Friday, July 24. 2009
 The Little Sisters of the Poor
Upping the ante again: Climate change a threat to national defence. Gimme a break. Another new study blames everything on the Pacific Oscillation. I doubt mankind can control that thing.
Leszek Kolakowski died.
Stunning photo of Mt. Everest (h/t, Miller)
Brits considering school vouchers. Good on 'em. I guess they don't have teachers' unions.
A movement to make hot dogs politically incorrect. Nice try. Loonies and cranks are trying to run the world.
Rove:
Team Obama was rushing to pass health care before the August recess out of fear that allowing members to go home for an extended spell before voting on the bill would give them an opportunity to hear from their constituents. They fear that the 300 protestors who showed up at a town hall meeting in Panama City, Fla. held June 30 by Democrat Rep. Allen Boyd shortly after he voted for the cap and trade energy tax) are only the start of a larger backlash.
A good defence of American medicine by Cardinal at Tiger. One quote:
That's why the debate about the uninsured is BS. Universal healthcare is intended to stop the spending - and that in turn will stop innovation and development. We will underproduce healthcare products and services, and while more people will have "coverage", they will queue for these underproduced services which in turn will also be denied far more regularly than is the case with insurance. Count on it. Americans don't go to the UK and Canada to get healthcare; it's the other way around. Now they may go to Canada to get certain products available in both places more cheaply. But I promise you that product is only available in the first place because it was developed here. The rate of healthcare innovation in the UK and Canada is dwarfed by that of the US. And furthermore, if the US market didn't exist, the rate of innovation around the world would collapse.
We have a great healthcare system. It works for most of our 300 million people, and works pretty well by any sensible historical measure. Yes, it's expensive. ..
From The Unbearable Whiteness of Maureen Dowd, at Am Spectator:
At the core of the beating intellectual heart of the left-wing establishment where such things are studied with the detail of Talmudic scholars, the New Haven fire department is doing more than three times better on race than the very liberal elites who have set themselves up as its sniffy critics. Perhaps instead of seething about "Firefighters and Race" the Times would have been better served by pondering "Editorial Writers and Race." Or perhaps: "Too Black to Write; New York Times Column Writing and Race."
Thursday, July 23. 2009
The medical insurance mess has been put on hold for the summer, at least. I guess it's not really all that urgent after all. The O did his cause no favors last night, as Betsy summarizes.
And after Carnahan and Sibelius got laughed at in Town Hall meetings this week, it must have been clear that nobody was buying the government line. Remarkably, and in contrast with the rest of the fawning press, the AP saw fit to point out the O's lies.
I repeat: Isn't lying supposed to be a bad thing?
Can I go on blog vacation now?
I agree with Vanderleun that the "press conference" last night was a fellatio fest of seemingly prepared and rehearsed questions with lying responses (lying is back in fashion), but the O missed an amazing opportunity. Among the softballs and adulation was the question about Prof. Gates' arrest for disorderly conduct with police officers.
The correct answer was this: "Our American police officers respond to calls of all sorts, never knowing what sort of situation they are walking into. Their job is to protect the honest and the innocent, and our job as citizens is to give them the respect and gratitude they deserve for doing that."
In my view, Gates should have thanked the officers for wanting to protect his house. Most people know that it is never wise to give shit to police officers, regardless of the situation. Cops are always a bit edgy on the job - and rightly so.
And the "Don't you know who I am?" approach only works for Kennedys: they own the copyright.
Update: The O didn't mean to call the cops "stupid." Of course not.
Update: The cop comes across as more professional than the O:
"Mister Gates was given plenty of opportunities to stop what he was doing. He didn't. He acted very irrational, he controlled the outcome of that event."
"There was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you were there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."
According to the police report, Crowley asked Gates to talk outside, to which he responded "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside."
Dick Morris on the polls
Layers of bureacracy at UNC-CH. Your tuition dollars at work.
The US immigration Diversity Lottery. No Brits need apply.
Dems go after the Career Colleges. I happen to think that Career Colleges are a great innovation.
What is Russia up to? Nyquist
From a Rasmussen medical care report:
Another factor that may be playing a role is underlying public skepticism about the legislative process. Americans, by a two-to-one margin, believe that no matter how bad things are, Congress can always make it worse.
Americans aren't stupid. Only the terminally naive think otherwise.
The Blue State Meltdown. The American
Smart political advice via NRO
Abortion and assisted suicide would not be rationed!
Honduras throws out Venez diplomats. Good idea
A Republican! At my cocktail party?
The government has spent 79 billion on climate studies
The press conference fellatio fest. And why try to demonize Docs? People trust their Docs far more than their pols. If Docs are the enemy, we're in big trouble. I want my Docs working for me, not for the government.
Viking:
There goes your health insurance - Betsy has a long post detailing how a public option plan will crowd out private insurance because it doesn't play by the same rules: the government-run will be subsidized by taxpayers and will dictate payment terms to doctors and hospitals, just like Medicare does now.
Here's the nightmare scenario: companies drop private insurance for the government plan, the program becomes huge and thus hugely expensive, while hospitals go bankrupt due to reduced reimbursement rates.
What's not to love?
Wednesday, July 22. 2009
That was the O's comment in a meeting of balking Dems. Why the desperation?
I am following this story closely because I think these folks are freaking insane. They are in over their heads with no clue of what they are doing, no clue about what hospitals and my Doc friends do or how they do it to produce the treatment that the entire world envies. Some of the Dems seem to know it. And the rush makes no sense at all. Dems baffled by President's stance.
I think I said it yesterday: This is getting stranger and stranger.
Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.
Says Powerline's Paul:
It is shocking that Obama would attempt to overhaul our health care system -- this vast and critical portion of our economy -- on such a short timetable and in such a haphazard fashion. The public senses the absurdity of his approach. It expects Obama to act like the careful, studious leader it voted for.
I trust my doctors. I do not trust the wisdom of my politicians. I want the pols kept away from my Docs: the same distance as from my pastors. I do not want Dear Leader deciding whether Gramps lives or dies. I will be Gramps, someday - God willing.
I will give the last word for today to NRO:
Obviously the Obamacare proposal is an abomination and Congress needs to throw it out and start from scratch. But whatever they come up with, the lesson for immigration is unchanged — in an era when we have massive transfers of taxpayer funds to the poor, whether through Medicaid or food stamps or public-education funding or whatever, you just can't keep importing more and more poor people. The libertarians will say the answer is to abolish all of these taxpayer-funded programs; but even if that's true, until we do abolish them, ongoing mass immigration is simply unjustifiable.
 A good point about arrogance from Stossel:
They intend, as the New York Times puts it, "to reinvent the nation's health care system".
 Let that sink in. A handful of people who probably never even ran a small business actually think they can reinvent the health care system.
Politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea how complicated markets are. Every day people make countless tradeoffs, in all areas of life, based on subjective value judgments and personal information as they delicately balance their interests, needs and wants. Who is in a better position than they to tailor those choices to best serve their purposes? Yet the politicians believe they can plan the medical market the way you plan a birthday party.
As Lowry says, these guys are reckless. Recklessness is always a bad thing, and few good things happen in pubs after midnight.
Am Thinker: Obamacare is a sick joke. A quote:
The World Health Organization ranked the United States No. 1 out of 191 countries for being responsive to patients' needs, including providing timely treatments and a choice of doctors. Among those currently insured, 84% are satisfied with their healthcare.
And here's something actually constructive: How to make health care reform bipartisan
And as Althouse says:
The Democrats have dumped a drastic, complicated health care bill on us and they are ramming it through before we can even figure it out. That's what matters, not the fact that the party out of power is squawking about it.
And at NRO:
Trying to impose Government Controlled Healthcare on a nation that doesn’t want it is significantly harder than running against a candidate for president who gets the nomination from the incumbent party whose leader had approval ratings in the mid to upper 20’s (and who’s base didn’t really like him).
And a repeat: How is abortion "healthcare'? It's about killing, isn't it? Not on my nickel. I refuse to pay for your abortion, or your tummy-tuck.
Why the heck do we have to spend so much energy trying to stop the government from doing stuff for us? We can tie our own shoes. As Sissy says, "Just leave us alone." We would rather figure it out for ourselves. We aren't morons.
Photo: I'll bet young readers do not know who that is
The world values survey, Could spend lots of time perusing it. Darned interesting. h/t, Gene Expressions
Just like they changed "Global Warming" to "Climate Change." It's now "Underrepresented Groups" instead of "minorities." Right out of Orwell's handbook. The darn Asians and Pakistanis and Indians messed it all up by being so successful, and opted out of the "rainbow coalition."
Public laughs out loud re Obamacare. Video at Michelle. Sheesh.That's bad.
Two kinds of moonwalks
Sissy: Why can't they just leave us alone?
The new Depression begins to bite. Good grief. Must be NYC workers.
Are there linguistic tells for narcissism? Dr X considers
Everybody I know has stopped spending on useless crap too. Relationships are all that matters...except guns and guy toys and new camo and stuff.
The governors hate Obamacare. I think ObamaCare is in the ICU, dying on life support. But it's a scorched earth approach, says Wiz.
More: 100 million citizens would get screwed by ObamaCare.
More: The O taps into the useful idiots
Tuesday, July 21. 2009
Tiger quotes Brooks on the Dem overreach on spending. It's freaking people out, and it is why the O is sinking fast in approval. People voted for Hope. That's pretty vague, and easily undone.
Not that the Repubs were much better. This from Willisms:
Not sustainable, dudes. We the people can only work so hard and, at some point, we will not want to bother. The only reason we work is for our families - and sometimes for the fun of it too.
The O admits he is not familiar with the House health care bill he is selling.
It all just gets stranger and stranger. And desperate. This stuff is too important to people to rush through.
Image above from Iowahawk, of course
I heard on the radio news today "The US is the only of the advanced industrial nations without government medicine." I wondered "What's wrong with that?" No NHS, Please. We're Americans.
The O's Green Jobs Czar: We stole stuff. Another honest fellow in DC.
Statistics on the sun and sunspots.
I'm not dead yet. Via Insty:
ANOTHER HEALTHCARE BILL NUGGET: “The section, titled ‘Advanced Care Planning Consultation’ requires senior citizens to meet at least every 5 years with a doctor or nurse practitioner to discuss dying with dignity.”
Does dying of a heart attack on the tennis court qualify as "dignified"? I think it should, but it does rudely inconvenience the remaining three - assuming it's doubles.
The demographic death of Japan
The Great Uniter. (h/t, Driscoll)
Wilkinson on Peter Singer on medical care rationing
The AMA betrays its profession. Civil servants cannot be professionals because a key part of being a "professional" is being beholden to your own conscience and judgement, not outisde forces.
Another Sen. Dodd update. Just the usual sleazy, lying, greedy pol.
WSJ: The Obama Agenda Bogs Down. Democrats got what they wanted in the stimulus bill. The public knows it.
Good example of why Conservatism sucks right now.
George Will on why it ain't smart to soak the rich
The O is slipping faster on key issues. Duh. Guy is an amateur, and his issues are nuts.
Corzine is gonna lose the election. He is dead meat, but nobody can fix NJ's mess.
The WH hides the budget mess. Wait 'til everybody's on vacation.
From Front Page:
If priorities are to be believed, the priority the Obama administration has placed at the top could become a flop. Political pollster Daniel Yankelovich says that Americans are slowly leaving the “wishful stage” of the health care debate, when polling data showed broad support for a larger government role in medicine. Yankelovich predicts “in the next few weeks, when voters discover what national health care will cost and how it could affect their own care, romance will give way to reality.” Studies already show the legislation's eroding popularity, as citizens find out the problems inherent in socialized medicine, the tax increases necessary to finance it, and the deception politicians use to inflate the number of uninsured Americans.
Watch out, NYH-Presbyterian, Mass General, and Mayo Clinic. Via Viking:
Large urban teaching hospitals - including hospitals that are the biggest engines of the Boston economy - are facing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars under national health care reform as rural lawmakers on Capitol Hill wage a fight to win more federal cash for their local institutions.
Monday, July 20. 2009
She read the draft bill so you won't have to. Medical policy wonk Betsy McCaughey weighs in on ObamaCare.
John at Powerline speculates that journalists are dumber than the average bear. I think John overestimates the brains, curiosity, and skepticism of the average bear (tho maybe not of the average Powerline reader), but I do get the point: professional journalists are supposed to convey useful and accurate info for the rest of us, with enough of the inside baseball to help us understand the game that is being played.
Statistics, math and science tend to be among their weak points. It is easy to be a half-competent writer without understanding in depth what you are writing about. We prove that here, daily. However, we do try to link to those who might have a clue.
What worries me more is the power, ignorance, perfidy, and manipulativeness of politicians.
Via Drudge:
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR 'CANNED PORK'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,444,100 FOR 'REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $541,119 FOR 'INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL'...
I would happily repair that door for half the price.
Neal Cavuto on Imus right now discusses the car salesman trick of "rushing a deal." "Don't let them leave the salesroom without signing." "Now or never," "A one-day-only deal" - all the tricks.
He discusses car sales tricks, and says that is what the O administration does with legislation. I tend to agree.
When pols run car companies. Betsy Related: Will small be beautiful for GM? WSJ
Sacha Baron Cohen will kill Bruno
NYT considers foundation support for news. Buzz Machine wonders whether there is a new model for news collaboration.
Russia's Got Talent
Who says there's no competition in medical insurance?
Vote us the medical plan Congress has. Details at Surber
ACORN take note: Zelaya had vote figured in advance
ObamaCare would cover 12 million illegals
Ex-cons counsel cons-to-be
Rush on Sarah:
Name for me any Republican or conservative who has had a 72% approval rating in the party after a year of trashing by the State-Run Media and the Democrat Party. Name for me one Republican candidate who has maintained a 72% approval rating while their life and their career has been under assault for the purpose of destruction, which is the case with Sarah Palin.
Do I understand cardinal vs. ordinal understandings of well-being?
And that's the way it wasn't. Driscoll with a good history of "the news". Related, Wizbang is not praising Cronkite
Inside the monstrous ObamaCare bureaucracy. Michelle
"We gotta do it now" doesn't always work the second time around.
Add it to the list: global warming causes squid. Me likes to eat squid, lightly sauteed with white wine, butter, olive oil, parsley and garlic.
"By then it's too late." Insty:
HEALTHCARE UPDATE, from the Los Angeles Times: “The president knows his keystone program is in deep trouble and losing momentum. That’s why his organization is sending out all those e-mails and organizing local discussion groups to mobilize grassroots support and why he drags the subject into everything he talks about. . . . Obama’s current problem is actually crumbling support among Democrats, dozens of whom are beginning to waver over the scale of such spending, whether some of it eventually gets covered by savings or not. They know that conveniently-predicted future government savings have a way in Washington of not actually ever materializing. But by then it’s too late.”
Sunday, July 19. 2009
From a harshly critical op-ed by Matt Welch in the WaPo:
What the new president has not quite grasped is that the American people understand both irony and cognitive dissonance. Instead, Obama has mistaken his personal popularity for a national predilection toward emergency-driven central planning. He doesn't get that Americans prefer the slower process of building political consensus based on reality, and at least a semblance of rational deliberation rather than one sky-is-falling legislative session after another.
Saturday, July 18. 2009
Bar exam. Oh boy. For Rules of Evidence, it's 70% exceptions to The Rules, after you learn The Rules. We did Wills and Estates yesterday. It caused us to rethink our wills.
We parents of the graduate Law Student are having fun learning this stuff. It's sort-of crazy, and sort-of not. Good rule of thumb: stay clear of The Law if possible. It seems to be its own wacko universe, and not for amateurs.
 Cheetos-flavored lip balm
1925 Bugatti from Lago Maggiore
Ten weird ways we deal with the dead
Iran: still in turmoil
The CIT story: It's a big deal for many businesses
Is it Pelosi Payback?
The Sun of Songun Shedding Its Rays All over the World
How the trillion-dollar Federal takeover works. Pajamas. It is a stealth bill designed to eliminate private choice in medical insurance, and thus to eliminate choice in insurance plans.
A Lib says pass health care now: do the rationing later:
Do remember that even if reform ends up without game-changing cost control, it may create political conditions that make future cost control more likely. That seems to be happening in Massachusetts, which enacted sweeping coverage expansions a few years ago.
Via Viking:
Nowhere in the Democrats’ plan do they explain why 2.1 million Americans should have to pay to reform the health-care system for 300 million Americans, nor does the Post explain why 2.1 million Americans should have to pay for the massive deficits created by Democrats in Congress and Barack Obama. Both accept the notion that government exists to transfer wealth without explaining at all the basis for a free government to do so. If we need massive health-care reform, then the costs should be borne by everyone - and when that happens, you will find massive health-care reform to be a lot less popular than when Obama, Rangel, & Co try to pass it off as something for nothing.
The abortion mandate in the health care plan. What does abortion have to do with health? LaShawn also wonders about that. I thought having babies was healthy.
Hands off my Healthcare protests across the country
The Massachusetts "health" plan. Watch Docs run away
As goes California...
Paul Rahe: The Road to Soft Despotism, Part 2
Totten: Uncertainty in Iraq
Friday, July 17. 2009
Insty:
MICKEY KAUS: Smug self-styled wonks will kill health care yet. “WaPo’s Ezra Klein decrees ‘rules’ for those who would use the CBO’s damning analysis ‘against the existing health-care reform proposals’–they ‘must,’ he says, endorse some combination of cost-cutting proposals from a list he provides. Huh? Even as mock hubris (and it’s hard to tell) this makes no sense. Who said opponents have to be for more cost-cutting? Why can’t Republicans say to Dems a) You said your plans would bend the cost curve down. Instead they increase costs. The status quo would be better than your plans. Vote no. b) You said your plans would bend the cost curve down. Instead they increase costs. Why should we believe anything else you say? … That isn’t what I would say, but it’s not an illogical or inappropriate response.” Plus, “Klein goes on, of course, to re-endorse the very treatment-restricting form of cost-cutting that is scaring people away from the Dem plans.”
Woops. I thought this was about my Vet bills, which far exceed my medical bills with the dogs, the wife's horses, etc. When will the government care about the health of my animals? I cannot get insurance for any of them.
We will tolerate no rationing of medical care for our beloved animals.
Amazingly, I hear Bob Beckel on Sean saying that nobody can afford their kids' regular medical check ups. WTH?Why should I take care of Bob Beckel's kids?
I will take care of his kids when he takes care of my cars.
 Head of CBO rips Dem medical care plan. They overreached.
At Althouse, a commenter re the rushing of the Dem plan:
This is arguably the fourth time that Obama and the Democrats have pulled this off, if they indeed do succeed this time. The previous examples were: the "stimulus" bill; the budget; and cap and trade. The "stimulus" bill was rammed through the House less than 24 hours after being disclosed - and then Cap and Trade was rammed through based on amendments to the bill that had not be consolidated, so no one, even those running the House, actually knew what was in it.
It was one thing to do this when the "stimulus" was urgent. Of course, we find that most of the "stimulus" won't be spent for years to come, but... Again, Cap and Trade was absolutely urgent, since if Congress didn't act immediately, parts of New York City might (if you believed Al Gore) be under water by the end of the century. But health care reform? Someone might die if it isn't enacted immediately, a victim of some evil insurance company denying a worthy claim. (Of course, Obama doesn't mention that the difference is that under a government payer system, those denied treatments have no recourse).
Related: Make Congress sign up for the government plan. Related: A pdf of the House Bill, with other info, at Classical
Biden: We need to spend more money so we don't go bankrupt. Ummm, will that work for me too?
A reckless Congress will take US taxes higher than France's
In the USA, this case would be a $50 million malpractice suit but it seems normal in the UK
Not satire: Britain building ecotowns in the countryside. Destroying beautiful countryside in the process.
Not satire: Britain has "I am not a pedophile" cards
Not satire: The O's Science Czar used to be a global cooling fearmonger. Just a typical nutty crank.
Not satire: Minneapolis has a Department of Walking. Where would we be without government's wisdom?
A confession from a climate-changer in a book review at Am Thinker:
"We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us." According to Hulme, climate change can do a lot: "Because the idea of climate change is so plastic, it can be deployed across many of our human projects and can serve many of our psychological, ethical, and spiritual needs."
Speak for yourself, shmuck.
Meanwhile, global cooling attacks the Northeast
Re Black Studies:
"If I couldn't study something that's about myself then I wouldn't want to be here," the black sophomore once told me, explaining how crucial to him it was to be able to major in African-American Studies.
I'd recommend math or physics. It's not about you, Mr. Young Student.
Photo from theo
Thursday, July 16. 2009
From Jammie's piece on taxes, the view from NYC:
From Front Page:
There are no resolutions currently before this year's Episcopal General Convention directly criticizing any government in the world, except two: Israel and the United States. Resolutions mention human rights abuses in the Philippines and strife in southern Sudan but decline to criticize governments there, though surely Sudan's Islamist regime, dripping with blood of millions of victims, might merit some disapproval. There is no criticism of any Muslim or communist dictatorship around the world, though Cuba's Marxist regime is portrayed by one resolution as the victim of U.S. sanctions. In contrast, about a half dozen statements for consideration before the General Convention are aimed at Israel.
No wonder nobody goes to Epsicopalian churches anymore. They aren't about God. They are about politics.
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