Saturday, January 5. 2008
Overcoming Bias discusses biases in the system. A quote: In this recent entry, Eliezer discussed what might be called the "pork-barrel paradox" in politics, that even when there is public support for reducing the size of government, the political constituency for individual programs can be strong enough to keep them all going. He also points out that the occupations represented in Congress don't match the country at large, and maybe don't match what we really need. (To briefly quote myself, I'm willing to believe that the country's 890,000 lawyers are being overrepresented, but what about the 114,000 biologists? A few of these in Congress might advance the understanding of public health. And then there are the 290,000 civil engineers--I'd like to have a few of them around also. I'd also like some of the 280,000 child care workers and 620,000 pre-K and kindegarten teachers to give their insight on deliberations on family policy. And the 1.1 million police officers and 340,000 prison guards will have their own perspectives on justice issues.)
Read the whole thing.
 Hillary Clinton: I am the "most innocent". What is that supposed to mean?
Admired blogger Andrew Olmsted killed in Iraq. He had prepared this post to be used in that event. CT spends 10 million for state agencies to lobby the state govt for money Candidates tout a variety of tax schemes. CSM Smart: US to use Paki tribes against Al Qaeda. It seems to have worked in Iraq. h/t, Jules The Financial Times: Europe's Urgent Need for Reform. h/t, Chequerboard How come Mrs. Clinton never mentions her role in Watergate? Anti-Americanism isn't just for Dems anymore. The UN makes no sense: Isn't tolerance of everything a cultural attitude in itself? And an idiotic one, too. An excellent rant from No Pasaran: "Earth to Europe: Go pound sand." Our NH blog friend wonders who to vote for David Warren knew Benazir Bhutto, and was not impressed The infamous Lancet death study finally thoroughly debunked Gwynnie collected these globalistical warmening data for this winter: National Snow Coverage (how much of the United States land mass had snow in the ground) at this date( Jan 2, 2008): 2004: 28.3%
2005: 30.0%
2006: 31.2%
2007: 40.5%
2008: 47.4%
Season-to-Date Snowfall Totals & Anomalies
Marquette: 82.0" [20% more than normal]
Milwaukee: 31.0" [90% more than normal]
Chicago: 20.5" [83% more than normal]
Indianapolis: 11.5" [37% more than normal]
Detroit: 17.1" [18% more than normal]
Syracuse: 57.4" [50% more than normal]
Albany: 33.8" [81% more than normal]
Newark: 4.3" [16% more than normal]
Hartford: 21.8" [77% more than normal]
Boston: 27.7" [194% more than normal]
Portland: 37.7" [115% more than normal]
Boston was 0.2" shy of their All-Time December Snowfall Record
Photo: The Sunrise Diner in Jim Thorpe, PA, from Dinercity
La Montagne Ste. Victoire (1900). Cezanne painted this mountain, near his home in Aix-en-Provence, over 60 times. 
Readers know that Obama's politics are about as far from ours as anyone's (plus I think he is naive as hell) and that we would therefore never consider voting for him, but one must admit that he is not only an appealing fellow - he is good at this game. He has it all over the seemingly soul-less, cagey, condescending and contrived Hillary Clinton personality-du-jour in natural sales and marketing talent. Ambitious as he is, he displays more heart than raw ambition and calculation. A tough opponent, I think, and a potential winner if his lively spirit can defeat the grim Clinton Machine. If I worked for the Clintons today, I would be worried. Here's his impressive (yet mostly empty) "Thank you Iowa" speech:
Brit blogger Lionheart says he is a wanted man. h/t, Gates. More comments from Tangled Web. If this story is true, I would suggest to the Brit police that they reconsider who the enemies of their society might really be.
Friday, January 4. 2008
Got your Racks Calendar for 2008 yet? h/t, Holy Taco 
I can't extract a quote from this Kimball essay, because it's all of a piece. Just read it if you are curious about the future of Conservatism.
From Ann Coulter: I've seen so few mentions of Kwanzaa this year, I was going to declare my campaign a success, but I see that President Bush issued another absurd Kwanzaa message this year, referring to millions of African-Americans gathering to celebrate Kwanzaa. I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI. In what was probably ultimately a foolish gamble, during the madness of the '60s the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the organization, the better. Using that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect. In the annals of the American '60s, Karenga was the Father Gapon, stooge of the czarist police. Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. They did not seek armed revolution. Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names. (That was a big help to the black community: How many boys named "Jamal" currently sit on death row?) Whether Karenga was a willing dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear.
Read the whole thing.
This bit came in over my transom from parts unknown: In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Packers this coming Sunday. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. During this period of time she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz, and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers offense. A survey of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move. Idiotic? Well, Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be President and 50% of Democrats polled agreed. She has never run a City, County, or State. When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the White House, Dick Morris stated "so has the pastry chef".
This is an example of why, when we need a giggle or two to cheer ourselves up, we visit The Peoples' Cube, where you can find the whole story: 
 From Radosh's glowing NY Sun review of Goldberg's Liberal Fascism:
Readers will learn that the very term "liberal fascism" came from the pen of H.G. Wells, the famed socialist author who delivered a speech at Oxford University in 1932 that included hosannas to both Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. "I am asking," Wells told the students, "for a Liberal Fascisti, for enlightened Nazis." Democracy, he argued, had to be replaced with new forms of government that would save mankind, producing a "'Phoenix Rebirth' of liberalism" that would be called "Liberal Fascism." Like the activism, experimentation, and discipline that made the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany new dynamic societies, the West too could reach such a plateau by adopting the new soft fascism that suited it best.
And all of it run by him and his friends, no doubt.
Quote from Adler at Politico: Thompson’s campaign is widely seen as ineffectual — it allowed a candidate who polled in second place nationally a couple of months ago slip to fifth place. Then he tied in Iowa with a candidate who hardly campaigned there.
Ruffini at Town Hall: Count on voters to decide with their hearts, not with their heads. 2004 was all about momentum vs. organization. 2008 was about candidates of the heart vs. the head. Clinton and Romney had well-reasoned closing arguments centering around their fitness for the office, which should be the bottom line in any normal election. But in Iowa, the pull of identity, of gut decisions, and of emotion, won the day.
Quote from Barone on the 16-year itch: Every 16 years--in 1976, 1992 and now in 2008--American voters have seemed less interested in experience and credentials and more interested in a new face unconnected to the current political establishment.
And, on media leftist bias: "Bush unemployment at 5% - Bad. Clinton unemployment at 5.4% - Good." Graph from Gateway's piece: 
(Editor: Dr. X rightly observes that the above graph is highly misleading.) Related: Busted again: Phony Repubs showcased at the NYT
The creator of Flashman has died at 83. An admiring obit, with quotes, at Mr. Free Market. More comments at Powerline.
"The start of this election is a little scary and has started with two populist, eloquent demagogues. They talk about hope when half the world hopes to be in America." An Insty reader
 Peggy Noonan on Iowa. Tons of commentary at Pajamas
New Jersey clearly continues to attempt to drive jobs, and residents, out of the state. They've done a good job of that, thus far. The NYT goes orgasmic. Sounds like satire. Headline of the Day: Frozen Iguanas Fall from Trees. It must be Climate Change. Iguana popsicles? No slump in NYC real estate. Insane, or just a sneaky tax plan? Mankiw Is the gay-straight dichotomy an artificial one? A "centrist" agenda? No thanks. My center might not be your center. Christ and the Grand Inquisitor. Globe, via Squaring the Boston Globe Drugging brains, young and old. Outlaw these things - because otherwise I will buy them! Ace Violent deaths in Venezuela exceed those in Iraq.
Thursday, January 3. 2008
In my opinion, the most important result is that a black guy can run for president and hold his own with anybody else. This pleases me but does not surprise me in the least, even in as white-bread a state as Iowa. I'd now call this the Post-Obama Era for race relations in the US - an era in which victimhood has definitively lost whatever remaining persuasiveness it had. Obama did not run as a black man: he ran as a man.
"Uttering idle words from a reprobate mind,
Clinging to strange promises, dying on the vine,
Never bein' able to separate the good from the bad,
Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,
It's makin' me feel so sad.
Dead man, dead man,
When will you arise?
Cobwebs in your mind,
Dust upon your eyes.
Satan got you by the heel, there's a bird's nest in your hair.
Do you have any faith at all? Do you have any love to share?
The way that you hold your head, cursin' God with every move,
Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,
What are you tryin' to prove?
Dead man, dead man,
When will you arise?
Cobwebs in your mind,
Dust upon your eyes.
The glamour and the bright lights and the politics of sin,
The ghetto that you build for me is the one you end up in,
The race of the engine that overrules your heart,
Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,
Pretending that you're so smart.
Dead man, dead man,
When will you arise?
Cobwebs in your mind,
Dust upon your eyes.
What are you tryin' to overpower me with, the doctrine or the gun?
My back is already to the wall, where can I run?
The tuxedo that you're wearin', the flower in your lapel,
Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,
You wanna take me down to hell.
Dead man, dead man,
When will you arise?
Cobwebs in your mind,
Dust upon your eyes." "Dead Man, Dead Man," from 1981's Shot of Love.
 Friends just returned home from 10 days at Vista Verde Ranch.
Their reviews of the place were so enthusiastic that I thought I ought to share the link. It sure beats Florida, in my book.
From a new review of the film: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, now available on DVD, is the best feature film debut by a director since Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. Coming it seemed out of nowhere and defying all the conventional wisdom of the motion picture industry, Donnersmarck achieved a remarkable commercial and critical success with his first full-length film, culminating when it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture of 2006. The Lives of Others fully deserves all the awards it garnered. Evidently a perfectionist, Donnersmarck created a film that is near perfect in every respect. It deals seriously and profoundly with an important but sadly neglected subject—communist tyranny in East Germany—and the screenplay Donnersmarck carefully crafted over several years does full justice to his central theme of injustice.
I can't embed it, but it's here. h/t, Grow a Brain
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