Sunday, February 7. 2010
 I love this quote from Reagan (if you didn't hear, this weekend would have been his 99th birthday). Borrowed from Moonbattery:
Right now ... I'm looking down on a busy city at rush hour. The streets below are twin ribbons of sparkling red and white.
I wonder about the people in those cars, who they are, what they do, what they are thinking about as they head for the warmth of home and family. Come to think of it, I've met them - oh, maybe not those particular individuals, but still I feel I know them. Some of our social planners refer to them as "the masses" which only proves they don't know them. I've been privileged to meet people all over this land in the special kind of way you meet them when you are campaigning. They are not "the masses," or as the elitists would have it - "the common man." They are very uncommon. Individuals each with his or her own hopes and dreams, plans and problems, and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth.
January 27, 1978
I do not know how many of Lorenzo di Medici's country villas are extant, but he helped design a few of them, one of which was an architectural inspiration for Palladio.
This one, sitting on the hills overlooking Florence, was built by Cosimo for his second grandson Giovanni, and came into Lorenzo's hands after his brother was assassinated by a cabal which included the Pope. It became one of Lorenzo's favorite hangouts with his philosopher, artist, and poet pals (and girlfriends).
(By the way, we recommend staying in Fiesole when visiting Florence, and it's just a 15-minute bus ride down the hill. November and May are good months.)
Is wearing fraudulent medals of valor just a harmless pick-up line?
Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University's law school who is not involved in the two cases, said the Stolen Valor Act raises constitutional questions because it bans bragging or exaggerating about yourself."Half the pickup lines in bars across the country could be criminalized under that concept," he said.
The AP reports that defense attorneys in two Stolen Valor prosecutions are challenging the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act, passed unanimously in the US Senate and by acclamation in the House in late 2006. They say, the AP reports, “the First Amendment protects almost all speech that doesn't hurt someone else. Neither man has been accused by prosecutors of seeking financial gain for himself.” In rebuttal, “Craig Missakian, a federal prosecutor in the California case, said deliberate lies are not protected. He said that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to raise and support an army and that this includes, by extension, ‘protecting the worth and value of these medals.’ ”
First Amendment scholars may find this case "interesting," but it means more than an item of interest to those affected.
A noted First Amendment defender, law professor Eugene Volokh filed an amicus brief, in which his draft says, although “the [Supreme] Court has never articulated a clear rule for which knowingly false statements of fact are constitutionally protected and which are not,”
… But though the Stolen Valor Act does treat some false statements differently from others, it appears to fit within one of the exceptions to the R.A.V. principle: “the nature of the content discrimination is such that there is no realistic possibility that official suppression of ideas is afoot.” Id. at 390. False claims of military honors are not limited to any particular viewpoints, or even particular topics of debate. They can equally be raised by people who are anti-war, who are pro-war, or who are just trying to get themselves elected to an office that is entirely unrelated to the military.
CONCLUSION
For these reasons, the Stolen Valor Act, if read to apply only to knowingly false representations, is likely facially constitutional.
I spoke with BJ Burkett, whose book Stolen Valor led to the 2006 Act. Burkett says, as does the federal prosecutor above,“The decorations are part and parcel of the Constitution creating the military, and anything that denigrates that weakens the Constitution.” In an age where strict respect for the Constitution is chancy, that argument may not hold. But, the fraud statutes are not challenged, at least where fraudulent gain is involved, and specific frauds do have additional prohibitions. Further, false claims that demonstrably cause harm to others are upheld, from “yelling fire in a crowded theater” to falsely claiming not to carry H.I.V. and infecting a bar pick-up.
So, where does that leave the constitutional issue in the Stolen Valor challenges? Many liberals and conservatives should be in a quandary. Many liberals support “hate crime” and “hate speech” laws when aimed at designated groupings. Many conservatives oppose restrictions on “freedom of speech.” On the other hands, veterans in general, and medals of valor recipients in particular, are a grouping that earned elevated respect, and free speech is constitutionally limited when causing demonstrable harm.
So, is there demonstrable harm in falsely claiming medals of valor?
It is clear that almost all veterans and medals of valor recipients, along with a unanimous Congress, believe there is, which should be prosecuted. It is clear that such frauds gain honors they do not deserve. Indeed, many also materially gain, in direct benefits and prestige used to further their careers. For example, there are more claimants at the VA to being POWs, who receive a medal, than were. Taxpayers are harmed, as well as other vets who are placed on lower priority.
This is not a right to burn the flag, our nation’s flag not being specifically mentioned in the Constitution, and not analogous in that burning a symbol may hurt patriots’ feelings but falsely claiming medals of valor directly contravenes the sole lawful authority of the DOD to issue them.
It is important to note here that the reluctance of the DOD to create a comprehensive database of legitimate medals of valor recipients is inexcusable. (I wrote about it here.)
Burkett hopes that the prominence of this challenge may lead to the DOD getting its act together, and to raising the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. Look at this gay clown claiming unearned medals of valor to support "gay rights."
A friend was enthusing about (Habanos) Romeo y Julietas the other day. He views them as the best brand. Photo is their medium strength 42 ring gauge Corona - a good "starter cigar." Now that cigar appreciation is no longer the yuppie fad that it had been for a while, it's OK to enjoy them again.
A reader referred us to a Weisberg post at Slate, subtitled Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis.
I don't know what he means by "political crisis." The essay does seem to reinforce our post yesterday about liberal condescension. However, does he have a point or not, here?
Sixty percent of Americans want stricter regulations of financial institutions. But nearly the same proportion says we're suffering from too much regulation on business. That kind of illogic—or, if you prefer, susceptibility to rhetorical manipulation—is what locks the status quo in place.
At the root of this kind of self-contradiction is our historical, nationally characterological ambivalence about government. We want Washington and the states to fix all of our problems now. At the same time, we want government to shrink, spend less, and reduce our taxes. We dislike government in the abstract: According to CNN, 67 percent of people favor balancing the budget even when the country is in a recession or a war, which is madness. But we love government in the particular: Even larger majorities oppose the kind of spending cuts that would reduce projected deficits, let alone eliminate them.
Let me put the hypothetical question this way: What Federal programs would you cut or eliminate (in addition to the Federal Dept of Education) which affect you or your family personally?
Luke 5:1-11
5:1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,
5:2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
5:3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
5:4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
5:5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."
5:6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.
5:7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"
5:9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;
5:10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
5:11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Saturday, February 6. 2010
A 15 mpg clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A 25 mpg vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. They claim 700,000 clunkers were turned-in, so that's 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars. So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million. We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.
In the (now, sadly, defunct) New York Sun:
Given the nearly total absence of fanfare, you could be excused for not knowing that this was the quincentenary of Andrea Palladio's birth. Generally it is a kind of condescension to treat the great cultural figures of the past as though, in some sense, they were, or needed to be, our contemporaries. And yet a respectable case could be made that, of all the architects who lived before the 20th century, few were as influential as Palladio (1508-80) or came closer, in the arc of their reputation, to being what we would now call a "starchitect."
Read the whole thing.
Here's Wiki on Palladio. Below is a photo of Villa Capra, aka Villa Rotunda, in Vicenza.
A quickie for dessert? Restaurant bathroom trysts.
I guess amore is sometimes just overwhelmingly urgent, like diarrhea. Been there, but never when fully sober. I remember in the 70s when the only thing going on in restaurant bathrooms was people doing lines of coke with rolled-up $100 bills.
It is performed standing up, I assume, like the coke.
Rightly or wrongly, they used to call these people "not college material." h/t Capt. Capitalism who thinks these things should have been learned in High School. I'd say Grade School. Readin, ritin, and rithmatic, right?
Who are the Tea Partiers? THEY ARE STARVING CANNIBAL MARTIANS WHO HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND PETS!!!!
Related: Tom Tancredo acts like a total jerk. Not funny, Tom.
The maybe coming Iranian Revolution. I hope they go for it.
Vanderleun: "Scientists said" is becoming the numero uno phrase that gripes my ass.
Krauthammer: The Electorate vs. Obama's Agenda
Why Antagonize China? The revitalization of Asian capitalism is the most important positive event in the world in the last 30 years.
Jules on Brown:
Whether Scott Brown realizes it or not, his future is not entirely in his hands. Their are people out there who have plans for him, and this has all the makings of an epic ride that doesn’t necessarily end well for him. Hang on. Remember that thing about getting a dog if you want a friend in DC.
Insty:
WAIT, I THOUGHT CALLING PEOPLE SOCIALISTS WAS A “SMEAR.” Gallup: Majority of Dems View Socialism Positively.
Related: A Stroll Down Extremism’s Memory Lane.
In response to a question asking Democratic Party delegates whether they felt George W. Bush was legitimately elected in 2000, fully 91% of respondents said he wasn’t. The poll also noted the response rate of self-identified Dems overall, 78% of whom thought Bush’s 2000 election was illegitimate (question 56).
Just for perspective.
Obama Reverses on Bankers. Like it or not...
First India throws the IPCC overboard - now the Netherlands. Oh, and now China. It's difficult to keep up. England, too:
Despite active measures by the BBC and the liberal Guardian newspaper to suppress climategate revelations, other media outlets like the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and the TimesOnline have picked up the slack and have run story after story about the fraud, the bad science, and the shameful actions of scientists in trying to suppress opposing viewpoints.
The Economist: Neither the president nor Congress shows any sign of knowing how to tackle the deficit. Related from VDH: Is Greece our future?
However much people may want global warming (the warmists want it for their narrative and for their grant $, and people like me because we think it would be good for humans), the scientists worry: Signs of Damage to Public Trust in Climate Findings
Obama picks campaigning over leading
 Story by Alexander in the WaPo. One quote:
...even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives. Many Democrats describe their troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative misinformation -- as when Obama charges that critics of health-care reform are peddling fake fears of a "Bolshevik plot" -- and the country's failure to grasp great liberal accomplishments. "We were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are," the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a recent interview. The benighted public is either uncomprehending or deliberately misinformed (by conservatives).
This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the functions of government -- and threatens to do so again today, when dialogue would be more valuable than ever.
Liberals have dismissed conservative thinking for decades, a tendency encapsulated by Lionel Trilling's 1950 remark that conservatives do not "express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas." During the 1950s and '60s, liberals trivialized the nascent conservative movement. Prominent studies and journalistic accounts of right-wing politics at the time stressed paranoia, intolerance and insecurity, rendering conservative thought more a psychiatric disorder than a rival.
Read the whole thing. For many, we think, Liberalism is a matter of social fashion; conformist, self-congratulatory, conspicuously virtuous and "open-minded" (not that I think it is virtuous or open-minded at all - how many Liberals check out Maggie's for fresh views on things?). It says that they aren't rubes, but rather "caring," sophisticated, and bien pensant. Part of the crowd, acceptable. Nice.
I don't think that we Maggie's Farmers are morons or uncaring even though we do like our guns and our Bibles and our Constitution and our ceegars...and lots of other things.
I also think that the condescension often passes over into raw hate, as Dr. Bliss discussed recently. Related, see Liberal Hate Speech at Am. Thinker.
Photo is Lionel Trilling, a neurotic Liberal who also had interesting things to say about literature.
Pastures of Plenty
It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts was hot and your mountains was cold
I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind
California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well it's North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine
Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win
It's always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free.
You can listen to Guthrie singing the song below. Photo on top is Guthrie in 1946.
Friday, February 5. 2010
 We have found her travel books - "Exceptional Places to Stay" - to be spot on, especially if you seek local color and prefer to avoid the international hotel chains.
From Phi Beta Cons:
My point is that the common notion that a college education is essential to doing most of the work in the economy is mistaken. The ability of individuals to do work seldom depends on anything they studied in college.
True indeed. Nothing wrong with a liberal arts education, though, as life-enrichment for those too lazy to figure out how to obtain it on their own. (It's called "reading.") A rigorous high school education ought to be enough for most practical purposes, and adequate preparation for any job training or apprenticeship which doesn't require advanced math or science.
The story of Germany's SDU is relevant to everyone these days, even though it sounds strange to hear people still talking about "workers" as they still do in Europe - as if it were some permanent condition of serfhood. One quote from the piece at Boston Review:
...social democracy may have settled the issues of industrial society, but it did so just in time for industrial society to give way to a globalized economy, one with its own complicated and pernicious effects on labor and social equality: immigration, fluctuating employment levels, and offshore outsourcing, to name a few.
Like the American Dems, political organizations like the SDU are fighting the last war.
I have never been disappointed in The Teaching Company, but I have never enjoyed a series as much as Prof. Sutherland's Classics of British Literature. It is college as it should be.
As with any excellent humanities prof, you learn as much about thinking about life as you do about the topic at hand. His soft brogue is pleasant too.
Today, I am listening to his Chaucer lectures. Time flies by on ye olde elliptical machine.
The American is the Englishman left to himself.
Alexis de Tocqueville, in a piece about de Tocqueville at Chicago Boyz
Several weeks ago I posted a longer version of this. The San Diego Union-Tribune liked it, and asked for a shorter version. 711 words from 1200+. Yes we can!
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/05/no-gop-ideas-try-these-10/
What a putz. Can you image if Bush...
"Pleasing your enemies does not turn them into friends."
Who knows who first stated this ancient truism, but I snipped it from Kate.
Where not to die in 2010.
Also from Tax Prof: Law School Only Makes Economic Sense If You Go to a Top 70 School. Top 70? I'd say Top 25.
Fun in Hartford: NORTHEAST FISHING & HUNTING EXPO COMING FEB. 26-28
A bamboo bike?
How come no family members help this poor lady?
The wealthy don't pay the estate tax. Small businessmen, farmers,, and regular people are the ones who get stuck with it.
Rent control in NYC: Taxpayers, Meet Your New Tenants
Unpleasant Grannies rage against Tim Tebow's existence. Wonder whether they have grandkids...
Steyn: Credibility is what�s really melting
Tim Blair: Their faith upset by recent events, warmenists are lashing out.
Related: We have been swindled:
We've been set up as marks by a gang of opportunistic hucksters who have exploited the na�vely altruistic intentions of the environmental movement in an effort to control international energy consumption while redistributing global wealth and (in many cases) greedily lining their own pockets in the process.
Perhaps now, more people will finally understand what many have known for years: Man-made climate change was never really a problem -- but rather, a solution.
For just as the science of the IPCC has been exposed as fraudulent, so have its apparent motives. The true ones became strikingly evident when the negotiating text for the "last chance to save the planet" International Climate Accord [PDF], put forth in Copenhagen in December, was found to contain as many paragraphs outlining the payment of "climate debt" reparations by Western nations under the watchful eye of a U.N.-controlled global government as it did emission reduction schemes.
Then again, neither stratagem should come as any real surprise to those who've paid attention.
The EU is a tyrant. It is time for the Euroweenies to man up and rebel.
"I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company," Thomas said, according to a report in The New York Times. "These are corporations."
Thursday, February 4. 2010
Droll Yankees produces many good, squirrel-defeating bird feeders. They have the Whipper, the Dipper, the Flipper and the Tipper. I am trying the Tipper because it doesn't need batteries.
Yes, I always throw a few handfulls of seed on the ground each morning for the squirrels and the ground-feeders.
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