Friday, January 8. 2010
Don't give up. MA may be a Dem machine state with the SEIU and ACORN etc on board, but it has plenty of Yankee free thinkers too. The Public Policy Polling report.
The arguments pro and con in detail at Lizards.
Thursday, January 7. 2010
Krauthammer is right, at NRO:
On Ben Nelson’s statement that “I think it was a mistake to take health care on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy”
Nelson is right on two counts. A, it was a distraction, as the citizenry sees it, from the main issue, which is the recession and unemployment. And secondly because the bill itself, the proposals themselves are so appalling that on the merits, on the substance, there's huge opposition. ...
Very smart. Read it all (link above)
Send a few spare bucks to Scott Brown.
A sad end for the Tavern on the Green. They closed down last week.
Wednesday, January 6. 2010
"The United States does not have a security system; it has a system for bothering people."
Shlomo Dror, an Israeli air security expert (h/t, Vanderleun)
 Dodd out? That's a problem for the Repubs. Dodd would have been easy to run against. We think Linda McMahon might be the best deep-pocket bet against Blumenthal. She is not a social conservative so she won't frighten the CT voters - and her past co-ownership of the WWF (now WWE) gives her some street cred.
Oh, great. Democrats Considering Health Care-Immigration Deal To Overcome Key Sticking Point. Gotta pander to that illegal immigrant vote.
Didn't Adam Smith cover this already? What makes a nation rich? One economist’s big answer
Your climate scientists at work:
If published as is, this paper could really do some damage. It is also an ugly paper to review because it is rather mathematical, with a lot of Box-Jenkins stuff in it. It won’t be easy to dismiss out of hand as the math appears to be correct...
Pondering and pondering David Brooks' "educated classes."
The cowboy spirit. Dr. Sanity. What gal would want a guy without some cowboy in him?
9 points. Republican Heir To The Liberal Lion?
Now they are using the redskins to block Cape Wind. What next? Of course, the whole project is a dumb scam anyway, but uncovering the elite hypocrisy is the fun part. They don't want oil, they don't want wind, they don't want nuclear - but they do want their overland SUV permits and their 10,000 square foot houses overlooking Nantucket Sound.
Another org co-opted by the long march through the culture: AALS: A Learned Society or a Bunch of Left-Liberal Busybodies? Gramsci tactics, Prof.
We should have a category for New England sites. This good one is new to us: As Maine Goes.
We posted on Sol Stern and ED Hirsch yesterday. This is about the opposite: Thoughts on the Rotenberg Letter. Isn't the notion of "institutional racism" a bit dated these days?
Tuesday, January 5. 2010
France to introduce new law banning 'psychological violence' in marriages. "French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said electronic tagging would be used on repeat offenders."
Brilliant. Make marital discord illegal (and thus make-up sex too). How come it took government to think up that simple solution?
Cool graphic, showing how it grew and spread across the US.
The wonderful states of Nebraska and Kansas seem immune. That's the Heartland.
 Getting on the Scott Brown bandwagon: Michelle, Riehl, Sissy, Fowler at NRO. It's a long shot in wacky MA. Photo is Brown. He has three weeks to make his case against the Dem machine candidate who is avoiding the press, off on vacation, and assumed to be a shoe-in as a Dem. Easy gig, big staff, dinner out every night, do as you are told.
Barone: GOP Should Push Education and Pro-Family Tax Reform. Douthat also has advice for Repubs.
Yes, they are saying that this frigid winter is due to global warming. As Legal Insurrection rightly asks, What would they say if it were a warm winter? Heads I win, tails you lose.
At Samiz on the C of E:
I have zero tolerance for a state privileged organization who claims to speak from a position of moral superiority advocating force backed restrictions on secular life. The sooner the Church of England is disestablished the better.
Call it what it is: Iran's revolution
MacDonald:
The recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice.
Brooks:
The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.
The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.
The story is the same in foreign affairs. The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply.
A year ago, the Obama supporters were the passionate ones. Now the tea party brigades have all the intensity.
VDH:
...over one-third of all the efforts to repeat 9/11 have occurred in 2009—just as the United States has made unprecedented efforts to renounce the prior war on terror, to demonize a prior President, to use euphemism, to bow and apologize abroad, to turn war into jurisprudence, and to reach out to the Muslim world.
Via Driscoll:
...Tim Blair writes, “New York City banned smoking in bars and nightclubs four years ago, and imposes the highest cigarette taxes in the US. But if you’re a junkie, the city will spend $32,000 teaching you how to shoot up.”
Via Wizbang:
When George W. Bush returned, bloodied and bruised, to his Texas home after eight years in the White House, 43 percent of Americans surveyed by Scott Rasmussen "strongly disapproved" of the job he had done. Today, after less than a year in office, 46 percent express the same intense level of opposition to Obama.
Dems will do health care in secret meetings. Image below from Moonbattery -
Monday, January 4. 2010
 I am back from my skiing and family vacation, and trying to catch up with the past week or so of Maggie's. I'd suggest that you do so too, if you have been away. Good stuff, as always.
Like our link that reminded me that our sexagesimal system (base 60, used for angles and time) derives from the Sumerians.
By the way, if you haven't given up hoping for global warming yet, you would have if you had spent the last couple of weeks in New England.
I believe in open government, but this is nuts: Obama Imperils Intel Briefings
Volokh: Why is it More Wrong to Attack a Person’s Religion than their Secular Moral or Political Views?
Copenhagen success (brr) continues. Related: Once in a generation cold snap forecast for NC. Related: Britain facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years.
Related: Peru's mountain folk face extinction due to cold. We're all gonna die by freezing! We need more free Government Oil!
Not enough rapes to keep the academic Feminazis happy: The radical feminist empire strikes back at Duke. They were obviously heartbroken that the lacrosse players never raped anybody.
Cocky Dem Coakley Goes On Vacation 20 Days Before Senate Election in Massachusetts
This Henninger piece is worth re-linking: A Rodney Dangerfield America? America isn't dead. It's just dead in the water.
Also, more on science is too white. Racists used to say science was too Jewish. Now I think they mean that it is too Asian.
Sunday, January 3. 2010
I hope our News Junkie will be able to get back from the north country tomorrow, because we are tiring of covering the links for him. Will stagger on just one more day.
Vanderleun:  What I learned from Avatar
Getting old and sick? 2010 is the right year to die in. Mankiw thinks we should keep it this way. So do I: Every prosperous family means one less poor family.
Solar Farm Held Up for Two Dozen Tortoises. I'm with the Desert Tortoises. Solar is a subsidized joke. Give me my nuke plants, and leave the ancient reptiles alone.
For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk. Their unemployment rate is at least half what ours has been this fall.
A new carry revolver: The Rhino
A Democrat right wing racist? Nobody can take a joke these days.
What every young man needs to know about fighting and violence. The ladies count on us guys to protect them and to apply force when needed.
What did Palin do as gov of Alaska? Lots of things.
There's no cure for stupid. Mortgages and the people who cannot pay them.
Coyote: Congress and Obama Enticing States Further into Bankruptcy
Is Environmentalism a Religion? h/t, Driscoll
Or is Obama a religion? Joan Walsh of Salon Finds Criticism of Obama "Traitorous"
Fineman: Obama’s Health-Care Gamble, And why he may come to regret it.
Re Napolitano: her potential is almost unlimited. Really?
Reason: Upholding the Right Not To Be Offended - The First Amendment protects even the ugliest forms of speech.
At Yale, they are having to turn students away from the Great Books course. Smart kids still want to know the good hard stuff.
Goldberg: Capitalism Fingered as Fiend of the Past Decade - Reducing “capitalism” to its alleged sins. One quote:
Every good thing capitalism helps produce — from singing careers to cures for diseases to staggering charity — is credited to some other sphere of our lives. Every problem with capitalism, meanwhile, is laid at her feet. Except the problems with capitalism — greed, theft, etc. — aren’t capitalism’s fault, they’re humanity’s. Socialist countries have greedy thieves, too.
Free markets are in disrepute these days, particularly by the people running Washington. For them, government is the solution and capitalism is the problem. If they have their way over the next decade, they won’t cure what allegedly ails capitalism — people will still steal and lie — but they will impede everything that makes capitalism great. And that will be bad for everyone, even NPR.
Doormat image is from this site. You may be needing one.
Saturday, January 2. 2010
Friday, January 1. 2010
 Good fun: A summary of mathematical astronomy
A man and his plan: You have probably never heard of Francis Everett Townsend, but his enormous and controversial legacy is with us today.
Barone: It's a wonderful life working for the government
Mayo Clinic begins dropping Medicare patients
Henninger: America isn't dead. It's just dead in the water.
Just as the warmists want warming to be true to justify their existence, their view of the world, and their political agenda, I always think these Sharpton sorts want to find racism and oppression for the same reason. What ever happened to the "Duke 88"?
Liberal conspicuous agonizing. Thompson:
“Watch me agonise over meat. Look at how concerned I am. See how I fret.”
Allahu Akbar: It's The New "Cry For Help". Poor babies. No wonder they want to be mass murderers: they're lonely ronery.
What's up with this? No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years
Thursday, December 31. 2009
 A more interesting mission than global cooling: asteroid prevention
Let's debate the Crusades again
Why do we delay gratification even when there is no downside?
Cheney wee-wee’d up the left. Related: Planet Janet
Econ 101: water
Rent or buy? Megan.
Now we own GMAC too. Why?
Reisman: The central problem is the central bank
Are Harvard guys sissies? Some of them are, for sure. Plus, insults are fun. What's the big deal? Anybody who cannot handle an insult or two is a sissy.
Via Lucianne:
When we look back at the decade 2000-2009, we may well define it by three crises: the crisis that didn't happen, the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen, and the crisis that we don't realize is happening. We haven't learned the lessons of the first two, and our ignorance of the third may doom us to be slaves to our government, rather than the other way around.
Related: In Intel as in healthcare (as in everything else): Bigger Government Is Worse Government
Related: Is the Dem healthcare bill consitutional? Inquiring minds wonder. I say No, and I have read the thing (the Constitution) many times. Always seemed to be about individual freedom to me, and restricting the reach of government.
Volokh: $150,000 Settlement for Black Public School Students Harassed by Other Black Students for “Acting White”
Wednesday, December 30. 2009
A powerful piece by Steele in the WSJ (h/t, reader). The emperor has no clothes, says Steele. One quote:
...Mr. Obama always knew that his greatest appeal was not as a leader but as a cultural symbol. He always wore the bargainer's mask—winning the loyalty and gratitude of whites by flattering them with his racial trust: I will presume that you are not a racist if you will not hold my race against me. Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and yes, Tiger Woods have all been superb bargainers, eliciting almost reverential support among whites for all that they were not—not angry or militant, not political, not using their moral authority as blacks to exact a wage from white guilt.
But this mask comes at a high price. When blacks become humanly visible, when their true beliefs are known, their mask shatters and their symbiotic bond with whites is broken. Think of Tiger Woods, now so humanly visible. Or think of Bill Cosby, who in recent years has challenged the politically correct view and let the world know what he truly thinks about the responsibility of blacks in their own uplift.
Capt. Tom posted a snow photo of an old Ford truck enhanced by HDR. I had no idea what HDR is, and I mainly/only take family snaps.
Apparently it is High Dynamic Range imaging. I wouldn't term it a surrealistic effect: more like a hyper-realism effect. Like an oil painting. Or like what the eye sees, when gazing at a certain spot.
This guy discusses how to use HDR. It's over my head. Maybe a reader can make it simple for me.
This fine night photo of NYC is in large scale here.
If you need "Business Formal" for your work, but are of the thrifty sort who does not like to spend $2-3000 on a suit, the Brooks Brothers winter sale only has a few more days to go.
I make sure I always have a bit of this stuff on hand, if only for weddings, funerals, and special parties. However, my 20 year-old Brooks tux probably gets more use than my suits: I am not in a Business Formal line of work and I have been fortunate lately in not having many funerals to attend.
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Pajamas: Global Warming as 