On this day:
1935
United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1945
Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II, and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time)
2003
Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
***
Pittsburgh Pirates catcher and first baseman Endy Rodriguez is officially done for the season after undergoing ulnar nerve transposition surgery, per Alex Stumpf of MLB.com.
***
In a candid and far-reaching discussion on Nikhil Kamath’s YouTube channel, legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, one of Fortune’s most powerful people in business, delivered some advice for Gen Z. It could be seen as a stark warning or as simple pragmatism: The single most important skill for young workers at this moment is not specialization, but the ability to learn rapidly and adapt continuously. His reasoning is simple yet profound: “ChatGPT can teach you any new areas,” rendering traditional academic paths and fixed skill sets increasingly obsolete. The title of the episode was more blunt: “College Degrees Are Becoming Useless.”--Fortune
***
Production may or may not cover desires. New York City has erroneously considered this a crisis. But it is not. A crisis occurs when production does not cover needs. The confusion of desires with needs is a virtual definition of adolescence.
***
The State Laboratory
The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that "all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"Laboratories of democracy" is a phrase popularized by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann to describe how "a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." Brandeis was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
For example, the Massachusetts legislature established a health care reform law in 2006 that became the model for the subsequent Affordable Care Act at the national level in 2010, or the various concealed carry state reciprocity agreements that motivated the subsequent proposed federal Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.
But there are dangers here. For example, what about polygamy?
The federal government was opposed to the practice of polygamy and refused to make Utah a state while it was still being practiced. As a territory, the governor and judges were all federally appointed. But if they were a state, the population could elect their own governor and judges who would be sympathetic to the cause of polygamy and wouldn’t prosecute it to the fullest extent.
The Republican Party famously had a platform against polygamy, saying, “Congress... [must prohibit]... in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.” With the Civil War over, the Republican Party turned its attention to Utah. They made the first attempt to pass a bill that would limit polygamy in 1870. The Cullom Bill passed the House on March 23, 1870.
The judges who were federally appointed cracked down on polygamy. The most prominent judge was Judge McKean, who attempted to convict Brigham Young of bigamy. However, the U S Supreme Court found the jury selection unlawful, and the case was dismissed.
George Reynolds, Brigham Young’s personal secretary and husband to three women, was offered up as a test case in 1874. Reynolds was convicted, and eventually the case went to the US Supreme Court. Reynolds’ conviction was upheld, and he was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of five hundred dollars.
In 1882, the Edmunds Act made cohabitation unlawful, disenfranchised polygamists, and made it impossible for polygamists to hold public offices or serve on a jury. The Act invalidated all Utah voter registration and immediately vacated all public offices to ensure that polygamists weren’t serving. The Utah Commission was established and given authority over elections to ensure that the Edmunds Act would be carried out.
The decline of the female population, along with the federal prosecution of polygamy and the Edmunds-Tucker Act, caused the leader of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, to issue a manifesto in 1890 that ended the practice of plural marriage in the Church.
After the manifesto, there were no more obstacles on the road to statehood, and in 1896, Utah was admitted to the Union as a state.
Currently, the state of Utah does not grant multiple marriage licenses to one individual; that act remains against the law. However, a significant legal shift occurred in 2020 with Senate Bill 102. This legislation decriminalized bigamy among consenting adults, reclassifying it from a felony to an infraction. This means adults who cohabitate and present themselves as married to more than one person are no longer committing a serious crime.
This distinction allows for risk, a contagious social risk that originally disallowed its statehood. But it does allow for free thought. And allows the nation diversity. There's risk, and the Islam question is coming, but the nation is up to it.
***
In a candid and far-reaching discussion on Nikhil Kamath’s YouTube channel, legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, one of Fortune’s most powerful people in business, delivered some advice for Gen Z. It could be seen as a stark warning or as simple pragmatism: The single most important skill for young workers at this moment is not specialization, but the ability to learn rapidly and adapt continuously. His reasoning is simple yet profound: “ChatGPT can teach you any new areas,” rendering traditional academic paths and fixed skill sets increasingly obsolete. The title of the episode was more blunt: “College Degrees Are Becoming Useless.”--Fortune
***
Production may or may not cover desires. New York City has erroneously considered this a crisis. But it is not. A crisis occurs when production does not cover needs. The confusion of desires with needs is a virtual definition of adolescence.
***
The State Laboratory
The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that "all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
"Laboratories of democracy" is a phrase popularized by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann to describe how "a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." Brandeis was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
For example, the Massachusetts legislature established a health care reform law in 2006 that became the model for the subsequent Affordable Care Act at the national level in 2010, or the various concealed carry state reciprocity agreements that motivated the subsequent proposed federal Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.
The federal government was opposed to the practice of polygamy and refused to make Utah a state while it was still being practiced. As a territory, the governor and judges were all federally appointed. But if they were a state, the population could elect their own governor and judges who would be sympathetic to the cause of polygamy and wouldn’t prosecute it to the fullest extent.
The Republican Party famously had a platform against polygamy, saying, “Congress... [must prohibit]... in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.” With the Civil War over, the Republican Party turned its attention to Utah. They made the first attempt to pass a bill that would limit polygamy in 1870. The Cullom Bill passed the House on March 23, 1870.
The judges who were federally appointed cracked down on polygamy. The most prominent judge was Judge McKean, who attempted to convict Brigham Young of bigamy. However, the U S Supreme Court found the jury selection unlawful, and the case was dismissed.
George Reynolds, Brigham Young’s personal secretary and husband to three women, was offered up as a test case in 1874. Reynolds was convicted, and eventually the case went to the US Supreme Court. Reynolds’ conviction was upheld, and he was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of five hundred dollars.
In 1882, the Edmunds Act made cohabitation unlawful, disenfranchised polygamists, and made it impossible for polygamists to hold public offices or serve on a jury. The Act invalidated all Utah voter registration and immediately vacated all public offices to ensure that polygamists weren’t serving. The Utah Commission was established and given authority over elections to ensure that the Edmunds Act would be carried out.
The decline of the female population, along with the federal prosecution of polygamy and the Edmunds-Tucker Act, caused the leader of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, to issue a manifesto in 1890 that ended the practice of plural marriage in the Church.
After the manifesto, there were no more obstacles on the road to statehood, and in 1896, Utah was admitted to the Union as a state.
Currently, the state of Utah does not grant multiple marriage licenses to one individual; that act remains against the law. However, a significant legal shift occurred in 2020 with Senate Bill 102. This legislation decriminalized bigamy among consenting adults, reclassifying it from a felony to an infraction. This means adults who cohabitate and present themselves as married to more than one person are no longer committing a serious crime.
This distinction allows for risk, a contagious social risk that originally disallowed its statehood. But it does allow for free thought. And allows the nation diversity. There's risk, and the Islam question is coming, but the nation is up to it.
So, what about Mamdani? Is he just another dumb lab tech in the democracy lab? We know this is a bad idea, and we know that it will fail. Should he have the opportunity anyway?
Like polygamy, it has risks. But this country allows risk, even encourages it. Strangely, the subsidy-obsessed Left is actually opposed to risk and constantly tries to soften any risk in life. The only caution is the concern that those taking the risk, like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, would count on others to underwrite them. For example, multiple wives and children should not have their neighbors pay for them. Nor should Mississippi have to cover the debts that Momdani will undoubtedly incur.
If you take the risk, you should be responsible for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment