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.
When those who "occupy" Episcopal and Anglican churches in NYC and London bleat how they think the founder of the Christian religion would treat them, they should have a similar, cautionary thought about the founder of the Church of England.
The Obama speech is here. The Ryan response is here and here.
The Republicans were invited and felt betrayed: expecting a bipartisan address, they perceived the speech as a political attack.
But using a veneer of civility to hit below the belt has become an Obama trademark trademar: giving the finger to Hillary during a debate, criticizing SCOTUS to their faces during the State of the Union, and now this.
Reportedly, she treated a general in dress uniform as a waiter. Per Instapundit, let's hope the story is an exaggeration.
Addendum 20110208. The incident has been smoothed over.
Submitted as a comment to the Tatler report:1. This is gross negligence by whoever, presumably the State Department, vetted the program. A senior head should roll: somebody at the undersecretary level, and maybe the Secretary herself, should be fired.
2. Imagine if an American residing in China had done this kind of thing. He'd be lucky--lucky--to be kicked out of the country on the spot.
Yes, my immediate reaction is that that Lang Lang should be expelled from the US (I gather he does not have dual citizenship). Unfortunately, this would only deepen the tragicomedy since our Left would rally around him as a human-rights victim--but so be it.
3. Since I don't expect Lang Lang to be expelled, I have a more modest proposal: have him play at the opening of the Ground Zero Mosque.
4. From sean Carlsd #6: ...The song is also the opening theme song for 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony (the lip-syncing brouhaha is on this song), G.W. Bush attended the opening ceremony, nobody seemed to think China showed disrespect back then.
Bush also stayed at the Olympics (and was photographed with our bikini-clad female volleyball team) while his BFF Vladimir's army invaded Georgia.
Bush and Obama: Chimpy and Chumpy.
No wonder the Chinese believe that history is on their side.
The comment is posted here.
Addendum 20110202: John Derbyshire thinks this is much ado about little as far as Lang Lang is concerned. Money quote:I applaud Lang Lang as an honest patriot. I only wish our ruling class had half as much love for their country as Lang Lang has for his.
There's a lot of ruin in a great nation. For the time being our wounds are primarily self-inflicted. As the ruling class continues to weaken the country, at some point that will no longer be true.
Mickey Kaus, Christopher Hitchens, Camille Paglia, perhaps Susan Estrich.
This post is written because of the Palin thugs (or impostors) at Neo-neocon. In particular, this guy posted in good faith and was savaged for his efforts.
Gresham's Law applies to the blogosphere too.
Note to self: send Neo an email. It's her blog, but she seems reluctant to intervene. If she doesn't, the louts will drive away the people who are there for a civilized discussion.
Addendum 20070720. Never mind about the note to NNC. She's schmoozing with her commenters about how terrible the JournoList is and completely ignoring the Sherrod story.
PJM and Reynolds haven't spoken about Sherrod either. I'm guessing that Neo is waiting to see what the party line is.
It's not taking the new conservative media long to catch up with the old liberal media's way of doing things.
When Algore or Laurie David or some such affluent environanny rationalizes their extravagance via a purchase of carbon credits, they ignore that the cost of such credits is negligible to them and major to ordinary people.
In other words, the envirosnobs want to impose privations on the public that are not privations to them. And they don't acknowledge it: quite deliberately and cynically no doubt.
Hey, in a planetary emergency, the leaders should set the example, right? Instead, this is yet another instance where they want rules for the public that do not affect themselves.
Indiana prosecutor Stanley Levco claims that automated video rentals endanger The Children. He threatens to bring felony charges against a grocery store whose machine offers PG-rated material. He was alerted to the threat to Indiana's youth by...a lawyer for a video-store owner.
To my surprise, Levco turns out to be a Democrat.
1. A Microsoft executive calls for Internet "driver's licenses". A Time Warner columnist chimes in with an "opinion" piece.
2. War game reveals U.S. lacks cyber-crisis skills, thunders the Washington Post. The Bipartisan Policy Center, which sponsored the war game, has no blatant ties to the IP monopolies, but it was founded by the kinds of 'centrists'--Howard Baker, Bob Dole, Daschle, George Mitchell, Gephardt--who did not get where they are by bucking special interests.
I'm not questioning the threat. I'm questioning the government's capability to deal with it. I'm saying the government's first instinct is not to address the threat, but to use it as a pretext to expand its power. (Per Instapundit, it sounds like "they’re after powers more than skills, which is typical.")
3. Law enforcement special interests want to automate the process of searching a suspect's Web history. Note that they refer to 'legal process requests', not warrants. The whole system would be encrypted and access would be restricted to law enforcement.
Hey, what could go wrong? The policeman is my friend...
*********
Ben Franklin must be rolling in his grave.
The Tories want to impose draconian taxes on liquor.
Not only are Western political elites sending the countries they govern down the tube, they don't want to let us drink ourselves into oblivion while they do it.
Obama bowed to Emperor Akihito.
And he bowed to King Fahd.
But not, iirc, to Queen Elizabeth. Curious, no?
Those bows, all by themselves, demonstrate his clueless unfitness for office. I can't put it any better than the Powerline link does:Ashamed of his country but arrogant about himself--what a disgusting combination.
(However, I don't think that Powerline's analogy to Macarthur and Hirohito holds water: Macarthur was the commander of an occupying army. sigh Why is the Right so fond of bridges too far?)
Addendum 20091115. Instapundit has a reader who begs to differ--and additional links that criticize the bowing.
The Anchoress links to the most definitive takedowns, here and here, that I have seen to date.
Annie Jacobsen is on top of the "story".
Right after posting this entry, I will submit the following comment:"The LHC is not a nuclear facility. There’s nothing there that can help you obtain nuclear material, enrich nuclear fuel, build a fission or fusion device of ANY kind, detonate or deliver it. Take a big deep breath and start reporting responsibly." That much of Matthew #3's comment I can agree with.
You write, "The results, the scientists hope, will create mini black holes and allow scientists to further explore theories about what happened after the Big Bang created the universe 14 billion years ago. Throw terrorists into that mix and a lot could go wrong."
What you write about something I know a little about is flagrantly wrong. Why, then, should I rely on your judgment about things I know nothing about?
It's not a good idea to cry wolf when the threat is real.
It'll be interesting to see what happens. Not every PJM writer rejects dissenting comments, but some do.
When budgets and bureaucratic turf are involved, it can be necessary to endanger children in order to protect them. Instapundit reports (boldface mine):AND DON’T LET US CATCH YOU BEING NEIGHBORLY AGAIN: State bureaucrats threaten to fine, jail a Michigan woman for watching her neighbors’ kids. If people are neighborly, they need the state less. This cannot be permitted.
Glenn has unwittingly provided every "social-service" bureaucracy with a slogan to be posted prominently in parts of the building where the public is not allowed.
This is how Michigan spends taxpayer money while the state is undergoing an economic cataclysm.
Addendum. After I emailed him, Reynolds added the slogan above to his post.
The Swiss arrested Roman Polanski in order to extradite him to the US for being convicted 31 years ago of having sex with a minor. The (former) minor has settled with Polanski and wants prosecutors to drop the matter. Will the prosecutor try to get her jailed if she refuses to testify?
Obviously a lot of resources and high-level negotiation went into setting this up. Who are the malefactors who are pushing this forward? What are their motives? (Wild unsupported speculation: was Polanski's invitation to Switzerland a sting that was arranged as part of the tax-evasion deal the US cut with Switzerland?)
The French are furious:In America, Polanski is largely seen a child rapist who fled justice, but he is a cultural icon in France, where many feel he was persecuted for having sex with a girl who admitted it was not her first time.
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "stunned" by the arrest, adding that he "profoundly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already known so many during his life."
The NY Daily News comments feature the usual online lynch mob, but there are sensible people there too. Skycap:He had to live a life of exile most of his life over this. The gov’ts in Europe are demanding he be freed. This is just a feeding frenzy for the lawyers and legal workers. Nothing good will come about by torturing this person now. Set him free. We have better things to spend our tax money on wityhout making the USA look like a horde of pitchfork and torch carrying fools.
Steep:skycap you got a point, we make the worst porno movies in America but want to play puritans by not showing t i t s on regular tv where in Europe they are laughing their arses off...and saying murder movies cutting people to pieces is an American specialty ...this is so funny its unreal
Maybe if Polanski appealed to Hugo Chavez for mediation or converted to a murderous version of Islam, Obama would personally quash the proceedings.
All this is being allowed to happen while we're trying to establish a united front with the Europeans regarding the Iranian bomb.
(Btw, the foregoing is irrespective of the low regard in which I hold Polanski.)
Addendum 20090928. Polanski's lawyers may have provoked the arrest by, in effect, taunting the authorities that they had not done so.
Kudlow, one day before the AIG bailout (see here or here):Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is the man of the hour. This weekend he drew a clear line in the sand: no more federal bailouts. Not for Lehman Brothers. Not for Merrill Lynch. Not for anyone, at least as of this writing.
At least he's noticed that we're no longer in the Goldilocks Economy with King Dollar...
