Wednesday, November 18. 2009
 Non-elites: Joe and Carrie
Report: FOX is fair
Top Ten Reasons Black America Fears Rush Limbaugh
Kossers are angry old white men?
Is Obama planning a $3 trillion income tax increase?
Barone: A Jacksonian sweep?
China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform. They own us now, don't they?
Al Gore, Ignoramus
Little Benefit Seen, So Far, in Electronic Patient Records
From the Dean of the Harvard Med School:
...the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.
We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead.
McArdle: Deciphering The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Report
Eel Spearing at Setauket (1845)
You can read a blurb about this painting here.
The picture is part of a current show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Stories: Paintings from Everyday Life 1865-1915.
Tuesday, November 17. 2009
Readers know that I am opposed to death taxes - estate taxes. The wealthy find ways around them (how long has it been since a Kennedy or a Rockefeller held a real job as opposed to an optional job?), but merchants, the middle class, and farmers get screwed by them.
My friend in southern CT recently told me about a third-generation (the grandpa was an Italian immigrant) family-owned flower shop in their town which had to close up shop last month when Mom died. Why? They had to sell their small building to pay the estate taxes. Like a family farm, that is generations of dedication, good will, hard work, and a long-established part of a community down the drain.
Furthermore, I like the idea of middle-class families being able to build wealth over generations - and most people who work hard like that too. People like to feel that they are building something for the family's future, and for their family's independence from the kindness of strangers - and the government.
I do advise everyone, even if not wealthy, to do the best that they can to avoid the crushing effects of death taxes by getting the best estate-planning advice you can afford.
Brit Ted Dalrymple takes on the Fabians on the topic, in Let Them Inherit Debt. One quote:
There are many unfairnesses in life that we must learn to put up with, if we are to have any chance of happiness or even of tolerable contentment. For example, I should like to be taller, better-looking and more intelligent and gifted than I am. Every time I meet someone better-looking than I, taller than I, or more talented than I, which I do very regularly, I experience a brief spark of envy. What did they do to be as they are, my superiors? Why did providence, or chance, endow them with characteristics so much more attractive than my own? Needless to say, I never stop to think that, just possibly, some people might ask the same of me when they meet me.
But the differential endowments of nature are unfair, not unjust, because (at least as yet) no human intervention can prevent them. The inheritance of wealth is not like this: it is a human arrangement that could be abrogated if not easily, for political reasons, at least with some effort. And if injustice is unfairness brought about by human means, then inheritance of wealth is unjust. Ergo, inheritance of wealth ought to be forbidden because it is unjust, and we must always seek justice.
The question, then, is whether we should always seek justice to the exclusion of other desiderata. Is it true that justice always and everywhere trumps other considerations? I think the answer is no.
There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.
Maggie Thatcher
This came in over the transom -
Jim O'Hara is a member of EAA chapter 493 in San Angelo. He is a retired college professor (I believe in Aeronautical Engineering) who learned to fly when he was about 60 years old. He's now 81 years old. 15 years ago, he began construction of a 2/3 scale P-38. Using information he obtained from various sources about the P-38, he drew up a set of plans using a computer aided design program. Jim and his wife Mitzi built the entire aircraft by themselves. I've been fortunate enough to know Jim for almost the entire 15 years that he's been working on his "project." He first flew his plane in July of last year, and has just completed flying off the time (I believe it was 50 hours). He designed the plane to have a small jump seat behind the pilot for his wife. She's tiny, and it's a good thing; the jump seat doesn't have much room.
He made his first cross-country with Mitzi from San Angelo to Fredericksburg Saturday, accompanied by many of his friends from Chapter 493.
Now there is a build-it-yourself P-38 kit available.
More photos of Jim O'Hara and his airplane below the fold -
Continue reading "P-38 replica"
"Green fuel" destroying the rain forest
Catholics Organize Against Annual Church Drive to Fund ACORN Groups
Engineering degrees on the upswing
How the Dems got health bill thru the House:
What is the goal of the so-called conservative Democrats? We can infer from Charlie that it is merely to escape the wrath of the voters back home.
Pelosi & Emanuel allow a carefully deduced number of Democratic Members from conservative districts to be untouched because, you see, that serves their ultimate goal — pass a suicidal healthcare bill as they earlier passed a job-killing cap & trade bill out of the House.
The case against the Stupak amendment. Forbes
The Importance of Being Lieberman
Union protests volunteers
Our ongoing occasional series from Capt. Tom on his home town -
Samuel McClellan House
Built in 1736, the McClellan House is an example of an early American large farm home. Located across from the S. Woodstock Commons and Codfish Flats (Codfish Flats was an area where farm hands lived in homes provided by wealthy farmers). Its basic structure has remained unchanged since 1736 with the exception of electricity and
modern appliances. The roof is still cedar shingles and the frame is post and beam style with massive chestnut beams. The colors are original and were researched extensively by the current owner prior to painting.
Samuel McClellan was a Revolutionary War hero. McClellan raised one of the first Horse Calvary units of the war from Woodstock and the surrounding area. He purchased this home sometime after the French-Indian War - historians believe in 1763.
One point of interest: this home has several examples of Louis XV furniture built into the walls of the home - two dressers and one writing desk.
Editor's comment: I would speculate that the 1736 house is the part on the right, facing the road, and that the later addition off the rear, typical of New England, was cleverly integrated to enhance the original dwelling.
Monday, November 16. 2009
Keith Hennessey gets it. The plan, when you think about it, is plain as day: they want your money (and your kids' money) to buy votes with.
A propos our earlier post today about Immune from Logic, here's what they are doing in the UK: Health and safety snoops to enter family homes. Why people would put up with that is beyond me. Oh, I forgot. It's for the Greater Good. Meaning the good of the government.
It makes sense, however, in a sick sort of way: who pays the piper calls the tune. The more government controls the funding of medical care, the sooner they control what we do in our lives. Thus we get to things like this: A cost-benefit analysis of abortion vs. live birth.
Abortions are cheaper, of course. As Chicago Boyz says,
It’s as if we in the U.S. are moving toward a system where just about anything
can be justified because some government official says that it should
be so. It’s all for the greater good, right? What are pesky little
things like individuals and predictable rules in the face of all that
wonderful greater goodness?
 Our universe is only 14 billion years old, in human time. Is our universe just part of a larger system? One dimension of a Multiverse?
Something Wonderful at Vanderleun. Listen to the video with Caltech's Sean Carroll, which only requires intro Physics. Science fiction come to life. It does put life in perspective.
One quote from Carroll re entropy:
"Every time you put milk into your coffee and watch it mix and
realize that you can't unmix that milk from your coffee, you are
learning something profound about the Big Bang, about conditions in the
very, very early universe. This is just a giant clue that the real
universe has given to us to how the fundamental laws of physics work.
We don't yet know how to put that clue to work. We don't know the
answer to the who done it, who is the guilty party, why the universe is
like that."
Coupon codes and discounts for 40,000 online stores at RetailMeNot
Via Protein's Progressive utopia — enemy of Liberty:
If liberals are so disturbed by Congress dictating whether abortion is
a legitimate health care issue or not, it only makes sense that they
should be equally troubled by government management of other health
care decisions.
Undoubtedly, this is zealously naive thinking on my part. Reaching
such a conclusion demands a modicum of consistency. And as we’ve seen,
health care “reform” is an ideological crusade immune from logic.
"Some of the Great Goods cannot live together. That is a conceptual truth. We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss."
Isaiah Berlin, from Isaiah Berlin, Beyond the Wit at Chronicle. I would have said "does," not "may."
 Global warming: World leaders agree to hold off agreement. Related: Al Gore begins attracting protesters:
In addition to his nonprofit advocacy, Gore is a partner in a venture capital firm that finances "sustainable" and alternative energy businesses, prompting some critics to accuse Gore of promoting environmental policies that will fatten his bank account.
"Cap & Tax — Don't Be Fooled: Al Gore Will Make billions," read a sign carried by Alan Tudor, who drove from Tampa to attend Saturday's protest.
"Gore's Favorite Green Product? Your money in his pocket," said another sign.
Related: Rasmussen polls on climate hysteria and energy policy. The rationalists are winning the debate.
Is Deval Patrick an Obama leading indicator?
The bow: Japanese call it an embarrassment. I figure if "Japanese always bow," then why didn't the Emperor bow to Obama?
State Finance Directors Warn of More Trouble Ahead
New Study Says Costs Rise Under Health Bill
Althouse: Palin is dumb
On the other hand, it has often been pointed out lately that you catch the most flak when you are over the target. Via Riehl:
Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the AP somehow nabbed a copy of the
book before it was released. They're now erroneously reporting on the
book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed
during the campaign and afterwards. We've heard 11 writers are engaged
in this opposition research, er, "fact checking" research! Imagine that
– 11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book,
instead of using the time and resources to "fact check" what's going on
with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.
KSM: A staggering ego, at the center of difficult issues
Res ipsa loquitur: Repubs are just complete a-holes
Again already? The decline of the Left
Wilkinson discusses income inequality: it's all due to the top .5% and not part of a large trend. Thus can stats be abused by politicans.
Soros' closed society. Insty
Columnists Who Blamed Conservative Media for 'Right-Wing' Killings Ignoring Fort Hood. It doesn't fit the narrative of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
Our 'Constitutional Moment' The New York newspaperman says our founding document is especially vital today, in an age of expanding state power.
We tried McDonalds' Angus Burgers on our way into the Indian Summer woods and meadows this weekend. Surprisingly tasty. Give them a try. We bagged a few birds, too.
Here's the lawn of the rustic old Fish and Game club we visited, with clubhouse and barn on the left. It was originally an 1830's roadside inn on a stagecoach route:
The look of the areas we hunted. Many of the field edges are woodland marshes:
Sunday, November 15. 2009
Two prominent blogs raise the question of whether President Obama is an “idiot.”
John Hinderaker at PowerLine wonders, “One seriously hesitates to draw the conclusion that Barack Obama is an idiot, no matter how strongly the evidence may point in that direction. But what are we to make of a man who is ignorant of history; who is ignorant of economics; who despises his own country; and who appears to believe that awareness of his own wonderfulness is enough to guide him? Has such a fool ever played a leading role on the world stage? I think it is fair to say, no: not until now.”
At HotAir, Allahpundit’s headline is, “Japan expert to ABC: Yes, Obama’s bow made him look like an idiot.” The post continues: “So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident.” Then, adds: “And yet, having said that, I’m not convinced that the “groveling” explanation for the bow is necessarily the correct one. For one thing, his protocol office is famously run by imbeciles. They may very well have simply given him bum advice: 'Be sure to hunch way the hell over and stare at the ground. They all do it that way.' ” Though, they don’t all do it that way. Jim Hoft, at GatewayPundit, brings us the video, “47 World Leaders – 46 Handshakes – 1 Bow.”
One could make a verrrry long list of President Obama’s ignorant statements and actions, and outright lies, apparently believing the MSM will continue to cover for and excuse him and the American people will continue to believe him. But, does that make him an “idiot”?
In strict definition, “idiot” is an outmoded term for someone so mentally retarded that their mental development is less than a 3-year old’s, with an IQ of 25 or less, but connotes an “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed person.” In more common usage, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “idiot” as “a foolish or stupid person.”
So, this jury holds that, yes, President Obama is an idiot, “a foolish or stupid person” who believes the American people are “uneducated, ignorant, ill-informed” idiots who can be gulled to believe in dangerous foolishness by he and his excusers.
The education provided by President Obama, along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, in their versions of liberal fixes to our health care, economy, and foreign policies has been a boon to Americans, as polls demonstrate, who are now well-informed about the idiocy of Obama-Reid-Pelosi and their apologists. More and more of the Americans who voted for Obama may have been "foolish and stupid", but are no longer. President Obama is, still, an idiot. A very dangerous one.
P.S.: A professor friend at a leading university, who is learned in exegesis, just emailed me: "It's the kind of idiocy that only great arrogance and hubris can produce." So, maybe the strict definition, above, does apply to President Obama, acting like "less than a 3-year old"!
I moved this poll back up to the top tonight to see if we can squeeze out any more reader responses -
Besides work, what are the five most frequent places you go to in a normal week?
Bank, post office, minimart, a walk outdoors, hardware store, pub, gym, deli, fish market, supermarket, visit friends, visit boyfriend or girlfriend, hairdresser, church, dock, stable, theater, liquor store, places to eat or to get food, massage parlor - where do you all go most often?
My own list is dull as dishwater reflecting my ordinary life: Post office, minimart or Dunkin Donuts, supermarket, bank, places to eat. That's about it, and then there are plenty of places I go to around once a week.
A reader had good seats for Dylan in Boston last night (he did the amazing Every Grain of Sand, I am told):
From The Atlantic article The Science of Success (h/t, reader):
Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.
It's an interesting article about the interaction of genes and the environment in primates, but I'm not sure what's so new about it: I thought it was fairly well accepted that variation in personality and behavioral tendencies, like any genetic variations in any species, enhance the adaptability of that species.
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