Sunday, December 14. 2008
I am away tomorrow morning. Busy on a job in Dallas. Yes, Texas is booming with biz and jobs, unlike much of the world.  Have you read Vanderleun's The Star yet?
Classical Values takes a look at the defunct Packard assembly plant Corporate DNA. Coyote Our pal Sipp makes it into the dead tree media. And rightly so - he works with dead trees. The southern auto industry mocks Detroit Jim Rogers says most US banks bankrupt CT's Dodd still ducking. Gee whiz, all he did was to use his job to get VIP mortgages. What do you expect? It's just a perk. Wizbang had New Author Tryouts Where the heck does Steven Chu live? Arizona? Its' been cold as heck up here. We are in trouble. Is the Obama Admin already damaged goods? If so, it's self-inflicted, but John McCain blames the Repubs. Huh? What's up with John? Related: Blago in context: Tiger. Related: Schadenfreude Time? From View from the Right on Madoff: "Madoff—quiet, modest, simple, direct, generous, thoughtful, helpful, and not greedy," I pointed to the apparent contradiction that a colossal crook and robber like Bernard Madoff--a man who cooly defrauded his clients of $50 billion, a destroyer of wealth who wiped out the assets and the endowments of the individuals and organizations that had trusted him--exhibited so many personal virtues.
The community organizer's wet dream. Obama wants to spend a trillion. That's our money. Rahm Emanuel headed to a grand jury. How fun for him. Surber Update: The death of the piano industry. Also, Palin's church and arsonists Michael Yon in Afghanistan. What a guy he is. Santa brings pain and suffering. Bad, bad Santa. Be good, or else... Who is Thomas Tamm? Via Viking: CNN: "Taxpayers: Furious over homeowner bailouts" "All these idiots who bought homes they couldn't really afford are going to be rewarded with loan modifications, but what about those of us who didn't make stupid decisions?" asked Jay Black, a CNNMoney.com reader who rents in Queens, N.Y. Sir, don't you know it's your patriotic duty to bail out your fellow American dummies? Sheesh.
Hey, No fair. Maggie's has a patent on Sheesh! and Good Grief! Conservatives and the Delusions of the Left. Radosh Haven't we had enough of the Kennedys? How long can people politically trade on an Irish name? Another name fetish: Calls for Jesse Jackson Jr. to resign The IPCC wants no more data. Don't confuse me with facts? Our hero Klaus begs to differ. Feminism update: More women criminals. Equality Now! Yikes: THE END OF OBJECTIVITY AT GOOGLE? “Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. . . . None of this would matter, if it wasn’t for one other trend: a paralysing loss of confidence in media companies.”
All dressed up and nothing to do. Joe Biden. He is was a tool.
 Bismarck. Global cooling is our new crisis. New Hampshire is in the deep freeze, with ice storms and unseasonable cold - and their power is out. Not mine.
All we can do to help is to drive our Hummers to the mall. Eagerly awaiting explanation from Al Gore. Oh, he did have something to say: North Pole to disappear in 5 years. Is that a promise? So how come the ice cap is growing? And who cares anyway? His fear-mongering hyperbole has turned him into a joke.
Saturday, December 13. 2008
Anchoress: Getting some hate mail from my piece up at Pajamas Media. I’m being accused of wanting an “American theocracy”. Not at all. I simply am pointing out that a determinedly secular mindset will not make much of a dent against an equally determined supernatural mindset, and so the West should not be so dismissive of the power and usefulness of the vocabulary of faith. And I can’t be completely wrong since, as we see here at Hot Air, most Americans are open to that vocabulary.
 Betty Page died on Thursday at 85. Photo from the article. She liked to take her clothes off, I am told. A sexual freedom icon. Cute girl. Every rose must fade and die.
Speaking of time passing, a 1940 Dodge, like new. Reminds me of Woody Allen's VW in Sleeper. Driscoll: "Dissent: It's the highest form of patriotism. But patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Party time in Baghdad. We done good. Problem was, the UAW didn't "release" the Dems for the vote. The UAW owns the Dems? I thought Soros owned the Dems. Woops. They got it wrong. Fastest-growing states and the election. Scott at Powerline remembers Sinatra's birthday with a remarkable tune. Bailout means payback. Roger. That's what it's all about. By the way, take a look at the 22 lb. UAW contract. Good grief. Does anybody know what is even in there? Two huge Dem scandals since the election: Rangel and Blago. Not a good start. And no, it doesn't please me at all: it just reinforces everybody's terrible opinion of pols. Zimbabwe update. Socialism at work. Two frozen treats from Thompson: How Eskimos build igloos (1951 video), and photographing snowflakes.
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.
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