Heather MacDonald cites a L.A. Times article and describes the lunacy of affirmative action:

But the Times story conveys a subtler point as well: Racial preferences are not just ill advised, they are positively sadistic. Only the preening self-regard of University of California administrators and faculty is served by such an admissions travesty. Preference practitioners are willing to set their "beneficiaries" up to fail and to subject them to possible emotional distress, simply so that the preference dispensers can look out upon their "diverse" realm and know that they are morally superior to the rest of society.

Here's a great story of a houseboat, built in 1927 by a Norfolk shipyard owner.

Its adventures include ghost towns, guns, bootleg liquor, terrific storms and tofu.

Read the whole story here, with 8 more pictures in the pull-out.

Remember the days when salt was bad for you and fruit juice was good? Yeah, me too. Those were some good old days.

Rich Lowry has a great "compare and contrast" Lou Gehrig and Alex Rodriguez.

The difference between the two Yankees is the difference between going away with grace when no one wants you to leave, and sticking around, gracelessly, when most everyone would prefer that you go. It's the difference between fighting for your life but not mentioning it, and saying you're fighting for your life when you are not. It's the difference between calling yourself the luckiest man on Earth when you have been dealt an ugly hand by fate, and pitying yourself when your predicament is the product of your own bad choices.

From Gehrig to Rodriguez is a long way down.

Economist Thomas Sowell has a way of distilling complex ideas down to the core, underlying roots. Here's his take on Obamacare and those with the hubris to dictate such a monstrosity:

Obamacare is perhaps the ultimate in busybody politics. People who have never even run a drugstore, much less a hospital, blithely prescribe what must be done by the entire medical system, from doctors to hospitals to producers of pharmaceutical drugs to health-insurance companies.

This includes federal laws requiring the turning over of patients' confidential medical records to the federal government, where these records can be looked at by politicians, bureaucrats, and whoever can hack into the government's computers. Neither you nor your doctor has a right to keep this information confidential.

What could lead anyone to believe that he has either the right or the omniscience to dictate to hundreds of millions of other people? Our educational system may have something to do with that, with its constant promotion of "self-esteem" and its emphasis on developing "leaders."

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. The price of their self-indulgence is the sacrifice of our freedom. If we don't defend ourselves against them, who will?

Epic Brawl

It happened 20 years ago today.

In one corner, Robin Ventura, White Sox third baseman: 26 years old, young and full of vigor, still at the beginning of a great Chicago career that would be followed by some heroics in a Mets uniform as well.

In the other, Nolan Ryan, Rangers starter: 46 years old, the wise veteran in his final MLB season, who appeared in a Mets World Series 31 years before Ventura did and went on to have successful enough careers with the Angels, Astros and Rangers to have his number retired by all three of them

Complete 6 minutes of base brawl is available at the link.

Here is a great post at the always entertaining One Cosmos blog. An excerpt:

Obama for example, has made a fortune from his warped version of "public service," to such an extent that he need never -- in his private life -- be compelled to do anything he doesn't choose to. In other words, for him, there are no external constraints on his freedom (barring physical threats from his bitchier half). Why then is he so interested -- obsessed -- with limiting ours? Exactly what is going in in the heart of such a disordered person?

Obama doesn't have to worry about the cost of his own healthcare. But because of him, I am robbed of freedom -- i.e., I have to work more -- because I have to earn more money to pay for the type of insurance he compels me to have.

It reminds me of the classic essay by William Graham Sumner, On the Case of a Certain Man Who Is Never Thought Of:

"The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D."

In other words, be-badding liberal do-gooders get together in order to decide what I must be forced to do in order to appease their conscience and make them feel good about themselves. Or, they want to eliminate a portion of my slack in order to give it to people who have no idea what to do with it.

In this context, remember what was said above about the maleficent being of these individuals, who attempt through "activism" to transform their own inner darkness into light.

No, it never works. I mean, imagine Anthony Weiner, or Eliot Spitzer, or Bill Clinton -- men who have failed the rudimentary step of governing themselves -- presuming to govern the rest of us! Just on a common sense level, does anyone doubt that Weiner isn't so much running for something as running away from himself? Wouldn't you?