Big companies are finally talking more specifically about the impact of artificial intelligence on their workforces.
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Will AI create or destroy jobs?
Monthly Archives: September 2025
Who’s afraid of big, bad socialism? I am (afraid of the word)
According to the WSJ, socialism is on the rise. Sort of. Depends on what you mean by socialism.
As I wrote several years ago, the word socialism needs to be retired. To summarize my earlier argument, it means one thing on the left (the Scandanavian model) and another on the right (the Cuban or Venezuelan model). It conveys no information beyond the speaker’s disdain for whatever’s being discussed (when used by the right) or the speaker’s disdain for our current economic system (when used by the left). It does nothing but sow confusion. The word is a victim of what C.S. Lewis called verbicide; it’s dead and needs to be buried.
Mandani, AOC, Sanders, and the others are not helping themselves (or progressivism) by touting themselves as socialists. No doubt our current economic system is deeply flawed and we could perhaps learn from the social democracies of western Europe but when most people hear the word socialist, they think, not of Sweden, but of Cuba or North Korea. These “democratic socialists” should be pushing their ideas on pragmatic grounds, i.e., the benefits outweigh the costs and they improve on what we currently have. Mandani seems poised to win his election but he could hurt progressives elsewhere with his “socialism.”
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The bane of every law student’s existence (largely ignored by practicing lawyers)
Updated: If you are unsure about how and when to cite content generated by artificial intelligence, a new citation rule is unlikely to clear up the confusion, according to experts who spoke with LawSites.
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Poem of the day
Thorp Green
by Branwell Brontë (1817-1848)
I sit, this evening, far away,
From all I used to know,
And nought reminds my soul to-day
Of happy long ago.
Unwelcome cares, unthought-of fears,
Around my room arise;
I seek for suns of former years
But clouds o’ercast my skies.
Yes–Memory, wherefore does thy voice
Bring old times back to view,
As thou wouldst bid me not rejoice
In thoughts and prospects new?
I’ll thank thee, Memory, in the hour
When troubled thoughts are mine–
For thou, like suns in April’s shower,
On shadowy scenes wilt shine.
I’ll thank thee when approaching death
Would quench life’s feeble ember,
For thou wouldst even renew my breath
With thy sweet word ‘Remember’!
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The Wines They Are A-Changin’
The NYT has an article on how hybrid grape varieties are gaining importance in the fight against climate change.
“The climate crisis has affected wine regions with a speed and force beyond what anybody had predicted. In addition to global warming, wine regions have experienced more frequent catastrophic weather events, like hail, drought and spring frosts, along with devastating bouts with fungal diseases and insect infestations. …
“To say hybrids have hit the mainstream would be an exaggeration. It’s just scattered farmers here and there, in France, Germany, New Zealand and Virginia, for example, who are joining growers in regions like Vermont, the Midwest and parts of Canada, where the weather, either too hot and humid or too cold, required alternatives to vinifera grapes. But even the world’s most historic wine regions like Champagne and Burgundy are beginning tentative experiments with hybrids in their effort to adapt to the changing climate.”
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A demon in disguise?
According to Dante (Inferno, Canto XXXIII), the souls of those who betray their guests (and are not at least some immigrants to be considered guests?) fall into the pit of hell while their still-living bodies, now inhabited by demons, continue to plague mankind on earth. So great is their evil. Is Stephen Miller perhaps one of these?
Everything you loathe or love about Donald Trump?s America, you hate or cherish about Stephen Miller?s republic of fear.
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Poem of the day
Tichborne’s Elegy
by Chidiock Tichborne (1562?-1586)
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fall’n, and yet my leaves are green,
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made;
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
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Poem of the day
Septembermorgen
by Eduard Mörike (1804-1875)
Im Nebel ruhet noch die Welt,
Noch träumen Wald und Wiesen:
Bald siehst du, wenn der Schleier fällt,
Den blauen Himmel unverstellt,
Herbstkräftig die gedämpfte Welt
In warmem Golde fließen.
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The Spirit of Lee Atwater lives
“There is no real hope that the Supreme Court will stop Texas or white people from overrepresenting themselves in Congress. The more practical response is for other Democratically controlled states to play hardball and aggressively gerrymander their congressional districts to counteract Texas. Trying to live in a society with Texas is like trying to share a Thanksgiving turkey with a rabid dog: All you can do is snatch some flesh with your hands and take your vaccinations. Etiquette and manners are no use here.”
New York State is a case study in Democrats? failure to understand the evolving political landscape.
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