Links - 19th June 2019

Professor Faces Calls to Resign After Argument With Asian Collegue - "Professor Katie Kent, Chair of the English Department at Williams College, is facing calls to resign following the April 17 incident. According to a report in the Williams Record, Williams College’s independent student newspaper, two students witnessed Kent “behave aggressively” toward American Studies Professor Dorothy Wang. The students have expressed extreme distress over the incident, calling it an example of structural racism at the school. They have demanded Kent, who is white, either resign or be fired for “berating” Wang, who is Asian... The students claim they were emotionally harmed by the altercation and had trouble sleeping. “This is something that none of us are going to forget happened, and for a week afterward I would wake up in the middle of the night and think of it,” Kasulis said, adding that she was physically shaking throughout the incident... In an editorial for the Record, Kasulis and Wang called on Kent to be held accountable for her actions. The students characterized Kent’s treatment of Wang as “violence.”"

Author Natasha Tynes may lose book deal after reporting a Metro employee for eating. - "An author based out of Washington is now facing the prospect of losing her book deal after sparking an intense wave of anger Friday when she tweeted out a photo of a black Metro employee eating her breakfast.“When you’re on your morning commute & see @wmata employee in UNIFORM eating on the train,” Natasha Tynes, who is also a World Bank employee, tweeted out at 9 a.m. on Friday. “I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds. When I asked the employee about this, her response was, ‘worry about yourself.” The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority account, tagged in Tynes’ tweet, responded within an hour. “Good morning Natasha. Thank you for catching this and helping us to make sure all Metro employees are held accountable"... The anger on social media came immediately... Others jumped in to warn Metro against taking action against the employee. Metro does ban smoking, drinking, and eating on the trains. And still others went to the Goodreads page for Tynes’ upcoming novel, They Called Me Wyatt, to give it a one-star rating... Another wrote, “worry about yourself snitch.”... Rare Birds Books, the publishing house that was set to distribute Tynes’s upcoming novel, announced by the evening that it had decided not to do so after all"
Rules don't apply to black people, and not even company rules that the public is supposed to follow - they don't apply to black employees. And if you report black people for flagrantly and unashamedly breaking rules, you're racist (even if you're a person of color too). On Facebook people were slamming her for being a snitch. No wonder so many blacks get murdered - no one wants to snitch.

9GAG - "Finally! A Marvel DC crossover movie that we've been waiting for By Venus Music"
Superman and Spiderwomen Bollywood

Germany: Citizenship for Polygamous Migrants? - "The German government has withdrawn proposed legislation that would have banned immigrants in polygamous marriages from obtaining German citizenship. The proposed ban had been included in draft changes to Germany's naturalization law, but was quietly removed from the final text, apparently in the interests of political correctness and multiculturalism.Although German law clearly prohibits polygamy for German nationals, some have argued that the law is unclear as to whether the law applies to foreign nationals living in Germany. The interior ministers of Germany's 16 states had unanimously called on the German government to clarify the issue by enshrining into law a blanket ban on German citizenship for polygamous migrants. Critics say that the bill, as it currently stands, would not only create a legal backdoor for polygamous migrants to become German citizens, but would effectively legalize the practice for Muslim immigrants. The changes would, consequently, enshrine into German law two parallel legal systems, one based on German Civil Law and another based on Islamic Sharia law... In May 2013, RTL, one of Germany's leading media companies, aired a documentary about how Muslims in Germany use polygamy to commit welfare fraud... Although the welfare fraud committed by Muslim immigrants is an "open secret" costing German taxpayers millions of euros each year, RTL reported that government agencies are reluctant to act due to political correctness... In July 2013, then German President Joachim Gauck became the honorary godfather of Ismail, the three-month-old son of a 24-year-old Kosovo Albanian named Sabedin Tatari, who was living — at the expense of German taxpayers — with his parents, two wives and eight children in Gelsenkirchen. Gauck was criticized for effectively legitimizing polygamy in Germany... In March 2018, German newspapers reported that an Iraqi family — a man, his two wives, and their 13 children — had been living in Bavaria at taxpayer expense for more than two years. After public outrage, Bavarian officials decided that the welfare payments could continue because the polygamous relationship, although illegal, was deemed to be a "hardship case.""

A Global Financial Literacy Test Finds That Just 57% Of Adults In U.S. Are Financially Literate - "Can you explain what risk diversification is? Identify the effects of inflation? Know how to calculate interest? If you answered yes to these three questions, you are better off than 43% of Americans and a whopping two-thirds of the world's population.According to the first-ever S&P Global FinLit Survey, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of worldwide financial literacy by the World Bank, Gallup, and George Washington University, just one-third of the world's population is financially literate. On a country-by-country basis, Norway, Denmark and Sweden tied for first place, with 71% of their populations ranking as financially literate. At the bottom of the spectrum was Yemen -- just 13% of the Yemeni population was deemed financially literate by the S&P survey... On a global basis, 35% of men are financially literate, compared to just 30% of women... Ultimately, the survey authors hope that their findings will help inspire efforts to improve financial know-how around the world, and maybe even inspire a little bit more consumer protection efforts. "
A lot of libertarians were bashing Tucker Carlson for suggesting that credit card interest rates be limited to 15% (and other consumer protection measures), claiming that this would prevent poor people from getting credit. Because in the libertarian world view everyone is a perfectly informed, rational agent

One in 15 US student loan recipients have considered suicide over debt, study suggests
Some libertarians were suggesting that preventing poor people from taking up predatory loans would help them learn. Can't learn if you're dead

Martin: '100,000 attempt debt suicide each year – stop the debt threats'

Meme - ".@KendallJenner ate Ate Grilled Cheese, Fries, Crepes & More Before Hitting the #MetGala Red Carpet. Now *That* Is Bravery"
"I Live in Syria and This Story Gave Me to Strength to Carry on Thank You for Sharing Her Story"

Teen mums blame boredom during school holidays for unplanned pregnancies, says Yeoh - "Girls are getting pregnant out of wedlock as they are bored during school holidays, Deputy Women, Family and Children Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said.She said this was the feedback obtained by the ministry when visiting homes for pregnant girls.“They told us during school holidays, they were left alone with nothing to do, no meaningful activities and parents were too busy to engage with their children emotionally,” she said."
Malaysia Boleh!

Differential fertility by intelligence: the role of birth planning. - "Urban, white, ever-married women, aged 15-44, were sampled in low and high income census tracts in 16 U.S. cities, using a short adaptation of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test as a measure of IQ. After analysis of covariance, in which IQ was the independent variable and children ever born (CEB) was the dependent variable, it was found that there is .19 difference between the mean CEB of high- and low-IQ groups when covariables are controlled. It was shown that there was no significant difference in desired family size associated with IQ. But since the low-IQ women have more fertility than high-IQ women, effectiveness of contraceptive methods was examined. Examination showed that lower fertility was achieved by more effective use by the high-IQ women of methods of theoretically similar effectiveness. Also, those women not using a physician administered contraceptive (PAC) in the 3-year study period had unwanted births at about 3 times the rate of those who used PAC for the entire period. Thus, all American women will have to learn to realize their own fertility goals."
Education and free birth control are not sufficient to achieve family planning goals if one doesn't account for cognitive inequality

The United States' 'War on Drugs' Really Did Make Things Worse, New Research Finds - "It's a perennial cat-and-mouse game that's been going on since 1971. Yet despite the government spending up to almost US$5 billion federal dollars annually on the seizure and disruption of cocaine shipments, the new model has now corroborated what critics have long suspected: the mouse is winning."This work demonstrates that supply-side counterdrug strategies alone are, at best, ineffective and, at worst, intensifying the trafficking problem," says lead author Nicholas Magliocca, a geographer at the University of Alabama."

Hash brown defense: How Jason Stiber successfully fought police and won. - The Washington Post - "Could a police officer mistake a McDonald’s hash brown for a cellphone?In Jason Stiber’s case, the answer is “yes.” He was found not guilty Friday after successfully contesting the $300 distracted driving citation he received last year... Stiber’s victory comes nearly 13 months after he was pulled over by a Westport police officer who claimed to have seen the 45-year-old using his cellphone on the morning of April 11, 2018. Stiber, representing himself in court, lost his case last year but refused to give up — telling The Washington Post on Friday that he doled out a “significant” amount of money to hire Thygerson to prove he wasn’t talking on his phone at all.His willingness to take on the legal fees — which exceeded the cost of the ticket — was a matter of principle, he added.“Distracted driving violations go on your record, and they never come off,” Stiber said in an interview. “Plus, a lot of people don’t realize your insurance rates go up.”... Stiber’s lip movement was “consistent with chewing” the hash brown he had ordered at McDonald’s moments earlier. Phone records show that Stiber was not having a conversation at the time he was pulled over, Thygerson said. His client’s car also has Bluetooth capabilities that allow him to talk without holding his phone.To bolster his defense, Stiber said he made a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records showing Wong Won was on the 15th hour of a 16-hour double shift when he pulled Stiber over; offering another reason the officer may have confused the fried potato for a cellphone."

Harvard Drops Harvey Weinstein Lawyer as a Faculty Dean - The New York Times - "Harvard said on Saturday that a law professor who is representing Harvey Weinstein would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house after his term ends on June 30, bowing to months of pressure from students.The professor, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, who is a lecturer at the law school, have been the faculty deans of Winthrop House, one of Harvard’s residential houses for undergraduate students, since 2009. They were the first African-American faculty deans in Harvard’s history.But when Mr. Sullivan joined the defense team of Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, in January, many students expressed dismay, saying that his decision to represent a person accused of abusing women disqualified Mr. Sullivan from serving in a role of support and mentorship to students... the protests continued, with graffiti aimed at Mr. Sullivan appearing on a university building... the protests continued, with graffiti aimed at Mr. Sullivan appearing on a university building... the protests continued, with graffiti aimed at Mr. Sullivan appearing on a university building... 52 professors at the law school signed a letter supporting him, saying that his commitment to representing unpopular clients was fully consistent with his roles as law professor and faculty dean, and that Harvard should not pressure him to resign.At the same time, the dispute took on a racial element, with some saying that Mr. Sullivan was being treated unfairly. In a statement in late March, the Harvard Black Law Students Association criticized the decision by the university to conduct a climate review and expressed concern about “the racist undertones evidenced by the disproportionate response to this issue by the university.”... Mr. Sullivan has represented other controversial clients, including Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots player, when he was tried for double murder, and the family of Usaamah Rahim, a man, shot by the Boston police, who had been accused of being a terrorist.Mr. Sullivan also represented the family of Michael Brown, a man killed by the police in Missouri, in bringing a wrongful-death suit against the City of Ferguson; the family ultimately received a reported $1.5 million settlement.He has specialized in overturning wrongful convictions."
The value of a Harvard degree has dropped again

Watching Harvard, My Alma Mater, Surrender to the Mob - "The story of Adams fighting to ensure that even his enemy’s rights were protected has special resonance for lawyers and law students, because it portrays the noble side of a profession that often is shown in a less than heroic manner. More broadly, the story reflects America’s larger, evolving national project of creating a democratic society in which popular passions would be tempered by the rule of law. Central to that project are due process and the right of all accused persons to zealous legal representation. It is ironic that these foundational principles should be forgotten by a place such as Harvard, from which Adams himself graduated in 1755... activists [claimed] that Sullivan’s role in the case undercut his responsibility to make students of Winthrop House feel “welcomed, supported, and encouraged to raise their voices against any form of discrimination.” It also was claimed that “victims of sexual assault and rape” at Harvard would find Sullivan’s presence “not only upsetting, but deeply trauma-inducing.” Only after Sullivan joined Weinstein’s legal defence team did critics start publicizing allegations of a supposedly “toxic atmosphere” at Winthrop... the decision exacerbates a growing danger to the integrity of the legal profession in general, and to the rights of criminal defendants in particular... As international human-rights lawyer Gissou Nia put it, “I would never think that my legal defense of say, those alleged to have committed war crimes (which I’ve done), would then have me dismissed from a law school post.”... The “happy, excited, relieved” Harvard student activists high-fiving the departure of Sullivan may think they’re striking a blow for a progressive cause. But they’re simply mirroring the rhetoric of Liz Cheney, who once questioned “the loyalties of [U.S.] Justice Department lawyers who advocated for detained terror suspects” while in private practice... the story belies the increasingly-fashionable argument that campus tales of social justice run amok are overblown... Students who receive their education on campuses where mobs force the hand of professors and administrators can be expected to bring those same anti-liberal values into the wider world. At my first year of Harvard Law School, I was told that all accused persons deserve a strong legal defense. And we were all taught to celebrate lawyers who had the courage to take on unpopular causes. I internalized those lofty exhortations, and have tried to conduct my own career accordingly. Harvard’s decision regarding Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., on the other hand, sends the message that these are all just obsolete slogans from another era—the kind you hear on walking tours of old Boston historical sites."