Maggie's Farm

How about a net worth test for Charlie Rangel?

The medical and spiritual dangers of WiFi

Good point, via Driscoll. Be sure to read the Jamie Lee Curtis link.

Reasons global warming may not exist at all

New Year's resolutions you can keep

Peoples' Paradise update: Cuba celebrates 50 years of oppression, fear, and misery. Powerline

A book: Larry Elder's Stupid Black Men

Was 2008 really all that bad? Only to us who have been spoiled and expect life to be easy.

Good news. Earth has cooled since Bush took office. Good going, George. But I think you overdid it.

School endowments are saving for what? It's greed, I tell ya.

This guy Senator Burris sure does dig himself. I wonder what it feels like to have that much "self-esteem." (h/t, Betsy) Related: Bobby Rush says take a chill pill. I'm fresh out of 'em.

Our cuz Mr. Free Market not only pokes a friendly stick in Maggie's eye, but, more importantly, into the eye of the Nannies. Make my day, Nanny.

How did California become so suicidal? We always knew they were nutty and flakey, but not suicidal.

Unpleasant truths about Germany. No, not about the Nazis.

Quagmire update: Most under-reported item of yesterday: Green Zone handed off to Iraqis.

I know she's good, but how does Small Dead Lemmings do this? Jealous? Who, me?

Pondering parenthood in that agonizing, Liberal way. Sheesh. What a putz.

The C of E today: Crazy people. Certifiable.

Student of the Great Depression Amity Schlaes on What Obama should do. He won't.

George Will: Health care costs keep growing

All this rug stuff on Maggie's. Now I've been bidding on old rugs on eBay. Most of the eBay rug items are coarse new crap, but some looks very nice. Life does need beauty in it. But does one need to own it?

Photo:  Borrowed from Moonbattery. At first I thought it was satire, but now I wonder. That shirt has got to come off.

A review of a new bio of Arthur Miller. A quote:

One good test of a literary biography is whether it sends one back to the author. I finished this one relieved that I never had to hear anything more about Arthur Miller.

CT newspapers want government $. We knew this would come up. Related, via Insty: How can newspapers cover somebody they love? Related: Village Voice lays off Nat Hentoff. Nat Hentoff? They are done.

Ireland's enviro minister: Climate change is a con

Thomas Frank on the un-wisdom of markets. WSJ. Methinks he does not understand the history of bubbles in economics.

Chantrill at Am Thinker: A Conservative Narrative

The Hollywood Che Cult. A sadistic, totalitarian murderer and rapist. But it was all "for the people." There are apparently no limits to what you can do "for the people." Stalin had many American apologists too.

Why the 1918 Influenza was so bad.

Obama will ration your medical care. Or try to, anyway. He'll deflect criticism by using Daschle as point man. Daschle will take the bullets, same as Hillary did. Related: The NHS death that shocked Britain

Residential architecture: Never do this

China reduces taxes to deal with slowdown. China has become more realistic, and less ideological, than the American Dem party.

The WaPo and the amateur rockets. Would they object if the Palis lobbed some of them into their building?

Yesterday we focused on the astonishing failures of New Jersey. Today, the flight from New York State

Some folks are enjoying this recession

Europe to the US: "Here, wear this millstone around your neck."

Where are the real men? Armed and Dangerous (h/t, Vanderleun) One quote:

One of the things this culture badly needs is a set of manhood ordeals. Unlike the tribal societies of the past, we’re too various for one size to fit all — but to reliably turn boys into men (or, to put it in more fashionable terms, to help them become mature and inner-directed) you need to put them under stress in a way that, except for the small percentage that go through military boot camps, we basically don’t any more.

Photo: Not only do I not particularly enjoy champagne or any other white wine, I do not enjoy New Year's Eve either. Never did. Always seemed like a time for phony, forced jollity (like that dumb dropping ball thing) and, as much as I enjoy a cocktail, I dread hangovers which have the power to steal a whole day of my precious time.

Joe Skelly at NRO remembers O'Brien, who died a week ago at 91, and linked O'Brien's 1990 essay in the national Review, A Vindication of Burke.

It's a rich historical essay, and would serve as a fine intro to Burke's work. Just one quote from it:

The grand distinguishing feature of the Reflections is the power of Burke’s insight into the character of the French Revolution, then at an early stage. This insight is so acute as to endow him with prophetic power. He sees what way the Revolution is heading. No one else seems to have done so at the time. The spring and summer of 1790 — the period in which Burke wrote the Reflections — was the most tranquil stage, in appearance, in the history of the Revolution. It was a period of constitution-making, of benevolent rhetoric, and of peaceful jubilation, as in the Déclaration de Paix au Monde on May 21, 1790, or the Fête de la Fédération on July 14, 1790, celebrating the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille.

Contemplating that attractive scene, in the spring and summer of 1790, most people seem to have assumed that the French Revolution had already taken place, and that all that remained was to reap its benign consequences. Burke sensed that the Revolution was only beginning. In the penultimate paragraph of the Reflections, Burke warned that the French “commonwealth” could hardly remain in the form it had taken in 1790: “But before its final settlement it may be obliged to pass, as one of our poets says, ‘through great varieties of untried being,’ and in all its transmigrations to be purified by fire and blood.”

Writing tips, plus "Happy Holidays" Volokh

Earnestly-wrung hands. Jules

Can the UAW survive?

25 unbelievable pictures. (h/t, Retriever)

How porn shaped the web. Related: How amateurs are taking over the online porn biz.

Napa Valley, China

Do the Palis want anything except to kill Jews?

Saving Lehman would have saved everybody a lot of grief. Bad call?

We'd like to see a lot more people do this sort of conservation thing with their land.

The necessary service government agencies provide

Sounds kinda creepy-gay:

“The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.”

More on the sad, slow death of Detroit

I looked through our ABC Carpet link and found the rug in the photo. A Caucasian Kazak, my favorite "brand." Readers, buy it for me! It would add beauty to my life.

Malthus, Scrooge, and others.

Lionel Tiger on bonobos and utopia

What the heck is this "ranked choice voting" all about?

Most embarassing global warming claims of 2008

Cigarettes are sublime. Too true.

Harold Pinter hated us.

Quoted at Big Lizards:

The U.N. General Assembly split over the issue of gay rights on Thursday after a European-drafted statement calling for decriminalization of homosexuality prompted an Arab-backed one opposing it.

Diplomats said a joint statement initiated by France and the Netherlands gathered 66 signatures in the 192-nation assembly after it was read out by Argentina at a plenary session. A rival statement, read out by Syria, gathered some 60.

The State is our shepherd

Jeb Bush? Why not?

Why we need newspapers. Surber. I agree. Just the facts, please.

A final look at Barack, The Magic Negro

From New England Repub:

Obama isn’t going to put gas in your car nor pay your rent. As for Gov Patrick, he thinks you’re good for one thing, more taxes, and Barney Frank doesn’t like you.

Now compete with Jose for the lawn mowing job.

From Andy McCarthy:

The question is whether the Palestinian people are educable.  Which brings me back to the first point:  the Palestinians voted to put in power — i.e., vest with the power of a quasi-sovereign government — a terrorist organization which thinks legitimate governing consists of bringing about the annihilation of its sovereign neighbor and, meantime, targeting the said neighbor's civilian population with bombing attacks.  When you do that, you make yourself a target.

There are worse things than war — like Hamas.  They have to be defeated, just like al Qaeda had to be defeated in Iraq. 

Sowell, via Betsy:

Detroit and Michigan have followed classic liberal policies of treating businesses as prey, rather than as assets. They have helped kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. So have the unions. So have managements that have gone along to get along.

Toyota, Honda and other foreign automakers are not heading for Detroit, even though there are lots of experienced automobile workers there. They are avoiding the rust belts and the policies that have made those places rust belts.

A bailout of Detroit's Big Three would be only the latest in the postponements of reality.

George Bush, The Great Liberator. I'm down with that. Good man, lousy pol.

Quoted at American Digest:

President-Elect Man-Child:

The man-child projects a simultaneous sense of not being comfortable in his own skin and perpetually on display to others. He's twitchy, approval-seeking, and doesn't know when to shut up. He's never been tested to anywhere near the limits of his physical or moral courage, and deep within himself he knows that because of this he is weak. Unproven. Not really a man. And it shows in a lot of little ways - posture, gaze patterns, that sort of thing. He'll overreact to small challenges and freeze or crumble under big ones. - Armed and Dangerous ? Blog Archive ? Where the men are

Reality will grow him up, as it does with all of us. He has had a charmed life thus far, in many ways.

2008 Media Research Center Awards for moonbat media

Kwanzaa is really over. I heard jokes about it at the beginning, but not even a joke for years now, which is proof that it is irrelevent.

An Iditerod without dogs. Good grief. Anything without dogs is a drag.

The final proof of climate change: Q&O

Brit Hume: retiring, but not gone

What happened to muni swaps. Caveat emptor.

I am not guilty. So why should I pay for these messes?

Obama's "job fetish." Reason

Via Gene Expressions:

We examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box used to collect money for drinks in a university coffee room. People paid nearly three times as much for their drinks when eyes were displayed rather than a control image. This finding provides the first evidence from a naturalistic setting of the importance of cues of being watched, and hence reputational concerns, on human cooperative behaviour.

Liberal Joel Stein admits he doesn't love America. That explains a lot. He seems to like Sweden, partly for their sexual "freedom." So leave, Joel, and get your recreational sex! Sweden happily accepts immigrants, but they seem to prefer Moslems. Sweden and Moslems: Perfect Together.

Not meant as a joke: Indulgences in San Francisco. Who expects to make $ from this scam?

Jimmy Carter did the hope and change schtick too. Am Thinker

Corporate welfare, institutionalized. At Marg Rev:

I believe that moving more assets under government guarantees is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.

The Bernie Madoff I knew.

Detroit Update. Where the sirens never sleep.

Yet another corrupt Dem to add to the list? Gov. Richardson

I hope you had a merry holiday. I finally saw Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Hilariously un-PC and insensitive, and therefore highly recommended. Now, back to work.

Christmas in Baghdad. Photo from the piece at Gateway

Harvard's endowment likely lost much more than they are saying. University greed is the problem.

What's with the double-counting? I don't get it.

Handel's Messiah: I thought I saw the face of God.

The alarmists are becoming increasingly shrill. Maybe they are worried that we quit listening, and have begun to mock and satirize them. Dang it, we want warmening - for the children.

Coyote on the wind power scam and the green jobs myth.

A year of scary, trumped-up myths about smoking and obesity. Spiked. Sounds like people don't like to feel pushed around by the government they pay for.

AVI on Special Education. From everything I've read about education, "special" or otherwise, neither $, nor computers, nor fancy buildings make any difference at all.

"More Science in journalism school, please." Surber. My impression is that journalists understand science about as well as they understand economics.

Speaking of science, Politicizing Science at Powerline.

Steyn on Subprime Education,

... in America, so-called "expanding opportunities for college" is an obvious crock to absolve high schools of  their failure to educate.

with a h/t to Viking who also quoted Professor X thus:

There seems, as is often the case in colleges, to be a huge gulf between academia and reality. No one is thinking about the larger implications, let alone the morality, of admitting so many students to classes they cannot possibly pass. The colleges and the students and I are bobbing up and down in a great wave of societal forces-social optimism on a large scale, the sense of college as both a universal right and a need, financial necessity on the part of the colleges and the students alike, the desire to maintain high academic standards while admitting marginal students-that have coalesced into a mini-tsunami of difficulty. No one has drawn up the flowchart and seen that, although more-widespread college admission is a bonanza for the colleges and nice for the students and makes the entire United States of America feel rather pleased with itself, there is one point of irreconcilable conflict in the system, and that is the moment when the adjunct instructor, who by the nature of his job teaches the worst students, must ink the F on that first writing assignment.

Rape or love? Sounds like love to me.

What's the latest on Sen. Dodd? And why do Libs always get a free pass on their sleaziness?

Jonah critiques the New Republic's critique of Liberal Fascism

Well put, by Rick Moran:

Our economic situation is dire – and being made more so by mortgaging our future so that politicians can be seen to be “doing something about the problem.”

Let's begin with Scrooge.

Tierney at the NYT doesn't think much of O's science advisor. Sounds like a phony resume. More on Holdren here. (h/t, Insty)

Reisman rips another O appointee - Larry Summers

Huffington satirizes herself. (h/t, Jonah)

The stimulus plan: $1 billion for Las Vegas roads. Since when is that a Federal issue?

Talk about entitlement: Caroline not only refuses questions, she refuses to open her books. The arrogance and condescension aren't going over too well. But Uncle Teddy wants it.

Teasing vs. bullying

Expanding executive power? Who's complaining? Powerline. I am complaining.

"We don't predict, we project." Ignore the weather: it's Apocalypse Later. The Apocalypse is always later.

Related, at Flopping (this is amazing):

“Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective, and being honest.” –Stephen Schneider Lead Author of reports for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

And that, my friends, is exactly why we file our climate posts in the Politics category instead of our Natural History category.

Photo: The Renaissance Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Do the Hokey Pokey and go to jail in Scotland. Well, it is a dangerous song.

Sex in the Middle School stairwell? Dang, I grew up too early.

There is no hangover cure.

Teen morality today.

Chavez: Stop buying what you want

The death of Deep Throat and the crisis of journalism. Stratfor. The case that Woodward and Bernstein were Felt's tools.

I didn't know Bison had beef cattle genes. If they interbreed, does that mean they're races of the same species? (h/t, Jungle Trader)

My Republican Party was the town party girl. Am Thinker

From News You Can Lose in The New Yorker:

Newspaper readership has been slowly dropping for decades—as a percentage of the population, newspapers have about half as many subscribers as they did four decades ago—but the Internet helped turn that slow puncture into a blowout. Papers now seem to be the equivalent of the railroads at the start of the twentieth century—a once-great business eclipsed by a new technology. In a famous 1960 article called “Marketing Myopia,” Theodore Levitt held up the railroads as a quintessential example of companies’ inability to adapt to changing circumstances. Levitt argued that a focus on products rather than on customers led the companies to misunderstand their core business. Had the bosses realized that they were in the transportation business, rather than the railroad business, they could have moved into trucking and air transport, rather than letting other companies dominate. By extension, many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted more quickly and more successfully to the Net.

The above was linked at a Buzzmachine piece about the decline of newspapers, Downbeat.

Nyquist, with a parade of stupidities. One quote:

The president indirectly proposes that the government knows better than the market. He is saying that the government knows how to save the market, namely, by violating the market. By way of analogy, this amounts to advocating promiscuity as a means for preserving virginity. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. “We’re in a huge recession,” said Bush, “but I don’t want to make it even worse.”

But President Bush has made it worse by throwing good money after bad, by redistributing the market’s losses, pronouncing in favor of moral hazard, and by making massive decisions for the market. What comes next is hyperinflation. According to a senior economist at Decision Economics, quoted in an AFP news story titled “Fed cuts rate to virtually zero, will expand stimulus moves,” the government is “pulling every lever and pulling them hard. They are going to print money until they get a reaction from the economy.” Well, the reaction has begun. The good faith and credit of the United States is over. Who is going to loan money to a government determined to inflate?

Consider the parade of stupidities we’ve seen since the crisis began in September: the bailout of Wall Street, the bailout of the banking system, and now the bailout of Detroit. This is what the president means when he says, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” So the solution is to spend trillions to save trillions. But nothing is saved!

White House rightly slams the NYT for attempting to blame Bush for the housing bubble. Related: Quoted at Belmont:

...in an attempt to increase home ownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, virtually every branch of the government undertook an attack on underwriting standards starting in the early 1990s. Regulators, academic specialists, GSEs, and housing activists universally praised the decline in mortgage-underwriting standards as an “innovation” in mortgage lending. This weakening of underwriting standards succeeded in increasing home ownership and also the price of housing, helping to lead to a housing price bubble. The price bubble, along with relaxed lending standards, allowed speculators to purchase homes without putting their own money at risk.

Sowell reminds us once again about the facts on the Great Depression. People love the comforting myth that government helped.

Myth or scam? Green jobs, at Coyote

LaShawn wants this book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism 

Photo via Theo, who knows how to celebrate Christmas

Bjorn Lomborg thinks the earth is warming, but he's rational about it (h/t, Samiz):

Wizbang:

The unspoken truth is that if Charlie Rangel was a white, conservative Republican his Democrat colleagues and the usual suspects in the media would not be satisfied with his resignation from Ways and Means, nor his apology. They would demand his prosecution for alleged felonies.

Britain has lost the stomach for a fight.

The emotion of "elevation"

Walter Dellinger: The juicy bits of the Constitution (h/t Joe Carter)

Obama's pair of Lysenkos

100% of top world terrorists are Presbyterians

The ongoing battle for Minnesota. WSJ

Dr. Bob on assisted suicide

The housing bubble, from Cafe Hayek:

There are four factors that helped drive up the price of real estate in the United States and create the housing bubble: The GSEs (Fannie and Freddie), the Community Reinvestment Act, expansionary monetary policy starting in 2001, and the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act that for the first time let people avoid capital gains on home price appreciation without having to rollover the gains into a bigger house.

On addiction, via Dr X:

The problem is that the very concept of addiction is controversial and philosophically problematic, touching on great questions of free will, emotion, and even spirituality. Most of this is beyond the scope of this post (and, it must be said, beyond the scope of this amateur philosopher), but it seems safe to say that addictions are never entirely chosen nor entirely determined. They always hover somewhere in between, and it's hard to get one's mind around that (sort of like the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics on a psychological level, perhaps...

Image is this year's Christmas Card from our friend, artist Elissa Gore

Christmas shopping: All I bought yesterday was some wine. Nothing expensive, but I hate to show up at places with nothing in my hand. And it's snowing hard again this morning. Snow in the city is a lovely thing, and all gals look good in long black wool coats and furry hats.

Winter Solstice at Newgrange.

Christmastime is mating season? No. Every day is mating time.

Not my forefathers' Cape Cod. Who let these people over my bridge?

Mugabe holds his annual 124 cow feast.

Pre-industrial CO2 levels were same as now. How come nobody says so?

The war against Rush begins. He's too popular, too smart, and too amusing.

Kristof:

We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates

Hilarious. Steyn on Bailoutistan

Hilarious. Terrapass at Powerline. A greenie scam if there ever was one.

Government TARP funds used to pay bonuses? I have a problem with that.

Wierd medical story du jour

China after 30 years of reform. Forbes

The NYT loves the soda tax. How about a chai latte tax for them? Maybe a kiche tax too.

Ace prediction: No complaints about Obama deficits

This is like many of our towns in the USA too: Recycling stuff goes to landfills. No market for garbage. If there were, they'd pay us for it.

The '97 tax break on home capital gains, and the housing bubble.

Good point at Conspiracy re card check. I wonder this: If 51% wanted to get rid of a union, could they?

I know the law is the law, but should you go to jail for dirty pictures? How different is that from going to jail for having dirty thoughts?

What governments do - NYS:

“Taxing the wealthy is probably going to be part of the solution if the deficit gets any worse, and all indications are that it probably will,” Mr. Paterson said during a wide-ranging conversation late last week. “If the deficit starts to grow again, then we’re out of moves. I’ve cut as much as I could.”

The governor said that increasing taxes on the rich should be “the last place you want to go, because it automatically kicks in less job creation and leads to people leaving the state, but that risk could become a reality if we have further deficit problems.”

With the state’s financial outlook growing bleaker, a sense that a tax increase for the wealthy is inevitable seems to be taking hold among lawmakers in Albany, where many Democrats have expressed support for such a step.

"I cut as much as I could." BS. "Don't tax you. Don't tax me. Tax the guy behind the tree." That is how states commit suicide - by punishing the earners. NYS is one giant political boondoggle. NYC is a good place to visit, but working here is like serfdom to the city and state unless you are so rich that you don't care.

Image via Theo

Humans caused global warming 8000 years ago.

Bulls and Beavers: Outdoor Personals

Ford refuses gummint aid. Chrysler (owned by a hedge fund) and GM accept the cash.

Related: Excellent summary of how Detroit went wrong by Megan

Caroline Kennedy often doesn't bother to vote (h/t, Anchoress) Related, from Capt. Capitalism:

A perpetuity of incompetent, spoiled brats who view public service as a cute little hobby and a means by avoiding work at all costs, and the economic mess we've gotten ourselves into.

Never do a good deed: CA OKs suing good samaritans

Home ownership. A quote from Boudreaux:

Ever-increasing home ownership is not the American dream. It's the dream of the National Association of Home Builders.

Quoted at Villainous:

"I was in my own little world,"' the young corporal said. '"I wasn't even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target."'

Mama Government treats citizens like small children. Hawkins

Hitchins on Rick Warren. Ridiculous

Remembering Wallace Nutting, antiquarian (Photo is a Nutting chest of drawers)

Remembering Paul Weyrich. Many posts at NRO

1897: Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Getting stoned with Barry O

Czechs won't fly the EU flag

Dems are the new ethics story. WSJ

Eau de Meat, for Men

Slightly disappointed in Kathleen Parker

Viable by March? Who's kidding who? I pay for this because I didn't buy their cars?

Once again, posting early because busy in the AM. Outside of the finance biz, lots of work in NYC this year.

Just a photo suggestion for the fellas: If you have any $ left, and she is kind and gentle, worries about your contentment, speaks soothingly to you after a tough day, and takes good care of you, why not give her some diamonds?

Fairfield, CT: What sort of dumb town would put 14% of their pension assets into a single hedge fund? And to read about that Orthopedic group is pathetic. Even docs should know better than that. Are these guys going to do hips and knees into their 90s?

The return of the Old Left. Oh man, not again. How many times can they crawl out of their grave?

When the economy is good, taxes go up because supposedly people can afford them. When the economy is poor, taxes go up to cover govt deficits. See NYS for example. But people can't raise their incomes to cover them, can they? Where's the $ supposed to come from?

For shame! Illegally cutting down trees in a nature preserve. Are they legally culpable?

Secular decline of the semiconductor biz, plus the Kondratieff Wave Theory

Iowahawk: My Five-Year Plan Failed

Rangel Watch: Yet another Rangel scam. Will it ever end? No doubt there wil be more to come. It's the Rangel Circus.

Obama talks good, doesn't he? Let's watch the grammar, O, or we'll set a bad example.

Only for those without Econ 101. Coyote

Watching TV ruins womens' love lives. Want perfection? Try a different planet.

Nude models on strike in Paris. Some strikes are good.

Via Insty, this is both smart and wise (a rare combo):

MATTHEW KAMINSKI: Don’t expect global Obamania to last. “One hates to spoil a good party, but here’s a bet that’s far safer these days than a U.S. Treasury bill: Even with Obama at the White House, they won’t really like us any more than before. It’s not because America’s not a special country, a City upon a Hill, from the Pilgrims to Obama, the Blagojevich couple and other American horrors notwithstanding. It’s because it is. And as ever, our earnest assertion of our superior ontological uniqueness–not to mention its reality in and of itself–is exactly what always grated on the unfriendlies grouped together under the banner of anti-Americanism. . . . The departure of George Bush will change the mood music in America’s relations with the world, but–here’s the heartbreaker for our romantics–it won’t change how most people see America. Because, for ‘anti’ masses, it’s not really about us; it’s about them.”

Do you view college as an investment? If so, see how they stack up in returns on capital.

Would you buy a new car from this company?

Why government spending doesn't help in recessions. Betsy. (It's because the money has to come from somewhere.)

The Ten Dopiest Leaders of 2008. h/t, Insty

Caroline Kennedy? What's she ever done? I guess Teddy wants it done.

Major study finds no relation between school spending and achievement

Christmas Books: Thomas Sowell

Fed rates to zero. That is dramatic, but how about -1%? Kudlow says only tax cuts can help.

Pin-up from Theo

A third of hedge funds will go down.

Grim tidings for the news biz. McArdle

It's about morality: Thatcher's defense of free markets

Politics as fashion statement: Gitmo lawyers and the new Radical Chic. Good grief.

Our enemies are collapsing. Dick Morris

Neoneo observes, as we have been doing for years, the growing numbers of vocal climate skeptics. She links Sen. Inhofe's most recent press blog. One quote from that:

“Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.

Related: Who's in denial? Am Thinker

Quoted in the WSJ today:

When folks like Mr. Madoff create a Ponzi scheme, it's called fraud; when the Federal government creates a Ponzi scheme, it's called Social Security.”— Bud Hammons, responding to "Madoff

I am away tomorrow morning. Busy on a job in Dallas. Yes, Texas is booming with biz and jobs, unlike much of the world.

Have you read Vanderleun's The Star yet?

Classical Values takes a look at the defunct Packard assembly plant

Corporate DNA. Coyote

Our pal Sipp makes it into the dead tree media. And rightly so - he works with dead trees.

The southern auto industry mocks Detroit

Jim Rogers says most US banks bankrupt

CT's Dodd still ducking. Gee whiz, all he did was to use his job to get VIP mortgages. What do you expect? It's just a perk.

Wizbang had New Author Tryouts

Where the heck does Steven Chu live? Arizona? Its' been cold as heck up here. We are in trouble.

Is the Obama Admin already damaged goods? If so, it's self-inflicted, but John McCain blames the Repubs. Huh? What's up with John?  Related: Blago in context: Tiger. Related: Schadenfreude Time?

From View from the Right on Madoff:

"Madoff—quiet, modest, simple, direct, generous, thoughtful, helpful, and not greedy," I pointed to the apparent contradiction that a colossal crook and robber like Bernard Madoff--a man who cooly defrauded his clients of $50 billion, a destroyer of wealth who wiped out the assets and the endowments of the individuals and organizations that had trusted him--exhibited so many personal virtues.

The community organizer's wet dream. Obama wants to spend a trillion. That's our money.

Rahm Emanuel headed to a grand jury. How fun for him.

Surber Update: The death of the piano industry. Also, Palin's church and arsonists

Michael Yon in Afghanistan. What a guy he is.

Santa brings pain and suffering. Bad, bad Santa. Be good, or else...

Who is Thomas Tamm?

Via Viking:

CNN: "Taxpayers: Furious over homeowner bailouts"

"All these idiots who bought homes they couldn't really afford are going to be rewarded with loan modifications, but what about those of us who didn't make stupid decisions?" asked Jay Black, a CNNMoney.com reader who rents in Queens, N.Y.

Sir, don't you know it's your patriotic duty to bail out your fellow American dummies? Sheesh.

Hey, No fair. Maggie's has a patent on Sheesh! and Good Grief!

Conservatives and the Delusions of the Left. Radosh

Haven't we had enough of the Kennedys? How long can people politically trade on an Irish name?

Another name fetish: Calls for Jesse Jackson Jr. to resign

The IPCC wants no more data. Don't confuse me with facts?  Our hero Klaus begs to differ.

Feminism update: More women criminals. Equality Now!

Yikes:

THE END OF OBJECTIVITY AT GOOGLE? “Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. . . . None of this would matter, if it wasn’t for one other trend: a paralysing loss of confidence in media companies.”

All dressed up and nothing to do. Joe Biden. He is was a tool.

God and Evolution, by Avery Cardinal Dulles in First Things (h/t, View from 1776). One quote:

Science can cast a brilliant light on the processes of nature and can vastly increase human power over the environment. Rightly used, it can notably improve the conditions of life here on earth. Future scientific discoveries about evolution will presumably enrich religion and theology, since God reveals himself through the book of nature as well as through redemptive history. Science, however, performs a disservice when it claims to be the only valid form of knowledge, displacing the aesthetic, the interpersonal, the philosophical, and the religious.

My experience has been that scientists and mathematicians tend to be humble about their ability to find ultimate Truths. It's non-scientists and those without scientific education who seem more likely to view science as a potential embodiment of Truth rather than as a collection of methods, data and theories - all of which change over time.

As I see it, Evolutionary Theory has little or nothing to do with the life of the Spirit. I am reminded of this survey which found that most doctors are believers.

Betty Page died on Thursday at 85. Photo from the article. She liked to take her clothes off, I am told. A sexual freedom icon. Cute girl. Every rose must fade and die.

Speaking of time passing, a 1940 Dodge, like new. Reminds me of Woody Allen's VW in Sleeper.

Driscoll: "Dissent: It's the highest form of patriotism. But patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Party time in Baghdad. We done good.

Problem was, the UAW didn't "release" the Dems for the vote. The UAW owns the Dems? I thought Soros owned the Dems.

Woops. They got it wrong. Fastest-growing states and the election.

Scott at Powerline remembers Sinatra's birthday with a remarkable tune.

Bailout means payback. Roger. That's what it's all about. By the way, take a look at the 22 lb. UAW contract. Good grief. Does anybody know what is even in there?

Two huge Dem scandals since the election: Rangel and Blago. Not a good start. And no, it doesn't please me at all: it just reinforces everybody's terrible opinion of pols.

Zimbabwe update. Socialism at work.

Two frozen treats from Thompson: How Eskimos build igloos (1951 video), and photographing snowflakes.

Posting this tonite because I'll be away tomorrow -

So maybe that reported Obama-Blago meeting never happened? I'm totally confused now, but Volokh's timeline helps clear it up.

Related, Mad or Bad? Warnings about Blago

Does time exist? New Scientist (h/t, Flares). I don't think it "exists," but it sure is a good practical concept, especially at dinner time.

This report about the Sphinx is old news, isn't it? Yes, it was jungly there in those days.

Re Greece:

"This is a country with a state that is in a shambles, a police force in disarray, mediocre universities that serve as hotbeds of rage instead of knowledge and a shattered health care system. It is also on the brink of financial ruin."

Ann Coulter on the Minnesota vote

A "Green Bible"? Good grief.

The House roll call for the bailout vote. As Betsy says:

Oh, yeah. These companies have been losing market share for decades and haven't been able to restructure to meet new circumstances. But in three months they're supposed to change all that and make sure that we have a "viable automotive industry?" And all for a relatively cheap $15 billion? Do you really believe that Pelosi has that sort of magic wand?

And more, from Prof. Macey via Tiger:

We need to encourage market solutions -- not bureaucratic ones -- as the best strategy for addressing the corporate governance failures we face today. Hedge funds and activist investors like Carl Icahn are the solution, not the problem. The market for corporate control should be deregulated and the SEC's restrictions on all sorts of equity trading should be lifted at once.

And more, from Boudreaux:

A government bailout of the Big Three keeps huge amounts of productive inputs in firms that can't use them efficiently. Forcing taxpayers to subsidize the continued employment of gargantuan quantities of raw materials, labor and capital goods in unproductive pursuits is a recipe for economic stagnation. The popular and politically convenient myth has matters backwards: The bigger the unprofitable firm, the more vital it is that it be allowed to fail.

And, predictably, Big Academia wants some bailout money too. Gimme.

And, last but not least: Bailing out Big Cheese

Update: Auto bailout is dead. The unions wouldn't budge. Money for nothin' and the chicks for free...

A commenter let us know about this comprehensive Calvin and Hobbes site. I didn't see the one we were looking for, but I did like this one:

Is Big Garbage too big to fail?

Would you cousin-humping rednecks stop buying guns?

Why to worry about the deficit. Stossel

Walter Williams reminds us that bankruptcy doesn't mean you go out of business

Chuck Colson receives Presidential Medal for his Prison Fellowship work.

Newsweek tries to use the Bible to support gay marriage

The 51% rule for marriage

Cool photos: Polar bear chasing photog

Image via Synthstuff