Thursday, January 24. 2008
“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.” Adam Smith
From Overcoming Bias: Suppose that a disease, or a monster, or a war, or something, is killing people. And suppose you only have enough resources to implement one of the following two options: - Save 400 lives, with certainty.
- Save 500 lives, with 90% probability; save no lives, 10% probability.
Make your decision first, then read about it.
 The Anchoress advises Repubs to grow up. That's always good advice for everyone. It's so difficult, though. I want everything I want, for free, right now.
"Hey, I know, because I've done a study." neoneo Yale celebrates abortion. That is sick and disgusting. Hey, Yale - try celebrating and struggling with knowledge and morality for a change, Eli. Lux et Veritas. It might do ya good. View from the Right reflects on Thompson. Fred was closest to my views, but he was neither locked nor loaded. We will make an opening for him at Maggie's, though, if he wants to write or to make videos for us. Bernanke hopes people will spend any tax rebate on things that are domestically-produced. Like what? Well, maybe another nice Colt for carrying. No - I'll put my rebate in the bank. Sarko's new wife is a hot tamale...with a history. Blue Crab includes a link to a NSFW photo of the innocent blushing bride. Who is this pussy trying to psychoanalyse my views of global cooling warming? Spare me. How unionization damages economies. Those numbers don't lie. I have always been sentimentally (eg weakly) supportive of unionization, but their time is long past. People have learned mobility, and work has gone global. you cannot turn back that clock. I would never join a union now: It's beneath my dignity, and I know what I am worth (which is not a whole lot because writing. like musicianship, is a common and vulgar talent). However, I happen to be slave labor on Maggie's Farm, chained in a rat-infested, Cuban-ceegar-smoke-filled, unheated, dirt-floored basement in global-cooling-afflicted New England. Save me, AFL-CIO! Needed on our growing blogroll: Watts Up With That? Cool blog, sympatico. Need more Gramci insight? He is the Head Coach of our Dems. I forget where I found this additional good Gramcsi link. It's all so obvious, and I do not like it at all because it is about slavery to the State - not about freedom...as you know. Image borrowed from S,C&A's book cover collection: Rejected by Publisher
Wednesday, January 23. 2008
You think you're in the 28% Federal income tax bracket, and you have a good mortgage deduction and lots of charitable deductions, etc. Then you wonder why your tax is so much higher than you expected. It's not just because your Social Security tax and your Medicare tax are added on - it's also because of the sneaky PEP and Pease that erase your deductions as your income increases. All of my carefully-saved deductions are basically worthless to me, and it's not like I make mega-bucks. I am just a humble, hard-working Hartford, CT lawyer. A peasant. Always remember, it might be your labor and your effort and your brains but it's not your money. One must learn to be grateful that they let you keep any of it because, of course, they, the elite, know what's best for us Dartmouth-Yale foolish peasants. (h/t, Mankiw) In fact, what those low-life "elites" do know is how to spend my income for their re-elections, and nothing more. Editor: this is a Barrister piece, which comes via your Editor due to posting problems today.
Misha and the perfect, ethereal Gelsey Kirkland in the pas de deux in Balanchine's (New York City Ballet's) magical Nutcracker, with music by the amazingly soulful and romantic Tchaikovsky (A 1977 performance):
 I never saw anything racist about Little Black Sambo. The crafty Indian hero of the story makes the tigers run in circles until they turn into butter, and then puts it on a pile of pancakes.
But maybe I am plain blind, because I also cannot see how The Three Little Pigs could be offensive to Moslems (although I know they don't eat pigs, but what does that have to do with anything?). Since "some" Moslems do not care for dogs, monkeys, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, alcohol, theater, T&A, and many other good things, perhaps it might be safer just to go the whole hog and ban books and TV if one is afraid of getting bombed or beheaded. Funniest of all is the worry about offending the "building trades." That's a joke, right? Well, as I always say, this insanity on the part of "Government Agency" pussies offends the hell out of me.
The Onion. It's too close to reality to function as satire.
Malanga in City Journal discusses the political rivalry, if not hostility, between blacks and new Hispanic immigrants: The Rainbow Coalition Evaporates. h/t, Powerline. A quote: This battle over quotas for public-sector jobs is a glaring example of how immigration is turning the race-based policies of the last 40 years, originally designed to help blacks, against them. For African-American leaders like Claud Anderson, head of the Harvest Institute, the turnabout represents a betrayal of the civil rights movement: only blacks deserve quotas. “When did our government ever exclude immigrants or deny them their constitutional rights, as they did African-Americans?” he asks. But for other blacks, the demands of Latinos and Asians that government set-aside programs include them are further evidence that racial preferences were misguided in the first place. “Blacks who support skin color privileges now will be singing a different tune later once government starts discriminating against them once again, this time in favor of Hispanics,” writes columnist and blogger La Shawn Barber.
another: Blacks may also be starting to realize that many Latinos hold intensely negative stereotypes about them. In a 2006 study that ten academic researchers conducted of various racial groups’ attitudes in Durham, North Carolina, 59 percent of Latino immigrants said that few or no blacks were hardworking, and 57 percent said that few or no blacks could be trusted. By contrast, only 9 percent of whites said that blacks weren’t hardworking, and only 10 percent said that they couldn’t be trusted. Interestingly, the survey found that blacks were broadly well-disposed toward Hispanics, though how long that will be true remains to be seen.
 Some old computer ads. h/t, Synthstuff (sample on right)
Turning the tables on the enemies of the Second Amendment. Surber Men, women, and empathy. Frontal Cortex Global cooling crisis hits Iran hard Being unfaithful keeps me happy. Telegraph Mrs. Clinton defends Bill's attack dog role in her campaign. When did Bill ever know anything about dignity? The behind-the-scenes Thompson story. Makes sense to me. Another Gaza crisis? Red Cross wants Israel to offer more supplies to Hamas. As Cinnamon quotes: You tell me what other country would be supplying electricity to people who are bombing their children on a daily basis, and risking their lives to do so.
Another bewildered journalist. Squaring the Boston Globe. The guy sounds like he thinks there has been a "market failure" in journalism, and wants a government job. The WSJ on Obama's Clinton Education. A quote: One of our favorite Bill Clinton anecdotes involves a confrontation he had with Bob Dole in the Oval Office after the 1996 election. Mr. Dole protested Mr. Clinton's attack ads claiming the Republican wanted to harm Medicare, but the President merely smiled that Bubba grin and said, "You gotta do what you gotta do." We're reminded of that story listening to Barack Obama protest his treatment by the now ex-President Clinton on behalf of his wanna-be-President wife. "You know the former President, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Mr. Obama told a TV interviewer. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts -- whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas." Now he knows how the rest of us feel.
People my age think that the 30s and 40s happened in black and white. Insty found this wonderful slide show of color photos of the US in the 30s and 40s. The photo below is Houston. 
When Roger writes, it's a safe bet that he is writing what we would write, had we the time, brains, and talent. A quote from Hillary and Hayek, Redux: As Hayek observed, the socialist, the sentimentalist, cannot understand why, if people have been able to “generate some system of rules coordinating their efforts,” they cannot also consciously “design an even better and more gratifying system.” Central to Hayek’s teaching is the unyielding fact that human ingenuity is limited, that the elasticity of freedom requires the agency of forces beyond our supervision, that, finally, the ambitions of socialism are an expression of rationalistic hubris. A spontaneous order generated by market forces may be as beneficial to humanity as you like; it may have greatly extended life and produced wealth so staggering that, only a few generations ago, it was unimaginable. Still, it is not perfect. The poor are still with us. Not every social problem has been solved. In the end, though, the really galling thing about the spontaneous order that free markets produce is not its imperfection but its spontaneity: the fact that it is a creation not our own. It transcends the conscious direction of human will and is therefore an affront to human pride. The urgency with which Hayek condemns socialism is a function of the importance of the stakes involved. As he puts it in his last book The Fatal Conceit, the “dispute between the market order and socialism is no less than a matter of survival” because “to follow socialist morality would destroy much of present humankind and impoverish much of the rest.” We get a foretaste of what Hayek means whenever the forces of socialism triumph. There follows, as the night the day, an increase in poverty and a diminution of individual freedom.
Read the whole thing.
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. Adam Smith (that quote, I feel, contains a deep truth, and one reason why we trust those motivated by money over those motivated by gaining power over others)
Cold yesterday morning, and this hungry female Sharpie (maybe a Cooper's) missed a sparrow at my feeder but decided to puff up her feathers and stand on the grass for a while looking around. Wonderful the way they can turn their head to cover 360 degrees. This is the best I could do through Thermopane glass and a screen: 
Tuesday, January 22. 2008
 Michigan denies driver's licenses to illegals.
French students prostitute themselves for tuition. I guess the mean government forced them into it - or maybe they have no other skills. Rorke's Drift, on this day in 1879 Do you care about the budget deficit? Megan McArdle Saudi Arabia to permit women to drive. Right Wing Prof liked Cloverfield. So did a Bird Dog pup. More MA medical insurance mess. A Danny Ortega update. Why you don't need to worry yourself about the Ice Caps Is NATO irrelevant? RWNH Are we reaching the end of cheap food? First the Chinese wanted oil, but now they want burgers too. The MSM is not only on the Dem side, but they are afraid of the Clintons, who have the influence and willingness to destroy careers if it will help them. A quote from Am Thinker: The Clinton political machine is nothing if not formidable. When annoying tidbits inadvertently surface in the mainstream press, the political hammer comes down. MSNBC is simply not allowed to criticize Democrats and especially not Hillary. The preferential treatment the left receives from our mainstream press has become undeniably obvious. Conservatives have pointed to it for many years, but the greater public is just now awakening to the truth, as reflected in the consistently low numbers the media receives in opinion polls. CNN's staging of questioners during a recent Republican debate is a case in point. While silly puff pieces about Hillary abound, we have yet to hear any substantive or aggressive questioning of the Senator. Her agenda will likely remain a mystery, as most of the press is in her pants suit pocket. Annoying cackles aside, the special contempt FOX receives from the socialist left is precisely because they are not part of the "progressive" team and not as easily controlled or intimidated as the rest of the media. The Democrats take their influence for granted, and despise press they cannot control.
The usually-calm and sane Dr. Sanity lets loose a rant: Let's end the cold war and get rid of Marxist BS once and for all. A quote: We were mistaken in the 90's when we thought we had won the cold war against the communists.....The same Marxist dialectic crap is now being played out in the Democratic primary. Which "oppressed" group will triumph over the other oppressed groups and go on to be oppressed by the evil Republicans, I wonder? There exists a heirarchy that determines whose victimhood is more worthy (I refer to it as the "socialist food chain" here). Will it be Obama or Clinton? Or, perhaps the pandering Edwards, who, while the low man on the victimhood totempole, is trying to suck up to both groups at the same time.
Isn't it time we finally showed this ideological nonsense the door and slammed it shut? We have a chance to not only finally put an end to the kind of racial and gender discrimination that only divides us and keeps us in perpetual victimhood; we have the chance of truly renouncing the vile communist and socialist ideas that suck the freedom and dignity out of all of us.
With both leading Dem candidates heavily influenced by Alinsky, some might be interested in reading this 1973 Playboy magazine interview with him. There is an activist preface to the interview.
10% of Mexicans reportedly now live in the US. S&M still wonders why world-wide immigration is so low. My answer: Give them time!
 I am tired of the primaries and the elections. Michelle live-blogged the Dem debate while most people snoozed. However, our friend TigerHawk managed to find some humor in it. Obama calls Bill Clinton a liar. Is that news to us? He is supposedly running against Mrs. Clinton, but they are double-teaming the poor guy, and Bill seems to want his pied a terre in DC back again. Personally, I would never care to spend any time with Mrs. C, but I'd be happy to have a beer with Obama - although I would never vote for him. Meanwhile:
Mrs. C. thinks she is smarter than the markets. I somehow doubt it... Do I vote for a black guy or a "female" person. Sheesh. Such deep reportage. And David Brooks wonders about the Reagan coalition. Don't worry so much, Dave. But the most fun of all: Nader considers running. I am so sorry that hunting season is over.
"Here, if you see someone wearing an American flag, they're probably Cuban. If they wear Che Guevara, they're probably a tourist." Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, quoted in The Guardian (borrowed from our friend Dr. X.)
 For those who believe that the three basic food groups are beer, chips and dip: A real cowboy breakfast from B&G Cowboy Chef Chuck Green. Here's his recipe for 24 servings of this delicious and supremely healthful breakfast - or lunch, or night-time snack. (Thanks, reader)
We have written about that disgusting Hot Dog Gravy they like to make in eastern Kentucky. This recipe is a better idea.
 The Maggie's Farm Editorial Board endorses Miss Utah - Jill Stevens for Miss America
 Rupert takes on Pinch. Am. Thinker. I'd like to watch that competition. Truth is, I like the NYT EXCEPT for the way they propagandize in their news pages. The fact that their editorials are 1960s-era knee-jerk radical chic is predictable for a Manhattan-based newspaper, and one does not have to read them.
Whole Foods CEO lays out the future of food. (h/t, Am. Digest) Is morality important in a partner? Dr. Helen. Duh. Culture alters the brain. Of course it does - everything does. And big things effect it a lot. How do politicians do this? Hillary Clinton's money. The Canadian human rights scam. Steyn Elegant bird feeders You know you're near a bottom when mortgage brokers start jumping off bridges Hawk killers. CNN Video. These are bad people. Re McCain: What's a maverick? Betsy Success of gun laws: Canadian knife deaths now exceed shootings Fred: What might have been. Krumm (h/t, Insty) Steyn on Bill Clinton in NRO: Tomasky's missing the point: It's in part because "thousands of committed progressives... went to the mat for him" that he's in a position to screw you over ten years later. He decided back then he'd do what was necessary to win. Why would you expect him to behave any differently today? And how deluded do you have to be to think, of all people, Vernon Jordan's going to tell him to cut it out? I love the way all these worldly Democratic sophisticates - the ones who told us "everybody does it" - sound so sweetly naive at discovering that this time round "everybody" has done it to them. Better get used to a lot more of that.
How the Dems view us, the people, at Moonbattery: At a healthcare forum in Fremont, loony-left Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) offered some insight into how his kind view us little people. Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, which oversees Medicare, Stark admitted that Dems are imposing socialized medicine incrementally so that people don't rebel: If I told voters that we would implement a brand-new health care system on January 1, 2009, I'd be nailed to the front door of the nearest hospital. Stark questioned why economic freedom should ever be applied to healthcare. He even declared that we have a "right" to force others to pay our doctor bills.
Speaking of which, a quote from this 1970 Time magazine piece about Saul Alinsky: If the occasion requires, Alinsky's forces will not refrain from spreading rumors about an antagonist or indulging in something that comes very close to blackmail. "Our organizers," he says, "look for the wrong reasons to get the right things done."
Yes, the ends justify the means...For the Left, in my view, there are higher laws than those of morality.
Monday, January 21. 2008
Whether it's internet dating or Indian software engineers or bloggers, it's about creativity - not competition. Tyler Cowen of Maginal Rev at Wilson Quarterly. One quote: The rise of invisible competition has implications for nations as well as individuals and corporations. For the United States, those implications are overwhelmingly positive. Although Americans fret endlessly about the invisible threat of outsourcing, the rest of the world often sees the United States as the deadliest source of invisible competition. From information technology to cutting-edge medical research to higher education, Americans have achieved exceptional results relatively quickly, before the rest of the world had much chance to respond. While American culture glorifies the competitive spirit, Americans are good competitors in part because they don’t always need that last-minute adrenalin rush. They tend to value change and innovation for their own sake, and they imagine themselves to be pioneers. The idea of striking out into unknown territory to build a better world is deeply embedded in the national psyche. The Protestant ethic also lives on, expressed in a commitment not only to hard work but to the idea that we fulfill ourselves through our labors. This helps explain why, to the vexation and puzzlement of Europeans, millions of Americans prefer to stay at their jobs rather than take all of their allotted vacation time.
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