Saturday, November 29. 2008
 The new political economy. Krauthammer
Why they hate Mumbai I heard that Lord&Taylor was empty, but somebody got crushed to death by crowds at WalMart. Viking went to WalMart, and they were sold out of TVs. I have never been to WalMart, and I don't go Christmas shopping. Re shopping, Greg Mankiw wants you to buy this book. Kingsley Amis on everyday drinking. It's all about the Credit Default Swaps (h/t, reader) Where to set up a weather station. Nothing like asphalt to keep those temps interesting. But the entire subject is on the back burner now. Or, should I say, in the back of the fridge? Vintage marijuana Targeting our Yankee trains? We've already had enough from those people. Arm the passengers and engineers. Libs: Are they impossible to please? (h/t to I-forget-who) Media bias infects media self-examination.(Also, h/t to I-forgot) Foolish me for not knowing what a Dyson is. Photo: That's the Unsinkable Molly Brown's house in Denver
Friday, November 28. 2008
 I have never seen this famous Rosie person on TV, but I gather she is some big celeb of some sort, for some undoubtedly well-deserved reason which is unknown by me.
She must be a very big celeb, because she gets more TV viewers than we get daily visitors at Maggie's Farm! That's proof that the world is nuts. Well, on the other hand, we don't have a broadcast monopoly either.
 Man, do I need an extra-large coffee this morning. Here's Thanking the Puritans.
"Average Joe" Biden and his $4 million Nantucket house. I still believe that Liberals and Leftists love money, and that quasi-Libertarian-Conservatives like me just value free opportunities to do whatever we people want to do. Related: Biden still without portfolio. Makes good sense to me. India terror attack is Obama's first test. Related: India matters. NRO. Related: Jihad Update at Atlas. Obama on the "urgency" of fixing global warming. What global warming? I think it's a modern-day apocalyptic myth. We humans love such myths to organize and to "give meaning" to our lives...or don't we? I think I need my own life to give meaning to my life. As far as I know for sure, it's the only life I've got. Rahm Emanuel: we should "never let a serious crisis go to waste..." I am afraid I know what he means. Crises, whether real or trumped-up, are opportunities to expand gummint power. Same for Bush. Rove praises Obama's economic team. Jules is thankful for a few things. I am thankful for personal things - that I have a big family, and a decent job, and that I have the chance to live in NYC for a while. It's a darn lively spot this time of year. Inspiring, really, how smart folks are and how hard people work - and how they find ways to have a good time doing it. The world has become normal again. SNAFU. Can Marxism ever die? Am Thinker. No ideology has produced more death, misery, injustice, and oppression. Obama tells disappointed supporters: "I am the Change." Hmmm. WTH? Well, OK for now, but he sounds like a pompous goofball to me. I hope he doesn't believe his own BS.
Thursday, November 27. 2008
And we wish him, and his comrades, the same. Powerline. God bless our uniformed guys and gals. They do it for us, and we are unspeakably grateful.
Wednesday, November 26. 2008
 The new documentary Blocking "The Path to 9-11." A reader says it's fascinating, and so do the Amazon reviewers.
It's a DVD.
With the global cooling becoming increasingly obvious, when will it be declared a crisis? Still too many deniers, I guess. Quoted at Gateway's It's a Hoax: Climate change skeptics on Capitol Hill are quietly watching a growing accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming may still be too shaky to warrant cap-and-trade legislation.
While the new Obama administration promises aggressive, forward-thinking environmental policies, Weather Channel co-founder Joseph D’Aleo and other scientists are organizing lobbying efforts to take aim at the cap-and-trade bill that Democrats plan to unveil in January.
Pilgrims as Nazis? I thought immigration was a good thing. Why the dimples on golf balls? A new edition of Thornton Burgess' animal stories. Classics, for sure. First-ever online spending decline Viking beavers arrive in England en route to Scotland. Cool. Does Europe really believe in International Law? Only when it suits them The Western $ that flows into Gaza. Chesler. What is it buying? Kudlow: Revive the animal spirits with lower taxes. Related: Wilkinson on Romer The myth of Obama's small donors. The people of Iceland mad at their government Riehl: My biggest fear isn't that these bailouts won't work... My bigger fear is that the bailouts will "work" in preventing a total meltdown by ensuring that future generations of Americans will come to know the grinding pain of a system that will give us permanent and almost total government control and responsibility for nearly everything in America.
Just the notion that a government can "fix" an economy is ridiculous. Or "fix" anything else, really. That sort of thinking raises dangerous and insidious expectations.
Tuesday, November 25. 2008
 Tax-The-Rich Charlie Rangel will, no doubt, be protected from his behavior, despite daily revelations of his seemingly sociopathic and highly-enriching ($) career in politics. It just never ends.
I have always maintained that politics is far more corrupt than business, and is an attraction to corruptable people who do not like, or can not handle, real productive work. The "public service" thing is a big sanctimonious scam and a cover-up for many feckless, sneaky and glib schmoozers who lack marketable skills (with some exceptions). But we all know that, and I do not think it is cute. (I believe that we recently read that the Clintons - not that they are ever together in the same room - are now worth $100 million bucks. Maybe Socialism works...) Does Rangel's constituency enjoy the way he gets it over on "the power"? I do not. This is the guy who writes the incomprehensible tax code which I try my best to obey and which I require my clients to obey, but who dodges the rules every chance he sees. I resent that. Charming rascal or scumbag? You tell me but, if it's OK to be that kind of socialist rascal, can I be one too? I want my free piece of that Socialist Pumpkin pie. Real work is a bummer, ain't it? It's just so hard to do, and competing with others seems so unfair because the others try so hard to get ahead. That's just not fair. The government should do something about that.
Cyberspace swallowed up my morning post, and it's too late for me to try to reconstruct the items. Just a few, plus some that Bird Dog forwarded: This will be fun. The no-nonsense and thus far sole Honorary Maggie's Farmer Vaclav Klaus next head of EU. (The terminally-arrogant NYT makes their feelings about him quite clear.) Now that we have Dems in power, the AP changes its tune on Iraq. Suddenly, success matters. Intellectual integrity is so pre-pomo. Boiling Frog Socialism comes to America A black Republican quoted at Villainous:  I can vouch that being a moderate black Republican isn't easy. My black GOP colleagues and I endure endless ridicule and questioning from other African Americans, including close friends and family members who wonder how we can belong to a political party that is so overwhelmingly white, male, Southern, conservative and seemingly closed to ethnic minorities.
Critical thinking about "critical thinking." A quote from Prof Deneen's essay: “Critical thinking” is a form of intentional deracination and displacement. Its basic assumption is that students enter college or university with a set of under-explored moral commitments that they have inherited from the broader culture. Most dangerous and of concern are those students who enter college with traditional, particularly religious commitments that represent an obstacle to “critical thinking.” The implicit opposite of “critical thinking” is faith, understood as an unreflective set of commitments to pre- or anti-rational beliefs. An education in critical thinking takes on the appearance of contentless inquiry, but is in fact deeply informed by a considerable set of Enlightenment beliefs, including the effort to inculcate deracinated reason, a conception of the individual as a monadic “self,” antipathy to culture and religion, philosophical skepticism, a deep-seated materialism, and a devotion to a cosmopolitan outlook that permits one to be comfortable everywhere and nowhere in particular. The vast panoply of our “diverse” institutions of higher education are increasingly dedicated to the uniform formation of this particular sort of human being, and in the absence of a good understanding of the implicit content of “critical thinking,” are successful in that endeavor.
Indeed, "critical thinking," "deconstructionism," multiculturalism, and general Pomo Thought need more of their own attitudes applied to themselves. They are flimsy constructions, the plastic hula-hoops of our generation. The name of the game is being cool - and tenure.
Monday, November 24. 2008
 Obama reconsidering tax hikes. related, Obama irritating all the right people
Times' Mark Halperin discusses "Extreme pro-Obama press bias" Roast Brined Turkey. It works. I tried it last year. If fat people get two seats, should skinny people get a 1/2 seat? E=mc squared seems to be true. But why should that be? NYT spins history Palin's star power increases In appreciation of Bush. Wizbang Home on the Rangel. What other laws does this guy break? Am I crazy, or is the world crazy? Look at this new NYC statue. Surely the NYT is pulling our collective leg? From Volokh: Lessons from the Great Depression: Tyler Cowen on the lessons for today from FDR and the Great Depression: In short, expansionary monetary policy and wartime orders from Europe, not the well-known policies of the New Deal, did the most to make the American economy climb out of the Depression. Our current downturn will end as well someday, and, as in the ’30s, the recovery will probably come for reasons that have little to do with most policy initiatives.
Eric at Classical Values considers mens' room gay sex. I had to look up the meaning of "trade." Social politics. Why do we care so much about things that don't directly affect us? Quote from a piece by AVI: We care very deeply about these expressions of who we are as a society, locally or nationally. Some people don’t want to see strip malls. Some don’t want to see litter. Some don’t want to see sexual advocacy in the children’s section of the public library. Zoning, historical districts, wilderness areas, nude beaches, prayers before football games, public smoking, girlie magazines at the convenience store, transvestites, mosques, loud music next door, ORV’s, communications towers, homeless people, Wal-marts…We don’t want to see it! Or we do. It says something bad/good about us as a people. We want to feel that the place is ours, that it expresses us. I don’t want to live in a society that…
Sunday, November 23. 2008
 Why some people are lucky, and some are not. (h/t, YARGB)
Parents of fat kids charged with abuse in Britain. What's wrong with being fat? Why to be a well-dressed man What good is monasticism? Anchoress China's gruesome organ harvest Palin's gruesome turkey harvest Ten politically-incorrect thoughts. VDH Arianna Huffington: Online entrepreneur Dear Whole Foods: We're through... Insty: THE SHAM OF SEX HARASSMENT TRAINING: “It’s little more than politically correct indoctrination.” I’m shocked, shocked to hear this.
Saturday, November 22. 2008
From an Reuters story today: "Islamist militants in Somalia took steps on Saturday to attack pirates behind the world's biggest hijack and rescue the captured Saudi Arabian supertanker, an Islamist spokesman said." Who do you root for in this situation? The terrorists are using a religious rationale for recapturing the Saudi tanker, but they are clearly jealous of the success of the local pirates. Maybe it's best just to sit back and watch the game? 
What happy people tend not to do. NYT Get a room, David Brooks A single-celled organism the size of a grape. Repubs will never reach people who feel that they are owed stuff At least 25 years of global cooling now predicted. It's cold as heck here today. How bad will the recession be? Hawkins Eric Holder, gun-grabber, also makes the case for "reasonable" restrictions on internet The Waxman Dems: WSJ. A quote: It's obvious who now pulls the Democratic levers of power, and anyone in the energy or health-care business had better erect the barricades.
Friday, November 21. 2008
 Where's my bailout? (Image via Michelle). Related: The American auto makers need a bankruptcy to survive. Prof B. And how about a bailout for the modern art market?
The future of Cod in the North Sea A book: The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power (h/t, Wilkerson). It's basic psychology. Lots of people want a strong parent to protect them and take care of them. Why they think politicians are the ones to do that is beyond me. It's not my great-grandfather's America any more. The eHarmony and homosexual dating story, at Moonbattery Great news! The US is going down. Jules Shrinks doing less and less psychotherapy. That's a shame, in my view. A nice, wise old shrink helped me get my head straight when I was in college. I am forever grateful to him, because I was an immature jerk with a negative attitude. Our new AG on guns. Ouch is right. As we have noted before, post-election gun sales to honest citizens are through the roof, and prices are up. Dropping oil prices is like a tax cut. It's also making it tough on some: Look who's over a barrel A short course in Behavioral Economics. Edge. Very cool. Is Citibank Citigroup going to zero? I think it's a bear raid, but I don't know how the world economy can function without them. Hot hot hot. Global warming and sex. Waxman? Good grief. Obama cannot quit smoking. Is smoking allowed in the White House?
Thursday, November 20. 2008
 Kondratiev thought he’d check in on how Honda was doing while the Detroit Three were begging scraps from Congress. Not bad -- on October 27, 2008, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., announced a summary of automobile production, Japan domestic sales, and export results for the month of September 2008 and the first half of the current fiscal year (April-September 2008), including all-time records for worldwide auto production and production in regions outside of Japan for the first half of a fiscal year.
Honda Motor has announced that its worldwide vehicle production for the year-to-date increased 3.4% to 2,985,638 units, compared to the same period of 2007. 915,574 of those cars were made in Japan, and 1,095,828 were made in North America! Honda began operations in the U.S. in 1959 with the establishment of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Honda's first overseas subsidiary. Honda began U.S. production in Ohio in 1979, and began U.S. automobile production in 1982 at its Marysville, Ohio, auto plant. The company has invested more than $10.6 billion in its North America operations, including 16 major manufacturing facilities employing more than 35,000 associates and producing more than 2 million products annually, including Honda and Acura automobiles as well as motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, personal watercraft, lawn mowers, general-purpose engines, and other power equipment products. Honda currently partners with more than 650 North American suppliers and purchased more than $18.8 billion in parts and materials from North American suppliers in 2007. On October 9, 2008, Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC began mass production of the fuel-efficient, 4-cylinder Honda Civic sedan at its new facility in Greensburg, Indiana. The $550 million facility will ultimately produce 200,000 vehicles, and employ 2,000 associates at full capacity.  Nearly 900 Indiana associates have been conducting trial production for several months, refining new processes and equipment, and learning to meet Honda standards for quality, efficiency and flexibility. Today’s start up of mass production culminates several weeks of department-by-department production start-ups in stamping, welding, painting, plastic injection molding, body assembly and other areas.
Currently, Honda Manufacturing of Indiana is operating on one shift with plans to add a second shift in 2009. The Honda Civic sedan being built in Indiana features the 140-hp, 1.8-liter, 16-valve SOHC i-VTEC® 4-cylinder gasoline engine produced by Honda associates at a Honda engine plant in nearby Anna, Ohio. Honda announced plans to build the Greensburg facility in June 2006, and broke ground for the new production facility in March 2007. The new plant is a comprehensive production facility that includes metal stamping, plastic injection molding, subassembly and final assembly and other processes. Honda Manufacturing of Indiana sits on a 1,700 acre parcel facing Interstate 74 in Greensburg. Honda has designed the Greensburg facility to be a flexible, efficient and environmentally responsible auto manufacturing facility. The plant will be Honda’s second U.S. auto plant designed as a zero waste to landfill facility. It will help to boost Honda’s total North American automobile production capacity from 1.42 million units to more than 1.62 million.
It's snowing this morning in NYC. So much for global warming. Imported cars piling up in Long Beach Ghost resorts with the economic downturn Obama won the election, but it's a Clinton administration How low can Fed rates go? 3 financial myths. Tiger Romney: Let them go bankrupt (video) There is now no journalism as we knew it: VDH. Related: What's the future of news? h/t, Am Digest Has the middle class really had income stagnation? There is no sea level rise. h/t, Junk Science Lots of good comments on yesterday's economy post. One reader is waiting for the Really Big Barf to get us to Dow 6000. Thus far, the global loss of wealth seems staggering to me. Andy Kessler in the WSJ advises Ignore the markets until Feb.
Wednesday, November 19. 2008
 A prosperous friend of mine in New York told me yesterday that he was considering giving up his jet share, which was costing him $200,000/yr. Then Mrs. B. tells me that Lord&Taylor is packed with shoppers.
I was struck by this "hardship case" that Insty linked: One of the hardest decisions was to tell her granddaughter that she could no longer take horseback riding lessons because they couldn't afford it. "She loved those horseback riding lessons," Gentile said.
Are we headed for a 3-year global recession?
Are we headed for Dow 7500?
Are people buying things where you live?
Is this a hyped-up ordinary recession, with great stock market buys that will make you wealthy in a few years?
Are we headed towards a long global depression?
Is this all an emotional reaction?
Is this all a Dem/Obama effect? I've heard and read the conflicting experts. What do our readers think?
Post-Americanism or Anti-Americanism? Krikorian on the Obama admin:Aleinikoff’s account may be read as both predictive and normative, an indication that American elites not only believe that our constitutional democracy will be subordinated to global authorities but also desire that this come to pass.
"Global authorities"? This sounds like old-fashioned Imperialism, Soros-style. World Peace and Bacon Grease Trained Thought Crime snitches in Canada's schools. 1984 was not written to be a handbook. Obama's AG pick is a gun-grabber. No surprise there. The government couldn't even run a whorehouse The complicated logistics of war in Afghanistan Govt pensions and the markets. A mess. Taxpayers may need to pay twice. Cash is king? Blue Dog Dems gain power. American Jews don't care about Israel? Powerline Auto bail-out on the way. A quote: With George Bush in the White House and somewhat slimmer Democrat majorities on the Hill, the very fatty pound of flesh the unions want is not possible now. This week's Congressional shenanigans are just chumming the waters and to allow the networks to have all Thanksgiving and Christmas to run "woe is me" stories about the wonderful hard working union families facing economic extinction after the holidays. That will set the stage for what is sure to be the first big battle of Obamunism. And it is a hugely important battle for the future of business in this country. Forget this little distraction about Hillary and the Secretary of State job. If the Obamunists (my name for the hard core leftists who support Obama and on certain days, Obama himself) can get everything they want regarding the auto industry and widespread forced unionization via the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act that would abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections, this country will be plunged into Euro-socialism faster than Hillary and Bill could have dreamed with their ill-fated "Hillary Care" in 1993.
Tuesday, November 18. 2008
 Nanny Bloomberg is losing it. I think he has a hang up about what people do in restaurants and pubs. The guy is a jerk. There must be more pressing issues.
Who are the "most important people in America"? Pols? No way. Docs? Naw. Bond traders? Heck no. The guys who clean the sewers? Fugettaboutit. It's Trial lawyers. Murdoch to MSM: You lost your monopoly. Same as GM - they lost it when they deserved to lose it. Soros Update: Soros and Franken. Also, Soros group shaping Obama agenda. Does Soros still own the Dem Party? The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. h/t NRO "Pursued by screaming homosexuals,..." Yikes. Don't you hate it when that happens? Steyn remembers the wonderful Alistair Cooke A dying Ted Kennedy wants Medicare for all. Watch out for ye olde unintended consequences. The pirates are having a field day. Bring back the uptick rule. I am in favor of that. It makes prices more difficult to manipulate. Made me feel good to vote for a black guy. That is racist. FIRE is on my list for December donations this year. Insty agrees. Lying just comes naturally to Bill Clinton. It's a life-style. Great Depression 2 is on the way. In 2011, which is way before Global Warming will kill us all. Schwartzenegger: Let's go and . . . fund programs if they're necessary programs and not get stuck just on the fiscal responsibility."
Just brilliant! Go broke, California.
Interviews with Obama voters, via a piece at Gateway on the media's failures to inform voters about Obama. (By no means do I think all Obama voters are this poorly-informed, nor that Conservative voters are all well-informed.) Still, I find this disturbing, but maybe it's the way it always is:
Monday, November 17. 2008
Note to our Editor: I am out of pocket Tuesday morning -  The way cool new pledge of no allegiance
How about a Spam sandwich? I had enough fried Spam when I was a kid, but, when a hungry, growing lad, fried Spam and potatoes isn't too bad. Via SDA: "Obama Sued Citibank Under CRA to Force it to Make Bad Loans."
Wyatt Earp was a horse thief? The demise of Playgirl Magazine A cautious yet sane thumbs-up for Obama from Tiger. And insane verbal priapism from the MSM. If it lasts longer than 24 hrs, call your other girlfriend. From Surber: The $100,000,000 fortune of the Clintons is being combed for possible improprieties. I think those are spelled C-A-Y-M-A-N I-S-L-A-N-D-S. Remember all those cute stories about what a great big grown-up Chelsea was working for a hedge fund. Suddenly, the job isn’t such a good idea…
Those pirates got a big boat Afghanistan update. It's iffy. Jules The Big Dig moved the traffic jams from point A to point B. Brilliant! Melanin Revisited. Thompson Real paper airplanes You already read the story about the hottest October on record, didn't you? Love and hate. One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.
The Swedenizing of America. Gates Why it's incorrect to say that the "auto industry" in North America is in trouble. It's the UAW which is in trouble. From Powerline: 
Quoted at Will Wilkerson, re Zombie firms: ...if GM vanished from the earth that would be an opportunity for the other car companies and whichever of them is best-situated to expand to fill the market share void left by GM could profitably some of the capital and labor currently in use. But if a dead firm is kept on life support, that weakens all its competitors’ positions without offering any promise of resurrection.
 The $639 million loophole
Paglia on Palin and the election The Iraq war is over. The good guys won. But is this how to restore America's moral stature? The UAW is the force behind the auto bailout. Related: The US Treasury's ATM is open for biz. Here's your bailout form. Send it in TODAY and get your own Free Government Money! Insty: A LOOK AT subdivision wildlife. Interesting discussion in the comments. I see deer in my neighborhood pretty regularly, and saw an eagle the other day.
Google Earth does ancient Rome in 3D The US credit boom since 1980. The whole country is leveraged to the hilt, thanks to cheap money. Bobby Jindal on What's wrong with the GOP The health care banana peel. Yes, it's one of those third rails of American politics. We take it for granted, but American medical care is the envy of the world. The Money Hole. If you haven't seen this yet, here's your chance:
Sunday, November 16. 2008
From guest poster Bruce Kesler - Business As Usual Goes In Circles Statists on the Left resemble some private sector advocates on the Right. They argue over which path to take, both leading in similar circles. Both avoid the road right before their feet, as it would require looking forward to benefits for all instead of selfishly at themselves. That road not taken is of outcome neutral free enterprise that enriches all. Statists on the Left defend and want to enlarge government programs that sap productivity, reward sloth, and create a New Class of taxpayer-supported or obliged favored. Their fun-house mirror images from the Right defend and want to enlarge large corporate welfare, wasteful and needless products, and self-serving and enriching speculation. Both are dependant upon the supposed largesse of government steering its huge budgets toward one or the other’s pets. Government’s core role is in preserving freedoms to be individuals and national freedoms to avoid foes endangerment of our individual freedoms. One can legitimately, also, propose that government serves that role when it can mobilize to increase our abilities. But, government must then compete with other providers for which can do so most cost-effectively. Private enterprise’s core role is in developing and selling -- transparently, honestly and without coercion -- solutions and products that individuals want to purchase, either directly or through government. One can legitimately propose that trial-and-error may be wasteful, and some of that waste enriches selfish schemers. But, if subject to market penalties, waste is most quickly penalized and investments that benefit more are encouraged. In the current economic meltdown, the central fallacy of runaway statists and of irresponsible corporatists is exposed. Both plead they are too big to be allowed to fail. But, both already have failed. Both seek to put makeup on the zombie by sucking life out of productive sectors. The easy pickings of criticism come to mind, but they only scratch the surface of our aimlessness and lack of understanding of what works: Competitiveness comes from competition, not from government protectionism. Big-Three auto industry critics correctly point to uncompetitive wage rates and pension promises reducing profitability, but erroneously criticize now competitive quality or pricing. Their strides forward on these fronts came from having to meet quality and pricing market pressures from foreign-owned auto makers. Preserving their uncompetitive labor structure injects formaldehyde -- at the cost of more jobs lost and of taxes and debt squandered -- rather than life. Instead, auto executives plead for taxpayer-relief from exorbitant labor costs. Those who enable this avoid the clearly marked road. That this seemingly easy and obvious conclusion is neglected by statists and by auto executives, both under pressure by union supporters or by union threats, highlights the path in other realms of our difficulties. The bulk of state budgets are consumed by labor costs and pensions. The Left’s think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy Studies, counts 41 states in severe deficits, most wanting Washington to pay their bills as if manna from heaven. The Center points at relatively minor restraints placed on program beneficiaries – the first to be impacted when 50-75% of budgets are deemed “fixed costs” of government workers and structures -- while hiring – which exploded along with wages and benefits during the past 10 years – is merely slowed. The largest contributors to statist political candidates are government-employee unions. The obvious path should be that any state program be first subject to cost-effectiveness competition, as with school vouchers and other private service providers, subject to reasonable standards. Private providers, however, must meet – indeed, take the forefront in proposing -- such reasonable standards rather than seeking loopholes to be primarily self-serving. Clear and tested market standards are not the enemy of free enterprise but its underpinning. Notice, this is a separate matter from whether this or that program is worthwhile. Those decisions will be clarified by open competition and standards of measurement. More difficult distinctions arise when other realms are considered. For example, the contracting of Defense and State tasks abroad provide flexibility in staffing and incurring costs only when needed instead of idly in reserve, but at higher costs when necessary. Again, reasonable standards of competence and results for competition are required, rather than protecting government payrolls and longer-lasting retirement obligations. Veterans organizations and retired diplomats, here, operate like unions in being more oriented toward benefits than toward mission effectiveness. Taxing certain expenditures and not others, exempting certain organizations – particularly “charities” whose prime recipients are those running and working for them, are more difficult to justify when exposed to more scrutiny. These and many other instances of spreading transparency and freer competition provide citizens with clearer choices over their taxes. One-by-one and in mass, special favors embodied in the thousands of pages of tax codes will be exposed. Essentially, this would move toward more neutrality between richer and poorer, between saving/investment and consumption. Competition breeds competitiveness and more efficient choices that better meet each individual’s needs and ability to advance. The truly unfortunate are not abandoned. Instead, resources are not wasted but able to be focused on providing them with more opportunities. The truly motivated are not penalized for adding to their and our opportunities. That’s the American road, not the protectionist staying-in-place circle of self-destruction we’re now trodding in circles.
 Reviewing our posts since the election, I notice that we have returned to a better, more wholesome balance between Real Life and politics. That's a good thing.
As heavy-duty tax-paying Citizens of a free republic, we feel obligated to care about current events and, as our readers know, individual freedom and respect for our culture are our primary political interests. But current events (ie the "news") consists mainly of ephemeral things which mentally exist in a strange virtual reality as much as in reality, and likely never matter to us on our deathbeds - assuming that we will even die in bed (but that's what we at Maggie's call the "Deathbed Test" of what is important in life - a test which is highly individual.) Semi-sorta related: We see that Diana West, author of Death of the Grown Up - a book we plugged when it came out - has a blog or, as I prefer to call these things, a website. We need to add her to our blogroll, and I will tell her that we admire her and that she is on the same page as our resident shrink Dr. Bliss. (A communal site without a shrink is like a canoe without a paddle.)
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