Monday, May 4. 2009
 Goodbye, Columbus. Death of a holiday at Brown.
Getting those darn pesky Christians off NPR. Related: What's with this Atheism Movement? What are they for? And has nobody told them that atheism has been around forever? Most Episcopalians I have known are atheists, for heaven's sake.
A Google-killer? Will Google need a government take-over?
Good news on the fossil fuel front: 200 trillion cubic feet of gas
Kaus:
If Chrysler fails in the marketplace again two or three years from now, after billions more in government subisidies, won't that reflect badly on Obama and his "economic team"? WIll it then appear to have been better to let Chrysler go into an actual, non-prearranged, non-jawboned bankruptcy, in which it would likely have been liquidated or in which the UAW would have had to make far more substantial concessions, like workers in other bankruptcies?
VDH:
At some point, Obama must answer why waterboarding mass-murderers and beheaders like Khalid Sheik Mohammed is wrong, while executing by missile attack (no writs, habeas corpus, Miranda rights, etc.) suspected terrorists and anyone caught in their general vicinity in Waziristan — or pirates negotiating extortion — is legitimate.
AVI takes a look at the psychology of Socialism. He does not use the word "envy," but he might.
France lowers taxes to spark job growth
Let's get back to spanking. Who ever quit?
Obama is a statist, not a Commie. CATO. Statists are those who think politicians deserve to be philosopher-kings. Same as Commies.
The Jacksonian on the Constitution. One quote:
President Obama, when teaching Constitutional law, couldn't get this idea that all liberty and rights are vested in the people by Natural Law and not given to government. In an interview with WBEZ.FM in 2001 he went through his idea that the Constitution would, somehow, be made better if it took the other view: that government gets to give a few rights to people and retains the rest for itself via the concept of positive rights. Government, under that view, does not become a representative institution, but an authoritarian caretaker of the people. In wanting a Constitution that would say what government 'must do' on your behalf, he relegates that decision to government, not the people. To get something like, say, clothing to people, the government gets to decide what kind, what type and how much clothing goes to which people by its own dictates. That similarly goes for clothing. A good job. Health care for government to decide.
Postcard from the Casino de Paris, 1915, h/t Good Sh-t
Sunday, May 3. 2009
 Go shopping to save your soul.
Why students don't like school. Hmm. I liked school. Maggie's is my school, for now.
Jack Kemp's enduring legacy
How to bake a trencher. I like the idea. No dishes.
Habits and vocation. Anchoress
Is exhaustion only in your head?
Always been interested in how the government subsidized the construction of suburbs with highways. Are highways a public good?
Semi-related: Amtraking the Automakers, which begins:
The odds that the federal government will ever get its hooks out of Chrysler or General Motors are slim to none, regardless what President Obama says. Why? In one word, Amtrak.
The O took a special interest in Chrysler. And, good grief, the O reads Sullivan. He'd be far more popular if he read Maggie's daily. We might remind him about freedom.
Ingraham vs. Feldt. See, this is how it's done
The mob is still after the terrifying Sarah Palin
Demography update: Northern Europeans having more babies, Russia having fewer
People are tiring of the global warming alarmism. What next?
Media bias, charted at Will.
Related, MSM press as lap dog or pit bull? I found this amazing:
One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House Press Corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight.
More on cap and trade as nothing but a covert tax
More on capitalism and the culture wars. Dr. Sanity
Another Steyn masterpiece. A quote:
The theater of thoughtfulness is critical to the president's success. He has the knack of appearing moderate while acting radical, which is a lethal skill. The thoughtful look suckered many of my more impressionable conservative comrades last fall, when David Brooks and Christopher Buckley were cranking out gushing paeans to Obama's "first-class temperament" – temperament being to the Obamacons what Nick Jonas' hair is to a Tiger Beat reporter. But the drab reality is that the man they hail – Brooks & Buckley, I mean; not the Tiger Beat crowd – is a fantasy projection. There is no Obama The Sober Centrist, although it might make a good holiday song:
"Obama The Sober Centrist
Had a very thoughtful mien
And if you ever saw it
You would say it's peachy keen …"
Image: How Bouguereau got that picture of me in the woods in 1873 I do not know. Thanks, Berkshire guy. I will add it to the family photo album.
From Sen. Jim DeMint's WSJ op-ed on building a big tent party:
No Child Left Behind didn't win us "soccer moms," but it did cost us our credibility on locally controlled education. Medicare prescription drugs didn't win us a "permanent majority," but it cost us our credibility on entitlement reform. Every year, another Republican quality was tainted: managerial competence, fiscal discipline and personal ethics.
To win back the trust of the American people, we must be a "big tent" party. But big tents need strong poles, and the strongest pole of our party -- the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats -- must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can't agree on that, elections are the least of our problems.
If the American people want a European-style social democracy, the Democratic Party will give it to them. We can't win a bidding war with Democrats.
Freedom will mean different things to different Republicans, but it can tether a diverse coalition to inalienable principles. Republicans can welcome a vigorous debate about legalized abortion or same-sex marriage; but we should be able to agree that social policies should be set through a democratic process, not by unelected judges. Our party benefits from national-security debates; but Republicans can start from the premise that the U.S. is an exceptional nation and force for good in history. We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them.
Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right! I don't want to make decisions for them. That's why I'm working to reduce Washington's grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals, so that Northeastern Republicans, Western Republicans, Southern Republicans, and Midwestern Republicans can define their own brands of Republicanism. It's the Democrats who want to impose a rigid, uniform agenda on all Americans. Freedom Republicanism is about choice -- in education, health care, energy and more. It's OK if those choices look different in South Carolina, Maine and California.
People who prefer dependency to freedom need to find another country. Lots of those countries out there, but they are disappearing fast. If you want a strong dose, try Cuba or Venezuela. Maybe Bolivia. Stay away from China, because they are looking for entrepreneurs.
Saturday, May 2. 2009
 Why Andy McCarthy said No to the Justice Dept (h/t, Blue Crab)
The UAW is now in the driver's seat. Kudlow is furious about the debt deal. "A shameful chapter in American history" he said this morning on the radio."It undermines the rule of law and replaces it with Chicago-style politics." A remarkable abuse of power indeed.
The etymology of military ranks
The plot to destroy private medical insurance
The man who fought the tort bar - and won. An ugly story with a happy ending.
I think the best satire is that which cuts close to some reality, but this bit cuts it very close to some peoples' reality.
David Kessler now targets Big Food. What a putz. He should worry about controlling himself, not me.
Is there still a war, or not?
Should Conservatives play hardball like the Left does?
Is there another Warren Buffett? He's the only guy I've heard of who is worth cloning.
The legal duty to rescue: Volokh
Flu: Hysteria du jour. (h/t, Right Wing Prof)
Photo: The Jack Kramer Pro-Staff was my favorite. Wish I still had it. At some point, there was so much junk around here that I threw it away in the Spring Cleaning dumpster.
Friday, May 1. 2009
If freely-entered private contracts cannot be trusted, what can be trusted? Cram-down legislation defeated.
Rush mischievously but truthfully noted today that racial profiling is an evil if practiced by cops, border agents, or airports - but is considered highly desirable in government as Obama's people seek a Left-wing female Hispanic to replace Souter.
Why not some sort of Asian? How about somebody who reveres our Constitution?
I have posted numerous times here about the role that infantile wishes and hopes can play in the lives of those who are otherwise adults. We all must have hopes and dreams, and we all must have many of them dashed to become real, serious adults.
Real serious adults know all about the futility of wishful thinking, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny - and the free lunch.
Hoven at American Thinker has a post up about Wishful Thinking in politics. As salesmen, politicians are all about appealing or pandering to wishful thinking. He begins:
There's the old joke about an economist's plan to get out of a pit he was thrown into: "First, we assume a ladder." There has been a whole lot of assuming going on, from alternate energy to non-harsh interrogations.
Some of us (including the MSM) have entered the wondrous, enchanted Obama-Dem Dreamland where dreams come true, but some of us have kept our feet on the ground where Mean Old Mr. Reality walks around.
One whose grip on reality is, in my view, only sporadic is Mr. Krugman, who insists that cap and trade taxes in the US will save the planet. But what if they don't? What are the odds that they will? He is in Dreamland. Or maybe he just wants any excuse for more tax dollars to the Feds.
All of this reminds me of Lawn Chair Larry. Remember him? I think he violated LAX air space.
Ed. note: Re childish dreams, the history of The Internationale (h/t, Good Sh-t)
 Sex in the Middle Ages, via the NSFW cool site Cool Shit which Tiger found.
Souter? Won't make a big diff. (Does anyone doubt that he wailted until there were Dems in control?) And Specter? Is John Cornyn trying to make lemonade out of a lemon, or is he right?
See? Earth Day made a difference!
Good interview with Mark Levin (his book remains #1) by John Hawkins. h/t, Dr Helen
The SAT and its enemies. Weekly Standard
Government medical care from a nurse, at Am Thinker:
Obama's first choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, withdrew his name after his myriad tax problems came to light. But as far as I can tell, his health care reform ideas live on in the Obama administration and Democrat-majority Congress. The jewel of his plan is the Federal Health Board:
...these government experts would "help define evidence-based benefits and lower overall spending by determining which medicines, treatments, and procedures are most effective--and identifying those that do not justify their high price tags."
Ladies and gentlemen, he's talking about rationing and denying payment. But look on the bright side, America. Physicians will no longer be "burdened" by decision making. And think of all the time doctors can save when they no longer need to explain various treatment options to you or your elderly mom. Life is so much easier when you simply don't care. Ask our cool, cool President.
So get used to health care profiling. Just have your doctor fill out this form with your age, gender, diagnosis, and prognosis, and Washington will let him know what to order. It's medicine by spreadsheet. It's cold, cold healthcare.
h/t, Theo -
Thursday, April 30. 2009
"Talented" pols never let the facts get in their way. On the current path, everybody is headed for some hefty tax increases which will begin to ramp up in 2011 and no doubt for years thereafter unless the tide changes.
 A new, better invisibility cloak
Conservatives live in different moral universes. It's true.
The ballerina and the Narwhals
Krauthammer begins:
I think it hasn't been the most important 100 days. I think it has been the most revealing 100 days in our lifetime. After all, this man when he was elected was one of the great mysteries of American politics. He was the most unknown, untested, untried, and really un-figured-out man ever to ascend to the office.
Via Ace:
Dennis Miller: We're Living In Odd Times When Miss California Gets Tougher Questions Than the President
BBC: Basra progress "staggering"
Precautionary principle gone wild: The flu. Related from Lewis in Am Thinker, who begins:
The Mexican swine flu pandemic? Oh, that's soooo yesterday. Global Warming? All those confident "scientific" predictions are falling apart around the world, even as greedy politicians still try to squeeze the last little drops of power and money out of them. Human flesh-eating bacteria? SARS? Ozone holes? Mad Cow? The Curse of the Killer Tomatoes? Water torture? CO2? Bee Colony Collapse? It never ends. As long as scare stories sell, as long as millions of indoctrinated suckers fall for them they will never end. They've got you on a rat-running wheel, running scared every day, like rats scrambling to get away from electrical shocks that never actually come.
Is the bipolar child a purely American phenomenon?
Solzhenitsyn on free medical care
From Insty:
DOES G.M. NOW STAND FOR Gettelfinger Motors? Actually, I like the idea of the unions owning the car companies — or I would, if they then had to stand on their own instead of getting still more bailout cash. I’m afraid we’re in for a decade of politically propped-up zombie carmakers, a sort of American Leyland.
UPDATE: Mickey Kaus is taking a positive view: “Let the UAW, as new owner of GM, pay the price for the overgrown work rules of its locals. Let the UAW demand above-market raises from itself. Let the UAW try to raise money from new lenders after the previous round of lenders has been royally screwed (thanks, in part, to the UAW). And then let the UAW try to sell the cars that result.” So long as friendly politicians don’t protect them from the consequences of their actions with other people’s money.
 My first thought about our Theo photo this morning is that it looked like the Adirondacks. Wasn't that your first thought too?
No race bake sale at Bucknell. We support freedom of baking.
Was this a real Hobbitt?
Update me: Am I not allowed to say "pig" any more?
Advice for ladies in the workplace
Can gummint and a union run a car company?
Dick Morris says Obama will damage himself
"It is devolutional." Surber
"You're a Professor, really?"
The vast Obama-media conspiracy. A masterful job of seducing the press. Still, O is the second most reviled Pres in 40 years
Sir Michael:
"The Government has taken tax up to 50 per cent, and if it goes to 51 I will be back in America," he said at the weekend. "We've got 3.5 million layabouts on benefits, and I'm 76, getting up at 6am to go to work to keep them. Let's get everybody back to work so we can save a couple of billion and cut tax, not keep sticking it up."
What does the future hold for First Things?
Free Enterprise's 100 day death march. Key quote:
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told NPR’s Michelle Norris yesterday: “The President has said, and I couldn’t agree more, that what this country needs is a one single national road map that tells automakers who are trying to become solvent again what kind of car it is they need to be designing and building for the American people.” Norris then asked: “Is that the role of Government though? That doesn’t sound like free enterprise.” Jackson responded: “Well it is free enterprise in a way.”
Blakeman at Politico:
The Dems were able to get by defection something they may have never have gotten at the Ballot Box, a closure needed, debated ending 60 votes. The Dems will come to regret taking Arlen in. He knows how important his votes are to them. If you think dealing with Somalia Pirates is bad, try working with Blackbeard Spector. There is not much the GOP can do if the Dems have 60 votes. They need to stay united in opposition and work like hell for mid-term gains. Obama will put the pedal to the metal and steam roll as much legislation through as is possible while he enjoys his "dictatorship".
Related, the O says he is remaking America. Good grief.
Related, at Reason:
...he will reveal himself to be that least inspiring of all political characters: a leader beholden first and foremost to special interests and ultra-conventional voting blocs. This at a time when the electorate is becoming increasingly unaffiliated with either the Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or liberals.
Wednesday, April 29. 2009
 100 days at Jules begins thus:
Joyous event of the 100 days of the Obama Idea happily celebrated by cheering workers of the liberated United States Peoples Democratic Republic with inspiring song and deep reflection of gratitude!
Quoted in a piece at Villainous:
In the 1970s, it took $46,870 to add a year to the life expectancy of 65-year-olds. By the 1990s, it cost $145,000.
Does gummint support for R&D do any good?
Quoted at Ace:
Isn't it fabulous how Obama has reconciled with our enemies and put fear into the hearts of Americans? Does any image illustrate so neatly the wrongheadedness of the Obama administration than Americans scrambling in terror from Air Force One?
Protein begins:
Obama is running the banking, housing and automobile industry out of the White House (along with letting Rahm play with the US Census) so why not be in charge of Science, too?
The politicization of GM. Quite discouraging and distressing, but that's what happens when you mix politics with real life. Everything becomes politicized and part of the spoils system.
Fair and balanced rules cable
Carville: Dems will rule for 40 years
The end of Capitalism? McArdle.
But not the end of Capitalism for Al Gore. He got rich quick.
Tuesday, April 28. 2009
Can You Get What You Pay For? Pay-For-Performance and the Quality of Healthcare Providers
Misconceptions about the interrogation memos. WSJ
Truman's decision to recognize Israel
Hatikva 2009. A Guiness world record.
Another Big Rug: A floral carpet in Brussels. Thanks, reader.
Fisheries: "it is at least something that, after 25 years, the EU is recognising that one of its longest established policies has failed. It has yet to understand, however, the reason for that failure."
Woopsy. A mistake, viewed in retropect. The consequences of letting Lehman fail. This was new territory for everyone, but the fallout of this error were ginormous. Related: The amazing story of Paulson, The B of A, and Merrill.
Ben Stein on the honorable business of selling. h/t, Tiger
Masochist play makes $ for Pakistan. What's ouroboros? All sex play is good, in our view. At Maggie's, leather and whips are my fave, but sometimes we're in the mood for French maid outfits on the chicks, and maybe a little light bondage.
Deification of the planet. I thought culture had evolved past that. Why worship a rock spinning in space? There are millions of 'em. But OK, it's our rock. Our Pet Rock?
Krugman now admits that Laffer was right
Record declines in the newspaper biz. Except the WSJ. Seems odd to me. Everybody enjoys the papers, even if they also enjoy getting mad at them. How else would you know who starred in the high school basketball game against Pittsfield High?
The O talks to his teleprompter. Imagine if Bush...
From Lucianne:
100 days: Obama dumps Bush's
world view, but now what?
Monday, April 27. 2009
Anchoress emails:
This actually made me kind of sick. I threw up a little in my mouth. Please excuse the mass mailing...I think everyone should see it. To me it's sick and sycophantic, but it is also so cowardly. Insult the Christians, because you can, and never mind that we're still in Easter.
This makes me think less of Obama, who should have gotten out in front of this messianic talk, instead of silently encouraging it. It speaks volumes about the artist, but Obama's silent consent also speaks volumes about him.
CAPTION: "The Truth" by Painter Michael D'Antuono which will be unveiled on President Obama's 100th Day in Office at NYC's Union Square. (PRNewsFoto/NOAH G POP FAM)
Update: The artist changed his mind about doing that (see Dr X's comment below)
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Thanks, reader:
From the Center for Media & public Affairs at George Mason University
MEDIA BOOST OBAMA... HE ATTRACTS MORE EARLY COVERAGE THAN G.W. BUSH AND BILL CLINTON COMBINED
A quote: During his first 50 days in office, the three broadcast network evening news shows devoted 1021 stories lasting 27 hours 44 minutes to Barack Obama’s presidency. The daily average of seven stories and over 11 minutes of airtime represents about half of the entire newscasts. By contrast, at this point in their presidencies George W. Bush had received 7 hours 42 minutes and Bill Clinton garnered 15 hours 2 minutes of coverage, for a combined total airtime five hours less than Mr. Obama’s.
CBS led the coverage with 365 stories and 10 hours 46 minutes of airtime, followed by NBC with 327 stories and 9 hours 38 minutes, and ABC with 329 stories and 7 hours 20 minutes. Thus, CBS has given more coverage to the Obama administration than all three networks combined gave to the first 50 days of George W. Bush’s presidency.
 Quantity vs. Quality
Pelosi plays defence on "torture"
Newspaper circulation crumbles (h/t, Insty)
Should you look out for "people who keep to themselves"?
Stereotyping: It's natural. I stereotype everybody: a-holes until proven otherwise.
From the mouths of babes
$ rules too onerous for unions. It's payoff time. Related, The strategery of the unions: Kaus
Latin leaders declare war on Capitalism. And freedom, too.
Anarchy at UNC. Mike Adams
The social challenge of speaking honestly about race
Apparently some people do not want to know what an assault rifle is. But our readers know an assault rifle is one with a full-auto setting.
Cannot do it without the teleprompter. Man, that is lame.
 Save the Humans! Reason
In cold blood. The Talibanz are taking over Pakiland.
The O tries to steal their prime time - for the 4th time. They have a biz to run.
Upper photo: My nooner date today, thanks to friend Theo who shares his girlfriends. Lower photo via Never Yet Melted
 It looks like our Dylanologist will be moving back north to Yankeeland - to New Haven, of all places. One of his great-grandfathers grew up in Woodbridge, and one of his gramps is a retired Yale prof.
With a new bride, too. Hope he will be able to find time to write more for us.
(Between law school, building stone walls and rebuilding kitchens, he has been truant here at Maggie's. If he doesn't get back on the job, that large monthly check, which is his share of the overly generous RTC donation we receive for mindlessly echoing Repub talking points, will stop coming to him.)
Ya gotta go South to find them high-quality brides. But everybody knows that.
Photo: Got dimples? The Dyl on a water taxi on Lago Maggiore last summer.
Andrew Lloyd Webber on the UK's new taxes. Related: Envy and social behavior
Dear Greens: Why not start here?
Quel horreur. Swine Flu hysteria. Must be a slow news week. Not worth linking.
Support your local Islamophobe
This is what I call an exciting cruise
How to solve MA's deficit: Jules
Why the Law is foreign to Justice Ginsberg. Am Thinker
A shortage of primary care docs?
MADD is mad, but they have some power now. At Maggie's, we say "Don't drink and drive: you might hit a bump and spill your drink."
More on the Ricci case. Ricci may be the rock upon which America's racial spoils system finally founders.
Al Gore: Raging Capitalist
Prince Charles gets it: It's about conspicuous virtue, not reality
Judd Gregg: Elections have consequences. A quote:
...while the aspiration for universal coverage may be noble, the practical realities of getting there may prove harder for the American public to swallow. "There's no question," the senator says, "that this is a debate about rationing to a large degree. All your single-payer systems are rationing systems. It's also a debate about technology and innovation. Because you will not have capital pursuing technology, innovation and science if it's health-care related, because the return on capital won't be there. And these things are so expensive, especially on the pharmaceutical side and the biologic side, that you'll dramatically slow improvements in the quality of health care through science with a single-payer plan." Mr. Gregg thinks that critique will resonate with the public.
Even so, given the balance of power in Washington, Mr. Gregg gives the Democrats good chances of success in nationalizing our health-insurance market. "I think the odds are pretty good that it's going to happen -- that you'll have a major health-care reform bill pass." As he says, "Elections have consequences."
Via Driscoll:
Judith Klinghoffer’s article, “Obama’s Polls Trail Those of W.; Gallup Covers it Up,” notes that Bush’s approval rating taken by Gallup stood at 62 percent after his first 100 days, while Obama’s currently stands at 56 percent.
A few minutes later, moderator John Scott returned to the subject:
JON SCOTT: And in the first term, George Bush had a 60 percent approval rating after his first 100 days-
PINKERTON: And Bush 41 as well, who I worked for way back when. And Laura Bush has a higher rating than Michelle Obama.
SCOTT: Is that going to get mentioned in the press?
PINKERTON: You just wouldn’t know it from reading the mainstream media.
Sunday, April 26. 2009
To prosecute or not. I was going to write this, but somebody else got to it first.
 100th Daygasm: Michelle
What's going on with Mr. Sun?
What happened to the H-word?
Good brief summary of Frederic Bastiat and the negative railroad
From the UK: Obama is confused about who the enemies are. I know other people who think that way.
From the 1984 Is Not A Handbook Department: In the UK Every Phone Call, Email, and Website Visit will be Monitored. Who are these people?
The political and economic consequences of dangerous CO2
What is truth? A quote from Dr. Bob:
Ideas have consequences, philosophies have predicates, and the rejection of absolutes absolutely dehumanizes us, for we devolve from a species of high principles and moral light to denizens of a depravity far lower than the animals. For animals have rational restraints on behavior, brutish though it may be, while there is no end to evil for the human mind unleashed from absolutes.
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