Friday, December 12. 2008
 The EU Mandarins still planning to create a nation
Was NYC the original Mumbai target? What does Colin Powell mean by "polarizing"? Hot young housewives at The Max Planck Institute. Where else? What is an American car, anyway? What does "property rights" mean? Wilkinson Gateway is all over the Obama-Blago story today. Is Obama vetting a new Chief of Staff? Watch out. Here come Obama's Carbon Busters in the WSJ. One quote (in a week of record snows): The EPA long ago became the government arm of the environment lobby, but Ms. Browner was especially political. During her EPA salad days, she put out air-pollution standards that even the agency itself said would have no measurable impact on public health, purely as antibusiness punishment. She forced GE to dredge the Hudson River of PCBs that posed no threat to the public. Ms. Browner also rewrote a law called New Source Review so that power plants, refineries and other industries were always breaking the particulate emissions rules. But her most pernicious inspiration was the idea that the EPA could by itself classify carbon as a "dangerous pollutant" under current clean-air laws and thus impose new taxes and restrictions on all types of energy. Under Ms. Browner's orders, EPA general counsel Jonathan Cannon prepared a 1998 memorandum concluding that "CO2 emissions are within the scope of the EPA's authority to regulate," even though Congress specifically declined to include carbon when it last amended the Clean Air Act in 1990. Now a law professor, Mr. Cannon serves on the Obama transition team.
Indeed, that is an arrow aimed at the heart of the American economy. Would they dare go further?
Wooly Mammoths rumored seen in Louisiana swamps. My brother took this "climate change" photo yesterday in New Orleans: 
Thursday, December 11. 2008
 Posting this tonite because I'll be away tomorrow -
So maybe that reported Obama-Blago meeting never happened? I'm totally confused now, but Volokh's timeline helps clear it up. Related, Mad or Bad? Warnings about Blago Does time exist? New Scientist (h/t, Flares). I don't think it "exists," but it sure is a good practical concept, especially at dinner time. This report about the Sphinx is old news, isn't it? Yes, it was jungly there in those days. Re Greece: "This is a country with a state that is in a shambles, a police force in disarray, mediocre universities that serve as hotbeds of rage instead of knowledge and a shattered health care system. It is also on the brink of financial ruin."
Ann Coulter on the Minnesota vote A "Green Bible"? Good grief. The House roll call for the bailout vote. As Betsy says: Oh, yeah. These companies have been losing market share for decades and haven't been able to restructure to meet new circumstances. But in three months they're supposed to change all that and make sure that we have a "viable automotive industry?" And all for a relatively cheap $15 billion? Do you really believe that Pelosi has that sort of magic wand?
And more, from Prof. Macey via Tiger: We need to encourage market solutions -- not bureaucratic ones -- as the best strategy for addressing the corporate governance failures we face today. Hedge funds and activist investors like Carl Icahn are the solution, not the problem. The market for corporate control should be deregulated and the SEC's restrictions on all sorts of equity trading should be lifted at once.
And more, from Boudreaux: A government bailout of the Big Three keeps huge amounts of productive inputs in firms that can't use them efficiently. Forcing taxpayers to subsidize the continued employment of gargantuan quantities of raw materials, labor and capital goods in unproductive pursuits is a recipe for economic stagnation. The popular and politically convenient myth has matters backwards: The bigger the unprofitable firm, the more vital it is that it be allowed to fail.
And, predictably, Big Academia wants some bailout money too. Gimme. And, last but not least: Bailing out Big Cheese Update: Auto bailout is dead. The unions wouldn't budge. Money for nothin' and the chicks for free...
"The Architect," Karl Rove gives advice to Repubs. I don't care how Repubs do all that much. I do care how Conservative/Libertarians do in the future, though.
The NYT today not only covers for Obama, but they completely refuse to report the facts that every internet user knows.
 Is Big Garbage too big to fail?
Would you cousin-humping rednecks stop buying guns? Why to worry about the deficit. Stossel Walter Williams reminds us that bankruptcy doesn't mean you go out of business Chuck Colson receives Presidential Medal for his Prison Fellowship work. Newsweek tries to use the Bible to support gay marriage The 51% rule for marriage Cool photos: Polar bear chasing photog Image via Synthstuff
Wednesday, December 10. 2008
Years ago there was an excellent Calvin and Hobbes toon. In it, Calvin was either writing a journal and/or taking photos or drawing pictures. Hobbes asks him why he's doing it. Calvin replies that he is pre-shaping his past for his eventual run for the Presidency. As I recall it, it entails a portrait of a noble young Calvin, studying a book. If any reader can find a copy of that toon, we'd love to see it again. The reason it came to my mind today is obvious.
We posted the other day about Yankee taxes and our general unfriendliness to business. Liberals and Lefties never seem to wonder where the money comes from for all of their plans and schemes. Well, in my CT, it's not going to come from these folks, because they made a plan for their families, and they won't let the product of their lifetime of blood, sweat and tears be fleeced by the greedy pols in Hartford.
Feds want a little friendly conversation with Jesse Jackson Jr. Those little chats with the Feds rarely end up well for the chatee, because they are full of traps and snares - and they have a terrifying power to destroy you. Watch out for when they thoughtfully ask "Would you like some coffee?" Everybody's guilty of something, and they know it.
Car of the Future: The Pelosi GTxi Fun stuff from Paglia, including ripping Dick Cavett Searching the world for clues to asthma Why do we believe in Santa? Dumb question, if you ask me. Axelrod now says he misspoke. I think he spoke an inconvenient truth. Do you believe in "The March of History"? I do not.
Tuesday, December 9. 2008
Andrew Breitbart will address lonely California Conservatives with his Big Hollywood. (h/t Scott at Powerline)
In Chicago, 1921 and 2008. You can't make this stuff up. Read this bit as he tries to make a deal to sell Obama's seat to Obama's choice. Between Rangel and Blago, the greedy Dems are in it up to their necks. Editor's note: Woops. Complaint includes Obama-Rezko land deal. Is this Whitewater Redux? If Dems love money so much, why don't they get a real job and produce something useful, like so many Repubs do? Also, via Slate: The person who looks great in this sordid affair, in fact, is Barack Obama, whom Blagojevich refers to by another name. According to the indictment: ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants ... are telling him that he has to "suck it up" for two years and do nothing and give this "motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him."
Also, one Lib: Blago a victim. Some are such insane partisans that it blinds them, or corrupts them. I can see defending pitiful Larry Craig, but not this scumbag, who is just the tip of a huge iceberg. Also, many posts at Gateway
 One good thing about Obama is that he smokes. Maybe he'll help make tobacco cool again. (I have read that Hillary smokes too, but I can't prove it.)
Mrs. O might consider some of these smoke-eater candles for the President-Elect's Christmas stocking. We don't want the Oval Office smelling like an ashtray...or do we? Ancient joke re smoking: "Do you smoke after sex?"
"I don't know. I never looked."
 Recession: As the money goes away, so do the toxic wives:
'You loser!" screamed Katie, aiming a vase at her husband. "You've destroyed my life,'' she continued, hurling it. "Just look at my hair, look at my nails! You loser, you jerk, you nobody."
Recession: Women, minorities, and BS artists hardest hit Why New England is in the dumper: Least economic freedom Why do the mentally ill die younger? Life without auto unions in Brazil. Sounds good to me. With union jobs, there's little chance for advancement beyond a union job no matter how good or ambitious you are. If you think the Big 3 were bad before... Teaching analytical thinking: "They see the problem, but they don't see into the problem...." From Surber: They told me that if I voted for John McCain, our troops would remain in Iraq, the tax cuts for the rich would stand, and we would get a third term of Bush at the Pentagon. I did. And they were right.
From the WSJ: “What we’ve done in higher education,” said an administrator, “is let our dreams and aspirations dictate our cost structure.” For colleges, the dream is over...
Welcome to reality.
Monday, December 8. 2008
Bloomberg. I agree that they are smart to block withdrawals and, lucky for them, it's their prerogative. Big gains entail big risks.
What is 6 months of your life worth? Do you want the gummint to decide? Schools eliminating Fs. Failure problem solved! We all saw this coming: reporters want government jobs Warming debunkers to hold conference in DC in March. Related: News articles about global warming fears. Is this the real hockey stick graph? (graph from the NYT article) 
Chinese house-hunting tours to the USA Here endeth the new Gilded Age. This will please the envy-ridden. Removing God from American history Steyn: UK demographic deathwatch story of the day Royal Navy not looking too royal 70% of black kids grow up without two parents. It's the socio-cultural catastrophe we aren't supposed to talk about. Insty: Virginia Postrel comments: If anyone should fear a Depression, it should be journalists, who are already the equivalent of 1980s steelworkers. But instead, they seem positively giddy with anticipation at the prospect of a return to ’30s-style hardship–without, of course, the real hardship of the 1930s. . . . Oh the thrill of imagining a Great Depression. It’s an opportunity for Great Design and Really Cool Government.
Sunday, December 7. 2008
 Earth cooling because of global warming
Cheer up! And you will cheer up everybody around you. More slaves in the world today... Remarkable deer and bunny photos from Tanja Askani. More: Wolf and dog Russia tightens Europe's energy noose A prescription 9mm handgun. Would Medicare cover it? Obama plans huge spending spree. Sounds like history's biggest pork festival. And what do school buildings have to do with good education? Or school internet, for that matter? (Unless the brains full of mush are required to read Maggie's daily...) We've done this too. Paying an erroneous ticket simply to avoid the hassle. Dems suddenly change their minds about waterboarding. It's really not that bad: they do it to me every time I go to the dentist. I wish they would let me control the suction. Boston's border control chief hires illegals. What's your religion? Atheists worship solstices. Who cares? Urban safety and the great Jane Jacobs. Althouse Truthers to the left of me, truthers to the right of me. Michelle Cost-benefit analysis on wind power. Candles are cheaper. Bill Ayers, Victim And, related to the above, on the the Guardian's position on terror, via Thompson: Under no circumstances should we, rational Westerners, seek to apply the same critical standards to the Mumbai murderers and their supporters as we do - haltingly and insufficiently - to our own actions and those of our leaders. What we have to do is understand and empathize with their feelings and, as we can’t expect them to dilute their rage with reason or to seek methods to vindicate their claims that don’t involve hand grenades or AK 47s, we must make ourselves constantly ready to indulge their homicidal tantrums. Above all, we must never, ever treat them as our equals.
Krauthammer on Iraq. A quote: For the United States, it represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally. If we don't blow it with too hasty a withdrawal from Iraq, we will have turned a chronically destabilizing enemy state at the epicenter of the Arab Middle East into an ally.
Yes. That's the point.
Saturday, December 6. 2008
 Best ad of the year: The Doghouse
Mumbai's the Word. Dalrymple. One quote: ... making the justified assumption that the terrorists were not actually deficient in raw intelligence, it was not the target that was important to the young killers, it was the act of killing itself. And their manipulators probably knew that there are always fools enough, at least among intellectuals in the west, to assume that if you go to extreme lengths, you must have some 'cause' - which is to say some good cause - that impels you to go to them.
Will the academic bubble be the next to burst? The Next Bubble by Donald Downs. One quote: A prescient friend of mine recently related a thought he had while teaching a few years ago at a "third tier private school" that had high tuition. At "job fairs" at the school, most of the positions being offered involved jobs as low-level managers at Target, McDonalds, and similar businesses. My friend surmised that students had to wonder why they or their families had depleted their bank accounts to pay for an educations that led to positions that simply did not require the pedagogical preparation the school offered. To be sure, a liberal education is a precious thing in its own right. But its preciousness has a way of declining when its costs put middle class citizens in a vise---especially when those citizens are already living in the vise of the new economy.
Friday, December 5. 2008
 Nativity scenes are full of hate?
The ten most irritating phrases And more snow in England. It's "climate change" Moslem prayer rooms in every Roman Catholic school? GM's magical thinking Why bailouts don't work: Reason. Related: Public spending crowds out private spending Stock up on canned goods. Coyote makes the case that the media uses the same fears to sell economic trouble as they do to sell snowstorms Dino: Much of the financial world stopped functioning 80 days ago The case against physician-assisted suicide Dick Fuld: Villain or victim? Climate lawyers? Sheesh. I seethe, therefore I am. Ace "No you don't have a higher duty - you're a reporter." Driscoll Fake Chinese Nintendo consoles burst into flame In 1962, President Kennedy said: The problems are more difficult than I had imagined them to be. The responsibilities placed on the United States are greater than I imagined them to be, and there are greater limitations upon our ability to bring about a favorable result than I had imagined them to be. And I think that is probably true of anyone who becomes President, because there is such a difference between those who advise or speak or legislate, and between the man who must select from the various alternatives proposed and say that this shall be the policy of the United States. It is much easier to make the speeches than it is to finally make the judgments. . .
Wednesday, December 3. 2008
 The Baron mocks VA Tech's "welcoming environment". Related: Moslem convert to Christianity warns of multiculturalism
How to qualify as a Vermont Woodchuck. Fellowship and reading scripture, with wealth as an example. AVI Russia will drill the Gulf oil if we won't Freedom and the Left: Sowell Ant Supercolony dominates Europe. No, I don't mean the EU Oil windfall tax under the bus. Reality Rules! How Bob Rubin made his last $115 million. Nice work, if you can get it. For the tenth time, why is Chapter 11 "out of the question"? Poll says 61% oppose big three bailout. Or "little three..." Golf biz hard-hit by economy Has Cape Wind's time arrived? I think this wind thing is a dumb fad. It kills birds, and it requires govt subsidies from my pocket. How much did Sarah help Saxby?
Our friend and occasional guest blogger Nathan emails: Write a letter to NYTIMES, the lede should be:
Japan and GM ExecutivesGM executives should follow Japan's custom: commit hari-kari for their failures and as a condition for government bail-out. Forget selling corporate jets or $1/ year compensation for the CEO; a good gutting is a more convincing first-step towards sincerity.
Hell is a perfect memory. Frontal Cortex 17,000 tons of CO2 to save the planet. Satire, meet Reality. Bombay aftermath: Winds of Change How democracies perish, Brit version. Roger I hate to waste ink on quoting Insty, since most of y'all probably read him anyway, but IS VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA’S FISCAL FREEFALL the beginning of a trend? More problems with those underfunded/overgenerous public employee pensions: But the largest share of the blame in Vallejo has centered on public-safety salaries and benefits, which make up about 75 percent of the city’s general fund budget. Base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 per year and employees can retire at age 50 with a pension equal to 90 percent of their salary, the result of a retroactive pension increase several years ago. . . . The California Professional Firefighters union proclaims, “If allowed to stand, Vallejo’s attack on its own employees would send shock waves throughout the labor movement.”
Retire at 50 with 90% salary? Good grief. I'd take that, and get another job - but I'd never get a deal like that in the private sector. Slow long-term growth. I would not be surprised. EPA wants to tax livestock. I guess it's a farting and breathing tax, same as for humans. And here's another tax idea for the US: A VAT Too late to sell, and too soon to invest? A quote from The Street.com: Though share prices seemingly discount anything short of a Great Recession, visibility remains ever more clouded and a wide range of S&P 500 profit outcomes from 2009 to 2011 seems, to this observer, to be an important contributor to an unprecedented degree of volatility not seen in our professional careers. And that volatility is being exaggerated by a trigger-happy and rapidly consolidating hedge fund community that seems to accentuate both upside and downside market movements.
Tuesday, December 2. 2008
 Miss World Update, at Powerline. We feature Miss Dominican Republic -
Funny: The incredibly stupid thoughts of Deepak Chopra. Rick begins thus: There are few human beings on planet earth more annoying than Deepak Chopra, the touchy-feely, New Age Guru whose fetid, gooey, and completely banal nostrums regarding health and healing have reached a new low in the history of civilized thought.
Our lying, cheating, stealing teens Lovely Venice sinking beneath the waves. Visit now, or later with scuba gear. I don't know how we overlooked this site, but Whited Sepulchre has a good bit on The Richardson Snub. We add this Texan to our Blogroll of Honour.
This is from our guest poster Bruce Kesler - What if Peter, or Paul, is your son? If Peter is your child, then you might think at least twice about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Indeed, if Paul is your child, you might think twice about when Peter runs out of money to rob. Today, we’re moving beyond robbing to literally looting Peter, and Paul will face standing on his own. Our older, unionized industries centered around the domestic auto companies are yammering for federal tens of billions to keep them breathing a while longer. Meanwhile, their smothering, very generous retirement pension and healthcare benefits are, at best, likely to be hardly trimmed. Our states, whose heavily unionized employment has grown faster than in private companies, face almost $2 trillion of future payments on retirement benefits for which they don’t have funding. Add in localities and the unfunded debts climb even higher. Meanwhile, our governors clamber for hundreds of billions from the federal government to keep their mini-welfare states going with, at best, small temporary spending cuts. Our federal government faces the imminent bankruptcy of Medicare and Social Security under the weight of trillions of unfunded benefits. Meanwhile, nothing is done, while the remedies become more severe. Add to this the trillion dollars or so, hidden behind misleading titles like “stimulus” or “growth”, already committed and more to come to briefly cushion the shock to some politically favored sectors. Where is all this money to come from? It can only come from four sources: It can come from increasing taxes or cutting future government benefits, both of which land on our child Peters, and the latter on our Pauls, to reduce their standard of living and their incentives to excel and produce. It can come from foreign and domestic lenders, the debt payments mounting and interest costs increased by the reduced credibility of repayment in non-inflated dollars. It can come from speeding up the currency printing presses, devaluing investments and savings. It can come from our Pauls learning to more care for themselves. At a point in the not too distant future our Peters may well no longer have enough resources left to be robbed for the Pauls. Our Pauls better learn, fast, how to be more productive and care for themselves. We have a pretty clear choice: The first choice is we can continue the fiscal and moral insanity of robbing Peter to pay Paul, of the impossibility of sustaining our heavy subsidies of so many currently over-benefited adults. Or, we can redouble and redirect our efforts to provide a practical education to our Pauls. That means several things. It must be made clear, throughout our society, which includes our Hollywood and Times Square dream factories, that there is no free ride, but that an individual is dependent upon his own work and ethics. It must be made clear that diligent attention to skill-enhancing education is the road to self-sufficiency. It must be made clear that any individual, company or government which doesn’t live within its means has no other choice but to do so, at whatever adjusting discomfort to oneself, owners, employees or clients. The first choice, of fairly blithely continuing on the current path, downward, will soon hit a dead, self-destructive end. The second choice will then not be a choice to be managed but the only harsher way remaining. The sooner we head toward the second path, the easier the way will be. The first step is to recognize that both Peter and Paul are our sons, to be cared about enough to be set on the right path.
Monday, December 1. 2008
 Out on biz in the early AM. Leaving these good droppings:
America's other auto industry. WSJ. Related: but the homegrown auto assemblers are worse off than you think. Zombies indeed. Too old. Obama's netroots problem. Is that a real problem? Nobody really cares about what people say on websites - except their readers. And most folks neither know nor care much about politics anyway. Related: The Obama Jolt: Is he a closet centrist? I do not think so. MSNBC anchor wonders why election didn't end terrorism Squeegee guys return to NYC. That is bad news. I have not seen any of them yet. Are they all ex- Bear-Stearns guys? Liz Smith: Palinophobe. I do not think she realizes how dumb she sounds. Bad day for equities? We already told you it wants to get to Dow 7500 - at the least. See The China Debacle. It's a small world... Speaking of Bad Days, California is having one. They won't stop spending and they cannot raise taxes. Just like the Feds, but they cannot print $ either. I am a white male. Why not just shoot me? Get it over with.
Soros' Move-On is still in business. This is post-election, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Free medical care seems to be one of their goals, but I think they want lots of free stuff from what others produce. It's quite evident that they do not know how to produce anything themselves. It's hard to see how such feckless people can be effective, but there is no doubt that they now feel individually "empowered" by Obama. How nice for them. (h/t, Moonbattery). These people are "the useful idiots," as Lenin termed them. It's a fund-raising scam. Not that they need it, if Soros is really paying for the thing... The potty-mouth blond is kinda hot:
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