Tuesday, March 31. 2009
Shamelessly stolen from S,C&A:
Milwaukee school voucher program is a success
Being green is for the little people. Al Gore is big people. If you want to know what people really believe, watch their behavior and ignore their words.
I doubt that cap and trade will happen, partly because of how it would destroy trade
Kling gets it (h/t Insty):
ARNOLD KLING: “For quite a while, but especially over the last nine months, the best way to predict developments in politics and finance has been to ask: what will do the most to increase the concentration of power? Every headline, from the Geithner regulatory plan to the proposed cap on the charitable deduction, to the resignation of the General Motors CEO, should be viewed in that light.”
PETA is a big-time animal killer. Where's the outrage?
Just one reason that International Human Rights Law is a joke. Related: Ow, my vanity
The Call of Obama. Related: Is Obama twice as self-centered?
Whitewashing FDR: A New Deal apologia
A splendid essay: Oh, What a Wonderful Recession. One quote:
These pundits, left-leaning economists, and other designated “experts,” differ on the precise ramifications of the vanished “American Dream,” but the crux is similar: we’re entering a long, long era of reduced expectations and simpler way of life. Considering the sources—and academia is the epicenter—it’s not surprising that “Reaganism” is now a filthy word, Wall Street money-grubbers are and will be considered pariahs on the order of pornographers and ambulance-chasing lawyers, and high taxes are both necessary and desirable. An element of this commentary is the lingering resentment of the Bush years—the “stolen” election of 2000, Kerry’s loss in ’04, and the supposed philistinism of the former president—but the larger theme is, hey, we’re now in charge! Most of the writing expresses hostility to entrepreneurship and the commercial world, the belief that business, large and small, is somehow dirty, anti-intellectual, and brings out the worst in people. The underclass must be protected because it’s too fragile to be trusted to the greedy, corrupt upper class; a huge, benign government needs to steer such unfortunates in their private and professional lives.
Typical of this paternalistic mindset is the cover story of April’s American Prospect, “Less is the New More: Why post-consumer America could be a better place,” written by Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank, an out-and-out exercise in wishful thinking that’s not uncommon among self-styled “progressives,” who, between the lines, believe that the current financial collapse will ultimately be recorded as a positive paradigm shift. In other words, to use the catchphrase from Martha Stewart, one of the discredited icons of the “greedy” culture that purportedly began with Reagan, the continuing economic crisis can be turned into “a good thing.”
Absolutely pathetic. Read the whole thing, and weep for our spineless, pitiful and over-educated, decadent and entitled co-citizens. Our elites just don't get it.
Monday, March 30. 2009
Literally. Well, it's the closest thing he's ever had to a for-profit job.
Plus he guarantees that government employees will fix your car when it breaks. That's reassuring.
Crittenden. I do not think our gummint could build a Yugo.
 Our readers know there is a nationwide movement, a la the Boston Tea Party, to demonstrate opposition to the multi trillion dollar deficit plans of Obama/Pelosi/Reid. Please remember to join in by mailing the President a tea bag on April 1st.
Mail to:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
 What waterboarding bought us.
Glenn Beck: New enemy of The State. He is a good entertainer.
The whiff of Fascism. Driscoll
The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. h/t, Insty
Dino:
WFB’s dystopic vision of being governed by the Harvard faculty has largely come true in the person of President Obama. He appears to have the political instincts, executive ability and private sector experience of your average liberal arts professor.
Ameerica's #1 growth industry: Government. And it always needs a bailout, from us. In fact, it is pure bailout.
Idiot takes Al Gore's advice, hilarity ensues
Smartest woman in the world says "You have a marvelous virgin." Who hasn't heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe?
WH questions viability of GM and Chrysler. Duh.
Dr. Sanity reacts to the Greenie Doctrine:
America was never perfect, but it was never conceived to be some abstract utopia showcasing human perfection. The 56 men who came together to usher it forth understood that in order to form a more perfect union they had to pledge their lifes, their fortunes and most of all, their sacred honor. They understood clearly that human freedom only guarantees that mistakes will be made; but that the human soul is only able to thrive when human nature is allowed to be free. Further, they understood that society too, will inevitably progress when the individual human soul is unchained.
Sunday, March 29. 2009
 Sunday is Bath Day (h/t, Theo)
ACORN and the Youth Brigades. It is a Leftist's dream. Imagine if Bush had proposed this sort of thing.
Imagine if Bush...never mind. Obama will stay away from floods.
This is how you sell hamburgers
Via Lizards:
During a recession, the private sector lowers prices, because the public is not obliged to buy its services.
During a recession, government raises prices -- because the public is.
The mirage of "green jobs." It's a scam.
Bill Ayers banned in Boston
Transitioning towards Statism. Dr Helen
We tend to average around 360 seconds. A smarter look at blog stats. (h/t, Althouse)
The Captain did his bit for carbon emissions yesterday.
Saturday, March 28. 2009
 How will you celebrate Earth Hour tonight? Had I a Hummer, I'd take it out for ice cream.
Even though there is no warming, everybody seems to want to do the meaningless but conspicuous token virtue thing. Watt's Up. Moonbattery wants to celebrate Tom Edison via Human Achievement Hour.
If anybody really believed this stuff, they would cancel their electric instead of wagging their finger at me.
 Buddy and his team of eight SEALs are in harm's way, doing difficult, challenging, and enviably-exciting nighttime work. The SEALs own the night.
Buddy sends this email: "Everyone out here appreciates being remembered at home - that's what gets us through the fights."
Churchill, not Orwell as is commonly thought, said "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." We have known Buddy since he was about 5, and, while I can see his capacity to be a very rough and dangerous man on the job, he has the warm, gentle, generous, and considerate soul with which strong, competent and confident men are often blessed.
In a dispute, you want these guys on your side.
Have no fear, guys: we think of you and pray for your success in your missions and your safety every day, and we soft candy-asses back home with our non-dangerous lives are grateful for the work you are doing for us.
(Put a comment on this for them - they go online when they are able to do so. These intertubes are amazing, aren't they? They reach all the way over to Wherizzitatistan.)
 These maids in Canada will do everything except clean toilets.
The UN's climate dreams of power. Since they cannot stop war, I guess they want to find something else impossible to do to justify their existence. Gateway has more.
My Dad was a sharp-dressed man and an honest salesman.
The history of domesticated maize pushed back to 8700 years.
Coyote sort-of defends Ward Churchill. (Of course, he rightly assumes there are no standards in Churchill's line of work.)
Did you check out Zinsser's piece On Writing Well: Visions and Revisions? Darn interesting. His book is a classic, right up there with Strunk&White.
The scandal of thermodynamics. It doesn't allow for life.
The Journolist propaganda machine revealed.
Obama appears to mean business in Afghanistan. That is good.
Dems consider taxing medical benefits. What?
AIG as straw man
Steyn:
As President Reagan said, we are a nation that has a government, not the other way round. The nation pays for the government, not the other way round. I pay for Congressman Frank and Senator Dodd, not the other way round. I would appreciate it if they'd take up a less destructive pastime, perhaps joining Senator Kerry in windsurfing off the Irish coast in buttock-hugging yellow Lycra. If you have even a modest asset - a small house, a sluggish savings account or pension provision - these people are making you poorer. Good luck digging yourself out from under.
Friday, March 27. 2009
An untrue story was going around about Polly-Jan Bobseine (photo above), but her real life story is plenty good enough.
National Health Preview: The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood
Related: The Massachusetts anti-business debacle. If we do not nurture and cherish our productive profit-makers, we are lost.
Is there anything the Left doesn't want to control? Car color
Profile of denier Freeman Dyson
Michael Miller on Davos Capitalism: Adam Smith's Nightmare. One quote:
...we looked up to Davos Man. Who wouldn't be impressed by the gatherings at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, a Swiss ski resort? Sharply dressed, eloquent, rich, famous, Republican, Democrat, Tory, Labour, Conservative, Socialist, highly connected, powerful and ever so bright.
Then, when the whole managerial economy collapsed, the managers and technocrats lost faith in markets. But they did not lose faith in themselves, and now they want us to entrust even more of the economy to them.
Insty:
WORK? “More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life.” Hey, I’ve got an idea — why don’t we organize society so that it rewards hard work! We could even see that people who work harder and do better make more money! And then their efforts would pay off in more general societal prosperity, making life better for everyone! And we could . . . Naaaah.
Assortive mating on the internet, and related topics, at Becker- Posner. One quote:
Match.com says it has more than 15 million members. A study by Harris Interactive conducted for eHarmony finds that over 86,000 eHarmony users married between April 2006 and March 2007, which is three times the number estimated for 2005 in a different study. The Harris study also estimated that over two percent of all persons marrying between April 2006 and March 2007 were introduced through eHarmony.
Economic theory and empirical evidence (see my A Treatise on the Family) indicate that men and women who marry tend to have similar backgrounds by religion, race, education, family income, and many other characteristics. This is called positive assortative mating. Since marriages between persons of similar characteristics usually (but not always!) produce more satisfactory relationships, it is not surprising that marriages between unlikes; that is, persons with quite different characteristics, such as by education, religion, or race, are far more likely to end in divorce than are marriages between similar persons.
Obama goes for it all in budget. Related: Does this debt have an exit strategy? I am afraid not, but it does have a long-term strategy:
This from Woody Allen in The New Yorker, Tails of Manhattan:
Two weeks ago, Abe Moscowitz dropped dead of a heart attack and was reincarnated as a lobster. Trapped off the coast of Maine, he was shipped to Manhattan and dumped into a tank at a posh Upper East Side seafood restaurant. In the tank there were several other lobsters, one of whom recognized him. “Abe, is that you?” the creature asked, his antennae perking up.
“Who’s that? Who’s talking to me?” Moscowitz said, still dazed by the mystical slam-bang postmortem that had transmogrified him into a crustacean.
“It’s me, Moe Silverman,” the other lobster said.
“O.M.G.!” Moscowitz piped, recognizing the voice of an old gin-rummy colleague. “What’s going on?”
“We’re reborn,” Moe explained. “As a couple of two-pounders.”
“Lobsters? This is how I wind up after leading a just life? In a tank on Third Avenue?”
“The Lord works in strange ways,” Moe Silverman explained. “Take Phil Pinchuck. The man keeled over with an aneurysm, he’s now a hamster. All day, running at the stupid wheel. For years he was a Yale professor. My point is he’s gotten to like the wheel. He pedals and pedals, running nowhere, but he smiles.”
Moscowitz did not like his new condition at all. Why should a decent citizen like himself, a dentist, a mensch who deserved to relive life as a soaring eagle or ensconced in the lap of some sexy socialite getting his fur stroked, come back ignominiously as an entrée on a menu?
Read the whole piece here.
Is it already the concensus that Obama, despite his personal appeal, is off to a weak and flawed start? Whatever happened to "Bring us together"? A quote from No He Can't at Prospect:
A president with historic ambitions was never going to be content with tackling a mere recession. Thus in his televised address before both houses of congress in February he delivered a special history lesson: “Our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank.” The current recession and housing and financial problems have deeper causes, he said. What are these underlying maladies that so badly need the shaman’s touch? The president named four: energy, healthcare, education and debt. The “day of reckoning” for ignoring these issues—and for exacerbating this failure with excessive borrowing—has arrived, he said.
Americans who concentrated on the president’s words rather than on their characteristically sonorous delivery found the diagnosis baffling. Education, energy and healthcare policy in the US, as almost anywhere, all need help. But are America’s flaws in these areas really the causes of the housing bust and the paralysed banking system? What about the cyclical contractions that follow all economic booms? What about a decade and more of absurdly cheap money? How about all that Fannie and Freddie-fuelled lending to inappropriate borrowers? What happened to lax oversight? What about greed, that comforting straw man? No, according to Obama, we are losing our jobs and being kicked out of our excessively mortgaged houses because America lacks universal healthcare, federally sponsored nursery school, university for all, and a progressive emissions-oriented energy policy.
That is a lame and transparent effort to re-design America, using a recession and a banking mess as an excuse. I don't know anybody who buys this baloney. His eye is only on my wallet. Read the whole thing. Link above.
Thursday, March 26. 2009
 I'm away tomorrow. Leaving these:
Socialism requires hatred. Am thinker
Update on college grade inflation
Good news. Cap and trade is sinking
Why pro athletes go broke
Floods=Global warming? I think floods go way back in time, don't they?
Want welfare? Then clean up your urine
Ezra Levant's book, Shakedown
Bayh wants to be a sane Dem. Is it possible? Related: Obama facing Dem defections. Related: Dems bid adieu to the private sector. Why is it so easy for them to forget that the govt is totally dependent on the private sector's being happily productive?
Govt needs the hedgies to bail out the regulated institutions. Irony indeed.
The homelessness BS. Kaus. Those measures would have counted me as homeless last year.
It never ceases to amaze me how Dem pols always get rich. Emanuel's $ from Fannie. As I see it, Dems love money too much, both their own money and other peoples' money that they can get their hands on.
If O has his way, watch for huge gas taxes at the pump. The gas taxes are already huge, aren't they?
This isn't government. It's a morality play. NRO
"Comrades, remember when Michelle Obama said, “Barack will never let you go back to the way you used to live…” She meant that." Sheesh. I kinda liked the way I lived, simple, honest, and free. Anchoress
Brownwell, via Protein:
Why would I choose to be a conservative? Why would I choose the persecution? I am constantly ridiculed for my beliefs. I have been compared to Nazis. Liberals call me a sexist, racist, bigoted homophobe. My intentions are mischaracterized, and then I am judged by those mischaracterized intentions. For example, because I favor policies to help get everyone off of welfare to succeed on their own, my intentions are characterized as trying to keep blacks and minorities poor. These liberals then brand me a racist because they perceive my intentions are to keep blacks poor.
You would think I would choose to be a liberal. Liberals worldwide are hailed as compassionate for merely “raising awareness” of the plight of the poor. Forget that the poor don’t see a dime from the “awareness” raised. Despite poverty winning the war we waged on it, liberals get judged by their intentions rather than the results of their policies.
He comments on the Youtube of his speech the other day, which went viral, worldwide. Key quote:
Breaking the press monopoly is one thing. But the internet has also broken the political monopoly. Ten or even five years ago, when the Minister for Widgets put out a press release, the mere fact of his position guaranteed a measure of coverage. Nowadays, a politician must compel attention by virtue of what he is saying, not his position.
It's all a bit unsettling for professional journalists and politicians. But it's good news for libertarians of every stripe. Lefties have always relied on control, as much of information as of physical resources. Such control is no longer technically feasible.
Tuesday, March 24. 2009
There may or may not be a 1-3mm/yr sea-level rise ever since the last Ice Age, but the Maldives are holding up pretty well, contrary to alarmists. Watts Up. (I enjoyed the comments there too.) h/t, SDA
And yes, the Maldives have gone green - if you don't count the tourists jetting to their vacations.
If we had had this congress in 1920, we'd still have buggy-whip factories all over the place, feeding off the public trough. Just like GM. Senator proposes non-profit option for newspapers.
Mrs. B comments from the next room "They are mostly already not for profit, aren't they?"
Change, adapt, adjust, or go away if nobody needs you. I have always loved newspapers but, funny thing, I hardly read them anymore except on planes or trains - and online every day.
|
