Fatheads

Why do people usually revert after successful weight loss? Evidence is emerging that the body goes on a war footing after a serious diet. (Anecdote: maybe not if the weight loss is very gradual.)

In other words, the people who have been sanctimoniously lecturing us about health and obesity may have all along have been completely unaware of something fundamental about how the body works.

Something to keep in mind the next time the parasite classes commission "research" and "studies" and use the results to create another regulation to create more phoney baloney jobs for each other for our own good.

The New, "Improved" Light Bulbs

Supposedly the new light bulbs make up for their expense via a long lifetime and savings on power. Iirc Instapundit has posted anecdotal evidence that the new bulbs do not last nearly as long as advertised.

A Congress that has consumers' interests at heart would make the bulb manufacturers live up to their commitments. This could be done, for example, with a time stamp on each bulb. A bulb that stopped working before the time stamp expired would be replaceable with a new bulb--one with a fresh time stamp, just to make the point clear to the industry.

I'm not holding my breath: the current arrangement lets the government practice crony capitalism and pander to the green lobby at the same time.

Who Benefits?

Submitted as a comment on this piece:

Keep in mind that the Clinton Justice Department refused to attack the South Carolina prison plan even though it was pressed to do so.

Who was/is doing the pressing, and why? Excellent piece, Mr. Adams, but I hope you have more to say about this key point.

Having worked in the Civil Rights Division, I cannot emphasize strongly enough how perfectly correct and completely justified DOJ bureaucrats consider policies like the threat to South Carolina to be. And having lived and worked in the private sector and in parts of America far from the Beltway, I also cannot overstate just how insane such policies sound to most Americans.

Are the bureaucrats suing SC just crazy & disconnected from common sense, or is something sinister going on? (Intellectual honesty requires me to add that there might be a legitimate reason for suing, but I can't imagine what it might be.)

Bedbugs, Transfats, and NYC

The city found time and resources to micromanage restaurant, deli, and street vendor menus but was oblivious to the spreading infestation of bedbugs.

This is not a government that does a few essential things well.

Will food shortages follow the FDA's expanding regulatory reach? (That would be a rationale for even greater regulatory authority.)

Why Hasn't the Stimulus Worked?

Because the money was spent on people who didn't need it? See here, here, here, and here. (Last two links found via Instapundit.)

According to the links, feminist pressure groups succeeded in getting TARP funding diverted to their "human infrastructure" white-collar constituencies even though males and laborers are disproportionately hit by the recession.

Given how the Democratic government is operating, I suspect that that's not the only way the money was misallocated.

They're so incompetent that you can't tell if they have the wrong policy, or if a correct policy is implemented so badly that it has no positive effect. (Which may well be an excuse that economic interventionists will use in future crises.)

Shallow Speech about the Deepwater Spill

So, while the oil spews, Obama is going to tell BP to create an escrow fund?

...Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company’s recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent third party.

What gives him that power? Also:

...just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation’s best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation’s Secretary of Energy. Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies have also provided ideas and advice.

As a result of these efforts, we’ve directed BP to mobilize additional equipment and technology.

What do a Nobel Laureate and the Powerpoint wizards in the national labs know about drilling technology? (Damn little, which is why I suspect the clean-up hasn't been federalized.) Telling BP to get more equipment: wow, what an idea!

Maureen Dowd (!) hit the nail on the head:

President Obama’s bloodless quality about people and events, the emotional detachment that his aides said allowed him to see things more clearly, has instead obscured his vision. It has made him unable to understand things quickly on a visceral level and put him on the defensive in this spring of our discontent...

There is a lot to disagree with in the column, but the surprise is that there is a lot I agree with.

The Dowd piece was linked by National Review. Obama is bringing us together...

Immigration

For some time I've been thinking that reengineering the nightmarish legal immigration process should go hand in hand with securing the borders. For some time I've wondered if the toleration of illegal immigration is due, in part, to a tacit understanding that the government is no longer capable of implementing immigration competently.

Reason agrees.

Unfortunately, the high-skill people we need most will be disproportionately filtered out by our dysfunctional system.

(I've also read that the USA has the rudest border agents of any major country. Tourists said they enjoyed their visit but would not return because of how they were treated at the border.)

More Power to Our Wise and Good Government!

You know so much better than I what is good and bad for me. Thank you for keeping me away from fat, sugar and salt.