This has always puzzled me — how eager pseudo-liberals are to accept the narratives of economists when it is consonant with their interest of supposedly bettering society. The alignment of neoclassical economics and modern political liberalism on the economic effects (or not) of immigrants is one of those puzzling areas.

Ironically, even though labor is described as a commodity sold in the “labor market,” conventional (neoclassical) economists insist that supply and demand play no role whatsoever in these markets! So, for example, increasing the supply of workers by, say, massive amounts immigrant labor is said to have no effect whatsoever on domestic wages. Neither does the addition of millions of additional workers via globalization. Rather, according to economists, in this “market” everyone simply gets what they produce, no more and no less!

It’s an excellent bit of propagandizing aimed at those who want to (or at least believe they want to) help people that masterfully manages to align their sense of social justice with the desires and imperatives of capital.

I’m generally pro-immigration, by the way — just not pro-stupid immigration. That is, “open borders” is completely preposterous an idea for any society. It is just some odd fetishized liberal ideological fantasy that could never work anywhere without tearing the host society apart.

That said, the US is at no real risk from immigration. We mostly admit people with cultures and views much like our own. We are still pretty decent at integration (though that is changing, and not due to racism etc but due to capitalism and all the pseudo-liberals’ neolib heroes, mostly).

Europe, however, in admitting millions of North Africans and Muslims is going to experience huge and society-rending problems in the next 20-40 years. That is baked in, alas.

I wish I just had the power to believe propaganda like what I mentioned above about the magical always-positive effects of immigration, though, without pondering it at all. It would make life so much easier, really.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

Self-defense training works.

Most attackers have no training and are looking for easy victims, not for anyone who fights back. Resist effectively and you will prevail, even if you are smaller.

At that point, Herron had already gone public with the story of her harrowing run, telling ABC News that she used her self-defense training to defeat the attacker by scratching his face, “hitting the side of his head,” and ultimately locking him inside with a carabiner until police arrived.

If you are fighting someone who is both well-trained and determined to harm you in specific, you are probably doomed no matter how large or well-trained you are. But that is maybe 0.01% or fewer of attacks. Most are just opportunistic ambushes like the one Herron experienced.

You’d be just amazed how quickly someone lets you go when you poke both thumbs in their eyeballs as hard as you can.

It’s not advertised anywhere but I know this from Krav Maga classes: the best thing they teach you is to get over your natural aversion to truly fucking someone up by using tactics like I mentioned above. The good ones aren’t (mostly) going to teach you crazy kung fu garbage that is actually worthless in a real fight, but rather the above.

That is where their value lies.