Sunday, July 5. 2009
At  American Digest.
Semi-sort-of kinda related: More tea parties. Who would not attend a tea party, when invited? I am sympathetic, but, as a red-neck Yankee, I might be more in favor beer parties, meself. Hold the Chardonnay, but I will not despise the baked - or grilled - Brie.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up!
From a review of the book God is Back in The Washington Monthly:
Where once it was widely assumed that modernity and its handmaiden "secularization" would kill off religion, the reports of Gods death turn out to have been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, Micklethwait and Wooldridge assure us, "the very things that were supposed to destroy religiondemocracy and markets, technology and reasonare apparently combining to make it stronger." Europe was wrong, and America right. Irreligion in Europe is the anomaly, and the "hot religion" (namely Evangelical Protestantism) of the United States is the future. "American-style religion" is very much here to stay, and on the whole that is a good thingespecially for business.
Back? I never knew He left. Maybe He was just vacationing in my neighborhood, where we ignorant bumpkins cling to God and our guns instead of investing our limited capacities for faith in the arrogant, incompetent bozos in government - most of whom, today, could never do much of anything in real life (except for Sarah Palin, who knows how to make a living fishing, and Mitt, who understands finance).
But is God good for business? I thought God was all about God's kingdom - the invisible kingdom, and not man's. Read the whole piece.
2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 (New Living Translation)
2 I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I dont knowonly God knows. 3 Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know 4 that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.
5 That experience is worth boasting about, but Im not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. 6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I wont do it, because I dont want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, 7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 Thats why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Saturday, July 4. 2009
Pity us San Diegans. Its really hard to get too worked up about anything when you live in paradise. Especially when todays Tea Party was held at perhaps the most crowded, impossible to park at site in our area, the beautiful Mission Bay Park, magnet for picnicking and water-frolicking families and friends. Mile long lines to exit I5, then a two-lane access road of bumper-to-bumper traffic hemmed in by the largest congregation of monster RVs who must have arrived at dawn to hog 5+ parking spaces apiece.
The several hundred who showed up for the Tea Party at 11 AM had to hike in a mile or two, if not giving up. I persevered, finding a spot on the other side of Fiesta Island, enjoying the long walk in the balmy, sea breeze sun, counting thongs, and watching the ski boaters. 
Fellow walkers.
 I finally arrived. For the drivers crawling along, this roadside bunch received honks and cheers from thousands of traffic-clogged drivers. No road rage here, just Obama-irked.
Heres a photo of the crowd as I approached.
My Catskills humor, whoever picked this spot has less judgment than the President, drew chuckles from the crowd of laid-back San Diegans. Better received than the droning on of the featured speakers, an organizer telling me no local notables invited. Would have had to commandeer a Marine chopper and rapelled in, anyway.
Appreciated being given a free pocket-size, indexed Constitution, on the front:
its only keepers, the people quote from George Washington, and more good Founders quotes inside the covers.
These Dont Tread On Me T-shirts sold out at only $10 each. As many Dont Tread On Me flags waving as Stars-n-Stripes.
So, thats what the Tea in Tea Party stands for.
Friendly people wherever I stopped.
I didnt see anyone passing contact lists or such. A nice event, but some work needed to build an activist movement. But, in San Diegos paradise, were just Lotusized.
Now, Im on to the juiciest, meatiest rack of ribs, and some delectable Belgian beer. Happy 4th.
BTW, here's some other Tea Parties, courtesy of Instapundit Glenn Reynolds.
Taking a little break from cleaning the basement, which has now dried out but still smells musty. I had to hose down and sun-dry tons of hunting and fishing gear. Mold on my Filson wax trousers and chaps, but it could be hosed off.
Later, will trim some hedges. Then, take a needed shower, and go to a big annual 4th barbecue party with the reading of the Declaration followed by bbq pork, squid salad, shrimp risotto, lobsters, and burgers, tons of different salads and pies including rhubarb - my favorite - and real cocktails too. Hope it doesn't rain again, but a t-storm will probably blow through. It always does, as if to remind us of the battles for freedom. God's fireworks make man's fireworks seem small.
 At Reason TV, PJ O'Rourke asks "Where was the government with Studebaker?" I miss seeing them, but never would have bought one.
The Anchoress has tons of misc thoughts about Palin. I like the lady, but I'm just not that into celebs.
Speaking of Palin, here's Alaska
Speaking of celebs, fat celebs are stoking the obesity crisis. Stoke on, celebs. It's a free country.
East Germans: life was better under Communism. As we have said repeatedly, not everybody is suited for freedom. Americans are supposed to be.
The "ominous rise" of adjuncts in colleges and universities. Seems to me like normal job conditions for most folks.
Is Afghanistan "winnable"? Matthew Parris doubts it. Afg. isn't a country, except in name only. So what is there to win? Afg, it seems to me, is an attempt at nation-building where there never was a nation. A tall order.
The Great Lakes water levels are rising again. They said AGW was making them drop. Waiting to see if they'll say that AGW is making them rise. My view? There is no "normal" level any more than there are "normal" temperatures. Nature is always in flux.
Shut down debate on health care, says the O to the Dems
What's with Powell? Is he just a regular confused person like me?
Powell in May: Americans Want to Pay More Taxes... Powell in July: But We Can't Afford This
Image: Our international readers may not realize that the Gadsden flag, often featured on libertarian-minded websites, was an early American flag back before the upholstery stripes.
 The men who signed the Declaration of Independence represented the absolute opposite of "interest group politics" so slavishly worshipped in political science departments. They pledged their lives, their wealth, their liberty, and their honor -- everything -- on a toss of the dice. Often, even if the revolution won, these men personally lost. The game was not about them, their economic interest, or their political ambition. They won if America became a new order of liberty in the world. Interest politics would have led them all to make peace with the Crown. Moral principles led them to what Churchill would later call "blood, toil, sweat, and tears."
The brave men in Philadelphia were engaging in unconstitutional action. Britain had a constitution, albeit a largely unwritten one, and Jefferson knew that he was defying our equivalent of the Supreme Court. He and his colleagues defied the moral power of a system which no longer treasured liberty above advantage or caprice. Rulers making decisions which did not really affect them, living thousands of miles from their subjects, lacked the moral authority to wield law.
Moral authority was the heart of the Declaration as well. It lacked a separation of church and state and instead there was a unity of God and government. All men were created equal by God. That is the foundational point of the Declaration from which all else flows like the spring of liberty. If all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, politics is clear and simple. If that is true, then -- of course! -- protecting these inalienable rights is the only reason that governments are instituted among men. These were truths which, in the magical pen of Jefferson, the brave authors and signers held to be "self-evident." There is a Creator. He made us. He made us, specifically, free in body and in conscience. We are not sheep or some sort of oddly self-domesticated animals. We are creatures in the image of a Creator, unique in reality, and given the power to choose.
It's a big travel weekend. In Yankeeland, you might very well find yourself driving through the Merritt Parkway's Hero's Tunnel under West Rock ridge in New Haven.
Amusingly, the Merritt, the earliest American parkway, had these criteria in its design:
To ease objections from county residents who feared an influx of New Yorkers on their roads, in their towns, on their beaches and through their forests, highway planners called on engineers, landscape architects and architects to create a safe and aesthetically pleasing limited access highway - one with exit and entrance ramps, but no intersections - that would not spoil the countryside.
With the lighting, the Hero's Tunnel looks like the gates of hell - but it really just takes you to Hamden:
To our independence we owe that our first among firsts President, George Washington, labored to keep a poorly supplied army in the field. George Washington had at his back a Jew, Haym Solomon, largely responsible for obtaining crucial funding. (See below) Now we have as President a man of another stripe, whose commitment to our security and the lives of our fighting men and women is summed up as WTF! That seems his attitude toward others as well, say Israel for example, or to be made an example of his pusillanimity.
Jules Crittendon and Herschel Smith bring us, sadly, up to date.
First Crittendon:
Bob Woodward on the ground at Camp Leatherneck reported this morning in an article ridiculously headlined, Preventing Another Iraq/US Says Key to Success in Afghanistan: Economic, Not Military, that the Obama admin considers it a new era.
The headline is not Woodwards fault, except to the extent he buried and obfuscated his lede. He reports after the jump that National Security Advisor James L. Jones briefed commanders on the ground that there wont be more troops, that requests for more troops will prompt a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot response in the Oval Office.
Thats your lede, Bob. Theres your hed, Washington Post copy desk. Obama to Troops: WTF?
Jones knew when he took the job it would involve smiling through a lot of shit sandwiches. Shit sandwiches like telling other Marines, going into combat, Sorry boys, you dont get what you need. Not because we cant give it to you. But because President Nancypants wont give it to you. Doesnt like the way war looks on him and hell go all Whiskey Tango Foxtrot if you try to foist it on him. So suck it up.
Too bad. Its something American troops have dealt with before and will most earnestly endeavor to deal with now. Maybe they can pull it off. The United States military, after all, has proven remarkably resourceful, resilient and adaptive not just in these wars but in all the wars it has fought. It would be helpful this time, going into this difficult task, if the Commander in Chiefs attitude toward the expertise of the men who will to the heavy lifting was something other than What the fuck?
Now Smith concludes:
So we now know that the current administration sees Operation Enduring Freedom as the WTF? war. We know that the National Security Advisor doesnt have the fortitude to whisper the hard things in the ear of the President. We know that the President doesnt really want to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, and we also know that the Colonels want more troops to cover their area of operations.
This sets the stage for the coming phase of the campaign. We have seen this before in Iraq: hasty turnover to the ISF and more difficult counterinsurgency than had previously been planned. The dissimilarity is a President who was willing to send the necessary forces to get the job done.
Now, Wikipedia on Haym Solomon:
Solomon negotiated the sale of a majority of the war aid from France and Holland, selling bills of exchange to American merchants. Solomon also personally supported various members of the Continental Congress during their stay in Philadelphia, including James Madison and James Wilson. Acting as the patriot he was, he requested below market interest rates, and he never asked for repayment.[4]
In 1975 the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Haym Saloman for his contributions to the cause of the American Revolution. This stamp, like others in the "Contributors to the Cause" series, was printed on the front and the back. On the glue side of the stamp, the following words were printed in pale, green ink:
"Financial HeroBusinessman and broker Haym Solomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse." The Congressional Record of March 25, 1975 reads, "When Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finance, he turned to Solomon for help in raising the money needed to carry on the war and later to save the emerging nation from financial collapse. Solomon advanced direct loans to the government and also gave generously of his own resources to pay the salaries of government officials and army officers. With frequent entries of 'I sent for Haym Solomon,' Morris' diary for the years 178184 records some 75 transactions between the two men."
Haym Solomon died unpaid back and broke.
We may have thought things had improved in America over the past centuries of attaining greatness. But, then, we got Obama.
Friday, July 3. 2009
I usually do some fancy post for the 4th of July, but Sarah Palin's reasons for moving forward with what she believes best for America is the most contemporary reminder one could read. So, please read it all. She's a straight-shooter (who can really shoot!), so take her word(s) at face value, a high value, and look forward to more from her for us.
I'm going to a San Diego Tea Party tomorrow morning. What are you doing to help revitalize the principles and future of the nation we love?
 Her speech showed how good she is, how real she is.
No notes, no teleprompter either. From the heart. I almost cried when she said "The world needs more Trigs" to keep us oriented to the important things. The "elites" don't get it - nor do they know how to operate a fishing boat.
She sounds sane, refreshingly unpolished, as Levin says. She has a life, unlike most pols. Too sane for politics? Or what does she want? Whatever it is, she sure does get attention, doesn't she?
A cool story.
A few links at Insty.
Via Attack Machine -
He thinks so deep that he studies Urdu poetry. No doubt.
That Urdu poetry might be why he is becoming such a screw-up. An overdose of Urdu poetry is known to be dangerous and I know why: I have read more of it than the O has.
 Billions and billions of Indian sodomists are off the hook. What a relief.
Betsy, with more on Ricci:
As people celebrate the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor simply because of her ethnic background and not because of her judicial background, we know that giving people a leg up solely because of their ethnicity is nowhere near over.
Kristol:
Almost a half-century before, a young Democratic president had said this:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Once an American president had promised we would bear any burden. Our current president promises "we will continue to bear witness." It's quite an evolution.
Is this like "I like to watch"?
From his boss at the EPA:
Mr. McGartland blasted yet another email: "With the endangerment finding nearly final, you need to move on to other issues and subjects. I don't want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research etc, at least until we see what EPA is going to do with Climate." Ideology? Nope, not here. Just us science folk. Honest.
I say, Burn the heretic at the stake. Thereby adding a little CO2 to warm up New England. We need it.
Powerline:
Where does the Obama administration end and the Washington Post begin? That is becoming an increasingly metaphysical question.
Related from Discoll: Was anybody really surprised?
More Honduras:
Last Saturday, Honduran soldiers marched into the presidential palace, bundled up President Manuel Zelaya and put him on a plane for Costa Rica.
The ouster had been ordered by the Supreme Court and approved by the Congress, as Zelaya was attempting an illegal referendum to change the Honduran constitution so he could run for another term.
Will someone please explain why this bloodless transfer of power to the civilian legislator first in line for the presidency, in a sovereign nation, is any business of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers or Barack Obama? For all have denounced the "coup" and demanded Zelaya's immediate return.
The hypocrisy here is astounding.
Thoughtful post on adverse selection at Marg Rev. It's a handy concept.
Krugman makes for a fine straw man. Sort of like Sullivan does. Usually straw men are unreal, as in "some say...", but these buffoons are, seemingly, real. Krugman wants more government stimulus. WTH? This is like idiot religion: If your prayers aren't answered, just pray harder.
We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:
 Routine...
(1) The woman buys the food.
(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.
(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.
(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.
Here comes the important part:
(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.
More routine...
(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat
Important again:
(8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.
More routine...
(9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.
(10) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
And most important of all:
(11) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
(12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyedher night off, and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.
Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
Charles Krauthammer, via a piece at Classical
h/t to Tiger for this series of photos from Afghanistan from the past couple of days. God bless 'em and protect them. Here's one of the pics (note the pup keeping an eye on the photog):
Thursday, July 2. 2009
Heading up to Watch Hill (RI) tonite for a few days of boating, fishing, clam-eating, drinking, and skirt-chasing (despite the cold weather, fog, and rain). Hope all have a fine American weekend, wherever you may be on Gaia.
Honduran protesters bash Obama. Rightly so. He was on the wrong side, once again.
What a real man looks like
China and India: CO2? Huh?
Roger: It's not easy being green.
Insane: End the 22nd Amendment.
The O's character flaw: egotism
At Reason: Declaiming the price of "inaction" is a perennial argument for big government and bad law.
Big doings in Afghanistan. Good luck to our guys. It's a bitch of a job. More from Jules on WTF?
Due to uproar, WaPo cancels its scummy circus
These kids deserve thanks, not arrest. What if they had been right? They would be heroes.
Unemployment. People aren't hiring because they are afraid of what Washington will do next. Rightly so.
Climatologist slams Real Climate.org. The MSM relies on them for their climate narrative.
I'm sure there is no rush, but it's time to consider buying that pied a terre in NYC that you always longed for. 350 West End Ave, asking $7,800,000. This is beyond a pied a terre, but I like it:
That's for the rich folk. This is more what I mean: this 1000 sq.' 2 BR in a pre-war doorman building at 123 W. 93rd St, asking $825,000:
VDH struggles mightily to identify some theme to make sense out of the ways moral flaws and hypocrisies are played out in the politics of today.
While I admire his effort and enjoy his examples, I think he mostly misses a simple point, the one Lyndon Johnson made about some Central American dictator: "He may be an SOB, but he's our SOB."
It's pure politics, VDH. Politics is not the place to look for moral consistency, moral energy, or intellectual integrity. This is why many believe a degree of sociopathy and narcissism are required in politics.
(As Ace puts it re Sanford: "You can get away with being a bastard, but you can't get away with being a buffoon.")
To the Left, at least, politics is war in which, as they often brag, the ends may justify the means because they like to believe that they are well-intentioned. "By all means necessary.." etc.
I always grant more trust to those who claim to be self-interested - even if they are lying - than to those who claim virtue.
Update: More on public virtue from Rick Moran.
From Barone on the Ricci case:
I think we ought to reserve some of our sympathy for the purported beneficiaries of this wretched discrimination, the black firefighters. Their champions -- Kimber and DeStefano, Bazelon and Sotomayor -- are telling them that their way up in life should not be determined by the content of their character or by mastery of their worthy craft, but by the color of their skin. Not by a fair and unbiased test, but by dishonest wire-pulling and threats of political retaliation.
Thanks to Justice Alito, for pulling back the curtain and showing the ugly reality of racial discrimination in America today.
Related: Broder asks Do we still need race-conscious remedies? Of course not. Categorizing people by skin tone, eye shape, etc. is despicable - always was and always will be.
So asks Newsweek. (I resent the "we" in the question, because I hardly ever do those things.)
The article discusses how thin the science is of Evolutionary Psychology. It is. Whenever the issue of nature/nurture comes up, I find people making arguments which ignore two of the most basic aspects of human nature: 1. mankind's ability to adapt to almost anything and to create his own environment, and 2. mankind's obligatory social and culture-creating impulses.
It is innate to man to create cultures which reflect at least some aspects of human nature, but no culture can eliminate the beast in him. Thank goodness for that.
 A soulful traditional song (lyrics here).
Not embeddable, but a good tune about desire for a prostitute. Fun video too. 1993.
Bogus or not, I like these ideas for guys to avoid accompanying their spouses on shopping trips. (It's like the age-old trick of breaking the vacuum cleaner every time one is asked to use it). This is from Mostly Safe for Work:
Gaia doesn't give a rat's ass what Krugman thinks
When big biz and big government climb into bed together
Media in the tank for Zelaya in Honduras. Why?
Capitalist kindness, socialist meanness. Dr C
From Prof Paul Rahe on O, at Powerline:
Back in 1912, when Woodrow Wilson successfully ran for the presidency, he told his compatriots, "We are in the presence of a new organization of society." Our time marks "a new social stage, a new era of human relationships, a new stagesetting for the drama of life," and "the old political formulas do not fit the present problems: they read now like documents taken out of a forgotten age." What Thomas Jefferson once taught is now, he insisted, quite out of date. It is "what we used to think in the old-fashioned days when life was very simple." Above all else, he hoped to persuade his compatriots to get "beyond the Declaration of Independence." That document "did not mention the questions of our day," he told them. "It is of no consequence to us. It is an eminently practical document, meant for the use of practical men; not a thesis for philosophers, but a whip for tyrants; not a theory of government, but a program of action"--once of use, outdated now.
Hmm. Wilson thought "whips for tyrants" were obsolete?
 In a good mood? Read this background on the Ricci case and that good mood will disappear fast.
And, if that didn't damage your good cheer, read this about the O's phony town hall on medical insurance. More at Powerline.
How McDonalds conquered France
Too much hope? Unemployment prognosis
Was Bernie's crime worse than murder? Dr. Helen
Prof B on health care:
There's a very simple solution to all this. Mandate that individuals buy catastrophic health care insurance. Subsidize those who can't afford it. Let people save for health care costs using tax-advantaged individual health care savings accounts. Let people who want to buy more comprehensive policies do so, but using after tax dollars. Let employers who want to provide more comprehensive group plans do so, but using after tax dollars. Then let's see whether the market is really fraught with adverse selection and moral hazard.
Related at Coyote, who begins:
The disconnect between the person purchasing and paying for the service and the person receiving the service. This causes the most friction that piss people off (either against their insurance company or the government for not paying for something or limiting their flexibility). But is also tends to drive costs up, as people who are ultimately driving most of the health care choices have zero interest in how much it costs.
Wednesday, July 1. 2009
We support the fish ladders. Government built the dams: government should build the fish ladders too.
The Repub's problem with black voters. Solve it, geniuses. In America, it's crazy for any skin color or ethnic group to vote as a block.
Time to declare victory in Iraq. Tiger
Construction spending:
We say it again: That was no military coup in Honduras.
Insty:
MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT. I remember when protest was patriotic! Seems like it was just a little while ago . . . .
Health care lawsuits, and how they drive medical costs. If an OB pays $250,000/yr for insurance, you are the one who must pay for it.
Synthstuff:
I call it the SUE defense, the Shut-Up Explanation. Heres a quick and dirty example of how it works:
Skeptic There has been no global warming since 1998.
Green Shut up!
In which Tom Friedman permanently convinces me that he is a partisan, fad-chasing knucklehead.
More hysteria:
"Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt."
Sorry. There is nothing in science which is "beyond doubt."
Sowell does not want discount medical care.
The hangings have already begun in Iran
The current status of US States' budgets. They love those credit cards, because they spend on our cards, not theirs.
Where did the Madoff money go? Kudlow
Viking:
The law trumps empathy - It was yet another 5-4 Supreme Court split in the Ricci case, but buried in the details is the fact that not a single Justice affirmed the reasoning that SC nominee Sonia Sotomayor used to rule against the New Haven firefighters claiming reverse discrimination.
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