This is fascinating.

the real-life price of college has barely changed over the past three decades. Since 1992, private school tuition has increased 13% while public school tuition has decreased 10%

The idea is that a higher sticker price signals exclusivity, but the actual price paid is offset by grant money that keeps things affordable. Note that these are average prices paid, so I wonder if the poor are now more able to go to college, and the semi-affluent are more squeezed.

Gambon was a terrible Dumbledore, though.
And Feinstein, well, Ritter isn't holding back.

I met Senator Diane Feinstein once, in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She had just recently been assigned to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (in 2001), and it was in that capacity that she had a senior staffer from the committee ask me to come to Washington DC to brief her on Iraqi WMD and the allegations being made by the Bush administration that Iraq continued to possess them. We met in a secure conference room in the Capital building--me, the Senator, and a half dozen staffers and aides. It was a polite, professional affair, with the Senator asking questions and taking notes. Eventually she confronted me--"Your position is causing us some difficulty. You are making the US look bad in the eyes of the world." I replied that my analysis and the underlying facts were rock solid, something she agreed with. I said that while I knew she couldn't reveal sensitive intelligence, if she could look me in the eye and say she has seen unequivocal proof that Iraq retained WMD, I'd shut up and go away. She looked at her retinue, and then me. "I have seen no such intelligence," she replied. She thanked me for the briefing, and said it provided her with "food for thought."

On October 11, 2002, Senator Feinstein voted in favor of the resolution authorizing war with Iraq. Later, she said she had been misled by the Bush administration and bad intelligence.

I will forever know Senator Feinstein as someone who had been empowered by the truth, and lacked the moral courage to act on it. The blood of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis stains her soul. I hope when she stands in judgment before her maker, she is punished accordingly.

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Check-ins, Reassurances, how you beens.

Posted by Heebie-Geebie
on 09.29.23

"Thought-terminating cliché" is a great phrase I recently learned.

Examples

"Lies of the devil." - Used as a response to any fact that threatens the integrity of an individual or group.[9]

"Stop thinking so much." - Redirects attention from the topic, idea, or argument at hand to the alleged overuse of thought itself.[10]

"It's all good." - Nullifies, without evidence, any possible debate by asserting the issue is already settled.[11]

"Here we go again." - Implies that the redundant, cyclical nature of a given disagreement means it will never be resolved.[12]

"So what? What effect does my action have?" - Used to dismiss an individual's involvement in a larger cause on the grounds that one person is too insignificant to ever have a meaningful impact.[3]

"Fake news." - Used to negate the sources of an argument, often while providing alternate or misleading information to push an individual's own interpretation of a subject. Usage popularized by politicians in the US in 2016.[13]

"Let's agree to disagree." - Used to stop discussion of an issue rather than attempt to resolve it.[14]

I can see why sometimes a thought-terminating cliché is the most productive course of action, but of course it's even easier to see how they can also be wielded as a weapon.

So it goes. Anyway, how've you been?

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Guest Post -- Batshit

Posted by Heebie-Geebie
on 09.28.23

Mossy Character writes: Chiroptophobia: As ignorance rules, mortal fear of bats grips Nipah-hit Kerala

In fairness to the Keralites, Nipah is fucking horrible and scary.

Heebie's take: The fruit bats are so cute; this is so upsetting! Also I want people to be healthy. Strong take here, I know.

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Strike

Posted by Heebie-Geebie
on 09.27.23

Do you all want to talk about the end of the writer's strike, and the UAW strike, and all these bits and pieces of a resurrected labor movement?

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How cynical are you?

Posted by Heebie-Geebie
on 09.26.23

I related the following story to a friend of mine: A sinkhole in my childhood town swallows up five houses. (It unfolds slowly enough that no one is injured, and people have more ability to grab valuables than in, say, a fire. But still awful.)

The city does some legal shenanigan that allows the houses to be condemned for insurance purposes, but not so condemned that the city has to take over the property, and the liability thereof. So the homeowners who have now moved away, are stuck with this land, with a gaping cavernous possibly-still-shifting-and-growing sinkhole on it, and no way to discharge it to the city or state. (This is at least the way it was explained to me.) They have to pay taxes and liability insurance on it forever, I guess?

I was telling this to my friend, and I was incredulous with the jerkiness of local government. My friend was slightly condescending to me, saying that they can't imagine it ever going any other way, and implying I'm kind of naive.

So what's the range of municipalities like? Would yours take over stewardship of a sinkhole, do you think? I think if this happened in Heebieville, city council would not necessarily take it over immediately, but would work out some sort of 5 year plan to gradually take over the costs and give them a chance to find grants and that sort of thing that would help out, and fully acquire it in some finite length of time. They would consider it fundamentally their responsibility and would not weasel out of the basic concept.

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Semi-Guest-Post: Fox Kits

Posted by Heebie-Geebie
on 09.25.23

Mossy Character sends me the single phrase, "The Murdoch Succession".

Have at it!

I saw the theory floated that Rupert is generally not the type to actually step back, and so this may be a precursor to selling the whole thing off entirely. (To Elon Musk?)

(Also I haven't watched Succession so I can't riff on that part of the prompt.)

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