Thursday, September 23. 2010
The O cannot fill a ballroom in NYC. That is bad news for him.
Bill Clinton offers advice to the O. Good, sleazy, sneaky, political advice from a guy who never seems to have had a sense of right and wrong or truth and falsehood. Bill Clinton is clever as heck and does think: it's been too bad that he thinks like a criminal.
 Blogger's Brekkie via Theo
The Repub Pledge. No harm in being explicit on what they are "Yes" about.
Great pics of abandoned properties. h/t Doug Ross
Your body is always making cancer. h/t - I forgot
Kudlow: Go back to the gold standard
VDH wonders whether America is becoming a nation of peasants. Like Euroland?
Sowell: The politics of resentment
Fund: The Carter-Obama comparisons
Villainous: Quantifying the Hypocrisy of Lefty Academicians
Related, Q&O toys with An Academic Professional
TNR on Rand Paul
Watch your medical insurance costs rise. More details at Betsy
China-apologist Tom Friedman still loves China
Harper on Canada's gun registry:
“The people of the regions of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals. We will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished.”
Wednesday, September 22. 2010
Entitlements promised by politicians, but never paid for. Do we all live in a dream world? Pie in the sky? From Biggs' Why Does Government Grow and Grow and Grow? (h/t, Insty) a quote:
As I noted in a recent National Review column on why Social Security reform has proved so difficult, shifting from a pay-as-you-go program to a funded system entails significant “transition costs,” which are borne by the very citizens who would decide to make the change. Since today’s Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits are paid from today’s taxes, if we decide to pre-fund these programs then the current generation must pay twice: first for current beneficiaries, and second for their own benefits. Put simply, to shift from an unfunded program to a funded program, someone must contribute extra funds. When the defining characteristic of domestic policy has been for voters to shift their own cost burdens to future generations, it is highly optimistic to expect current voters to accept a double burden. The expected result is to kick the can down the road, such that deficits grow and future taxpayers become even worse off. My own take: it was the transition costs associated with Social Security personal accounts, more than the risk of investing Social Security taxes in stocks, that doomed President Bush’s 2005 reform drive to failure.
Read the whole thing, because it is the best explanation I have seen. I do understand that pols seem to want to keep their big shot jobs in DC, but, in the process, China will ending up owning us.
By the way, I would like my lifetime net Social Security contributions as a lump sum, please, at age 65. That's all I ask for. You can even ignore inflation, so it's been my free long-term loan to you, Uncle Sam. It is my account, right? Just hand it over, and I won't give you any more trouble. I'll use it to pay off my mortgage, and live happily ever after...
As the anti-Democrat tide gets stronger, many Democrat office holders have been clinging to their offices ashore by resorting to the race-card - that those who differ from them must be racists.
In mid-August, when no one else was paying attention to this contest, I wrote about the congressional race in California's 47th district in Orange County. A seemingly entrenched Democrat, Loretta Sanchez, has the advantage of a preponderant Hispanic and Democrat constituency. Her challenger, Van Tran, has waged an uphill battle to within striking distance, Sanchez 45/Tran 43 in one poll. The consensus of experienced poll-watchers has moved the race from solidly Democrat to weak Democrat, and the tide keeps turning.
I wrote in mid-August that "The race has not, yet, overtly become an ethnic battle – and shouldn’t" but in desperation Loretta Sanchez has now pulled the race card.
Loretta Sanchez went on Spanish-language Univision TV to tell Latinos "Those Vietnamese and GOP are trying to take away our seat from us."
No, Loretta, the seat does not belong to any ethnic group or race. The seat belongs to Americans who want representation in their and the country's interests.
Van Tran's campaign emphasizes those interests:
1. Stop the wasteful spending.
2. Cut taxes so that small businesses can create jobs.
3. Reduce excessive regulations on small business.
4. Stand up to the special interests in Washington.
Here's Van Tran's website. Please contribute, send a message against the race-card, and send Loretta Sanchez out with the tide. Van Tran is proud to be an immigrant who treasures America.
H/T Breitbart TV
 Some form of cutlivation of the Eastern (or American) Oyster has been going on for 150 years on Cape Cod, especially in Wellfleet. At first, this just consisted of importing wild oysters from elsewhere in their Atlantic or Gulf coast range, and giving them a while to absorb that special Wellfleet flavor.
There is no way that one small harbor could support the nationwide demand for naturally-produced Wellfleet Oysters.
As we sat on the deck watched the oystermen at work on their cages at low tide, we wondered where they buy the baby oysters.
I found out how the whole system works (link has great photos). The laboratory-bred spat from the hatcheries are bought by nurseries, then they are sold to the watermen who do the "grow-out" of the seed oysters. It is quite remarkable. No wonder they aren't cheap.
Photo on top: large scale commercial oyster grow-out in the southern US
Photo on bottom: oystermen tending their oyster cages in Wellfleet at low tide. Production is limited by town regulations, so there is no industrial-scale production and all are beach-bottom cultured instead of being grown on rafts, slowing their growth but making them tastier.
How much sex is a person "supposed" to want? I don't think anybody can answer that question.
Short video: Is sex addiction a disease?
One of my (many) problems with Psychiatry's DSM is one of making "diseases" out of things I might either view as symptoms, or simply as behaviors which deviate from some shrinks' view of "normal."
When it comes to movie stars and the like (as the link mentions), it's another matter. Many of them seem to live like kids in a candy shop, relatively insulated from consequences. When handsome men or lovely beauties are throwing themselves at you all day long, what's a person to do? Especially after a few drinks, a few lines of coke, etc.
Psychiatry is able to justify viewing substance addictions as diseases because, for many people, continuous substance abuse can lead to an alteration of the reward pathways in the brain, resulting in a drive which is challenging to resist.
With sex, however, those reward pathways are already built in to the system as one of the strongest animal instincts we have to grapple with in life.
As usual, I must leave this post at mid-thought, but I will pose the question to our readers:
Is "Sex Addiction" a disease? Or is the idea a "diseasification" of decadent people with lousy self-control and poor capacity for delayed gratification?
Soft tyranny, manliness, Western Civ, the Leftism of the campuses, etc. Video interview with Harvard's Harvey Mansfield thanks to Powerline.
It's a long interview, and well-worth every minute. I am now a confirmed Mansfield fan.
It's time for the absurd Barney Frank to retire, but the real point is that Bielat is one heck of a good candidate.
Here's his website.
Tuesday, September 21. 2010
At Reason, Cuba and the Death of Communism: Fidel Castro finally admits the obvious. One quote:
This week, the regime said it will dismiss 500,000 people from government jobs, which account for 84 percent of the work force. Reflecting ruefully on the perils of sheltered bureaucracy, Raul Castro declared recently, "We have to erase forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where one can live without working."
As a blanket indictment, that statement is grossly unfair. Many Cuban government employees put in long hours—working in the black market.
Even with guns and secret police and informers on every block and state terror in general, it's tough to keep a population oppressed. The only way to do it is to kill them, in which case those who imagine that they can control people and their economic activities become kings of giant cemeteries.
in Wellfleet:
 I mean literally sleeping together - spouses sleeping in the same bed - not the other meaning. If any readers can help me find out the history of this habit, please let me know.
I do know that the wealthy and the nobility traditionally have had separate private suites and that beds and bedrooms are expensive, so I wonder whether bed-sharing began as a matter of lack of wealth more than anything else. Seems to me that separate suites could potentially be more romantic and more independent-adult.
It's a socio-anthropological question.
If anybody has time or interest to research the history of the topic for me, I'd appreciate it.
This is the most clearly stated, sensible, and historically accurate statement that I’ve read on this issue:
Statement on the Proposed “Cordoba House” Mosque near Ground Zero
Newt Gingrich, July 21, 2010
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.
Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way. Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca. And they lecture us about tolerance. If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.
We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million mega mosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.
Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources. America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.
- No mosque.
- No self-deception.
- No surrender.
- The time to take a stand is now - at this site on this issue.
Discuss and debate -
Some disturbing observations from an alleged White House insider. A quote:
This White House is the most self-centered, arrogant, and ignorant…they just don’t care to know what they are doing. And when they do it -– consequences mean nothing to them. NOTHING.
The guy calls the O "lazy," too. Isn't "lazy" a racist code word?
 I have already posted a plug for Dan Debicella's run against a Pelosi Dem in CT's 4th District.
Now I'd like to support Martha Dean for AG in CT. Impressive lady. I have met her (and Dan, too).
Prost!
Monday, September 20. 2010
More Christie. The guy is a stand-up guy and a stand-up comic. (h/t Tigerhawk)
Mrs. BD found this good deal from our friends at Club ABC: 8 days in Prague and Budapest. They do a very good job making world travel possible for the non-weathy and for those who are willing to fly economy and maybe endure a stopover.
I've always been more of a Mediterranean and UK traveller, but the Holy Roman Empire is growing on me. It's probably just a phase.
You can make online reservations for music and opera tickets way in advance. She wants to see Janacek's Kat'a Kabanova at the Prague Opera (where Mozart first conducted Don Giovanni).
I have never been to Hungary. Mrs. BD wants to see Hungarian folk music and dance troupes, and try some of the historic coffee houses. Here's a nice Budapest restaurant. Looks just like I would expect:
Thank God that the commies are gone from Czecho and Hungary. Maybe Cuba will be next.
Amusingly, they do have a Hammer and Sickle Times tours in Budapest. Join us, Comrades and ex-Liberals:
Go back to the good old times to experience how life was when Big Brother ruled our every move, we drove Trabants, drank spirits at work, lived in block flats, stood in banana lines, had two passports, coupon books, no TV on Mondays and no freedom of speech! Written and raved about every year in major newspapers around the world, don't miss out on this bygone era.
They also have this more cheerful tour: Historical Revolution Walk. This one is about the good guys.
 I plan to pose a number of questions to our readers this week because I have some talks to give on Saturday and would love some fresh ideas.
I hope our brainy and learned readers will rise to the occasion.
First, why are so many American middle-class and poor people (especially women) fat or overweight, while wealthier and better-educated women tend to be svelte?
Got a theory? Is it really class-related, or is that coincidence? Or is it a matter of fashion, wherein some social groups are just more accepting of fat? Some guys do prefer fat girls.
The Globe's Jeff Jacoby gets it.
When it becomes profitable to mine landfills, they will be mined. Possibly in 1000 years.
Add: The comments on Jacoby's piece are entertaining.
First off, Wendy and I would like to offer our sincere thanks for the positive comments the original ProCon post received. You can certainly sense that people are itching for a change.
These ProCon posts will be a small series until the election. Future posts will deal with various aspects and related articles, but today I wanted to cover some of the points raised in the comments. There being 27,000 words on the site, most of the raised issues were covered there, but rather than just tossing out links to answer the commenters, I thought I'd expound on them here. Rather than quote anyone, I'll just generalize.
1. "There isn't enough time between now and November to be effective."
That's just plain ol' wrong. Anyone who believes that has no idea how truly flaky American voters are and how many of them still don't know for sure who they're voting for when they wake up on Election Day. That flyer you hand them at the grocery store that morning might make all the difference.
Yes, it's embarrassing to admit the average American voter is so fickle, often picking a candidate for the flimsiest of reasons, but that matters not. We don't care any more about 'embarrassing' than the fact that it's 'tacky' to go after people's wallets, rather than intelligently discussing the issues as we did during the last two elections. And I needn't remind you what happened using that respectful little tactic.
This is war, and convention be damned.
2. "Web sites don't do any good."
No argument there. The 'home base' we want you to set up isn't for blogging and collecting readers and, in fact, the subject is never raised. You certainly can blog on it if you want, but it's two main functions are to act as a backdrop for the inspiring, hopefully-vote-changing 'motivational' posts and as a base of operations for your own endeavors, be it organizing a neighborhood Tea Party or collecting carpool riders for a Tea Party in the big city. It also gives you a sense of involvement and is demonstrative proof that you're actually doing something — as referred to fawning over your fave blogger's latest words.
Continue reading "ProCon: The Commentariat Speaks"
 Bog hockey. Ever play it? I did.
Columbia wins again: Few Schools Have a Solid Core Curriculum
Creepy vid: Al Gore's Baleful Brood
Villainous:
We have had government declare war on poverty and a war on drugs, but this is the first time our government has declared war on free enterprise.
Given the resounding success of the first two wars, I'd say that's the best news I've heard in ages.
New addition to ye olde blogroll: the profblog. See his Sarah Palin urges WHITES to vote for change
Teachers win, students lose, in DC.
However, Unions Struggling to Get Members to Rally Behind Dems. They'll figure it out: they plan on spending $100 million on these elections. That can buy something.
Is your money the government's money?
Tea Parties. It's how people organize themselves.
People migrate towards freedom. Vigorous folks want to be left alone.
The Republican Answer to George Soros's Money - Steven Law admires how the left organized itself during its wilderness years. Now he's got $50 million to help elect candidates on the right.
The Admin is bad for business. No kidding.
More Christie vs greedy unions. NY Post
Palin as the Leftwing Anti-Christ. So was Nixon, Reagan, Bush, etc. etc. Same old, same old.
Bailing out General Motors 20 months ago may have been a political payback. Duh.
It's a wonder to me that politicians and bozos like Michelle O know what foods are "good for us," while doctors have no idea. The notion of "healthy food" is religion, not science.
Thomas Sowell: The “Achievements” of the American Intelligentsia“- Intellectuals give people who have the handicap of poverty the further handicap of a sense of victimhood.”
Are American Universities Going the Way of General Motors?
Driscoll on 60s mythology: , “Jack Webb reached more people than Jimi Hendrix every week”
Barnes: GOP Nor’easter - Republicans storm Pennsylvania and beyond.
We have said this too. Clinton: Losing House Would Help Obama in 2012
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Watch the video
