Sunday, October 17. 2010
 Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
Desmond Tutu: Obama’s Other Anti-Semitic Guru
Murdoch: The goal is to make Israel a pariah
David Warren: End our 'multiuniversities'
Gelinas wonders whether TARP was good or bad, effective or ineffective
Tides Foundation CEO To Fox News Advertisers: Drop Glenn Beck Or Have Blood On Your Hands
Ilya Somin on The Florida District Court Decision Rejecting the Federal Government’s Motion to Dismiss the Case Against the Individual Mandate
A great example of an elitist viewpoint, with takedown by Dino
Betsy: Teachers putting themselves ahead of their students
Ahmadinejad’s Deadly Triumph in Lebanon
Driscoll: All the Way with LBJ!
Union Bosses Are Funneling Millions to Democrats to Keep Money Flowing To Them
Rasmussen:
Voter nervousness about the economy, Rasmussen noted, is clear in the declining number of people he finds who feel their own finances are “in good order.” Two years ago, he recalled, 43% of Americans felt their finances were in good order, 38% felt this way the day Barack Obama was elected, and 35% felt that way on the day he took office as President.
“At the beginning of the year, that figure dropped to 32%,” he added, “and today, it is down to 30%.” Rasmussen also said that more than half of homeowners are “unsure if their home is worth more than their mortgage.
Saturday, October 16. 2010
Barone: The Democratic 'D' Now Stands for Demagoguery
If we tried to start The Home Depot today, it's a stone cold certainty that it would never have gotten off the ground.
Peter Wehner on the discontent in the White House
The Texas Model: Texas created half the news jobs in the US last year. How?
Government Regulation of the Economy Is the ‘Silent Killer’
Neither of these seems too swift to me, but Reid lost the debate to Angle
Private Health Insurance Will Be Dead in 3 Years
People aren't spending money
Roger Simon: Is California Insane? A quote:
It is a depressed place made up of terrified people, clinging to the solutions of another era. The idea that the electorate could even consider electing Jerry Brown in 2010 attests to that. At least you can understand the union workers — who are desperate to maintain their unsustainable pensions — supporting him, but the rest of the populace? You are dealing with a form of habituation so deep reality has no place in the equation.
California now is the state of the childishly threatened.
It's difficult for anybody to keep up with the most current correct views on homosexuality
The French really do not like to work. It's much more fun to protest, meet chicks, drink wine, etc.
Nanny Bloomberg and the truth about second-hand smoke. (It is harmless.)
Mankiw: Barney Frank, Then and Now
Iowahawk: Beltway Adventure. Wonderful.
Friday, October 15. 2010
From Dick Morris:
The single most amazing thing in this year’s campaigns is that no one is defending President Obama’s legislative accomplishments.
Obama’s impact has been revolutionary: radically changing our health-care system, betting our national solvency on “stimulus,” erasing the line between the public and private sectors. Yet there is an almost total lack of support for his program on the stump.
Last night, Professor Barry Rubin, Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Israel, and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, author of over 50 books, was the guest of the San Diego Israel Coalition (SDIC).
The SDIC, with about 600 Jewish and Christian members, near packed the large auditorium in La Jolla, and heard good news from Israel. This may have come as a surprise to many, accustomed to the gloomier commentary in the US from supporters and adversaries of Israel.
According to Barry Rubin’s view from Israel, Israel is in the strongest situation in decades. It is the West and Arab states that are in the weakest.
Continue reading "Some Good News From Israel"
How worrisome is habitat loss? I find it highly worrisome. There are many ways for free-market Conservatives to be Conservationists. I am just one example. There are tons of us tree-hugger and turtle-lover Cons out there.
Boot: Shift in momentum in Afghanistan
Tea Partiers love killing miners? The guy has fallen off the reality cliff.
News flash: First Lady eats burger and fries
Krauthammer on "appearances":
He is a tax-and-spend Democrat. He spent a trillion dollars — and we’re going to have to borrow or tax it — on the stimulus. He‘s going to spend $2 trillion to $3 trillion on health care — we’ll borrow or tax it. Cap-and-trade is spending that you’re going to have to [tax for]. That’s [a tax-and-spend Democrat] what he is. That’s why the electorate is against him. It’s not appearances. It’s substance.
Jonah: Obama's Arrogance Starting to Get Noticed
Feed the Indians, get votes.
Prof B:
The basic problem I have with behavioral economics is that its proponents have never met a problem that could be solved without legislation or regulation. Indeed, it's practitioners seems to skew heavily towards liberal paternalism. As Josh put it, "the behavioral law and economics literature nearly uniformly applies the insights of behavioral economics to justify paternalistic intervention."
I have a father. Do not need another one. But, Prof B, watch your "it's"es.
Scott Brown endorses in MA
Barone: They ignored us
Am Thinker: Three Things Government Cannot Do:
Our federal government does not, and cannot, (1) produce products, (2) create wealth, or (3) provide jobs that pay for themselves.
The interconnectedness of these economic truths is not well-understood (especially by the political classes).
Thursday, October 14. 2010
Brooklyn College English professor Moustafa Bayoumi’s books continue to be at the center of whether fact or fiction will prevail at Brooklyn College. This might even be viewed as indicative of the wider struggle within US academia over the influence of the Left and many of its adherents’ support of Islamist views.
Last month, as an alumnus, I posted my disinheriting the college in protest against one of Prof. Bayoumi’s books being the required sole Common Reading for incoming students. Unexpectedly, this touched a wider nerve which led to all three major NYC newspapers and many prominent blogs (here and here are follow-ups) reporting on the issue and one of the major newspapers blasting the college’s selection in an editorial.
The two books are Prof. Bayoumi’s required reading for entering students, the sole one, that Arab-Americans are excessively the brunt of discrimination, and his current book attacking the Israeli actions regarding the Mavi Marmara blockade-running attempt to deliver supplies to Gaza.
We have one of the college’s most Distinguished professors, Broeklundian Professor Robert Cherry of the Economics department, self-professed man of the Left, expert in discrimination against minorities in labor markets, revealing the false statistics at the core of Prof. Bayoumi’s continual arguments that Arab-Americans are disproportionately discriminated against.
We have the administration of the college continuing to act without transparency as to how Prof. Bayoumi’s book came to be selected for all incoming students to read, in the absence of other books or views, and failing to publicly address how that process may be improved in the future. Perhaps, Prof. Cherry’s talk next Tuesday at the college’s Hillel, of which I have the draft text (below the fold), will spur more procedural openness and caution against ideological recklessness.
Meanwhile, we have the Managing Editor of the campus newspaper, who in 2005 blessed (“Amen”) 9/11 Trutherism, writing a paean to Prof. Bayoumi’s collection of essays criticizing what the book titles the Israel “attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla” ship Mavi Marmara. Perhaps, students or faculty at the college may be spurred to pay attention to the news coverage, including from sources usually critical of Israel, to the contrary.
Both perhaps are to be hoped for, but not to be counted upon unless there is more pressure from within the campus and its alumni.
Continue reading "Fact and Fiction at Brooklyn College"
Jerry Brown claims we need fewer jobs and more welfare. If jobs are bad, why is he trying to get a job as governor?
Often, these days, reading the news threatens my sense of reality. Consensual reality just is not what it used to be.
Today, jobless benefits applications rise.
Wednesday, October 13. 2010
It's not paranoid on my part. The Dems really do. (h/t, Western Rifle Shooters)
If they own your medical care and own your savings, they own you entirely. But what's in it for them?
McArdle: Americans like to be lied to.
City Journal on two books about Tea Parties: Two new books show how alienated Americans have become from Washington.
The CBC: Sorry, that's classified information
Bielat responds to Barney Frank's query. h/t, Neoneo
Morris: REPUBLICAN TREND GROWS
The Dem search for bogeymen. The problem is, as Rush says, that their bogeymen are at least half of the population.
Removing turtles from the environment - for the environment. People are insane. Furthermore, I know a bit about tortoises, and they do not transplant well. They just try to get back home, and die on the way.
What Dems must do to avert disaster. Sounds like the answer is to become Repubs
One more example of why the French are not respected.
Barney Frank wants another chance to destroy the housing market
More on Prof. Hal Lewis' resignation letter, at Watts.
Barnes: Four Causes that Will Lead to a Democratic Election Nightmare
Clinton Heckled in Blue New York, Says Half of Republicans Need Psychiatric Help.
Stay dignified, Pres. Clinton
David Horowitz is one of those rare people who change lives. I know, because he changed mine.
Sarah is not the only Palinesque pol in the US
4 of 10 Former Supporters Have Bailed on Obama
Insty:
ON THE UPSIDE, THEY PRODUCED VASTLY MORE INTRUSION INTO FAMILIES: Child Abuse Investigations Didn’t Reduce Risk, a Study Finds. “Child Protective Services investigated more than three million cases of suspected child abuse in 2007, but a new study suggests that the investigations did little or nothing to improve the lives of those children.” Also, this employed lots of people in “helping” professions, who tend to vote Democratic. So you’ve got to score this as a win, even if children weren’t any better off. And the study authors suggest that since what we’re doing doesn’t work, we should redouble our efforts! See above. . . .
Tuesday, October 12. 2010
Among other national races I am keeping track of in my blue area of the country, I have been particularly interested in those of Dan Debicella in Fairfield Co., CT and Sean Bielat's vs. Barney Frank.
Dan: Wharton, Harvard, McKinsey, entrepreneur, State Senate leader.
Sean: Georgetown, Harvard, Wharton, Maj. USMC, McKinsey, entrepreneur.
We are fortunate that such talented and experienced people are willing to serve us. What moves them, when politics is so often a harbor for losers?
I found it interesting how their resumes overlapped. McKinsey is like a finishing school for the shiny resume, the energetic and the bright, isn't it?
These guys grew up in the "working class" with no "privileges," and applied their talents to the fullest. Good for them.
"If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table."
The Chamber of Commerce does seem to be an unlikely demon. Schieffer asks "Is this the best you can do?"
Monday, October 11. 2010
Does he have a chance? It's time for Barney to retire.
The sinister Chamber of Commerce
NYT: Arizona welcomes immigrants
Kent State: Another listen. What if there was an agent provocateur?
Chilling in Texas: Democrats & Computer Models Claim Texas Is Warming: Real Data Has Texas Cooling Last 15 Years, -2.7°F/Century Trend. h/t, Willisms
Betsy: Gee, has Rory talked to his dad about what's wrong with ObamaCare?
GOP threatens Dem seats thought safe
WH defends Obamacare waivers
US physics professor: 'Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life'. A quote from his letter:
It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.
So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it.
VDH: On looking bad
Black Republicans offer hope after Barack Obama's failures on race
I'm Mr. Blandings. Me, too.
Drowning in Law: A flood of statutes, rules and regulations is killing the American spirit
Via Lucianne, How Obama is invading your home:
The Obama administration isn't satisfied giving the American public vast things we don't want — from stimu lus packages to bailouts to ObamaCare: It's a small-scale nuisance, too — witness its attempt to redesign home appliances. In the pipeline are dumb regulations for almost everything that plugs in or fires up in your home. Just weeks after taking office, the president ordered the Energy Department to speed up the process of issuing harsh new energy-efficiency standards for appliances. Since then, the agency boasts, it "has issued or codified new efficiency standards for more than 20 different products..."
Powerline on Che: Remembering a Sociopathic Mass Murderer
Saturday, October 9. 2010
He's rich and plays in politics because his father-in-law owns the Empire State Building, and presumably supports his life style. Video at Ace. What a weenie putz.
Linda has created jobs, built a large business, and knows how the world works.
You don't approve of wrestling entertainment? Then what job-creating, profitable biz could any candidate have been in that you would approve of?
How different is wrestling from MSM news? We need more entrepreneurs in government, and fewer professional politicians who know nothing except government. Government is a parasite. Blumenthal has been on the government teat all of his life - and I assume, the teat of his in-laws. It's all ego for him because he has never done anything real in his life.
Send this smarmy, slippery, phony jerk back to his poolside in Greenwich. He'll be just fine, like his dear buddy Spitzer (they are called "the twins") in New York who I think also lives off family real estate in NYC when he isn't busy with hookers.
Friday, October 8. 2010
 Whose violent words? Not the Tea Party. Not Conservatives (via Gateway).
** Obama: “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
** Obama to His Followers: “Get in Their Faces!”
** Obama on ACORN Mobs: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
** Obama to His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
** Obama on the private sector: “We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“
I have yet to hear anything close to this inciting from the evil Tea Partiers. This Tea Party sympathiser is planning to do some Right Wing violence this weekend though: I am going fishing, up around Montauk. Blood sport, and the freshest Striper sushi.
Slice of cucumber, piece of watercress, slice of wiggling Striper right out of the water, a generous slice of pickled ginger, and some wasabi. Maybe the slightest dip in the Teriyaki, and a few Coronas with lime. We'll be well-fed when we come back to the dock, and will have one filet to grill for supper plus a couple of Bluefish filets. We never keep more than one Striper. That is, of course, if we are lucky to get into fish this weekend.
Otherwise, it's the fish market. This is our final boating of the year.
 Rejection Therapy
Rejection is good for personal growth and humility.
Sullivan: There was no housing bubble. One quote:
You borrowed against your house to send your kid to college. Your kid now lives in your basement eating Cheetos and downloading porn all day instead of out in the workforce, sitting at a desk eating Cheetos and looking at porn on company time as God and Nature intended. But that's a college education bubble. A college loan bubble. You borrowed against a useful and valuable thing, your house, and your children learned Ida Tarbell's bra size, but nothing useful enough to make them employable in a recession.
Surber: An epidemic of epidemics
Each one requiring a government program.
Jay Cost: The Latest Sign of the Dem-Pocalypse
Life in the sticks: More on the South Fulton FD Brouhaha
Poverty Pimps
A culture of lying in the Middle East.
It's multicultural to understand that not all people share our values. Truth is far from a universal value, even in the West.
Freedom of speech on trial in the Netherlands
Higher-Ed-Bubble Update: Pansexuality Edition
WSJ: ObamaCare and the Election - The GOP needs to raise the health-care stakes in 2010, and beyond
Sowell: Red Herring Politics: Part II
Postcards from Vermont
I don't get why VT politics are so different from NH.
Via Neo's Left and right, Britain and here:
Not everyone believes Obama is a Marxist. Coming from England he seems pretty right wing to me.
The Battle for America 2010: Labor Unions Looking to Rescue Feingold in Wisconsin
Poll: Sarah Palin Favorable Rating Just 22 Percent.
The media's Newt Treatment worked on Sarah, but it almost always works on anybody who is targeted. I think she should have run for the Senate.
Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 10.1% in September, Underemployment, at 18.8%, is up from 18.6% at the end of August
Rove: Democrats and 'Poisoned' Politics - Incumbents launch personal attacks to divert attention from the economy's poor performance.
Delaware:
If these polls even come close to measuring the sentiment of Delaware voters, then Coons, an out-and-out leftist, will waltz into the Senate and begin serving at the beginning of the November lame duck session.
This did not have to happen.
Thursday, October 7. 2010
Today’s federal district court decision on a challenge to ObamaCare’s mandated purchase of medical insurance seeks to so expand federal powers as to override all personal decisions about almost anything.
The Commerce Clause in the US Constitution has been expansively interpreted to allow the federal government to classify almost anything as an “economic activity” affecting interstate commerce. There are some guideposts laid out by the Supreme Court, basically that the regulation of economic activity be necessary to implement the regulatory purpose and that it be proper, not invading constitutional state sovereignty.
A federal district judge in Michigan today decided to further expand the federal government’s regulatory authority to “economic decisions.” In the case at hand, the judge says that the ObamaCare mandate to buy insurance is legit as the decision to not buy insurance may affect others who do by possibly shifting costs to the latter. So, even if aspirin will do the job, instead of a visit to the doctor, you are shifting costs to an insurance buyer.
At law blog Volokh Conspiracy, Randy Barnett points out:
By inventing a new “economic decisions” doctrine, Judge Steeh has gone beyond the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clause doctrines established by the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court is authorized to expand its own interpretation of the scope of Congressional power….
If the Supreme Court ever accepts the government’s “economic decision” theory, then there is nothing it cannot mandate in the future in the name of regulating “commerce . . . among the several states.” Congress will then have the general police power that both the Constitution and the Supreme Court has always denied it.
Ilya Somin adds:
The Michigan court’s decision doesn’t bind the Virginia and Florida district courts currently considering the two biggest challenges to mandate (those brought by 21 states and the National Federation of Independent Business). Moreover, Judge Steeh’s conclusion that this case is fairly easily covered by existing Commerce Clause precedent is at odds with the Virginia judge’s earlier ruling concluding that no previous precedent covers this case. It therefore seems to me unlikely that the latter will follow the Michigan reasoning in his own eventual decision (though he could of course uphold the mandate on other grounds). And of course both this ruling and those that will be eventually issued by the other district courts are subject to review by the US courts of appeals, and ultimately the Supreme Court.
Alan Greenspan cites fear as the cause for the non-recovery. It's fear mainly of the consequences of government actions. From what I see and hear, that seems right.
Money will sit dormant on the sidelines until people know what is coming next. No new investment means no jobs.
True Grit; One Awesome Trailer
Socialist ‘Success’: Food Stamp Use Breaks Record
A horror story about a small businessman vs the Feds. h/t Cafe Hayek
AVI contemplates how Libs view government differently
How Obamacare is already affecting medical practice
Postcards of the hanging
Blue collar folks abandon Dems. The wealthy still like the Dems.
Via Gay Patriot:
...in this election, Republicans are running more blacks in white majority districts than the Democrats are. Shouldn’t that be taken into consideration when accusations of racism are being hurled about?
Driscoll: Individuality is Fine as Long as We All Do It Together
How do they do it without Fannie Mae? International Comparison of Home Ownership Rates
More UK insanity: School installs £9,000 facial recognition cameras to stop students turning up late... and teachers could be next target
At Am Thinker: The Left's Terror Folly
The lesson from these attempted attacks is clear. Islamic radicals are trying to kill us not because of the policies of George W Bush or Tony Blair, or because there aren't enough U.N. or EU resolutions condemning Israel, or any other grievances the left are trying to project upon our enemies. The reason America and Western Europe are being attacked is because radical Islamists hate the Western way of life. They hate that we are not enslaved to their extremist version of Islam, and they hate the freedom and prosperity that we enjoy in the West.
Weekly Standard: Democracy is Winning in Latin America
Via Insty: Psychology: The Latest Threat to Campus Free Speech?
The interesting speech by Pinker about taboo thoughts is here.
Wednesday, October 6. 2010
Not yet, anyway. He seems to imagine that somebody thinks Obamacare can work. Of course it cannot. It is not meant to work.
It's meant to fail, and is doing so already. The greedy insurance companies will be blamed, and the Feds will step in...as long as the Lefties are in control.
Gagdad Bob takes on the Cosmos
Mao's little helpers in the Western intelligentsia
Former Secretary of State George Shultz to President Obama: “You’re out of your mind.”
Are Dems uninformed?
Breaking news: Bristol Palin eats at McDonald's. Horrors. We think that their Angus Burger with cheddar, mushrooms, and bacon is darn good.
Quote via Jammie:
I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.
--- Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic
Gov. Christie goes to Iowa.
Your Stimulus Dollars at Work: Teacher Pay Raises
A case of pure projection: On the right, hateful words are fired like bullets. Who, where, what, when?
This fellow Cravaack in MN 8th looks good
Conyers admits Obama care is just the first step to complete government control. As we always say, first they break it, then offer to fix it.
Chicago Boyz: Just say it! Teachers Unions are morally illegitimate
Levin: The War on the Young - Obama tries to fool them again.
Department of Climate Disruption: Coldest winter in 1,000 years on its way
Great idea for "at risk" kids: Unreal. New Hip-Hop Curriculum Refers to Founding Fathers “Old Dead White Men”
Iran Admits It Could Pull Nuke Trigger on US, Israel.
Tiger:
Our Congress is deeply, embarrassingly incompetent. Willful incompetence in my view is simply the equivalent of corruption. Incompetence which springs from ignorance is merely stupidity at work. Whether the current Democratic leadership of Pelosi and Reid is one or the other doesn't really matter. Of course, I have an opinion. But the result is the same.
Tuesday, October 5. 2010
 Good: ‘Alternative Pathways to Desirable Careers’
Bill Gates: Soak the mini-rich. Brilliant!
Is Rahm ready for prime time?
Samuelson: The government is stifling job-creation
Walter Williams: Politicians Exploit Economic Ignorance. True indeed. It's their stock in trade.
Derbyshire: I love America. Why does it need transforming?
What happens when government gets involved with your medical care
I am deeply offended by what PC insanity the UK is up to now. This is psychotic policy-making.
Coyote on the Corporate State:
A European-style corporate state is typically ruled by a troika of large favored corporations, industrial and public employee unions, and long-time political insiders. Most definitely excluded from power are consumers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, younger workers without seniority, and taxpayers.
The Tea Party is a diabolical cabal
Venezuela shows how it's done. First you break it, then run in to "save" it.
Green jobs scam
Buying gold by the ton. That is called "money on the sidelines."
Powerline: Get your hand out of my shower. How and why is this a Federal responsibility?
Crazy California: Proposition 23 and the damage it would do to California:
Setting aside the state's climate change law would damage the state's green economy and imperil California's commitment to fighting greenhouse gas emissions.
Good grief.
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