Friday, October 23. 2009
 Update on the invasion of the Asian Longhorned Beetle. Please do not term me racist or anti-immigrant for posting this.
Phoenicians in New Hampshire? No doubt. I think I saw one there this summer, rowing a galley full of purple elephants across Squam Lake.
The retired (I think) pastor Dr. Andrew Jackson has announced his Experience Turkey travel biz. Readers know how much I love that country. His email announcement says, in part,
As many of you know God has given me a deep love for the biblical land of Turkey. Once the home of Abraham, Noah, and the Apostles Paul, John, Peter and many more.
After traveling and ministering in Turkey and leading tours for almost 20 years now - as well as writing two books on prayer journey itineraries through Turkey - I have decided it is time for me to go public as a Turkey tour/trip consultant.
I already assist many people (Christian and non-Christian) around the world with their tours/trips to Turkey, so I thought I would make it official, and offer my expertise and first-hand experience.
You can find the details of my Turkey tour consulting group at my new website www.ExperienceTurkeyTours.com.
In Health Care, Nobody Knows Anything. Two new industry studies reignite the debate about what makes health care so expensive.
However, Betsy is spot-on:
The Pelosi Democrats aren't going to give up on trying to leverage in some sort of public option. Their logic is that once they get a program in place, they can start piling on additional mandates and increase the size of the program just as has been done with other government health programs over the years. That is why they're so adamant to get a public option approved. They figure they can hammer out the expansion later. And the result will be to drive private insurers out of the market and throw more and more people into a government-provided insurance plan. That's why they're so excited about describing their plan as "Medicare for Everyone." They just are ignoring the fact that the reimbursement schedule for Medicare won't cover all a doctor or hospital's costs. Someone has to pay the difference. And if we start forcing people out of the private market into the government program, there won't be anyone left to pay the difference. And so the only solution will be to provide less health care. The trajectory of improvements in health care that we've seen in our lifetimes will start flattening out and maybe even trending down. That's the real curve that the Democrats are bending - not the cost curve.
The dirty-minded MSM: Powerline
The O holding up Aghan decision until after the Nov elections. Probably until after health care votes too. What a jerk to operate that way. It's not manly.
It's about jobs. Yes it is, partly. But there are only 2 things government can do to help business growth: easy money and cutting taxes. As the guys says:
The One is far too busy trying to ruin healthcare and jack everyone’s electricy and heating bills to the moon to worry about job creation.
Why the Pay Czar is way off base.
Ditto, Ramesh: I'm against hate crimes; and against hate-crimes laws, too.
$15 million/year dingbat lectures Wall St on salaries
Where did all the Obama Youth go? Yes, probably looking for jobs.
It is a hoax - we were fooled.
From Obama's thesis:
"... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom."
What???
Ledeen at PJ discusses it all in Obama and the Constitution; He Has His Doubts.
Update: I hear there is some question about whether this is real. Can somebody find out?
The government is still doing this right now:
Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. This story offers a dramatic demonstration that, despite the housing bubble causing the worst economic downturn in generations, the ideology of home ownership is alive and well in the United States and still being supported by the government.
Without question, Tejada's loan is toxic--to her and to the taxpayers who are backing the loan. Her house cost $155,000. Tejada's loan was apparently made on a micro-down payment of just 3.5%, the minimum down payment to qualify for an FHA loan. On top of this, however, she got an additional government backed loan to make improvements. Her total loans amount to $183,0000. In short, she was immediately underwater on her new house.
To get a taste of central Ohio, we stayed at the very pleasant Honey Run Inn outside Millersburg in Holmes County, the heart of Ohio Amish country where every other name seems to be Yoder. Excellent dinner menu there, but pricey.
If you don't get lost, it's only a 45-minute beautiful country drive down to Gambier in Knox Co. Gotta watch out for your turns, though, on those nice two-lane county roads or you can end up far from your destination with no gas station anywhere.
When I visit a new area, I like to get a close-up feel for the woodlands and their outdoors, so I took a couple of early morning hikes up there in Holmes Co. I'd say the bird life and the tree life are similar that of southern New England, and the woodlands are similar hardwood forest - except that the density of nut and mast trees is remarkable: Walnut, Beech, various oaks, Hickory, Shagbark Hickory, Butternut, Ash. When you walk through the woods in late Oct. as I did, you hear the startling thunk of walnuts falling constantly. Also different - I saw no pines and no birch. Plenty of majestic Tulip Trees as one sees in southern New England, and Maples all over.
You cannot have familiarity with a woodland without knowing each tree, and I try to do so. Was mann weiss, mann sieht.
4000 years ago much of Ohio was short-grass prairie and full of Bison. A cooler, wetter climate since then has made possible the hillside woodlands of today (everything flat seems to be farmed) - plus there are no more Indians to burn the prairies to suppress woodland growth.
From the size of the trees, this patch of hilly woodland below was pasture 40 or 50 years ago. Why I did not see or hear lots of Wild Turkeys I do not know, but these woods definitely hold plenty of deer.
A few more snaps from my hikes in the morning drizzle below the fold -
Continue reading "Ohio Central Highlands #4: The Woods"
Golden Eagle attacks reindeer calf
What's holding back nuclear power?
Regulating the internet. Is this a slippery slope? However,
...Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said he introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at prohibiting the FCC from enacting rules to regulate the Internet
Dem: Repubs are the real enemies of America. Things are getting strange.
Hey, here's a reason to do it! Cap & trade could be a boon to NYC trading firms
Coyote on free speech and the UN:
I continue to be confused why the Left in this country is so absolutely hostile to Baptists in Alabama but are so deferential to Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Is it simply because one group makes credible threats of violence while the other does not?
By what Constitutional authority could the Federal government force me to buy medical insurance?
A Lefty has a Moore-gasm
"Sending" more kids to college? Why? We "send" too many already who just waste time and their parents' money.
It's not too late. Or you can do it again. It's even worth it if your Congresscritter or Senator is a far Lefty: it's important for these people to know what you think.
So take a minute today to email your Congressman and Senators to let them know your views of the Dem healthcare plan.
Their email and fax addresses are here. It helps to be calm, polite, reasonable, direct - and brief. A fax is probably better than an email.
If you oppose further government involvement in our medical care, you can also sign the Free Our Health Care Now petition. Over 1 million have signed it, I am told.
For me, it's an issue of how much I want my life controlled by Federal bureaucrats and politicians. I am with Jefferson: the less, the better. Let's take care of the poor, the unfortunate, and the feckless, and let the others make their free way in life as Americans are born and raised to do.
Keep the government's hands off my body!
Thursday, October 22. 2009
Almost 20 years ago I bought my expensive recliner-from-heaven. I’m almost always in it to watch the 19-inch 30-year old TV in my office. (I only go into the other room to watch thunderous soundtrack action movies on the 60-inch TV hooked up to speakers that rock the house. The house actually vibrated when I cranked up Godzilla stomping through NYC.)
Now I’ve got a new hero, and possible hobby.
The Duluth [Minnesota] News Tribune reports:
A Proctor man driving a motorized La-Z-Boy lounge chair hit a parked vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.
Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, pleaded guilty Monday in St. Louis County District Court to DWI in connection with the Aug. 31, 2008, incident in Proctor. There were no injuries.
According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle parked near a Proctor bar. Anderson told police he was traveling from the Keyboard Lounge after consuming approximately eight or nine beers. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive.
Anderson claimed he was driving the chair fine until a woman jumped on it and knocked the chair off course. He has one prior DWI conviction. He couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
Proctor Deputy Police Chief Troy Foucault said the chair was powered by a converted lawnmower with a Briggs & Stratton engine. It has a stereo, cup holders and other custom options, including different power levels.
A National Hot Rod Racing Association sticker is posted on the chair’s head rest. The chair had a small steering wheel, about a third of the size of a golf cart’s, coming straight up from the middle of the La-Z-Boy.
Proctor City Prosecutor Ronald Envall said he charged Anderson under the portion of Minnesota law that makes it a crime to operate a self-propelled motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or drugs. He declined further comment.
Anderson had to forfeit his motorized chair to Proctor police, who plan to auction it with other forfeited items, Foucault said.
This is the motorized La-Z-Boy chair that Dennis Anderson of Proctor was operating when he hit a parked vehicle in 2008. Anderson pleaded guilty to a DWI charge on Monday. (Submitted photo)
Here’s another photo I found of this hobby.
Just think of the pit groupies to co-enjoy this sport!
Roger Kimball tells it like it is.
I like my kids to get out of the Northeast for at least some part of their education, and they all have done so. I am delighted to have a pup at Kenyon College. She loves it, and I am pleased and relieved about that because through secondary school she spent every free moment banging around NYC, going to theater, museums, concerts, street fairs, theater internships, pubs, etc. I had come to think of her as a city girl.
My overall impression of the Kenyon kids is clean-cut, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, cheerful, studious, not overly Maoist, and very engaged in all of the activities of the school. For one example, the pup tells me that she does not know one kid who is not involved in some musical activity, and that the intro Theater course is the most heavily subscribed, with four large sections.
Small liberal arts colleges in the countryside tend to feel like Prep Schools to me, and Kenyon does have that feeling. If a kid went to school in the relatively isolated countryside or to a place like Exeter, Andover, Hotchkiss, Choate or Deerfield, I don't think they would find Kenyon to be an exciting change of pace. (With around 1600 kids, Kenyon is half the size of the BD pup's high school.)
Kenyon was founded as an Episcopalian seminary and college by Dartmouth grad Philander Chase in 1824 when Ohio was pioneer country. It remains, technically anyway, an Episcopalian school.
Kenyon grad Paul Newman built them a wonderful new athletic center with pool, gyms and work-out rooms (which are shared with people in the town). He didn't need to build them a theater, because they already have three: a black box, a small theater, and a high tech large theater - plus a large music performance auditorium in Rosse Hall. That's enough for 1600 kids.
I took some snaps of the cozy campus, of course.
The pup's favorite classroom, in Ascension Hall:
Lots more snaps of the Kenyon campus below the fold -
Continue reading "Central Ohio #3: Kenyon College"
Health care: They tried to do too much, over-reached, went too far Left, tried to grab too much control, and now they are in a pickle. It's their own darn fault. Hubris. Even the Blue Dogs are facing spending fatigue.
Meanwhile, the "Great Uniter" remains on the attack. Please, O, bring us together!!!
As VDH rightly says:
Please, please
Right now to save America we need some steady leadership that reassures businesses of lower taxes, less government spending, no new regulations, educational reform to improve the work force, and confident expansionary energy exploration and development. Instead, we get a prescription to terrify private enterprise: Mr. President, every time you besmirch someone as greedy, lying, and unduly rich, some business, somewhere, pulls in its horns.
As a nod to huntin' season, our current image on top is from Currier and Ives' American Field Sports series. I do not see Snipe too often anymore, but I do not know why. Last time I saw them in any numbers was in a Manitoba marsh.
About Dick Cheney's speech yesterday, at NRO. Always liked and admired Cheney. Still do. Like and admire BL also.
Wednesday, October 21. 2009
Why not? White House Targets Chamber of Commerce Over Opposition to Reform Plans.
They are looking to make enemies, and that is a poor strategy. I think it's like Nixon's Enemies List.
We posted on the sad story of the Ash Tree diseases recently, but I didn't have a good photo of a White Ash, the fine northern hardwood and pleasant shade tree from which the Louisville Slugger happens to be made.
I took a photo of one - a young one - on the Kenyon campus in its orange and yellow autumn splendor.
Via Shaw at PJ:
...too many modern liberals bristle when we suggest that checks, limits, and restrictions must be placed on this government largess. “Why,” I have been asked, “should I have to provide proof for some sort of means test in order to receive assistance funded by tax dollars?” Indeed, these same people will question why there should be limits on welfare payments or how we can expect recipients to begin working after a period of time in order to receive such benefits.
 Outlawing manhood. Human Events
Hurricanes? Global warming. No hurricanes? Global warming.
DOJ: Blacks will only vote for party labels. Unbelievably insulting.
The No Insurance Club. One annual fee to your doc. Basically, the doc takes the risk of his time.
Is it paranoid to imagine that Obamacare is about the government owning your body?
Have fun. It's 1502 pages of bureaucratese.
The Pope welcomes Anglicans back home
Protesting Geert Wilders at Temple:
"The decision to allow Mr. Wilders to share his viewpoints is a danger not only for the public safety of Muslims and the honor of the core principle of Islam, but also for academic integrity and objectivity on campus."
Related: Minuteman's Jim Gilchrist banned from speaking at Harvard. Modern academia is afraid of ideas.
Related: Amherst wants Gitmo detainees. I guess it's some weird version of Radical Chic.
Polarizing America the Alinsky way. Related: ACORN vote fraud in NYS
Tuesday, October 20. 2009
 Even the Left is lining up against the WH proposed Internet regulation. A quote:
Opponents of the policy rightly argue that its implementation would stifle innovation and impact service—a little bit the way that a government takeover of health care would with regard to that industry. Also like health care, the internet is something that most Americans are unable and unwilling to go without. Turning the internet into the functional equivalent of the US Postal Service (a communications system in which Genachowski takes a deep, and arguably ironic, personal interest) is the wrong answer to preserving it in a viable, useful form.
Last week we had Anita Dunn praising Mao. Now we have another Mao-praising Czar in the WH. See Dr Sanity's If it walks like a Marxist...
From a Carville poll report on my half of America:
They believe Obama is ruthlessly advancing a ‘secret agenda’ to bankrupt the United States and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism. While these voters are disdainful of a Republican Party they view to have failed in its mission, they overwhelmingly view a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of this country’s founding principles and are committed to seeing the president fail. Instead of focusing on these intense ideological divisions, the press and elites continue to look for a racial element that drives these voters’ beliefs -– but they need to get over it.
With two Mao-lovers in the WH, it's no surprise some people wonder what's going on.
The Maldives are running a slick scam.
Govt control of insurance will lead to greater denial of care. Fro sure. In fact, Massachusetts now faces government rationing.
Afghanistan: Deciding not to decide is a decision
I want to go into the not raising pigs business
Founder of Human Rights Watch denounces Human Rights Watch. Same thing happened with Greenpeace. Non-profits commonly get taken over by Lefties.
Brit NHS pays its staff to get private medical care
From the Sun Times:
The White House trying to dictate who's a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?
A Republican legislation-watcher emails this update on Democrats' arm-twisting:
Over the course of the debate on health care reform, a troubling pattern has emerged among the proponents of the various expensive proposals being pushed by the White House and congressional Democrats: a string of reports about strong-arm tactics being used against those who might dissent from, or even offer criticism of, Democrats’ health reform plans. Senate Democrats in particular seem to be involved in these stories, and today it’s been revealed that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not been shy in this regard, either.
According to a report in The Hill, “The White House and Democratic leaders are offering doctors a deal: They’ll freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors’ support of healthcare reform. At a meeting on Capitol Hill last week with nearly a dozen doctors groups, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Senate would take up separate legislation to halt scheduled Medicare cuts in doctor payments over the next 10 years. In return, Reid made it clear that he expected their support for the broader healthcare bill, according to four sources in the meeting.” Further, The Hill reports, “‘They said they’re going to need our help in getting healthcare reform over the goal line and they expect our support,’ said a participant who represents doctors. ‘Reid, Baucus and Dodd. All three said the same thing: They want and expect our support.’”
Today’s news comes in the wake of a push from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to remove anti-trust exemptions for health insurers, which came right after health insurers began pointing to a study they commissioned showing that insurance premiums would increase under a proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Politico reported at the time, “Schumer’s push comes on the heels of a controversial industry-sponsored report released over the weekend that makes the case that insurance premiums will go up by as much as $4,000 per family by 2019 if the Senate Finance Committee legislation is signed into law. The release of that report by the industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans sparked angry blowback from Democrats in both chambers.”
Prior to that, Baucus called in the Obama administration to slap a gag order on the insurer Humana, forbidding it and other companies from communicating about cuts to Medicare Advantage benefits that would result from some of the Democrat health care proposals. Stunningly, even The New York Times editorial page found fault with what it called a “ham-handed attempt to stop health insurers from warning buyers of private Medicare Advantage plans . . . .” The NYT writes, “The administration stepped in after Senator Max Baucus . . . charged that the industry was engaging in unfair scare tactics. But an inquiry by the government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had to stretch facts to the breaking point to make a weak case that the insurers were doing anything improper.”
And that followed a summer of strong-arm tactics from Baucus and others, as Brian Faughnan previously documented. These actions included Baucus staffers “pressuring hospitals and insurers to follow the lead of the pharmaceutical industry and pony up to help pay for health reform,” pressuring unions to drop ads criticizing Democrats for plans to tax insurance benefits, and even warning lobbyists not to attend meetings with Republicans about health care. A Democrat lobbyist said he was told such a meeting would “be viewed as a hostile act.”
What is it about health care reform that makes Democrats think they need to resort to such tactics as gag orders, strong-arming, and back room deals? Certainly, Americans remain skeptical of Democrat proposals on a trillion dollar experiment that we know will raise premiums, raise taxes, and cut Medicare. Perhaps Democrats would be better served addressing these fundamental flaws in their bills, instead of resorting to pressure tactics designed to discourage criticism.
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All artists steal and borrow. 