Friday, February 29. 2008
 Heading for Mount Snow now, with an Alberta Clipper on the way promising another load of fresh powder in a few hours. Mount Snow is the best mountain south of Killington but, due to its location in southern VT, it tends to get crowded with New Yorkers on weekends.
Middle class taxes are at a record low. Any excuse to take your clothes off. Hillary's scare advertisement. Help the Brit earthquake victims! Dems rattling their sabers: Trade war (h/t, Pajamas) WSJ: Let houses find a bottom. Young, white and foolish. American vagabonds. Remarkable photos. Men are avoiding teaching as a career The Bernanke Reflation. The politics of miserabilism. The Economist Now it's all four global temp trackers that show serious cooling The Dem white male swing vote McCain's Freudian slips. Sheesh. At first I thought it was a comedy routine. Afraid not.
 The USS New York will be christened tomorrow (photo on right).
Is the era of Big Government back? More on the Columbia noose story. I think it's fishy. Also, from Columbia: How to set up a politicized ethnic studies center. Shouldn't those things be part of anthropology? Bobby Jindal is cleaning up the swamp. God bless him. A two-faced Obama. He is a politician. My first question about this Alphecca piece: Why is driving a car not a right? How to get a free meal at MacDonalds Have Americans become voluntary slaves? The press tries Plan B against McCain. Speaking of McCain, apparently he hates childlren and kicks puppies. The premise, of course, is that your children are the government's responsibility, ie my responsibility. Hot on the trail of dark matter. India's eternal affirmative action programs. AKA vote-buying. More on the Dem's proposed mortgage bailout. So why have I been paying mine?
Thursday, February 28. 2008
 Myron Magnet remembers Bill Buckley
The paternalistic approach to helping Africa Selling a dream. Henninger in the WSJ Lost in translation: The Backstroke of the West Soros update, at Am. Thinker. It begins: What does a very aged multi-billionaire do after he spends $25 million dollars to force a presidential election his way, and still falls flat on his face? Well, of course, he tries and tries again.
From an essay on freedom in the Nanny State, at Pajamas: “Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.” ~ Thomas Jefferson If some of the greats from American history, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln, were to magically appear before us today, I think they would be shocked at how the country they fought to shape and mold as a beacon of freedom and hope has turned out. These men, along with their contemporaries, believed in a country where you had the freedom to use the abilities you were born with, bestowed upon you by a higher being, to choose your own destiny — be it where you live, how you earn your keep, and whom you associate with. They believed in a country where citizens are free of interference from government, except in cases where said government protects its citizens from foreign invasion, provides basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and deals with those who break laws intended to protect the basic rights of all citizens (e.g., punishing burglars, murderers, etc.).
Wednesday, February 27. 2008
 The New Yorker piece linked this morning, "What Was I Thinking?", about behavioral economics is well worth reading. It's a fascinating field of study.
Snake eats family dog. A little science education for the kiddie-poos. Insty: JOHN STOSSEL: Guns save lives. Keith Richards talks Adding to blogroll: Q and O on the economy. Ten quotes against work. (h/t, Grow a Brain) Is Obama a feminized male? The larger question: Have our politics become feminized? The case against govt. subsidies for college. NAFTA nonsense. Milbots. Is there an ethical question? I do not see one. A comment on the Sam Zell piece linked earlier: He is at least right about one thing - the Dems' needing to talk down the economy as much as they can. Doom and gloom. Photo: A view of the back of the ocean dunes, Wellfleet, MA
 The snows of Kilimanjaro are back.
Sam Zell sees early housing recovery. Related: CSM predicts a mild slowdown. People make bad decisions, but they make them in systematic ways. It's about behavioral economics. McArdle to Repubs: the wrong way to frame health care debate. It's about emotion, not facts. Obama's plans for tax increases: how they will affect you. Related: Obama will be our first Moslem contender. In favor of language extinctions. Social Justice High. Pajamas Love cannot exist without pain. S,C&A Urban heat islands and temperature measurement error: Phoenix Complaints choirs. Sounds like the American electorate
Tuesday, February 26. 2008
We hate to kick a man when he's down, but this summary of Hillary Clinton's record came in over the transom today. We suspect this has something to do with why she is not finding the support she desires: Hillary Clinton has been telling America that she is the most qualified candidate for president based on her 'record,' which she says includes her eight years in the White House as First Lady - or 'co-president' - and her seven years in the Senate. Here is a little reminder of what that record includes: As First Lady, Hillary assumed authority over Health Care Reform, a process that cost the taxpayers over $13 million. She told both Bill Bradley and Patrick Moynihan, key votes needed to pass her legislation, that she would 'demonize' anyone who opposed it. But it was opposed; she couldn't even get it to a vote in a Congress controlled by her own party. (And in the next election, her party lost control of both the House and Senate.) - Hillary assumed authority over selecting a female Attorney General. Her first two recommendations, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, were forced to withdraw their names from consideration. She then chose Janet Reno. Janet Reno has since been described by Bill himself as 'my worst mistake.' Hillary recommended Lani Guanier for head of the Civil Rights Commission. When Guanier's radical views became known, her name had to be withdrawn. Hillary recommended her former law partners, Web Hubbell, Vince Foster, and William Kennedy for positions in the Justice Department, White House staff, and the Treasury, respectively. Hubbell was later imprisoned, Foster committed suicide, and Kennedy was forced to resign. Hillary also recommended a close friend of the Clintons, Craig Livingstone, for the position of director of White House Security. When Livingstone was investigated for the improper access of up to 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies (“Filegate”) and the widespread use of drugs by White House staff, both Hillary and her husband denied knowing him. FBI agent Dennis Sculimbrene confirmed in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1996 both the drug use and Hillary's involvement in hiring Livingstone. After that, the FBI closed its White House Liaison Office, after serving seven presidents for over thirty years. In order to open “slots” in the White House for her friends the Thomasons (to whom millions of dollars in travel contracts could be awarded), Hillary had the entire staff of the White House Travel Office fired; they were reported to the FBI for 'gross mismanagement' and their reputations ruined. After a thirty-month investigation, only one, Billy Dale, was charged with a crime - mixing personal money with White House funds when he cashed checks. The jury acquitted him in less than two hours. Another of Hillary's assumed duties was directing the 'bimbo eruption squad' and scandal defense: ---- She urged her husband not to settle the Paula Jones lawsuit. ---- She refused to release the Whitewater documents, which led to the appointment of Ken Starr as Special Prosecutor. After $80 million dollars of taxpayer money was spent, Starr's investigation led to Monica Lewinsky, which led to Bill lying about and later admitting his affairs. ---- Then they had to settle with Paula Jones after all.---- And Bill lost his law license for lying to the grand jury ---- And Bill was impeached by the House. ---- And Hillary almost got herself indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice (she avoided it mostly because she repeated, 'I do not recall,' 'I have no recollection,' and 'I don't know' 56 times under oath). Hillary wrote 'It Takes a Village,' demonstrating her Socialist viewpoint. Hillary decided to seek election to the Senate in a state she had never lived in. Her husband pardoned FALN terrorists in order to get Latino support and the New Square Hassidim to get Jewish support. Hillary also had Bill pardon her brother's clients, for a small fee, to get financial support. Then Hillary left the White House, but later had to return $200,000 in White House furniture, china, and artwork she had stolen. In the campaign for the Senate, Hillary played the 'woman card' by portraying her opponent (Lazio) as a bully picking on her. Hillary's husband further protected her by asking the National Archives to withhold from the public until 2012 many records of their time in the White House, including much of Hillary's correspondence and her calendars. (There are ongoing lawsuits to force the release of those records.) As the junior Senator from New York, Hillary has passed no major legislation. She has deferred to the senior Senator (Schumer) to tend to the needs of New Yorkers, even on the hot issue of medical problems of workers involved in the cleanup of Ground Zero after 9/11. Hillary's one notable vote; supporting the plan to invade Iraq, has since been disavowed.
Louis Farrakhan says Obama is the hope of the world. God save us.
 Since when is being labelled a Moslem a smear?
Why is eating meat unacceptably patriarchal? Religion shopping in America Deer-resistant plantings. Global warmists try to stifle debate. John Fund The economy, bad decisions, and the endless pursuit of stuff, quoted from Free Republic: Lenders across the country are pulling the plug on equity lines and tightening credit after a lending spree to people for whom the housing market was their pot of gold. Much of this economic "pain" is self-inflicted. Rather than purchasing homes they could not afford - or putting too much down, making them cash poor - they might have invested their equity in balanced mutual funds (the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.59 percent over a 10-year period). Such a path could have avoided the tight spot in which many now find themselves. Some of the lust for bigger and better is human nature, but a lot is the result of consumerism. The Timex watch is no longer enough. We now must have a Rolex, though both accurately tell time. The adequate low-end automobile is insufficient. We must trade up to a luxury car with numbers and letters on the rear that mean nothing, but convey "status." And the house we are living in, which would have been more than adequate for our parents and certainly our grandparents, must be upgraded to larger digs in order to impress, if not growing families, than enlarged egos.
No more Mr. Nice Guy: Clinton to throw kitchen sink at Obama Female sexual predators. Why should that be puzzling? Having fun with hippies And speaking of firearms, the Prof likes this wheelgun. And speaking of hippies and weapons, here's a good example of how our MA intelligentsia thinks. Detroit schools. Quote from Surber: Hmm, if this were health care, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would be decrying those “greedy” teachers and bureaucrats and would be calling to slash spending and use more technology.
Monday, February 25. 2008
 I'm hungry. Got any grub?
If you vote for Hillary, you must be a racist. If you vote for Obama, you must be a sexist. Classical Values. If you live by PC, you will die by PC. Department of Hillbilly Studies? Riehl: Women seem to want politicians who sympathize with how hard they work. Pathetic, but it might be the reality. Pathetic because it's their husbands and kids who should appreciate their efforts - not politicians. Too many elephants? How can anybody have too many? Is the NYT news dept in free fall? Old blighty might be ready for dhimmitude, but I doubt that Doritos is ready. Clinton staff unravelling Quit the ridiculous Obama bashing, says Rick. Like we always say, the next Ice Age will be the real challenge of the future. h/t, Junk Science The politics of illegal immigration. Wizbang. Lots of differing views out there.
Sunday, February 24. 2008
 If he really cares about me, he should shut up about no taxes for the greedy geezers (Why just them? Why not me, too?), and free health care, and all that nonsense. He should just do something truly useful: pay our dang Costco food bills.
Food prices are shockingly unprogressive for this enlightened, progressive era. America can do better, and there is no justice in the filthy rich paying the same price that I pay for a nice butterflied New Zealand leg o' lamb. I paid $477.89 this afternoon to fill one lousy cart (admittedly the giant-sized Costco cart, full of lots of meat like lamb, salmon, pork loin, burger, and filets - and cheeses and fruit to supply us for a couple of weeks, plus ten years' worth of those skinny French string beans, plus the usual cleaning supplies and the random impulse buys that Costco thrives on), not to mention the gas to get there (20 miles). Food is more important and essential than anything else. Come on, Barry! "Universal Food Care" : promise me Costco food will be free in the beautiful future we all dream of. Consider the same for Home Depot stuff, too, Barry. We cannot live without tools and lumber and cement and windows and screws and toilet parts and stuff like that. Simple justice requires that these things should be free, same as food.
I am back home from the snowy hills of Vermont. Global cooling, I can report, is in full swing up there. TWO QUESTIONS - ONE ANSWERThe New York Times: “Is PBS still necessary?” PBS: “Is the New York Times still necessary?”
Even Frank Rich notes Hillary Clinton's quagmire. Surrender now! I thought Liberals enjoyed surrender...What's all this fighting about? How did we get to Obama as a Dem nominee? VDH. My simple-minded theory is that nobody likes Hillary Clinton. She is no Maggie Thatcher. Even the likeable Commie Moonbat Pete Seeger is prouder of America than Mrs. Obama Run, Ralph, run. He will. For those of you who do not live in Massachusetts, let me inform you that Nader fits right in. Campus rape. It's everywhere, in theory. But rare as hen's teeth, in reality. What gives? Oh, now I get it. It's about feminist victim politics. Facts urgently needed to support theory. (Of course, one can always change definitions, too, when theory-support is required. I suspect that some of the lesbian feministas wish to view all heterosexual romance and fun as rape.) Is there any relationship between global climate and hurricanes? No, but it surely causes earthquakes. Everybody knows that. Oysters that I would never eat. Yeccch.
 "What office do I go to to get my reputation back?" The oxycontin story. Scary story, and I have yet to hear an apology from the NYT for the job they did on Purdue Pharma. (h/t, Town Hall)
Good example of food fear-mongering by know-nothings. The arrogant impotence of the EU. No Pasaran, who quotes a Kissinger interview: Kissinger: The major events in European history were conducted by nation-states which developed over several hundred years. There was never a question in the mind of European populations that the state was authorized to ask for sacrifices and that the citizens had a duty to carry it out. Now the structure of the nation-state has been given up to some considerable extent in Europe. And the capacity of governments to ask for sacrifices has diminished correspondingly.
SPIEGEL: Thirty years ago, you asked for one phone number that could be used to call Europe.
Kissinger: ... and it happened. The problem now is: Nation-states have not just given up part of their sovereignty to the European Union but also part of their vision for their own future. Their future is now tied to the European Union, and the EU has not yet achieved a vision and loyalty comparable to the nation-state. So, there is a vacuum between Europe's past and Europe's future.
Why Barack unnerves me. Roger Simon Try this. Something to do with the brain's wiring. Debunking Krugman about poverty in America. With some good info. (h/t, Viking) Hoyt: McCain story should not have run. 172 years ago: The battle of the Alamo began Wedding sleuths in India. Microsoft: Vista Update might mess you up. The moral hazard of a housing bailout. NYT Wild rattler in upstate NY - first film of a wild rattler feeding
Saturday, February 23. 2008
"Oh crap, I agree with Paul Krugman." Coyote Michelle Obama's victocratic thesis. Does she imagine that only black women feel "out of it" in college? Wrong. Most people feel that way. The question that is never honestly answered: Why do Liberals idealize dictators? Steyn, (via Driscoll) Kling on the elections: In November, the United States may take its strongest lurch to the left since 1933. The trend holds: Obama leading in Texas polls. Did the Columbia prof put the noose on her own door? She was in a bit of a jam, and nooses were all the rage that week. Is the NYT looking to merge with The National Enquirer? How can they, if they are already a fully-owned subsidiary of the DNC?
Friday, February 22. 2008
 Skiing again in the morning. Okemo this time, and I am about to head up there for the weekend. Not a particularly challenging mountain (a "family mountain" for sure), but closer, and with the loan of a friend's condo and today's snow, some good fun without expense. Sometimes I wish that fall, with hunting, and winter with skiing, could simply rotate all year. One more reason to welcome the coming global cooling.
Bad decision, I think. No weapons screening in Texas for Obama rally. Heck, we get searched at Dylan concerts, and these rallys are no different from rock concerts. The Great Cholesterol Con. Health Beat. How come nobody told us that cholesterol didn't matter? (h/t, Kevin MD) Pours her heart out: Dr. Sanity on Ivy League Populism and the Path to Power. Preach it, Dr. S! What it is! Reminder to LA Times: Illegal immigration is against the law. I think that is why it is called illegal, as in "a government of laws, not men." Versatile. The always-chic Kim du Toit covers the fashion scene with flair. Raise somebody else's taxes to help Chad. I want my iPod. "And you want to run my country?" Althouse. No evidence of executive competence thus far. "Reveling in their biases" in schools of social work. (h/t, Minding the Campus) Still hiding their incomes. Who? The Clintons, of course. PressThink takes a thoughtful look at the NYT and the McCain content-less story. Makes ya wonder. Yes, The NYT is looking bad, again. I'd be embarassed to bring that "story" to my City Editor. My instinct tells me that the story was "ordered" from the top, and did not come from the guys on the ground. However, here's a real story that the NYT has not followed. Similarly, a high school study is censored. Nowadays, if you censor information, it's all over the internet in 24 hrs. Is America ready for this dangerous left-winger? No, I don't mean McCain. Times Online. Also, the Messiah of the narcissistic Generation More truth about Obama: His stance on gun rights. These lefties have absolutely no concept of the limits of government power which means, to me, no respect for the population. And what about this? Bernadette Dohrn? America sucks and so does the military. That's really the story. It won't play in Peoria. Did we mention this? The AP instructs on how to play the Fidel retirement story. OK, we all know that it's a happy country full of happy slaves, enjoying their "health care" while singing and dancing all day long, and never worrying their heads about politics at all. It probably is a paradise for the rulers, as long as they are sociopaths. Back to Kindergarten. RW Prof advises Repubs to recognize that they are a coalition. Indeed. Otherwise we'd all be parties of one. Feeling bad can be good for you. The miracle of melancholia. I guess I believe that the right amount of pain and heartache is good for us, but when do we get to say that we have had enough? What happens when a Lefty wonders about global warming. Sheesh. Talk about Stalin.
h/t, Theo 
 Lots of snow in Yankeeland this year, including a good dump right now. Photo is Mad River Glen this week.
The state is not your friend. Does this sound like murder to you? Blog friend Confederate Yank got a cool Valentine's Day present from his wife. Israel has its own loonies: Quakes caused by gay tolerance. Why not blame them on global warming, like everybody else does? Race and politics in Alabama: NYT. Things have changed. Steve Fossett's obit Are some suburbs becoming future slums? Argument against the war on terror: Hirsch in Newsweek Does Cuba need the US anymore? Maybe not. Chavez and China have filled the gap. 25 Dumbest college courses Totten (at Insty): RULES OF JOURNALISM: CNN tells its reporters how to write about Fidel Castro. “Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. [sic] in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.” Was he just criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech, or did he actually, you know, oppress human rights and freedom of speech? John Derbyshire is right: “Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.”
England's Brain Drain is escalating. Do they wonder why? What was the NYT up to with the McCain fact-free, unsourced innuendo? Rick Moran Obama News and Comment  Obama running for Pres of what country? Protein (whence photo on left)
The CHANGE Obama is running on, quoted from Betsy: ..that's the change he's for - taxing young people more and more to pay to give more money to the elderly. I wonder if all those young adoring crowds tearing up at Obama speeches realize what he has in store for them.
If Obama wants to be post-partisan, how come he never has been? Michelle Obama: Michelle Obama has problems, she says. Huh? Bainbridge. Also, What is she all about? Interestingly, her college thesis is locked up until after the election. (h/t, Jules) Also via Jules, a hilarious Obama piece by Herald columnist Margery Egan - a quote re Michelle's accidental revelation of her contempt for the USA: Barack now claims she didn’t mean it. Oh, yes she did. We all know the insufferable, holier-than-thou, Blame-America-First types who lecture the unwashed from the rarefied air of Cambridge and Brookline. If I wanted lecturing, I’d be with Hillary.
Speaking of Obama lecturing, Mrs. O said this: Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed. Nobody would dare talk that way to my face, except perhaps my mother.
Thursday, February 21. 2008
 As I understand it, according to strict doctrine, Mohammed hates dogs, pigs, monkeys, Jews, Hindus, gays, and Christians, and isn't overly fond of women either, except as physical objects and cooks.
I do not know how he feels about squirrels, but their thefts of my bird seed are beginning to turn me against the filthy little rodents and I am considering issuing a fatwah against them. But, back to dogs: readers know that we are dog-lovers here, so we are deeply, deeply offended by news items like this, and are considering some serious rioting, car burning, and peeing on hydrants until such offenses cease.
NYT dredges up 8 year-old story to try to slam their pal John McCain. What are they thinking? Is there a story, or just a drive-by smear? It appears that they are trying to imply that John is like Bill Clinton.
 $100 oil again. The Oil Drum says it's a whole new world for oil.
Brit NHS: You may not buy your own medications. How do proud Brits put up with that kind of Brave New World BS? Their freedoms and national autonomy are slipping through their fingers, yet only their bloggers seem to care or to notice. Alarmist vs. alarming. Tiger What do you want? A note to Environmentalists: Reisman The Obama Fainting Syndrome. Says Evang. Outpost, "It is rather weird. Though, I have to say that the thought of Obama becoming President makes me a bit woozy too." The NYT suddenly feeling positive about greedy capitalists. To be consistent with their views, they should change themselves to a not-for-profit...but that may be happening anyway. Is it time to give the Cuban people a hand? Jewcy. Maybe, but not until after the election, because FL controls Cuba policy in the same way that Iowa controls ethanol policy. How officers view the Iraq war. CNN Photo: Stowe, Vermont's 1860 House in the summer.
Wednesday, February 20. 2008
Hillary tries using the line against Obama, but, as far as I know, neither of them have done anything significant in public life other than to get elected in elections they could not lose. But does it even matter? Kudlow (h/t, Driscoll): Hillary has suddenly become an incredibly steep inverted yield curve, with a rapidly declining credit rating and a complete drying up of liquidity.
 Remove those polka dots at once.
"Yes we can": A stirring bit of Reagan video to begin the day right. Funny, or wierd? Green wine? That WI landslide must be painful at Hillary HQ. I think it's over for her: the Dems have tired of the Hill and Bill Show. Here's a real sign of desperation. Speaking of Mrs. Clinton, she slams the financial services industry claiming they don't really work. And politicians do? So glad our Lords and Masters are worrying about stuff like this. John, Paul, and George, 1958 Deep thought from Hollywood, re Obama: So I think he definitely has convinced people that he stands for change and for hope, and I can't wait to see what he stands for.
How Conservative is John McCain? Pete DuPont The Fed's TAF. Learn about it. Global cooling is striking everywhere, including Vietnam:  Jerusalem: 
Greece: 
My opinion? Those carbon offsets are working all too well.
Tuesday, February 19. 2008
 Meet the new boss...another low-life sociopathic scum. I see no freedom for Cuba in the near future.
Let's change the rules in the middle of the game. SONY beats Toshiba. Like I care. Political plagiarism, from Viking: "Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert."
Does this help explain why Moslem countries are so backwards? The wiretapping fiasco. I am all in favor of wiretapping suspicious foreigners, but not Americans - without a warrant. Illegal fox hunting is thriving like never before. Englishman. Good on them. Via Insty at Cato Unbound: Is Limited Government Possible? Every day is Sorry Day! A pastor challenges his congregation Quoted from Prof. Deneen on messianic politics, a quote: This is one great peril of the overestimation of the human capacity to "heal the world": the willingness to allow optimism to overcome good sense, and at its worse to permit ideology to trump our flawed human reality. But it is, I suspect, the other peril that we will face with an Obama presidency, namely the disappointment that will set in when, inevitably, such healing of the world proves elusive. Right now the expectations for transformation that will almost inevitably take place following the disastrous Presidency of G.W. Bush run so high as to exceed the capacity of any political leader to realize. And, as a number of commentators increasingly point out - none better than David Brooks in a recent column - the hard facts of reality, both internationally and domestically, will press in upon us starting on the first day of a new presidency, no less than they do so right now. Indeed, given the broader sets of limits that we face and increasingly confront, what is most needful is a leader who is prepared to tell us this hard truth, not promising transformation but acknowledging the hard facts of natural limits and the need for sacrifice that will be forced upon us in a far harder form unless we make some difficult choices and changes now. The prospects for disillusionment become ever more certain, the more we are tempted to convince ourselves, and are drawn to promises, that we await a future of "healing," "redemption," and paradisic contentment.
Speaking of paradisic contentment, Deer Creek wins. (Thanks, Dr. M.) Photo below: 
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