- Latest “progressive” intellectual psychobabble: You don’t have a right to believe whatever you want. (How the Thought Police are going to stop you is a question for another day.)
- Facebook, Google, Twitter, and something called Brightcloud may believe they have the answer.
- Tracking you without a warrant. (H/T JB)
- Seattle passed the dreaded head tax. IBD explains how the city is foolishly attempting to solve a problem of its own creation. (Are we surprised?)
- The war on Airbnb is a war on the little guy.
- Teen goes to prison for shooting at home invaders. (Three guesses as to who employed the raiders.)
- Two tributes to Tom Wolfe, the dazzling wordsmith and cultural observer who died this week at 88: America’s carnival barker and gentleman heretic.
- The young Turks rejecting Islam. No clue as to how widespread this is.
Today is the midpoint of the very last fundraiser I ever intend to hold. If you enjoy this blog, please say it with flowers cash, Bitcoin, or other stores of value.
RE: “The war on Airbnb is a war on the little guy.”
Yes, it is a war on the little guy. But, in cities that are popular tourist and/or convention locations, large investors are buying up individual homes and condos.
In my city, one neighborhood that used to be lower middle class and the home to many waitresses, bartenders, and hotel staff who serve the tourist trade has seen rents and home prices skyrocket as private investors (some large entities) came in and bought the homes to turn them into Airbnbs.
Also, new condo construction has been going gangbusters, and some of the buildings are seeing large blocks of condos being purchased also by private investors to be used as short-term rentals on VRBO and Airbnb.
The city is attempting to control this. Neighborhoods adjacent to the tourist attractions and convention sites are being overrun with these short-term rentals. The long-time homeowners have to put up with a revolving crowd of rowdy occupants who show up for a few days and don’t care about keeping noise down or littering up the place.
It’s not a simple problem to solve.
Wolfe was friends with Hunter Thompson. Only a friend of Thompson’s could receive a letter like this:
http://www.anorak.co.uk/450066/celebrities/hunter-s-thompsons-letter-to-tom-wolfe-the-pig-in-the-filthy-white-suit.html
Warning – NSFW
Mmmm. Style. And class.
[…] A roundup of some noteworthy stories. Midweek links – Living Freedom […]
People like DeNicola live in a black-and-white world where everything is right or wrong, and where what they believe is always right. Therefore there’s no need to listen to what others believe.
Hence the way he treats global warming, and the way Seattle treats the “homeless problem.”
That letter from Hunter Thompson to Tom Wolfe was supposed to exhibit some sort of literary style or quality? It’s “the pick” (per Anorak) of the body of their correspondence? Thanks for that Anorak; I now know i needn’t bother reading anything else from what clearly must be a mound of offal. I’ve not read much of Thompson’s oeuvre, but it’s certainly not moving toward the top of my list any time soon.
“Unfortunately, many people today seem to take great licence with the right to believe, flouting their responsibility. The wilful ignorance and false knowledge that are commonly defended by the assertion ‘I have a right to my belief’ do not meet James’s requirements. Consider those who believe that the lunar landings or the Sandy Hook school shooting were unreal, government-created dramas; that Barack Obama is Muslim; that the Earth is flat; or that climate change is a hoax. In such cases, the right to believe is proclaimed as a negative right; that is, its intent is to foreclose dialogue, to deflect all challenges; to enjoin others from interfering with one’s belief-commitment. The mind is closed, not open for learning. They might be ‘true believers’, but they are not believers in the truth.”
Wow. And yet this person would be unable even to hear me telling him that the whole intent of his article is to foreclose dialogue and to deflect all challenges, by preemptively declaring some belief of mine beyond the pale, invalid and impermissible. Nice racket. You don’t have to refute anything I say if you simply claim the right to call me untermensch.
I wonder whether Professor Daniel DeNicola subscribes to the belief that he has a right to exist.
Agree with Adam,BNB’s do NOT make nice neighbours,they make loud obnoxious parties.I live in a touristy area,and a lot of the tourists are not pleasant to have around.Especially a bunch of drunks having a party.In the streets.All night.Every weekend.
Whats more obnoxious than a bunch of drunk partiers? Listening to groups of ‘developers’ of BNB’s loudly bragging how they are going to rape homeowners and turn that property into a BNB.Those guys are beyond the pale.
Hotels are businesses and belong in the business areas.
Re: Brightcloud
Invest in paper and ink. That’s the future of free speech and free press. You can write what you want and once published it can’t be edited, shadow banned, or put down the memory hole. Back to the future.
(I’m only half serious…but I’m not sure which half.)
Hmm. Glad people have already called out Daniel DeNicola for being evidence that some who pretend to “teach” philosophy, have placed some ordinarily useful body parts in unconstructive places.
Can I say, Daniel is theoretically an intellectual, but a pompous idiot.
Kiss what you think I can believe fellow, and park your head and ass in your favorite low flush toilet.