FairAndUNbalanced.com

 
From Vagabond Scholar:

Sports fandom can be a bit of a silly thing. Most of us inherit our favorite teams from parents or other relatives. Maybe we develop fandom from where we live or once lived. And dedicated fans feel excitement and disappointment, sometimes significant amounts of it, all based on the actions of a person or group of people we can’t control. Fans can pour enormous time, energy and money into following sports, which might be better spent elsewhere. It’s pretty irrational, really.

But fandom can still be glorious.

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From Cato’s Julian Sanchez

Suspect this is right: Trump genuinely imagines he has won a huge victory because, having done no homework, he’s unaware he walked away with less than even the shallow commitments previous administrations got. Might be for the best if nobody tells him. https://t.co/Il97ZoTsTO

— Julian Sanchez (@normative) June 12, 2018

 
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

Right after World War II, the United States economy was undoubtably the strongest in the world. One reason for that is because the European and Asian countries were devastated by the war and trying to recover. It left the United States in a position to dictate economic policy to the world.

The United States continues to have the biggest economy in the world — with a gross domestic product of about $20.41 billion. Is that big enough to bully the rest of the world into accepting U.S. trade policy. Donald Trump seems to think it is. He thinks he can put tariffs on other countries, and force them to give in to U.S. economic desires.

He is wrong.

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From Mock Paper Scissors:

While there is not much we can do to stop the criminality of the smash-and-grab Fourth Reich grifters, we can —and must—vote. It’s our only Superpower as citizens.

I know it all seems hopeless, we are told the system is rigged against us, and even amongst some of the louder, leftier voices (is too a word!), we hear a near constant refrain that both parties are corrupt, that there’s no difference between them, yadda-yadda-yadda. All with the intention of suppressing your vote.

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From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

Even if the climate catastrophists’ wild speculations about more extreme weather ends up to have a modicum of truth, what humane person would advocate, as a solution, a return life to the days when droughts brought famine? Fossil fuels are getting cleaner-burning all the time, thanks to ever-advancing anti-pollution technologies. (That’s why anti-fossil fanatics have adopted the “carbon pollution” mantra. But as anybody with a kindergarten level of science knowledge knows, co2 is not a pollutant.) Those who want to stop fossil fuel development, such as the quasi-religious, totalitarian Environmentalists, are inhumane in the extreme.

We must understand the full risk context. The risk of lack of reliable energy far, far outweighs the risk of potential spills. Fossil fuels are the best and most progressive energy source we have today. Yes, fossils have drawbacks, as does every energy source. But the risks of ending fossil fuels would be truly catastrophic. Technological progress may, and probably will at some point, arise to replace fossil fuels as the main driver of industry. But that could be decades or even centuries away. Until then, pro-life = pro-fossil fuels.

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From Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:

Is that he is Putin’s man in Washington.

• Trump’s picking stupid fights with nations that are our allies. The insults being flung by Trump and his staff towards Canada were typically those used before beginning a war.
• He’s continuing to ignore the evidence that the Russians have and are interfering in our elections.
• At every possible occasion, he pushes Russia’s point of view.
• He is advocating that Russia be readmitted to the G-7, ignoring that there are other nations which have large economies that have never been considered for the G-7.
• He ignores Russian war crimes that got them booted out of the then-G-8 (annexing Crimea, supplying troops to the Ukrainian separatists and shooting down an airliner.)
• When confronted with Russia’s bad acts, Trump has dismissed them by stating a moral equivalence between Russia and the United States.

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From Jonathan Bernstein:

We just passed the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It’s not hard to argue that this might have been the assassination with the largest political consequences of the 1960s. Let’s play a little What If.

It’s virtually certain that Kennedy would not have won the Democratic nomination for president in Chicago. In the pre-reform system, winning a few primaries just wasn’t that important. As long as Lyndon Johnson backed Hubert Humphrey, Humphrey had the delegates necessary to win.

But with Kennedy alive, the disastrous convention might well have been very different, especially if (as Nelson W. Polsby once speculated) Kennedy had been offered and accepted the vice presidential nod.

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From Tommy Christopher:

As Trump headed to Singapore for high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with dictator Kim Jong Un, the rest of the world pointed and laughed at Trump’s childish performance at the G-7 meeting.

Trump ducked out of the summit early on Saturday after lobbying hard on behalf of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and continuing to insult our allies and trading partners at a brief photo op for reporters.

Then, after getting wind that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had gently restated Canadian trade policy to reporters, Trump melted down on Twitter, and reneged on his commitment to sign the G-7 communique. Trump’s behavior earned him mockery of varying intensity from political figures around the world.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Hyles taught pastors how to handle accusations and conflict in their churches. One line that stood out — I heard Hyles say it several times was If You Didn’t See It, It Didn’t Happen. Hyles often talked about gossip and false allegations, telling pastors that they should teach congregants not to believe such things unless they saw them for themselves. Hyles had Biblical support for his approach:

Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father … Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:1, 17-19)

Elders (pastors), according to the Apostle Paul, are to be considered worthy of double honor and revered as fathers are. Accusations leveled against pastors were to be rejected unless they could be confirmed by two or three eye-witnesses. Thus, if a woman says the pastor raped her, the church was to reject her allegations unless two or three people saw their pastor rape the woman. In other words, if you didn’t see it, it didn’t happen.

Since most church sex crimes involving pastors, youth directors, missionaries, deacons, church bus drivers, and Sunday school teachers take place in secret without others seeing the abominable behavior, this means, according to Jack Hyles, that allegations of sexual misconduct should be rejected out of hand. No eye witnesses? No crime. Welcome to the Jack Hyles Rule®.

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From Frances Langum:

As you may know I keep track of mentions of “Trumpism” in the media. I do so in part because often, “Trumpism” is word indicating the speaker is building a lifeboat for Republicans to float away as Donald Trump goes down.

Here at my house we have a full-time project known as “Burn the Lifeboats.”

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