Is Jared Kushner trolling us? News reports are out saying that Jared Kushner is registered to vote in New York… as a female. Left-leaning groups are pointing to this as an example of Kushner’s incompetence (and to be fair he did repeatedly make flubs on forms needed to serve as a top adviser to his father-in-law), but maybe Kushner did it on purpose. Surely, nobody here has purposefully ticked the wrong box on a form just for fun. Even robots like Kushner.
The Church of SkyNet. Silicon Valley is a strange place, filled with smart, strange people. It should come as no surprise, then, that creating religions and churches out of thin air should be something left to folks in real America. Wired reports that a former Googler has begun to create a new faith:
Levandowski, at one point in his life, typed this phrase: “We’re going to take over the world. One robot at a time.” Not weird at all.
Yes, let’s kill the Jones Act. One of America’s dumbest laws is in the news again after President Trump declined to waive the nefarious Jones Act for aid to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Don’t know what the Jones Act is? Don’t worry, Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok has you covered:
The Jones Act is a protectionist measure that, somehow, has failed spectacularly, despite the best (albeit economically misguided) intentions. It shouldn’t be waived, it should be repealed.
But, Officer! I am a (insert self-important profession here)! There should be a 24/7 cable channel dedicated to First World problems. Wouldn’t you watch it? Airline controversies are always good clickbait, so here’s one to enjoy: the story of the professor and the dog allergy. An unidentified woman was pulled off of a Southwest flight after telling the crew she had a “deadly allergy” to dogs. She wanted two dogs on the plane to be removed.
However, Southwest’s policy (rightly) is that if you don’t have a certificate proving this and you make such a claim, you can be denied boarding. The lady in the video had no such certificate. Dogs do not typically fly free unless they’re service animals, in which case, you have to have papers proving this. One of the dogs was a service animal. (And we know nobody ever lies about needing a service animal. Just like nobody would ever lie about having an allergy.)
Anyways, there’s this line in the video where the woman says to police: “I’m a professor. What are you doing?” What does being a professor have to do with anything here? Insert your profession and repeat the line back. Why should a police officer care? Shouldn’t somebody that smart with a pricey pedigree understand the simple logic that brought them to this conflict? Can you demonstrate and prove X? No? Well.
Even weirder is that if this was indeed a “deathly” allergy, why would you sit around near the dogs and argue about it? Wouldn’t you want to get off the plane and back to safety? All very curious. NBC reports:
Which brings up another interesting conflict for the social media hive mind: Love of dogs vs. airline hatred. Which tribe will prevail? Tune into a Twitter and Facebook account near you.
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