Thursday, December 31. 2009
 A more interesting mission than global cooling: asteroid prevention
Let's debate the Crusades again
Why do we delay gratification even when there is no downside?
Cheney wee-wee’d up the left. Related: Planet Janet
Econ 101: water
Rent or buy? Megan.
Now we own GMAC too. Why?
Reisman: The central problem is the central bank
Are Harvard guys sissies? Some of them are, for sure. Plus, insults are fun. What's the big deal? Anybody who cannot handle an insult or two is a sissy.
Via Lucianne:
When we look back at the decade 2000-2009, we may well define it by three crises: the crisis that didn't happen, the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen, and the crisis that we don't realize is happening. We haven't learned the lessons of the first two, and our ignorance of the third may doom us to be slaves to our government, rather than the other way around.
Related: In Intel as in healthcare (as in everything else): Bigger Government Is Worse Government
Related: Is the Dem healthcare bill consitutional? Inquiring minds wonder. I say No, and I have read the thing (the Constitution) many times. Always seemed to be about individual freedom to me, and restricting the reach of government.
Volokh: $150,000 Settlement for Black Public School Students Harassed by Other Black Students for “Acting White”
Wednesday, December 30. 2009
A powerful piece by Steele in the WSJ (h/t, reader). The emperor has no clothes, says Steele. One quote:
...Mr. Obama always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol. He always wore the bargainer's mask—winning the loyalty and gratitude of whites by flattering them with his racial trust: I will presume that you are not a racist if you will not hold my race against me. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and yes, Tiger Woods have all been superb bargainers, eliciting almost reverential support among whites for all that they were not—not angry or militant, not political, not using their moral authority as blacks to exact a wage from white guilt.
But this mask comes at a high price. When blacks become humanly visible, when their true beliefs are known, their mask shatters and their symbiotic bond with whites is broken. Think of Tiger Woods, now so humanly visible. Or think of Bill Cosby, who in recent years has challenged the politically correct view and let the world know what he truly thinks about the responsibility of blacks in their own uplift.
Capt. Tom posted a snow photo of an old Ford truck enhanced by HDR. I had no idea what HDR is, and I mainly/only take family snaps.
Apparently it is High Dynamic Range imaging. I wouldn't term it a surrealistic effect: more like a hyper-realism effect. Like an oil painting. Or like what the eye sees, when gazing at a certain spot.
This guy discusses how to use HDR. It's over my head. Maybe a reader can make it simple for me.
This fine night photo of NYC is in large scale here.
If you need "Business Formal" for your work, but are of the thrifty sort who does not like to spend $2-3000 on a suit, the Brooks Brothers winter sale only has a few more days to go.
I make sure I always have a bit of this stuff on hand, if only for weddings, funerals, and special parties. However, my 20 year-old Brooks tux probably gets more use than my suits: I am not in a Business Formal line of work and I have been fortunate lately in not having many funerals to attend.
Why the Dems will lose the House in 2010
At NRO:
It would be nice if, after eight years, the ACLU could explain how exactly a Nigerian national boarding an aircraft in Nigeria, or Amsterdam, has an American "constitutional right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process of law." Even when the Constitution does apply, moreover, the Fourth Amendment bars only unreasonable searches, and due process is merely the process that is due under the circumstances — so: How are anybody's rights violated by stepped up security measures during wartime when we know, after several incidents, the enemy's strategy includes both attacking aircraft and using planes as weapons?
Satire in the US - but it could be reality in England
The cadence is indeed odd. In fact, he seems pissed to have to be talking instead of golfing. Somebody told him to do this.
Iran: Khamenei has his escape planned
Top 10 Most Ridiculous Uses of Stimulus Funds
Touting Scott Brown. Why not? The guy may as well swing for the fences. The GOP has written him off, however. It's up to the people now.
Dems love taxes, but do their damnest not to pay them. All the rich Dems I know are like that. Now another four more caught. Wizbang
sorry for the link problems below - the links do work -
Are you sure we want a world without nukes? at Marginal Rev http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/a-world-without-nuclear-weapons.html
Bob Herbert: There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Orszag discusses how to redistribute while wounding but not quite killing the golden goose
Betsy: Don't you find Janet Napolitano so reassuring?
Smart science student? It's not fair, but We can fix that.
Tuesday, December 29. 2009
 Sign via Theo
How Manhattan is out to lunch. Olasky
Expel Students Who Might Kill Themselves? Minding the Campus
Last exit to utopia. City Journal
Iran: The stolen election. Am Scholar
Contemporary Art and Reviving Civilisation. New English Review
Bomb suspects were released from Gitmo
The Dem war against the not-so-rich and the aspiring
Via Riehl re the O and Duncan:
Continuing to follow up on what can be learned of Barack Obama's tenure as the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), evaluations of the program during his tenure available on line demonstrate that in his only real executive test, Barack Obama was a dismal failure squandering millions of dollars on education programs which had basically no real effect.
Monday, December 28. 2009
Almost everyone agrees that 2009 is ending on a troubled or fearsome note. That leaves little space for my tendency toward optimism. Yet I still remain optimistic.
Why? I believe that the activism of free individuals, alone and in concert, is an increasing force in the US and elsewhere in the world. This activism is near the tipping point of capability to overturn the heretofore entrenched oligarchies of the self-serving. In 2010, this revolt of the masses will begin toppling power structures that restrict instead of serving to enlarge opportunities.
Although some shifts may be radical, it won’t be a revolt led by radicals nor will radicals take over in its wake. The revolt toward individual freedoms will be by the majorities of common-sense pragmatists, empowered by modern means to communicate and organize despite statist efforts to stifle these abilities. Extremists and false populists will be more quickly exposed and rejected.
Whatever their political label, the entrenched oligarchies throughout the world are as one in their primacy upon feathering and protecting their own nests. In most countries their selfish actions are recognized as already or becoming over-reaching, with reckless abandon endangering existing or nascent basic freedoms and economic security. Rapidly expanding numbers of citizens are moving to activism, in the voting booths and the streets, as excuses, rationalizations, and lies are less and less tolerated.
Realities are unavoidable. Those on the left admit that their year of “hope” has instead been politically hackneyed, essentially hollow, and played out. Those on the right tend to get mired in the undeniable fears that across the board the acts of those in control of Washington have set us up for disasters, from economy-stifling taxes and spending to restricted and intrusive health care to weakened national security to fickled alliances. Those less overtly partisan struggle to even find a middle-ground between troubled and afraid.
In 2010, those who wish to lead and succeed will be innovative, constructive optimists who unite us to go beyond just complaining. The US is still the leader of the world’s aspirations because we are more selflessly optimistic, and act that way. As we, the people, again show the way, those elsewhere in the world will be encouraged to move in a similar direction toward demanding and getting increased freedom from failed oligarchies of greed.
The coming year will not be the end of statist profiteers, but the optimistic beginning of their end, at least for this generation.
Watch out for (yield) curves
Why is this clown in charge of our security?
WSJ: The New Climate Litigation How about if we sue you for breathing?
A Lib discovers that other nations pursue their own interests
Related, 25 Brits in jet bomb plots
Related, Human Rights according to the O Admin
From Dino:
Once upon a time we worried about the quality of China’s financial reporting and its banking policies, but no longer. Their policies look pretty reasonable, at least in comparison to a United States that is rushing headlong to being utterly dependent on the rest of the world — for handouts in amounts so large it does not appear possible that they can be financed.
How the Liberal mantra changed over the past 30 years. h/t, No Pasaran
Ace:
...here's a point where I agree with Frum...the idea of restraining the government based on a limited powers argument is an anachronism. Most Americans have no real understanding of the Constitution or the concepts upon which this country was founded. An overwhelming number of Americans are far too willing to accept any government action as legitimate even if it involves trading a little freedom for the promise of some government goodies.
I wish it weren’t so but it demonstrably is.
Sunday, December 27. 2009
Gifts that abide. Vandeleun
We've been in a lost decade for stocks
A concise summary of Climate Change. Powerline
Jobless Decade May Loom
Animal Welfare Victories Prompt Farmers' PR Moves
A "frightening new view of the O"?
From a Norquist post:
When ruling elites feel threatened they oppose partisan bickering. They oppose the idea of a legitimate opposition. If the polls showed support for stimulus spending and taxes on energy and government run health care there would be no partisanship in Washington. Only peace and unity and niceness. The elite views opposition to the imposition of their will as annoying and illegitimate.
What's Marion Barry up to these days? Weekly Standard. Sounds like he has a good church.
A journalist converted to a skeptic. One quote:
A few years ago, I accepted global warming theory with few doubts. I wrote several columns for this paper condemning what I thought were unfair attacks by skeptics and defending the climate scientists.
Boy, was I naive.
Gaza suffers. Not because of Israel, though.
Health care. Steyn notes:
What the bill delivers – as Mark Steyn puts it – is lots and lots of government and not very much health care.
Powerline: "Don't Say We're Violent, Or We'll Kill You"
Feckless re Iran. Krauthammer
Morris -THE DEATH OF MODERATE DEMOCRATS
Rick Moran begins:
I must confess that the more I read of the health care reform bill that just passed the senate this morning, the more it grows on me.
Unfortunately, that growth is a cancerous tumor, one that will be impossible to excise once this God-awful monstrosity becomes law.
If the Democrats had stuck to their original intent - covering more people, covering those who are chronically ill and denied insurance, and trying to bend the cost curve on Medicare - I would probably have supported it. These things are necessary goals for America and legislation was desperately needed to address these problems.
But the overreach in this bill is incredible.
Saturday, December 26. 2009
Dodd Heckled Back Home In Connecticut After Obamacare Vote (Video)
Via Rasmussen's tracking poll report:
A commentary by Michael Barone
notes that it been more than 150 years since such significant but
unpopular legislation was passed through Congress on a partisan basis.
The political ramifications in 1854 were so significant that it led to
the creation of a new political party, the Republican Party.
Related: The O rips the American Way as he leaves for vacation
How long does it take before we surrender our common sense to experts? Dr. Bob
More on Christ and Socialism. Moonbattery
The Dem bill, among other things, will do this:
Primary-care doctors who refer patients to specialists will face
financial penalties under the plan. Doctors will see 5% of their
Medicare pay cut when their "aggregated" use of resources is "at or
above the 90th percentile of national utilization," according to the
chairman's mark of Section 3003 of the bill. Doctors will feel
financial pressure to limit referrals to costly specialists like
surgeons, since these penalties will put the referring physician on the
hook for the cost of the referral and perhaps any resulting procedures.
Coyote on Tiger Woods:
Paying lots of money to stop having sex with hot women seems an odd
thing to do. From my experience he could take up playing Dungeons and
Dragons and have the same result for a lot less money.
Harry Reid on government control of medical care:
"We're going to hear an earful, but it's going to be an earful of
wonderment and happiness that people waited for for a long time."
VDH on Where do these guys come from? He begins:
I do not think it will be easy to delay Obamism. It is not just that both houses of Congress are under liberal leadership with ample majorities, with a White House and captive media egging them on. The problem is that now the entire engine of the federal government is harnessed in the most unapologetic way to pushing through a far left agenda. There is no shame, no hesitancy in using the full powers of the state.
Thursday, December 24. 2009
Cockburn at RCP: AGW is a Farce
Photo below from Gateway -
This quiet Interpol decision of the O prompted Anchoress to re-post The Art of the Painless Coup
Post Copenhagen: Is Man-Made Global Warming a Dead Issue? I tend to think so, because it was such a big joke.
Change… Obama Now More Loathed Than Bush at End of His Second Term
The Saudis take a stroll down J Street
Bet you didn't read Page 148 Of Health Care Bill
Now livestock are 50% of global warming. What global warming?
An argument for bombing Iran's nuke facilities - in the NYT
"Divisive" means you don't go along with the Left. Powerline
Newt video with "red meat." Doesn't sound like red meat to me - just logical and reasonable. Too bad he never comes across like a Teddy Bear on TV.
Grinch of the Year: Mr. Sutley. What a putz.
"Huge storm"? A commenter observes "Sounds like winter to me."
Liar in Chief: If you like your insurance you can keep it. Not
One of our favorite smart dudes, David Gelernter, on a new book about Darwin. A quote:
David Berlinski, one of the most impressive Darwin dissenters, quotes (in a Commentary essay) a smugly childish pronouncement by the journal Nature: "With all deference to the sensibilities of religious people, the idea that man was created in the image of God can surely be put aside." But what makes these ignoramuses so sure they know what the Bible means by "create"? How do they know that "evolution by natural selection" is not exactly what the Bible does mean? And how do they know that man is not "in the image of God"? Yes, we all know about the Bible's famous seven days, but has Nature never heard of a parable? It's not such a difficult concept. Does Nature fault the Bible for not starting with an account of Darwinian evolution?--right after the verses dealing with the Big Bang and astrophysics, which in turn follow the verses that brush everyone up on the necessary algebra, geometry, and calculus?
"The Torah speaks in the language of man," say the rabbis, and when the Bible emerged, men did not speak Darwin's language. But they did care about right and wrong, good and evil, justice and mercy, sanctity and man and God, and these (not biology or astrophysics) are the Bible's topics. Charles Darwin was a great thinker who taught us not only about science, but about religion--specifically, about what religion does not teach, and (for that matter) does not care about. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, at England's Christian heart. Darwin rejected the church, but the church didn't reject him. What does that mean? Berra has no comment.
Wednesday, December 23. 2009
Their About Us. These are my peeps.
And, by the way, Parliament of Whores is a darn good book about how the US government works.
Toon via Theo -
Like we said yesterday, the Dem bill is just the launching pad. Yes, that's the whole point.
Trial Lawyers Win Added Clout From Democrats In Health Bill. Wonderful!
How China sabotaged the climate talks
Va. Republicans aim to take 4 Democrats' congressional seats
The happiest states in the USA
ObamaCare designed to be un-repealable
Similar message from Betsy
Nelson Says More Senators Seeking Special Treatment in Light of Nebraska Deal
It's getting hot out there. Better DRIVE TO THE HIGHER LATITUDES
Not your grandfather's England:
A millionaire businessman has been jailed for two and a half years for taking on a knife-wielding burglar who held him and his family hostage in their home. Munir Hussain, 52, was told he was wrong to take the law into his hands and attack Walid Salem, 56, after the masked intruder threatened to kill him.
That's why we refer to Europe as EuroDisney. Not a serious place. It was, for a short while in history. Now it's just a cool vacation destination.
Even the Huffpo is disenchanted with the O (h/t, Winds):Leadership, Obama Style, and the Looming Losses in 2010: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator
Related: Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?
Fun with Hugo! First - Was it Santa? Second: Hugo renames Angel Falls
Tuesday, December 22. 2009
 The Dem long-term goal is complete government control of medical care, as in Canada. They make no bones about that.
Their House and Senate bills take a big step in that direction. They do it by mandating the purchase of medical insurance - and then regulating what your insurance must pay for. From what I can tell, they are not really mandating insurance at all - they are mandating that most or all of your medical bills get paid by the general population, depending on what government panels deem worthy of coverage for you (watch that process become immediately politicized).
Thus the need for the hefty tax increases and for an inevitable leap in insurance prices. That leap in prices, down the road, will, the Dems hope, lead to people crying for the government to jump in completely. That's always the plan: break something, then arrive on the scene to "fix it."
A wiser path - but one which would never lead to Canadian medicine - would have been to disconnect medical insurance from the workplace, to ensure portability, to create high-risk subsidized pools (as is done for high risk drivers in auto insurance) for those who cannot purchase insurance, to take down interstate barriers to insurance competition so that people have the choice to buy whatever sort they want, and to do some tort reform so that docs do not need to spend $40-200,000/yr on their insurance. Plus no mandate - it isn't American to force everybody to buy something if they do not want the product.
(As I have mentioned in the past, I like my family medical insurance. It is portable, cheap catastrophic insurance which cannot be canceled - and which would become illegal under the Dem plan. The Dem plan requires me to buy all sorts of junk I neither want nor need.)
Related: The healthcare backlash is coming. Or maybe it already has. People know that this thing is a dog...not to insult our canine friends.
Also, via Insty:
PETER WEHNER: The Health-Care Backlash. “This health-care bill may well be historic, but not in the way the president thinks. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like it: passage of a mammoth piece of legislation, hugely expensive and unpopular, on a strict party-line vote taken in a rush of panic because Democrats know that the more people see of ObamaCare, the less they like it.”
Climate touches every white liberal's erogenous zone. Krauthammer.
The UN's Pachauri, like Gore, is getting rich off climate.
Pajamas: The Socialist Revolution Has Come to America
Ted Dalrymple revisits Calcutta
Cool rocks. Slide show of some rochers extraordinaire
Kim Peek died.
A book: From Poverty to Prosperity
C of E vicar advises parishioners to steal
Debating national identity turns dangerous?
Point of Law: Impermissible Ratemaking in Health-Insurance Reform: Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional
Samuelson in the WaPo: A Parody of Leadership. One quote:
Even if Congress passes legislation -- a good bet -- the finished product will fall far short of Obama's extravagant promises. It will not cover everyone. It will not control costs. It will worsen the budget outlook. It will lead to higher taxes. It will disrupt how, or whether, companies provide insurance for their workers. As the real-life (as opposed to rhetorical) consequences unfold, they will rebut Obama's claim that he has "solved" the health care problem. His reputation will suffer.
Monday, December 21. 2009
 Milbank: An ugly finale for health-care reform
Hot Air: Don’t despair about ObamaCare
Classy: RI Dem Senator Calls ObamaCare Opponents Part of 'Aryan Support Groups'
Cash for Cloture: Harry Reid’s Vote Buying Cost Taxpayers $1.2 Billion
Trial lawyers get payoff in Dem medical bill
Gordon Brown calls for new group to police global environment issues.
Related: There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government
From Driscoll:
“Sen. Whitehouse: foes of health care bill are birthers, right-wing militias, aryan groups.” Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin adds, “it will be crystal clear who, when the chips are down, tried to stop the largest big-government power grab and tax-a-thon in decades and who rolled over. The opponents of those Democrats who rolled over will have a plethora of material for their campaign ads.”
Birthers and Aryan groups? Sounds like us. Along with over 60% of Americans, I guess, who oppose this fascistic, ie government-controlled - monstrosity.
Betsy: Ben Nelson's selling price
Powerline: Who's Meaner, Insurance Bureaucrats or Government Bureaucrats?
Healthcare Pork: Senate Bill Laden with Favors, Pet Projects for Democrats
Related, they did not omit the slacker kids, I mean, the adult children
Riehl remains an optimist.
An email from our Aliyah doctor friend in Israel:
I am still not used to things like this: as I am leaving one of my classes, a young woman - perhaps 22 - bends over to hoist her backpack; her sweater pulls up in back, revealing a holstered Beretta in the back of her belt.
Beats a tramp stamp, in my book.
 Photo on loan from Moonbattery -
Pethokoukis: The political blowback from healthcare reform
Kimball via Insty:
Since it was Ben Nelson of Nebraska that finally got Harry Reid his desperately needed 60th vote for socialized medicine, I hope 1) that the next two year are unpleasant for Sen. Nelson and 2) that he loses in 2012 by a landslide.
WSJ: Change Nobody Believes In - A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve.
Prepare for a new term: "climate instability"
What is "settled science"? From Global warming and the 'settled science' baloney at Am Thinker:
While not faulting journalists and politicians for their stupendous ignorance when discussing most scientific subjects, I do condemn their utter lack of coherence concerning basic scientific definitions, processes, and principles.
Specifically, the chattering classes have no appreciation of the following truisms: settled science comes only in the form of physical laws while the causes behind specific phenomena are sometimes never definitively settled. And the more complex the system being observed, the longer it takes to reach a consensus about the causal mechanisms.
Saturday, December 19. 2009
Begin your Christmas shopping yet? I thought I'd begin today or tomorrow.
Did everybody know that Wikipedia is a non-profit? FAQs about Wikipedia
What would they do to me today if they saw the pictures I drew in Kindergarten? (h/t, Tiger)
California as a failed state
Is health care reform a gift or lump of coal?
Above the law? SEIU and the MA Senate race
From Michael Feinstein in the NYT:
If you look at a list of the most popular Christmas songs, you’ll find that the writers are disproportionately Jewish: Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” “The Christmas Song” (yes, Mel Tormé was Jewish), “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “Santa Baby,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Winter Wonderland” — perennial, beloved and, mostly, written for the sheet music publishers of Tin Pan Alley, not for a show or film. (Two notable exceptions: “White Christmas,” introduced in “Holiday Inn,” and “Silver Bells,” written for “The Lemon Drop Kid.”)
Libertarians and Conservatives, at Ace. One quote:
Barney Frank is a crusader against any efforts to impose or even encourage any sort of traditional morality by the government. He is -- as regards only traditional morality -- a libertarian.
Meanwhile, he's supporting the government's efforts to throw you in jail if you don't purchase a government-qualified health insurance plan.
Liberals -- leftists, really -- continue to "bravely" (is it brave anymore?) tweak and thwart traditional mores and taboos while simultaneously replacing them with new taboos and new Temperance Crusades even more onerous and obnoxious and freedom-destroying than the ones they're so "courageously" freeing us from.
IN: Government-permitted gambling
OUT: Government-permitted Ho-Ho's and Mountain Dew
IN: Gay "bathhouses"
OUT: Actual baths -- too much water and too much energy used!
IN: Transgenderism
OUT: Transfats
IN: Anal bulbs
OUT: Light bulbs
h/t Gateway - An interview with one of our favorites, Thaddeus McCotter, plus the Republican Policy Committee Principles (listed below on cont. page)
Continue reading "Saturday links"
Friday, December 18. 2009
Since "the time for talking is over," we will try not to post further about the joke that is Copenhagen for the rest of this pre-Christmas weekend - except to note these observations:
Obama sez 'Time for talk is over.' China and India Say, "O Shut the F Up Bozo!"
Obama braves blizzard to preach at the Church of Climate Scientology
and, of course, big early blizzard predicted from DC to New England. Great! Somebody needs to remind me again: "Weather isn't climate."
From Warner in The Telegraph:
When your attempt at recreating the Congress of Vienna with a third-rate cast of extras turns into a shambles, when the data with which you have tried to terrify the world is daily exposed as ever more phoney, when the blatant greed and self-interest of the participants has become obvious to all beholders, when those pesky polar bears just keep increasing and multiplying – what do you do?
and
This week has been truly historic. It has marked the beginning of the landslide that is collapsing the whole AGW imposture. The pseudo-science of global warming is a global laughing stock and Copenhagen is a farce. In the warmist camp the Main Man is a railway engineer with huge investments in the carbon industry. That says it all. The world’s boiler being heroically damped down by the Fat Controller. Al Gore, occupant of the only private house that can be seen from space, so huge is its energy consumption, wanted to charge punters $1,200 to be photographed with him at Copenhagen. There is a man who is really worried about the planet’s future.
From Hoven in Who Needs Data?, which begins:
The scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU), and the people who funded them, did not know how utterly useless CRU was. All the research done at CRU made no difference whatsoever to the "science" of global warming . Just ask other scientists and global warming alarmists. Heck, ask CRU.
What do the EVIL WARMISTS want? Global domination! It's called the Belgrade Process. Ya can't make this stuff up.
Update: Is this for real? Give China and India a pass, and give away more of our $. Just to get a piece of paper signed. What a joke.
Photo is Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, during the summer. Nice place to drink some beer.
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