Friday, November 6. 2009
Photo from yesterday's protest in DC
Office gossip. NYT
AVI: The liberals I am most familiar with
Is abortion pro-family?
WSJ: The Madness of Queen Nancy
Guy reinvents the Constitution
Eurocourt Bans Crucifixes in Italy
Related: Europe - a leviathan is born
Are mammograms worthwhile? NYT
Get a clue, O: Iran doesn't like you. But they enjoy toying with you.
Gitmo prisoners don't like the alternative
VDH on the plutocratic Left
Voegli on California vs. Texas
We'll miss Jungle Trader
Census blocked from asking citizenship questions
Stossel:
Reporters who think coercive government control is generally good
and I, who thinks voluntary market forces are generally better, both have a point of view.
So why am I the one called biased?
Thursday, November 5. 2009
The AMA backs the PelosiCare monstrosity? Fine.
1. The membership was never consulted.
2. I quit. And I will not be alone.
Hideki had quite a game, but is this guy immortal or what?
Big Al Gore, noted climate scientist, former VP of the USA, Nobel Laureate, budding Green Billionaire, owner of many large homes and SUVs, eater of meat, world-class carbon-emitter, and Man-Bear-Pig, clears CO2 of most of the blame.
Hmmm. What next? And blame for what? Life on earth would cease to exist without CO2.
 Is this the truth about men?
'All men want is sex and for you to make them a sandwich.'
In that order. And a few cold Coronas, please, with lime. Some gratitude for the masculine attention and some snappy repartee are always welcome too. Don't forget the chips with the sandwich, and please turn on ESPN.
Is this true about the O?
But he was right the first time about not being ready for the Oval Office. As president, he seems confused and a bit distant on the issues, leaving the details to congressional Democrats and an ever-growing number of “czars” while he golfs and launches attacks at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
I hate to say it, but our friend The Englishman eats ripe arse.
Thanksgiving dinner for 8 for $20. WalMart. Plus other great deals there. h/t, Carpe Diem
Global income inequality is down. I guess that's a good thing. Income is good. It provides choices. We want everybody to be as rich as they want to be.
Famous Prof proposes punitive taxes on meat.
Health Care was a loser in Tuesday's elections. It does make me wonder why a new Pres would want to start out with hugely divisive issues and a combative style instead of with more widely popular issues, more modest steps, and the kind of conciliatory approach he brings to Putin, Chavez, and Iran.
Related: Perhaps part of the problem is that the O is surrounded by partisan campaign hacks instead of by some seasoned statesman-types with perspective and governing experience.
Related: Will the Left try a kamikaze rush?
Eliot Spitzer - morality expert
Kaus: The winners and the losers
No limits: voters in two states reject government limits. Why?
I've heard of Pay to Play, but this Pay to Pray is ridiculous.
Wednesday, November 4. 2009
Surber. Rightly so. It's about time this was officially recognized.
Now let's separate church and state.
After my morning prayers, and thanks for Republican victories in yesterday’s elections that may help stop the ObamaCare obomination in its tracks, I picked up my morning newspaper and on page 3 read the article, “Move to put spiritual care in health bill.” (Sorry, my local newspaper’s website is down for overhaul, but here’s the complete wire service dispatch.)
This is exactly one of the absurdities that argues against ObamaCare or most further government takeover of healthcare. Special interests intrude their mandates, and costs, on us all, even with little justification outside their mustered political power.
One of the battles in Congress is over a provision of the House ObamaCare bill that would require insurers to pay for prayer treatments as for other medical treatments. It was proposed by a Republican congressman, whose district includes Principia College, a Christian Scientist school.
There’s some evidence that a patient’s morale affects their recovery. There’s some evidence that prayer can improve a patient’s morale. There’s, also, much more evidence that prayer will not cure most ailments and, indeed, there are sufficient studies that substituting prayer for proven scientific medicine can prolong or worsen serious ailments that otherwise could be alleviated or cured.
I, personally, like the saner holistic approach to medicine, to add proper diet, exercise, some vitamins, and yoga to one’s health regimen. And, I pray. But, to require that medical insurance cover these is insane, and costly, crowding out the core scientific medicine that is essential. Many who are uninsured are, thus, priced out of coverage due to the costs of mandates for usually lesser effective treatments, like chiropractry or acupuncture or massage, being added into insurance. Further, adding in very expensive in vitro fertilization, as desirable as it may be for those infertile to enjoy having children, is similarly counterproductive to our main concerns about improving health care. If they want children, pay for it, or accept your fate. There is not a legal nor moral obligation for taxpayers or others who buy insurance to buy children for them.
This argument in Congress over whether to include insurance coverage for prayer is an absurd but indicative example of what we can expect when special interest government runs health care.
Addendum: The above are just a few more examples of some of the points that The B made in his Insurance Freedom post this week. It is, indeed, insane. Furthermore, I never heard of paying for prayer. Prayer is one of the few things that remains free and untaxed.
Addendum: Christian Science practioners do charge. Other "clergy" may and will, as well, if they can get paid by insurance.
BTW, see my comment below about which "mandate" I'd like to have in my insurance!
Claude Levi-Strauss
We are disappointed that Hoffman lost in NY 23. Surprised, too. The "meaning" of these elections will be spun to death. Ace notes that the O managed one big win in Maine.
WSJ: Obama and the Liberal Paradigm. "The sheep are quite capable of looking out for themselves. Someone tell the Democrats."
We sheep would be even more capable if the gummint would leave us alone.
Health Care Bill postponed further. That's good. This bill is antiquated New Deal entitlement: government-heavy baloney. Regressive - not Progressive.
Sen Lieberman on the O:
ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Is he a Marxist, as Bill Kristol says might be the case in today‘s “New York Times?”
LIEBERMAN: Well, you know, I must say that‘s a good question.
From Sowell on the costs of medical care:
Britain has had a government-run medical system for more than half a century and it has to import doctors, including some from Third World countries where the medical training may not be the best. In short, reducing doctors' income is not reducing the cost of medical care, it is refusing to pay those costs. Like other ways of refusing to pay costs, it has consequences.
I do not think this is a racial thing. I think it's an effect of urban one-party governmental cultures of corruption. A generation or two ago, it would have been Irish pols - but nobody expected integrity in pols then.
Gays protest against free speech. Good grief.
The Archbishop has a blog? Cool.
Coyote: An ACORN Relief Act
Politico terms it an "uncivil war." I think it's just what parties do to figure out what they are about. It's healthy. Parties should debate and contain conflict.
Powerline: "This video on health care, produced by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, features Eline van den Broek, founder of the European Independent Institute."
She makes the point that it is third party payments for medical care which have permitted the rise in cost of medical care in the US. I think that is part of the story, but the other part of the story is that our higher costs buy us access, choices, abundance, and quality.
Tuesday, November 3. 2009
Paul Mirengoff poses this one:
I have suggested, in connection with President Obama's dealings with Russia, that to call him a fool is to give him the benefit of the doubt. For Obama's hat-in-hand approach to Russia assumes that the thuggish, autocratic, expansionist Russian regime is more sinned against than sinning in its relations with the U.S. If Obama believes this, he is anti-American; If he doesn't believe this but elects to act as if it were so, then he is a fool.
What they have in common is that they are two pieces of a giant puzzle. Put together, they place the government in the position to regulate or control almost every detail of our daily lives.
In democratic systems, the taking of freedom is always cloaked in a patronizing, slaveowner-style benevolence.
From Steyn's Green Totalitarianism:
In the name of “the environment,” the state gets to regulate everything you do. The cap-and-trade bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, is a bold assault on property rights: in order to sell your home—whether built in 2006 or 1772—you would have to bring it into compliance with whimsical, eternally evolving national “energy efficiency” standards, starting with a 50 per cent reduction in energy use by 2018. Fail to do so and it would be illegal for you to enter into a private contract with a willing buyer.
And Lindzen:
MIT climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen has warned: "'He who controls carbon controls life. It is a bureaucrat's dream to control carbon dioxide." Washington, D.C., and the U.N. are in a field of dreams right now as they envision one of the most massive expansions of controls on human individual freedom ever contemplated by governments.
Same idea applies to government medicine which, it is estimated, would create 111 new bureaucracies. Even an Office of Administrative Simplification (not kidding). As Mike Pence said yesterday:
As President Ronald Reagan said: “Since the American founding, we have been a people with a government, not the other way around.”
Now comes the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care. It is a freight train of runaway spending, bloated bureaucracy, mandates and higher taxes. If the liberals in Washington have their way, they will forever change the relationship between the government and “we the people.”
If the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care passes, we will each become dependent on the political class in Washington for the provision of services of the most urgent and personal nature.
Illness, our own, or more importantly the illness of a parent, or a spouse, or a child, has the capacity to suspend our priorities.
What was important before the crisis grows dim in the harsh light of disease affecting a loved one.
The Pelosi health care plan targets us when we are most vulnerable.
The Pelosi health care plan makes us dependent on the state at the most urgent moment in the life of our family.
Their hope: that little by little, we’ll yield our freedoms and our resources to the ever-growing appetite of the federal government.
One commenter on Althouse's piece on constitutionality, mandated insurance, and the Commerce Clause observes:
Debate this all you like.
I have a message for the Supreme Court and the Congress: Put me in fucking jail.
I will not be forced by you to purchase health insurance.
Period.
And if you try to force me to, you'll reckon with me.
As the Monty Python song goes:
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the loooord's consent.
Yeah, yeah,
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
(na na na na)
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent
Then the villeins and the ploughmen got to have the lord's consent...
More  Dem dirty tricks in NJ. The third party guy is splitting the anti-Corzine vote.
Big Con: Gore making millions from "warming" scam, headed for his first billion.
Stanley Black and Decker? Sounds like a slip-and-fall law firm.
59% say country on the wrong track
Our obsolete US Constitution. Am Thinker
Hubris of the incompetent. What's the Dunning-Kruger Effect?
Where the white Leftist men live in America. Related: Why are the groovy "Progressive" cities the white cities? Real, interesting cities are full of everybody. Portland is white bread. I'll take NYC.
How come we never found this blog before? Black and Right. This one goes straight onto Ye Olde Blogroll.
Roy Spencer: AGW is an urban legend
Those taxes on the rich aren't inflation-indexed. We know what that means.
From Ace, the pithily amusing AP: Even If Republicans Win Tomorrow, They Still Suck
Related, from Red State: We hear this all time — conservatives in the GOP have to play nice with the moderates.
The Krautman has it right: those "saved" jobs are all gummint jobs. Plenty of SEIU jobs, I am sure.
Everything - and more - that you might want to know about Nancy Pelosi
Related, in WSJ:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced.
In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.
Boeing begins to say Good-bye to Seattle
Monday, November 2. 2009
Re Bruce's post below, I'd like to point out that the government-designed medical insurance is not really insurance at all. It's just payment for medical services, at government-determined rates.
In fact, it's insurance only in the same sense that Social Security is insurance - you are forced to pay into it, and you are forced to take it.
I like to have freedom of choice in selecting my coverage, just as with my auto insurance. I have a relatively high-deductible ($10,000 over 2 years - 100% thereafter) Major Medical insurance. What I save in premiums with this comes close to my deductible - plus I have a Medical Savings Plan. It's all quite inexpensive. It does not cover aromatherapy, massage therapy, chiropractors, homeopathy, addiction treatment, experimental treatments, abortions and other elective procedures like sex-change operations, routine check-ups, and tons of other things that politicians, under pressure from interest groups, will squeeze into the government-designed plan.
The insurance I have today, which is designed to keep you out of financial catastrophe if you get really sick, would not be permitted under the Baucus plan.
 My trick or treaters said Thank you.
Coleman waders 50-60% off
Academic ranking of the world's great universities
"Roots" was a bogus book. Well, a work of fiction - with plagiarism.
Should alimony be forever?
When people get richer, families get smaller. How many dressage horses, ballet lessons, piano lessons, trips to Europe, tuitions, and tutors can a large family afford?
Iowahawk considers Caesar's writings, in view of Landesman's claims. One Quote from Julius:
Back in the day those Gauls had some straightup warrior badasses like Vercingetorix and Ambiorix, but apparently somewhere over the last 2000 years they turned into the biggest bunch of Eurohomos since the Athenians. Yo, you Gauls think Obama is sorry? The Juice is sorry he ever introduced you assholes to public baths.
We like Rep. Michelle Bachman, but the Left hates her as much as they hate Palin. From her bio (my bold):
Congresswoman Bachmann is a graduate of Anoka High School and Winona State University. Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, live in Stillwater where they own a small business mental health care practice that employs 42 people. The Bachmanns have five children, Lucas, Harrison, Elisa, Caroline, and Sophia. In addition, the Bachmanns have opened their home to 23 foster children, which has inspired Congresswoman Bachmann to become one of Congress’ leading advocates for foster and adopted children, earning her bipartisan praise for her efforts.
Repubs try to protect us from Cap & Trade nonsense
Now it's time to worry about what the Dems are doing to Death Taxes
Chavez cannot bring power to the people
Byron York: It's OK to criticize the O now
Natural Food Fight: Obamacare vs. Mackeycare. On the video, the white Lefty essentially terms the happy black female Whole Foods employee "ignorant"
Bribing the voters of New Jersey: How Democrats like Corzine survive
Biofuels will destroy the planet
Dede, and the Gingrich view vs. the Limbaugh view. Uh oh, she endorsed the Dem. This is strange.
Who is Ted Cruz?
The Aussies beat the US in per capita carbon. Good on 'em. I think they beat us on per capita beer too.
Obamacare vs. the Hippocratic Oath
The other side of the Scozzafava case: RWNH
WSJ:
...at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity.
How did government insurance mandates work out in Massachusetts?
Via Driscoll:
...Nancy Pelosi has taken the Peter Principle to its logical conclusion — “She’s combined the most unpopular Democratic and Republican proposals of the last generation in one piece of legislation”
Big Lizards offers a reform plan everybody would probably support
Rush:
“This is not about insuring the uninsured, this is not about health care, this is about stealing one sixth of the private sector and putting it under the control of the Federal government, and when they get this health care bill, it they do, that’s the easiest fastest way for them to be able to regulate every aspect of human behavior.
“Because it will all have some related costs to health care, what you drive, what you eat, where you live, what you do, there will be penalties for violating regulations, it’s gonna be the biggest snatch of freedom and liberty that has yet occurred in this country.”
Sunday, November 1. 2009
 Is Medicine still a vocation, or has it become a technical service industry?
In my view, the Internists, Family Practioners, and Psychiatrists are maintaining the core of the medical priesthood. Many other devoted docs as well.
At National Journal, A Reaganite or Jacksonian wave?
I think it's time for a JFK wave. Things have changed: he would be a pretty good Republican candidate today. His murder by a Lefty-loser-Commie-Cuba-sympathizer set in motion a generation or so of bad things from which we continue to experience the repercussions.
Saturday, October 31. 2009
Dede Scozzafava releases her voters! She is essentially dropping out.
This should give Hoffman an edge since she is, nominally, a Repub and (was) the pick of the County Repub Chair.
Send him a few bucks today, if you like him. Every little bit helps, and it looks to be tight. Plus the race has become nationalized: The O did a fund-raiser in NYC for the Dem in the race, and the RNC finally took down their ads against Hoffman.
We would like to see this modest, non-pol, Reagan-Conservative Republican guy elected.
Photo is Saul Alinsky. His ghost walks. Boo!
Thomas Sowell's Dismantling America, Part 1 and Part 2
Soros and Gore among WH visitors, but Andrew Stern of the SEIU was the most frequent, chalking up 20 visits.
Coyote on the Dem tax/health bill:
The implications for my business are staggering. I have already mentioned in the previous post that it imposes an 8% tax on wages on my business — a business where 50% of revenues go to wages and margins are in the 6-7% range. You do the math.
Via Gateway:
Rick sent this on the Pelosi Health Care Bill pages 1219-1246–
Just these 27 pages are enough to see what this bill is all about. I bet you will agree. PLEASE take time to read these 27 pages. Anyone who reads these pages and still says this bill isn’t about the government takeover of health care is either a fool or a liar. It’s just that simple.
The high cost of Aromatherapy: Premiums to Skyrocket Under Obamacare
‘Jobs Created or Saved’ Is White House Fantasy
Washington culture of corruption proceeds on course. Actually, dozens.
Re Henninger's piece which we linked:
Daniel Henninger writes a biting and inspired column today in the WSJ. Oh, the irony! Democrats caught hopelessly in the out-moded and tired ways of the past? In an age of iPhone apps and de-centralizing trends, Dems are pushing a miserable model of government that should have been left in the 1930s where it originated. Obama rides on a false reputation as a hipster. He's actually a crusty throw-back. As Henninger puts it, it appears irrefutable.
New Jersey plans vote fraud
Via our Irish friends re the US economy:
Ah well, the economy's getting worse then. Debt spending is not economic growth. Printing fake money does not create wealth no matter how many trillions you order up. The idea that GDP growth on the back of the Fed's printing press means a growing economy is the boneheaded thinking that got the US into this position in the first place. In fact the economy is in an even worse state now than when the recession hit; Americans have been saddled with a debt they cannot ever repay, unemployment is around twenty percent, the Dollar is sinking, inflation has gone orbital and prices will follow when the banks flood the markets. The fundamentals are not only still chronic, they're getting worse.
Cash for clunkers has screwed the used-car buyer. Well, that was predictable. Who got screwed? The taxpayer
Casinos in Ohio? Governments are money addicts.
How is that bending-over approach working with Iran?
Hockey stick returns to climate textbooks. Related: Al Gore still addicted to nonexistent hurricane-climate link in new book
Related: Gore says 220-foot ocean rise in ten years.
The Copenhagen Climate Extortion
Pelosi’s Bill Will Punish States Who Pass Tort Reform.
Michelle Bachman on Pelosi Health Care Bill: “This Is the Crown Jewel of Socialism”
Masterfleece Theater at RCP:
The word "shall" - as in "must" or "required to" - appears over 3,000 times. The word, alas, is never preceded by the patriotic phrase "mind our own freaking business." Not once.
From Reason's The Unhealthy Public Option:
...the key to the success of this program, writes Cato Institute analyst Michael Cannon, is that "government possesses both the power to hide its true costs (which keeps its premiums artificially low) and to impose costs on its competitors (which unnecessarily pushes private insurance premiums higher)." Private insurers will be "competing" against a team that gets to write the rules, run the draft and hire the referees.
With those artificial advantages, the public option could eventually become the only option. If that happens, a lot of Americans will be surprised. But I suspect Harry Reid and Barack Obama will not be among them.
Mark Helprin: Obama and the Politics of Concession - Iran and Russia put Obama to the test last week, and he blinked twice.
Friday, October 30. 2009
John at Powerline asks why they need the public option:
Under the House bill, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that health insurance companies are no longer in the insurance business. They can't rate and underwrite risks, which is the essence of insurance. That's illegal. They can't decide to whom they will issue policies; that's illegal, too. They can't offer novel or innovative coverages; their coverages are dictated by law. To a limited extent they can make decisions on paying claims, but under the watchful eye of government regulators. Meaningful competition among insurance companies will be, in effect, illegal. (In that context, it is a sick joke that the Pelosi bill also subjects health insurance companies to the antitrust laws, from which they had been exempted in consideration of their regulation by state, not federal, authorities.)
In the world that the House bill would create, the money we will pay to insurance companies won't really be insurance premiums. Insurance premiums are contractual payments which the parties voluntarily agree upon and which are based on a mutual assessment of risk. Rather, the checks we write to insurance companies will be taxes--legally compelled, at rates set by the federal government that are designed to punish some and subsidize others.
Isn't this socialized medicine in all but name? The only difference, perhaps, is that when things start to go badly, as they inevitably will--spiraling costs, long waits for treatment--Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues will have someone to blame: the insurance companies. Maybe old-fashioned socialized medicine would be better. Then, at least, the government would have to take responsibility for its folly.
Exactly. Turn them into form-processors instead of free enterprises. Regulate them to death.
Steyn:
Did you know every aspect of your life was being negotiated at Copenhagen? But in a good way! So no need to worry.
Halloween witch above courtesy of Theo
High-end home stagers.
The sad strange life of Bobby Fischer
"Sustainability" Wars on campus.
A new housing bubble? Your government is working on it.
The guy who filmed the world's last hunter-gatherers
 Story begins like this:
Last week it was announced that George Soros (the man who helped bring us Obama) had pledged $1.1 billion to fund “Climate Change initiatives”.
“Soros will establish the Climate Policy Initiative, an organization that will work with the US, China, India, Brazil and Europe and ensure that public interests are represented as new issues that affect climate change are established. According to Thomas Holler, who will lead the initiative, “It will be part advisory service, part policy developer and part watchdog.”
What a coincidence !!
That will tie in nicely with this: Obama Poised to Cede US Sovereignty, Claims British Lord (see video and red text below) – in December President Obama will fly off to Copenhagen again, this time to put his signature onto a document which effectively establishes a New World Government, based on “Climate Change” – formerly known as “global warming”.
The details of the new taxes in the Dem bill. (h/t, Blue Crab). These would go into effect right away.
Sounds as if they are designed to crush business and employment.
 Do Dodd or Frank care why TARP failed? Washington Examiner
Government Takeovers: Is Charity Next? (h/t, Riehl)
As the GDP shows some growth, Democrats are now admitting that they like their miserable POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy.
It's getting old: Intertubes turn 40
AG tries to shut down school voucher ad. Screw the kids. This is union payback.
How Putin is Separating America from Europe
The mess the Dems are creating with health care. From Robb at RCP:
...the change in incentives in the Democratic reform will turn the entire health care market topsy-turvy. Politically, this could be disastrous.
A very large number of people will have to change their health care coverage regardless of whether they want to. That's a hassle to begin with. The combination of a weak individual mandate, guaranteed issue and a public option will mean declining private sector options and a large increase in the number of people on some form of government health care.
Every health care provider, even the government, has to say no sometimes. Even Medicare says no. But now, rather than some demonic health insurance company saying no, it will be the government.
Republicans think the Democrats are engaged in a ruse, that they really want a government takeover of health care.
In their heart of hearts, Democrats do believe that health care should be a public good, provided by government irrespective of ability to pay. But I don't think they've purposely set out to achieve that by misdirection.
Instead, I think they honestly don't appreciate how fundamentally they are changing health care incentives and what the huge consequences of such changes will be.
Thursday, October 29. 2009
Imus was never too impressed, but now he is getting a bit rough on Obama:
Because the President is a whiny little titty baby and a girly man and doesn't have enough guts to figure out what to do in Afghanistan, he's going to take on, what — Fox News and get his ass kicked there?
 I think it's a trick. So does Dick Morris. Here are some initial details.
Happy Halloween, from your Federal government.
 WSJ: Doctors on Health-Care Reform 'Government is in the process of duplicating everything that managed care did for the last 15 years that was reviled by everybody.'
Report: Cash for Clunkers was a lemon
George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.
Peeing on the O's photo would show true artistic courage, but it would be equally adolescent.
Well, nowadays, true artistic courage would be to create something that would add grace, nobility, and beauty to the world.
Speaking of "art," desecrating the flag for health care
Chicago Trib endorses Repub health plans
Hitchens dares enter the Christian world, finds it's not scary
Marginal Rev: Mandates don't stay modest. Autism treatments
Via Vanderleun:
"Northwest Nap"
It's the word of the day @ Urban Dictionary - A very deep sleep where you are unable to hear telephones, text messages, and even the Air Force. Named to honor the two fine pilots from Northwest Airlines and their little "in flight snooze."
Gateway:
Pelosicare will force individuals to buy the government insurance, will tax the wealthy, and will result in rationed care and the end of private health insurance industry.
It’s a socialist’s dream.
If you want to do something about freedom of speech, then the only choice is USE IT, exercise it.
Kurt Westergaard in this interview
Wednesday, October 28. 2009
Get a darn U-Haul and get out of your crappy old town before winter sets in. Go somewhere where there are plenty of jobs, vitality, enthusiasm, and low taxes. Like Texas or Alabama or Georgia or New Mexico or New York City. It's the American way; the pioneer way. Plenty of jobs in the Dakotas too, if you have a warm coat.
We were gonna say it, but Riehl beat us to it. Ned gave us the Independent Joe Lieberman (my Senator, with whom I agree on things around 25% of the time - not a bad % for a Conservative voter in CT).
I respect him as a thoughtful human being, and will give credit when due. Plus I like the guy. I like Ned too. Very fine fellow personally, but not politically.
The O to tax pacemakers, artificial hips, etc. Brilliant. Heck, plastic canes are cheap at WalMart.
The O's media control strategy
WSJ: Washington's Suicide Mission
I don't know about "narcissistic rage," but Mr. Bring Us Together isn't bringing us together. Who hasn't the Admin demonized yet? Besides ACORN/SEIU?
Quote via Dr. Sanity on the goals of the enviro movement:
Liberal democracy is sweet and addictive and indeed in the most extreme case, the USA, unbridled individual liberty overwhelms many of the collective needs of the citizens. The subject is almost sacrosanct and those who indulge in criticism are labeled as Marxists, socialists, fundamentalists and worse. These labels are used because alternatives to democracy cannot be perceived! Support for Western democracy is messianic as proselytised by a President leading a flawed democracy
There must be open minds to look critically at liberal democracy. Reform must involve the adoption of structures to act quickly regardless of some perceived liberties....
We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions [emphasis mine].
Love that "perceived liberties."
AA via Insty:
ANN ALTHOUSE: “The answer, Ms. Herron (Merron?) is precisely that pop culture permeates the world of young Americans. Why pursue even more of it in college? Learn new things. Get what you can’t get just living in the world soaking up the things you naturally love and enjoy. What is the point of going to college?”
Tuesday, October 27. 2009
Sowell begins:
Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?
Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?
Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?
Whole thing here.
It's a simple matter of incentive. With government medicine, you are a cost unless you are still paying plenty of taxes - which is around only 10% of the population, or less. If you are sick or disabled, you become even more of a burden to "the common good."
With private insurance, they want you alive to pay your premium.
Anybody who believes in government benevolence is in dreamland: as we have been saying here, government is just another powerful special interest group. A doc's committment is quite the opposite.
And nobody wants their doctor worrying about "the common good."
More on the health care debate as a moral struggle
NRO: The conformity enforcers of "tolerance" and "diversity" are growing ever more explicitly totalitarian.
How to lie and get away with it. h/t, Vanderleun
Our Golfer-in-Chief. Hmmm. I don't care if he plays golf a lot. I just wonder what they'd be saying if it were Bush. Plus sets a record for attending fundraisers. Easy gig, President. Just be the figurehead while others do the work.
The power of the Soros-funded think tanks in DC
ACORN. Read the first comment on this Tiger piece. Good grief.
The problem with ignoring Milton Friedman
Via Legal Insurrection:
Instead of solely considering costs, shouldn't we ask if Americans are willing to die sooner from cancer, to give up access to specialists, to be refused safer, more accurate diagnostic imaging, to lose the most accessible screening programs, and to lose their autonomy in pursuing treatments for their families? Shouldn't we ask if Americans want to replace the most advanced and successful medical care in history with the restricted care and lower cost social programs of Europe, and insure the less than 5 percent of people who don't buy insurance but receive care anyway?
Those evil health insurance companies
Via Powerline:
57% of voters nationwide believe it will raise the cost of health care, and 53% believe the quality of care will get worse. ... Just 18% say passage of the congressional plan will reduce costs, while only 23% believe it will lead to better care.
Remarkable: by a margin of 3-1, voters think Obamacare will raise the cost of health care, and by more than two to one, voters believe it will make the quality of health care worse. Isn't that the death knell for government medicine? If not, why not?
Via SDA:
The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. [...] The "deliberate policy", from late 2000 until "at least February last year", when the new points based system was introduced, was to open up the UK to mass migration, he said. Some 2.3 million migrants have been added to the population since then, according to Whitehall estimates quietly slipped out last month.
Monday, October 26. 2009
 Note to self - when fishing in the Alaska bush
More on the polls: New Gallup Poll Finds 40% of America Conservative– 20% Liberal
The O's war on business. Via Driscoll:
Obama has demonized just about every business sector in America. Through the 2008 campaign to the present, he has gone after credit card companies, the coal industry, mortgage companies, real estate companies, steelmakers, utilities, drug companies, doctors, oil companies, Wall Street, defense contractors, and health insurance companies, just to name a few. In each case he has dinged them for greed, taking excessive profits, and failing to put people first. His criticisms have not been over minor matters but over their basic core functions, and their values or lack of them. [His demonization of talk radio and Fox News also constitutes a front in his attack on business -- Ed]
Obama demonstrates almost complete ignorance about the private sector and it’s no wonder: he has so little experience in it.
Noonan: He owns the rubble now
WSJ: Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls - The health-care debate is part of a larger moral struggle over the free-enterprise system.
Samuelson on the fake health care debate:
The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more "choice" and "competition") to expand government power. But why would a plan tied to Medicare control health spending, when Medicare hasn't? From 1970 to 2007, Medicare spending per beneficiary rose 9.2 percent annually compared to the 10.4 percent of private insurers -- and the small difference partly reflects cost shifting. Congress periodically improves Medicare benefits, and there's a limit to how much squeezing reimbursement rates can check costs. Doctors and hospitals already complain that low payments limit services or discourage physicians from taking Medicare patients.
 The revealing photo from Politico
Why do I own pianos? AVI explains, or tries to.
David Horowitz’s “Alinsky, Beck, Satan, and Me” Series
Remembering the fall of Communism, 20 years ago. However, the O does not find it a worthy event: I think the Lefties still mourn the day of the collapse of authoritarian socialism and the burst of freedom behind the old Iron Curtain.
Joblessness, by state
Books to read for people who disagree with me. Insty
"Conservatives continue to outnumber moderates and liberals in the American populace in 2009..."
Jerry Nadler's ethics
Dr. Sanity:
The truth is that most of the drivel that issues from the radical environmentalists' mouths these days is pure, unadulterated neo-Marxist fascism, disguised as compassionate concern for the planet; and steeped in a deep hatred of humanity.
Via Blue Crab: What the fraudulent health care “reform” will actually do to health care costs
Sunday, October 25. 2009
It's amusing. Sort of. Morally and intellectually appalling, however.
 Hinckley Yachts experiencing the recession. Photo is a classic Hinckley DS 42. Perfection. Only problem: in my (limited) experience, Hinckleys cannot point worth a damn.
Kindle-killer: Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader
Nookie-reader?
Laptops for overseas Marines - plus dancing Marines
"Victicrat" - cool video
The O in Stamford, CT on Fri raising Dem money, with Dump Dodd. Ted Kennedy's old skirt-chasing, low-life, pub-hopping partner Dodd is a goner.
Mark Steyn: Obama a tough guy, at least with Fox News. With real tough guys, the O is a pussy.
On the other hand, the WH did pick a fight with the Chamber. That takes nerve, because they are tough. They aren't exactly Conservative though.
Related: Beck on The Chicago Gangsta Way
Camille Paglia, last of the open minded liberals
Let's All Buy a Hybrid! It will pay for itself in 25 years!
The facts about high executive pay. WSJ. I don't care what they make. I do care about what I make. I could never be CEO of Goldman Sachs or GE: I lack the brains, talents, skills, knowledge, decisiveness, interpersonal skills and personality for that. Great biz managers are as rare as great shortstops or sopranos or ballerinas. Got to reward them well for what they do or they will quit, retire - or go to your competitor. That's how free labor markets work, isn't it? It's about scarcity and added value. Like truffles. Supply and demand is a fundamental of freedom.
Destroying all the forests can save the planet!
The bailouts were not meant to really save GM and Chrysler. Duh. It was just a payoff to the union - by us, the lowly taxpayers.
More on your tax dollars at work: Cash for Clunkers fails again
Of great value to single, social-climbing, or designing women: Tax records open in Norway
Medical insurance costs rise for small biz. So can they dump the cost on me? People ought to be able to buy their own insurance on their own, like adults, in a free market.
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