Wednesday, April 15. 2009
 IRS agents see double standard on tax errors (Image via Theo)
Breaking news: Sunspots cause climate fluctuations
DHS targets conservatives instead of Moslem terrorists. I knew that creating that Dept. was a bad idea. She is watching me? This is a bad joke.
Illinois gets the pork. Like Roger says. Related, Jesse Jackson Jr. offered Blago $5 million for Senate seat
Faked Obama story passed off as real by the MSM
Are we wasting $ on Alzheimer's care? Sheesh. I think I have a mild case of it, but I do OK.
Black Caucus duped by Fidel. (Why is there a Black Caucus? Don't we have a black President, for heaven's sake? Sheesh. It's just skin tone.)
Gov. Rick Perry and the Tenth Amendment. Nobody told him that the Constitution was obsolete.
More on the paper scam. Mankiw. It's only $8 billion.
Kaus takes a look at medical care costs
Metrosexual Dems go all giddy about guns. Jules:
I’m thrilled about the handwringing, Kumbayah-singing, peacenik left’s new enthusiasm for swift, extra-judicial 7.62 justice by executive order, and the lack of calls for human rights investigations, prosecutions, etc.
He's not joking: We have created more pirates. Good grief. We had the power to create Jihadists, and now we create pirates. Yo ho ho.
Mao and Marx have disappeared from China. Remarkable paean to Capitalism, but
...meanwhile in the USA, Modern Collectivism. A quote:
Collectivism holds that the individual has no rights. Your life, your existence, your interests and the product of your labor now belongs to the group. If the group needs a bailout, heath care, green cars, low mortgage rates, a job, an education—anything at all, it now becomes your responsibility to provide it, whether you want to or not.
You see it in both the redistributive legislation, which takes money from people who’ve earned it and give it to those who have not, along with the language itself. Phrases like “we’re all in it together”, “I am my brother’s keeper” and “shared sacrifice” boil down to the same frightening reality: You are here to serve. And unlike the charity of volunteerism, the “will of the people” is implemented by force, not by voluntary trade.
This is a profoundly anti-American ideal.
image by Big Fur Hat of iOwnTheWorld.com
George Bush had a dog too, but that pup wasn't a PR stunt - he had it long before he was elected, and it wasn't a stage prop.
Tuesday, April 14. 2009
National Snow Coverage as of March 29th, in recent history:
2004: 9.1%
2005: 14.4%
2006: 14.7%
2007: 16.9%
2008: 27.8%
2009: 31.3%
Comment: The Eastern North American Snow/Ice coverage was the most observed in many years (even surpassing last year), helping to reproduce fresh pools of Polar & Arctic Air, and help invigorate those air masses when they do enter the contiguous U.S., beneath the 850 mb level.
Season-to-Date Snowfall Totals & Departures of note:
Spokane: 93.8" [109% more than normal] *New Seasonal Snowfall Record*
Salt Lake City: 46.9" [17% less than normal]
Milwaukee: 75.9" [53% more than normal]
Chicago: 50.6" [39% more than normal]
Grand Rapids: 104.9" [51% more than normal]
Detroit: 58.3" [38% more than normal]
Cleveland: 77.4" [28% more than normal]
Erie: 142.2" [59% more than normal]
Syracuse: 148.9" [39% more than normal]
Philadelphia: 22.8" [22% more than normal]
New York City: 27.6" [26% more than normal]
Boston: 65.9" [57% more than normal]
Portland [ME]: 81.1" [28% more than normal]
{thru 3/31/09}:
Montreal: 221.7 cm [9% more than normal]
Toronto: 149.3 cm [36% more than normal]
 Author and Junk Science blog host Steven Milloy discusses (video) his new book, Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life, at The Heritage Foundation.
I got a kick out of how CSPAN cut from Obama to go to Milloy.
Until today,the greatest news headline evar- the gold standard, really - has been:
But now a new competitor in the WTF sweepstakes, 8 pica division, is in, and it's a daisy:
Japanese Popstar Dressed As Pineapple Robbed In Malmo
I'd like to give the author credit, but these things write themselves these days, don't they?
People vary enormously in their levels of life functioning, talents, and life-mastery, don't they? Nature confers variety - not equality - because variety is essential for a species to survive when circumstances change.
You could make a graph of the people you meet by rating their functioning in various areas on a 0-10 scale:
- Social skills, personal charm, manners, graciousness, general behavioral appropriateness and adaptability, dignity and demeanor;
- personality style and temperament;
- IQ, intellectual skills and depth, range of knowledge;
- physical skills;
- morality and strength of character, tendency to blame or to assume responsibility, and desire to assume responsibility;
- ability to delay gratification/impulsivity;
- coping abilities under stress, pressure, pain and strong emotion;
- sense of humor;
- emotional stability, predictability, and maturity;
- judgement, planfulness, and decision-making;
- capacity for kindness, thoughtfulness, empathy and love vs self-centeredness;
- degree of "neuroticism;"
- special talents and interests;
- reliability, and trustworthiness;
- work ethic, energy, persistence, perseverance despite fear or difficulty;
- realism vs. naivete and childishness;
- independence, ambition and initiative;
- risk tolerance, adventurousness and aggressiveness;
- curiosity and range of knowledge;
- self-discipline;
- creativeness, imagination and cleverness
...and so forth.
Feel free to graph yourself on these items - but do not call me if you feel depressed afterwards. We are supposed to identify our weaknesses, and to work on them if we feel motivated to do so.
Most of these qualities are subsumed under what we term "ego functions." (We shrinks use the term "ego" to refer to the tools we have to mediate between our "inner" selves and external reality, not the casual, non-technical meaning of "self-centeredness.") My well-exercised shrink brain tends to measure these things about people on autopilot, even when I try to turn it off. (I also "take my own inventory" frequently with pitiless honesty, and I have my own share of frailties.)
Nevertheless, all of these factors feed into one's ability to construct a life in a free country. Yes, a life must be constructed like a building, but usually with changes along the way.
Fortunately, the world offers things for almost every person to do - and in which to excel if they wish - regardless of how their unique graph maps out. It's generally the pattern of strengths and weaknesses that matters, not the overall "score."
However, I can say, after many years of careful observation of humans, that the folks I have known with the highest overall scores have been military officers, physicians, ranchers, and investment bankers. Don't argue that with me - that's just my own limited life experience.
Many of the most interesting people I have known have very high scores in some areas and very low ones in other areas. That might be part of what makes people interesting. Perfect scores would be the most boring person in the world.
But that doesn't matter, because in America we all play the cards we are dealt, and we all get to make the most of what we have - and to try to develop where we are lacking if we want to, and we get to play out our hand in whatever way we chose, given the heavy constraints of mean old Mr. Harsh Reality (including the chance to write run-on sentences).
Maybe the Brits aren't dead yet. From the Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover Department: Susan sings.
One unkind question though: Why do Brit women in their 40s tend to look like Monty Python guys in drag?
Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.
P.J. O'Rourke
 Legal scam or real problem? Chinese wallboard
Is there a freedom not to buy medical insurance? Why does that question even need to be asked?
Animal nutritionists at the National Zoo
A "quick" bankruptcy for GM? Megan
Nuclear disarmament: a bad idea in many ways.
A generation of selfish, self-centered liars. Perfect for the Brave New World.
Yes, the Dems killed it, but
What’s a bunch of African-American kids, versus the teachers’ union? Especially in this administration?
Related at Ace who says Obama hates black people.
Goldman beats expectations. Clever dudes down there. From what I heard, they hedged their AIG debt with AIG shorts.
Speaking of Goldman, Wilkinson considers whether there is something nasty about wanting to make lots of money. Of course there isn't: everybody is free to pursue their own (legal) aspirations. The contemptuous assumption that "all the rich are crooks" is as foolish as "all poor are honest." People without functional morals are well-distributed everywhere.
News flash: Economics is an art, not a science
Pirate photo via Theo. Rick Moran offers another side to the Somalia piracy story. Of course, lousy fishing conditions do not justify piracy. These pirates are just thugs with a heretofore easy gig.
Shades of Larry Summers: Disney uses science to attract boy viewers
We posted previously that Western Civilization is not consistent with Brown University's values. Jules attempts to comprehend what is consistent with Harvard's values. It's confusing to say the least. He quotes young Kristol 3rd:
Harvard today happily pays for future bankers to take accounting courses at MIT, but refuses to pay for aspiring military officers who take ROTC courses. Since 1994, anonymous donors have generously picked up the tab, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for Harvard’s ROTC students.
On the weekend before trout season opens, our hunting and fishing club Chairman, the Fishing Chairman, and our manager perform the annual ritual of walking the length of our stream checking the beats, the conditions of the pools and of the paths, and generally making sure that things are up to snuff. We have a mile of this stream in CT, with some larger ponds and beaver marshes in it.
This was Friday, on a narrow section of the stream -
Monday, April 13. 2009
A 30-minute video by Capt. Irving Johnson as a young man in 1929, capturing, in vivid black and white, the reality of sailing around the world on the Peking - including a Cape storm. h/t to Powerline for finding this remarkable record.
In the old days, going to sea was like going to war. Men died. John doesn't like the Captain's narration, but I love it. Sounds like he's from VT or NH, that old-timey Robert Frost sound. (Nope, Hadley, MA. I know Hadley well.)
The Peking is currently berthed at South Street Seaport, NYC.
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke
 The Martini Parties are a spontaneous grassroot national movement of the comfortable, but far from rich, edge of the American middle class.
We believe that all working Americans should pay income taxes, and not just the upper 50%. We're the folks who pay the bulk of the American taxes - lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants and financial planners, small businessmen, managers, architects, pilots, ship captains, small-town stockbrokers, insurance agents, corporate VPs, B-school profs, consultants, medium-sized farmers, entrepreneurs, contractors, etc., etc. (The very highly-paid need not join and, of course, most household incomes of over $250 include two working adults.)
Our plan, designed over Easter brunch, is to figure out how to get our taxable incomes under Obama's $250,000 tax increase. It's a contest and a game. Since we already pay most of America's bills, we figure we are already doing our part and paying our fair share of the dues.
So our Yankee-based Movement is this: Get a group of friends together and hire some planners and accountants, and figure out a way to get yourself below the bar - even if it means donating more than 10% of your income to your charities (although they are trying to eliminate those deductions too), increasing your mortgage (although they are trying to reduce that loophole too), putting money in trusts, reducing one's charges for loyal clients - or plain old working less.
Let's all of us prosperous non-wealthy do the Limbo Rock and get under the bar - even if it means that we work less and play more like the lazy Europeans - more boating, golf, tennis, fishin', hangin' out in cafes drinkin', and shootin' and huntin' - and more vacation time with less expensive vacations.
I ain't slaving for 36-43 cents on the dollar (which is where I would end up after Fed taxes, CT income taxes in which the marginal rate covers all income if you make over 250, and property taxes. I am patriotic, but not stupid. I do not want to be a victim of plunder. I also tithe to church and charities, but that doesn't count: it's voluntary.
And if I end up poor, no doubt the government will take good care of me.
 Here's the real story about who is and isn't covered by medical insurance.
Not that the facts matter all that much in politics - and everybody wants a free Easter buffet.
Related: How the government plans to create its own medical insurance monopoly. (Just like public schools.) And once they have done that, they will drive through their rationing, rules, and controls. - and freedom in medical care will disappear. At that point, Doctor, your proud and noble profession will be transformed into involuntary servitude to the State rather than voluntary servitude to your patient and, at that point, patient, your treatment choices will disappear.
Then watch "doc-assisted" suicide for those over 60 become all the rage in government circles.
It's one more government power and money grab.
Of the three white egrets that breed in New England (American, Cattle, and Snowy) the largest is the Great Egret, which I persist in calling by its old name, American Egret.
A reader sent in these photos of one from this weekend in salt marsh in CT. You can see some of their fancy breeding plumage, for which these birds were hunted to near-extinction through the 19th and early 20th Centuries until the Audubon Society was created to protect them. More about the Great Egret in CT here.
The populations recovered fairly well, as long as they have safe places to nest in their tree colonies - usually on small islands or the tip of a peninsula.
Bravo to our Navy, our SEALs, and to Captain Phillips.
 NY taxes now #1.
Mr. Silver says of the coming tax hikes: "We've done it before. There hasn't been a catastrophe." Oh, really? According to Census Bureau data, over the past decade 1.97 million New Yorkers left the state for greener pastures -- the biggest exodus of any state. New York City has lost more than 75,000 jobs since last August, and many industrial areas upstate are as rundown as Detroit. The American Legislative Exchange Council recently said New York had the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, including Michigan. And that analysis was done before these $4 billion in new taxes. How does Mr. Silver define "catastrophe"?
I think he could more accurately say that it hasn't been a catastrophe for the politicians.
Move along. Nothing to be learned here.
A history of the computer mouse. h/t, Thompson
Turns out that all of that about the evil Bush power grabs was insincere electioneering. Gee, who knew?
Daniel Hannen MEP on the Brit NHS:
Imagine that, in 1945, we had created a National Food Service. Suppose that, in the name of "fairness" and "need and not ability to pay", sustenance had been rationed by the state. Conjecture that every citizen had been allocated one butcher, one baker, one café and so on. We all know where that would have led: to bureaucracy, to duplication, to surpluses in one field and scarcity in another, to racketeering, to hunger. No one, not even Prescott, is suggesting that we socialise food distribution - even though food is at least as basic human need as healthcare. As those Americans of whom you seem so contemptuous might put it, John, go figure.
Chris Dodd's "Banking for Change" does seem like an unfortunate choice of campaign motto
More on China's excess of males
The NYT, Obama, and the UN Human Rights Council
The Blago case: Biz as usual?
The AP is sword-rattling towards the internet. I agree with the article that the relationship is symbiotic.
The Left hopes the New America will no longer be exporting democracy. I understand Realpolitik, but it hardly seems like something to be enthused about.
What is it about Europe and free speech?
Proposed: the right to sue the Fed gov for the weather
Sunday, April 12. 2009
 Watch this video of une agression dans un bus (h/t, No Pasaran).
The cultural divide is remarkable: the French are too passive to resist, and these immigrants are not fit for civilized society. Quel domage.
This will not end well.
At first, I thought this was a Monty Python-esque spoof. It's not. I hope the weapons were unloaded.
And just a thought - how about getting the SEALs to sneak some of this stuff into the water supplies of Wherizzitistan? Might make those Taliban happy and spiritual.
 From a pleasantly rambling post by Dr. Bob, Open Hands:
The walk of faith is said to be belief in the unbelievable, the fool’s way out of life’s challenges and disappointments, the easy path of cowards and knaves. It is in truth none of these things, but rather the very hardest of things: submission. It is to bend the knee; to trust when sight is dim or absent; to rely on the benevolence and wisdom of One who knows all and reject the false knowledge we tenaciously trust in our self-will, fear, and deception. If there is a God — sovereign, transcendent, just, good in ways we cannot begin to fathom, and above all passionate in His love for us — then there is nothing to do but trust, to submit, to rest. It is the Cross — in all its horrors, irrationality, agony, foolishness — and victory.
This week the church celebrates Holy Week, commemorating and meditating on that moment in history when darkness seemed triumphant, when earthly hopes were dashed, when the irrational ruled and evil gloated. In that dark moment, the glorious hopes of man haughty and triumphant were forever dashed on the stones of Golgatha; the blood of a failed prophet sealed their fate forever. Such is as true now as then; it is a timeless certainty, eternal despite all appearances to the contrary.
And so I must — we must — open our hands, and bend our knees. It is a time for prayer, for humility, for fasting, for simplification. It is time for turning over the foolishness of man and the corruption of a culture to Him who alone knows the ways of man and the wanderings of nations. We must lift up the country, its leaders; the culture; the church. It is not ours to seize nor to save. We must stand in truth, suffering what consequences we may endure.
 They do not refer to the church as "the body of Christ" for nothing.
Read this before you head off for your fancy and decadent Easter Brunch with beautiful flowers and wine and Mimosas and Bloody Marys and ham and cakes and pies and Eggs Benedict and rare roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and rare lamb with homemade mint sauce and lobsters and shrimp and oysters and Cherrystone clams and squid salad and smoked salmon with capers and a mountain of cheeses and etc (which I am about to do): The Easter Lily.
Photo from the piece.
Foreigners may pretend otherwise, but if English is spoken loudly enough, anyone can understand it.
P.J. O'Rourke
The comments he put on these old found pictures are hilarious. h/t, Insty
 Out my window early this morning (35 degrees F): Two fat Easter Bunnies (Eastern Cottontails), four Grey Squirrels, one flock of Blue Jays, one flock of Grackles, one hen Wild Turkey, two Carolina Wrens, a pair of Cardinals, a number of sex-addled, amorous Mourning Doves, and a few Song Sparrows, Robins, Red-wings, Cowbirds, and White-Throated Sparrows. And one pair of lingering SC Juncoes.
Saturday, April 11. 2009
 I had a very pleasant lunch and visit with our Roger de Hauteville (Roger ll of Sicily - not Roger l) and the heir, the young Prince of Sicily, this afternoon.
Roger knows a thing or two about big city politics (and many other things), and he made a strong case that Obama is relatively non-ideological; that he is a typical self-important ward-heeler who got "nailed to the bow of a big ship," anointed to figure-head the plundering pirate ship which is the Dem party.
In other words, it's all about getting jobs and money to your friends, and winning votes with jobs and money until nobody else can compete. Local one-party Chicago politics, gone national. O's "We won" just means "We got the money." The Lefty gestures are just to keep the Left on board. He also opined that the Tea Parties are "cute," but miss the larger political point of what is going on. I tend to agree with that.
He also asserted that Hillary, with her "Stalinist heart," would have been far scarier.
I am not entirely convinced by his whole thesis, but I hope he will condense what he said to me today for us to read. He said he already posted it under Welcome to the Plunderdome, but he didn't. Or maybe he did - but not in his own words.
 On tribalism, from Gates. It begins:
“Irresolvable tribal differences cannot be considered to be mere political differences.”
The following essay by El Inglés is a sequel to the one published back in February. In this follow-up he extends his observations about tribal differences in modern Britain — and the rest of the Western world — by examining various tribal fractures which may be widened and inflamed during conflicts engendered by Muslim communities against their host society.
As usual, it’s useful to remember that El Inglés’ analysis is descriptive, and not normative. That is, something similar to what he projects here is the inevitable shape of things to come if Britain’s feckless political leaders fail to wake up to the severity of the crisis that is at hand.
Whole thing here.
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