Wednesday, February 10. 2010
Earthquakes prove anthropogenic global warming. Everybody knows that.
Prof Jones, via SDA:
Jones (nine years later) in a 2005 email:
(McKitrick and McIntyre) have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a freedom of Information act now in the UK, I think I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone.
Jones three days ago:
We interpret data. We don’t create or collect it. It’s all available from other sources.
 A short appreciation and history of toilet paper
Who knew this was a felony? I am a repeat felon.
The New Dating Game - Back to the New Paleolithic Age.
Everybody agrees that the Obama invitation is a trap
The Federal Government is Working Hard To Shield States From Their Own Irresponsibility
Dick Morris: How Repubs will win the Senate
Hansen collegue says IPCC report "has no scientific merit". Related: Sen. Jim DeMint twitters: D.C. snow will continue 'until Al Gore cries uncle'
Related: Fred Singer on the IPCC:
In this enterprise, the group was aided not only by environmental zealots, anti-technology Luddites, utopian one-worlders, and population-control fanatics, but also by bureaucrats, businesses, brokers and bankers, who had learned how to game the system and profit from government grants and subsidies for exotic schemes to produce "carbon-free" energy and from the trading of carbon permits. Hundreds of billions have already been wasted -- most of this in transfers of tax revenues to a favored few.
These sums pale, however, in comparison to the trillions that would have been spent in future if some of the mitigation schemes had come to fruition -- such as an extension and major expansion of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to control greenhouse-gas emissions. Fortunately for the world economy and for taxpayers in industrialized nations, these schemes collapsed at the Copenhagen climate conference in Dec 2009.
Related: Bishop Hill vetted a random IPCC paragraph
Tuesday, February 9. 2010
First, from Dan Luskin:
New York Times, March 29, 2005:
...the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer. We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay...
New York Times, February 8, 2010:
Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.
The second from Q&O, from the NYT in 2005:
Mr. Bush has reacted by railing against Democrats for obstruction — as if Democrats are duty-bound to breathe life into his agenda and, even sillier, as if opposing a plan that the people do not want is an illegitimate tactic for an opposition party.
 The Harvard Psychedelic Club: Did LSD really kill the 1950s?
Is it a tragedy for languages to be lost?
Re the Trapp family, here's a good chronology
Pajamas: Hard truths about the immigration debate
At Volokh: What is the EU all about? I think it's about a bureaucratic empire and unelected mandarins who know what is best for the little people
Please, no! Coming together on a climate bill
Pam Geller destroys Reagan Jr
Thinking about John Jay of Rye and Katonah, NY
Day 386 of Chicago-style politics. Related, even Newsweek is worried (h/t, Dino)
George Will: Charting our way to solvency
The Antitrust Exemption For Health Insurers: Meaningful Or Not?
Monday, February 8. 2010
Highly recommended and hilarious: Pat Condell on the Saudis, human rights - and England. Pithy, as always.
I cannot keep up with the uncovering of the global warming scam. Now it's Africagate. Where is Fearmonger-in-Chief Al Gore hiding?
And even more! Now we have Alaska Glaciergate as a companion piece to Himalayan Glaciergate. Related at Driscoll: The global warming guerillas. A quote:
Journalists are wont to moan that the slow death of newspapers will mean a disastrous loss of investigative reporting. The web is all very well, they say, but who will pay for the tenacious sniffing newshounds to flush out the real story? ‘Climategate’ proves the opposite to be true. It was amateur bloggers who scented the exaggerations, distortions and corruptions in the climate establishment; whereas newspaper reporters, even after the scandal broke, played poodle to their sources.
Where is Big Oil? Not in the US
How about Mitch Daniels?
The t-shirt story at Powerline: But Enough About Me. What Do You Think About Me? (By the way, the lady did have medicalinsurance.)
A joke: Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island. (h/t, Jules). Legal Insurrection (of RI) has a new mission.
Am Thinker: Desperate Times and Left-Wing Psy-Ops
$ and politics:
The House Democrats' campaign operation has a significant cash advantage over its Republican counterpart: $16.6 million to $2.7 million. And incumbents are fund-raising in anticipation of competitive contests. Florida's Mr. Grayson said Wednesday that his $861,000 fourth-quarter haul was more than any other Democratic candidate's.
From Fracking the Academic Left:
I've spent decades trying to teach college students, and I think I can say after all these years that I've never succeeded in educating anyone. Not even one. Occasionally education has been seen to happen in my classes, or at least I would like to believe so. But education always comes from within. Students bring their eagerness to learn with them; you can't make them educated any more than a parent can "grow" a child. People aren't carrots. You can't "grow" them.
Sex Week at Yale
Sunday, February 7. 2010
A reader referred us to a Weisberg post at Slate, subtitled Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis.
I don't know what he means by "political crisis." The essay does seem to reinforce our post yesterday about liberal condescension. However, does he have a point or not, here?
Sixty percent of Americans want stricter regulations of financial institutions. But nearly the same proportion says we're suffering from too much regulation on business. That kind of illogic—or, if you prefer, susceptibility to rhetorical manipulation—is what locks the status quo in place.
At the root of this kind of self-contradiction is our historical, nationally characterological ambivalence about government. We want Washington and the states to fix all of our problems now. At the same time, we want government to shrink, spend less, and reduce our taxes. We dislike government in the abstract: According to CNN, 67 percent of people favor balancing the budget even when the country is in a recession or a war, which is madness. But we love government in the particular: Even larger majorities oppose the kind of spending cuts that would reduce projected deficits, let alone eliminate them.
Let me put the hypothetical question this way: What Federal programs would you cut or eliminate (in addition to the Federal Dept of Education) which affect you or your family personally?
Saturday, February 6. 2010
A 15 mpg clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A 25 mpg vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. They claim 700,000 clunkers were turned-in, so that's 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars. So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million. We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.
Rightly or wrongly, they used to call these people "not college material." h/t Capt. Capitalism who thinks these things should have been learned in High School. I'd say Grade School. Readin, ritin, and rithmatic, right?
Who are the Tea Partiers? THEY ARE STARVING CANNIBAL MARTIANS WHO HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND PETS!!!!
Related: Tom Tancredo acts like a total jerk. Not funny, Tom.
The maybe coming Iranian Revolution. I hope they go for it.
Vanderleun: "Scientists said" is becoming the numero uno phrase that gripes my ass.
Krauthammer: The Electorate vs. Obama's Agenda
Why Antagonize China? The revitalization of Asian capitalism is the most important positive event in the world in the last 30 years.
Jules on Brown:
Whether Scott Brown realizes it or not, his future is not entirely in his hands. Their are people out there who have plans for him, and this has all the makings of an epic ride that doesn’t necessarily end well for him. Hang on. Remember that thing about getting a dog if you want a friend in DC.
Insty:
WAIT, I THOUGHT CALLING PEOPLE SOCIALISTS WAS A “SMEAR.” Gallup: Majority of Dems View Socialism Positively.
Related: A Stroll Down Extremism’s Memory Lane.
In response to a question asking Democratic Party delegates whether they felt George W. Bush was legitimately elected in 2000, fully 91% of respondents said he wasn’t. The poll also noted the response rate of self-identified Dems overall, 78% of whom thought Bush’s 2000 election was illegitimate (question 56).
Just for perspective.
Obama Reverses on Bankers. Like it or not...
First India throws the IPCC overboard - now the Netherlands. Oh, and now China. It's difficult to keep up. England, too:
Despite active measures by the BBC and the liberal Guardian newspaper to suppress climategate revelations, other media outlets like the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and the TimesOnline have picked up the slack and have run story after story about the fraud, the bad science, and the shameful actions of scientists in trying to suppress opposing viewpoints.
The Economist: Neither the president nor Congress shows any sign of knowing how to tackle the deficit. Related from VDH: Is Greece our future?
However much people may want global warming (the warmists want it for their narrative and for their grant $, and people like me because we think it would be good for humans), the scientists worry: Signs of Damage to Public Trust in Climate Findings
Obama picks campaigning over leading
Friday, February 5. 2010
What a putz. Can you image if Bush...
Where not to die in 2010.
Also from Tax Prof: Law School Only Makes Economic Sense If You Go to a Top 70 School. Top 70? I'd say Top 25.
Fun in Hartford: NORTHEAST FISHING & HUNTING EXPO COMING FEB. 26-28
A bamboo bike?
How come no family members help this poor lady?
The wealthy don't pay the estate tax. Small businessmen, farmers,, and regular people are the ones who get stuck with it.
Rent control in NYC: Taxpayers, Meet Your New Tenants
Unpleasant Grannies rage against Tim Tebow's existence. Wonder whether they have grandkids...
Steyn: Credibility is what�s really melting
Tim Blair: Their faith upset by recent events, warmenists are lashing out.
Related: We have been swindled:
We've been set up as marks by a gang of opportunistic hucksters who have exploited the na�vely altruistic intentions of the environmental movement in an effort to control international energy consumption while redistributing global wealth and (in many cases) greedily lining their own pockets in the process.
Perhaps now, more people will finally understand what many have known for years: Man-made climate change was never really a problem -- but rather, a solution.
For just as the science of the IPCC has been exposed as fraudulent, so have its apparent motives. The true ones became strikingly evident when the negotiating text for the "last chance to save the planet" International Climate Accord [PDF], put forth in Copenhagen in December, was found to contain as many paragraphs outlining the payment of "climate debt" reparations by Western nations under the watchful eye of a U.N.-controlled global government as it did emission reduction schemes.
Then again, neither stratagem should come as any real surprise to those who've paid attention.
The EU is a tyrant. It is time for the Euroweenies to man up and rebel.
"I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company," Thomas said, according to a report in The New York Times. "These are corporations."
Thursday, February 4. 2010
Re Ted Kennedy, via Never Yet Melted:
...Kennedy waxed sentimental about Washington in the early 1960s: “It used to be civilized. The media was on our side. We’d get our work done by one o’clock and by two we were at the White House chasing women. We got the job done, and the reporters focused on the issues. . . . It was civilized."
Email from a friend:
One of our institutional equity market strategists reacted to Pres O's proposal to tax banks to recover TARP money. Everyone knows the the gov't is net ahead on its bank investments, but here are the actual returns (costs or benefits to taxpayers) as calculated by my colleague:
Bank bailouts: + 16.9 billion profit to date
AIG bailout: - $30.4 billion projected loss
Automaker bailout: - $30.5 billion projected loss
Homeowner bailouts: - $50 billion projected subsidy
Looks to me that the logic leads us to tax homeowners. Ooooooooops! I just realized that he is proposing that, too.
Who says there's nothing amusing in the newspapers anymore?
(From yesterday's MarketWatch)
Justice Department seeking "retarded" or "mentally ill" lawyers.
Art as manifesto: The Bauhaus group
Our blog pal Mr. Free Market signs off. I guess his site has not been corporate enough. We shall miss him.
TREES WILL NOT BECOME UNSTOPPABLE KILLING MACHINES, ADMIT CLIMATE SCIENTISTS
College life: The Hamilton follies cont'd
Burlington VT: Our experiment in socialism
Kudlow vs. Schumer?
Blue Crab:
Longtime readers know that I have a brother with Down Syndrome.
My brother is considerably more decent, honorable, polite and has a better vocabulary than Mr. Emanuel.
By a very large margin.
Why does the US MSM ignore all of the climategates? Perhaps they do not wish to confuse us.
Powerline: Obama Attacks Churches, Charities and Home Values
Is the O's dishonesty harmful? Reason
Obama Budget Includes $4 Billion Bonanza for ACORN
Our friend Roger begins:
Last week, Howard Zinn, reigning anti-American historian of America, died of a heart attack. He was 87. Zinn’s gift to posterity was A People’s History of the United States, a book that has done more than any other textbook to instill hatred and contempt of America in the nation’s teachers and their students. No wonder it was such a runaway success. First published in 1980, it has gone on to sell some 2 million copies. And its brief against America was memorialized in “The People Speak” a 4-part mini-series that aired in December.
The outpouring of sentimental pap that Zinn’s passing occasioned was as large as it was nauseating. Typical was Bob Herbert’s emetic eulogy in The New York Times...
Americans do care about the "greater good." Right now, that means caring about the federal debt.
Wednesday, February 3. 2010
Thinking creatively about medical insurance. He says:
It was pretty crazy for Congress to decide under McCarran-Ferguson that the insurance business should be balkanized into 50 state markets.
Nowhere is the craziness more severe than in New England, where state insurance pools are tiny and health-insurance and health-care costs are the highest in the nation. Even a medium-sized state, say North Carolina (population 9.2 million), would largely escape this problem.
From Dennis Prager's What I Said to the Republican Members of Congress:
It is very easy to say, "Vote for us and we will give you, we will give you, we will give you." It is much harder to advocate what is right and to say, "Vote for us, but no, we won't give you" -- even though that is the more moral and the more American position. So you have the far more difficult task.
John Rosemond, who writes books on child rearing, says that the most important vitamin you can give to a child is Vitamin N, his term for the word "No." You have given America Vitamin N.
 FOX News may have Megyn Kelly but check out one of our Maggie's Farm fact-checkers (photo).
The intolerant Left: Tebow and NOW at Hot Air
Hypocritical Repubs
What is the IPCC supposed to be doing?
Related: Global warming is dead
The wine train stimulus scam
Keep an eye on Iran this month
An excess of Ivy League
Legal Insurrection: Here's What Early Draft Of Constitution Said
Insty:
CHANGE! (Or is this Hope! instead?) Estate Tax Repeal Creates Boom for Lawyers. Yay, lawyers!
Read and weep: The new tax proposals
Frank Rich wants to see more violence
Dems worried about 2012
Government medical care: Canadian pol to US for heart surgery
Photo from Theo, of course
Tuesday, February 2. 2010
Rahm Emanuel terms budget doubters and dissenters "f-ing retarded." That would include me, and I'm sure he is correct. Respectful debate on the merits is great, isn't it?
Speaking of f-ing retarded, Punxatawny Phil is. 6 more weeks of winter? Well, duh. Tell me something I don't know, genius.
Miss Megyn Kelly. Indeed she does. And brains, too.
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