Can we afford utopian education?

The Thinker, Singer Museum, Laren, The Netherlands

Public Education

Yesterday, I ran across a somewhat too-hagiographic piece on social media attributing the beginning of publicly funded education in the USA to Robert Dale Owen, a guy who had been involved in some failed utopian projects:

Robert Dale Owen (born Nov. 9, 1801, Glasgow, Scot.—died June 24, 1877, Lake George, N.Y., U.S.) was an American social reformer and politician. The son of the English reformer Robert Owen, Robert Dale Owen was steeped in his father’s socialist philosophy while growing up at New Lanark in Scotland—the elder Owen’s model industrial community. In 1825, father and son immigrated to the United States to set up another self-sufficient socialist community at New Harmony, Ind.
Robert Dale Owen edited the community’s newspaper, the New Harmony Gazette, until 1827, when he became associated with the controversial reformer Fanny Wright. They traveled together to Wright’s experimental community of Nashoba, Tenn., which was dedicated to the education and gradual emancipation of slaves, and from there went on to Europe.

Upon returning to the United States, Owen and Wright revisited the Nashoba and New Harmony communities, then in a state of decay. They settled in New York, where Owen edited the Free Enquirer. The paper opposed evangelical religion and advocated more liberal divorce laws, more equal distribution of wealth, and widespread industrial education; it was at the centre of radical free thought in New York. For two years, Owen, with Wright and other radicals, sought to turn the New York Workingmen’s Party away from Thomas Skidmore’s belief in an equal division of property. They successfully ousted Skidmore, but later their own program of social reform through public education was also repudiated.
After a brief trip to England in 1832, Owen returned to New Harmony. He served three terms in the Indiana legislature (1836–183, where he advocated the allocation of government funds for public schools, and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he introduced the bill creating the Smithsonian Institution. . .

He didn't stop there in his efforts to reform society, but concerning his involvement in how the Smithsonian was set up:

There was literally a Bolshevik takeover of the Smithsonian.

Democrats can never be allowed to take power again. https://t.co/obrrITrpda pic.twitter.com/nMQyUJSRNG
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) July 8, 2026

* * * * *

Higher Education in the Past

Neither of the the Wright Brothers graduated from high school yet they had enough knowledge of mathematics to build all of the formulas that formed the science of aeronautics. https://t.co/uQkRMSiaZb
— varifrank (@varifrank) July 11, 2026

And:

YOU REALLY NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST:

The story behind the New York Times' 1903 claim that human flight was between one and ten million years away is even worse than it looks.
Once you understand the backstory, you realize that the New York Times story is not really about flight at all but about how elites and credentialed "experts" mistake their own failures for the boundaries of possibility.

So, how do we help young people in the Day of AI?

* * * * *

No more take-home tests

I wonder what fraction of these students hail from a culture with an elaborate & institutionalized millennia-long tradition of cheating on standardized tests https://t.co/fFl54YELIw
— Bennett's Phylactery (@extradeadjcb) July 10, 2026

* * * * *

No more Bolshevik professors, either

Angela Davis bought a shotgun. Two days later her friends took a courtroom hostage and secured that gun to a judge’s head using duct tape

In the hostage standoff, they blew the judge’s head off. She was arrested in connection

This is why Angela Davis is famous https://t.co/PKmPXH9g0l
— Joshua D Phillips (@JoshPhillipsPhD) July 10, 2026

* * * * *

WEEKEND

The Week In Pictures: Goodbye, Nazi Edition

The week began with Independence Day, and it featured a lot of World Cup action. If you can call anything that happens in soccer action. Europe sweltered under a non-air conditioned heat wave, and the Iran conflict resumed. But what motivated meme-makers more than anything else was the spectacular implosion of the Graham Platner Senate campaign. I suppose because it was so unexpected: who would have imagined that the campaign of a Nazi-tattooed Communist would come to grief?

* * * * *

Music

Jay and the Americans

* * * * *

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

* * * * *

Last week's thread, Happy 250th Anniversary!

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Notable comment:

165 Dear America, Happy 250th Birthday!
I'm Canadian and, unlike far too many up here, I think the USA is the best neighbor and friend any country could ask for.
I wish I could have crashed the party 'cause it looks like everyone who is not a lefty is having a blast.
Posted by: all doubt removed at July 04, 2026 01:25 PM

Posted by: K.T. at 11:17 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 St!

Posted by: Matthew Kant Cipher at July 11, 2026 11:22 AM (kOluj)

2 They're not public schools.
They're government schools.

Posted by: Please make a note of it at July 11, 2026 11:22 AM (2Ez/1)

3 Jeez. Only one here?

Posted by: MkY at July 11, 2026 11:23 AM (Cieih)

4 Nooded. Morning, KT!

Posted by: Matthew Kant Cipher at July 11, 2026 11:23 AM (kOluj)

5 Im peddling honey by a nursery.
Slow day for both of us

Posted by: MkY at July 11, 2026 11:24 AM (Cieih)

6 Can we afford utopian education?

It's the farthest thing from utopian. It's a system built on envy of those who have more than the self-anointed "best and brightest". One of my favorite quotes:

“One may question whether real civilisation is so safely afloat, that we can afford to use our pens for boring holes in the bottom of it.”
-F.L. Lucas

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 11:24 AM (Riz8t)

7 Great quote archimedes

Posted by: MkY at July 11, 2026 11:25 AM (Cieih)

8 It's a system built on envy of those who have more than the self-anointed "best and brightest".

YOU REALLY NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST:

The story behind the New York Times' 1903 claim that human flight was between one and ten million years away is even worse than it looks.

Once you understand the backstory, you realize that the New York Times story is not really about flight at all but about how elites and credentialed "experts" mistake their own failures for the boundaries of possibility.

Exactly as I said.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 11:28 AM (Riz8t)

9 "She built her name on one rule: no one should be caged for their beliefs."

I mean, some of them you just shoot because it isn't worth the money and effort to cage them.

But generally, no, fuck you lady, some "people" don't get to live among us.

Posted by: heya at July 11, 2026 11:29 AM (ctAuL)

10 The left kills people and says it is free speech

Then the left kills people engaging in free speech and says "actions have consequences".

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 11:30 AM (sKqQm)

11 U.S. Military Updates Physical Fitness Standards — the Anti-“Body Shaming” Crowd Is Going to Hate This
. . . .
Soldiers will be required to maintain a waist-to-height ratio of less than 0.55 under the Army’s updated body standards.

-
Apparently, I'm overqualified.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:31 AM (ndZc7)

12 I wonder what fraction of these students hail from a culture with an elaborate & institutionalized millennia-long tradition of cheating on standardized tests https://t.co/fFl54YELIw

==

LOL, I like the last three, Midterm score - 100%, Final - 0%.

Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:31 AM (GD0B3)

13 It's a system built on envy of those who have more than the self-anointed "best and brightest".

And again, here's another quote from F.L. Lucas. I think this guy has potential.

“Thence it is possible to arrive by easy stages at the happy notion, not uncommon among 'intellectuals', that taste consists of distaste, and that the loftiest of pleasures is that of feeling displeased; and thus to end by enjoying almost nothing in literature but one's own opinions, while oneself incapable of writing a living sentence.”

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 11:32 AM (Riz8t)

14 I can't read, brah! What up with that there exam ??

Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:32 AM (GD0B3)

15 Angela Davis is a piece of shit commie. Her shotgun should have been placed against her own head, preferably when she was mentoring Barry Soetoro.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 11, 2026 11:34 AM (KttFr)

16
I have seen results like those.
Way back when I took Econ 1 and econ 2 in summer school at a State U. Out of 20 people 2 of us got over 95% and the rest were in the 30% area.
The instructor said 'I cant curve these results'. It was to late for them to drop the class, bummer for them.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 11, 2026 11:36 AM (NnhvP)

17 If that Canadian quoted here is still here:

The 100th anniversary of Confederation was from all appearances a pretty big deal. I remember barely a peep about the 150th back in 2017. What was that?

I’m suspecting it was due to leadership. PM Trudeau was in power after all.

Posted by: Cow Demon at July 11, 2026 11:36 AM (4g5V+)

18 Buh bye.

California’s Controversial $20-an-Hour Minimum Wage Leading to Fast Food Hotspots Closing

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:36 AM (ndZc7)

19 I could meet the height/weight but not the physical or age requirement. My uniforms from 30 years ago still fit.

Posted by: Eromero at July 11, 2026 11:37 AM (LHPAg)

20 Take home tests chart - props to the guy who scored 59 in take home and 55 in person
Either very honest or dgaf about the class

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 11, 2026 11:38 AM (7gFa4)

21 Unclear on the concept.

FCC Chairman Calls Out Sunny Hostin for Saying “We Need to Flip the Senate” as ABC Argues “The View” Is Just a News Program

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:38 AM (ndZc7)

22 Part of the rejection of the possibility of human flight was understanding what the standard engine was capable of, as well as the current understanding of aeronautics. The Smithsonian had tried to develop an aeroplane and failed in spite of all the experts they called upon to work in a committee. Hiram Maxim also had been working on a design, with all his money, in England, I think.

Both attempts did push the edges of technology, but the Wright Brothers went around it, using newer concept engines and advanced materials like Aluminum in roles that had not been tried before. They truly had pulled off a technologic leap-frog movement.

Maxim's steam power design weighed more than a ton, and got airborne for about 8 seconds before crashing. He eventually concluded that steam engines were not suitable for airplanes because of the weight. The Wright Brothers got themselves the newfangled gasoline engine to play with.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 11, 2026 11:38 AM (rbvCR)

23 Modern Educators are just Government Administrators that have figured out a way to short circuit the access to the Publics Wealth.
The Big Govt Admin must wait for the tax to hit the state or national treasury and then join a NGO or Agency to get their hands on the publics' money.
The Educator is right down the street at a building that will never be paid for in its useful lifetime. They pretend to be good neighbors and care for the welfare of YOUR children.
Most care about 1 thing, getting that sweet administrative position and getting out of the classroom.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:39 AM (/+uur)

24 9 "She built her name on one rule: no one should be caged for their beliefs."

In her defense, it was probably a lib judge.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 11, 2026 11:40 AM (NnhvP)

25 Good morning, so good to be here, waiting for the roofer.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 11:41 AM (Pee1E)

26 >>> 12 I wonder what fraction of these students hail from a culture with an elaborate & institutionalized millennia-long tradition of cheating on standardized tests https://t.co/fFl54YELIw

==

LOL, I like the last three, Midterm score - 100%, Final - 0%.
Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:31 AM (GD0B3)

Those are the ones who chickened out and dropped the class.

My favorites are the dumbass whose *cheat* score was 70 and the in-person dropped to 53, and the one who got a 55 cheating and actually improved to a whopping 59 in-person.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 11, 2026 11:42 AM (R+iUD)

27 Soldiers will be required to maintain a waist-to-height ratio of less than 0.55 under the Army’s updated body standards.

==

What is shocking is that it was not a standard before. to think that the military used to reject people for being underweight! Like Jimmy Stewart.

Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:43 AM (GD0B3)

28 The Great Utopia if I recall correctly required the children to be separated from the parents so that they could be TAUGHT how to be good Citizens.
There seems to be a big push now in education to try to sever the parent/child relationship to make it easier to indoctrinate the future Citizen into the good life of socialism.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:43 AM (/+uur)

29 Unclear on the concept.

FCC Chairman Calls Out Sunny Hostin for Saying “We Need to Flip the Senate” as ABC Argues “The View” Is Just a News Program

Huh, I'm surprised, even shocked, to find that The View isn't politically neutral. I also believe in the Easter Bunny.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 11:44 AM (Riz8t)

30 the one who got a 55 cheating and actually improved to a whopping 59 in-person.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket

I don't think he cheated, looks like he did the work, maybe just not suited to the class

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 11, 2026 11:44 AM (WL2lA)

31 >>> 28 The Great Utopia if I recall correctly required the children to be separated from the parents so that they could be TAUGHT how to be good Citizens.
There seems to be a big push now in education to try to sever the parent/child relationship to make it easier to indoctrinate the future Citizen into the good life of socialism.
Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:43 AM (/+uur)

Big time. Commies always do this, in one form or another.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 11, 2026 11:44 AM (R+iUD)

32 >>> 30 the one who got a 55 cheating and actually improved to a whopping 59 in-person.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket

I don't think he cheated, looks like he did the work, maybe just not suited to the class
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 11, 2026 11:44 AM (WL2lA)

Yeah, you're probably right about that guy, at least he was honest!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 11, 2026 11:45 AM (R+iUD)

33 Even if the "belief" means you can kill and maim to advance the quote unquote Cause.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:45 AM (/+uur)

34 IIRC only the he Wright Brothers took off into the wind and therefore got lift, the others tried to launch with the wind and failed.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 11, 2026 11:46 AM (NnhvP)

35 Those are the ones who chickened out and dropped the class.

My favorites are the dumbass whose *cheat* score was 70 and the in-person dropped to 53, and the one who got a 55 cheating and actually improved to a whopping 59 in-person.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 11, 2026 11:42 AM (R+iUD)

Those 3 are part of the remaining 59. If you read the post is says so at the top "The scores of the remaining are displayed. "

Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:47 AM (GD0B3)

36 Looks like Student #22 improved his performance on the final compared to the midterm. I'd pass him.

Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 11:49 AM (I0N4X)

37 I suspect public school admins are shockingly overpaid

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 11, 2026 11:49 AM (WL2lA)

38 Good morning, so good to be here, waiting for the roofer.

Posted by: Braenyard
---
Have fun. We got a new roof a few months ago. I then called my insurance company and they lowered our homeowners policy significantly.

Posted by: lin-duh at July 11, 2026 11:49 AM (VCgbV)

39 34 IIRC only the he Wright Brothers took off into the wind and therefore got lift, the others tried to launch with the wind and failed.
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at July 11, 2026 11:46 AM (NnhvP)

Those Magnificent Man and Their Flying Machines is one of my favorite movies.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:50 AM (/+uur)

40 Law & Order.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal
@RepJayapal
Every single person who voted to give billions more to ICE last month should be ashamed.
Not one more cent of our taxpayer dollars should fund this lawless, rogue agency.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:52 AM (ndZc7)

41 >>>The Wright Brothers got themselves the newfangled gasoline engine to play with.

Posted by: Kindltot
---

They asked Ford to build them an engine but he said he was busy.
Their bicycle mechanic said, I'll have a go at it and he did.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 11:53 AM (Pee1E)

42 Seems to me that you should see a pretty normal distribution of grades once a class reaches around 50 students.
4 or 5 As
4 or 5 Fs
remaining 40 sharing Bs Cs and Ds.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:53 AM (/+uur)

43 Looks like Student #22 improved his performance on the final compared to the midterm. I'd pass him.
Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 11:49 AM (I0N4X)

No distractions!

--Student #22 who has 12 cats at home

Posted by: runner at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (GD0B3)

44 I don't know where the chicken and egg question lands between the Marxism in public schools or at the University level. I would argue you need to cauterize higher education because that's where the teachers and administrators are trained.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (w/O5Q)

45 Roofer's on the roof checking it out.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (Pee1E)

46 Treasury Targets Key Supreme Leader Financier and Iran’s Shadow Exchange Houses
July 10, 2026
WASHINGTON—Today, following Iran’s resumption of attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against Iranian financial facilitator Ali Ansari (Ansari), who oversees a sprawling global network of assets benefitting Iran’s leader—Mojtaba Khamenei—and other regime elites. Ansari has effectively institutionalized large‑scale embezzlement within the Iranian regime, diverting publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, regime elites—including notable senior figures within the Supreme Leader’s Office—and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). OFAC today also targeted key Iranian exchange houses that move billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the regime’s illicit financial activity.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0558

Posted by: Kindltot at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (rbvCR)

47 Not one more cent of our taxpayer dollars should fund this lawless, rogue agency.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:52 AM (ndZc7)

Now do the IRS

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (/+uur)

48 There seems to be a big push now in education to try to sever the parent/child relationship to make it easier to indoctrinate the future Citizen into the good life of socialism.
Posted by: r hennigantx
__________

The family is a unit of government outside the state. That explains everything about the left's hostility to the family.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 11, 2026 11:56 AM (XvL8K)

49 I saw someone post a meme "Leftist discourse is just pretending to not understand things" and the responses from leftists made me laugh:

1) No YOU pretend to not understand things

2) No YOU rightwingers pretend you do understand things

3) I don't understand this meme like...what is it talking about?

So the traditional mix of NO YOU and...pretending to not understand things.

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 11:56 AM (sKqQm)

50 I suspect public school admins are shockingly overpaid
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport

An understatement. And test scores are in the toilet.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at July 11, 2026 11:56 AM (nHABa)

51 There seems to be a big push now in education to try to sever the parent/child relationship to make it easier to indoctrinate the future Citizen into the good life of socialism.

Atheist women stopped having kids.

So unless the left can convert YOUR kids in a few generations there won't be any leftists.

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 11:57 AM (sKqQm)

52
9 "She built her name on one rule: no one should be caged for their beliefs."

Funny that she spent her life proving that the opposite is in fact true.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 11, 2026 11:57 AM (VbqNm)

53 I would argue you need to cauterize higher education because that's where the teachers and administrators are trained.
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at July 11, 2026 11:54 AM (w/O5Q)

In 80 or 81 UT started moving Ed into its own department and it became a quote unquote college about 10 years later.
If you think about it a 4th or 5th grader could easily teach a 5 or 6 YO to read. I bet many of us learned from a babysitter or older sibling.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 11:58 AM (/+uur)

54
An understatement. And test scores are in the toilet.

There is a strong correlation between increases in education spending and decreases in any metric that measures education of students.

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 11:58 AM (sKqQm)

55 Rep. Pramila Jayapal
@RepJayapal
Every single person who voted to give billions more to ICE last month should be ashamed.
Not one more cent of our taxpayer dollars should fund this lawless, rogue agency.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks,
---

And you should be sent back to Kathmandu or whatever hell hole you emerged from.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 11:58 AM (Pee1E)

56 There seems to be a big push now in education to try to sever the parent/child relationship to make it easier to indoctrinate the future Citizen into the good life of socialism.
Posted by: r hennigantx
__________

The family is a unit of government outside the state. That explains everything about the left's hostility to the family.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba

Religion and family are the two great opponents to government utopia and must be destroyed!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at July 11, 2026 11:58 AM (ndZc7)

57 The Thinker

*************

Don't Put Descartes Before De Horse

There once was a thinking man named Sam
Who couldn't build things worth a damn
He justified his existence
Via mental persistence
He thinks. Therefore he am.

Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 11:59 AM (I0N4X)

58 Is anyone else celebrating Indian Entrepreneurship Day: 7-11?

Posted by: Hour of the Wolf at July 11, 2026 12:00 PM (qx7Zg)

59 49 I saw someone post a meme "Leftist discourse is just pretending to not understand things" and the responses from leftists made me laugh:

1) No YOU pretend to not understand things

2) No YOU rightwingers pretend you do understand things

3) I don't understand this meme like...what is it talking about?

So the traditional mix of NO YOU and...pretending to not understand things.
Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 11:56 AM (sKqQm)

And add in the "So you are saying" misquote or misstatement.
Male IQ scores tend to be about a standard deviation higher.
SO you are saying the females are dumb.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 12:00 PM (/+uur)

60 Since property taxes pretty much pay for the Gubmint schools, tie property tax rates to test scores.

Posted by: Here's an idea at July 11, 2026 12:01 PM (2Ez/1)

61 My suggestion for education reform...

Require work experience in a field to teach the field.

Want to teach chemistry? You have to have spent 10 years or more working as a chemist.

And we should move away from the notion of teaching as a career path, it should really be an option for people with real world experience to semi-retire. As opposed to your average HS student moving between 6 classes taught by an education major have courses taught by people that worked in the real world.

And honestly there shouldn't really be ANY admins. Either get the students to do the work or rely on computerization or just...stop with the paperwork

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 12:01 PM (sKqQm)

62 Advances lead to more advances.

Despite being one of the most common elements, aluminum was one of the rarest in its pure form, nearly all of it being locked in bauxite ore. Extracting it was prohibitively expensive.

So much so, that the tip of the Washington Monument is a priceless five-pound piece that was used as an honorific. But then came relatively cheap hydroelectric power do the extraction.

We wouldn't have planes without the strength-to-weight ratio of aluminum, starting with the Wright Brothers engine block.

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:01 PM (dtajH)

63 He thinks. Therefore he am.

Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 11:59 AM (I0N4X)

ha

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 12:02 PM (/+uur)

64 *ahem*
"Dot Not Feather Entrepreneurship Day."

Posted by: Let's be real at July 11, 2026 12:02 PM (2Ez/1)

65 And add in the "So you are saying" misquote or misstatement.
Male IQ scores tend to be about a standard deviation higher.
SO you are saying the females are dumb.

Oh there was a great one of these in a sub-thread. Some right leaning poster "An example of this is leftists pretending not to understand the differences in criminality between legal and illegal immigrants and just using the stats of the former to argue we shouldn't deport the latter" and the leftist response? "So you hate brown people?"

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 12:03 PM (sKqQm)

66 We wouldn't have planes without the strength-to-weight ratio of aluminum, starting with the Wright Brothers engine block.
Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:01 PM (dtajH)

British plane builders needed another 10 years just to agree on the pronunciation of aluminum.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 12:03 PM (/+uur)

67 So the traditional mix of NO YOU and...pretending to not understand things.
Posted by: 18-1

**********

The James Monroe doesn't get it!

Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (I0N4X)

68 "Dot Not Feather Entrepreneurship Day."
Posted by: Let's be real at July 11, 2026 12:02 PM (2Ez/1)

ha

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (/+uur)

69 Anyone who says World Cup is boring should watch highlights from the England Mexico game. Or Argentina/Cape Verde. Belgium/Senegal, US/Turkey. There have been so many amazing games throughout the tournament.

The stereotype 0-0 game pretty much has been non-existent.

Norway England today should be a great game.

Posted by: Life Hacks at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (yzP4d)

70 The soft disciplines at our universities once served as culture carriers from one generation to the next. The hard disciplines expanded our understanding of the physical world which often paid momentous dividends.

The first is no longer true. And the second has become less true.

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (dtajH)

71
27 Soldiers will be required to maintain a waist-to-height ratio of less than 0.55 under the Army’s updated body standards.”

I think most leftist women have a ratio of 1:1

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (VbqNm)

72 "We wouldn't have planes without the strength-to-weight ratio of aluminum..."
Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:01 PM
++++

Or Festivus poles.

Posted by: Frank Costanza at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (2Ez/1)

73 The one thing commies understand is the need to kill their enemies.

If only those who oppose communism would learn this and apply the same rules to them it would save the world a lot of trouble.

Posted by: Zombie Nicholas II and his whole zombie family at July 11, 2026 12:05 PM (ftsic)

74 Don't forget the father of modern US public schools, John Dewey (d. 1952).

Posted by: WillowViney at July 11, 2026 12:06 PM (d3MA1)

75 Dang, will wonders never cease. A kid from my UMC neighborhood is going around offering to work in my yard. I mean work, real manual labor.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:06 PM (Riz8t)

76 US-Belgium game had 51M people watching. That’s the highest non-NFL sports audience since the 1994 Olympics with the Nancy/Tonya drama.

Posted by: Life Hacks at July 11, 2026 12:06 PM (yzP4d)

77 What's a UMC neighborhood?

Posted by: Ok, I'll ask at July 11, 2026 12:07 PM (2Ez/1)

78 Male IQ scores tend to be about a standard deviation higher.

Wrong.

there is no statistically significant difference between the average IQs of men and women. Both sexes share identical averages across the broader population, though the distribution and variation of these scores differ noticeably.The scientific and psychological consensus highlights the following distinctions:
Identical Averages: Standard intelligence tests are specifically designed to avoid gender bias, resulting in equal mean IQ scores globally.
Difference in Spread: The distribution curve for men tends to be wider or more variable than that for women. This means there are statistically more men at both the extreme high and extreme low ends of the spectrum.
Specific Cognitive Strengths: While general intelligence is equal, men and women often excel in different sub-domains. Women typically score higher in tests involving verbal fluency and memory, while men generally demonstrate higher average performance in visual-spatial tasks and mathematical reasoning

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:09 PM (Riz8t)

79 What's a UMC neighborhood?

Upper Middle Class

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:09 PM (Riz8t)

80
Is Rep. PayPal whining about this ICE incident in Houston? I reckon when the facts come out it will disappear rapidly.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 11, 2026 12:09 PM (O0L8i)

81 Is this about me?

Posted by: United Methodist Church at July 11, 2026 12:10 PM (2Ez/1)

82 "What's a UMC neighborhood?
Posted by: Ok, I'll ask"

Twenty bucks, same as in town.

Posted by: Ok, I'll answer at July 11, 2026 12:10 PM (MWfyi)

83 If only those who oppose communism would learn this and apply the same rules to them it would save the world a lot of trouble.

I'm reminded of the Wolf's Lair plot in Germany. They captured Goebbels and instead of just shooting him decided to "arrest" him so he could later by put on trial.

Now because they failed to kill Hitler the plot probably would have still failed but a dead Goebbels would have made things much easier and the man obviously deserved it...

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 12:10 PM (sKqQm)

84 Oregon has always had a college of education in the university curriculum. It is not that specialization that caused the problem. I have had family teaching since the 1920's, and they were good teachers and in turn good administrators.
The problem is more of the sieve issue, where the competent teachers with a sense of mission were sidelined and the insane activist ones with an agenda were promoted. Add to that the various academic crazes that decide that they can best teach skills without actual work and that drives any competent teacher insane.

Education is not complex, it is a learned skill, like teaching cats to jump through hoops or horses to not panic at everything they see in a paddock.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 11, 2026 12:10 PM (rbvCR)

85 Back to the graph
So Student 1 and 2 and maybe 3 an A
S 3-7 B
S 8-14 C
S 15-19 D
S 20 - 59 F

Would love to see if there were question everyone missed or maybe 80% missed.

Posted by: r hennigantx at July 11, 2026 12:11 PM (/+uur)

86 Is Rep. PayPal whining about this ICE incident in Houston? I reckon when the facts come out it will disappear rapidly.

The left still likes to pretend Renee Goode was just randomly shot.

Of course Pretti's death is almost comical. The left tells us guns are more likely to get you killed then protect you...but one of their street thugs decided to go to a riot strapped and assault a cop. He didn't use the gun but he was shot because it went off while he was being disarmed...

Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 12:12 PM (sKqQm)

87 I'm reminded of the Wolf's Lair plot in Germany. They captured Goebbels and instead of just shooting him decided to "arrest" him so he could later by put on trial.

Goebbels committed suicide before being captured. Are you thinking of Goering?

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:12 PM (Riz8t)

88
79 What's a UMC neighborhood?

Upper Middle Class
Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:09 PM (Riz8t)

Thanks, I was having a hard time deciding between Methodist or Marine Corps.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 11, 2026 12:13 PM (VbqNm)

89 Somewhat related: Canadian professor Gad Saad (a Lebanese Jew immigrant) has an editorial in the WSJ announcing that Canada is toast, and he's relocating to the US. Most of it concerns his recent book's analysis of how it went wrong there, called "Suicidal Empathy." https://tinyurl.com/vt8w9rjv

The punchline is this: he's relocating to the University of Mississippi! The South. If you're on X, you may recall Saad's offhand slur of white Southerners a few years back:

@GadSaad
Jew-hater: Why are you defending Israel, you Zionist pig? I thought that you're from Canada.

Me: Well, I defend liberal democracies; I'm Jewish and I have tons of family in Israel. By the way, your name is Roscoe Jethroe, you're from Arkansas. Why do you have a "From the river to the sea" tattooed on your forehead?

Jew-hater: STFU, Jew. Zionist!

Guess Southern rednecks aren't the biggest anti-Semites, prof. Saad?

Posted by: Lizzy at July 11, 2026 12:13 PM (X8xt3)

90 There are more men than women who are retards, and more men than women who are geniuses.

Posted by: WillowViney at July 11, 2026 12:13 PM (d3MA1)

91 Oh there was a great one of these in a sub-thread. Some right leaning poster "An example of this is leftists pretending not to understand the differences in criminality between legal and illegal immigrants and just using the stats of the former to argue we shouldn't deport the latter" and the leftist response? "So you hate brown people?"
Posted by: 18-1 at July 11, 2026 12:03 PM (sKqQm)

Some of them. Not because they're brown, but because they're evil assholes. Same way I hate some white people because they're evil assholes. It's the "evil asshole" component which is the determining factor.

Posted by: Plenty of legitimate reasons to hate people at July 11, 2026 12:14 PM (TbWk/)

92 Oh there was a great one of these in a sub-thread. Some right leaning poster "An example of this is leftists pretending not to understand the differences in criminality between legal and illegal immigrants and just using the stats of the former to argue we shouldn't deport the latter" and the leftist response? "So you hate brown people?"

Posted by: 18-1
---

Why consider these people? They cannot be corrected.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 12:14 PM (Pee1E)

93 Union Metallic Cartridges

Posted by: Kindltot at July 11, 2026 12:14 PM (rbvCR)

94
The first is no longer true. And the second has become less true.

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:04 PM (dtajH)

_____________

I'm accumulating references from the scientific literature in a technical area. As they trend into the present day, I start asking just how believable they are. For that reason, I'm not running down every citation in every jake-leg journal.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 11, 2026 12:14 PM (O0L8i)

95 75 Dang, will wonders never cease. A kid from my UMC neighborhood is going around offering to work in my yard. I mean work, real manual labor.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:06 PM (Riz8t)

Why is he offering working in your yard to other neighbors? Is your lawn that bad?

Posted by: The HOA will not stand for this! at July 11, 2026 12:16 PM (TbWk/)

96 Reluctantly came to work

Posted by: Skip at July 11, 2026 12:17 PM (sgkY8)

97 'm accumulating references from the scientific literature in a technical area. As they trend into the present day, I start asking just how believable they are. For that reason, I'm not running down every citation in every jake-leg journal.

I trust the Indian Journal of Uttar Nonsense.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:17 PM (Riz8t)

98 I wonder if the homo cruise in the Med. will end up like the covid cruise a few years ago, wandering from port to port and always turned away.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at July 11, 2026 12:17 PM (mDji4)

99
A kid from my UMC neighborhood is going around offering to work in my yard. I mean work, real manual labor.
Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:06 PM (Riz8t)

_________

He might get hit with a shovel by Feech or Paulie.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 11, 2026 12:17 PM (O0L8i)

100 Why is he offering working in your yard to other neighbors? Is your lawn that bad?

Posted by: The HO

Paradoxically, it's one of the nicest. I guess he figures I care enough to be willing to part with some coin to keep it that way.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 11, 2026 12:18 PM (Riz8t)

101 It's really too bad Platner didn't channel Tricky Dick in his walk-away letter, closing with "You won't have Graham Platner to kick around any longer".

Posted by: Huck Follywood at July 11, 2026 12:18 PM (mDji4)

102 Goebbels committed suicide before being captured. Are you thinking of Goering?
Posted by: Archimedes

***********

Speaking for myself, I was thinking of Goebbels...fondly.

Posted by: Richard Gere at July 11, 2026 12:18 PM (I0N4X)

103 Is Jayapal one of those we could rescind her citizenship and deport her?

Posted by: Wenda at July 11, 2026 12:18 PM (esZfd)

104
90 There are more men than women who are retards, and more men than women who are geniuses.
Posted by: WillowViney at July 11, 2026 12:13 PM (d3MA1)

True statement. A lot of interesting speculation as to why men have far more random variations in their makeup than women do.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 11, 2026 12:19 PM (VbqNm)

105
Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe it's a girl offering to do your yard work.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 11, 2026 12:19 PM (O0L8i)

106 ...wait for it.

Posted by: muldoon at July 11, 2026 12:19 PM (I0N4X)

107 100 Why is he offering working in your yard to other neighbors? Is your lawn that bad?

Posted by: The HO

Paradoxically, it's one of the nicest. I guess he figures I care enough to be willing to part with some coin to keep it that way.

Posted by: Archimedes
---

Liberals always assume the negative.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at July 11, 2026 12:19 PM (Pee1E)

108 "there is no statistically significant difference between the average IQs of men and women."
"Identical Averages: Standard intelligence tests are specifically designed to avoid gender bias, resulting in equal mean IQ scores globally."
"Women typically score higher in tests involving verbal fluency and memory, while men generally demonstrate higher average performance in visual-spatial tasks and mathematical reasoning"

What this tells me is that an IQ test is a measuring rod that's been designed to measure what it measures. It has its uses but it's not very good at identifying "genius." We typically identify high-end achievements in abstract reasoning and invention with men. That's the fact, Jack.

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 11, 2026 12:19 PM (dtajH)

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