Tuesday, October 4. 2011
Or with David Brooks, anyway, when he says The strongest case for Romney is that he’s nobody’s idea of a savior.
There is no political messiah, and never will be. America doesn't work like that, and I do not need, or want, a tingle from a politician. From a cute girl, yes.
I am for Romney-Rubio. For now, anyway. Have at me - tell me why I am wrong.
Obama's 'solution' for what ails us is to utilize two common political treatments for recessions. First, the standard Monetarist 'Easy Money' solution by lowering interest rates. Second, the Keynesian 'Stimulus'. The unfortunate situation we face is really only getting worse because he cannot do the second without the first — there simply isn't enough money interested in supporting more debt. The solution? Print more money, a concept I discussed in an earlier post.
The printing of money allows banks to purchase Treasury Debt, which funds the deficit, which they then sell back to the Fed in order to keep their reserves intact.
Europe has taken a remarkably different approach. The Eurozone wants to emerge from its difficulties in economically healthy fashion, rather than saddled with massive debt. Some European nations have such huge debt that the only sensible track to follow for other Euro nations that are growing modestly is to manage with restraint. They've been backed into a corner, but it's a good corner to be backed into.
Some are not shy about telling Obama why he's wrong.
If Obama was the head of a sports league having economic struggles, BALCO would still be in business. His steroid policy would put individual players at risk in order to keep interest in the league high based on new records. Like Barry Bonds' records, people will soon wonder how things got to this point. Will Congress review Obama's steroid policy and chart a new course?
 Earliest Christian engraving shows pagan elements
Rin Tin Tin and the making of Warner Brothers
This Week’s Applied Hayek: Socialism vs. “Socialism”
Schumer and Durbin Admit Democrats Won't Vote for Obama's Tax Increases
ERIC HOLDER LIED UNDER OATH!… Documents Confirm the Obama AG Knew of Fast & Furious in 2010
Majority Expects Obama to Lose Re-Election
No Kidding… Obama Admits “The Nation Is Not Better Off”
'Durbin fee' will cost bank customers billions
Canadian gun registry and homicide
Is There Really an Environmental Benefit to Going Paperless?
Neo: The MSM’s battle plan
Consumers are spending, but nobody is investing
Tricare Folly - Control U.S. Military's Health-Care Costs
Representing the Holocaust
Michelle Obama's trip to Target
Are You Ready For The Next Solyndra?
Fun with "art": “If money is so ‘inconsequential,’ why do these parasites always expect to be given loads of someone else’s?”:
...the notion that artists might actually consider earning a living doesn’t register at all. There’s not even the briefest flickering of that possibility. The idea that artists might endeavour to produce work that their customers would pay for voluntarily, without Arts Council coercion and political vetting, appears to be unworthy, and perhaps unthinkable. Artists are much too important to waste their time making beautiful things that people want to buy. According to Laurie, their role is political and much, much grander - to “imagine a culture beyond the control of capital and the nation state.”
Monday, October 3. 2011
The Washington Post is usually a little more careful than the New York Times about blatant bias, but its racism hit-job on Governor Perry sinks to a low, at least so far for this election cycle. Perry is supposed to be responsible for the old slur on a rock at a hunting camp rented by his father, which Perry says his father painted over as soon as they rented the camp.
Porky Pig at his worst would call it “wacism.” That’s the words war crossed with racism, as the last refuge of scoundrels out to wage media war to save President Obama’s re-election.
It takes the Texas Tribune to set matters in perspective, doing the job the big city boys wouldn't:
Wallace Jefferson, the first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, said the hunting ranch name controversy is "much ado about nothing" and argued the implication that Rick Perry is insensitive to matters of race is flatly wrong…."To imply that the governor condoned either the use of that word or that sentiment, I find false," Jefferson said….
Even some of Perry's fiercest Texas critics say they do not believe he is racist. They point to his record of appointments as evidence: He appointed the state’s first African-American state supreme court justice, Wallace Jefferson, and later made him chief justice. (Jefferson’s great grandfather was a slave, “sold like a horse,” Perry once said with disgust.) Perry’s former general counsel and former chief of staff, Brian Newby, is black; so is Albert Hawkins, the former Health and Human Services commissioner who Perry handpicked to lead the massive agency in 2002.
“He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body,” said former Democratic state Rep. Ron Wilson, who is black and served with Perry in his early years in the Legislature. “He didn’t then, and he doesn’t now.”
Added Dallas Democratic Sen. Royce West, who is also black: “I don’t agree with him on policy issues, but you can point to many things he has done that were sensitive to ethnic minorities.”
Those on the Left, as expected, trumpeted the WaPo’s Wacism hit-piece. Those on the Right who went along, to bolster their alternative candidate or out of laziness or to kiss a** in their NYC-DC cocoon, have not only hurt their own credibility but also Republican chances of recovering Washington. Way to go, weasily wascals.
California's elected Insurance commissioner is one of the most anti-insurer in the country. He was part of the Democrat slate chosen by state voters in 2010, from Governor on down, despite the Republican tide elsewhere throughout the country.
His latest, lauding the new law signed by the Governor, making it unlawful for health and disability insurers to be the determiner of whether the claimant on a policy is disabled. Now, according to the Insurance Commissioner's press release: "SB 621 protects consumers of life, health, and disability insurance from 'discretionary clauses' in their insurance policies which give the insurer the sole discretion to decide is a beneficiary has become disabled, even if the consumer has a doctor certify that they are disabled," said Commissioner Jones."
How's doctor certifications worked out in California?
According to the Los Angeles Times, 11% of California drivers used a doctor's note to get a disabled parking tag, so they can park for free in any spot and use those reserved for handicapped drivers. Some truly are handicapped. Most of us have witnessed most parking in those spots getting around fine. According to the deputy chief of investigations of the California DMV, "With the emphasis on fraudulent use ... when we go out, typically on average it's in the area of a 30 to 40 percent violation rate." This is just those using someone else's handicap parking tag. There is no verification of those who obtained a tag with a doctor's note.
Yeah, doctor's notes to obtain health insurance or disability insurance payouts. That's the ticket..........to further destroy insurers and leave us all to government-run, taxpayer-paid coverage.
Just got my power restored.
A Huge Housing Bargain -- but Not for You
Extracting Lessons Learned From Having Killed a Killer
Kurtz: Inside Obama's Populist Makeover
What the Frack is Going on Here?
How Much Does the Federal Government Really Spend?
Bank ad brags about 'never taking a bailout'
Culture of death? Palestinian girl's murder highlights growing number of 'honor killings'
Re Krugman: There He Goes Again
Krugman believes in market failures, but not in the far more frequent government failures. Who pays for governmental errors and externalities?
Sunday, October 2. 2011
Several nights ago, I watched Catching Hell on ESPN. I enjoy documentaries and was pleased my wife and boys joined me. My boys have little interest in baseball, and I'm certain my wife got sucked in by the Bill Buckner opening, since she is a longtime Mets fan. Each of them found aspects of the documentary to be interesting and meaningful.
The story centers on Steve Bartman, a young fellow who may have cost the Chicago Cubs a shot at the World Series. It was an unlikely error on his part, one in which fault is questionable. As the documentary points out, many other fans were also reaching for that foul ball. He was unlucky enough to touch it. More importantly, an easy double play ball was booted by the shortstop just a few moments later. Certainly, the lost double play did more to cost the Cubs than a fan preventing a single out.
Continue reading "Baseball Confessional"
Via Insty, The Obama Presidency by the Numbers.
So far, so good, but they still have a ways to go to make everybody poor. Yes We Can! Si se puede! It is not a bug - it's a feature of the Obama economy.
Do you know what Googie Architecture is?
Here's a site: ARCHITECTURAL STYLES of AMERICA
Kimball: Worried about what’s happening to medical care?
Dino: It’s getting hard to read the paper
The Prof: Dodd-Frank is quackery
Obama's EPA: Out with democracy, in with bureaucracy
Let the altruistic geniuses handle it all, same as in your town's government. Just have faith that they know what is best for all...
Solargate Spreads
Taxpayer cash, for friends
From a teacher:
Imagine those kids ignoring you because their parents don't care what they do, the school doesn't allow any disciplinary actions other than calling the parents, the children know that they will pass no matter what and any peep from you about the kids' behavior is interpreted as prejudice. Imagine being required to make a lesson plan for every level of ability, learning style and disability, every day all the while knowing that the kids will probably not even attempt the work because they know they don't have to.
Another Stimulus Fail: Small Business Lending Fiasco
One of the chief tics of Obama's speaking style is a technique I call lying.
"Social Contract". You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means. A quote:
The social contract is "We maintain civilization because we all benefit from it. And we all have a responsibility to pay for it." Ms. Warren’s version of the social contract boils down to, "You have to pay more for maintaining our society because you can, and we outnumber you, and can force you to do so." That’s not a contract. That’s just extortion by majority. The millionaire’s responsibility is not to "pay forward" any more than any of the rest of us, because he doesn’t benefit any more than the rest of us.
Conflating "society" or "civilization" with "government" is sneaky and dishonest - a rhetorical trick. Representative governments are meant to be servants of society.
No Rise in Home Prices Until 2020: Bankers
Declaration of the Occupation of Perpetual Grievance
Envy and hate for the financially successful: Rich people are being ‘demonized’ for flaunting their wealth. Poor dears!
She is evil. As I recall, my beautiful, peaceful, spiritual, eco-sensitive and carbon-sensitive ancestral American Indians wore their wampum for show, as there were no iPhones to purchase:
I envy the rich too, even though it is a sin to do so (see below). Especially those with access to private air travel or with over $17 million under their mattress. However, I do not hate them at all, or want to take their money. Everybody has different aspirations in life, and plans and constructs his or her life according to their religious, moral, emotional, intellectual, etc. desires and aspirations. As a major source of choice, wampum is often in high demand and thus strenuous to obtain and even harder to keep given all of life's tempting choices.
Saturday, October 1. 2011
Higher Education Fire Sale: Enroll Now and Save 66 Percent on Tuition!
Why Islam is in Desperate Need of a Reformation
Our Many Layers of Entitlement - The entitlement mindset includes much more than government benefits programs.
Via Driscoll:
“Do you believe in sin?” Cathleen Falsani, the religion correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times, asked then Senator Obama. “Yes,” he replied. “What is sin?” “Being out of alignment with my values.” That’s one convenient religion: Obama worships at his own personal altar at the First Church of Himself.
Via Michelle:
After examining decades’ worth of failed subsidized solar efforts at home and around the world, the Institute for Energy Research concludes: “Although stand-alone solar power has a certain free-market niche and does not need government favor, using solar power for grid electricity has been and will be an economic loser for ratepayers and a burden to taxpayers.”
Top Obama Advisor Explains the Purpose of Government:
Here she tells an ethnically homogeneous audience that the purpose of government is to “give people a livelihood.”
Let them eat cake?
Chris Christie seriously considering run for president in 2012
Don't do it, big guy
Man, I Like That Guy: Chris Christie's Dude Factor
A tingle, Mr. Breitbart?
How the US is importing poverty
Jonah: Centrists’ Are Abandoning Ship - The establishment solution to unpopular liberal policies is still more liberalism:
The establishment can’t bring itself to blame liberalism (or themselves). So instead they blame the system. Obama’s own reelection theme of running against “Washington” — a town he had near total control over for two years and in which he is still the most powerful figure — is a variant of the same argument. Obama can’t blame the party he leads, so he blames the “system.”
Michael Lewis: California and Bust
It is a major essay by Lewis. The corruption in the attitude towards public service, from service to mindless greed. A quote:
Over the past decade the city of San Jose had repeatedly caved to the demands of its public-safety unions. In practice this meant that when the police or fire department of any neighboring city struck a better deal for itself, it became a fresh argument for improving the pay of San Jose police and fire. The effect was to make the sweetest deal cut by public-safety workers with any city in Northern California the starting point for the next round of negotiations for every other city. The departments also used each other to score debating points. For instance, back in 2002, the San Jose police union cut a three-year deal that raised police officers’ pay by 18 percent over the contract. Soon afterward, the San Jose firefighters cut a better deal for themselves, including a pay raise of more than 23 percent. The police felt robbed and complained mightily until the city council crafted a deal that handed them 5 percent more premium pay in exchange for training to fight terrorists. “We got famous for our anti-terrorist-training pay,” explains one city official. Eventually the anti-terrorist-training premium pay stopped; the police just kept the extra pay, with benefits. “Our police and firefighters will earn more in retirement than they did when they were working,” says Reed. “There used to be an argument that you have to give us money or we can’t afford to live in the city. Now the more you pay them the less likely they are to live in the city, because they can afford to leave. It’s staggering. When did we go from giving people sick leave to letting them accumulate it and cash it in for hundreds of thousands of dollars when they are done working? There’s a corruption here. It’s not just a financial corruption. It’s a corruption of the attitude of public service.”
another:
I notice on his shelf a copy of Fortune magazine, with Meredith Whitney on the cover. And as he talked about the bankrupting of Vallejo, I realized that I had heard this story before, or a private-sector version of it. The people who had power in the society, and were charged with saving it from itself, had instead bled the society to death. The problem with police officers and firefighters isn’t a public-sector problem; it isn’t a problem with government; it’s a problem with the entire society. It’s what happened on Wall Street in the run-up to the subprime crisis. It’s a problem of people taking what they can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social consequences. It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the bottom. They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences. Afterward, the people on Wall Street would privately bemoan the low morals of the American people who walked away from their subprime loans, and the American people would express outrage at the Wall Street people who paid themselves a fortune to design the bad loans.
Plunder!
Gingrich on Obama’s healthcare law: ‘About 300 pages are pretty good’
He is possibly right about that.
Obama Charts a New Route to Re-election
Writing off Ohio - and maybe Florida
Woops: Obama now underwater in CT!
$737 Million Green Loan to Pelosi Kin Fuels Outrage
More plunder.
And more plunder: Benefit tourism in the UK
Buffet(t) Rules we all can agree upon
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