Tuesday, December 25. 2012
No, not that gift, silly.
That was just the warm-up.
This is a serious gift.
After first learning the tragic news that this is the last Christmas in America from News Junkie, then hearing that this is one of the most depressing, gloomy Christmases that many can remember from Barrister, then discovering that our modern Christmas is just a cheap, commercialized mockery of its former glory from Bird Dog, I realized something.
I realized I had a very special Christmas gift for these very special people.
The gift is, thankfully, you're all dead wrong.
It may not feel like it, but 2012 has been the greatest year in the history of the world. That sounds like an extravagant claim, but it is borne out by evidence. Never has there been less hunger, less disease or more prosperity. The West remains in the economic doldrums, but most developing countries are charging ahead, and people are being lifted out of poverty at the fastest rate ever recorded. The death toll inflicted by war and natural disasters is also mercifully low. We are living in a golden age.
You're very welcome. Merry Christmas, after all.
And greetings from the incredibly awesome state of California.
You remember California, don't you? From the tall virgin forests of the Trinity Alps in the far north, to the Death Valley deserts in the far south. From the eerie volcanic fields of Mt. Lassen in the Sierras, to the pristine white talcum powder sand of Pismo Beach on the central coast. From the majesty of the sharp, towering mountains above Lake Tahoe, to the greatest agricultural valley the world has ever known.
You know. That California.
Current temperature back home in the Florida Keys?
A delightful 71.
Current temperature here in Palo Alto, California?
46.
I sure wish that global warming stuff would hurry up and get going. Overnight would be preferred.
Best Christmas wishes to our readers all around the world.
Monday, December 24. 2012
 My pic is the Congregational Church of lovely and quaint Lyme, CT last week.
Radio Flyer Car
The Sadness Of NPR Christmas
Have a Merry, guilt-free Christmas.
D.C. has power and wealth while the rest of the country suffers. It's not a question of who the odds favor.
The federal government has emerged as one of the most potent factors driving income inequality in the United States - especially in the nation's capital.
Feminism and Free Choice
Do women need marriage anymore?
Obama Uses Funeral Service to Talk About Himself
Gun control advocates are utopians. Their perspective is that, if guns are no longer readily available, that violence will evaporate.
Should Americans Learn From Israeli Gun Laws
‘How Dare You Let Your Mental Illness Disturb My Gun-Control Narrative?’
Dalrymple: It is not likely that psychiatrists could have prevented the massacre.
Police Officers in School Don’t Work, That’s Why Obama’s School is Hiring One
Gun Control Advocates' Loudest Voices Are Most Heavily Protected
Social Security and Medicare Are Already Welfare
Tax code milking cash cow dry
DEMOCRATIC OFFICIALS in Maryland, NJ, NY and Massachusetts Face Prison Time for Voter Fraud
New Study Finds Democrats Fully to Blame for Subprime Mortgage Crisis that Caused 2008 Financial Disaster
Sen Tim Scott: A party that doesn't think with its skin
Is Shear serious? The GOP should abandon it’s principles because Obama is more popular?
Tom Friedman's view:
...if Republicans continue to be led around by, and live in fear of, a base that denies global warming after Hurricane Sandy and refuses to ban assault weapons after Sandy Hook — a base that would rather see every American’s taxes rise rather than increase taxes on millionaires — the party has no future. It can’t win with a base that is at war with math, physics, human biology, economics and common-sense gun laws all at the same time.
This Just In: John Wayne Is Dead
The crisis of American conservatism
Moving from an Emboldened Left in 2012 to a Legal Insurrection in 2013
Sunday, December 23. 2012
Saturday, December 22. 2012
It is no "assault weapon." "AR" means Armalite Rifle, not assault rifle. It's good for target shooting and for small game and critters like coyotes and groundhogs. Some consider it a lady's rifle, but might best be termed "gender-neutral." It is easily customizable. Very popular rifle. I think what most people understand the term "assault rifle" to imply is an automatic rifle, like a Tommy Gun or an AK-47.
In the NYT: Rifle Used in Killings, America’s Most Popular, Highlights Regulation Debate
The press seems usually not to to get that the vast majority of firearms are "semi-automatic." As we have mentioned here, a cowboy six-shooter is semi-automatic. As Rudy Guiliani said yesterday, a would-be killer can kill with anything no matter what it looks like. Killers in the US generally use 9 mm. handguns.
As this guy notes:
...what makes the AR-15 prime for these attacks? Simply the cosmetic make up of the gun - no less, no more. The AR-15 uses modern synthetic stocks, which make it look (to some) more menacing, but I am guessing you probably own a firearm right now that sports a non-wood stock. The AR-15 also has a detachable magazine, but I am also guessing you probably own at least one .22 rifle with the same feature. Some claim that the AR-15 can easily be converted to fully automatic. Well, it cannot... at least no more so than any other semi-auto firearm and doing so is illegal to boot. So it is easy to see that an AR-15, aside from sheer looks, is really no different than a standard semi-auto firearm you probably already own.
This is interesting: The results of the Gun Free School Zone act’s passage have been devastating.
OK, the photos. On top is a Remington semi-auto 30.06, below is an AR-15 semi-auto. Which looks scarier?
Friday, December 21. 2012
A grim view of the future at Zero Hedge: The last Christmas in America
I for one will not mourn the last Christmas in America. Good riddance to the flaunting of borrowed money and the heedless, desperate purchase of valueless "goods" as gifts for an insolvent nation awash in too much of everything but common sense, integrity, gratitude, accountability and healthy living.
Thursday, December 20. 2012
By the way, in case no one's mentioned it, this is your last day on earth. The event takes place tonight at 2:12 EST. Personally, I'll miss the ol' girl. You get kind of attached to a planet after so many years.
A very slick countdown clock is here. For just a silly project, the Sun-Sentinal did a terrific job. Click on 'How it works' to see what I mean. The Mayans were way ahead of the curve.
After the dust settles and the lava hardens, I'll be going back to my home state of California for a week. I'm bringing the laptop & wireless so I won't be out of touch. As you might recall, the last time I was out there was just before my operation, possibly saying 'goodbye forever' to family and friends. Not the happiest of times. I thought it appropriate that I revisit everyone now that the tidings are good. I'm still facing some serious medical costs, though, so if anyone is feeling the Christmas spirit, a small donation to my medical fund would be very appreciated.
Current temperature here in the Florida Keys? A delightful 76. I'm sitting here in my swim trunks with every door and hatch on the boat open.
Current temperature in Palo Alto, CA, in the heart of the S.F. Peninsula?
40.
Nobody said this would be pretty. On the other hand, I suppose it beats 1,250 degrees.
Well, good luck, everyone!
 The Daily Routines of Famous Writers
Judge Bork on Martinis
Urban Renewal, Corporate-Style - Zappos.com founder tries to resurrect downtown Las Vegas.
Work as Service and Servant
Today's history lesson: The Children of Hannibal
Howard Zinn in the College Classroom
This Is Not a Profile of Nassim Taleb
"France psychiatrist guilty over murder by patient."
Climate Alarmism: The Beginning of the End?
It’s Time for Lawyers to Loosen Their Grip on the American Economy
What America's trial lawyers want from Santa
Your Scary-Ass Chart of the Day
The truth about the AR-15 (h/t Insty)
Bowman:
...can we say, hands on hearts, that the state is wise today to be unafraid of its people? Or, for that matter, that the people even want to be trusted, as opposed to being taken care of, by the state?
10 myths about the Connecticut shootings - The horrific Sandy Hook massacre has prompted a wave of ill-informed comment about backward Americans.
Our reader Richard's thoughts about gun regulation
Sultan:
To understand the left's position on nearly any issue, imagine a 20th Century American and then take away accountability. Assume that the individual is helpless and stupid, has little to no control over his own behavior and is only responding to stimuli and functions in a purely reactive capacity. Then use that data to come up with a response to anything from kids getting fat to a football player shooting his wife to terrorists firing rockets at Israel. The only possible answer to reactive behavior is to find the thing being reacted to and condemn it.
If you want to fake being a member of the left on any topic and in any setting, master this simple phrase. "But we have to look at the root causes to see who is really responsible." Congratulations, you can now get by anywhere from Caracas to Brussels to Berkeley.
Wednesday, December 19. 2012
 The cacophany from the gun nuts is getting intense these days, and very little of it makes logical sense to me. I spoke with a colleague gun nut this week who told me that she'd be afraid even to touch a gun. I promised to take her to the range to get over this phobia. Hoplophobia. Probably a mental illness. A firearm is just a pipe and a hammer.
People talk about "dangerous semi-automatic" firearms. What? A cowboy six-shooter is semi-automatic, and so are most duck-hunting shotguns. Automatic firearms are illegal for civilians in the US. I don't think they know what they are talking about. (My error - were illegal but are not now. Missed that change. Machine guns are illegal.)
Guns are dangerous? Gee wiz. Who knew? I thought large bottles of Coke and table salt and globalistical warmening were dangerous.
Now, I will not get hysterical about this topic because I know that nobody is going to take away my guns or my (heavily-vetted) concealed-carry permit. It's politically impossible. Just one point: How come the gun nuts hate ordinary people having guns - any guns - while it seems fine for "important Liberal people" - like Sen Feinstein, who carries or used to, or Harry Reid, who has carried most of his life, or Mayor Bloomberg, surrounded by armed bodyguards despite his horror of guns, or a President surrounded by a small army of weaponry, or Oprah with her armed bodyguards, etc etc.?
This is America. We're all equal. I'm important too. All of my kids can handle firearms. Basic life skill, same as swimming and tennis and trigonometry and land navigation.
During college I worked at Jack Frost Dry Goods, a fabric and yarn store in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The owner contributed extra cloth to the Little Sisters of the Poor in the nearby Bushwick neighborhood. My uncle had owned a nursing home in the Bronx when I was much younger than that, and the Little Sisters facility and care was superior.
The Little Sisters of the Poor are another example of religious based charitable organizations whose scruples and finances would be violated by Obamacare's requirement that it provide medical insurance that includes contraception and medical treatments that cause sterility or can cause abortions. Aside from its 300 sisters working in their facilities, non-users but still charged for the increased premium, the Little Sisters hires without regard to religion and cares for people without regard to religion. So, according to Obamacare, the Little Sisters of the Poor does not qualify for exemption.
Continue reading "Obama Vs. Little Sisters of the Poor"
I would think the NAACP would be embarassed about this statement, with its implication that the main black policy agenda is to get stuff from the government.
 Falconry season in Qatar
Video shows golden eagle snatching toddler — almost — from Montreal park
Temper tantrums become a diagnosis
Is Your Bank Account at Risk from ‘Project Blitzkrieg’
There's More Than History at Stake for NYC's First Pre-Fab High-Rise
Most Outrageous Reporting of 2012
Professor calls for murder of NRA president
Cooling Down the Fears of Climate Change - Evidence points to a further rise of just 1°C by 2100. The net effect on the planet may actually be beneficial.
Peak Farming?
Slowing population growth. The restoration of massive swaths of farmland to nature. Increasing world food supplies. Lower food prices for billions of people. Massive water supplies beneath the driest deserts. Abundant oil and gas. The 21st century is looking like it will be a very different kind of place than the greens and Malthusians have warned us about.
A Brief History of American Prosperity - An entrepreneurial culture and the rule of law have nourished the nation’s economic dynamism.
Egypt Democratically Adopts an Anti-Western Dictatorship
U.S. Policy is Making Syria into an Anti-Western, Antisemitic Islamist State
Iraq: One Year After Withdrawal
Tuesday, December 18. 2012
 I have nothing new to post about today.
It is a difficult time in central Connecticut, but it is almost Christ's birthday party. Being fresh out of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, what can we offer? We can offer receptivity.
We can offer anticipation of a mystery, new life, birth and re-birth, gifts of the spirit to be delivered by FedEx or Santa or the Holy Spirit on Christmas Eve, or any other time, to each heart open to those precious gifts.
"... store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Matthew 6
Monday, December 17. 2012
Human rights abroad are not of real concern to President Obama. This is clearly signaled by the potential nominations of John Kerry and Chuck Hegel to be Secretary of State and Defense, respectively, two men who throughout their careers have buddied up to tyrants and downplayed oppression.
None are arguing for direct armed intervention in every case of brutality toward human rights, or the US would be invading at least half the members of the United Nations. But, where US foreign policy interests are aligned with defense of the human rights within a country, there is no justification to ignore or excuse or downplay the gross denial of basic rights, nor for that matter not to aid those aligned with Western values.
This is not a new concern unique to the current administration, but it is a heightened problem in the Obama lead-from-behind or the Obama skedaddle-from-town foreign policy.
The major human rights organizations have a spotty record of holding this administration’s feet to the fire. Should Kerry and Hegel be the policy-making and public face of US foreign policy, the major human rights organizations either better rise to their pretenses or be self-labeled as frauds.
Michael Rubin describes the issue:
It is no secret that when it comes to staffing, the most famous U.S.-based human rights organizations are skewed more toward Democrats than even universities. The most professional organizations try not to allow partisanship to corrupt analysis, but they are seldom successful….
The coming four years, however, should force real soul searching among the human rights community. President Obama’s reported pick of John Kerry to be secretary of state and the looming choice of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense will cement in his cabinet two figures that lack a moral compass in international affairs. If Kerry considered Bashar al-Assad “a dear friend” and a genuine reformer because they had a nice coffee and bike ride together, sympathizes with Latin America’s new populist dictators, and believes human rights should be shunted aside because Vladimir Putin is a sincere democrat, dictators will understand they have a free pass and democratic dissidents will realize they have no friend in the U.S. government.Hagel’s gut instincts are even worse: He is not naïve like Kerry, but rather cold and callous when it comes to human rights. His instincts are to dismiss his opponents’ worst excesses as a domestic affair. Hagel embraces traditional appeasement, unaware that rather than satiate dictators, it only emboldens them. It won’t take long for dictators to understand that, with both Kerry and Hagel at the helm, they will have carte blanche to repress and murder their own people in a manner unseen for decades
.…The question for the human rights community will be if they will hold water for such men and confirm the political corruption which infuses the professional human rights community.
A prime example of the hypocrisy of a leading human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, is 9/11 truther, virulent anti-Israel pro-Hamas apologist Richard Falk's membership on its Board of Directors. The anti-Israel animus in President Obama's potential appointments of Kerry and/or Hegel are described by Caroline Glick.
 Spam University
The Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference
HESCHMEYER: Radical feminism waging the real war on women
Reid vs. the filibuster
The Coming Regulatory Black Hole - Thousands of new proposed regulations, delayed by the election, will be issued over the next few months.
I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother
Gun Crime Soars in England by 35% Where Guns Are Banned
Surprise! 40% Of Democrats Own Guns
Media Sets Gun Control Narrative, Shuts Down Mental Health Debate
Volokh: A Thought Experiment Related to School Shootings
Fund:
Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany.
and
Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.
At Jacobson:
I sometimes wonder whether black Americans would be happy or disappointed to know how little most white Americans think about race. And more and more, I think they’d be disappointed. Or mad.
Green Grift: Solar Firms Under Investigation for Inflating Costs
ObamaCare Will Bring Bureaucracy, Endless Rules And Coercion, But Improve Nothing
'Israel and 1938 Czechoslovakia are similar'
"Israel Through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner,”
Muslim Country With 25% Slave Population Elected VP of UN Human Rights Council
What North Korea's Rocket Launch Tells Us About Iran's Role
Sunday, December 16. 2012
 COME EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US!
In more ways than one, we are waiting in darkness. Isaiah prophesied Jesus’ birth, saying, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).
Yet, the darkness will never totally go away. I’ve worked long enough in ministry to know that moral evil isn’t going to disappear, but the Gospel offers something much more subtle and helpful: “the light shines on the inside of the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it” (John 1:5). Such is the Christian form of yin-yang, our own belief in paradox and mystery.
We must all hope and work to eliminate darkness, especially in many of the great social issues of our time. We wish world hunger could be eliminated. We wish we could stop wasting the earth’s resources on armaments. We wish we could stop killing people from womb to tomb.
But at a certain point, we have to surrender to the fact that the darkness is part of reality, and my logical mind does not know why. But the only real question becomes how to trust the light, receive the light, and spread the light. That is not a capitulation to evil any more than the cross was a capitulation to evil. It is real transformation into the unique program of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This is the one pattern that redeems reality instead of punishing evil or thinking we can eliminate it entirely. Our main job is to face it in ourselves.
Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr
My pic is the Congregational Church of Hadlyme, CT, yesterday
Saturday, December 15. 2012
 Vanderleun: The Star
Vultures Quickly Gather to Exploit Tragedy in Connecticut
Is Obama Already Politicizing Sandy Hook Shooting?
Is the wind industry entering panic mode?
Taxing the Successful to Death
At the Ivies, Asians are the new Jews
Mead: Liberal, Educated “Experts” Run American Colleges into the Ground
In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist:
This past spring, Harvard and MIT got the attention of everyone in the higher ed business when they announced a new online education venture called edX. The new venture will make online versions of the universities’ courses available to a virtually unlimited number of enrollees around the world. Think of the ramifications: Now anyone in the world with an internet connection can access the kind of high-level teaching and scholarship previously available only to a select group of the best and most privileged students.
Showcase Campuses, Built With IOUs
High-Mileage Cars: Is 200,000 the new normal?
The man who invented the bar code also "perfected a system for delivering elevator music efficiently."
The Doctor Won’t See You Now -American health care is in a bureaucratic death grip.
The view at small businesses
Where’s Mitt (Cont’d)?
IPCC Admission Has Climate World Buzzing
Jindal Calls for OTC Birth Control Sales
Will China Have the World’s Largest Economy by 2030?
Obama To Troops: Don´t Insult The Taliban
MY SAY: NEWLY DISCOVERED! GENERAL GEORGE PATTON’S GUIDE FOR U.S. SOLDIERS FIGHTING IN WORLD WAR 11
Friday, December 14. 2012
Thursday, December 13. 2012
His daily post, Best of the Web Today at the WSJ site, is the wittiest and most engaging review of national news and random happenings that exists.
I envy his talent, his brains - and his cool gig. I think he has a small staff to help. A daily read with my cup of Dunkin.
Thanks, James, for what you do. Hope you are well-paid for it.
 Peaceable Kingdom: Cart pulled by lion, two sheep, and a bear. More cart pics here.
The Stark Geographic Inequality of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
Count me as opposed to the mortgage interest deduction
What art has come to: Bryan Saunders: portrait of the artist on crystal meth
Sippican Cottage Deeply Regrets The Use Of Forced Labor In His Factory
Pelosi Accuses GOP Of Lack Of Concern For Kwanzaa
A new play: Exposing Joseph Stalin’s Media Apologist
It's okay to be rich if liberal because it means you care
Michigan Stuns Labor as Blue Model Continues to Unravel:
Labor needs representation and many of the values that drew millions of working Americans into the labor movement endure. But few American institutions are as ill suited to the 21st century or have proved so inept at reorganization and reform as the unions.
Union rioters: Fat old white men
The Full Effects of Obamacare Just Starting to Make the News
Medical device tax hypocrites
Extreme Weather Belief Like A “pagan rite of human sacrifice to ensure a good harvest”
President Obama's tenure as president will have as one of its benchmarks one of the worst and longest-running unemployment records in recent history -- and he will own it all by himself.
Jews warned not to wear religious symbols in Copenhagen
Prescott and Ohanian: Taxes Are Much Higher Than You Think - The combined levies on labor income and consumer spending have seriously reduced the hours that Europeans work. The U.S. isn't too far behind:
Edward Prescott has shown that the U.S. average marginal effective tax rate is around 40%. This means that if the average worker earns $100 from additional output, he will be able to consume only an additional $60.
Wednesday, December 12. 2012
Tuesday, December 11. 2012
Like the Hannukah reindeer? Ideally, I suppose he'd sport a menorah.
A new war game: Europe 1939-1945.
How Ben Affleck’s Argo Screws History
You Could Tell Santa’s Helper In The UU Church Pageant Was A Drag Queen Because He’s The Only Person In Western Maine That Looks Even Vaguely Feminine
6 Green Lies Threatening to Starve You - It started with the gas in your car. Now the green police are coming after the food in your fridge.
Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
“Wage Class War” — well, at least they’re honest about the strategy
Gallup Reports Upper-Income Spending Worst November Ever
New Curricula Will Substitute Government Manuals for Classic Literature
Young Americans Could Experience Shock When medical insurance Exchanges Go Live
One reason to not send your kids to school
At Big Government
A friend from Chicago, involved in Illinois politics who has known Obama since his early days in the Illinois State Senate, told me that two things that trump everything else in Obama’s mind: redistributing the wealth and empowering labor unions. Look at everything the President does, my friend says, and you will find one or the other lurking in the background.
Obama’s Broken Promises to Sandy Victims
Upscale liberal Kentfield discovers that scary phrase “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help”
Conard: Buffett Is Wrong About Taxes
Female Genital Mutilation: An Islamic Crime
Monday, December 10. 2012
When Israel announced that planning would begin for some housing in an area known as E1, the New York Times led the media howling that building there would cut off the northern from the southern parts of a future Palestine in the areas of the West Bank. Despite the Palestinians publicly announcing at the UN their breaking the Oslo Accords, a reason had to be found or created to hold Israel to blame for obstructing peace!
This map (courtesy of Honest Reporting), for example, shows that not to be true.
The New York Times must have bought a map, and just ran two corrections to its prior reporting, if it can be dignified as such. Blind ignorance is blamed on an “editing error.” Yeah, and Delaware is our largest state.
That area has never been offered to Palestinians in any of the many proposals for 98% of the West Bank to be theirs for a state. See this map:
Continue reading "New York Times Sells A Bridge, Then Buys A Map"
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Why 
The Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old
This "Lost Generation"