Monday, May 3. 2010
From the Huffington Post:
State-sponsored anti-Semitism... in 2010? ... in VENEZUELA? On the surface, it didn't make sense.
But as we continued our investigation, the evidence continued to build. There was the anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on the synagogues and businesses owned by Jews; there was the police raid on the Jewish school Hebraica that was based on a "tip" that the school was involved in an assassination plot [no evidence was ever found]; there were the frequent publications in the state-run media calling for the expulsion of the Jews; and there was even the anti-Semitic rhetoric of President Hugo Chavez himself.
Perhaps it is this last example that Jewish Venezuelans fear the most. When your own president is comparing Zionists to Nazis on national television, and insinuating that it is people of your religion that have all the wealth in the world ("the descendants of those who crucified Christ"), and then publically expels the ambassador of Israel during a war that your country has nothing to do with, I can understand why you might start to feel nervous.
But why? What could possibly be the motivation?
Maybe that is most shocking of all....
Below is the preview. What will be the conclusion?
Sunday, May 2. 2010
We are hearing the voices of Greek infants. Do they think money grows on trees? Why we connect Plato and Socrates to modern Greeks is a mystery of geography.
Mead explains how modern Greeks think.
Saturday, May 1. 2010
 Noonan: The Big Alienation. A quote:
This is not the old, conservative and long-lampooned "I don't trust gummint" attitude of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It's something new, or rather something so much more broadly and fully evolved that it constitutes something new. The right never trusted the government, but now the middle doesn't.
Goldberg: States' Rights and Wrongs
Do not hack into peoples' emails
Karl Rove still driving people crazy
The notion of offering Medicare to businesses
Oil spill as Obama's Katrina?
They ran crying to the Dean. Pathetic.
Via Dino:
As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee. In other words, the average federal bureaucrat makes twice as much as the average working taxpayer. Add the value of benefits like health care and pensions, and the gap grows even bigger. The average federal employee’s benefits add $40,785 to his annual total compensation, whereas the average working taxpayer’s benefits increase his total compensation by only $9,881. In other words, federal workers are paid on average salaries that are twice as generous as those in the private sector, and they receive benefits that are four times greater.
In defence of Glenn Beck
On immigration at NRO:
Linda (Chavez) criticizes the “slow, steady harassment” of illegal aliens. “Slow, steady harassment” is a pretty good working definition of about 80 percent of American law enforcement. It mostly works. You want to change the law, then change the law. But people who believe the way Linda believes about immigration have had ample opportunity to change the law through the democratic process. They have lost. They will continue to lose.
We have generous legal immigration laws now. They can always be changed. A nation without borders, though, is not a nation. A nation is a community of law. As we often say, the whole world wants to come here for freedom and opportunity, and would if they would only have to ignore our laws and wade through the Rio Grande. One thing that ticks me off is that the illegals have taken the jobs high school kids like I used to get: laborers on construction, landscaping work, electrician helpers, etc. They pay the illegals cash and the high school kids get fat and lazy playing video games. I began working summers and part-time during the school year when I was 13. Can kids do that now? I enjoyed working, learned a lot about life, got in good physical shape, and made money too.
Friday, April 30. 2010
“In this election… we have got to realize there is no longer any such thing as a conservative Democrat. It doesn’t exist. I used to be one of them. When I worked for Bill Clinton, that’s what I was. Now I’m extinct. There are no more of me. I’m a dodo bird. Now you are either a Reid-Pelosi Democrat or you are a Republican.”
Dick Morris
Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments. h/t, Washington Reb
Shawcross: Britain's humiliation
Legally, what's an "offended observer"? I am one, all day long.
Pew: More trouble for Democrats
If the government runs medical care, they will own your body. Bought and sold.
Mexico acknowledges migrant abuse, pledges changes. Yeah, sure.
Immigration: New third rail in American politics announced
Market-Based Membership Approach to Healthcare At the Same Monthly Cost As a Cell Phone Plan
Obama to Wall Street: “I Do Think at Certain Point You’ve Made Enough Money”. He made 5.5 million last year. Plus he gets free room and board from the government with a free chopper to the golf course. More from Driscoll
"Where's our money?" The SEIU protest (h/t, Theo):
Thursday, April 29. 2010
 Neither an imminent 10-meter ocean level rise nor the prospect of a flooded basement deters the Fearless Al from this waterfront purchase.
So does anybody still think he really believes his nonsense? Yes, he is making ark-loads of $ from it but, even so, he is so on board that it would be too late for him to change his mind regardless of facts.
Like Al Sharpton and Tawana Brawley.
But "facts" and "evidence" are just patriarchal and racist tools of oppression anyway, aren't they? In this brave new world, we all get to pick our own facts, depending on how we feel or on which side our bread is buttered, and reality is a politico-socio-emotional construct. Isn't it?
Remind me to post my bit on "Psycho-utopianism" some time soon.
Re Goldman, from Cardinalpark at Tiger:
The one thing I thought the Goldman executives should have remarked, when questioned about their tactical short overlay to reduce their long exposure to the mortgage morket, would have been to add that, had they not gone net short, they very likely would have been in line testifying with Dick Fuld from Lehman Brothers. And I know which questioning, however ignorant, I would prefer to face.
Today, I am a proud Goldman alum.
Is Congress ignorant about how business works, or do they feign ignorance for populist, political purposes; boob bait for the bubbas? Hard to tell. For certain, the WH is ignorant, as Dino reminds us via this reposted IBD chart:
At Politico today: The Wall Street-Washington divide. My gut tells me it's all a big diversion.
 A fun Costco prank. Goat balls?
From The Crushing Patriarchy, Episode 12:
The assumption of a ‘natural’ 1:1 gender ratio in all occupations is itself a prejudice, albeit a modish one. On what basis do we determine that there ought to be a particular ratio of male and female philosophers, or mathematicians, or engineers? At what point and on what basis do we determine that a particular gender is sufficiently “represented” in a given vocation?
Ambinder: The Democratic Message for 2010
Teach Social Justice - Or Else
Obamacare Requires You To "Show Your Papers"
Why reporters are down on the President. And no presser for 10 months! Shocking.
Orszag explains how ObamaCare imposes rationing
Stealth Statehood for Puerto Rico?
Astroturf to support the Cult of Personality
Why Obama is going negative
Adler at Volokh likes Cape Wind. I think it is insane. These costly bird-shredding eyesores will never make money without taxpayer subsidies, and will never amount to a hill of beans as far as energy sourcing goes. Tax-subsidized feel-good baloney.
Wednesday, April 28. 2010
 City Journal: Preservation Follies - Excessive landmarking threatens to make Manhattan a refuge for the rich.
NASA doubts climate model certainty
BBC: Climate party is winding down
Competition for The Teaching Company: Free Yale intro courses on DVD
Yale bans student-faculty gay sex. (I assume gay sex is included in this.) What about platonic romance?
Why women wear make-up. Villainous
Just what we need: A new mental diagnosis. Computer Stress Syndrome.
Americans, if not Obama, know Israel's strategic value
There is little new in the Arizona law. When I enter a foreign country, I carry a passport. Whether you agree with the law or not, "illegal" means illegal. Americans understand that. Our friend Never Yet Melted sees it differently.
More People Figuring Out that Law School's a Bad Value
Stay away from Mexico
Big biz considering dumping their insurance. Quote:
I’d like to write this off to the law of unintended consequences, but that would be pure nonsense. Not only was this known as a probable outcome, but Democrats lied through their teeth when they denied it. It was and is completely intended. It is the companies, however, that will be demonized for doing precisely what Democrats hoped they’d do (or, one assumes, the penalty for not supplying health care would have been much higher and any tax on Cadillac plans much lower). Single payer, here we come.
From John's Demonizing Goldman Sachs:
I'm not a particular fan of either Goldman Sachs or Congress, but today's hearing confirms that, given a choice, I'd rather have Goldman Sachs regulating Congress than Congress regulating Goldman Sachs. Goldman's employees are much smarter, considerably more honest, and far more likely to have my interests at heart.
Palin:
“I’m sick and tired of Obama and the White House coming out with yet another new crisis that has to be fixed by government sticking it to the people and taking more of what we earn and produce. Instead of allowing our small businesses especially to keep what we earn… But see, to many in the White House including our own president, I don’t know when they’ve run a business. I don’t know when they’ve been a CEO where they had to look out for the bottom line and they had to make payroll and live within their own means with a budget. They’re from government. They’re community organizers. They’ve been spending other people’s money for so long that the free enterprise principles that all of us believe in, it’s all foreign to them.“
The grown-ups of Euroland do not want to further enable the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) in their profligacy, but they are all tied together now, for richer or poorer.
Good summary in The NYT: Greek crisis poised to spread.
Also, good at Mead. He explains why we should care. I don't think Americans do care very much, unless they are in finance.
 Who he?
Dan is running in Southwestern CT against Jim Himes, who washed Chris Shays down the drain in the Obama win.
This November is a chance to remove Himes, a likeable ex-Wall Streeter but a Lefty Pelosi Dem, and to replace him with a new breed of bold Conservative.
Dan has an impressive resume, is an excellent speaker, and a personable fellow. We have met him several times.
He says:
I am running for Congress to restore the values of free enterprise and individual liberty to Washington. Fairfield County families want practical solutions on the economy, healthcare, and transportation. I will use my background as a businessman and a State Senator to implement new ideas to get our economy growing again and create jobs for our families.
All the answers coming out of Washington are for “more government”—whether bailing out banks, taking over auto companies, building record deficits for pork-barrel stimulus, or having government take-over our healthcare system. Our current Congressman, Jim Himes, has been a rubber-stamp for this big government agenda. I believe there is a better way. Through solutions that support small businesses and empower middle class families, I believe that we can get our country back on the right track.
He is trying a 3-day $30,000 money bomb. Send him a few bucks if you can. This could be the year for Blue State Conservatives.
Tuesday, April 27. 2010
Now that ObamaCare restricts the pay of all at health care firms to $500k, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – struggling with the huge deficits that are causing states to cut basic services -- wants to restrict the pay to executives of non-profits that provide services to the state for aid to 1 million needy families.
Depending on size, pay will be limited to between $105,850 and $141,000.
Further:
Executives are not the only target for contract changes, according to the memo:
• State money shall no longer be used for any employee seeking reimbursement for tuition, textbooks and supplies "unless such courses are required by the contract, licensing certification and Medicaid standards."
• Agency officials must seek state permission before they buy a new vehicle. They must justify its use to fulfill the state contract, demonstrate they have sought three bids, and shall not to exceed $25,000 unless they are buying a passenger van or vehicle for disabled people.
• Agency officials must seek state approval before spending more than $250 per person, per event on travel expenses.
• State money may not be used to defray severance costs unless the employee served more than a year with the company. And that would be capped at two weeks of severance pay and benefits.
Executives can try to make more from private contributions targeted to their salaries, bonuses and benefits. That should be interesting.
As if the US didn’t already have enough lawsuits, and as if excess litigation isn’t one of the prime drivers of medical costs, and as if the Democrats didn’t garner 90% of tort lawyers’ contributions, ObamaCare will create a new boom in lawsuits.
A Qui Tam action is brought by a private citizen against a company for fraudulent claims on a federal agency in violation of the False Claims Act. If triumphant, the claimant gets part of the court award.
To now, it was necessary for the claimant to be the provider or original source of otherwise unknown information. If not, the claim was denied court jurisdiction.
Now, the failure to be the provider or original source will not deny jurisdiction, and should there be such dismissal the government can oppose the dismissal and allow the court case to proceed.
From a piece on dinosaur extinction - my bolds. (h/t, SDA):
''We believe dinosaurs were most likely to be cold-blooded creatures and would have needed the warmth to keep them alive,” he said.
“If they were unable to migrate south they could have been wiped out. Climate change is now very much on the agenda in trying to determine how the dinosaurs became extinct.
“We now believe that they died out gradually and it is very possible that this could have been caused by a series of climatic changes.''
The drop in temperature is thought to have occurred because high levels of CO2 were in the atmosphere which caused global temperatures to rise and polar ice to melt – a phenomenon currently predicted for Earth.
More on the Stanford education prof's failed charter school at Pajamas. A quote:
EPA Academy students are graded on a five-dimensional rubric, based on (1) Personal Responsibility; (2) Social Responsibility; (3) Communication Skills; (4) Application of Knowledge; and (5) Critical and Creative Thinking.
Only 20 percent of the grade is based on knowledge, notes Michele Kerr, who taught an ACT prep course for disadvantaged students at a nonprofit from 2007-09. Compared to district high school students, East Palo Academy tutees had “the lowest skills and the highest grades,” Kerr recalls. Students with high A averages turned out to have very poor reading and math skills, though their writing was relatively strong.
Col. Frederick Gustavus Burnaby. What a guy.
A newspaper war: Wall Street Journal revs up New York Times rivalry
Why GM is paying money back
What should be done for these poor souls? There are lots of people out there who want to help them, but they are difficult to help.
Scapegoating Goldman: Best short version at Legal Ins. The bubble was obvious to everybody. If you were long mortgages, it was only rational and responsible to hedge that bet.
Americans seem to prefer legal immigation: 60% of Americans Agree With Arizona Bill… Only 31% Agree With Radicals & Obama
The Dodd Bill is a bailout bill
The real Tea Party agenda isn't particularly radical. Sounds like what ordinary Americans want: Leave us alone and quit doing us "favors." We aren't as dumb as you think.
Monday, April 26. 2010
Driscoll: Modern art comes full circle
Green corruption in the White House
What tradition knows: Overcoming Bias
Andy Revkin going after the children
City Journal: The Banality of Race - David Remnick’s life of Obama exemplifies the moral laziness of today’s liberalism.
The normally tepid Douthat on the South Park subject:
This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that bravely trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.
Prothero in The Globe: Separate truths. It is misleading — and dangerous — to think that religions are different paths to the same wisdom
American Self-immolation. Pravda
Steyn: Don’t worry about Iran’s nuclear program, but if you meet a tea partier waving some placard about the national debt, try not to catch his eye.
Kling: What I think about financial reform
Climate scientist sues newspaper for 'poisoning' global warming debate. So he admits that there is a debate?
The Five myths about green energy
The White House wants churches to advance its climate change agenda.
Just when you thought puff peces couldn't get more ridiculous: Obama loves pie
Q and O: Immigration and the welfare state
Jonah: What Kind of Socialist Is Barack Obama? h/t, Never Yet Melted
Republicans Threatening Congressional Seats Long Held by Democrats
John at Powerline: The Paranoid Style of American Liberalism
Just One Minute on The NYT:
For heaven's sake - is it asking too much of Times editors to reflect for two seconds before they reflexively blurt out their current PC response? OK, we all understand that when the next case comes the Times will insist that it is completely different and that the living, breathing Constitution can solve the next problem on the exhale.
Most Risks Hide in Plain Sight - WSJ.com
Benjamin Graham, perhaps the most astute analyst Wall Street has ever produced, was once asked whether he thought disclosure was adequate. Graham replied that the quantity of disclosure "makes me ill." He added, "I don't know if there is any solution … I suppose [a prospectus] would have to say in big red-letter words, THIS [SECURITY] IS NOT WORTH WHAT IT IS SELLING FOR. I don't know if that would make any difference either … somebody [would just say], 'What the hell, it is going up anyway.'"
You can lead an investor to disclosure, but you can't make him think.
Sunday, April 25. 2010
I have never seen the TV show South Park, but I have heard that it is clever in a goofy, sophomoric and irreverent sort of way.
You have probably heard that fanatics have threatened Comedy Central about South Park's irreverence towards Mohammed (pbuh). Comedy Central folded like a cheap camera. Hence South Park now has the Prophet appearing in a bear costume, and as Santa Claus. Kinda funny, if you can take a joke. Doubt they can.
As Kate observes:
The "extremist" is the one with the death threat.
The "moderate" is the one who explains what you've done to deserve it.
If you want to have religion in the world today, you have to be big enough to take some teasing and/or annoyance from those who don't get it. If you have a religion with vocal murderous and hateful people in it today, teasing is the least one should expect.
But Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is just teasing.
Hot-button issues like immigration, ObamaCare, bailouts, taxation, national security, faith divide us mostly along what has been labeled conservative-liberal.
At root, however, the differing views are more rooted in who gives and who takes.
Our “betters” are largely insulated from the consequences of their views, catering to themselves and our “lessers.” Then, there’s the “rest of us.”
The primary divide is between the rest of us who struggled, strived and gave versus those whose advantages parachuted them into powerful positions they abuse for their own wealth and to then take away the more meager advantages earned by others to give to the lessers who haven’t.
The rest of us favor immigration by those willing to work, but not to those who aren’t able or who just demand benefits.
The rest of us favor aiding the truly poor or disabled to adequate health care, but not to those who waste their money on frills and then demand providers to impoverish themselves and us not be allowed to make our own life decisions.
The rest of us favor business creating jobs and opportunities, but not lazy management and crazy schemes then feeding at the taxpayer trough.
The rest of us voluntarily pay our more than fair share, but not basic services being cut to enrich politicians and government workers who create more ways to tax in order to feather their own nests by creating more dependent lessers.
The rest of us support and serve in danger to preserve our freedoms and protect others’, but not to be frittered away through lack of priorities or will.
The rest of us thank G-d for our being and opportunities, but not to tolerate those who would deny us or others theirs.
The rest of us may become polarized but at root are not. The rest of us just feel caught between those who consider themselves our betters, who perpetuate themselves by allying with the lessers without due claim upon us, whether at home or abroad. These betters denigrate the legitimate concerns of the rest of us, but their scorn is hollow, ludicrous, and, indeed, energizing.
Our parents and grandparents were great generations whom we identify with because they were the inspiration for the rest of us. My baby-boomer peers have largely been the selfish punk generation of wastrels. Coming again, the generation of the “rest of us.” Those who want to lead, who deserve leadership, are recognized as authentic in being of, by and for the rest of us.
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“We could have an ice age any time.”