Friday, October 15. 2010
 How worrisome is habitat loss? I find it highly worrisome. There are many ways for free-market Conservatives to be Conservationists. I am just one example. There are tons of us tree-hugger and turtle-lover Cons out there.
Boot: Shift in momentum in Afghanistan
Tea Partiers love killing miners? The guy has fallen off the reality cliff.
News flash: First Lady eats burger and fries
Krauthammer on "appearances":
He is a tax-and-spend Democrat. He spent a trillion dollars — and we’re going to have to borrow or tax it — on the stimulus. He‘s going to spend $2 trillion to $3 trillion on health care — we’ll borrow or tax it. Cap-and-trade is spending that you’re going to have to [tax for]. That’s [a tax-and-spend Democrat] what he is. That’s why the electorate is against him. It’s not appearances. It’s substance.
Jonah: Obama's Arrogance Starting to Get Noticed
Feed the Indians, get votes.
Prof B:
The basic problem I have with behavioral economics is that its proponents have never met a problem that could be solved without legislation or regulation. Indeed, it's practitioners seems to skew heavily towards liberal paternalism. As Josh put it, "the behavioral law and economics literature nearly uniformly applies the insights of behavioral economics to justify paternalistic intervention."
I have a father. Do not need another one. But, Prof B, watch your "it's"es.
Scott Brown endorses in MA
Barone: They ignored us
Am Thinker: Three Things Government Cannot Do:
Our federal government does not, and cannot, (1) produce products, (2) create wealth, or (3) provide jobs that pay for themselves.
The interconnectedness of these economic truths is not well-understood (especially by the political classes).
Thursday, October 14. 2010
As Dr. Newmark points out in his post, psychiatry remains profoundly different from the rest of medicine, where diagnosis is everything, in this respect. If a patient presents with chest pain, it is supremely important to know whether it is due to a heart attack, aortic dissection, bronchitis, pulmonary embolus, gastroesophageal reflux, or costochondritis, because each of these calls for clearly distinct treatments. Psychiatry is not like that. Deciding whether a person's diagnosis is depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia will suggest moderate differences in treatment, but the latter will derive more from specific symptoms and personal background. This goes to show that psychiatry remains far more art (or "art") than science. The research-powers that be have yet to persuade the practitioner otherwise.
I agree with everything in his post, and my colleagues agree that the DSM is pseudo-scientific and pseudo-medical, designed for insurance forms and research purposes.
Brooklyn College English professor Moustafa Bayoumi’s books continue to be at the center of whether fact or fiction will prevail at Brooklyn College. This might even be viewed as indicative of the wider struggle within US academia over the influence of the Left and many of its adherents’ support of Islamist views.
Last month, as an alumnus, I posted my disinheriting the college in protest against one of Prof. Bayoumi’s books being the required sole Common Reading for incoming students. Unexpectedly, this touched a wider nerve which led to all three major NYC newspapers and many prominent blogs (here and here are follow-ups) reporting on the issue and one of the major newspapers blasting the college’s selection in an editorial.
The two books are Prof. Bayoumi’s required reading for entering students, the sole one, that Arab-Americans are excessively the brunt of discrimination, and his current book attacking the Israeli actions regarding the Mavi Marmara blockade-running attempt to deliver supplies to Gaza.
We have one of the college’s most Distinguished professors, Broeklundian Professor Robert Cherry of the Economics department, self-professed man of the Left, expert in discrimination against minorities in labor markets, revealing the false statistics at the core of Prof. Bayoumi’s continual arguments that Arab-Americans are disproportionately discriminated against.
We have the administration of the college continuing to act without transparency as to how Prof. Bayoumi’s book came to be selected for all incoming students to read, in the absence of other books or views, and failing to publicly address how that process may be improved in the future. Perhaps, Prof. Cherry’s talk next Tuesday at the college’s Hillel, of which I have the draft text (below the fold), will spur more procedural openness and caution against ideological recklessness.
Meanwhile, we have the Managing Editor of the campus newspaper, who in 2005 blessed (“Amen”) 9/11 Trutherism, writing a paean to Prof. Bayoumi’s collection of essays criticizing what the book titles the Israel “attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla” ship Mavi Marmara. Perhaps, students or faculty at the college may be spurred to pay attention to the news coverage, including from sources usually critical of Israel, to the contrary.
Both perhaps are to be hoped for, but not to be counted upon unless there is more pressure from within the campus and its alumni.
Continue reading "Fact and Fiction at Brooklyn College"
A few people asked me for the lyrics of "The Little Bell" which we posted a few days ago.
I wanted them too. I know no Russian, but the song hardly needed English lyrics to be understood. Here's a Red Army Chorus rendition of this heart-wrenching tune, with English subtitles. This is Russian soul music, and Russians have soul if nothing else.
h/t to SDA for reminding me of this old Milton Friedman talk Lesson of the Pencil. Basic economics.
"Nobody knows how to make a pencil."
Jerry Brown claims we need fewer jobs and more welfare. If jobs are bad, why is he trying to get a job as governor?
Often, these days, reading the news threatens my sense of reality. Consensual reality just is not what it used to be.
Today, jobless benefits applications rise.
 Bake a split Butternut Squash until cooked but with the meat firm - not mushy.
Sautee some chopped onions with garlic, butter, and olive oil. Then toss in 1-2" cubes of the peeled squash, with salt and pepper, a teaspoon or two of sugar, and chopped sage, and sautee it all together for a little while, but don't let the squash cubes disintegrate. Add more butter and oil, and a little water, if it gets too dry.
Some people like to add hunks of turkey sausage, and some like to add a splash of brandy.
I think this sauce works best with a chunky pasta like Farfalle.
As I remind people, always stir pasta with the sauce in the sautee pan before serving. That's why they make big sautee pans - to mix the sauce with the pasta. Sauce plopped on top is not the right way to do it.
Top with a sprinkling of parmesan and some pignolis.
Wednesday, October 13. 2010
Via Reason, this remarkable portrait of a dead American city. It's not easy to kill a city without bombs, but unions, numbskull business managements, and corrupt pols did it there. Their "light rail" will be the tombstone before the whole city is plowed over to grow wheat or corn or trees or something.
Government did not build NYC's subways and trains. Businesses built those things to meet a profitable demand. Someday though, this absurdity in Detroit might be a tourist attraction - to ride a trolley through the vacant lots, wreckage, and abandoned buildings filled with feral dogs and cats.
It's not paranoid on my part. The Dems really do. (h/t, Western Rifle Shooters)
If they own your medical care and own your savings, they own you entirely. But what's in it for them?
I cannot recommend this video interview more highly. It's a real treat and worth your time, via Powerline.
If I were Prez, I'd ask him to be my historical advisor. (Why don't presidents have Historical Advisors?)
Money quote: "Decline is a choice."
McArdle: Americans like to be lied to.
City Journal on two books about Tea Parties: Two new books show how alienated Americans have become from Washington.
The CBC: Sorry, that's classified information
Bielat responds to Barney Frank's query. h/t, Neoneo
Morris: REPUBLICAN TREND GROWS
The Dem search for bogeymen. The problem is, as Rush says, that their bogeymen are at least half of the population.
Removing turtles from the environment - for the environment. People are insane. Furthermore, I know a bit about tortoises, and they do not transplant well. They just try to get back home, and die on the way.
What Dems must do to avert disaster. Sounds like the answer is to become Repubs
One more example of why the French are not respected.
Barney Frank wants another chance to destroy the housing market
More on Prof. Hal Lewis' resignation letter, at Watts.
Barnes: Four Causes that Will Lead to a Democratic Election Nightmare
Clinton Heckled in Blue New York, Says Half of Republicans Need Psychiatric Help.
Stay dignified, Pres. Clinton
David Horowitz is one of those rare people who change lives. I know, because he changed mine.
Sarah is not the only Palinesque pol in the US
4 of 10 Former Supporters Have Bailed on Obama
Insty:
ON THE UPSIDE, THEY PRODUCED VASTLY MORE INTRUSION INTO FAMILIES: Child Abuse Investigations Didn’t Reduce Risk, a Study Finds. “Child Protective Services investigated more than three million cases of suspected child abuse in 2007, but a new study suggests that the investigations did little or nothing to improve the lives of those children.” Also, this employed lots of people in “helping” professions, who tend to vote Democratic. So you’ve got to score this as a win, even if children weren’t any better off. And the study authors suggest that since what we’re doing doesn’t work, we should redouble our efforts! See above. . . .
Tuesday, October 12. 2010
At Reb. That's America in 2010.
 Ten Secrets to a healthy marriage. Good, basic advice, but with nothing about the importance of daily sexual bonding, regardless of age.
Photo is Helen Mirren at 64. I fully intend to look at least that good for my own self-respect and out of love for my loving hubby.
Among other national races I am keeping track of in my blue area of the country, I have been particularly interested in those of Dan Debicella in Fairfield Co., CT and Sean Bielat's vs. Barney Frank.
Dan: Wharton, Harvard, McKinsey, entrepreneur, State Senate leader.
Sean: Georgetown, Harvard, Wharton, Maj. USMC, McKinsey, entrepreneur.
We are fortunate that such talented and experienced people are willing to serve us. What moves them, when politics is so often a harbor for losers?
I found it interesting how their resumes overlapped. McKinsey is like a finishing school for the shiny resume, the energetic and the bright, isn't it?
These guys grew up in the "working class" with no "privileges," and applied their talents to the fullest. Good for them.
"If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table."
The Chamber of Commerce does seem to be an unlikely demon. Schieffer asks "Is this the best you can do?"
 Peggy Noonan gets it right this time: Revolt of the accountants (behind $ wall). A quote:
There is a real fear that government, with all its layers, its growth, its size, its imperviousness, is changing, or has changed, who we are. And that if we lose who we are, as Americans, we lose everything.
This is part of what’s driving the sense of political urgency this year, especially within precincts of the tea party.
Much of her essay is at Never Yet Melted, who comments:
The liberal elite, when faced with resistance to its agenda, invariably contemptuously labels its opponents as people afraid of change. Peggy Noonan, in one of her better columns... in the Wall Street Journal, explains that the popular revolt which is going to bury the democrat party in the next cycle of elections is fueled by perfectly legitimate fear of, and opposition to, change: change in the nature of the country’s character and culture.
Villainous also has some good commentary in A Nation of Insurors, including this:
Governments do not elect themselves. Politicians make promises and we pick and choose from the menu they present to us. Representative government, unrestricted by some limiting principle, inevitably reflects the human failings of the governed. The problem is not government, nor too many bean counters, but our own desire to insulate ourselves from risk.
Where is this leading us? I think we are in a battle for soul of this nation, with those who understand moral hazard in a pitched battle against those who don't. There is an illusory security to be found in large numbers. Somehow we feel safer in a crowd. Making society more interconnected and interdependent doesn't eliminate risk - it expands it.
From Roff at US News, The Tea Party Movement Is a Middle Class Revolt:
All across America the people derided by the likes of Sinclair Lewis as “Babbitts” are awakening. They are beginning to reassert themselves, pushing back, saying “No” for the first time in a long while. It may not last--the politicians may find a way to mollify them or they may give up and go home. Or they may change the country. Either way they are a more serious, more substantive movement--even in what the smart set patronizingly likes to point out are its inconsistencies and innocence--then what the columnists and commentators who deride them are willing to acknowledge.
The arrogance and condescension of the "smart set" particularly irks me. The "Babbitts" are the people who create the jobs, pay the taxes, raise the families at great sacrifice, build America - and contain in them a picture of what America is about. The smart set consistently underestimates - excuse me - misunderestimates - the common sense, decency, and patriotism of Americans who exist outside the Beltway.
"Babbitts" want to be left alone by the government as much as possible, and to be powerful only within their own lives. That's freedom. Every time government imposes one more law, one more demand, one more impossible-to-meet-or-to-understand regulation, people feel their autonomy slipping away.
See this: Americans' Image of "Federal Government" Mostly Negative
That was September.
Monday, October 11. 2010
What's required to revive America is major structural overhaul. This is a task of historic proportions - not unlike the simplification of law by Justinian in ancient Rome. Our founding fathers never imagined that democracy would become a one-way ratchet - always adding laws but never repealing them. Nor did they intend law to be a form of central planning. The Constitution sets forth our governing goals and principles in only 16 pages.
It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?
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A big deal: 