‘How Things Work’

“When I was a young boy, a wise old man told me there were two ways to answer a serious question.

“You can give a first-order answer…which is what most people do…
Or, you can decide to do the work, and find a second-order answer.”

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‘How Government Works’

“Once upon a time, the government took over a vast scrapyard in the middle of a desert. One day, a citizen pointed out,
“Someone might steal from it at night.”

“So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

“Then the university said,
“How does the watchman do his job without instruction?“

“So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

‘(Some) People Are Getting Dumber’

“People are getting dumber. That’s not a judgment; it’s a global fact. In a host of leading nations, IQ scores have started to decline.

“Though there are legitimate questions about the relationship between IQ and intelligence, and broad recognition that success depends as much on other virtues like grit, IQ tests in use throughout the world today really do seem to capture something meaningful and durable. Decades of research have shown that individual IQ scores predict things such as educational achievement and longevity. More broadly, the average IQ score of a country is linked to economic growth and scientific innovation.

‘Uncovering the Dirty Secret’

“Canada is likely missing 99.9% of money laundering because of loose requirements and lenient penalties, according to the author of a C.D. Howe policy paper released Monday.

“The International Monetary Fund estimates that two to five per cent of world gross domestic product is laundered money. Applied to Canada’s 2018 gross domestic product, Comeau estimates that between $100 billion and $130 billion a year is laundered through Canada.

‘Biased Judges Attacking The Family’

This is a horrible story highlighting the insanity and totalitarian impulses infiltrating Canadian courtrooms. Judges like this are no better than the Ayatollahs in Iran:

“Last week, ‘Justice’ Francesca Marzari of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada {a ‘social justice’ activist appointed by Jody Wilson-Raybould}, declared a father guilty of “family violence” against his 14-year-old daughter on the sole basis that he had engaged in “expressions of rejection of [her] gender identity”. These “expressions” revolved entirely around his polite refusal to refer to his daughter as a boy in private, and his steady choice to affirm that she is a girl in public.

‘Democracy, Morality and Leadership: Irving Babbitt’s ‘New Humanism’

“A “must-read” book for anyone who cherishes wisdom and insight is ‘Democracy and Leadership’ (1924) by former Harvard Professor Irving Babbitt (1865-1933){LINK below}.

“It is a work of profound learning, wide and deep, though without any complex scholarly apparatus. It feels more like a wonderful fireside lecture from a man whose wisdom you will find yourself eager to absorb and remember.

‘A Stolen Stairway to Heaven?’

“At the risk of stating the obvious, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let the record show that “Stairway to Heaven” is arguably the most famous song in all of rock-and-roll, perhaps in all of popular music. It’s also one of the most lucrative — it’s estimated that the song has netted north of $500 million in sales and royalties since its 1971 release.

Courtroom sketch of Jimmy Page (Reuters)

“Philadelphia barrister Francis Alexander Malofiy’s lawsuit (suing Led Zeppelin over the authorship of “Stairway to Heaven”), cheekily printed in the same druidic font used for the liner notes of the album ‘Led Zeppelin IV’, alleges that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant — Zep’s elegantly wasted guitarist/producer/central songwriter and leonine, leather-lunged lead singer, respectively — stole the iconic descending acoustic-guitar arpeggios of the first two minutes of “Stairway” from “Taurus”, a song with a strikingly-similar chord pattern by a long-forgotten ’60s band called Spirit.

‘Man Hijacking Miss Universe?’

“‘Angela’ Ponce is the first ‘transgender’ ‘woman’ to compete for the title of ‘Miss Universe’, and he’s said to be a heavy favorite to win. Ponce, a 27-year old model from Seville, bested his fellow countrywomen in Spain’s top beauty pageant in June, earning himself the right to compete for the international, if not intergalactic, crown in Bangkok in December.

“‘The Blast’ celebrity website reported Tuesday that Ponce is far-and-away the frontrunner going into the pageant, at least by the reckoning of internet odds-makers.

‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’

The collective lunacy that is ‘Political Correctness’ continues to subvert Western culture:

“Bell, Rogers, CBC (Canada) pull holiday classic ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ from radio playlists. The 1944 song features a back-and-forth between 2 singers, in which the man pressures the woman not to leave; the lyrics are being criticized as inappropriate.”
https://twitter.com/CBCAlerts/status/1070055602779496450

‘I’m Getting Sentimental Over You’

“Tommy Dorsey was born {November 19, 1905} the second son of Irishman Thomas Francis Dorsey, Sr., a music teacher and band director in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 21 months after his also famous brother, Jimmy. After receiving music instruction from his father, Tommy played both trumpet and trombone in his early years. While still in his teens, he played in local bands along with his brother Jimmy.

“The Dorsey Brothers played in a series of bands in the 1920s. They were heard on records for the first time while working in the band of Jean Goldkette when a March 27, 1924 session that produced four sides was recorded for the RCA Victor label. The brothers later settled in New York as session musicians for the radio studios. Tommy and Jimmy waxed their first records as The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra using a pick-up band for the Okeh label in 1927. In 1934, they organized a full time band and signed with Decca Records.