Mitch Townsend

Mineralogy and Economics

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According to this story, a woman’s weight has an adverse effect on family income. The effect is attributed largely (so to speak) to the marriage market and the ability to attract high-status, high-income mates. There is no corresponding difference in family income based on men’s weight (as originally formulated by Prof. Joe Jackson, “looks don’t count for much”). The study failed to credit Townsend’s Law of Mineralogy, which states that the carat weight of an engagement diamond varies indirectly with body mass index.

Update

The study’s authors get a sypathetic hearing in today’s Boston Globe, where they describe men’s preference for lighter-weight wives as “discrimination” and “objectification.” Leaving aside the voluntary nature of marriage (see Nozick), the authors do not see a corresponding problem with the converse: “discrimination” against men of slender means. It is not clear whether whatever redistribution scheme they would use to overcome this injustice would involve the transfer of money or avoirdupois.

Market Response

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USA Today reports that college students have responded to massive technology sector layoffs by studying something besides Computer Science. This apparently comes as a surprise to the author, but not to the Chicago Boyz.

The article also points out that while the low-level tech jobs have been sent offshore to India, there is still a need for experienced people with both technology and business skills (business systems analysts, project leaders, etc.). The problem, which the author misses, is that the offshored jobs used to be the entry points into technology careers. Most of the accomplished techies I’ve met have spent time on the help desk, doing network maintenance, testing software, grinding out code, or doing some other necessary but “low-level” jobs. With these jobs scarce, there is no chance of getting the experience that the market wants. The pipeline is cut off.

We all know that HR’s ideal candidate is 22 years old with 15 years of industry experience. Good luck finding one.

A Couple of Familiar Names

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A grand jury has handed up an indictment against two former officers of Care International. This was not the same organization that used to send CARE packages; this was an Islamofascist front organization that was more likely to blow up children than to feed them. Both of them were in the process of applying for American citizenship, which would have prevented their being deported. In fact, one was scheduled to have his naturalization hearing today. Plans for rescheduling it are still uncertain.

One of these men, Muhamed Mubayyid, was employed at Ptech, a Massachusetts software firm with contracts at the Pentagon and the FBI. One of Ptech’s backers, Saudi financier Yasin al-Qadi, is listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury. Another backer and a director, Yaqub Mirza, was at the center of a network of interrelated Islamic charities, funds, and for-profit corporations. He and the organizations he controls are defendants in a lawsuit relating to the planning and financing of the 9/11/2001 attacks. The FBI searched his office and residence over a year ago, looking for information on the financing of al Qaeda, Hamas, and other terrorist groups, but so far, no arrests have been made. Other former Ptech employees have been linked to terrorist groups or those who finance them.

This isn’t over. I just hope the FBI can roll these guys up before they can execute another of their hellish schemes.

Point & Counterpoint

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Harry Reid (D Nuclear Waste Dump) elevates the debate on national issues. Bush responds.

Vocabulary

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A Chicago Boyz exclusive – don’t look for these in a regular dictionary any time soon.

condestruction (n.) a. the act of assembling related things or ideas into a coherent whole; b. the process of interpreting a text without reference to the reader’s ideology. antonym: deconstruction. synonym: dedemolition.

fauxlex (n.) a watch sold by a sidewalk vendor.

fer (v.t.) to fail to grasp an implication or hint.

irrationalize (v.i.) a. to offer a nonsensical excuse; b. to justify by means of babble and non-sequiturs. cf. hummina hummina.

lumpentelligentsia (n. col.) an educated and intellectual elite, chiefly employed in the food service industry.

kabbala-la-la (n.) an esoteric theosophy of rabbinical origin as practiced in Los Angeles.

misleadership (n.) the process of directing the efforts of others by means of duplicity and treachery; the art of selling someone down the river under the pretext of a boat ride.

nere (adj.) neither here nor there.

penultimatum (n.) a. a semi-final demand backed by an insincere threat of force; specifically: b. the most severe type of resolution issued by United Nations.

thinwa (n.) an order or command to lose weight, usually issued by a physician or spouse.