Monday, March 16. 2009
That's the evaporation of wealth in the US in 2008 - not including 2009. Some of that was mine - enough to make a difference in my plans and in my comfort level. No, I do not expect markets to only go up, nor do I ever expect to sell our house (which still has a significant mortgage) - but this was a tornado. A fluke.
Being no longer a young fellow, I must admit that it causes me some anxiety. We don't have pensions (who does these days, except government employees?). We have 401-Ks. I have no problem with working forever, but I did want some choice about it. I like choices.
IBD explains why it matters to everyone.
Tigerhawk explains why Lefties should be pleased about wealth destruction. More equality, etc. Tigerhawk can be a bit flip about it, though, because he is a young guy, full of beans and ideas, and clever enough to outsmart Obama's Socialist plans for us.
Our pal and occasional contributor Nathan sent us this photo of a rainbow over the Seine, from last week. He does get around:
Sunday, March 15. 2009
Steyn: There are no enemies anymore
How the NYT covered the skeptic conference. Related: In denial about denial, Dr Sanity
Also related: Clouding up global warming. Reason
"pour encourager les autres." Origin of the phrase.
Health care reform taking place in secret. With no normal people, either.
Why Keynes is so popular in Washington
Brain begins aging at 27 (but wisdom continues to increase)
Riding the Blame Bush theme as long as possible
Corrupt Dem du jour: Rep. Engel
Obama's overtures to Cuba and Russia have been answered
Private school for me but not for thee
I don't know about you, but I don't want my medical records online
George McGovern revisited. Am Thinker
Hayek grabbing a bull by the balls, photo
Emerging question: Is the Administration incompetent?
The case for big tent parties. National Journal. I agree.
"Don't limit God to your perspective and finite understanding of life."
Being an analogy minded person, I have always stated it as:
"You can't put God into our human mind just as you can't put the world's oceans into a thimble."
Dan, at A Slower Pace
A re-post from 2005:
Anthony Esolen:
If Jesus’ parable is an extended metaphor for a life of mercy—if we are to treat those suffering souls whom chance has thrown in our way as if they were people among whom we live—then we have taken the wheels off that metaphor’s vehicle. If you do not really have neighbors, how can you understand Jesus’ command to be a neighbor to others? You have to disembody it, etherealize it into a manifesto of general benevolence and almsgiving (perhaps of the political variety, whereby you stoutly sacrifice the alms of other people). Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, and you hear a call to be kind to your friends and to give to the United Way.
But before I come to how I think that parable must be understood, I should vindicate myself and my family just a bit, and in so doing point out a few reasons why neighborhood life in America is past. You see, my wife and I are not by nature sullen or withdrawn or suspicious. We live in a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, but we have begun to spend summers in a small home in an old fishing village, called West Arichat, on the coast of Cape Breton Island, in Nova Scotia. In that village, after only a few weeks, we have met more people—have been in their homes, have eaten with them—than we have in eight years in our place in the States.
Read entire piece at Touchstone.
John 2:13-22
13And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
18Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21But he spake of the temple of his body.
22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Jan Lievens (1607-1674) was a pal and a rival of Rembrandt. This is The Feast of Esther (1625).
Saturday, March 14. 2009
How computer modeling worsened the financial crisis. American Scholar
How the Wall St. physicists tried to outsmart the markets. NYT.
Everybody loves to find a scapegoat. Never imagined that physicists would be them. Me? I blame Congress.
"I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist.
I punched myself in the face with my fist.
I took my potatoes down to be mashed,
then I made it on over to that million dollar bash."
I thought the song was a bit of a spoof about Woodstock, but who knows? Dylan with The Band, on the Basement Tapes (which were just fooling-around practice tapes):
 Why did Lincoln pick Andrew Johnson?
Representation without taxation
Brussels Journal reports on this week's NYC climate conference. They begin:
More than six hundred scientists, economists, legislators, and journalists from around the world met in New York on March 8-10 for the second International Conference on Climate Change. Presentation after presentation documented the pseudoscience and dictatorial intentions behind the climate alarmism of the UN, EU, and Obama administration.
Read the whole thing.
Stocks that are never coming back.
Pride goeth before a fall in the polls.
Social status prudery. Overcoming Bias
How Radical is Obama? RWNH
The Myth of Relativism and the Cult of Tolerance. Anderson at American Thinker
The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
G.K. Chesterton (h/t, Dr. Bob)
All 27 of the series, online.
Love that 50s soundtrack. #17 about Guam is good. Americans are good at doing things.
 My Last Duchess (1842)
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count, your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Another Browning dramatic monologue. This poem is in every high school anthology, but it still knocks me out. The Duke of Ferrara speaks throughout, during his negotiations for his next marriage, and implies that he had his last duchess murdered, or put away. She was "made too soon glad." I think the "Notice Neptune" bit says it all.
Photo is a Theo duchess.
Friday, March 13. 2009
I assisted with an abortion one time in medical school, on my OB-Gyn rotation. I went to the bathroom afterwards, shook and sweated, and then puked my brains out. I refused to help with another abortion. Nobody minded. I delivered about 30 babies during that rotation. Scary if you get into a jam, but otherwise good fun.
Knippenberg considers the embryonic stem cell issue (an issue about which I have no particularly strong opinion), and notes the contradiction between the amoral notion of "let science do science" and the political notion of "most people want this."
I guess pols are experts at insulating their decision-making from morality and ethics. In my view, Utilitarianism, like "efficacy," is neither a moral nor an ethical posture. It's a cop-out. It's the easy way.
From Yuval Levin's Obama's False Choice:
Obama (also) chose to repeat the familiar cliché that the Bush policy was a betrayal of science. In his administration, he argued, “we make scientific decisions based on facts and not ideology.” The facts of the Bush administration’s funding of the research, its support for science funding more generally, and the emergence of alternatives to embryo destruction seem not to count. And the fact that every human embryo is a living human being seemed unworthy of mention.
Science policy is not a science: It must seek to use science to the benefit of the larger society, and also to restrain science in those rare instances when it threatens that society’s ideals. In hindsight, it seems increasingly clear that President Bush’s stem-cell-funding policy will stand as a model of how to strike a balance between these concerns. President Obama’s overturning of the Bush approach offers an unfortunate example of how fragile that balance often is.
Ed. note: Krauthammer today: Morally unserious in the extreme
Toon above from Theo
Some people just want to see the world burn. Goldberg
Cockpit Chatter. Amusing.
Carefully calibrating your fear to accomplish their goals. And it's quite clear what those goals are.
James Lovelock: Anti-Green Ecologist and classic Brit crank/harmless lunatic. How does he get newspaper coverage? If every person who is a bit off in the world got news coverage...never mind.
Now yet another one. Oh, almost forgot. A second one today. (It's usually just one per day.) How many Dems are crooks and finaglers? Has this been studied yet?
The Constitution says we should redistribute wealth. But how often? Hourly? Daily? Monthly? Seems to me that people move in and out of money. Mostly out, lately.
Good old Yankee Pittsfield, where the cops confiscate semen
IPCC Update: We're all gonna drown. I don't care. I have a boat.
Only going to tax the rich - as long as you don't count everybody else
It's tough being a woman making $350,00/yr in a do-nothing job. Government can solve it.
I am all in favor of natural forest fires, but this lady is wacked
Psychology Abuse. Shrinkwrapped
Dang gun lobby won't stop killing people. Will no one stop them?
The Liberal Revolution: Come for the egalitarianism, stay for the bestiality and tyranny.
Photo below from a NYC health food (?) shop in NYC, borrowed from Conspiracy. Worth every penny, no doubt:
 Somebody told me this week that he was putting together a Team Penning team in New York State. Not only did I not understand how that Western game works, I never would have imagined that there are Team Penning classes and competitions throughout NYS, CT and MA.
Here's how the game is played. Sounds like good fun, a bit like billiards with horses and cattle. Or maybe more like Chinese Checkers?
Here's just one of the sponsors I found by Googling Team Penning New York.
Via Right Wing Prof:
"Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?" - Jimmy Hoffa
 Re Yale: "Get the hell over yourselves, you whiny, parasitic little bitches.” More on Yale's peculiar preoccupation with sexuality from Yalie Never Yet Melted.
Finally, we have affordable housing. (h/t, Coyote)
This guy Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, posted by Roger here yesterday, is a piece of work. Where has he been hiding?
Wisdom from AVI:
I know how dangerous I am when I make pronouncements without examining my own motives. Do I fear poisonous ideas being left out on the buffet for anyone to take? A bit. There should at least be a sign that says, “Some people think this is poison.” But I object more strongly when the poison is being actively loaded onto people’s plates. I tend to intervene.
That comes awfully close to the center of my religious, social, and political arguments. Do you want a particular answer to be true? Then be most suspicious of that. Or, working in reverse, is there an answer you resist? Find out why.
Now Obama: Economic probs "not as bad as we think." Huh? Higher energy taxes and socialized medicine is what economy needs, claims Obama. How dumb does he think I am?
And how about this one: Cigar tax hike and other Congressional bullshit. Must be a tax aimed at Rush - and at The Barrister.
Taxman. You have to give the Brits credit for finding excuses to tax things. Well, maybe it's because they still believe they need to give China economic aid. More likely the opposite is true.
A new and frightening number. Dino
Insty:
BUSTING THE BRADY CAMPAIGN for firearms dishonesty. Of course, the alternative explanation — complete ignorance of what they’ve been banning — is even more damning.
"There will be blood." Henninger says This presidency is going to be an act of retribution (h/t, Blue Crab). Obama is a multimillionaire living off tax money. How about a cut in his salary?
The O's honeymoon fading: The Hill. Obama's quirks: Weekly Standard
We never mentioned the closing of Yucca Mountain. That means they don't want us to have nuclear power.
Sen. Dodd may have worn out his welcome. It's about time.
Americans like Big Government. They just don't know it yet.
How do you cut medical costs without tort reform? asks Zoller at Pajamas. Around here, OBs pay $150-200,000/year in malpractice insurance. In medicine these days, the rule is CYA rather than applying considered judgement. Thus a $2000 MRI for anybody with a bad headache or a dizzy spell.
Powerline:
...the destruction of trillions of dollars in wealth that we have witnessed over the last six months is unique in modern history. It isn't just the bursting of a bubble like the dot com collapse of 2000. It is a sort of neutron bomb effect, in which the physical means of production--buildings, fields, factories--are still standing, but the living heart of the economy, confidence in the future, has been wounded if not killed. I don't think that confidence (or, as Bill says, trust) will return any time soon.
Photo: Jefferson, at a rainy and foggy Quai d'Orsay, taken by our friend Nathan yesterday. He holds his plans for Monticello in his left hand.
Thursday, March 12. 2009
I do enjoy it when others do my work for me.
This piece, Putting Obama on the Couch (h/t, Cafe Hayek) offers a few of my favorite cognitive biases: Wishful Thinking, Planning Fallacy, Overconfidence Effect, Attentional Bias and Anchoring Bias.
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