Thursday, July 31. 2008
A quote from Herb Meyer via Am Thinker: Let me put this as starkly as I can: What's going on today in our country isn't normal politics. In normal politics honorable people will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how best to deal with the issues that confront us - national security, border control, healthcare, education, energy, the environment, and all the rest. What's going on today is a kind of domestic Cold War -- a seemingly endless standoff, with the occasional hard skirmish -- between those of us who see the US for what it really is, and those of us who are seeing the US through a prism. And remember, unlike real prisms these intellectual prisms -- or, if you prefer, these political prisms -- are invisible. If you're looking at the US through a political prism, you don't know you're seeing through a prism and you won't believe anyone who tries to tell you that you are. This is why Americans who see our country and the world through a prism are impervious to facts.
Read the whole, excellent thing.
But Roger Kimball says it better. One quote: Which brings me back to the Times’s story on Obama’s career at the University of Chicago. In course of that story, the reporter confronts the reader with “what may be the ultimate test of racial equality–whether Americans will elect a black president.” I stopped short reading that because I think it gets the issue 100% wrong. The implication is that if Obama is not elected, then Americans fail the test. But that, I submit, is a racist idea. How many liberals do you know who plan to vote for Barack Obama because he is black, that is to say, for a racist reason? Sure, they also like the fact that he plans to institute a European-style confiscatory tax plan...
That must be it. Nobody complains about Obama's prayers for God's guidance and protection. Maybe they assume he's faking it for political purposes. But what if it's for real?
Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one. Tom Sowell, in his Random Thoughts this week
No, that's not what he said. What he said was if you're white and vote against me, you're racist: Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
The Obama campaign wants to divert attention to the issues by making this an election about race. Hillary tried to pull the same trick, but with her genitalia. I don't give a damn about Obama's color - or anybody's color. I will vote against him because he is a naive, extreme Lefty nut who has never accomplished anything in his life other than the smooth delivery of pablum speeches and maneuvering quickly in the sleazy, corrupt world of Chicago politics.
 Physician-Senator Tom Coburn wants to kill your granny. "The tyranny of good intentions." That's a damn good phrase.
The crime of "destroying social order." That's Asia, for you. We value truth and freedom; they value order. Except for their truth-speakers. Linens'n Shit Not from The Onion: Blacks hurt most by climate change How messing around can cost you. NY Sun The wonderful John Templeton died. I missed that. Why is the black vote always in the Dem's pocket? Pajamas. I think it's crazy. Why do gay guys always seem to put on a freak show? If somebody wants to be accepted as normal, they need to act normal, with modesty, self-restraint, and dignity. If you need to be kinky, why not do it at home? I confess, though, that their displays are interesting in a sick sort of way. Living in a small world. Megan McArdle Reaching the post-2004 voter. National Journal. Post-partisan? Not me. I am a Conservative. The whole interesting story of GM's Volt, at The Atlantic. Great business case study. But what's the point? The power comes from coal. Not that I care. Photo: That's Montauk Light, where I plan to do some fishing this weekend.
Wednesday, July 30. 2008
Notice how they have kept her locked in the closet for the past few months? When she opens her mouth, she offends people. She seems angry. The fact that she was a highly privileged and fortunate young lady who had an elite education and became more wealthy and powerful than 99.99% of white folks seems to elude her. Here's the story of her Princeton thesis which had been blocked until after the election, but which got out anyway.
Come come! We have had enough of this. I will put an end to your prating. It is not fit that you should sit here any longer! You have sat here too long here for any good you have been doing lately. You shall give this place to better men! Call them in! Call them in! (the musketeers). You call yourselves a Parliament. You are no Parliament; I say you are no Parliament! You are whoremasters and drunkards, corrupt and unjust men, how can you be a Parliament for God’s People? Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! Cromwell dismissing the Rump Parliament, April 1653. h/t, Mr. Free Market
Here's one reason, via Dino. Obama plans to tax you into a state of dependency on the government: 
Some times I wonder whether we are electing a "Most Popular" or a High School Class President rather than a President of the USA. Even Maureen Dowd seems to wonder. This toon via Theo: 
Not just to pander to the Greenies as Powerline says, but also simply to keep voters cranky and disgruntled, and willing to roll the dice on "change."
 It's Rush Week at Human Events, with many salutations to the big guy on his 20th anniversary.
I do not listen to Rush much these days, but back in '90-'93 I did every day, during my mid-day commute. I enjoy his humor, the apparent joy he takes in living, his self-mockery (eg "with half my brain tied behind my back, just to make it fair"), and his upbeat attitude, but it was his cheerful irreverence towards conventional views that engaged me. Plus his kindness and gentleness to all of his callers. Whether you agree with him about everything or not, he is a brilliant entertainer.
Love this photo from our Kentucky friend at Slower Pace: 
 Photo: He served in Vietnam. Where are they now?
Good news: Ten things to be happy about - from the NYT! Can't read or write, but will know how to put on a condom. What Iran plans for the USA. Lying about the federal debt. Am Thinker Fat? Blame it on your neighborhood. Not your fault. Bush's remarkable homeless legacy. Nobody talks about this. Heller ll? This could be interesting. Ten best small cities in the USA. Kim du Toit plans his blog retirement. I don't get my website pension until I'm 75 - or 80. I forget. "Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire." RCP. Easy to answer: he gave me hope for a pony. I like ponies. Victims of lenders. Ankle-Biting. Hey, could you lend me five bucks? Thanks. I'm a victim! I'm a victim! From Gateway: Iraqis were most surprised by Obama's apparent readiness to throw away all the gains made in Iraq simply to prove that he'd been right in opposing the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. "He gave us the impression that the last thing he wanted was for Iraq to look anything like a success for the United States," a senior Iraqi official told me. "As far as he is concerned, this is Bush's war and must end in lack of success, if not actual defeat."
McCain not good enough to write op-eds for the NYT, but this lunatic is. Related: The new, improved McCain. Pajamas. Related: Can oil and affirmative action redefine the race? The bad news about the House for Repubs Great news for Brit wives: Killing your husband is OK. Especially if he's a jerk, which all guys are. The electoral college doesn't look certain for BHO. Related: Why do Europeans love BHO? VDH
Tuesday, July 29. 2008
Via Vanderleun: "Carbon control is what the West talks about. Carbon consumption is what the Non-Western Nations seek. Electricity efficiency and avoided generation is what the West talks about. Electricity supply is what nations big and small outside the West seek. Transportation efficiency is what the West talks about. Increased, greatly increased, mechanized mobility is what the nations of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America seek. The West wants to orate about wind, solar, geothermal and wave energy. The rest of the world wants more oil and natural gas, coal and uranium. The West worries about carbon control. The rest of the world, especially Asia, worries greatly about energy and food control. - Vinod K. Dar Earth Cools
Thus says Pelosi. Surber asks "Who asked her to?" I finally figured out why liberals turn me off. It’s their egos. They think they know everything and must save the rest of us mouth-breathers from ourselves.
The ten Capitalist things all economists believe. City Journal. One quote: To help the losers in the free market, government shouldn’t back away from either free trade or creative destruction and start subsidizing doomed and obsolete activities, a protectionist course that guarantees only economic decline. Instead, it should help the losers change jobs more easily by improving educational opportunities and by facilitating new investment, which creates more employment. An essential task of democratic governments and opinion makers when confronting economic cycles and political pressure is to secure and protect the system that has served humanity so well, and not to change it for the worse on the pretext of its imperfection. Still, this lesson is doubtless one of the hardest to translate into language that public opinion will accept. The best of all possible economic systems is indeed imperfect. Whatever the truths uncovered by economic science, the free market is finally only the reflection of human nature, itself hardly perfectible.
Some of our traditionalist readers might not be fans of Brazilian artist Vic Muniz, but I am. He is an artist/photographer but calls himself an illusionist. This is modern art. I love this guy. His Chocolate Series was drawn with pixie sticks on Plexiglas and then photographed. This is his "Mona Lisa, after Warhol," painted with peanut butter and jelly. You can see why he sells his photos of his work and not the orginals. Somebody might get hungry: 
This is Gordian Puzzle: Orphan Girl at the cemetery, after Delacroix: 
This is The Reader, after Fragonard (from Pictures of Chocolate), 2002. Painted with chocolate sauce: 
Here's his Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (after Cezanne) 
Monday, July 28. 2008
Gateway found this Move On ad for Obama. Hope. It could happen to you. Do they think I am 6 years old? I hope for a pretty pony, and $50 million in cash, unmarked bills.
 This is a tale of minor woe, a "for the loss of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the loss of the shoe, the horse was lost..." story.
When a homeowner sees that ominous drip, drip, drip in the ceiling, coming out of some light fixture, his or her heart sinks. We all know that water and houses don't mix. It turned out that the vibrations from the Jacuzzi tub had screwed up the drain. On further inspection, the dripping had rotted the subfloor. And, on further inspection, the underfloor in front of the shower was wet and crumbling too, partly because Mr. Shower Door installed the door opening out, not in. And the shower stall wasn't adequately vented. And, and, and... This means plumbers, demolition guys, tile guys, new fixtures, dumpsters and carpenters. A new subfloor and a new floor for the bathroom, hopefully something less slippery than the shiny Italian tile we had. I think a marble floor is the idea. And, since that is being done, let's take the vanity out and repaint it, and put a new marble top on it. And since we have a great carpenter/contractor here anyway, why not have him move the non-supporting walls around in the master bedroom to expand the closets and expand the room the way we have always talked about? Yeah, why not? Not a big deal, right? You can move all your hunting gear to the basement. And, since they're already doing that, let's finally put the fireplace in the bedroom. It can link right up to an existing chimney, after all. Cozy. And since they're doing that, let's get rid of all the old carpet and replace it with good oak flooring upstairs. Let's do it everywhere upstairs. After all, it's not much more expensive than high-quality wool carpet. And since the electricians will be around, let's replace all of that terrible hallway lighting, and then re-paint everything. I guess one of the consolations of home-ownership is to know, as you watch your life savings evaporate, that you are helping to keep the economy going in your neck of the woods. Were I single and childless, I could live in a shack in the woods, as long as I had a broadband connection. And a girlfriend or three for company.
Bob Novak, hospitalized today in Boston for a brain tumor while on a trip to Cape Cod, filed his Closer than He Should Be for today's WaPo. One quote: In the contest for president, Barack Obama is a magnetic candidate supported by a disciplined, well-organized campaign. John McCain seems wooden, with a campaign that appears to be in shambles. Yet Obama's lead in the polls over McCain is fragile because he so far has not won the support of a majority of American voters.
We shall see whether McCain can add some zip to his campaign. As we have said here, "John - give people a reason to vote for you." We already have a multitude of reasons not to vote for Obama. Also, our best wishes to Bob. Seems like he's been around forever. The Old Guard.
 There was a time when a gent would no more leave his house without a tie than a lady would leave the house without a hat. I showed up at a tennis team outdoor dinner-dance event at my club on Saturday night with jacket and tie. Not wishing to make everybody else there feel grievously under-dressed, I quickly removed my tie and stuck it in my pocket.
I am an old-fashioned believer in the idea that professionals should dress up a little bit. Even if it isn't entirely comfortable. And I still believe in wearing a tie to church - not that God cares, but simply as a sign of respect for the occasion. From Neato, American Tie Guys Untie Their Own Association. Brooks Brothers ties have been my mainstay since I was 10 years old, but I have been known to wear other brands when given to me as gifts. Brooks summer ties are on sale now, but I think I have enough to last me. Easy to find a new one to like, though.
A quote from AVI: I was a theater and literature major in the 70's, with a contempt for Southerners, fraternity guys, all things military, hunters, and business majors. No matter how smart any of them might be individually, those groups were known to be generally closed-minded, uncurious, and shallow.
Not like Me. I was deep, you see. And sensitive. I was a socialist, not because I actually thought through whether it fed more people, but because it seemed generous, and the free market seemed selfish. I was against The War, not because I had any clear foreign policy ideas, but because I was convinced that liberals wanted to understand different cultures and get along, while conservatives just wanted to shoot people they didn't like.
Yes, read the whole thing. It's short and to the point.
"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."
McCain now supports, Obama opposes. I support: "All men are created equal." Story at Betsy
 Giving yourself totally to your spouse. The only way it works, I am told.
Politics and the international criminal court. This sounds like a big problem for Chrysler The Mountain Pine Beetle I'm not interested in the Edwards story, only in the media's effort to suppress it A Richard Cory effect? Shrinkwrappped Bailouts privatize gains but socialize losses. Kudlow Women still complaining about their blogs. We'd better not mention how rich we are all getting from writing for Maggie's Farm. Obama's "world tour" gave him a good bump in the polls. In the same week, McCain's astonishingly lame campaign couldn't even get him to an oil rig for a photo op. Related: Annoy your liberal neighbors (surely you must have some) "First, Lose Three Straight Elections: Britain's Conservatives are finally emerging from the wilderness. Republicans can learn from them." Fred Barnes Is "race and ethnicity" a reporter's beat? Am Thinker. Good grief. Al Qaida's appetite for civilian blood. Belmont The ebbing of the power of the Shiite militia. Politics and taxes. McArdle Texas: still a booming economy
Sunday, July 27. 2008
"Weren't the eighties grand? Cash grew on trees or, anyway, coca bushes. The rich roamed the land in vast herds hunted by proud, free tribes of investment brokers who lived a simple life in tune with money. Every wristwatch was a Rolex. Every car was a Mercedes-Benz. A fellow could romance a gal without shrink-wrapping his privates and negotiating the Treaty of Ghent. Communist dictators were losing their jobs, not presidents of America and General Motors. Women wore Adolfo gowns instead of dumpy federal circuit court judge robes. The Malcolm who mattered was Forbes. Bill Clinton was only a microscopic polyp in the colon of national politics, and Hillary was still in flight school, hadn't even soloed on her broom. What a blast we were having. The suburbs had just discovered Martha Stewart, the cities had just discovered crack. So many parties and none of them Democratic...Back then health care was a tummy tuck, not an inalienable right. If you wanted a better environment, you went to Laura Ashley." P.J. O'Rourke, via Samizdata
A big h/t to Vanderleun, who is supposedly on vacation but isn't, quite. He found this piece at the Independent by an Irish journalist who had covered Africa, Writing what I should have written so many years ago. One quote: The people of Ireland remained in ignorance of the reality of Africa because of cowardly journalists like me. When I went to Ethiopia just over 20 years ago, I saw many things I never reported -- such as the menacing effect of gangs of young men with Kalashnikovs everywhere, while women did all the work. In the very middle of starvation and death, men spent their time drinking the local hooch in the boonabate shebeens. Alongside the boonabates were shanty-brothels, to which drinkers would casually repair, to briefly relieve themselves in the scarred orifice of some wretched prostitute (whom God preserve and protect). I saw all this and did not report it, nor the anger of the Irish aid workers at the sexual incontinence and fecklessness of Ethiopian men. Why? Because I wanted to write much-acclaimed, tear-jerkingly purple prose about wide-eyed, fly-infested children -- not cold, unpopular and even "racist" accusations about African male culpability. Am I able to rebut good and honourable people like John O'Shea, who are now warning us that once again, we must feed the starving Ethiopian children? No, of course I'm not. But I am lost in awe at the dreadful options open to us. This is the greatest moral quandary facing the world. We cannot allow the starving children of Ethiopia to die. Yet the wide-eyed children of 1984-86, who were saved by western medicines and foodstuffs, helped begin the greatest population explosion in human history, which will bring Ethiopia's population to 170 million by 2050. By that time, Nigeria's population will be 340 million, (up from just 19 million in 1930). The same is true over much of Africa. Thus we are heading towards a demographic holocaust, with a potential premature loss of life far exceeding that of all the wars of the 20th Century. This terrible truth cannot be ignored. But back in Ireland, there are sanctimonious ginger-groups, which yearn to prevent discussion, and even to imprison those of us who try, however imperfectly, to expose the truth about Africa. And of that saccharine, sickly shower, more tomorrow.
All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith. h/t, Dr Helen Also via Dr. Helen, Choosing the Right College Stuff White People Like. The book.
 We missed this one: Global warming causes kittens. No doubt predicted by Climate Models. Related, from Al Gore to the Brits:
As your parliament moves forward to debate legislation this session, it is essential that you imagine this not solely as a scientific discussion or even a political dialogue, but as a moral moment where we decide who we are as human beings, and what obligation to the future we feel is appropriate for us to accept as part of our responsibility in this generation. At stake is nothing less than the survival of human civilisation and the habitability of the earth for our species.
Good grief. He wanted to be the Messiah, but Obama one-upped him in that department. Now, he's just a regular crank again. Why it's so hard to teach students these days. h/t, Minding the Campus I have felt this way about power tools many times. AP stunningly acknowledges that the surge has worked spectacularly. Ace They went down fighting hard. Villainous. Sons and warriors. The NEA is our Taliban. Moonbattery Maybe appointing his transition team was a bit premature. Related, via Classical Values: The New Republic has a pretty good article up explaining European misconceptions of America. The article especially looks at Obama's recent German rallies and how those rallies feed European misconceptions. Europe's favorite dream: a post-Bush America cut down to size and chastened, a meeker and more modest America, a more "European" (that is, a more social-democratic) America, which at last casts off some of its nastier capitalist habits. An America that is a lot more like us Europeans who have forgone power politics and sovereignty in favor of communitarian politics and integration.
From Insty: MICHAEL BARONE: "Sometimes public opinion doesn't flow smoothly; it shifts sharply when a tipping point is reached. Case in point: gas prices. $3 a gallon gas didn't change anybody's mind about energy issues. $4 a gallon gas did. . . . In a country with less in the way of checks and balances, which can be gamed by adroit lobbyists and litigators, we would be building more nuclear plants, and would be drilling offshore and in ANWR. We would be phasing out the corn ethanol subsidies that are enriching Iowa farmers and impoverishing Mexican tortilla eaters, and we would be repealing the 54-cent tariff on Brazilian sugar ethanol (the sugar for which would be produced not in defoliated Amazon rainforests but in the desolate and currently unused certao)."
Why would Maliki vote for Obama? Krauthammer What Dr. Roy Spencer said to the Senate
Matthew 9:35-10:33 35Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” 10Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. 5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Still life, 1883. You can read about this piece here. 
Saturday, July 26. 2008
Quote from Surber: Maliki got Obama off the hook in Iraq. But Berlin was a bridge too far. He became a rock star. And like many American celebrities on a high from European adulation, Obama knocked his native nation. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
He went on to say he loves his country, but the damage was done. He slammed the country. Factual, yes. But totally unnecessary. He apologized overseas for”mistakes” ahem “around the world” in a nation we liberated and protected for 45 years at a great cost of treasure, as critics of Iraq say. He apologized to a nation that exterminated 6 million Jews — two-thirds of all the Jews in Europe before the start of the war — for America? That is surreal even for an Ivy League egghead. His praise of German’s love of freedom was a joke. Germans no more love freedom than they love Jews.
You do not knock America in a foreign country, to suck up to their America-envy, in a campaign. Maybe he should run for office in Germany? Fortunately, German groupies do not vote in the USA. I think people just want McCain to give them a reason to vote for him. Powerline shares this McCain response ad:
Obama's on a different planet. John Bolton. Sing it along with me, kids. And if you combine that song with this one, you've got the Obama campaign in a nutshell.
A re-post from 2005: Norm has posted some interesting data from a recent study on the differences in libido between men and women. The results sound like that medical research spoof about the 20-year, 70 million dollar government study which proved the surprising fact that diet and exercise are important for weight loss. This new study offered the startling conclusion that men have higher sexual needs than women. More specifically, the study says that men need sex every five days, and women every ten. My opinion: This study only applies to Brits.
McCain hits hard: Powerline Media misses the big story: Pajamas The only place the Dems want to drill: Michelle
Our blogmeister Chris is a sailboat man himself, but he knows nice powerboats when he sees them. In response to our Hinckley powerboat post a couple of weeks ago, Chris offered the opinion that they were too "common." He attached this photo from his yacht club as proof: 
I happen to think that the Hinckley jet drive is cool as hell, but Chris prefers the Shelter Island Runabouts made by CH Marine. They built Billy Joel's commuter boat. Here's one of their Runabouts: 
I always found the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" to be devoid of content despite the loveliness of the tune. For simple lyrics which have depth, here are three. First, 
Wow. How can so much be said about life in so few words? Also: Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!
The rest of that song is here. And one more, the verse that some claim captures everything about Christian faith: - Jesus loves me! This I know,
- For the Bible tells me so.
- Little ones to Him belong;
- They are weak, but He is strong.
The rest of that song is here.
 This is a weekly Saturday morning feature that will slowly, over time, turn you into a full-fledged computer expert. More info here.
Lesson 16: DOS
Oh, the things we've learned on our little journey!
We learned how to professionally back up our system.
We learned how to make a really neat custom links page for our browser.
We learned all about hardware and software and cool tools and a whole buncha stuff!
And, if all that wasn't enough, we then learned about such cutting-edge techniques as streaming video. As budding computer experts, we're ready to go!
So why, in Heaven's name, is the wise and kindly Doc Murky bringing up DOS, of all things? What possible use on God's Green Earth could antiquated old DOS have in today's modern hyperdigital world, we plaintively asked.
What use, indeed?, he asked back.
Continue reading "Dr. Mercury's Computer Corner: Lesson 16 - DOS"
Friday, July 25. 2008
State and federal governments in the US "make" more money in "profits" per gallon of gas and oil sold via taxes than the oil companies do. Our governments are addicted to "big oil." Doubt me? Do the research yourself. I happen to love gas and oil, but I do not love the taxes on it.
 I am off to sea again - see y'all on Monday, God willing. Try to have as fine a weekend as I will. The stripers are biting off Montauk. Stripers, not strippers.
Respect: Why it's not a bad thing to be named Gambino. I think I'll change my name from Junkie to Gambino. Rick Moran outdoes himself. One quote: Strip aside the rhetoric and the mesmerizing presence on the stump and you are left with a rather ordinary, rather inspid liberal with visions of a planet united and America a slavish partner to the goals and aspirations of the bureaucrats at the United Nations – the US an emasculated presence while our own vital interests take second place to those preaching the gospel of universal brotherhood. This has been a dream of the new left for 60 years. And Obama, the word made flesh of that dream, is just the man to fulfill that destiny.
The loony hypochondriacal Mold Scam. The world is full of mold. The outdoors is full of mold. Mold Rules the earth. It will probably inherit the earth. Are guys really better at Math? Stop looking at that gal on the right. She's good at math and navigation. Definitely Divine Providence. Insty Berlin Yes, Baghdad No. WSJ. As I seem to recall, we occupied West Germany and Berlin, didn't we? Liberals plan to return to The New Deal. There will be some serious reaction if they try to pull this stunt. h/t, Driscoll Health Care 2008: A Political Primer. New Atlantis Things just aren't all that bad on Main Street. Unless you work on Wall Street. "Underrepresentation" and "overrepresentation." Thompson. I am deeply, deeply concerned that straight men are underrepresented in costume design. Fathering autism. WaPo. Everybody wants to blame. Tony Snow knew better. Hey. What the heck is a "community activist"? Is that a, like, job? Or what is it? Quote from Malanga, at City Journal: Community organizing’s roots stretch back to the 1930s and Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky, founder of the Industrial Areas Foundation and author of Rules for Radicals. But it wasn’t until President Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious plan to end poverty through massive federal spending that the Alinsky model—grassroots organizing, neighborhood by neighborhood—really took off. Starting in the mid-1960s, the federal government directed billions of dollars to neighborhood groups, convinced that they knew better than Washington what their communities needed. The federal funds, eventually supplemented by state and local tax dollars, helped create a universe of government-funded community groups running everything from job-training programs to voter-registration drives—far beyond anything Alinsky could have imagined. Some 3,000 local social-services groups were soon receiving government funding in New York City alone. Many were new, but the money also helped turn traditional charities that had operated on private donations into government contractors. Those who led these social-services groups became advocates, unsurprisingly, for government-funded solutions to social problems. To defend and expand their turf, organizers began heading into the political arena, wielding the power they had accumulated in neighborhoods to build a base of supporters. In New York, operators of huge social-services groups like Pedro Espada in the Bronx and Albert Vann in Brooklyn won election to state and federal posts after heading up large, powerful nonprofits. By the late 1980s, nearly 20 percent of New York City Council members were products of the government-funded nonprofit sector, and they were among the most strident advocates for higher taxes and more government spending. In other cities, too, from Chicago to Cleveland to Los Angeles, the road to electoral success increasingly ran through the government-funded social-services sector. Spending directed to these groups boomed through both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Normal, competent folks don't go into politics. It's a well-known fact. They do real jobs that produce money and do not cost us money. Photo from Theo is a favor to cheer up our blog pal Bruce Kesler who used to post at Democracy Project. It's a long story.
From Wiki:  The conjunction fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one.
The most oft-cited example of this fallacy originated with Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman [1]: - Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
- Which is more probable?
- Linda is a bank teller.
- Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.
85% of those asked chose option 2 [2]. However, mathematically, the probability of two events occurring together (in "conjunction") will always be less than or equal to the probability of either one occurring alone.
Thus is the brain seduced by detail. All writers know this fact. Which works best: "Dick wore a hat." or "Dick wore a green felt hat with a pheasant-feather hatband." One of my favorite sites to visit, Overcoming Bias, wonderfully discusses When not to use probabilities. He says: The laws of probability are laws, not suggestions, but often the true Law is too difficult for us humans to compute. If P != NP and the universe has no source of exponential computing power, then there are evidential updates too difficult for even a superintelligence to compute - even though the probabilities would be quite well-defined, if we could afford to calculate them. So sometimes you don't apply probability theory. Especially if you're human, and your brain has evolved with all sorts of useful algorithms for uncertain reasoning, that don't involve verbal probability assignments.
Those algorithms are "gut feelings." Often wrong, often accurate. There is one thing that I know for certain: the more time I have to think about how to hit a tennis ball, the more likely I am to blow the shot. He also says: In general a rationalist tries to make their minds function at the best achievable power output; sometimes this involves talking about verbal probabilities, and sometimes it does not, but always the laws of probability theory govern. If all you have is a gut feeling of uncertainty, then you should probably stick with those algorithms that make use of gut feelings of uncertainty, because your built-in algorithms may do better than your clumsy attempts to put things into words.
 I have hesitated to post about Tony Snow's reflections on his death. It felt intrusive, but I know he wrote to be read, so here's one quote from his above essay written shortly before he died:
The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes ( Spain ), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment. There’s nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.
Read the whole thing. Link above. If you didn't know, Tony grew up in the wonderful town of Berea, Kentucky. A remarkably likeable, cheerful, positive, genteel and gentle fellow. I miss him, even though I never met him.
What might have been, by Fred Siegel in City Journal. I always thought that the impeachment was insane overreach, and dumb politics. The Repubs were rabid. Rabid is never a good idea.
 Is marriage really for white people?
Obama says he will remake the world. Gimme a break. Related: "Citizen of the world"? And Here's Roger Kimball: When I first encountered Obama’s rhetoric, my chief feeling was one of mild nausea. Over time, feelings of alarm have outstripped the nausea: Obama’s clichés, I realized, were not simply, not only, empty platitudes. They were also menacing adumbrations of a megalomaniac narcissist who really did believe he was a man of destiny and wouldn’t have the slightest hesitation about embarking on the effort to “remake the world.” All that is worrisome enough. Combined with the utter lack of critical perspective—rather, combined with the stunning adulation–accorded to Obama by the so-called mainstream press and you have a recipe for disaster.
The invention of Scotland. NY Sun Strange "bias incident" at U of Minnesota The new Housing Bill hammers the taxpayer Al Gore refuted, by Patrick Michaels
 The Green Fad is done. Nobody is listening anymore and it doesn't sell: Moonbattery, whence the image.
That's what happens when you hysterically oversell something. This video we posted from 50 years ago tells the whole story. And the earth is cooling. That is really scary.
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