Tuesday, January 19. 2010
...you still have Barney "Porky Talky" Frank, John "How to marry rich" Kerry, and the rest of the Democrat pirates of the Potomac.
For some of the key reactions, see the running commentary at Real Clear Politics. My personal favorite: Coakley's primary opponent, upon losing to her, told the House Democrat's Caucus, "You're screwed." Second place: Brown carried Teddy Kennedy's home district, Hyannis.
 A book. That was quick.
- h/t to a piece at Classical Values about the book.
Fun with Martha Coakley attack ads from Iowahawk via Doug Ross. I agree that the satire is marginally distinguishable from reality, but that's how reality can sometimes defeat the power of satire. A brief sample:
Narrator: "Did Scott Brown really murder his first wife in a fit of rage?"
PAN TO KNIFE LAYING IN A POOL OF BLOOD ON A KITCHEN FLOOR
Narrator: "Could you cast a vote for an accused murderer, child sex addict and batterer of the elderly?"
PAN TO SMILING COAKLEY IN COLOR
Narrator: "Say no to alleged criminal behavior: it's time for Martha Coakley."
Quite related: The Globe attacks Brown today: apparently Brown condones violence. Pathetic.
"One of life's greatest mysteries is how the boy who wasn't good enough to marry your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchild in the world."
Jewish proverb
Re Brooks' The Pragmatic Leviathan today, I very much disagree with his view that the O admin is pragmatic and non-ideological, but I do think he is right about this:
The American people are not always right, but their basic sense of equilibrium is worthy of the profoundest respect. President Obama has shown himself to be a fine administrator, but he erred in trying to make himself the irreplaceable man in nearly ever sphere of public life. He erred in not sensing that even a pragmatic government could seem imperious and alarming.
If I were President Obama, I would spend the next year showing how government can serve a humble, helpful and supportive role to the central institutions of American life. Even in blue states like Massachusetts, voters want a government that is energetic but limited — a servant, not a leviathan.
From Insty on that topic:
We’ve controlled Haiti before, didn’t like it, and gave it back. Haiti’s best defense against invasion is that if you seize Haiti . . . then you have Haiti. I mean, if this were St. Bart’s or Bonaire you’d have something, maybe, but . . .
Related, The Englishman appropriately quotes from Kipling's 1899 The White Man's Burden - a poem variously viewed as ironic or sarcastic or literal - or an ambiguous mixture of all (which I suspect). One verse:
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Related: Extreme moral preening at SDA. An EMS guy I know left for Haiti on Monday. He is a Godly guy who has the skills to do something that matters.
 There are people who hate me purely because they have learned of my conservative/libertarian political views. Real, venomous hatred, despite the fact that I believe myself to be a friendly, kind, thoughtful, reasonably attractive, socially appropriate, and relatively warm person with a respectable pedigree and well-bred manners.
Truly, and trite as it sounds, some or even most of my best friends are Liberal-ish, and I have never hated anyone for their political views. In social situations, it doesn't even register with me.
I do not understand this hatred, but I admittedly have never spent much time trying to understand it either. It does hurt my feelings, though.
Yes, I am voting for Scott Brown today, and not just because he is a hunk.
I still think the Dem could win this election in a squeaker. The machine is powerful and fully engaged, and will be driving thousands of Dems from nursing homes to the polls - and I know that all of my beloved but misguided MA relatives will be voting D (and would be even if the candidate were a child molester or a mass murderer. It's just a habit which makes them feel virtuous).
So, as if our MA readers needed a reminder, take a few minutes and vote today. This is one of those elections where every vote matters. In my view, the mere fact that Brown has a real chance is astonishing.
Bear in mind that Coakley Believes Democrat's GOTV Efforts Will Ensure Win.
Monday, January 18. 2010
Watch this CNN video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/01/18/dnt.cohen.haiti.patients.dying.cnn.html
...Or anyone else. Compare and contrast:
INTERNATIONAL AID TO HAITI: ARABS OPT OUT
This CBS / Associated Press report lists countries providing aid to Haiti in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake. Conspicuous by its absence is the entire Muslim world, including the extremely rich oil producing nations.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/14/world/main6097735.shtml
However, Arab countries do not discriminate against non-Muslim countries. Their help was missing after the earthquakes in Turkey and Iran and during war and famine in Muslim Africa too.
ISRAEL’S DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE
Because of Israel’s long history of enduring bomb and missile attacks the Israeli army (the IDF) is one of the most experienced in the world in treating mass-injuries and using specially trained sniffer dogs to locate wounded persons in the rubble.
The IDF was one of the first on the scene in Haiti last week (sending considerably more troops and doctors than, for example, Britain and France did). Hundreds, if not thousands of Haitians have already been treated (and many life-saving surgeries performed) in the IDF Medical and Rescue Field Hospital, set up in a large tent on a soccer field in Port-Au-Prince. In addition, Israeli forces have located and rescued survivors trapped in ruined buildings, including many who were injured during the collapse of the UN headquarters.
A book: The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-evaluation
About the documentary: “In Search of Memory: The Neuroscientist Eric Kandel” A wonderful fellow.
Alcohol myopia. I recently learned that alcohol doesn't just induce disinhibition (duh)and one-track preoccupations, but it also exaggerates inhibitions: scared drunks are more fearful of danger than the sober - when they are reminded of it. Who knew?
The blurb says this:
Last November, at the central market in Valencia, opera singers disguised as shopkeepers were selling produce at the various stalls there. Verdi's Il Travatore starts playing over the loudspeakers & they burst into song. None of the shoppers has a clue what's going on.
Too bad the recorded sound quality is poor, but what a kick.
A government fee is imposed on those who directly benefit from the government service, such as a fishing fee to support restocking, a fee for using a toll-road, or an extra fire insurance fee to support the local fire-fighting service in higher-risk areas near forests. A government tax is imposed on everyone, or most, though the government service does not directly benefit the taxpayer.
Eminently sensible Robert Samuelson opines that President Obama’s tax on the financial industry benefits all taxpayers, who have had thrust on them the costs of bailing out excess risk-takers who themselves benefit in higher pay for taking higher risks. However, Samuelson misses the fact that the tax would land on the well-run firms, acting to reduce their “reward” for acting responsibly.
More sensible, and targeted, would be a high, even confiscatory fee imposed on those in specific firms receiving a taxpayer-bailout who in the current or previous year received salary and bonuses above, say, $1 million. That would make them think twice about reckless gambling and insufficient due diligence. It may not raise enough to offset billions of taxpayer funds spent to stabilize markets, but it won’t stifle markets or penalize the responsible firms, and will encourage more responsibility by targeting rather than blunderbussing.
Of all of the entertaining and/or interesting radio shows we enjoy (when we have time to hear them), there is one which I think comes closest to the Maggie's Farm sensibility - The John Batchelor Show.
Around here, it comes on late at night on WABC. It's more intelligent and informative than anything on the boob tube. If you don't know it, give him a try.
Very cool bumper music too.
From Steyn, to whom we linked yesterday in our post on the MA Senate race:
As Michael Barone observed, "the educated class" was dazzled by style, the knuckledragging morons are talking about substance. They grasp that another year of 2,000-page, trillion-dollar government-growing bills offers America only the certainty of decline. Just before the Senate's health care vote, Obama, the silver-tongued orator, declared that we were "on the precipice" of historic reform. Indeed. On Tuesday, we'll find out whether even Massachusetts is willing to follow him off the cliff.
Except when you need a specific course for a specific purpose or requirement (eg Physical Chemistry), I recommend choosing courses by the teacher, not by the topic.
At a medical meeting recently, I found myself making the same mistake I have often made: picking meetings by topic instead of by speaker. You can get more out of a brilliant person talking about Coke vs. Pepsi than you can from a mediocrity discussing your medical topic of interest.
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In praise of Dunkin Donuts, at