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.

On, Wisconsin!

The Democrats and government unions urgently to nip Walker's efforts in the bud because otherwise they will spread to other states--and then it will be possible to compare the economies of states in which government unions are curtailed and those in which they are dominant.

See here and here for summaries of Walker's proposals. I'll substitute better references when I find them.

Human Rights Advocates Hail Breakthrough in Price Fixing

The AP reports:

In what's being hailed as an unprecedented move...a global diamond trading network vowed Monday to expel any member who knowingly trades gems from two Zimbabwe mines where laborers have been killed and children enslaved.

Blah blah blah, the story continues, until:

Mining experts also have cautioned that...(i)n any case, Zimbabwe would not be allowed to flood the world market and bring down global prices...

Of course not. Diamond prices not set by an open market. They are controlled by a cartel. Via this image-enhancing human rights gesture, the cartel is reinforcing its control and profits.

Come to think of it, inefficient government-regulated cartels staffed with union labor may be just the kind of thing that people who write for the AP like. This is not to ignore that some human side-effects of capitalism can be bad, even horrific. It is also not to ignore the fact that big businesses do not like the vulnerability to competition that an open market brings and routinely collude among themselves and with government to impede it.

So I read with mixed feelings that the Zimbabwe government intends to route around the ban.

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.)

A "Conservative" Republican Strikes Again

The more I learn about Orrin Hatch, the more I loathe him. In addition to the material in his Wikipedia bio, he supported weakening the First Amendment via the Flag Desecration Amendment.

His latest proposal:

People seeking unemployment benefits or welfare would have to first pass a drug test under a proposal Sen. Orrin Hatch will try to add to legislation extending the social safety net during this time of economic turmoil.

Unemployment insurance is deducted from workers' paychecks. Therefore, Hatch intends to impede people's access to benefits that they have already paid for.

As for welfare, in theory I can accept the proposition that those who want their fellow citizens to support them via the state can plausibly be required to forfeit some--not all--of their civil rights. Hatch's attitude illustrates how dangerous such a proposition is in practice.

Carbon Credits = Let Them Eat Cake

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.

I Thought This Was the GOP Playbook

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.

Dhimmitude to Grizzly Bears

I am delighted to share my property with wildlife--as long as they fully understand who belongs to the dominant species.

This Forest Service page has many interesting links related to the government's efforts to restore grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. Clicking through, I came to these Tips for Residents in Grizzly Country.

Unfortunately, the term 'grizzly country' is all too literal: the document discusses how humans, at their own effort and expense, should make themselves and their property unattractive to the bears (without harming the dears, of course).

My suggestion: enlist Charles Darwin to teach the bears that bothering humans has excruciating or fatal consequences.

Addendum 20100227. Oh, and by all means kill the orca that drowned his trainer, and was involved in two previous human deaths to boot.

I don't know if the brute is being kept alive because of squeamishness or greed. Maybe both.

In a society that, apparently, can never have too many counterproductive safety measures, why did SeaWorld make no provision for intervention? Squeamishness, stupidity, or greed? If the orca had been killed to save the trainer, would they have gotten worse publicity than they have after the trainer died?

In principle I agree that Dawn Brancheau (RIP) knew the risks and should not have been prevented from accepting them. In practice, I question whether that's the ethical foundation on which SeaWorld's operating policies rest.

Lech Walesa Campaigns for Illinois Republican

Imagine the conniption fits the Right would be having if Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu campaigned for Obama.

R.S. McCain gushes:

It's not every day that a Nobel Prize winner becomes involved in a U.S. election, but Lech Walesa -- famed for his Cold War leadership of the Solidarity movement in Poland -- will be campaigning this week for a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Illinois.

(Boldface mine.) Jimmy Carter and Al Gore immediately come to mind. (Mandela and Tutu have also won the Nobel Peace Prize.)
*********
Foreigners don't belong in US politics. Period. (They're free to kibitz of course, but candidates who let them play are unworthy of support.)

My no-confidence feedback to the GOP is validated.

A Benign Variant of Alcohol?

The Telegraph reports on UK research (HT: Instapundit):

The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation.

But unlike alcohol its does not affect other parts of the brain that control mood swings and lead to addiction. It is also much easier to flush out of the body.

Finally because it is much more focused in its effects, it can also be switched off with an antidote, leaving the drinker immediately sober.

If it's related to Valium, how confident are they that it's not addictive? For that matter, I wonder if there's more to alcoholic dependency than desire for a pleasant buzz. Still, this worthwhile research is a clear step forward.

If the government allows the step to be taken:

The new alcohol is being developed by a team at Imperial College London, led by Professor David Nutt, Britain's top drugs expert who was recently sacked as a government adviser for his comments about cannabis and ecstasy.
...
“No one’s ever tried targeting this before, possibly because it will be so hard to get it past the regulators.

“Most of the benzos are controlled under the Medicines Act. The law gives a privileged position to alcohol, which has been around for 3,000 years. But why not use advances in pharmacology to find something safer and better?”

Getting the drug approved could be hard for the team as clinical trials are expensive, and it is not clear who would pay for them, according to Professor Nutt.

He said that the traditional drinks industry has not shown any interest, however some countries might be persuaded to sponsor the team.

The usual special-interest coalition of zealots and grifters controls the regulatory process. This is a(n unintended?) consequence of the War on Drugs and collateral damage from the Precautionary Principle. In effect, the government's effort to stop the damage done by (some) drugs is stifling the development of safe alternatives. Remember: the issue is never the issue. The issue is control.

(Medical researchers might be getting a better handle on high blood pressure too.)

It Takes a Police State To Raise a Child

So says Texas Senator John Cornyn (Republican, of course), who believes all online activity should be archived for the police to peruse at their leisure:

"Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level."

Background:

(CNET) -- Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, supporter of a bill that would require Internet user records to be saved for police.

The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.

(HT: The Next Right, where I have ranted at greater length than here.)

Addendum 20090226. I just googled "inferring meaning in random data"[1]. At the bottom of the page, there was

In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.

I don't know if the request is spurious or if Google's search engine is flawed, but I am entirely capable of navigating away from illegal material if I stumble into it. Except, of course, even if I do, I might get a visit from the police should Cornyn get his way.

And how long before people submit spurious complaints to search engines in order to suppress ideas they disagree with? I guess we'll have to hire more lawyers & more bureaucreats to assure that doesn't happen: everybody knows that the solution to a problem caused by big government is to make government bigger.
----------------
[1] I had recently found but forgotten the words 'pareidolia' and 'apophenia', and was trying to remember them

C*ap and Trade

Dinocrat notes the bipartisan support for the cap-and-trade greenhouse scheme scam:

We thought it could never get this bad, politicians willing to hurt the economy, and thus the average citizen, to the tune of hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars to solve a problem that may well not even exist.

As a means to benefit the nation and public, cap and trade is counterproductive. As a pretext to expand the power and prerogatives of the upper castes, it is serviceable.

When a critical mass of power is localized in a critical mass of unprincipled hypocritical opportunists who perceive a mutual interest, no explicit conspiracy need be articulated.

No populist politician has seized this obvious issue. It would be interesting to identify the obstacles that have been put in place--quite deliberately, I have little doubt--to prevent such a ball from getting rolling.