Thursday, August 5. 2010
 You can get almost anything at Costco
Hard Drinkers, Meet Soft Science
Home Alone
Lessons from Ma Bell
Michelle: Mad Maxine’s minority fat-cat bankers
Insty: Is higher ed a waste of money?
Driscoll: Paranoia, Short-Term Thinking, and the Ongoing Media Death Spiral
Sowell: Democrats Bite Democrats: Part II
WSJ: Liberal Piety and the Memory of 9/11
What was that movie where they handicapped everybody? Universities That Use Kindles vs. the ADA
Missouri's Prop C will be ignored. McCaskill: Message received (that the voters don't get it). Says Brewton:
If the practical effects of this conflict between state and federal law are likely to be limited, more importantly, Missouri’s vote revealed once again that the country is still aghast over President Obama’s health-care presumption. Earlier this week, the Congressional Research Service reported that the new bureaucracy the bill created is so complex and indiscriminate that its size is “currently unknowable.” Capitol Hill’s independent policy arm added that among “the dozens of new governmental organizations or advisory bodies,” it is “impossible to know how much influence they will ultimately have.”
No wonder Missourians rebelled, as with voters in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia last year. There will be more such what-have-they-done ObamaCare moments. Wait until the public discovers the government is now literally determining what qualifies as “health care” in America.
Fighting the union for school innovaton
Am Thinker: The Revolt of the States. It's about time.
GOP aims for House seats in New England
Wednesday, August 4. 2010
Why is this? Why is desiring Constitutional government anti-black and anti-brown people? (toon is h/t Lucianne)
My view is that the assumption that people with more skin pigmentation cannot make a decent life in America without government hand-outs and special favors is insulting, condescending, racist - and simply untrue.
Am I a racist for saying this? America has tons more white folks on the various government doles than folks of color. I'd like to see them all get their act together, regardless of pigmentation. America is the least color-conscious nation on the planet. Nobody here cares about that, anymore (except for the race-mongers who still try to make careers out of it).
Several Republican US Senators are now supporting hearings into whether there should be a Constitutional amendment restricting birthright citizenship, anyone born on US soil is a US citizen.
There’s some electoral opportunism there as well as recognition that most Americans want more restrictions on illegal immigration.
About a fourth to a third of illegal immigrants in the US are parents of children born here. In some localities, the majority of births are to illegal immigrants, many of them coming into the US specifically for that purpose. Although by laws these parents are denied most governmental benefits, they are permitted to stay to care for their children, and many do work illegally. The children may petition for legal entry of other family members.
There is no legal doubt that the US has the complete right to govern entry and citizenship. There is doubt as to whether the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, aimed at the citizenship of former slaves, intended to allow the birthright citizenship that we see today. Advocates of restriction cite the statement of a co-sponsor of the 14th. However, the language of the 14th has been interpreted in various ways by scholars and politicians over the next years and century-and-a-half. There are some peripheral court cases but the US Supreme Court has not specifically weighed in.
At this point, it seems that only a well-drafted Constitutional amendment would be able to restrict birthright citizenship. Surely there would be majority consensus to do so, requiring at least one parent to already be a citizen.
However, there are implications that must be considered. Should such children already here be allowed to retain citizenship? I’d guess yes. Should their parents be allowed to stay? I’d guess yes, with a path to citizenship. Should the children of legal entrants who have not yet become citizens be automatically granted citizenship? I’d guess not, at least until the parents have qualified and the children too. Some may consider that rewarding past behavior, and it is, but in a grand bargain and out of compassion, I’d guess there’d be the overwhelming support required for a Constitutional amendment.
I’d suggest the language can be as simple as “Only a child born of at least one US citizen will be a US citizen. All others are subject to US laws of entry, residence and citizenship.”
Yes, there will be resistance from those who want virtually open borders and those who benefit from hiring illegals, and from politicians whose constituency is such, but they are a minority and have little or no legal basis. There are valid emotional appeals to our past and to compassionate values but they, if not a purposeful distraction, are a recipe for enlarging the problems. Our past did not have the current practical burdens upon citizens or entrants.
As strong border controls are essential to reducing illegal entry, so are removing incentives to illegal entry or staying. Uneducated illegal entrants are the main problem in net costs to our economy and government budgets. The US has need of some, and some are or will become or their offspring become net contributors. But, not as many as once or now or in the future. A Constitutional amendment to restrict birthright citizenship directly deals with a substantial part of the problem in a reasonable, cost-effective and widely-supported way.
UPDATE: According to the respected PEW Research Center's Hispanic Center, there are over 4-million children in the US of illegal immigrants, and they make up 8% of the US birthrate.
 Everything about dating blunders. h/t, Linkiest
More on The Higher Education Bubble
Related: Colleges Serve the People Who Work There, Not the Students
Update on Open Water At The North Pole
Brilliant: Police: Officer Baited In Altercation That Injured Him. Cop goes to black church to discuss public safety, is ambushed. Doubt he will volunteer to help those folks in future.
The folly of banning online gambling. Gambling is legal: see "stock market" and "Las Vegas" and "race tracks" and "football pools" and "Indian casinos."
With Dems in Hot Seat, the Times Undergoes a Sudden, Cynical Softening on Ethics Charges
Lowry: "If you want to find a grown-up in government, don’t look in the Oval Office or the Capitol. Look in the statehouses of New Jersey and Indiana."
Breitbart: I Got My Correction Thanks to the The New York Times — Now Who’s Next?
Princess Robin of Berkeley: My mate is sleeping with the enemy
Voegli:
(The) tactile aspect of liberalism is the one that causes so many conservatives to pound their heads on the table in frustration. I refer to the moist-eyed, quivering-voiced, morally preening affirmation of the tautology that when the government gives people stuff, the people it gives stuff to wind up with more stuff than they had before the government started giving them stuff. After they calm down, conservatives say, “Fine. Stipulated: Benefits are (or at least can be) beneficial. Now, can we please talk about how we’re going to pay for all these programs? And how we’re going to make sure that the Santa Clausification of American government does not transform us from a republic of free and equal citizens into a nursery of wardens and wards?
The 100 worst stimulus projects
Instead of arresting the guy, I'd hire him to work in the ER
Is it greedy to want to make money? Were the 80s the Decade of Envy instead?
Last I heard, envy was a deadly sin. Last I heard, wanting to make an honest living and to be productive was a basic adult responsibility. Greed, also one of the 7 deadlies, is "an insatiable desire for wealth." It's a sin because it makes an idol of wealth, replacing God.
Government cannot run something this big and important and complex: Rethinking Socialized Medicine In Canada
Related: America's first vote on Obamacare
Related: Folks with Medicare are already beginning to feel the changes. Soon, the rest of us: Wave of Health Reform Provisions Coming Next Month.
By forcing insurance to cover things we do not want and do not need, in ways that are not sensible for us, they will drive up prices with the goal of putting all of us on a one-size-fits-all government plan. And what's this about covering your kids until they are 26? That's insane. Why not until they're 40, when real adulthood begins nowadays (if it ever does)?
From Betsy:
When civil-rights groups such as the NAACP and National Urban League come out condemning charter schools, you know that they have decided to fall down on the side of the teachers rather than the students. As Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West of Harvard point out, many charter schools serve minority populations and are increasingly popular among minorities. These organizations are ignoring the needs of the families who are crying out to get their children in the charter schools and out of the regular public schools.
The Other McCain:
“Everyone must come to grips with and make sense of their own failures. Excuse-making, blame-shifting, scapegoating — ‘It wasn’t my fault!’ — prevents us from learning the lessons of our failures. . . . Persistently attempting to externalize blame for our own failures is a recipe for moral disaster.”
Tuesday, August 3. 2010
Douglass at Am Thinker spells out the details. It is rather amusing. Krugman was once an economist, but has been a political hack for years. One quote from the piece:
Paul Krugman has spent his career as a pundit advocating that government bureaucrats and political process replace markets. He knows that there is a large literature that says that this is a bad idea. That literature is transparently relevant to Krugman's only policy proposal. And yet Krugman has not read it...and admits that he has not read it, without embarrassment.
By July, Krugman had lost his "Battle of the Blog." On July 23, Latrina commented, "Who is this Sean from Florida? He takes everything that [the] Professor [says] and shreds it, piece by piece. He shouldn't be allowed to post his comments on this blog since he seems to be winning all the debates. We progressives need to stick together and embellish our talking points without someone from the outside pointing out fallacies in our ideology."
Bingo.
City Journal: What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know. Our scientific ignorance of the human condition remains profound.
No Big Bang: A new model of the cosmos. h/t, Vanderleun
When The Government Owns GM… the other auto-makers are not going to be treated very fairly.
Challenge to Health Care Law Advances
State and Local Debt Bombs Ticking Throughout US Heartland. Beware of muni bond funds.
Via Thompson:
And then there’s the leftwing think-tank, the New Economics Foundation, whose Head of Social Policy, Anna Coote, tells us we would become “better parents, better citizens, better carers and better neighbours” if only our incomes were dramatically reduced. “We,” she says, will be “satisfied” without the “dispensable accoutrements of middle-class life,” including “cars, holidays, electronic equipment and multiple items of clothing.” The preferences of the British electorate – whose taxes fund the NEF - don’t figure in this brave new world and the NEF’s deep thinkers simply know what’s best for us. What’s best for us is “introducing measures to reduce the gradient between high and low earners,” “growing our own food,” and “mending and repairing things.”
Top Ten Most Left-Biased Working Journalists
The Secret History of Climate Alarmism. It's about German politics.
At Volokh: Philipson and Posner on the Causes of Obesity. Some of the comments there are very good.
Ace on Paul Ryan's Roadmap:
I honestly would be in favor of the conservative bait and switch in '12 and pay the price in '14 if we got anywhere near the results the Democrats have gotten in the last year and a half. Somehow though, the Republicans never seem to pull the trigger.
Rep. Pete Stark: Federal Government Can Do Most Anything:
Has this guy ever read the Constitution? Didn't he have to swear to uphold it? People like this are dangerous.
Q&O: Bush tax cuts – it’s not your money, so quit whining
David Stockman on the debt: Four Deformations of the Apocalypse. He wants a tax hike. Kudlow .takes on Stockman
Monday, August 2. 2010
Tiger takes a walk on the High Line
Women 'view modesty as sign of weakness'
The WaPo doesn't get it
Report: Connecticut No. 2 In Unfunded Pension Liability
ADA update:
In recent months a New Jersey jury ordered a rheumatologist to pay $400,000 for not providing a deaf patient with a sign language interpreter at his own expense...
Related: Jury Damage Award Could Close Calif. Healthcare Facilities
Megatool Prince Charles Declares He's Here to Save the Planet or Something
The Ruling Class Tosses Americans Overboard
Young Illegals Out Themselves, Daring To Be Deported
Americans Cut Back On Visits To Doctor
Alcohol Use Now at 25-Year High
Palin: Obama lacks 'the cojones' to tackle immigration
Michelle: Summer of Corruption: Maxine Waters/OneUnited Bank refresher course\
The yacht vs. the pickup truck - Democrats are now the party of perceived privilege, and GOP is the party of the people
Related: the story of two weddings. Also related: Dems are the party of the rich
Surber: It was not a stimulus. It was a raid on the Treasury
Powerline:
That's what happens under government medicine. Political considerations are substituted for medical judgment, and over time many doctors and nurses, government employees all, come to view their patients much as postal employees view the letters and packages they sort. With no competition, patients have no choices, and the quality of care steadily erodes even as the price--like the price of everything run by government--rises.
Gateway: It’s Back: Public Option Again Rears It’s Ugly Head
Can Rubio win?
NYT Blogger Who Knocked Fox News' Audience Diversity Has the Same Problem
Something we can learn from Cuba:
After the crash of the former Soviet bloc, Cuba's cash-strapped government in the 1990s approved a wide range of self-employment. Positions such as beauticians, dog groomers, small restaurant owners and even lighter refillers were legalized as long as workers got licenses and paid taxes.
But social resentment emerged as an issue when some workers, particularly in small private restaurants, achieved dramatic levels of success.
The government began increasing taxation and regulation, and decreasing license-granting, until the self-employed sector was largely rendered paralyzed, like the rest of the economy.
Sunday, August 1. 2010
FBI Files Reveal Historian Howard Zinn Lied to Hide CPUSA Membership. Who is surprised? This America-hater made many millions, and led a cushy life in freedom on his fashionable America-hating. The only good thing about Zinn is that he loved Wellfleet, which fortunately was never in the Soviet Union.
Malanga: Government dietary advice often proves disastrous. As we have repeatedly said here, nobody knows what an optimal diet is, and definitions of "healthy eating" change constantly. It's a field full of fads, and full of cranks with the delusion that they know what's best for you. At Maggie's Farm, we have been thriving on Thai Noodle Soup (the hot version) this summer. Eat your Bok Choy! Scientists say it's good for you!
Vanderleun on poetry. We like poems.
Saturday, July 31. 2010
It’s not for me to argue Catholic teachings, but my friend The Anchoress Elizabeth Scalia’s reply to Anne Rice's problem with whether Christians are living her political liberalism probably comes as close as to the Catholicism I learned being raised a Jew in a Catholic and Jewish neighborhood. Rice, like many or most of various religions, confuses politics with faith or, worse, substitutes politics for faith.
There’s a universal message, whether from scripture or Pope, that works: Open your heart and G-d will walk in. Close your mind and G-d’s presence is clouded, at least until your heart is set free.
Struggle with that as you wish or need to find meaning and salvation. Struggle is important in building strengths and to advance. That allows the confidence and trust that ultimately works, to accept the faith in man and in our actions being truer to G-d’s missions for us.
There’s a practical measure each can easily know, if not denied: Are you living life’s struggles with contentment instead of anguish or anger.
There are varying interpretations of whom Jacob wrestles, the result of which is his renaming as Israel. There’s agreement, however, that wrestling spirits with spirit is transforming.
A poem I just dashed off (revised in keeping with the form):
I
Am Nothing
Struggle Makes Us
Strong Enough To Accept
The Guiding Light To Make
Something Better Of I
G-d’s Better I
Is All
Us
Rembrandt's depiction of Jacob's wrestling is one of engagement, not separation.
Those holes are rocket launchers, also found on custom cabs and ambulances.
Brilliant ad for Linda McMahon in CT. We think she has a real chance against Blumenthal.
Tim Pawlenty talks. He seems like Mr. Rogers.
A Dagestan wedding. Good grief.
Bruce told me about the 1949 movie, The Third Man. Sounds wonderful.
A reader sent this link which explains Gramsci's cultural hegemony
More about the sleazy Sherrods
Powerline: Whatever happened to the Constitution? Apparently it is too radically right wing for modern times, with all its focus on individual freedom and restrictions on state power. I like to remind myself that King George lll had nothing close to the power that our modern federal government wields today.
Reason: Growing Pains - ObamaCare won't stop rising health care costs.
A basic component of air remains illegal
Justice Department Encourages Voting by Felons as It Suppresses Military Vote
VDH: The Truths We Dare Not Speak About Illegal Immigration
Forbes: Why Keynes Was Wrong
Did The Government Cause The Gulf Oil Spill? Indirectly, yes. But the government directly caused the housing bubble and housing bust.
Maybe it’s Time For Jews to Fess Up. Evil Jews run the world. Everybody knows that. More about the evil Jews at Legal Ins.
Friday, July 30. 2010
 The Volt: G.M.’s Electric Lemon.
Can somebody tell me how this piece of expensive and useless crap is supposed to save the world?
Where do people think electricity comes from? Thor?
Photo is a Yugo, not a Volt. But you knew that.
 Since News Junkie is taking off for August, and only the names and the dates change, here’s a guide to the daily news for our readers. Fill in the blanks.
CONGRESS:
Congressional Democrats Deny Scheme To _________________.
Congressional Democrats Propose Scheme To _________________.
Congressional Democrats Expect To Survive 2010 Elections Because _________________.
Congressional Democrats Poll Numbers Continue To Decline Because _________________.
Congressional Democrats Refuse To Investigate ___________________.
Congressional Republicans Have A Secret Plan to ______________________.
Congressional Republican’s Secret Plan Is Not To _______________________.
Congressional Republicans’ Chances Hindered By Extreme Statements About _____________.
Congressional Republicans’ Extreme Statements Are Only So To Leftist Journalists Who Say ________.
PRESIDENT:
President Obama declares urgency of ____________________.
President Obama puts off decision on __________________.
President Obama vacations in _____________________.
President Obama nominates ____________________.
President Obama’s nominee’s past reveals _______________.
President Obama recess appoints _________________.
President Obama’s longtime friend under the bus ______________.
President Obama says Bush at fault for _________________.
President Obama breaks another campaign pledge to _________________.
President Obama praises despot ___________________.
President Obama criticizes ally ________________.
JOURNALISM AND COMMENTARY:
Major media journalists ignore above news about ____________________.
Bloggers investigate and reveal facts about ___________________.
Major media find excuses for _________________________.
Bloggers persist about ___________________.
Major media run stories about bloggers not being journalists ____________________.
Polls indicate more people believe bloggers about _________________.
Major media continues to ignore facts about ________________.
Major media continues to shrink ___________________.
Major media appoints new liberal to masthead ___________________.
Major media reports scientist saying science says to ____________________.
Scientist’s science is based on faulty methodology ________________________.
Major media repeats scientist’s assertion about ___________________.
Smart person eloquently points out the obvious about ________________.
Smarty pants commentator points out purported minor exceptions to the obvious to disprove the obvious about _________________.
MAGGIE’S FARM:
Old server crashes again and excused as ________________________.
Bird Dog vacations in ____________________.
Photos of Bird Dog’s vacation in _________________________.
Debate continues on how much cheesecake is appropriate ________________________.
Big links to Maggie’s cheesecake from major blogger _________________________.
Serious subjects essayed at Maggie’s Farm arouse commenters about other subjects ____________.
Fun subjects at Maggie’s Farm arouse commenters to add to fun about ___________________.
Maggie’s Farm recipes and computer advice only work for blogger _________________.
Bruce interrupts permanent vacation to say (sometimes boring) _________________.
Joy Bliss pithily starts a subject and doesn’t finish about ______________________.
Great art and literature you never heard of about _____________________.
I am taking a mental health break from Maggie's for August. I love Maggie's, but I am sick of having to see all of the outrages du jour. As that guy Drinking with Bob says on the radio, "What next? What next!"
We lease one of these babies:
Good site, discovered by Vanderleun: I Want a New Left
NEA Removes Post Encouraging Teachers To Celebrate Chinese Communist Revolution
Poll shows opposition to health care overhaul declining. Of course. It hasn't gone into effect yet.
Dalmia: The Death Of The Global Warming Movement
Galston: How Americans’ Shifting Political Ideologies Threaten the Democrats
Ann McElhinney:
“So when my husband and I came to America, we heard a story about conservatives. We heard that these conservatives are a really really weird lot. Nutjobs, basically. And these conservatives, they’re obsessed with sex. They’re obsessed with sex and they’re obsessed with what you’re doing in your bedroom. It’s all they think about. They’re just constantly worrying about what you’re up to in your bedroom.
But you know something? Since we’ve moved here, we haven’t found that. But what we have found is that liberals, are in every other room in your house. They’re in the fridge. They’re in your car. They’re in your air miles. They’re in your clothes. They’re in your hair. They’re in your cleaning products, and your washing machine and the refrigerator. They’re all over the place! And they’re in your light bulb! And I want to say them .. This is America! Get out of my light bulb"
Once again: Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency in California. They needed a real man like Chris Christie.
Lopez: Ohio Wants Something Different
Kafka-trapping:
"The longer the playing of the race card continues, the probability that someone will deny the accusation, and thereby provide proof of the accusation, approaches one."
Sissy reminded us of this excellent Am Thinker post: Cultural Marxism
How science led the Third Reich. Totally related via Q&O: Why "science" has a problem:
If science wants to redeem itself and regain its place with the public’s affection, scientists need to come out every time some politician says, “The science says we must…” and reply, “Science only tells us what is. It does not, and can never tell us what we should or must do.” If they say that often enough, and loudly enough, they might be able to reclaim the mantle of objectivity that they’ve given up over the last 40 years by letting themselves become the regulatory state’s ultimate appeal to authority.
Thursday, July 29. 2010
For the second day in a row, our home-made mini-nuke plant in the basement, which provides the power to the Maggie's servers as well as to our milking machines and our a/c, went down due to mice. Today, I picked up a cat at the shelter to live in the basement. Nuclear power problem solved.
In apology, and since I am headed to Vienna soon, I offer something from the King of the Waltz, Johann Strauss Jr:
Not to be confused with his dad, Johann Strauss Sr., composer of the Radetzky March among much other music. Dad, famously, never forgave his son for going into music instead of banking.
Neither are related to the great German composer Richard Strauss:
Anatomy of a Microburst. Often mistaken for tornados.
Is being a slut liberating?
Pre-Cambrian life forms
The Boy Scout parade
SEC Says New Financial Regulation Law Exempts it From Public Disclosure. Huh?
New Calculator Shows How Much More Taxes Will You Pay Next Year
NYT Reporter Surprised at Lack of Gratitude in Texas for Obama-Care Handout
Heather MacDonald: What Judge Bolton’s Injunction Doesn’t Say
The President Wears Prada
We have had quite a few posts about Woodrow Wilson lately. This from Scott at Powerline:
Reading the scholarly work of Woodrow Wilson is an educational experience. It is shocking to read the expressions of his disaffection for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. As R.J. Pestritto has demonstrated, the intellectual roots of modern liberalism lie in an assault on the ideas of natural rights and limited government. They eventuate in an administrative state and rule by supposed experts. Obamacare represents something like the full flowering of modern liberalism.
Wednesday, July 28. 2010
A quote from his interview:
You know what that rally was? The "me first" rally. "Pay me my raise first. Pay me my free health benefits first. Pay me my pension first. And everybody else in New Jersey, get to the back of the line." Well, you know what? I'm not going to sit by and allow that to go unnoticed, so we'll shine a bright light on it, and we'll see how the people react. But I think we are seeing how the people of New Jersey are reacting, and that's how you make it politically palatable in other states in the country. Just shine a bright light on greed and self-interest."
It's the right time to take on the greed of government unions. Somebody's got to do it before every Dem state goes bankrupt. As I always say, the marriage between government unions and the Dem party is an intrinsically corrupt conspiracy against the people.
 City and County Government Associations: Obama Economy Will Create or Save, Eh, I Mean Destroy or Eliminate 500,000 Public Sector Jobs. Toon borrowed from that piece at Ross.
The “does it make me look fat?” question
Caddell: Our Divisive President - "Barack Obama promised a new era of post-partisanship. In office, he's played racial politics and further split the country along class and party lines."
Hawkins: Seven Deceptive Mainstream Media Techniques
Reason.tv: Arthur C. Brooks on the Battle Between Free Enterprise and Big Government
"Temporary marriage" in Iran: "We call on all our sisters who are virgins" to put out for the lonely pilgrims - for cash.
At Thompson:
Greg Lukianoff on knowing why you think what you think.
One of the great harms of speech codes and campus censorship is that it leaves students with the false impression that censorship is what good, compassionate people do.
Reynolds: Taking Photos In Public Places Is Not A Crime: Analysis. "Too many officials think taking photos is a crime. Here’s why they’re wrong." h/t Ace
"Set up a motion-activated camera at a stock water tank in South Texas and you'll catch all manner of critters."
Good advice: Surviving the Low-Level Job. People will need to get used to this.
Monday, July 26. 2010
This Sherrod story. I thought I was sick of the story even before it started, but I guess this is a slice of America too. Every country has moonbats but, as Palin would say, these are "sick puppies," determined to live in anger and hatred.
Glassman: Notes on Europe’s Economic Decadence. "Prosperity creates sloth."
Axe falls on NHS services
Examiner: The calamitous effects of Obama's tax hikes. Related at Powerline: Coming Soon: The Biggest Tax Increase Ever. There's nothing like a big tax increase to work wonders on a struggling economy.
Vernon Smith says "no more government spending,...avoid new taxes."
Ariz. law comes after years of mounting anger
Malanga: The Muni-Bond Debt Bomb
Am Thinker: We The Serfs...:
Your tax dollars at work in Rhode Island. How long before those sidewalks are cracked with weeds growing through the cracks?
VIDEO GOLD: Howard Dean Gets A$$ Handed to Him On FOX After Misplaying His Race Cards
From Cato's Investors: Fear the Process That Gave Us ObamaCare, Not Efforts to Repeal It (my bolds):
... the problem is not that the political system is breaking down. That system is working pretty much the same way it always has and always will: it promotes irresponsibility. Republicans and Democrats are merely responding to the incentives created by the system in which they operate. (If they didn’t respond to those incentives, the political system would throw them out and replace them with people who do.) If investors don’t already understand that, the sooner the better.
This is why responsible people want to take responsibility for our health care, etc., out of the hands of politicians.
Sunday, July 25. 2010
Edge: Getting at the Neuroanthropology of Morality
Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas. Is this story true? Possibly not.
Coming Soon: Tax Tsunami
Reid to Netroots: "We're Going To Have a Public Option"
Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care
More government intrusion into private sector pay
Race realist Jared Taylor declares the "civil rights struggle was won long ago"
A guy who doesn't want you to have a/c: The Big Chill: Giving AC the Cold Shoulder
Dino: What happened a year ago to permanently change public opinion?
Powerline: The case against Elena Kagan
Obama’s Solar Energy Fantasy
The Lottery Makes a Strong Statement About Charter Schools
From Insty: "THE YOUNG AND THE JOBLESS: New Evidence That The Minimum Wage Has Hurt Teenagers."
Climate and budgets from Coyote:
The climate modeling approach is so similar to that used by the CEA to score the stimulus that there is even a climate equivalent to the multiplier found in macro-economic models. In climate models, small amounts of warming from man-made CO2 are multiplied many-fold to catastrophic levels by hypothetical positive feedbacks, in the same way that the first-order effects of government spending are multiplied in Keynesian economic models. In both cases, while these multipliers are the single most important drivers of the models’ results, they also tend to be the most controversial assumptions. In an odd parallel, you can find both stimulus and climate debates arguing whether their multiplier is above or below one.
Saturday, July 24. 2010
In the WSJ: "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege - America still owes a debt to its black citizens, but government programs to help all 'people of color' are unfair. They should end."
America owes no special debt to its black citizens - or to any of its citizens. If any American does not feel fortunate as hell to be here, they should depart - while bearing in mind that half the world would move here if they could. Maybe Webb, an accidental Senator (due to macaca) felt he had to say that for political purposes.
But although Webb, a Dem, does not vote in ways with which I agree, I give him credit for his thought crimes in his op-ed: He seems to believe that all Americans ought to be regarded equally in law and government regardless of the vagaries of skin tone or ethnic background. I agree with that radical postition.
The Other McCain has a more cynical, and probably more savvy, view.
Racial group differences
GM sold GMAC. Now they're buying another credit co. Why? To make subprime loans
Linda McMahon: John Galt in Skirts in Connecticut
The K-man: Beware the lame duck
How John Kerry dodges MA taxes. Hypocrite.
Vanderleun: The Voice of the Neuter is Heard Throughout the Land
SHOCKING VIDEO- What the MSM Won’t Show You From Shirley Sherrod’s Hate Speech
Hot Air:
... the answer to the White House’s needless destruction of good-paying jobs is …. let them eat unemployment claims!
Interesting Data on Increasing Pubic Employment
The authors use data for a sample of OECD countries from 1960 to 2000, and they find that, on average, the creation of 100 public jobs eliminated about 150 private-sector jobs...
Surber: Obama’s damage to Democrats
Friday, July 23. 2010
Rhee fires 226 teachers.
This is only a big deal because public school teachers are so often unionized. Pre-teachers unions, they were professionals - meaning that their work was subject to their own conscience, honor, best reasonable effort, etc., - and the judgement of those paying the salary. Today, only private school teachers can be regarded as true professionals, even though I acknowledge the vast numbers of utterly dedicated public school teachers (including many who bemoan the industrialization of their chosen field).
Why should teachers get tenure anyway? Nobody else does, not even pastors.
As in the post below about medical insurance, teaching should be opened up. Throw out those worthless teaching degrees and let the marketplace decide. I'd bet there are plenty of retired guys who would love to teach math or literature or history, and could do a better job than kids just out of their education degrees.
The best English teacher two of my kids had (in private school) was a retired Sports Illustrated writer and editor. He knew his way around choice of words and the construction of sentences, but the "idea" and the "image" were keys. Essay structure had to be perfect, Francis Bacon-style.
And with grammar, he would have ripped my posts to shreds (but I "fly casual" at Maggie's, conversational English - and it is a relief for me to do so).
|
