Friday, December 10. 2010
Still driving the Iranians nuts. This is not your ordinary worm.
 Need this? I need it: Pray on the Full Armor of God.
Also this one: The Spiritual Warfare Armor Of God
Prayers of comfort for Aretha Franklin. Went to see her at a benefit performace a year or so ago. Gotta love her. She has added lots of beauty to my life.
WSJ: The Grapes of Wrath Democrats: For Obama and the Democrats, the new economic royalists are anyone with a taxable income over $200,000.
Around here, those royalists could be a cop married to a grade school principal, or a middle-manager married to a nurse, or the guy who owns my dry cleaners.
Is SAC in the SEC's crosshairs?
SAC is a biggie. However, the SEC seems to be expanding the definition of insider trading to the point of good, aggressive research.
What Congresscritter Fred Upton (R - Middle America) will be up to in January
Sounds good to me.
Greg Sullivan: The Copper Thieves Are Back - The current government is not sweet, is anything but clueless
Ron Paul, Author of `End the Fed,' to Lead Panel Overseeing Central Bank
Imagine that.
Am. Thinker: Class Warriors Got What They Wished For:
A funny thing happened on the way to spreading the wealth: wealth dried up.
That caribou was organic. All natural, like at Whole Foods.
WaPo: Wasting tax dollars on ethanol. A quote:
...the policy directs cash to farm states that are rich in political influence, lawmakers are rallying to save this payoff from expiration. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who insisted Sunday that President Obama's fiscal commission didn't go far enough in its deficit reduction plan, has paired with Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) to press for renewal of the gratuitous corn ethanol tax credit and the ethanol tariff through 2015. Typically, the farm lobby has won out on such issues. But this year it's meeting stronger than usual opposition from a bloc of fiscal conservatives and environmentalists, backed by such strange bedfellows as Tea Party organizer FreedomWorks and ultra-liberal pressure group MoveOn.org - even Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Al Gore.
Thursday, December 9. 2010
States and government employee unions are united to hide the true extent of the cost of pension promises, and the impacts on other basic government services. Leading Republican congressmen have introduced legislation to shine light on these costs.
The Pew Center On The States reported last February that:
$1 trillion. That’s the gap at the end of fiscal year 2008 between the $2.35 trillion states had set aside to pay for employees’ retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price tag of those promises.
Why does it matter? Because every dollar spent to reduce the unfunded retirement liability cannot be used for education, public safety and other needs. Ultimately, taxpayers could face higher taxes or cuts in essential public services.
Actually, the gap may be closer to $3-trillion, as this National Bureau of Economic Research study lays out. In April, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) study reported a $3.04-trillion shortfall in funding. The AEI recommended that pensions must disclose greater detail regarding investment risk and pension plans should reform their accounting methods to include the market value of plan liabilities. Then, legislators could have a better idea of how to reform and plan.
Continue reading "Republican Pension Reform Vs The States And Unions"
Reversing aging in mice.
I can tell you one thing: those researchers are having a lot of fun in their lab, inserting genes and turning genes on and off. You can term this level of genetic engineering Playing God if you want to. I say Forget any practical application - this is fascinating basic biological research, and it is just cool as heck.
One of the sectors who won’t directly benefit from the tax deal -- which evicted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding revisions even though it hasn’t even been written – is about 5.7 million state and local government workers and about 600,000 federal workers. They don’t pay Social Security taxes, as they contribute to government pension plans, so they won’t benefit from the proposed 2% reduction in employee Social Security tax.
The New York Times reports, “’We are aware of it,’ said Gregory King, a union [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] spokesman, ‘and we are discussing it with the appropriate leaders in Congress.’” The NYT mentions that union alone “spent $90 million to help elect Democrats during the last election cycle.” Add in the other campaign spending by other government employee unions, like about $50-million from the SEIU, and the grand total is in the hundreds of millions, almost all to Democrats.
Hey, I’ve got an idea: Let the government unions cut their dues from government employees, instead of spending the dues on electing Democrats, even though many of the unions' members vote Republican.
 Prof. Cass Sunstein is one of them. As Scott at Powerline notes,
By contrast with the doctrine of rights conferred by God and nature set forth in the Declaration of Independence, Sunstein holds, in Tom Palmer's words, "You owe your life -- and everything else -- to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV."
Having his own view of things is fine, but his views are profoundly un-American. He doesn't get what America is about. The American ideal is - or was - that we are born with freedom, and granted a tiny bit of it to the State for specific, limited purposes. For heaven's sake, Prof. Sunstein, we created the State in 1787 - it didn't make us, or give us anything.
Mind you, this guy is the Regulation Czar in the White House.
Furthermore, his arrogance is unbelievable. A 56 year-old University of Chicago Law Prof who probably never held a real job in his life wants to structure how I live? He knows more about life than me? Has deeper wisdom than I have? Give me a break. That's a bad joke. He's just a control freak - with power.
I have a much better idea: How about I tell him how to live? For his own good, of course.
Watts: More Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims – Challenge UN IPCC & Gore. One sample - from a member of the IPCC:
We’re not scientifically there yet. Despite what you may have heard in the media, there is nothing like a consensus of scientific opinion that this is a problem. Because there is natural variability in the weather, you cannot statistically know for another 150 years.” — UN IPCC’s Tom Tripp, a member of the UN IPCC since 2004 and listed as one of the lead authors and serves as the Director of Technical Services & Development for U.S. Magnesium.
Let's have a worldwide debate. I think it's all about money and power and politics, and that science has little to do with it. The Wikileaks confirm that. Over my years here at the Farm, I have become convinced that 99% of "crises" are trumped up. Always ask "Cui bono?"
That I believe that some warming would be great for the planet and for mankind has nothing to do with it. It's too cold in NYC today, and I don't have 150 years to wait and see.
There are many different views and they collide. Control should only be extended to the most dangerous and the most destructive, and the rest should be compromise. Compromise does not excite but it is very necessary. Values collide so it is very difficult to have perfect liberty and perfect equality. We should try to prevent intolerable choices and alternatives.
Isaiah Berlin, from these Berlin quotes
At Big Government, it's all about the Pigford scam. One quote from a CSM piece:
...critics cite several concerns with the soon-to-be-law. One is that about 33,000 black farms were in existence at the time of Pigford's original filing, yet 80,000 claimants have filed for settlement. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota, for one, recently called Pigford II "a complete fraud."
"This is what happens when government rings the dinner bell, and it's an indication of just how loose the rules are for vetting past injustices, real or not," Investors Business Daily wrote Tuesday in an editorial.
Jimmy Dismuke, a black hog farmer from Arkansas, claims he's seen fraud first-hand in the Pigford process. In a recent story published at Big Government.com, a conservative website, Mr. Dismuke says he has counted more than 300 fraudulent Pigford claims in Arkansas alone, including a case in which people who kept potted tomato plants claimed to be farmers and got $50,000. He also claims that private lawyers made the rounds in black churches, enticing potential claimants with easy payouts.
"Pigford is the biggest rip-off this country has ever known, and there are lots of people in positions of power that know it," Dismuke writes. "Politicians are using it to buy votes. Trial lawyers are using it to get rich."
Yup.
Heads up! Meteor showers and Lunar eclipse this month
And later in the month, heads up for Santa and reindeer.
Concerning Wikileaks, Governor Mike Huckabee said: "If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET,' store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate."
The American: Demography vs. Geography: Understanding the Political Future
Hot New Fashion Trend: The Femiman
Trolls, Spoiled Boys and Tired Women
Chart below via Shrinkwrapped's Misunderstanding the Tea Party Movement:
Waivers Double to 222 as More Unions ‘Opt Out’ of ObamaCare
Honey, I got trapped in the pub by the snowstorm
Yes, the Gore Effect is on track this year. Record chill for Cancun.
Also at Watts: Cancun COP16 attendees fall for the old “dihydrogen monoxide” petition as well as signing up to cripple the U.S. Economy
Harsanyi on the O:
...this is the thanks he gets?
Obama gave us health care reform. In the middle of a downward economic spiral, he turned all his political capital, all his considerable power, all his impressive popularity and his two congressional majorities into a grab bag of liberal policy schemes that, in the end, could only be passed with reconciliation.
True, some squishy Democrats wouldn't go for the entire single-payer nationalization scheme — which was, until today, considered "compromise" — but give it time. "When Medicare started, it was a small program. It grew," explained the president on Tuesday. Things grow. This thing of ours, he explained, "is a long game; this is not a short game."
There - he said it again. The long game, the long march. Pure Gramsci/Alinsky.
Obama Opens The Door To Raid Social Security
Wednesday, December 8. 2010
You can address a curious bear with some confidence when you are a deer hunter and have a firearm on your lap. I'd guess the bear smelled the hunter's breakfast burrito.
Wisconsin has an army of deer hunters.
We could use them around here.
[T]he first priority for addressing the budget deficit has to be getting the economy growing again at a rapid rate." The tax deal, he said, "offers the best prospect that was available for achieving the kind of escape velocity that we've been seeking for the past two years.
Larry Summers, as quoted in American Thinker's Larry Summers - Oh, You Don't Say? The author of that piece surely gets what this is all about.
 WSJ thinks maybe Bob should retire from touring.
It's been years since Bob could sing like a bird. Now he croaks like a frog. So what? It's not opera, and he still has the phrasing.
Pic is Bob at his house in Woodstock, NY, 1960-something.
The rump Senate may tonight try to force a vote on repeal of DADT.
One of the arguments raised for the US Congress repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the experience of Israel’s military in allowing those openly gay to serve. Israel’s Defense Force (IDF) is generally considered one of the more able in the world and there is little reporting of major reported problems with the policy. But, prominent studies of the matter are deficient to argue from the Israeli experience.
(It well may be so that DADT should be repealed at some point. Not now. There are too many issues of fact to be determined. There are too many effects that are yet unclear. There are too many management issues to be decided and implemented. There are too many more pressing stresses on the US military today, particularly upon our combat forces who are in majority opposed.)
The DADT report from the Pentagon released November 30 offers little worthwhile information regarding Israel, or other countries’ experience with the impact on combat effectiveness.
Continue reading "Gays In Israel’s Military"
 That's what Freud wrote on his Austrian exit papers, when the Gestapo informed him that he could finally leave if he would put in writing that he had been treated well by them in the lengthy process. The grim sarcasm, no doubt, went over the heads of the Gestapo thugs.
Freud had a wry sense of humor which was rarely evident in his writing. He was 82 at the time, the Anschluss had happened, and his friends like Ernest Jones had to drag him out of Vienna to London, with the assistance of Pres. Roosevelt.
Fearful as he was of growing anti-Semitic sentiment, he did not want to leave home.
The NYT announced his departure on June 5, 1938. He died a year later, in London.
 From Powerline's Scott in a piece of the above title, mainly about Obamacare:
The economic "rights" asserted by Roosevelt in his second Bill of Rights differ and conflict with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are claims on the liberty of others. If I have a right to medical care, you must have a corresponding duty to supply it. If I have a right to a decent home, you must have a duty to provide it.
The argument for the welfare state belongs in the same family as "the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden." That's Lincoln again.
Lincoln memorably derided the underlying principle as "the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it."
It's too late now, but I'd like to see an experiment in which one state in the US would operate under the Constitution as it is written. See how it works out. See who would go there (me, for one) and see who would flee limited government power.
 Pic of Maggie's Farm office hours via Theo
The folks at Friends of Maine Mountains asked me to get this link right: Seems like lots of folks are getting out of the wind/solar scam market.
Some booze ads Capt. Tom liked
I like those real-time billboards.
More health care waivers
Tiger: Mortgage interest deduction may do more harm than good
Probably true. But getting rid of it, however slowly, would be like taking candy from a baby - and would lower home values since it is a de facto subsidy.
California's Parent Revolution - 'Triggering' school reform in Compton.
Great stuff.
Baby Aspirin Linked to Reduced Cancer Deaths
Some chance they reduce heart attacks too. Nothing to lose by taking one.
The Lightbulb Nazi has changed his mind
That's good. But it's a bit late. They already stopped making them in the USA.
EU Ref on Cancun:
... the really interesting issue is how scares so easily become exploited by regulators to pursue their specific interests – in what we came to call the doctrine of the "beneficial crisis" - and how slow people are to recognise the dynamic. This, with huge amusement we see in a WUWT post, where there is this observation:
What really strikes us is the fact that all this Copenhagen/Cancun stuff has nothing to do with the Climate, or saving the World. It's about political positioning, money, and plain old fascism cult promotion.
Well, you don't say! And if this is not a recognition of "Ursine subarboreal toilet activity" of the type identified by Dellers, I don't know what is.
The odd thing though is that so many of the clever little politics wonks you meet don't understand the scare dynamic either. They either ignore the scares or take the so-called scientific agenda at face value. They rarely appreciate that the "scare" or "beneficial crisis" is a means of institutional queue-jumping, a means of by-passing institutional inertia and democratic processes.
As always, look at a scare and you will find that science is only the dressing. At the heart, you will find it's the politics stoopid. It always is.
What's the next big thing? Blogging about blogging at the Other McCain's ‘A Communicational Schematic That Is Superior to Anything Else in Existence’
We are all traffic whores, cybersluts. We're disgusting.
Bill Gross on how to fix the economy
"Country Dumb":
Just finished watching the TV show Sarah Palin's Alaska. Stunned at the political brilliance of the concept.
I have lived in the South. Gotta watch out for those country dumb types.
Englishman: Thank goodness Climate Change is the number one priority for the Scottish Parliament. Related, in Scotland: Pupils banned from playing in the snow
HUD pushing low money down mortgages again
Worked out great last time. BTW, what's so great about home ownership?
Tim Blair tries to buy a used car
All the usual tricks of the trade.
Gaza growing rich on aid dollars
If they wanted to, the Palestinians could try to create a real economy like Israel did. They seem to prefer the victim role. Money for nuthin and the virgins for free.
Babalu:
Ever since travel restrictions to Cuba were relaxed by the Obama administration, more people from the U.S. are traveling to Cuba making the this country one of the regime's largest source of tourists and subsequently tourist dollars second only to Canada.
But...
Tuesday, December 7. 2010
 Praising the Puritans, at First Things (h/t, AVI). Lawler begins:
There’s little less fashionable today than praising the Puritans, especially for their egalitarian political idealism, their promotion of genuinely humane and liberating learning, and their capacity for enjoyment and human happiness. Praising the Puritans is especially difficult for us because even most of our Protestants have abandoned them. When a European calls us Puritanical we don’t say, “yes, thanks a lot, you’re right.” Instead, we either deny it, saying we’re way beyond those days. Or we admit it, saying that, “yes, we should be less capitalistic, less repressed, and more free thinking, just like you.” But the truth is that the Puritans remain the chief source of the American difference—our ability to live freely and prosperously without unduly slighting the longings of our souls. It’s the Puritans’ idealism that made and even makes Americans civilized.
Read the whole thing. I do not know how, or whether, immigrants to the US can, or have been able to, or even want to, learn the code. I sure hope they can.
Picture is Jonathan Edwards, a member of the Maggie's Farm pantheon. You would not know from the prissy portrait, but he loved to have fun.
After live-blogging President Obama's presser, John Podhoretz comments:
Well…that was interesting…he spent the first half insulting Republicans and the conclusion screaming at Democrats and left-liberals…All in all, one of the strangest political events of my lifetime.
Look at the rest of Commentary's Contentions blog for more insights.
It's clear as day that Leftists are interested in restricting information flow and limiting, suppressing or intimidating dissenting voices. That's good old "Liberal fascism." They can't stand the new reality of diversity of news and viewpoints.
Have you ever heard a Conservative push the government to limit public access to cable, broadcast, or internet information or opinions? I haven't (except for porn).
True, we are opposed to PBS - but not because of their bias. It's because it's taxpayer-supported. I'd be fine with PBS as a donor-supported organization. We do believe that government-supported or controlled media is a terrible and frightening idea. At Maggie's Farm, we do not ask for a penny from the government to help us put our stuff out. So why PBS?
FCC push to regulate news draws fire
Sharpton: We’re Going To FCC… Limbaugh “Doesn’t Have The Right” To Use Public Airwaves
What’s Next for Internet Regulation?
 Bird Dog Bay. Looks like a nice haberdashery - even if a stylistic cousin of Vineyard Vines.
Nice cufflinks.
We mentioned the cross country prehistoric obsidian trade last week in Capitalism is not a theory.
Here's a piece on the West Coast obsidian trade of the Paiute.
Parts 2 and 3 below the fold -
Continue reading "Obsidian trade"
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