Saturday, April 17. 2010
 Excellent essay from Fred Siegel at Commentary, The Anti-American Fallacy. (h/t, Insty). It is about "Down with the people!"
Adam Bellow's disenchantment with the Zabar's Left
Is it kiddie pron if the exhibitionist kids photo themselves?
JC Phillips: God in Our Classrooms
Church bells are insensitive. h/t, Moonbattery
The 50 most stressful colleges. If they think college is stressful, they should try real life.
Gay or not? Who cares? She looks slightly butch, tho. Politics is amusing.
It is Small Business Vs. Big Government
Seattle Tea-Party Lukewarm
What's wrong with Sousa? Everybody loves Sousa.
Steyn is hilarious about Canada. (the post on the left side of his page)
Can't wait for climate change legislation. These jerks want us to freeze.
When you tax a business, who pays?
"Economics is not always intuitive – and that is what makes it such a fascinating and important discipline. Take what economists call “incidence” – the study of who actually bears the burden of a particular tax. It is obvious enough that employees pay income tax. But it is much harder to actually work out who really ends up paying for other taxes; voters are often fooled into thinking that somebody else, usually big business, is being hit by higher taxes while in fact it is them who are picking up the tab, albeit in a way that is impossible to detect."
Who pays taxes on business? The shareholders and the consumers. As of 2002, 49% of Americans owned equities.
It's never too late for an Easter poem. I found this, the first Walcott poem I have read, at Mead's site.
Easter
(From Collected Poems 1948-1984.)
Anna, my daughter,
you have a black dog
that noses your heel,
selfless as a shadow;
here is a fable
about a black dog:
On the last sunrise
the shadow dressed with Him,
it stretched itself also—
they were two big men
with one job to do.
But life had been lent to one
only for this life.
They strode in silence toward
uncontradicting night.
The rats at the Last Supper
shared crumbs with their shadows,
the shadow of the bread
was shared by the bread;
when the candles lowered,
the shadow felt larger,
so He ordered it to leave;
He said where He was going
it would not be needed,
for there there’d be either
radiance or nothing.
It stopped when He turned
and ordered it home,
then it resumed the scent;
it felt itself stretching
as the sun grew small
like the eyes of the soldiers
receding into holes
under the petrified
serpents on their helmets;
the narrowing pupils
glinted like nailheads,
so before He lay back
it crept between the wood
as if it were the pallet
they had always shared;
it crept between the wood
and the flesh nailed to the wood
and it rose like a black flag
as the crossbeam hoisted
itself and the eyes
closed very slowly
extinguishing the shadow—
everything was nothing.
Then the shadow slunk away,
crawling low on its belly,
and it left there knowing
that never again
would He ever need it;
it reentered the earth,
it didn’t eat for three days,
it didn’t go out,
then it peeped out carefully
like a mole from its hole,
like a wolf after winter,
like a surreptitious serpent,
looking for those forms
that could give back its shape;
then it ran out when the bells
began making wide rings
and rings of radiance;
it keeps nosing for His shape
and it finds it again, in
the white echo of a pigeon
with its wings extended
like a shirt on a clothesline,
like a white shirt on Monday
dripping from a clothesline,
like the greeting of a scarecrow
or a man yawning
at the end of a field.
Friday, April 16. 2010
My elder son Jason's 10th birthday was last Wednesday. His wish: field 1st baseline seats at Petco for the Padres (vs the Braves).
It was Military Appreciation Night. (Half-price tickets but still ripped off for refreshments.) The opening pitch was by the CG at Camp Pendleton; sadly a worse pitcher than Obama.
Padres 2nd baseman David Eckstein and 3rd baseman Chase Headley came by to sign a ball for Jason. Jason also caught a foul ball later, and was on TV with a giant grin. We were surrounded by Marines and sailors, but this honey only had eyes for Jason as our other finests' tongues hung out.
I double-checked online, and I did only pay two-bits for seats, including double-headers, at Ebbetts Field, and a dime for a hot dog. Duke Snider and Gil Hodges would come out after a game and play stick ball with us in the street. OK, Jason's 10th added up to $120, but priceless.
This site has indoor and outdoor mushroom-growing kits. Given the prices of fancy mushrooms, it makes sense. Too bad you cannot grow my favorites at home: Chanterelles and Porcinis.
Here's Have you seen the mushroom man?
From Rick Moran's Tea Partiers Epitomize the Tension Between the Individual and the State:
The importance of their advocacy becomes apparent when you consider that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have adopted the even more problematic “communitarian” ideal as their template for government. Where the principle of utility is part of the historic, classical liberal definition of government, communitarianism is a more radical ideal that denies individual rights in almost all cases while making forced altruism the dominant force for change.
And from Shiver:
Having spent a good deal of time with tea partying patriots, I do not see them as easily fooled, however. A very wise group they appear to be. Whether highly educated or not so much, tea partiers on the whole have the one thing so many on the left, and especially in this particular administration, lack: real-world experience.
Barack Obama and his minions have unleashed and called to rhetorical arms a veritable legion of the kind of folks they probably didn’t even know existed a year ago. These are Americans who prefer liberty over the luxury of a government-guaranteed life of mooching off the labors of others.
Silent majority? Well, not any more.
Dumb rednecks? Now, there’s a laugh.
The only reason this far-left administration and its media mouthpieces don’t respect the tea partiers is that they hold the partiers’ all-American virtues in such virulent disdain.
Call me a dumb redneck if you want. I don't care.
Congressman Henry Waxman, who never met a federal tax or mandate he didn't like to ram down Americans' throats, even when he discovers that the law he backed actually requires corporations to quickly report the negative financial impacts of ObamaCare, has decided to focus his attention on Americans' throats.
The Hill reports: Waxman calls on Major League Baseball to ban chewing tobacco.
 From the Comments:
"On behalf of the American people, I would like to submit an earmark for the next major piece of legislation, called "Bubble gum for Bubbas." This is to request $75 billion to buy smokeless tobacco from MLB athletes and to exchange it with bubble gum, just like we buy guns from people in inner cities to get those guns off the street. This legislation includes a rider for their third-party medical insurance plan that pays for any additional dental expenses that may in the course of this contract and for any reasonable time after the completion thereof be incurred by replacing said chewing tobacco with chewing gum."
And:
"The nanny state marches on. Since the government is now responsible for your healthcare, and can't afford the expense, be prepared for a rash of new restrictions. Obesity will be outlawed, alcohol consumption and lack of exercise will be next. Do you have any risky habits? Ride a motorcycle, sky dive, fly a light aircraft or hang glider? Dangerous and society should not be responsible to take care of you if you take these risks, so the government will say. Auntie Sam will take care of us all. Let's all take our morning "happy pill" and drone on like slaves."
There's another law he backed that Waxman forgets: Such a ban would have to be negotiated with the Players Union.
Can't wait to see the LA Dodgers and other teams send bottles of warm brown spit to Waxman's office.
Now, the pursuit of power is a zero-sum game: you acquire power only by taking it away from someone else. The pursuit of money, however, is not a zero-sum game, which is why it is a much more innocent human activity. It is possible to make a lot of money without inflicting economic injury on anyone. Making money may be more sordid than appropriating power—at least it has traditionally been thought to be so—but, as Adam Smith and others pointed out, it is also a far more civil activity.
Irving Kristol, as quoted in Chicago Boyz' Paying Higher Taxes Can Be Very Profitable. How many times have we said the same thing here at Maggie's? The pursuit of power is what is sordid and sick, but everybody has to make an honest living.
There is a dearth of good links out there today. This one is interesting, though: Contract With America.
I tend to agree with Spruiell's take on it.
A patient recently told me that she had been invited to join a neighborhood wife-swapping club about six months after she and her husband moved into a middle-class Boston suburb. The invitation came quietly, at a lady's coffee.
She replied that she was flattered, but thought it probably wasn't a good idea for her marriage. In fact, it made her so uncomfortable that she decided to move away.
I thought it sounded quite retro, 1970s, like Ice Storm. Key Parties and all that. I had not been aware that these things were still happening. I restrained myself from asking her whether the neighborhood husbands were hot, and from asking whether it might better be described as husband-swapping.
Or is it like "Take my wife... please." ?
 It's genetic, sort-of. In the NYT.
I think cilantro is a tired fad, but I do not dislike it.
Thursday, April 15. 2010
Can we avoid 70% of the cost of the huge Medicaid expansion within ObamaCare?. Yes, says a careful analysis, from a very knowledgeable source with practical experience.
Between 2014-2019, the estimated additional cost of the Medicaid expansion within ObamaCare, that accounts for over half those with added coverage, is $436.4 billion. That’s the figure analyzed by United Healthcare’s Center for Health Reform and Modernization. That ranges from $12.2 billion for Alabama, to $32.4 billion for California, to $28.1 billion for Florida, to $19.5 billion for Georgia, to $12.6 billion each for Indiana and Illinois, to $10.7 billion for Michigan, to $2.8 billion for Nevada, to $16.6 billion for Ohio, to $27.4 billion for Pennsylvania, to $59.5 billion for Texas, to $13 billion for Virginia.
The magnitude of each state’s added cost varies with how liberal its qualifications are already. Another factor is who gets new coverage.
Continue reading "First State-by-State Costs Of Medicaid Expansion: Save 70%?"
Globalistical warmening is at it again: Icelandic volcanoes. And Fireballs from outer space!
What's next? The full apocalypse? Or maybe not?
 We do not want to dwell on the Tea Party subject, but this is cute (h/t, NRO).
Note the cheerful and friendly demeanor, the unabashed patriotism, the good grooming, and the absence of a Che t-shirt: she is the New Wholesome Cool - and the Vanguard of the Revolution!
She needs a bio, though. I can easily come up with one, but I won't.
Not Your Grandpa's Britain Department: "Mr. Davey said he's better off unemployed than working." Hey, there's the spirit to build a new Jerusalem!
h/t, William Blake:
Let’s get to the bottom line: Those claiming that their industry is too big to fail are those who are failures, failing in their basic responsibilities to plan, manage and innovate, most often accompanied by rewarding themselves with high pay and perks.
In the 1980’s, many large corporations were acquired by vulture capitalists, broken up and otherwise disposed of. Yes, hundreds of billions of dollars were sometimes wasted on acquisitions that proved worthless, except to the wheelers-and-dealers’ fees, although in far more cases reorganized leaner and meaner competitors emerged. American industries, and those who wanted to keep their jobs, were forced to adapt if they wanted to remain viable. The American economy prospered anew. Many millions of employees were dislocated, struggled, but American unemployment was at new lows as new opportunities were created.
Those lessons, like most, need to be relearned anew with each generation.
Continue reading "Too Big To Fail: Tea Party Savior"
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
Frederic Bastiat
It's the tragedy of the commons. It doesn't look good for the whales.
But what about Whale Farming? Like they do at Sea World.
 Image of a Japanese breakfast (that is canned coffee, BTW) from Flares
Truly the I'm Not Dead Yet post of the day.
Iowahawk wants a pic of your worst wheels.
Regarding your gross old toenails
Why do colleges care about extracurricular activities?
The Puritan Left and life's little pleasures. Related: Banning corn syrup in NY?
Gotta laugh at Gordon Brown:
“A lot of things that the BBC does are incredibly creative and quite risky. But this is a necessary means of us being a creative society. I want to safeguard the independence of the BBC and I think the licence fee is the means by which you do it."
Sarah Palin kills moose miners. Eats them too, no doubt.
John Stossel has a blog.
More people have been killed by Oregon's windmills than died at Three Mile Island
Two subsidies: Ethanol and unconventional natural gas
Rasmussen:
Twenty-four percent (24%) of U.S. voters now say they consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s an eight-point increase from 16% a month ago.
Europe's VAT Lessons: Rates start low and increase, while income tax rates stay high.
Ed Koch begins:
I weep as I witness outrageous verbal attacks on Israel. What makes these verbal assaults and distortions all the more painful is that they are being orchestrated by President Obama.
Currier and Ives' The Trout Pool. The guy is fishing for Brookies. That's all there were in the East, back then. Browns are a European import, and Rainbows are an import from the Western US.
Wednesday, April 14. 2010
 Info about it via Jules in Beantown.
I think it's just great for people to take the trouble to show up and express themselves. The folks are getting flak from the MSM, if not scurrilous and dishonest attacks and attempted sabotages, which must be a tell that these demonstrations/protests mean something real. As Palin always says, you know you're near the target when you start getting the heavy flak.
There was a fair amount of hate expressed - by the haters of the Tea Party.
The message of the Tea Partiers to the gummint, I think, is "You guys have done enough damage. Leave us alone to run our own lives." Hewitt is along the same lines.
Some protests are good, it seems, and some are bad. Back in the day, anti-war protests were good places to pick up "revolutionary" granola gals with no morals. When I consider how six batty old Code Pink ladies used to show up and get non-stop front page coverage about their "moral authority," and compare it to the MSM coverage of the thousands of women that show up for these Tea events across the country, I just have to smile.
It is so predictable.
Editorial, Washington Examiner, 4-14:
Barely 15 percent of all construction-industry workers in the United States are union members, while the remaining 85 percent are nonunion, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. So why has President Obama signed Executive Order 13502 directing federal agencies taking bids for government construction projects to accept only those from contractors who agree in advance to a project labor agreement that requires a union work force? Obama's new order applies to all federal construction projects with price tags of $25 million or more, and it means all such contracts will only be awarded to companies with unionized work forces.
By eliminating the vast majority of potential bidders on federal construction projects, Obama guarantees two things. First, the projects will cost taxpayers more because union labor is always more expensive. And with mandated PLAs, the cost premium for union contractors will be even greater because fewer bidders always means less competition and higher prices. Second, by guaranteeing unions a bigger stream of federal contracts, Obama is making sure that Big Labor, already among the Democrats' biggest sources of campaign cash, will have even more money to hand out for the 2010 and 2012 elections. You scratch our back with taxpayers dollars gleaned through PLA-based federal construction jobs, and we'll scratch your back with campaign contributions. That's the way it works in Obama's business-as-usual Washington. It's also known in some quarters as "the Chicago Way."
"The Obama administration's policy is a slap in the face to the vast majority of construction workers who have chosen not to unionize," said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation."Qualified nonunion contractors whose workers have opted against unionization will be locked out from large-scale construction projects. The true purpose of so-called project labor agreements is simple: To impose unwanted union boss control on workers from the top down."
Another factor helps explain Obama's willingness to sign an executive order that will put millions more tax dollars in union coffers. Mix points out that unions under PLAs typically exact agreements that include requiring contractors to make payments to union pension funds. This is an increasingly urgent issue, as the Washington Examiner's Mark Hemingway has recently detailed in these pages. According to Labor Department filings, the average union pension has only enough money on hand to cover 62 percent of the benefits it has promised to union members. Pension plans with 80 percent funding are considered "endangered" by federal auditors, while those with less than 65 percent funding are put on the "critical" list. With this latest executive order, it's clear that Obama intends to give unions on the critical list a massive dose of federal tax dollars to cure what ails them.
We like TigerHawk's site, but I have two complaints about him which he will no doubt take to heart.
1. He needs to post more often. It is selfish not to.
2. He needs to learn the names and habits of the critters and birds and bugs and plants that he likes to post. He seems like a guy with curiosity - so why not learn them? It isn't rocket science for a Princeton guy, and it's fun to know what you're looking at. For example, he recently posted some very nice photos of butterflies in Virginia. These are Tiger Swallowtails on a Pink Lilac:
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