be a catch. A well-executed sideline catch with both feet inbounds and the receiver promptly going out of bounds can, by rule, be not a catch because the receiver has not made a proper football move.  Watch for something like that to present between now and the end of the Super Bowl.

NOT ALL MOSLEMS.

I told you I could post all week using only commonplace observations becoming controversial.  Today's example comes from Common Dreams.  “Exploiting a single incident to cast suspicion on Afghans—people who have already endured decades of displacement and America’s forever wars—is both irresponsible and cruel.”  The "single incident" involved an Afghan man formerly involved in Operation Enduring Freedom who was brought to the United States during Dementia Joe's bug-out and who is accused of killing one National Guard troop and seriously injuring another in the Federal Capital.

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY.

Oh, did the North Atlantic hurricane season end Sunday?  Sorry, we were otherwise occupied.

That's the most snow recorded in one storm in DeKalb in November, courtesy of what the Weather Channel referred to as "Bellamy."  "Chan" is now churning up the Atlantic Coast, with ripples of annoying snow in here midafternoon, that after the consensus was for it all to have been done last night.

THE CROSS-BORDER RIVALRY FROM JANESVILLE TO WOODRUFF.

Pajamas Media's David Manney contemplates "Wisconsin's Greatest Football Feuds."

People growing up in western Wisconsin carry a unique brand of irritation towards Minnesota. Families near Eau Claire, Altoona, Hudson, and La Crosse feel the Vikings' rivalry more intensely because purple jerseys appear in grocery aisles, fishing docks, and workplace break rooms.

Folks living near Milwaukee, Racine, and Green Bay feel a stronger pull towards the Bears' rivalry.

Proximity dictates which fans get under your skin, except for a very close friend of mine who lives in Green Bay, a Vikings fan surrounded by a sea of green and gold.

Writers who've covered the rivalries for years, framing the battles, rarely capture how Wisconsin geography carves fans into two camps: one rolling its eyes at Minnesota pride, while the other spars with Chicago fans who NEVER whisper.

He didn't mention Marinette and Menominee, perhaps because the other rivalry of the Black and Blue Division comes into play somewhere along a line between Manistique and Marquette, along the old time zone divider, where the radios west of that line are tuned to Brewer and Packer broadcasts.

WHEN COMMONPLACES BECOME CONTROVERSIAL.

Reason's Jacob Sullum offers an example.  Six elected officials recently reminded citizens in military or intelligence service that they do not have to follow illegal orders.

The implication, of course, is that members of the armed forces might face situations in which they have to choose between following orders and adhering to the law. But the video does not get into specifics, and it never mentions Trump or anyone else by name, let alone refer to an official with "contemptuous words."

Under normal circumstances, each of the participants in that reminder could have demurred by noting they were offering a commonplace.  I could probably post for a week or two solely on such commonplaces turning into controversies owing to the context in which people offer them.

I. ADVENT

If you don't like the weather around the Great Lakes, wait.  Early November again featured above normal temperatures and not much rain.  A few lakeside communities got hit with serious snow in the first of the Weather Channel's named storms.  That bought a few counties respite from the drought, but inland it was more of the same.  After Thanksgiving came the second named storm, complete with serious snow.  The neighbors who bling out their houses mostly got their outdoor lights up ahead of the snow.

There will be pictures of the illuminations in the snow for your viewing pleasure during the Festive Season.

YES, WE ARE A CREEDAL NATION.

That has long been the Cold Spring Shops position.  "Give these kids an America to buy into, and an America that buys into these kids, and we'll be OK."  Pajamas Media contributor Jamie K. Wilson would like to restrict that a bit.  "An American is a person who belongs to the historic political, cultural, and moral community formed by the United States — a community joined not by ancestry alone but by entering, adopting, and upholding its constitutional order, its laws, its common language, its civic story, and its ethic of self-rule, ordered liberty, and mutual responsibility."  I suppose my youth in Milwaukee where one could still find storefronts and sometimes libraries labelled in German, Polish, and Spanish makes me less inclined to be restrictive about language, and I've tended to view cultural and moral communities as emergent and evolving: do we still want to observe Sundays in the way of the Puritan rather than of the German?

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DINNER WAS POTLUCK.

That might be one way to help the host or hostess spend less on preparation.  The past few years, the price of the traditional dinner has become a political football to go with the televised football viewed through a food coma, dimly.

It is difficult to take this presidency seriously any more.  Seriously, though, "dial back Thanksgiving" or "live more like Europeans" is consistent with what we experience elsewhere, such as putting up with less dependable electricity even if the solar and wind capacity isn't yet on line, or putting up with higher fuel prices to induce substitution to electric cars not yet safely available at scale.

The current president is often difficult to take seriously either, and the tradition of playing political football with the price of the traditional dinner goes on.

The 40th annual American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Thanksgiving dinner survey found that a traditional dinner for ten people this holiday is going to run around $55.18, which is down five percent from the previous year. That counts for the price of items like turkey and cranberries going down, while the price of sweet potatoes and whipping cream went up.

Predictably, Trump-favorable outlets such as Red State are spiking the football.  "So, enjoy your upcoming Thanksgiving dinner - and enjoy walking away from it, stuffed with turkey, feeling that tryptophan-induced food coma coming on, and with a few extra coins jingling in your pocket."

EDUCATION SO INCLUSIVE NOBODY LEARNS ANYTHING.

I'm reusing an old post title and revisiting an old argument.  "I encourage readers to focus on two words: fifth grade. Perhaps, in suggesting that the state universities send the high schools a bill for each credit hour of remedial arithmetic and writing their students racked up, I was not being bold enough."

Conditions have not gotten any better in sixteen years.  Recently, collegians having trouble with 7+2 = x+6, which can be posed as a first grade arithmetic problem by replacing "solve for x" with "fill in the box" came to our attention.  Dear reader, even the house organ for business as usual in higher education was troubled.  "A ‘Steep Decline’ in Students’ Academic Preparation at UC-San Diego Struck a Nerve."

HOW BASKETBALL FORTUNES CHANGE.

Seven years ago, the feel-good story of the men's basketball tournament was Loyola of Chicago, returning to basketball relevance after many years in the wilderness.

This season?  Neither the inspiration of playing for the memory of their long-time chaplain, Sister Jean, who crossed the final summit either this year, nor the home-court advantage assisted by Chicago traffic, could keep the Northern Illinois team from sending the Ramblers to their fifth loss.

NIU (3-3) made 14 three-pointers, one off the school record, while shooting 41.2 percent (14-of-34) from beyond the arc.

"It was awesome," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "We had a little be of adversity with the traffic on the way here, we got here with 60 minutes to spare, but it started in the preparation. We had quality practices. Obviously, Dylan (Ducommun) 24 (points), six (assists) and zero (turnovers) … We have to fight, we have to play with pride, and we have to execute and I thought we did that for 40 minutes tonight."

Loyola (1-5) led 13-8 before Hassan 'Tre' Washington (Providence, R.I./Prise Academy) knocked in a triple and Ducommun added two from beyond the long line to put the Huskies in front, 17-13.

Mr Burno is on the final year of his contract, with a team restocked through the transfer portal, and playing in the Mid-American for the final year before moving to the Horizon League.

SCRATCHBUILDING AT TWELVE INCHES TO THE FOOT.

Great Britain is observing the bicentennial of the railways, and how better to celebrate than to roll out a stable of steam locomotives all built in the 21^st century?

That lineup entertained visitors at Bluebell Railway as the summer tourist season wound down.  Left to right, Southern Region Atlantic 32424 Beachy Head, built 1911, extensive restorations completed in August 2024; Northeastern Region Pacific 60163 Tornado, numbered one higher than any of the original Peppercorn Pacifics, completed in 2008; Great Western or Western Region 4-6-0 6880 Betton Grange, numbered one higher than any of the original Granges, assembled out of Swindon standard parts and first steamed in April 2024; Great Western or Western Region 4-6-0 2999 Lady of Legend, numbered one higher than any of the original Saints or Courts, reverse-kitbashed out of 4973 Maindy Hall (another of the Hall series, 5972 Olton Hall, stars as Hogwarts Castle in the movies, to the annoyance of Great Western enthusiasts) and in steam from 2020.  The whistle on Lady of Legend is off 2910 Lady of Shalott.

There's something about a steamer, even one without cowcatcher, bell, or Mars light, that continues to entertain children of all ages, including seventyish children.  Yes, the British have a few of their unusual diesels still operating in preservation, as do we Stateside, and yes, a pair of Alco PA-1 passenger cab units might be returning to excursion service, and we're still awaiting the Mark Twain Zephyr.  But a scratch build of a Baldwin Centipede or a Fairbanks-Morse Erie-Built seems unlikely.

IT'S THE PRETTY PIG PROBLEM.

Paul McDonnold of The Daily Economy dips into the world of socialist social media to discover that the interest in socialism ... has nothing to do with Robert Owen or Karl Marx or Frank Zeidler.

An older video offered a slideshow on basic socialism narrated by the DSA’s national co-chair, Megan Romer. It was candid, enlightening, and reasonably upbeat. My first light-bulb moment came when Romer explained how becoming a socialist is not typically an involved intellectual process.

“Most people become socialist because of one issue,” Romer said. “They usually become socialists because of something they specifically got mad about in the news. That is the primary thing that makes people become a socialist.”

What's that wisecrack about if you're still socialist at forty you have no brain?  But if you're angered by something in the news, it's easier to take the good things for granted and attribute all the ills to The System.  "Since the status quo seemed to be performing poorly, especially for the young, why not try socialism?"

Of late, particularly among the young, the pig-sty in which they live appears particularly messy, and Old Major's imagined pig-sty wins by default.  Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who might have billions of reasons to keep the existing order pretty much as it is, suggests it's not so much "socialism" as "not-capitalism" or "not-neoliberalism" that is looking better, if only by default.

The first step is to talk about the problems, even if you don’t know what to do about them. There’s been a failure of, let’s say, the center left-center right establishment to even talk about them.

I don’t know if I would say that young people are pro-socialist. I would say they are less pro-capitalist than they used to be. If capitalism is seen as an unfair racket of one sort or another, you’ll be much less pro capitalism. So in some relative sense, they’re more socialist, even though I think it’s more just: Capitalism doesn’t work for me. Or, this thing called capitalism is just an excuse for people ripping you off.

The interview explores a lot of territory, including the potential challenge for genuine socialists that most of the leadership comes from the remnant of the Silents and the older cohort of the Baby Boomers, the ones that never dabbled with being yuppies, and some sobering thoughts about whether it is better that some voters stay home.  Material for another day.

PRUSSIAN PROPRIETY, RHENISH REVELRY.

Karneval has been under way since Armistice Day, with Milwaukee's German community getting things started during German Fest.  But why the coincidence with Armistice Day?

It started with Napoleon.  From 1801 to 1813, part of the Rhineland was under French administration, and French propaganda bragged on their "Egalität, Legalität, Fraternität," which probably applied to Rhinelanders as much as "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion" applies to Normals.  So, like Normals rephrasing the acronym as "Didn't Earn It," the Rhinelanders made an acronym, "ELF," which they did not put on a shelf ... in German, it's "eleven."

But it was when the Prussians reclaimed the Rhineland on their way to fail to assist Napoleon at Waterloo, that Karneval emerged as that Rhenish rebuke to Prussian propriety.  Masquerade was a proper way to send up the rulers, so why not send up the Pickelhaube set from ... 11 November until Aschermittwoch, with an intermezzo for the Festive Season?  Recall, the illuminated Christmas tree is a German creation.

The main events of late winter commence with Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday preceding Aschermittwoch.

Find yourself a Karneval event, even if it calls itself Fasching or Mardi Gras, and enjoy.

THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS DELUSION.

Two hundred years ago, the Erie Canal opened for business from Albany to Buffalo.  In his tribute to the canal, Pajamas Media contributor Rick Moran notes that once upon a time presidents looked to the Federal Constitution for the specific authority to spend money.

DeWitt Clinton tried to get financing from Congress for his project, which Thomas Jefferson called "madness." However, President James Madison believed that using federal dollars for a state project was unconstitutional and refused to sign the bill authorizing congressional funds.

America's longest canal up to that point was 27 miles. Clinton was proposing the construction of a canal 13 times larger, much of it through wilderness, using Irish immigrant labor and, most astonishingly, without any trained engineers.

The original engineers were largely self-taught locals who designed and constructed the canal despite having never seen one before.

It got built, and although the original course has in places been filled in and elsewhere bypassed by subsequent expansions to create the New York Barge Canal, historic bits of it remain for your entertainment or edification.

TEMPER, TEMPER.

Red State's Ward Clark tells a sea story from the M*A*S*H* era.  It involves Wisconsin, BB-64, confirming that throwing long bombs was a Wisconsin thing long before Bart Starr and Brett Favre.

"Big Wisky," as her crew called her, served through the rest of World War 2 with little incident; she was assigned to the 5th Fleet and took part in the pre-invasion bombardment of Japan before the war ended.

After the war, Big Wisky was briefly mothballed, then reactivated for the Korean War, to go do what she did best - toss one-ton projectiles at bad guys. Her mere presence off the North Korea coast made the communist country feel maladjusted, and when the Americans started solving their problems with a suitable application of high explosives, they began to truly worry. Wisconsin even had the distinction of having fired on a stalled North Korean troop train, thus achieving the status of being the only American battleship to sink a train.Then came March 15th, 1952. The USS Wisconsin, on that day, was operating as usual off the Korean coast, tossing explosive Volkswagens at the communists. But on that day, a North Korean artillery battery tried to defy the great American ship and shot back. A single 155mm shell struck the Big Wisky, striking the gun shield of one of the starboard twin 40mm anti-aircraft gun mounts, causing minor damage and injuring three sailors.

The counter-battery guys were pretty good.

That North Korean battery pushed the "Fool Around" button, and in due course was removed in a classically American "Find Out" reply. You have to love as well the dry terminology in the ship's official history: "...blasted that battery to oblivion." Indeed, nine one-ton shells, nine tons of Attitude Adjustment, aimed at one sorry little North Korea artillery battery. They probably could have engaged the battery with their secondary guns, which were 5/38 dual-purpose guns, capable of outranging and engaging the North Korean guns. But we are Americans; go big, or go home.

There's a meme for that.

Apocryphal response or not from the escort, that's the American way.  That is all.

YES, THAT CHEAP LABOR SUBSIDY IS REAL.

In two published papers, Eliakim Katz and I analyzed immigration amnesties as a way of screening the pool of illegal immigrants by subjecting them to exploitation in the underground economy and confronting a positive but not certain prospect of an amnesty, in order to induce favorable self-selection, meaning it wouldn't pay to sneak into a rich country in the hopes of going on welfare later.

Yes, that sounds cynical, and yes, we did get some grief for characterizing the underground economy as a sort of apprenticeship.  Other scholars subsequently expanded on our work.

We show that an amnesty is more desirable the bigger is the gain to aggregate income induced by granting legalized workers access to all the available employment opportunities. On the contrary, a more redistributive welfare state makes an amnesty less desirable, as low-skilled legalizedforeign workers will gain access to benefits. We also find that the introduction of a legalization program can only be optimal if there is a positive shock affecting the income received by the natives. In this case, the legalization allows the government to mitigate the adverse effects of an excessively restrictive policy implemented in the first period.

That paper offers the following elaboration on our work.

Karlson and Katz (2003) consider instead the role of amnesties as a tool for governments to induce immigrants to self–select based on ability. Similarly to our model, they also consider migrants that differ in their skill level. In particular, they emphasize that a legalization will offer skilled workers better labor market opportunities. As a result, the latter might be enticed to migrate even as illegals, in the hope that an ex–post legalization will improve their income opportunities. Differently from us, in Karlson and Katz’s (2003) model and in their companion paper (Karlson and Katz 2010), legal immigration is not explicitly considered together with illegal immigration.

The authors continue in an academic vein, and it looks like light bedtime reading.  But not tonight.  Rather, I'm in the mood to thank loudmouth leftist Jill Filipovic for simultaneously validating our cheap labor argument and demonstrating the folly of minimum wage laws.

If you would like to pay $30 for a pint of strawberries, $700 for someone to clean your one-bedroom apartment, and $100,000 for a new roof on your normal-sized house, then deporting all undocumented people is a policy you should support. https://t.co/l3m7JyCzfP

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) November 18, 2025

Twitchy's Brett T. compiled a few of the more pungent ripostes.  "Are Americans that spoiled by cheap, illegal alien labor?"  Hie thee hence, and judge for yourself.

DOWNSIZING TOOK AWAY MY BEAR CLAW FIX.

Insta Pundit contributor Stephen "Vodka Pundit" Green links to "Panera lost diners by cutting portions and staff. It’s reversing course to win them back."  It's the same old story, downsizing is a false economy.  Market tests have steep grading curves.

When Panera Bread began shrinking its sandwiches and skimping on salads, it started shedding customers.

Now, to win them back, the chain plans to reinvest in the business and undo many of those same cost-cutting measures, it said Tuesday.

Once the No. 1 fast-casual brand in the U.S., Panera has dipped to No. 3.

It hasn't been a good year or two for the "fast casual" sector more generally.  That might be evidence of precarity among the middle classes, reverting to McDonald's, or of upward mobility, going for casual dining with service.

THE MONEY MUST COME FROM SOMEWHERE.

Or, as we would crack wise, years ago, "When politicians promise you pie in the sky, they're going to do it with your dough."

My post title comes from a recent essay by John "Grumpy Economist" Cochrane, notionally writing about price controls, and elaborate rationalizations of their use: in reality, he's reminding all and sundry of the fundamentals of political economy and taxation.

A rent control is the same as a tax on landlords used to subsidize the rents of current tenants. You may picture a giant corporation, but many landlords are sympathetic individuals who worked hard and saved and use the apartment to fund their retirement. Corporations are owned by the 401(k) plans of sympathetic workers too. But economists should know better than to tug on your heartstrings for who should get resources forcibly taken from who else. If you ask “what’s the optimal way to tax people in general in order to lower housing costs for a politically attractive group (current tenants)” the screaming answer is not “let’s tax the people who currently own the buildings.” Sure, “tax the rich.” If you want to go down this route, it’s a lot more efficient to tax all the rich. If you ask “what’s the optimal way to help families who just got stuck with higher rents,” the screaming answers is “send them a check, but then let them move to the apartment that best fits their needs.”

A rent control only makes rental “affordable” for the lucky recipient. It does not make rental housing more “affordable” for society as a whole. It does not increase the number of people who have housing. Indeed it reduces that number. It just changes who gets it. It does not even make housing more “affordable” on average. For those who want it must now pay with time, and inconvenience, or pay by foregoing the great opportunities that moving to the city provided.

The biggest losers of rent control are the young, the mobile, the ambitious, immigrants, and people without a lot of cash. If you want to move from Fresno to take a job in San Francisco and move up, and you don’t have millions lying around to buy, you need rentals. Rent control means they are not available. Income inequality, opportunity, equity, all get worse.

There is no blob of “government” money, or “policy” that can make something affordable for one without making something else less affordable for another.

The extension to other attempts to make things "affordable" is straightforward.  "It doesn't matter what account the federal money comes from: whether you call it Medicaid or it comes out of some assigned risk pool among the insurance exchanges, where policy holders might get a premium subsidy, ultimately the money is extracted from taxpayers, borrowed on the bond market, and printed."  In that long passage, Professor Cochrane is reminding people that everything has an opportunity cost.  Without proper technique, there is no economic content.