Wednesday, July 16. 2008
 Obama: the Middle East needs social workers? Related: When both look like losers
Dalrymple's My Problem of Evil, via SC&A Joe Lieberman is right again Students' evaluations of the teachers. Right Wing Prof Rewriting history. Here's the story of Obama purging his website of references to his criticizing Iraq policy. This is not a display of good character. China plans to change the weather for the Olympics Liberty threatened by radical environmentalism Sean Collins reviews Zakaria's The Post-American World in Spiked. One quote: In viewing growth as problematic and potentially destructive, Zakaria raises a common theme of our time. Rather than celebrate the benefits of growth, such as a reduction in poverty, Zakaria and others emphasise the downsides that accompany development. This gloomy outlook reveals more about the commentator than the reality on the ground. Zakaria refers to the predicted increase in the number of cars in China from 26million to 120million in 2020 as an environmental problem rather than a cause of celebration, as the Chinese people gain greater freedom of movement. In doing so, Zakaria joins in with today’s growing China-bashing chorus (2). If Zakaria is concerned that growth causes immediate problems like oil price increases and environmental damage, he is even more worried about the longer-term consequences of economic growth upon geopolitical stability. Not only do we have a diffusion of economic power today – Zakaria believes that these economic trends will ultimately lead to political change, in particular the growth of nationalism within the emerging countries.
Tuesday, July 15. 2008
Very bad politics. Rick Moran has got this right. One quote: Forget that Gramm’s remarks about America being in a “mental recession” and that our fellow countrymen are a “nation of whiners” were insensitive, crass, stupid, and abominably ill-timed. They were just plain bad politics and trying to justify them as “true” in any sense whatsoever is the heighth of political ignorance. To chastise your fellow countrymen who are genuinely worried about the way the world seems to be giving way underneath their feet as change and uncertainty sweeps across the country in the form of ever rising energy costs and a housing crisis to which there doesn’t seem to be any bottoming out bespeaks an obliviousness to the political realities of what is happening beyond your own small corner of the world. Your appeal to an economic Darwinism as a model for the American people to follow is as outmoded as it is despicable.
A quote from a piece on Obama at Belmont Club: It’s not fair to accuse BHO of a “bait and switch”. The hook was never concealed and even the worm was always labeled as fake. For anyone who was prepared to listen, Obama was always brutally honest to his audience. In his book, the Audacity of Hope, Obama was aware of the vast untapped market for dreams. In fact he knew that selling his audience anything less would be bound to disappoint them. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. Which perhaps indicates a second, more intimate theme to this book?namely, how I, or anybody in public office, can avoid the pitfalls of fame, the hunger to please, the fear of loss, and thereby retain that kernel of truth, that singular voice within each of us that reminds us of our deepest commitments.
It’s a remarkable paragraph, one which captures the excitement of salesman who knows he can close the big deal if only he glides over the fine print. It’s hard to blame Obama, already aware of his audience’s eagerness to believe, for failing to volunteer the messy details. There was no deceit. BHO’s loyalties have been unswervingly for himself and if the customer asked him no questions he would tell them no lies.
Update: His website is now being cleaned of any criticism of the surge. Related: Obama not funny. Protein
 The good news from Venezuela: Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008 (pictured)
The new diamonds: Is a diamond cartel forever? Beijing's new architecture. Vanity Fair Obama's tax plan would hurt NYC badly Simple gifts. What a great family place. What does bailing out Fannie and Freddie mean to us? Kling David Axelrod: Obama's Karl Rove Credit card companies target college students
Monday, July 14. 2008
 Our Editor mentioned to me that one of our most-searched posts ever in recent times has been The World's Largest House - other than searches for "Farm Porn."
Adjustable beds. Not cheap, but good fun. h/t, Mousin' Smoking is good for your memory and concentration. h/t, Theo. I would say it's essential. Budweiser sold to Belgians. OK with me. I don't drink their watery brew anyway. I do own their stock, however. What to do about Zimbabwe. Q&O. Nothing we can do. Sometimes one just has to admit that you can't do anything about it. What Obama wanted, or wants, in the Middle East There's a brilliant idea. Let the kids vote. I think they would vote for free candy. It is a Dem approach, isn't it? Dems search their souls (and votes) about drilling for oil. Singleton Is free speech a dying American quirk? There is no fight against cancer. If it wants to kill you, it will. Everybody dies. Carpe diem. The diminishing returns of political pandering. Reason His own gay identity, at 15. What can I say? Sweden: Always insane. Blame for Baltimore's rot Not a joke: To Iraq with Chuck Hagel Derbyshire, re Obama: His instinctive liberalism aside, Wonder Boy doesn't strike me as any more vain, stupid, or dishonest than your average politician. He does, though, strike me as awfully lightweight — the lightest-weight of any major Presidential contender I can recall. We have interns round the office with deeper life experience than Obama. Heck, I've had goldfish with deeper life experience than Obama. JFK at least had a boat sunk under him.
Photo of a stalwart Maggie's Farmer courtesy of Theo.
 Yes, the New Yorker. All about that New Yorker cover, and the essay they wrote about Obama. Michelle thinks he should grow a pair.
10 big mistakes parents make. h/t, Dr. Helen McCain is moving to the supply side. Kudlow Hail Joseph Lancaster. Marg. Rev. The rise of Barack Obama. Powerline What will happen to Lehman? It's all about Bear Raids Google as the new pressroom. Buzz Machine Iraq: handing out $ on the street The U of Chicago profs vs. Milton Friedman. Kimball. Add this one to the things global warming has caused Could 2008 be a McCain landslide? Shiver How the Latino vote can determine the election. Pajamas A recession is just mental. h/t, Insty. There is some truth to that, except for the financial services biz, where it's just getting uglier. Still, slowdowns trickle down, just as the good times do. McCain and computers. Good grief. Would somebody sit him down and show him, please? So he can read Maggie's Farm. Fannie and Freddie. No choice but to bail them out. They are quasi-government agencies - for better or worse.
Sunday, July 13. 2008
Am Thinker. The mysteries of zero always interested me, too. If you have five apples on a table, and take away five, how many apples are there? Still five, just not on the table. I am a concrete thinker.
 From SDA:
A lone, honest Liberal crawls out of the woodwork... The Liberal Party’s Green Shift announced on June 19th marked the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years. The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians. [...] I invite and encourage everyone to visit thegreenshift.ca to see how this comprehensive plan will benefit low-income Canadians. I will continue to work collaboratively with my Liberal colleagues towards a fairer, richer, greener Canada.
Yes, it's all about the green. Meanwhile, US delays regulation of greenhouse gases. In its report, the NYT calls CO2 "air pollution." It's also called "air." We'd all be kaput without CO2: all plants would die. Related: Hansen "not interested." Related: The great biofuels con Related: Is man causing global cooling? From Icecap: It was warm from 1850 to 1940, too, but in 1940 the planet cooled for 30 years. However, this cooling can’t happen again, according to the Hadley Centre. How does it know? Because its computers tell it so - the same computers that couldn’t predict the recent 10 years of non-warming. But why isn’t the planet warming now? After all, humans are “driving” the climate, aren’t we? Well, not quite. As the Hadley Centre tells us “The recent slight slowing of the warming is due to a shift towards more-frequent La Nina conditions in the Pacific since 1998. These bring cool water up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, cooling global temperatures.” (incidentally, “slight slowing of the warming” is an unsual way of describing “no warming").
Re the wonderful Tony Snow, Michelle has a video of him playing with his band. Many memories of Tony Snow at NRO. What George Soros is doing with his money in this election. From Nanny State to Totalitarianism: Concentration camps for fat kids. Got to keep your serfs in good shape, eh? Warren Buffet is in a buying mood. We linked on the UN and Zimbabwe yesterday. Norm has a different view - but he is wrong. If the UN had the power to intervene inside nations, nobody would join it. Have we already crossed the line with taxes? Coyote. My preference? Flat tax of 13% on all income, no deductions and everybody pays. Dues, to belong to Club America.
Saturday, July 12. 2008
Looks like it. He does nothing without political calculation.
The UN, rightly, has no authority and no mission to interfere with the internal issues of states. In my view, imposing sanctions on officials would have no impact anyway.
When I say 'Religious Left'... AVI Will Israel attack Iran? Current Chilled red wine in summertime Good stuff. We linked to Salatin's essay, Everything I want to do is Illegal, in our post on farming yesterday. He's a farmer in VA. India disputes global warming MSM "confused" about Obama. Also, Obama's educational romanticism. Derbyshire Insty: MASS TRANSIT IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE
"We're so..." by Russ Vaughn, via American Thinker: We're hip, we're cool and so arty;
We're Democrats, the smarter Party.
We're sophisticated unlike you:
We understand merci beaucoup.
We're ubane and you're provincial;
We're worldly-wise, so existential.
We're cultured, complex, so refined,
We've left you ignorant serfs behind.
We're witty authors of clever puns,
While you clods cling to God and guns.
Were you not so closed and clannish
We'd have you peons speaking Spanish.
We say all this with knowing smirks;
We're Democrats, you Red-State jerks.
Friday, July 11. 2008
At HuffPo, with good reason: The week that should have ended all of McCain's presidential hopes. That upsets me. I raised money for McCain. He has had months of an open field to run down like a rock star and a winner. (Of course, Obama has had plenty of campaign-killing weeks too.) Perhaps their plan is to let Obama blow himself up...or perhaps they are asleep at the switch. But all I can see from here is that Obama is dominating the press. As they used to say in Hollywood, "Bad press is better than no press." Does McCain want to win this election? He's the better man, and the media is (of course) trying to bury him, but why is he in hiding? He has disappeared since the primaries, and that was a long time ago. My friends are all afraid that he is trying to pull a Bob Dole election. Where's the Viagra? Where's the "hope"? Where's the promise? Where's the inspiration? Where's the America? Where is the darn campaign? This year, he should be running like an Eisenhower, as the calm, moderate, rational, calming, optimistic, stabilizing, patriotic and America-loving guy that you can trust not to take big risks, roll the dice, and make a mess. Sanity. That's tough, in a roll-the-dice and pray-for-the-best sort of year. Still, I believe that Obama's politics are his own worst enemy.
 Dead from overwork.
Baby Leatherback sea turtles run to the sea. Video Female privilege. Ace Final exams in Baghdad went better this year Some Arab states modernized, and some did not Synthstuff: One-third of consumers in the US and UK have made a copy of a DVD within the last six months, according to a report from Futuresource Consulting. Is America a country or an idea? View from the Right Gay Patriot: "I think Rush Limbaugh has it right — Barack Obama is the first black Clinton." Related, from Libertarian Leanings: Their candidate of hope, who wooed them with promises that he would immediately abandon Iraq, has predictably veered to the center, backing away from his earlier stance. In his current stance he says we must withdraw carefully. On the left they know he has to say this, but their uncertainty remains. Do they have the audacity to hope he's lying?
Why the "Black National Anthem" in Denver? Prager Guns save lives. Larry Elder What the Obama campaign is doing. Rove 3000 in Pakistan pledge their babies to Jihad. Nice mommies. Cleaning up the environment causes global warming Does anybody download music anymore? Download music without going to jail Dreher at RCP, re working class voters: What does the Republican Party have to offer these voters? The tried-and-true tax-cut litany is as stale as anything Walter Mondale had to say in 1984. Free-market clichés may suit GOP money men and radio talkers, but they do not satisfy working-class voters for whom the changing economic order undermines family stability.
At Attack Machine, The Anti-American Pose. A quote from Fouad Ajami: It is one thing to rail against the Pax Americana. But after the pollsters are gone, the truth of our contemporary order of states endures. We live in a world held by American power – and benevolence. Nothing prettier, or more just, looms over the horizon.
Thursday, July 10. 2008
And regrets and regrets. Story via Drudge
Obama isn't making sense. Antle How the Greens captured energy policy. Am Thinker. Related: Good review of the world oil situation at Q&O. Related: McCain abandons his cap-and-trade ideas. "Ignorant military types." Villainous A Lefty claims Americans "not selfish enough." Wizbang. This poll proves it: most people don't want other peoples' money. The economy, quoted from Pajamas: Make no mistake: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama are the people who are making the economy sick. I don’t see how anyone can push this off on George Bush; the economy was picking up some steam, despite the housing industry and mortgage credit problems, until the Pelosi-Obama-Reid triumvirate made clear its intentions to put an energy chokehold on the economy. These three and their party appear not to care one whit about the damage ever-higher energy prices and the prospect of punitive taxes are doing, right now, to both the economy and the stock market. They have set and reached a new low in legislative negligence, one that I believe took businesses and investors by surprise.
Wednesday, July 9. 2008
 Warming crisis continues, despite absence of global warming. Related: Texas environmentalists urge solar electric chair (h/t,NE Repub)
What's the NEA's political agenda this year? Obama loves to lecture us rubes. Now it's about languages. How many does he speak? (I speak Polish - thanks to a Grandma - plus German, and French. No Spanish.) Iran rattling its little sabers. What a joke. Who pays all of the taxes, at Powerline. Quote: ...for the first time in decades, and perhaps ever, the richest 1% of tax filers will have paid more than 40% of the income tax burden. The top 50% will account for 97% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% will have paid just 3%."
also, Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, political philosophers have worried that government based on majority rule could lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses. "If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city," warned Aristotle.
Can't Kerry it off. Surber Feinstein wants to limit congressional speech. WTH? Related insanity: More on the DNC's food Nazis. This reminds me to smoke some pork butt this Friday, for the weekend. Is the Left conservative? Quoted at Driscoll: Every mill that shuts down is a "sign of our sad times." No matter that the new mill will do things better, faster and cheaper than the old one. New farming techniques grow more food on less land. But dammit, if there wasn't something romantic about the old-stye "family farm" that's deserving of government protection. Innovation isn't celebrated, it's excoriated for displacing some idealized vision of the way things once were. In matters of progress and dyanmism, the left is far more conservative than the conservatives are.
With the end of humankind (and of our beloved planet itself) rapidly approaching unless we do something immediately if not sooner, Maggie's Farm has decided to quit talking about the crisis and to start acting. We are taking action in ways that go beyond the virtuous posturing and tokenism (we call it "Lightbulbing") that we see on other websites. Here are the things we are doing to make a difference: 1. As of today, we have discontinued the popular print edition of Maggie's Farm. Henceforth, Maggie's will only be available online. (If you are reading this in our final print edition, double-click here on the page with your index finger.) This change will save countless acres of pristine virgin forests and and eliminate CO2 production from our fleet of gas-guzzling delivery vehicles, such as this one: 
2. See our site's background color? It's a new shade of Green. This will inspire all of our readers to Go Green! Let's start a trend for other sites to switch to an Earth-Friendly Green! 3. We are going nuclear. Because of the new availability of yellowcake uranium from Saddam's stash, we are in the process of installing a small, air-cooled homemade reactor in the basement to provide all our our power needs. If it works, we'll soon be off the grid! 
4. Trees are a major source of CO2 pollution. Therefore we will invite loggers to clear-cut another 30 acres of the farm's property, converting it to fields on which we will grow corn for Ethanol. I see $$$ in going green this way. Your tax dollars by the bushel, flowing to Maggie's Farm! Money is Green! 
5. International travel, with its polluting airplanes and ships, is a big problem (except for those necessary trips by people spreading the word about global catastrophe). We are determined that, in the future, any second international recreational trip we take in one year will be by sail: 
6. "Cork me." Cow farts are a major threat to the planet with their warmening gasses. Our patented and trademarked "CowCork" wil be used on our entire herd of cattle. 
7. Farm nudity. We have decided to go nude on the farm this summer. This both strikes a blow against Big Clothing corporations and their exploitative sweatshops and their extortionist prices, while reducing the fossil fuel consumption required in clothing production and transportation. Take Off Those Overalls and Save the Earth! 
8. Green beer. It's not just for St. Patrick's Day anymore. We will commit to drinking green beer daily, if not hourly. 
9. Clean vehicle fuel. Because we have heard so much about how engines can run on water (a fact which a conspiracy between Bush-Cheney and Big Oil is concealing from us), all of our trucks and tractors will be run on water - beginning today. Water is a cheap, clean-burning fuel, and there is lots of it out there going to waste, monotonously and pointlessly lapping against the shore. Fill 'er up! 
 A report on the recently-discovered Chauvet cave in France, and its art. New Yorker
Obama playing the voters for dupes. Lowry Extrapolating from a single data point. Climate Skeptic American cost of living, in perspective. SDA Bush: buffoon or great leader? Is Socialized medicine a done deal in the US? Barack Obama woos Hispanic vote with promise of citizenship for 12m illegal migrants. Free Republic Canada: an example to the world? Insty Toon courtesy of Theo
Tuesday, July 8. 2008
Who is Obama? TigerHawk. I tend to think that he is a Marxist with a Left-Liberal facade, but you cannot get elected as a Marxist.
 Rooting out racist toddlers. Atlas. Racism in toddlers includes saying "Yuk" to ethnic foods. Photo: Eyeball Soup, an ethnic dish. Yuk.
Now Iraq feels ready for a timetable. Great. More on free speech and "media reform." Am Thinker AP: Everything is terrible. We need Obamamessiah. Then everything will be just fine. How economic liberty produces personal fulfillment. Reason The sky is falling! Everybody panic! Pajamas What's Mayor Mike gonna do? Merrill wants to sell $6 billion of Bloomberg stock. The "Constitution in Exile" vs. the Leftist view. Villainous
Here's the video of the largest reenlistment ceremony in US military history. July 4, in Baghdad:
Monday, July 7. 2008
Still catching up with Good Stuff du Jour after my long weekend away. It may be TMI, but I do feel the responsibility to put these good things out there anyway, and will give myself a break in the morning:  Photo: Evil imperialist American soldier at the opening of a swimming pool in Baghdad.
A bad economy? Coyote puts our American standard of living into some perspective. Patriotism and American Exceptionalism. That's my view too. Related: Be a patriot and get a job and support your family: Driscoll The latest Just Ask Me from Surber. It's a good schtick. "For many years, I was a charcoal snob..." Prof Bainbridge Like us, interested in the Scottish Enlightenment Like us, interested in the illusion of time. By the way, what time is it? Related to time: The affluent have less spare time. Duh. They do things. It's not just the NYT. Arianna is upset with Obama too. Sounds just like conservatives' upset with McCain. But do I give a damn about what Arianna thinks? Not really. Related: How Obama really "put his career on the line" re Iraq. Sheesh. Related: Ripping off the Hillary band-aid. Related: Obama's flips don't matter. Economists support McCain's economics. Related, from Kristol's Where's Murph? McCain is frustrated. He thinks he can beat Obama (politicians are pretty confident in their own abilities). But he isn’t convinced his campaign can beat Obama’s campaign. He knows that his three-month general election head start was largely frittered away. He understands that his campaign has failed to develop an overarching message. Above all, McCain is painfully aware that he is being diminished by his own campaign. This last point is galling. McCain has been a major figure in American public life for quite a while. And yet his campaign has made him seem somehow smaller. Obama is a first-term senator with no legislative achievements to speak of. His campaign has helped him seem bigger, more presidential.
UK Updates: Knife crime is Britain's shame. Also, Brown advises Eat all of your food. But how does that work with their war on obesity? Also, what do teachers do these days in England? Despite the trashing and thrashing that Bush's minimalist Social Security reform plan received, many government employees are exempt from Social Security taxes. Most teachers, for example. How that happened I do not know, but it's a raw deal for us regular folks in the private sector. The worst Economist article of all time. Ask what the government can make you do for your country...? Related: A Nuremberg rally? I agree with whoever said that this is getting creepy. Why the heck is California doing this, if there is no global warming? Is everybody crazy out there? What's the deal? Jihadis with American police records. Other ways that a bad credit rating hurts you. New moves to ban race preferences. CSM Insty: "EXPLAINING TO THE A.P. THAT Yahoo! is not the government." Dr. Tim Ball further debunks the warmists. Why do I continue to expect reason to prevail?
Re Obama. I have seen no reason at all to doubt that. Furthermore, I do not believe that most ordinary, "moderate" Dem voters are ready for what his true views are (which is why he has been so busy backtracking and concealing them this past week).
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