We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A group of students at the University of California, San Diego, claim exclusive rights to wear clown costumes, and accuse anyone else wearing one to be clownaphobic. Ridiculous, right?
Then, keep reading.
After the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine at UCSD lost the vote in the student government for divestment from Israel, they have turned to baseless and in this case utterly absurd attacks upon anti-divestment members of the campus.
First they made up charges against a music professor that he’d intimidated a student, which the official UCSD Office of Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination investigated, clearing the professor.
Now, beclowning themselves, SJP member Noor El-Annan and cohorts accuse a campus-wide elected member of the student government, Ashton Cohen, who voted against divestment, of being Islamaphobic, denigrating Moslems, and being culturally insensitive. The pretext: the student Senator wore an Arabic costume at a costume party.
The student is a Persian Jew, with Moslem family members. He bought the outfit in Dubai, and wore it there for comfort when it was very hot. On that same trip, as a guest of the Indian government along with other US student government leaders, he’d also bought Indian garb, but it was at his family’s house in L.A. If he’d worn that Indian garb, would he be Indianaphobic? Ridiculous.
At the costume party a photo was taken of him, along with three female friends, two of whom are Moslem. One of the females posted the photo with a humorous subtitle, “three wives?” That’s what the pro-Palestinian fanatics call an insult to Moslem polygamy practices. Would they have preferred photos of clitorectomies, which is also a common Moslem practice?
I spoke with Rep. Todd Akin on Thursday night and here is his response to this smear by President Obama.
“He’s good at personal attacks but bad at attacking problems. He uses the same solution on every problem – that is more government and more and more and more debt. Obamacare has taken over one-sixth of the economy and the government has pushed private lenders out of student loans. Now they’re creating the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of student loans. And as the government takes it over, more and more debt is created. The reason Obama is upset about use of the word socialism is because his administration is asserting the government into what was once private sector areas. The reason Obama is attacking me is that I don’t have the same faith in big government as he does.”
They should be protesting the federal debt they are facing, instead of the debt they freely took upon themselves in an effort to improve their prospects in life. Apparently higher education does not instill emotional maturity.
I am asked to do a brief post about Disability and have been sent a couple of links. "Disability," as in our Social Security Disability welfare program, is one about which I have unpleasant feelings which some might view as cruel. I prefer to view it as Tough Love.
However, it comes from experience. The fact is that I will not consult with anybody on Disability, nor will I participate in anybody's Disability application unless they are in a coma, severely brain-damaged, or the like. Can people with (treated) schizophrenia work, be useful, and maintain some dignity? Of course they can. Every patient of mine with schizophrenia works, except for one housewife.
Here are my reasons for that, from a psychiatric standpoint:
1. Nobody with a treated mental problem is incapable of doing something useful 2. Helping a patient obtain Disability is a way of saying that you have given up on their future 3. Many people on Disability give up on making a life, and just mope around for years 4. I see people with severe disabilities working all sorts of jobs, maintaining their pride and independence 5. The scam component is huge, I believe: free money. I've seen it plenty of times. I even get spam emails weekly inviting me to fill out a form for Disability lawyers: "Find out if you're entitled." Also, lots of people with Disability seem to work off the books.
Few people have any idea of how easy it is to get on Disability these days. Here is one of the links: Workers Comp. and Unemployment
Well, the answer seems obvious to me. Liberal Fascism. The authoritarian, or totalitarian, streak in the Left has always been there, and always will be.
From Prof. Johnson's piece:
What will it take for wider outrage to emerge? We've already had a case of an innocent student (Caleb Warner) expelled from school under the preponderance-of-evidence standard, as the AP article mentioned. But to my knowledge no congressional Democrats or liberal columnists commented on the Warner case. And so, I suppose, we'll continue to wait, and be told that issues of campus due process and civil liberties haven't popped up in recent years.
NY Times Public Editor: The Times' Coverage of Obama Has Been More Favorable Than Any Recent President; It's Time For A Skeptical Look At Obama and His Record
Joel Kotkin: The Great California Exodus - A leading U.S. demographer and 'Truman Democrat' talks about what is driving the middle class out of the Golden State:
... the Golden State's fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn't Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere.
Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families.
Are we allowed to make them clean their rooms? How about mowing the lawn? My kids have split wood, stacked wood, mowed fields, cleared brush, cleaned the bathroom.
I’ve never had the pleasure of having a black person as a best friend, or anything beyond a casual acquaintance. I’ve never dated a black woman, nor have I ever asked one out. I grew up in the ’50s and ’60s in an all-white suburb of Chicago. I went to an all-white Catholic boys high school and a nearly all-white private college.
I’ve never lived in a town that is more than 10% black, nor have I ever lived in a city run by blacks. I’ve never had a black next-door neighbor, nor have I lived in a neighborhood where blacks were more than a scattered presence. I have never had occasion to visit an all-black neighborhood or attend an event where a majority of the crowd is black. And I’ve never been approached by a black man while walking down a dark street at night, wondering if I should cross the street or not.
I suppose this makes me sheltered, naive, even ignorant of the way the world works and the how the racial divide colors our attitudes in our everyday lives. Frankly, I don’t care.
When you strip out all of the excessive and grandiose rhetoric, what the president is attempting to argue in these speeches is that the keys to higher economic growth in the United States are higher marginal tax rates on the successful, no reforms to entitlement programs, and more government spending on selected “investments.” To say that this is a pathetic plan for growth would be to give it too much credit.
Arab Spring 3.0 What’s more revolutionary in the Middle East: Facebook or porn?
"The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.
That's a big deal. He's the guy who thought up the Gaia Hypothesis, or religion, or whatever. Humility can arrive at any age.
As Jim Manzi argues in his new book “Uncontrolled,” we can’t predict what this new work world will look like. It will be invented through trial and error.
What we can be sure of is that creating your own career will produce a stronger sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Young people who do so won’t hate their work the way those autoworkers hated those assembly line jobs.
Mitt Romney branded Barack Obama’s economic policies “European” in his speech last Tuesday after Rick Santorum’s withdrawal from the Republican primaries. As a British citizen living in Italy, it was music to my ears to discover that “European” has at last become an all-purpose term of abuse, at least in America, for a good reason...
The 20 Best Small Towns in America - From the Berkshires to the Cascades, we've crunched the numbers and pulled a list some of the most interesting spots around the country
"...Matthews is right: Romney will be at a huge disadvantage this year, running as he is against one of the warmest, most approachable, just-us-folks politicians that has ever graced our public life."
My family has known this fine lad Carl ("Buddie") most of his young life, so it's a pleasure to post this book by a kid who never did his homework but who found a wonderful purpose in life which fits his talents.
If you meet him somewhere, do not pat him on the back. It's like patting a granite boulder, and you might hurt your hand. Interesting, isn't it, that often the biggest, toughest guys can also be the most gentle, generous, loyal, moral, and kind?
Last Friday, the editor of a southern California publication asked me whether I wanted to do a piece about the “settlement” between the US Justice Department and University of California San Diego regarding the handling of racial harassment on campus. I told him that I wasn’t privy to the inside details, so didn’t want to analyze the settlement.
What I do know is that it grew out of incidents on campus in 2010 that caused an uproar of indignation, mostly justifiable. A fraternity held a Compton Cookout that relied on disparaging racial stereotypes of Blacks. A noose was found in a library. (As it later was revealed, a minority student admitted to placing the noose, not considering the implications.)UCSD quickly set up an office on Harassment and Discrimination to hear and judge complaints regarding any campus minority. UCSD took constructive action to uphold laws, alleviate fears and confront facts.
Added:Inside Higher Ed reports: "A professor’s use of a class website at the University of California at Los Angeles to promote a boycott of Israel has led to a protest and a subsequent finding by the university that his actions were inappropriate...Academic freedom experts said that professors are not free to use class websites to promote political agendas. “If the link posted is strictly of a political nature, and is unrelated to the course content, then it is not protected by academic freedom,” said Greg Scholtz, AAUP’s director of academic freedom, tenure and governance."
At the University of California’s sister public college system, California State University, however, the opposite is taking place. The illegal use of college webservers to promulgate anti-Israel propaganda, to promote boycotts of Israel, create an harassing atmosphere on campuses toward Jewish students and others supportive of Israel, and senior administrators who have ignored these transgressions and themself broken the law, has not been addressed nor remedied by the Chancellor of the Cal State system, Charles Reed. The outrageous and illegal activities by some faculty and administration members continue.
I won’t belabor you with all the details here. Just read the latest letter: "Abuses of academic freedom at CSU need your attention", below, from leaders of AMCHA, an organization to protect Jewish students from illegal harassment, written to Chancellor Reed, Cal State college presidents, and the state officials elected to protect the rights of all Californians. The issues have previously been brought to their attention, including by me (Cal State’s Chutzpah, in City Journal). The issue is already moving to the courts. We await the US Justice Department to intervene, or to as so often in this administration exhibit a proclivity to only become involved on behalf of one minority.
The real threat that the Ann Romney's of the world represent to the statist Left is yet another of the many insightful posts by a mom in Marin whose blog Bookworm Room is a must add to your daily web surfing. She and I have become friends over the years sharing our parenting experiences, she and I -- a work at home Dad -- considering how to best raise our young children for a positive life and constructive role in society. An excerpt from her post today:
For the last many years, I have been the single most important influence on my children. Yes, they go to school (public school, yet); and yes, they both have thriving social lives; and yes, I’ve been unable to insulate them from a Leftist pop culture that is hostile to traditional norms and to conservatives generally, but I’m still the most important person. Of all the influences in their lives, I am the one who is most present, most consistent, and most trusted. I’m sure they’ll pull away as they get older, and they may even rebel, but I’ll still be that little voice in their brain, imparting facts, values, and analyses.
I am the counterweight to the state. Therefore, I am dangerous. I am subversive simply by existing. My love for my children is a dominant force that works its way into their psyches and that trumps the state-run schools and the state complicit media world. Some mothers, of course, are entirely in sync with schools and media. They happily reinforce the statist message. But those of us who don’t are a powerful anti-statist force and we must be challenged.
The Left’s problem with Ann Romney transcends her husband’s wealth, her (and his) Republican identification, and her decision to work for her children, rather than for a paying employer. The Left’s problem with Ann Romney is that she represents the triumph of the individual. No wonder they hate her so much.
What happens next? We don’t know, but we observe that in some respects, the meta-story has become the story. The Zimmerman story is not an important national story. The contraception story was never an important national story. What both stories illustrate is just how far in the tank the media are for the White House, that they will resort to anything to advance a political agenda. The open and unapologetic corruption in the media is an important national story.
Mr. Romney also should remind Americans of Mr. Obama's lofty words from his 2008 acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Denver. There he said, "If you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from."
Mr. Obama attacked such a strategy then. Lacking any fresh ideas or a record to run on, it's the strategy he's adopted now.
The campaign by leftist pressure groups for companies to cease their contributions to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may backfire on those feckless companies that have succumbed. So far, that includes Kraft Foods, Intuit, Wendy’s, Arby’s, McDonalds, Walgreens, Pepsi and Coca Cola.
ALEC has over 2000 members who are state legislators, out of the 7282 State legislators across the US, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. ALEC members cooperate on developing model legislation for their states that is pro-growth, pro-jobs, lower taxes. ALEC, also, exchanges model legislation among its members based on the work of a particular state. This has included legislation for Voter ID and for Stand Your Ground self-defense, two bete noires of the left.
ALEC has over 300 companies who contribute up to $25,000 each for the opportunity to engage in conversation with state legislators about issues that affect their business. The few who have turned tail may well find themselves with a weakened hand as state legislatures consider issues. Well, if they don’t support free enterprise, they will be less free.
ALEC issued a “statement today in response to the coordinated and well-funded intimidation campaign against corporate members of the organization…We are not and will not be defined by ideological special interests who would like to eliminate discourse that leads to economic vitality, jobs and fiscal stability for the states.”
The intimidation campaign is made up of the usual Soros and similar organizations on the activist left, as Michelle Malkin outlines. She recommends boycotting their products. Consumer boycotts of companies with such wide distribution seldom amount to much. What will really hit these companies is the legislation that affects them. Go left, Go to someone else, like the leftist groups you respond to that want to raise your taxes and reduce your freedoms to operate profitably, over 25% of state legislators may well say.
Vermont and Maine are the least urbanized states in the US, and close to the bottom of average GDP per hour worked.
Our friends at Vermont Tiger see these data as a problem, but I don't see what the problem is. These states are in control of their development, their industrialization, their welfare payments, etc. Apparently they do not seek growth or development. What's wrong with that? It's their choice, and apparently most people who live in those states like it that way. Money isn't everything: some seek it, some just want enough to survive until the Social Security gravy train kicks in, paid for by the labor of the folks in the wealthier states. Rural and rustic, with the good and bad (see the Rumford (Maine) Meteor) that come with that.
If those folks want more jobs and urban life, there is a simple solution: bathe, shave, get a haircut, and pile your stuff in a U-Haul and move to the resurgent Bronx in a few short hours. Job choice, no big snow problems, walk to the Stadium, lots of bars and bodegas, quick express subway to the Metropolitan Museum. How bad is that?
I like the idea of each state following its own heart. Each one is crazy and/or corrupt in its own way.
Opinion polls suggest that Americans are dissatisfied with government. Yet whenever another crisis hits, the natural human instinct is to say, "Why doesn't the government do something?"
Growing Out of Poverty- A World Bank report makes clear how free markets—and U.S. leadership—have led millions to better lives:
Thirty years ago, half of the planet lived in utter misery, and many commentators argued that poverty was destiny. At best, most pundits conceded that pockets of poverty could be alleviated through international aid. Only a handful of economists begged to differ: Theodor Schultz, Milton Friedman, and Peter Bauer were the mavericks advocating free-market policies for every nation as the way out of poverty. They have been proven right. China’s economy has been growing since the mid-1980s—when Deng Xiaoping, its de facto leader, abandoned central planning, opened the borders for foreign investment, and promoted entrepreneurship at home.
In politics, few talents are as richly rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims. Welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic have discovered that largesse to losers does not reduce their hostility to society, but only increases it. Far from producing gratitude, generosity is seen as an admission of guilt, and the reparations as inadequate compensations for injustices — leading to worsening behavior by the recipients.
Some people say that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. But the runaway taxes of our time are the price we pay for being gullible.
It's a truism that recipients of charity must always hate the giver. It's about pride.
Hansen’s unscientific yammering about global warming has ruined the reputation of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and gravely damaged the image of NASA.
Hansen has lost it, and his colleagues finally are daring to admit it.
That is the thing about America that most Americans don't realize. For all the hopeful speeches made by American leaders about exporting the Des Moines way of life to Baghdad or Kandahar, what people in those parts of the world see when they look at America isn't democracy and freedom, it's wealth and power. Those are the things they want, and they don't understand why American leaders keep chattering on about democracy and freedom, no more than we understand why Muslims keep going on about the Koran.
They're not interested in what we believe, but in what we have, and they can't make the connection between one and the other, as far as they are concerned they already believe the right things. Muslims see the West in purely mercantile terms, decadent but rich. Dubai and Riyadh are in their own way crude imitations of us, or how they think we are. Luxury cars, gold encrusted things, prostitutes and tall buildings. The same goes for Moscow and Beijing, which gave rise to their own ruling mafias riding around in limousines, squandering fortunes, building tacky towers and imagining that they are outdoing the West.
They seem to be betting that a decided shift in our political culture in the past decade has transformed class envy and save-government-spending demagoguery into a way to win a majority.
Shelby Steele: The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin - The absurdity of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton is that they want to make a movement out of an anomaly. Black teenagers today are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites
Jewish suffering has been universalized into multicultural pablum that has nothing to do with Jews anymore. The hijacking of Jewish history has been so comprehensive that Jews have become the new Nazis in the mythology of multiculturalism. They wear uniforms, don't they. They have a state that they're proud of. And they're fighting against all the Mohammed Merahs who only kill because they haven't gotten their fill of tolerance. Clearly Jews are the new Nazis.
"...for the assembled "news" hounds — the most vaunted gathering of news executives from across the country — it was all very serious swooning. They were like a bunch of dogs in heat." (h/t, Am Digest)
One of the highly developed talents of President Barack Obama is the ability to say things that are demonstrably false, and make them sound not only plausible but inspiring.
I read the headline of this article, and expected to see a discussion on why Wall Street is indispensible. Instead I found a discussion on the election and specifically Romney. It's clear he's going to be the Republican nominee, so it's probably best to start cleaning up his somewhat tarnished image. I agree with much of the commentary. But there are a few comments and insights which should be shared.
First, the economy can function without Wall Street. You don't need a capital market in order to have a functioning economy. It's useful to have a capital market, it makes acquiring capital for progress much easier. In fact, stock corporations were originally performed to raise revenues for large projects which were determined to be 'outside the scope' of government responsibility. What most people are critical of is the very concept that Wall Street considers itself indispensible, and uses that as a lever to charge very large fees and pay outsized salaries. These are not required for a fully functioning economy. I'm not opposed to a person making, or earning, whatever he or she can. But even the corporate titans of the Gilded Age put some of their more public displays on hold during times of economic duress.
Second, as a Libertarian, I'm usually opposed to the government regulating anything. But I admit there are some instances where oversight and enforcement are required. The question is - what KIND of oversight and enforcement? Certainly not the kind we're seeing out of this administration:
Ross refers to the Dodd-Frank Act as "at best a very generalized blueprint" that addresses regulators' concerns, and he worries that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established as part of Dodd-Frank, will have unforeseen consequences for Wall Street and Main Street.
"I think the regulatory uncertainty and the growing fear that this agency (CFPB) will be witch-hunting are definitely impeding bankers' willingness to make loans," he says.
Sarbanes-Oxley has done nothing to stop the fraud it was supposed to stop. It has added several weeks of work to the audit process in many companies, though. In other words, usually regulations result in nothing but increased costs of doing business.
Finally, I was amused to see Bain Capital misspelled as 'Bane' at one point. I would hate to say this is deliberate, but given my cynicism toward journalists today, I am likely to believe it was. Then again, spelling isn't a strong point with journalists these days. It's a rather unfortunate sign of the times.
Well ok. You might expect a Con Law teacher to remember the date of Lochner but, giving Obama the benefit of the doubt, I think he is simply spewing spin and propaganda, hoping most voters won't notice.
How many voters care about Lochner? Or even about the Constitution? Even the President, who did swear to uphold it, admits he doesn't really approve of it.
Perhaps his back-up plan is to run against the Court - and the Constitution. It could work. Politics ain't beanbag.
He speaks as though the problem—our unsustainable entitlement state—were the solution, and as though the solution—a budget that restrains the growth of spending, modernizes and reforms our collapsing entitlement and welfare programs to avert their collapse, and charts a path toward economic growth—were the problem. In this upside-down, inside-out world, Barack Obama accuses Paul Ryan of putting the future of America’s younger generation in danger and inviting American decline.
Sowell "A long-standing legal charade was played out again recently, when Federal Express paid $3 million to settle an employment discrimination case brought by the U.S. Department of Labor."
If you think he's on the right track, send him a couple of bucks. He's gonna need it, because he is up against every spare goverment union dollar in the country.
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."
The youth vote still supports Obama, but in a chastened, conditional way. In hindsight, Obama's 2008 campaign looks like an indulgent fantasy in which the major conflicts in life simply don't exist. There may be no white America and no black America, no blue-state America and no red-state America, but one thing is clear: There is a young America and there is an old America, and they don't form a community of interest. One takes from the other.
When the Archbishop Met the President - Cardinal Dolan thought he heard Barack Obama pledge respect for the Catholic Church's rights of conscience. Then came the contraception coverage mandate.
The government just decided that all insurance must be comprehensive. And that no one any longer had the freedom to choose anything but that -- even its superior competitor, Catastrophic Coverage.
That's not destroying a "stupid" freedom to be self-destructive. That's taking away a very real and sensible choice.
And on what authority, exactly?
This thing that is supposedly done for me, as if I were a moron and incapable of making life decisions, is not what I want and definitely not what I want done for me. I have a better idea. As readers know, I have Major Medical, high-deductible insurance because it works for me. The law will make my policy illegal. I once worked for a firm which self-insured: the firm paid 80% of the employees' medical bills after a $1000 deductible. Doing that would be illegal too.
The Dems passed a law to eliminate our free choice to purchase a personal item. As a favor to us, of course. Because they know what's best for us proles. Or are we serfs now, living for the greater good of the kings?
Obamacare so far is a political flop and shows ominous early signs of being a policy misfire as well. The benefits don’t seem to measure up to the hype, more people are going to lose their existing insurance, premiums are going up and the impact on the deficit is going to be worse.
This is a horrible piece of legislation — as misbegotten and useless to its friends as it is menacing to its enemies. The question is: why? Why did the blues write such a bad law? Why, given a once in a lifetime chance to pass a program that Dems have longed to achieve ever since the New Deal, did they craft a sloppy mess that nobody understands and few admire, and then leave their law so unnecessarily vulnerable to constitutional challenge?
The answers tell us much about why blue progressive thinking is losing its hold on the body politic — and why blue methods generally aren’t working as well as they used to.
Bob Dylan
, by Peter Atkins and 
, by Paul Feyerabend
Miracles Do Happen: 
College students protest debt on "Trillion Dollar Day"
That pic of a Texas tan-line is going around
More on 
Toon 
Kobe beef is a scam
Image: Via 
Battle On The Home Front: A Navy Seal's mission to save the American Dream.
Samuelson: 
5 Keys To 
Why 
Sometimes It Takes Money to Make Money (From Insurance Fraud)
I read the headline of 
Image on the right