Contributed by: filbert Monday, June 21 2010 @ 08:09 AM CST
Public Morality – Private Corruption [*2] — More power to government means more corruption. Always. Everywhere. People in America are not inherently more moral than people anywhere else in the world (sorry to break that to you.) It’s just that . . . until lately anyway . . . corruption was not the easiest way to make a lot of money. Thanks largely to the Democratic Party, this is changing here, as they doggedly arrogate more power to themselves through the government. And more power means more corruption.
Always. Everywhere.
Obama and the vision thing [*3]
There’s a reason petroleum is such a durable fuel. It’s not, as Obama fatuously suggested, because of oil company lobbying but because it is very portable, energy-dense and easy to use.
A replacement to hydrocarbons has to be better. Not “better” in an emotional, “green,” squishy save-the-whales-and-bunnies way, but better in a clear-eyed, real, boots-on-the-ground engineering sense of a better fuel source to power our post-industrial society. None are yet, really, with the possible exception of nuclear fission (which of course we can’t possibly consider using, because Obama cancelled the one place in the U.S. that was in any way suited to store the waste material. Heckofa job, Barry.
$7-a-Gallon Gas? [*4] — Which we will pay, because we have no alternative. Which will further depress the economy. Which, in my darker moments, I think is the goal of Obama and the Democrats in the first place.
Jon Stewart on Energy Independence: “Why didn’t it work? Why didn’t we do it?” [*5] — Because it was a happy, loopy, fuzzy-bunny idea, not a cold, rational, down-to-earth idea . . . it can be done, but not the way the “environmental left” wants it to be done. Of course, you can say that about most public policy issues . . . Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension [*6]
Pelosi pulls DISCLOSE Act [*7]
Nancy Pelosi yanks campaign finance bill [*8]
Is the health care individual mandate a tax? [*9] — But I thought that 95% of us was getting a tax cut? Another Obama lie, I guess . . .
Obama approval drops to 41% in Rasmussen tracking poll [*10]
Obama Still Sinking [*11]
Pattern: Recollections of Another Etheridge Assault [*12]
Regulators take step toward broadband rules [*13] — What legitimate public policy problem does broadband Internet service regulation serve?
FCC takes first step towards making the Internet a “public utility” [*14]
Who told Obama deep-sea drilling was “absolutely safe”? [*15]
Docs Fix Their Bottom Lines [*16] — “When doctors get paid less to treat cancer patients with chemotherapy, they will treat more patients with chemotherapy and use more expensive drugs.”
Side Effects: Obamacare Discourages Docs [*17]
The market speaks: doctors increasingly turning down new Medicare patients [*18]
Repealing ObamaCare: State Solutions [*19]
“I killed, cut off heads” says repentant Mexico hitman [*20] — People once said Iraq was approaching a civil war because of the Al Qaeda terror. Mexico is approaching the same level of violence with the drug lords . . . and it’s right next door. Or, in the case of the border states, spilling over the border into the U.S. and killing American citizens, too.
Ryan: Obama is copying Euronomics that Europe now rejects [*21]
Side Effects: Obamacare Discourages Docs [*17]
Oral Bacteria May Offer Probiotic Potential Against Upper Respiratory Infections [*22]
South Pacific Countries Crack Down on Free Speech [*24]
Guess What? The Dutch Want to Build a Sand Dike to Help with the Obama Oil Spill (UPDATED) [*25]
Teaching the Tea Party [*26]
Is Amphibious Warfare Obsolete? [*27] — An uncharacteristically transparent article title from Richard Fernandez . . .
Leak spills it: Government costs jobs [*28] — I can’t tell you how utterly disorienting it is to read an article with a title like this in the Kansas City Star . . . Mark Davis will obviously among the next group of reporters let go when the Star “downsizes” next . . .
Re-Engineering Science Fiction [*29]
The Return of the Ottomans: The sick man of Europe is back and causing trouble again. [*30]
Remember, It’s Not Socialism [*31]
Obama Needs Applause [*32]
Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur: The president is well-intentioned but can’t walk the walk on the world stage [*33] — Of course, he always was incompetent and amateur. Some of us saw that earlier than others, is all . . .
A Feature, not a Bug [*34] — Thinking teleologically, acting . . . not at all . . .
The MoveOn/Hamas Nexus [*35]
CSIRO has counter meeting to address “denialism” [*36]
The Unacknowledged Legislators [*37] — What constitutes “art?”
The Fruits of Nationalization [*38]
AmericaBlog Should Read the Articles It Cites Before Making an Ignorant Slam at Palin [*40]
Honor From Our Fathers [*41]
Can Conservatism Appeal to Young People? [*43]
An unexpected result for some census takers: the wrath of irate Americans [*44] — It’s only unexpected if you live inside the Beltway, I guess . . .
ACORN’s American Institute for Social Justice Remains Well Positioned to Fund Partisan Efforts [*45] — ACORN, in all its guises, IS an arm of the Democratic Party. It should be so treated by the law. Which means lots of people should be going to jail.
As the economy attempts to cleanse itself of the malinvestments of the decade-long bubble, jobs dominated by men have been sacrificed: construction, finance, and manufacturing. Hanna Rosin writes in the Atlantic[*46] , “The recession merely revealed—and accelerated—a profound economic shift that has been going on for at least 30 years, and in some respects even longer.”
Rosin makes clear that whatever it is that men bring to the party is not needed anymore. Job categories dominated by women are expected to thrive in the coming years and women are earning half again as many college degrees as males.
“Progressives” have been busily designing and building a society where men are simply not needed. This is not the policy of a kind and compassionate political philosophy.
Mo. man’s highway sign assailing Democrats gets torched twice, now he’s offering $5K reward [*47] — This is why you always see more Democrat bumper stickers than Republican ones. The Republicans don’t want their car keyed. Or worse. “Progressives” are not nice people, deep down, where it counts.
Put The Navy In Charge [*48]
Kyl: Obama told me he won’t secure the border until Congress agrees to amnesty [*49] — Or: “I won’t do my job until you give me a cookie!” This is the attitude of a spoiled brat, not of a President. Of course, we have in the Oval Office a spoiled brat instead of a President, so I’m not really surprised.
Can You Believe It? [*50] — This probably should have made a difference, two years ago. Today? Not so much. That horse has exited that particular barn door.
Texas democrats have a problem. Her name is Kesha Rogers [*51]
Super-Complex Organic Molecules Found in Interstellar Space [*52] — Anthracine! Anthracine!
Executive Temperament in Evidence: Chris Christie [*53]
This would probably have been the end of the story had Christie not gone all-out in raising money for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 2000 – which won him the attention and gratitude, some say, of Karl Rove and an appointment in December, 2001 as U. S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. It was in that office that he first distinguished himself.
When Christie received the appointment, there was grumbling in the New Jersey law establishment. He had no experience in criminal law, and he was not one of the more prominent lawyers in the state. But Christie quickly silenced his critics. In his seven years as U. S. Attorney, he and the 137 lawyers working under his direction managed to convict or elicit guilty pleas from 130 public officials, drawn from both parties at every level of government, without losing a single case. For the first time in his life, Christie had the opportunity to show what he could do, and the toughness, impatience, and intolerance for corruption that had so annoyed the Republican establishment in Morris County served him well in his new post.
In hindsight, it is probably a good thing that Christie was not elected to the New Jersey Assembly. He is not your run-of-the-mill team player. One cannot imagine him joining a church for political reasons, marrying a woman connected to a political machine, voting present in the assembly on controversial bills, and sucking up to his party’s leader in that body in the hope of having his name put on a series of bills designed to make him look good to the public statewide.
I think people should listen to the Fat Man.
It’s On… Palin Calls Rahmbo a Liar [*54] — Fat Man and the ‘Cuda, 2012? Hmm . . .
Sharron Angle Fights Back [*55]
An Ineffective Thug [*56]