The Derbyshire Firing

He is undergoing cancer therapy which may affect cognition. That makes the case different from Coulter's. The decent thing to do would have been to suspend him and discuss his status when he is recovered.

But that would require a spine.

Cf. my comment at National Review.

Timor Belli Conturbat Me

I commented:

Gradually taking shape is a war that will make WW2 seem like a schoolyard tussle. Sooner or later, in five years or fifty.

For some time I've meant to post this but Terri said it before I did.

Coca-Cola and Leftist Boycotts

Bill Jacobson reports that KO is withdrawing support to an organization that supports voter ID laws. The numbered statements below will be submitted as a comment.

1. Newsbusters notes that Color of Change is Soros-funded. It’s worth remembering that Media Matters is as well.

Warren Buffett's company owns almost 9% of Coke and is the largest single shareholder.

2. Coca-Cola to the Alinsky Left: We're being good, Mr. Crocodile. Please eat us last.

Not just Coca-Cola. Big Business is not necessarily interested in preserving free markets. On the contrary.

3. The capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with.

Lenin was wrong. They're donating the rope.

End of Fiscal Year Spending Spree

Here, here, and here. Civil servants exhaust their budgets at the end of the fiscal year so they can say they need a bigger budget during the next FY. Is Obama really so stupid that he is surprised by this? Does he believe that only he and Michelle are entitled to squander government money?

When I worked for a government contractor, my boss had his end-of-FY proposals ready well in advance. He understood that the sponsor would spend the leftover money no matter what but preferred to spend it on its mission.

Smart Diplomacy and Reset Buttons

According to Instapundit, Canada and Australia are decoupling from the US and making contingency plans for our collapse. Reynolds:

No organization can survive corruption and ineptitude at the top forever. And we’ve had the worse political class in American history for a while now, though its rottenness has really accelerated lately.

If the collapse happens, they deserve to be hunted down and brought to trial. Hunted down from wherever they flee using, if necessary, what remains of our armed forces.

I'm not surprised:

Last year I remarked:

Will the world's financial traffic reroute around America the way the Internet routes around censorship? My guess is that we're not at that point yet, but if it happens it will happen faster than people expect.

Perhaps the global economy too, at some point? Not that we are imminently becoming a backwater--but if it happens, it could happen faster than people expect: for example, our global competitors might sign trade agreements with partners we spurn out of protectionism.

Dismayed, yes. Surprised, no.

Addendum 20120404 (HT: Instapundit): The USA is blocking Canada's entrance to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Why? Who benefits?

Harvard Sex Week

In some professions people can be thirty or older when their training is complete. I don't urge them to be celibate until then.

Nevertheless, it strikes me that there is something profoundly amiss with the hook-up and friends-with-benefits cultures. I can't find words; the Gods of the Copybook Headings could express my unease better than I can.

The Left likes to package indoctrination as information or education: "teach-ins", for example. I don't flat-out assert that Harvard Sex week is postmodern indoctrination, but the suspicion strikes me as reasonable.

The foregoing will be submitted as a comment to Legal Insurrection's post on Harvard Sex Week.

Mitt Romney ?= Robert S. McNamara

Seems more that way every day.

Forbidden: the I-Word

Whose side is Reuters neutral on?

Bond prices decline as investors favor risky assets

...(Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries prices fell on Monday, with longer-dated debt yields touching 4-1/2 month highs, as investors further pared bond holdings on signs of an improving U.S. economy and some stabilization of Europe's debt troubles.

There's another reason bond prices fall. Reuters doesn't mention it---doesn't even use the word---, but Fox does: inflation.

I have noticed inflation while shopping for food and gas. IMO the Democrats and their MSM allies do not want such perceptions, including concern about stagflation, to crystallize into a national issue.

Reform in Russia

Under the democratic decent Yeltsin, Russia collapsed into thuggery and chaos.

I hope that the latest reform efforts succeed, but the operative word is 'hope'.

Gilding a Lily

Attributed to William F. Buckley: The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists.

My variant: The trouble with liberalism is liberalism. The trouble with conservatism is conservatives. Ditto for libertarians.

Angry opponents are not a bad sign. Laughing opponents are.

The Left, initially incredulous at the Santorum surge, is reacting. (HT: National Review.)

How About Killing Predators Before They Attack Humans?

Re this. (HT: Instapundit.) Hunters would be happy to keep down the populations of deer and the like.

Silly me: a large predator is endangered. Its life is more important than a human's, of whom there are too many anyway. Unfortunately, there are nature- and animal-"loving" urbanites to whom this is not sarcasm.

sigh Even in Alaska...

A New Big Lie: File Sharing is Terrorism

Here.

See this too.

And look for Roman Polanski's Hollywood to become terribly concerned about the urgent need to stop pedophilia.

The Unemployment Numbers

The unemployment report for January was better than expected and the stock market went up sharply.

A number of conservative pundits claimed that the data does not reflect that discouraged people dropped out of the work force and/or stopped looking for work.

After going through various less-than-pellucid Bureau of Labor Statistics Web pages, I am skeptical about the claimed refutations: see here, and I stand by this:

If over the weekend Wall Street decides that something fishy is going on with the numbers, look for the market to give back its gains, and maybe then some, on Monday.

This guy seems to have his head screwed on right, as does Andy McCarthy. In contrast, the usually sober Legal Insurrection has gone off the deep end. (Instapundit links to a different reason for skepticism. Certainly, one can legitimately caution against reading too much into a single report.)

Among serious professionals, the post at Zero Hedge that triggered the brouhaha would be career-destroying if, as seems likely, it is an over-reactive gross error.

The Strange Case of Richard O'Dwyer

Apparently--I'll tentatively take the report at face value--, he may be extradited from the UK to the US for an online offense which is not illegal in the UK. I guess the extradition treaty governs, but this is bizarre. Maybe this situation was not contemplated when the extradition treaty was negotiated; maybe the UK authorities would like to jail O'Dwyer and are letting him be shipped to a country which will do it.

This strikes me as bad policy by the UK--and it strikes me as overreaching which the US could come to regret. (Not surprisingly, the negative consequences will not fall on those who are benefiting from the overreaching.)

For the time being, various despotic and soft-authoritarian governments may be entirely willing to watch the US putting in place the machinery to control online behavior. However, a case is emerging that America is not behaving as an honest broker on the Internet. When calls come for the US's role to be reduced--and they will--, we will no longer have the moral high ground.

The Singularity: Up or Down?

I'm not a singularitarian but the concept seems plausible. However:

Would the housing and financial crashes have been possible without high-performance computing? All those tranches on mortgage-backed securities were valued by heavy-duty number crunching on models which turned out to be grotesquely unrealistic.

The contention that even more powerful computers, possibly artificially intelligent ones, would have avoided the problem is not convincing.

It may also be true that today's sheer volume of government regulations would not be possible without computers.

Afterthought 20120310. Maybe the internally driven, i.e. suicidal, collapse of a civilization can also be viewed as a singularity.

Resolution: Ignore the Super Bowl

I made it after reading how a player was targeted because of his concussion history: here and here, for example. So far I've been keeping it.

The owners are amoral, the players are thugs, and the fans are louts. There are noteworthy exceptions, but not enough of them.

Historical Perspective on the Megaupload Seizure

From Harvard's Yochai Benkler: here and here. Like the man says, read the whole thing.

Kim Dotcom is an unsavory character, but the real crooks are media executives and their sockpuppets in government. (My first impulse was to use a stronger word than 'sockpuppets'.)

I've said it before and am saying it again: it's not enough to impede SOPA/PIPA. What's needed is to punish the people, in an out of government, who are pushing it. It's not enough for the anti-SOPA Internet constituency to play defense. I'd love to see a bill that reduces copyright terms to three years.

Is Any Honest Politician Left Anywhere?

The classic definition is that an honest politician is one who stays bought.

US politicians turned on the tobacco companies after receiving support from them for decades.

Kiwi politicians granted Kim Dotcom residency for a $10M purchase of government bonds--and then conspired with the US to arrest him, seize his assets, and extradite him. What is NZ's cut of the confiscated assets?

In a statement the Immigration Service said that “Mr Dotcom made full disclosure of his previous convictions and they were taken into account in the granting of his residence.

“The Immigration Act allows for discretion to be exercised in certain cases. In this particular case Immigration NZ weighed the character issue and any associated risk to New Zealand against potential benefits to New Zealand.”

They went right after those potential benefits, didn't they? But wait:

The Government has confirmed no minister was involved in the decision, but the Labour Party will insists that given the risks involved one should have been.

That's all right then, if the Government said so.

Afaic Dotcom is no bigger a rogue than the entertainment bigshots are; a fair comparison might show him to advantage. His problem is that his business never got big enough to compete with Hollywood's bribes.

Similar hanky-panky here.

Addendum 20120128. NZ admitted Dotcom. However, he was not allowed to buy the residence he rents, but was allowed to buy another luxury property.

Meanwhile, his assets are frozen, crippling his ability to hire representation. Innocent until proven guilty, uh huh.

Let me not be misunderstood: Dotcom is an unsavory character--but not as unsavory as the people who are going after him.

The Megaupload Takedown

Here. (HT: Instapundit.) Here. (HT: Democratic Underground.)

1. IMO this is part of the push to get SOPA passed. Will it work, or will it backfire? Given Republican deference to all things law enforcement, they might back off their newfound opposition to SOPA. Fingers crossed.

2. The victims are foreign nationals who were arrested in New Zealand. The pretext is apparently that a server was hosted in the US: or maybe Amerika isn't bothering with a pretext.

3. Why in the world are foreign governments putting up with this? There are all kinds of phony protests about US imperialism, but for real imperalism...nothing. Hopefully foreigners will protest to their governments the way Americans are protesting about SOPA.

4. Meanwhile, Obama has angered an ally and trading partner rejecting the Keystone pipeline.

5. Context: bupkis happened to the Americans who crashed the world economy.

6. When the chickens come home to roost because of such arrogance, it won't be pretty.

7. In some ways this is worse than Watergate. It is being done on openly a global scale with legal pretexts.

8. Not to forget the maneuvering about Assange and Wikileaks.

9. Having gotten the foregoing off my chest, I acknowledge that the news is very preliminary.

Afterthoughts 20120120:

10. The Megaupload founder Kim Schmitz is a piece of work.

11. NZ police were "happy to assist" the FBI even though there is no intention to try the arrested people under New Zealand law. Maybe NZ is happy for a pretext to get rid of somebody with Schmitz's rap sheet. Or maybe people got suborned.

Governance by False Dichotomy

Example: the distribution of wealth in the US. Either it's not a problem, or the government should confiscate the supposed excess. No alternatives enter public discourse.

Scott Brown Opposes SOPA/PIPA

Here.

Okay, I'll vote for him again. Donate again? Not so sure.

And it's premature to celebrate. I'm not at all sure that the legislation is dead. The politicians are entirely capable of announcing they've fixed the problems, renaming the bill, and ramming it through; or of slipping it into a larger bill.

Afterthought. My message to Brown:

Sir:

I was pleased to read your Tweet opposing SOPA and PIPA.

I suspect that the corporate backers of these bills are engaging in rent-seeking crony capitalism. Even if one concedes that their points have merit--I do not, for Hollywood has previously worked against innovations like the VCR--, their arguments are overwhelmingly outweighed by considerations of economic growth, fair use, and human rights.

NBER and SOPA/PIPA

The National Bureau of Economic Research has made all working papers more than three years old available for free download.

I am sending them the following:

I noticed your new policy of making older working papers freely available via SSRN.

You have struck a fair, even generous, balance between the public interest, your legitimate organizational interest, and the legitimate interests of your contributors and their organizations. You are setting a rare example at a time when the legitimate concept of intellectual property is being perverted by corporate rent seekers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians.

This infrequent user of SSRN and an even more infrequent user of NBER is taking a moment to say: thank you.

Beau geste.

Tim Tebow

This.

To Attack Romney's Record at Bain Is To Attack Capitalism...Who Knew?

Capitalism, too, has its useful idiots.

Lately the emphasis has been on idiot rather than useful.

If It Seems They Can't Get Any Dumber

Conservative cult hero supply-sider Arthur Laffer has mentioned that unrealized capital gains are "currently" not taxed. Apparently he thinks he's refuting Warren Buffett--by putting the matter of taxing unrealized gains on the table ("currently taxed at zero percent"...great choice of words). Undermining his party in order to supposedly win a debating point.

They Lie When Their Lips Aren't Moving

It's an election year, the country's finances are fundamentally out of balance, and the candidates, including the incumbent, hardly ever mention a VAT.

Is America No Longer the Land of Opportunity?

So claims WaPo columnist Harold Meyerson. His references sound plausible. Is he cherry-picking them? I'll have to think about it.

Then again, this WaPo piece by David Ignatius, published the same day as Meyerson's, is much flimsier than its companion.

And there is Thomas Friedman's The Way We Used to Be.

Golly, if all these brilliant people had the same idea, it must be Journolist correct.

Seriously: I agree that top US executives are grossly overpaid--but that doesn't mean the answer is for the government to confiscate the money. I suspect the highest-echelon compensation system is a monopoly; if so, it should be treated that way.

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.

A New Precautionary Principle

The Precautionary Principle states that no innovation or policy change should be implemented until it has been proven to be safe. That is, no change should be adopted until every objection has been conclusively refuted; the burden of proof falls on those who propose the change.

My suggestion:

Disregard everybody who invokes or implies the Precautionary Principle.

Compelling Goverment Interest

That phrase is BS that the government, including a complicit judiciary, has cooked up to justify unConstitutional actions and policies. Just keep repeating the mantra long enough and the peasants will accept it.

Diversity, for one.

Sustainability, for another (HT: Instapundit).

SOPA

Hopefully it will be defeated or blunted, but Hollywood will be back--even if, heaven forbid, it passes.

Are we really going to throw a spanner in the works of 21st-century technology so Hollywood can continue to collect rent with its 20th century model? Big Media will only stop trying when its efforts are penalized by revoking some of the monopolistic privileges it already has. Target the DMCA or copyright terms.

What Would Jesus Henry VIII Do?

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.

Coincidence?

1. "U.S. Urges Creativity by Colleges to Gain Diversity" (HT: researchok@LGF) It's news to me that achieving "diversity" is a "compelling interest".

In effect, a compelling interest means it's something that the government is doing without a Constitutional, legislative, or electoral basis because it would not survive scrutiny under any of those criteria.

2. Who needs overrepresented minorities?

3. Huzzah! Researchers have fabricated, um, discovered a nondiscriminatory law school entrance exam. (HT: Instapundit)

Polarization: An Unintended Consequence of the Internet?

The Web may actually have made people more partisan because it has become easy to cherry-pick data to support a preconceived position.

Bill Clinton Speaks

1. Seems reasonable to me:

Should you raise taxes on anybody right today — rich or poor or middle class? No, because there’s no growth in the economy. Should those of us who make more money and are in better position to contribute to America’s public needs and getting this deficit under control pay a higher tax rate when the economy recovers? Yes, that’s what I think

2. Maybe we need a supercommittee of one. Let Bubba do it.

(A supercommittee of ex-Presidents? No way: Clinton is the only one who is competent.)

Is a New Kent State on the Way?

By militarized police?

Repeating an Action and Expecting a Different Result

David Brooks released a trial balloon for Jeb Bush.

Afaic only the Kennedys have done more damage than the Bushes.

The Machines Are Conspiring Against Humans

I got an email offering me a 90-day extension of my TracFone service, but couldn't find the offer online. So I tried calling and got stuck in their automated system. The I tried the GetHuman.com site and got Could not connect to database.

This guy saved me even though the post is almost six years old.

One Term for the Fed Chairman

This reduces the temptation to manipulate rates in a manner that panders to politicians, the President in particular.

If a given Fed chair is supposedly irreplaceable--the Greenspan debacle is a counterexample--, the Fed is structured incorrectly and invested with too much power.

Maybe the single term should be made longer than the current renewable term.

Worst I've Seen Yet

Forfeiture abuse: the authorities are trying to seize the property of a motel owner who has cooperated with them against crime, leaving similar corporate properties unmolested.

Such seizures, of course, are the kind of thing that the Bill of Rights is supposed to prevent. Is the government returning to the days of predatory Roman tax collectors?

(The foregoing assumes that the facts of the case are as presented by the Institute for Justice.)

Never Spoken Were Truer Words Than...

...these:

The Internet’s full of small, vindictive, unbalanced, and ugly people who don’t have the slightest qualms about using any and every tactic imaginable to go after people who irritate them.

September 11 ,2001

Perry Links

Via texexec, here and here. The classic Political Math post is here. A serious Iowahawk weighs in.

On the Budget Negotiations

Relax, America.

Have a banana.

Flash Mobs and Yutes

In Philadelphia: here and here.

In Vancouver, after the Stanley Cup.

"Whose Side Are You On?"

Says Hillary Clinton to Libya skeptics.

Lord, I despise 1960s Boomers. (Whose side was Hillary on then? Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is bound to win.)

A disenchanted Hillary supporter vents here and here.

Obama Budget Speech and Ryan Response

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.

The Wisdom of Christina Romer

Before she returned to academia after serving as being Obama's chief economic advisor, Romer did much to turn the Great Recession into the prosperity we enjoy today. She has more:

Christina Romer: A Weaker Dollar Is Good For America

In a way, this is consistent with the position that US pre-eminence is illegitimate, so we might as well divest ourselves of both the prerogatives and responsibiliities of a superpower. Next: the Romer-Smoot-Hawley Tariff?

Meanwhile, Joe Stiglitz doesn't know what ails us, but prescribes redistributive taxation anyway.

Let's Call a Spade a Spade

James Taranto:

"Collective bargaining" is outrageous because it is an affront to democracy: a system of collusion between politicians and unions, which cuts out the taxpayers whose money they are spending.

Bargaining between government unions and Democrat politicians is misnamed as collective bargaining. It should be called what it is: collusive bargaining.

(It's my impression that it is unconstitutional to prevent unions from participating in politcs: for the same reason that businesses are allowed to participate. But is that privilege negotiable?)

Scott Walker is No Angel

His legislation proposes that government workers not be allowed collective bargaining on beneftis--but he exempts police and firefighters. In fact, such first responders have the biggest role in public safety. As such they should be more strongly disincentivized from striking than noncritical politics.

Okay, one says, but politics is the art of the possible.

But what about the proposed proposed no-bid sale of state-owned utilities (HT: Reason)?

Afaik Walker is doing more good than harm, but he isn't pure as driven snow.

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.

Is Arianna Going Rogue?

Huffington : selling HuffPo :: Palin : resigning as governor.

Valerie Jarrett

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.

Our Friends, the Saudis?

See here (HT: Instapundit).

Bacterial Biofuels?

There are reports that bacteria can be engineered to create biofuels (HT: Instapundit).

This might be like the situation with affordable human spaceflight: apparently impossible...while incremental progress in a number of fields crept on over decades. And suddenly we are at the verge. (Even if Western bureaucracies seize on catastrophic failures as a pretext to cripple the efforts, the work will continue somewhere.)

Lang Lang

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.

Round-Up of Smears Against the Right

Michelle Malkin collects examples.

Perusing conservative blogs leaves no doubt that there are similar smears against the Left, but the so-called mainstream media is not a willing participant in these.

Comments: January 2011

On demographic inevitability and the GOP.

On IRS proactive cooperation with foreign tax authorities.

On Obama's show of conciliation: here and here.

On US abolition of slavery.

On the incestuousness of the superelite. (Scroll down to Posted by: gs | Jan 13, 2011 9:07:54 PM.)

On airbrushing RFK Jr.'s antivax article.

On the Curse of the Bambino.

On Obama and oil prices.

On using the massacre as a pretext for authoritarianism.

On the Giffords attack: here, here and here.

On suing the government taxpayers.

On creativity and rote learning.

On activist fraud, especially wrt vaccines: here, here, here, and here.

On the revival of civil defense.

On the purges in Iran.

Abuse of Prosecutorial Discretion and the Presumption of Innocence

Abuses of government authority, like the prosecutorial abuse unleashed against Siobhan Reynolds and her Pain Relief Network, the Smithwick case, etc etc etc etc, have got me to thinking.

It's accepted that if an accused person cannot afford a lawyer, he will be assigned a public defender. Given the enormous disparity between the resources of government prosecutors, especially at the federal level, and most individuals, maybe that needs to be taken a step further.

For brainstorming purposes: Maybe beyond a certain percentage of an individual's assets and income, their defense costs should be compensated as a fraction of what the government spends on the prosecution, with such compensation coming out of the prosecutor's budget. Ditto for the costs of complying with a subpoena. Ditto for jury duty; as an alternative, jurors should be offered a tax credit at their ongoing income level.

Prosecutors wwould scream that this will make their job much harder--but making their job harder is the whole point if they've acquired too much power and are abusing it. No doubt some guilty people would walk free--but our system is supposed to be predicated on the presumption of innocence.

The Stupid Party and the Evil Party

According to M. Stanton Evans, the USA has two political parties, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. Bipartisanship occurs when they occur to do something both stupid and evil.

Actually, some people find it expedient to join the Stupid Party and pretend to be stupid. They are called RINOs.

Comments: December 2010

On Kamala Harris: here and here.

On Sarah Palin, George Bush, and Sherlock Holmes: here and here.

On respecting the female blogosphere.

On whether or not to respond to provocation by a wielder of the Victim Card.

On Obama's recent "bipartisanship".

On China: here and here.

On Mark Madoff's suicide.

On Nikki Haley: here and here.

Deflated Trial Balloon

Palin's latest book came out a couple of weeks after Bushes. I suspect that's not a coincidence.

If Palin had outsold Bush, we'd never hear the end of it from the Palinistas. As it is, we don't hear a peep.

On Leaving a Comment at a Blog

With apologies to Bill S:

When to this session of a blogger's thought
I wished to add my comment first and fast,
I could not form the bon mot that I sought.
You snooze you lose, and so the moment passed.
To tell the truth, my comment seems too lame.
If not ignored, can it survive the tolls
Exacted by those quick to blame and flame,
By moby's, and by narcissistic trolls?
I'm worrying whether strangers love or hate it!?
If they don't like it, so what? Laissez faire.
Why wonder how my offhand thoughts are rated?
Add hyperlink. Reread once more. I'm there.
Less than I hoped, more than I feared: my wit
Is what it is. I smile, and click 'Submit'.

(To be submitted at neoneocon's place.)

Palin and the Ryan Roadmap

She endorsed it.

That's not enough to reinstate my support for her, but credit is due where credit is due.

Iirc I've commented somewhere that I'd like to see Ryan become governor of Wisconsin and if successful, ideally in two terms, run for President.

Was This Was Expected All Along, or Is Sarah Testing Our Faith?

Checking the bestseller lists, Amazon's in particular, I noticed that the latest book published under Palin's name isn't doing exceptionally well.

Now her blogosphere has noticed and gone into spin mode.

Btw, Palin's cover portrait on her latest reminds me of a stereotypical beauty queen smile[1]. (Or a Playboy Bunny's. Confirmation here: Palin gives the logo while Glenn Beck stands in for Hef.)
****************
[1] Come to think of it, the stereotypical beauty-contest smile may be designed to minimize the display of crow's feet around the eyes, and to minimize the disruption of pancake makeup--both of which are relevant to the image of a 46-year-old mother of five with a strenuous life.

Cultural Traps

During the European Age of Exploration, Westerners encountered many people who were capable individuals--but their societies were trapped into dysfunctional or corrupt political, religious and social structures.

Now, with the metastasis of the multicultural regulatory nanny state in the West, is the shoe on the other foot?

Encounter with an Entrepreneusse

While at the laundromat, I chatted with the Filipina who bought the place a few years ago and has been putting in eleven-hour days and seven-day weeks running it.

"What do you think about Palin?", I asked.

"Don't like her. Drama queen. Big mouth. Now, Hillary Clinton, she is smart. Educated. She is a lawyer."

I was not surprised at the direction of the response, but was surprised at its vehemence. This is the kind of person that Palin purports to speak for.

Maybe she is blowing a dog whistle to whites who are below the upper middle class.

Watch the Body Language

Here is an uncharacteristic photo of Vladimir Putin, looking overshadowed as he shakes hands with Wen Jiabao.

China and Russia have agreed to drop the dollar for bilateral trade and use their own currencies, whose relative values will be allowed to float.

This is a clever way for the Chinese to undermine the dollar. They are not attacking it overtly. Instead, they are setting up an arrangement which other economies, sooner or later, may request to join as a way to flee the dollar.

A Generalization about the Right

Most Palin supporters aren't aren't crazy, but most crazies are Palin supporters.

BOP!

Last week was lousy: Bush, Obama, and Palin all in the news.

Afterthought 20101124. And now here's Barbara Bush dissing Palin, perhaps to help another of her idiot sons try to be President.

I have reversed my initial support of Palin; I do not want her to be President (giving Rush Limbaugh a run for his money is fine with me). I fully acknowledge that Jeb would have been the 2008 nominee if not for his last name, and would have had a better shot at winning than McCain did. I fully acknowledge that Jeb would be the obvious choice for the 2012 nomination if not for his last name.

But if it's Jeb vs Sarah, I will cross my fingers and toes and go with Palin.

It Finally Came to Me

The Palin persona and high voice have been rubbing on my memory, and it finally came to me.

Some enterprising cartoonist should start portraying Palin as Rocky the Flying Squirrel. With Todd as Bullwinkle.

Rockette the Flying Squirrel, I should say.

Full-Body Scanners at Airports

Glenn Reynolds has been pointing out their intrusiveness, and there is talk of a boycott.

Look at it from the ruling class's point of view.

If the public tolerates the scanners, they thereby become further conditioned to a surveillance society. If the public refuses to fly, the airlines will go bankrupt and the government will nationalize them. So what's not to like?

Addendum 20101116. This poll indicates strong public approval of the scanners, and strong disapproval of profiling. My impression is that the Israelis don't think much of our security and perform extensive profiling in their.

(I sent the poll link to Glenn Reynolds. Perhaps it doesn't fit his narrative.)

Assessment of Election

Palin: FAIL.

Afterthought 20101122. Actually, what's needed is an in-depth, race-by-race look at the difference her endorsement made.

Palin

Was she a plus or a minus for the GOP?

Palin endorsee O'Donnell lost. Intrade says Palin endorsee Angle will lose.

Expect some scorekeeping when the dust clears.

Comments: November 2010

On the SPLC, language, and gay marriage.

On the TSA's package-size restrictions, and reporting thereof.

Another Blasphemous Whimsy

Suppose the Exodus story is backwards. Suppose the Hebrews got kicked out of Egypt (and were escorted/chased to the Red Sea by Egyptian cavalry). Suppose the Exodus story is a product of wounded tribal self-esteem.

(What triggered this thought is a conjecture I read long ago regarding the Iliad. In the final version of the story, Achilles stops sulking and returns to battle after Hector kills his friend Patrocles. The conjecture was that in the original story, Hector was the predominant warrior and Patrocles died when he and Achilles attacked Hector together. That account might have been insufficiently heroic for the egos of the victors...)

Fair Is Fair

I have come to view Palin as a right-wing version of Obama, and to view her supporters as irrational as Obama's. The blind faith of her supporters resembles the blind faith of Obama's.

Having elected a manifestly unqualified (in hindsight) candidate to the Presidency, are we really talking about replacing him with another, similarly unqualified candidate?

But since I'm trying to base my preferences on objective facts, it's fair to ask what would change my mind and make me give Palin serious consideration again. Otherwise I am open to the same charge of close-mindedness that I make against others.

If she became governor again and had a successful term, obviously I'd reconsider.

If she made a few appearances on political/economic talking-head panels and held her own, I'd reconsider. I don't mean hostile gotcha situations like the and Gibson and Couric interviews: I mean environments with flexibility and give-and-take.

The Chinese are Toast

Just when they had a path to world hegemony, they ruined the whole thing for themselves. Xi Jinping is apparently the country's next leader:

...After the Cultural Revolution, Xi was permitted to resume his education, studying chemical engineering at Beijing's prestigious Qinghua University. He later received a law degree. [boldface mine--gs]

A lawyer in charge? What are they thinking? Not that I'm necessarily[1] complaining.
**********************
[1] Not necessarily complaining? The Chinese are the best bet for keeping civilization going if the West disintegrates.

Shadow of a Hanging Chad

Ten years after the Y2K election, will control of the Senate hang in the balance for days or weeks while squabbles continue about the handwriting on thousands of AK votes?

The scenario is unlikely--but not impossible--because the Democrat is currently third in the polls and Intrade odds

Afterthoughts. Speaking of unlikely but not impossible, what if the Democrat drops out and endorses Murkowski? (There was something in the intertubes to the effect that she wouldn't necessarily caucus with the GOP if reelected.) They already tried that in FL, so they might try again. Otoh, caucusing with the Democrats might trigger a recall if a mechanism exists for that in AK. (A long shot is for Murkowski, presumably in exchange for a position in Washington, to drop out and endorse the Democrat.)

Murkowski narrowly lost the primary while a substantial sum of campaign funds sat in her account unused. Maybe she intended to keep it for her own use?

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

Obviously I withdraw my support for Joe Miller.

A RINO is better than a snake.

Addendum 20101031. Miller's actions were nixonian. At this point things are not so bad that electing Nixons is worth the risk.

Appropriate, Unfortunately

October, the last month of campaigning, is National Pork Month.

In Defense of Bigotry, Oppression, Cruelty, Treachery, Etc

These things exist because they have worked well enough for long enough to become embedded into our nature.

A valid system of ethics and politics will acknowledge these qualities and preempt them with better strategies. That criterion is easier said than done: observe the intolerance of activists for tolerance.

Demoralized Troops in Afghanistan

From the Washington Examiner:

"If we walk away, cut a deal with the Taliban, desert the people who needed us most, then this war was pointless," said Pvt. Jeffrey Ward, with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, who is stationed at Forward Operating Base Bullard in southern Afghanistan.

I fear that the war would be far worse than pointless. I fear that letting the Taliban, who sheltered the 9/11 butchers, retake Afghanistan will open the door to attacks that will make 9/11 seem like a parking lot fender bender.

The Police at Columbine

I've been under the impression that the police at the Columbine massacre were unwilling to confront the gunman. That belief was incorrect: they were following their training for hostage situations.

Police doctrine has been revised.

A Remark by neo-neocon

Here:

I hope I never get so compromised that I decide to vote for something that furthers my personal interests even though I know it will be bad for the country.

This remark is not as open-and-shut as it seems at first reading.

According to the Declaration of independence, governments are created by individuals in order to to secure their divinely endowed rights. Therefore, only on rare occasions should (what I believe is) the collective interest be compelling enough for me to override my personal interests.

In fact one might argue that sovereign individuals should always vote their self-interest and leave it to their representatives to reconcile the inevitable and legitimate conflicts. I do not take this position, but IMHO it has consistency and merit.

Making Amends to Mexico, and Selling Leasing America to Pay Down Our Debt

I commented below on a proposal by 'Adakin Valorm':

On paying the national debt by leasing parts of the country, e.g. California, to e.g. China or Mexico. (Would the US be better off if Mexico ran California? At least the Mexican government wouldn't let the natural resources go unexploited.)

We owe Mexico favorable terms because of the carnage our idiotic Drug War has triggered there.

We have been ignoring the Mexican chaos for which we are responsible. If a Chavez clone takes power and allies with China--and Iran, if you get my drift--, we won't be able to ignore it. But suppose that Hispanics militate against intervention and are supported by the national death wish crowd.

Afterthought. I deny that the USA owes reparations to its blacks. I am cautious to skeptical about reparations to descendants of pre-European populations. Apologizing for use of the A-bomb? Fuhgeddaboudit.

But I wonder if we owe reparations to Mexico for the War on Drugs. Otoh, such an obligation is offset, or more than offset, by Mexico's cynical emigration practices.

A Blasphemous Whimsy

Assume that the Universe has a purpose to which the pain and suffering of living beings is indispensable.

The fact remains that such pain and suffering are often overwhelming to the afflicted being.

Is the Passion of Christ God's act of apology and solidarity?

Intellectual Property

Overreaching intellectual property legislation rips off future generations in a manner similar to excessive debt.

On Citizenship Requirements

Brainstorming suggestion: everybody applying for US citizenship or residency should be required to sign a commitment to human rights, including the right of adults to change their religion, to marry (or refuse to marry) a consenting counterparty of their choice, etc.

Among other things, such a requirement would support Muslim moderates who are currently intimidated by the Islamists--and it would provide grounds for revocation and deportation if naturalized extremists acted out.

Addendum. This proposal is timely given the Moslem Brotherhood's recent declaration against the USA (and Israel, of course).

Evading LGF Ads

As of this writing, Little Green Footballs' Charles Johnson has posted a banner stating that a $10/month subscriber can view an ad-free version of the site.

I have implemented an alternative method to not view those ads. It's working well.

The Civil Rights Movement Was No Scam

This dubious comment on this article regarding antiwhite racial bias in the Justice Department goes too far:

What’s going to happen, if White Americans determine that “Civil Rights” was just a scam to start race discrimination against Whites? Just a scam to tax Whites for the benefit of Blacks (better said their Black and White power brokers)? That Obama is the most racist President, since Woodrow Wilson, that other Progressive bookend?The charge of racism has already be neutered, it’s meaningless now. Which opens the way for true racists to be legitimized and come to the fore. Thank you “civil rights movement”, progressives, liberals and the criminal Democrat Party.

The commenter does not outright say that the civil rights movement was a scam, but he does not dismiss the proposition either.

The civil rights movement of the 1950s was not a scam! Americans were being lynched. Americans couldn't vote. Americans couldn't use public drinking fountains.

Afaic equal opportunity policies are not a scam, but today's grievance industry is a scam. Affirmative action is a scam. Political correctness is a scam. Multiculturalism is a scam.

Comments: October 2010

On one's political conversion.

On American stagnation: here and here.

On Mark Steyn's return: here and here.

On Valerie Jarrett.

On Joe Miller and reform campaigns.

On a mob mentality by some on the Right. See this too.

On the Reid-Angle debate.

On the Clinton Presidency and divided government.

On America's shortage of scientists.

On unready shovel-ready projects and the feminist lobby.

On a proposed boycott of illegal drugs.

On paying the national debt by leasing parts of the country, e.g. California, to e.g. China or Mexico. (Would the US be better off if Mexico ran California? At least the Mexican government wouldn't let the natural resources go unexploited.)

On leadership.

On midterm black turnout: here and here.

What Obama means by 'fixing education'.

On Arianna Huffington's recent pronouncements. Here too.

On a resignation from the American Physical Society: here and here.

On renaming Rhode Island, the smugness of progressives, and judicial overreaching.

On statist doubletalk.

On Leon Klinghoffer, the afterlife, and composer John Adams.

On politically mixed marriages, and arrogance therein: here, here, here, and here.

On Bush's rehabilitation via Obama's incompetence (with a digression on the McDonnell-Coons race): here, here, here, and here.

On a civil servant's disrespect for the law, and on the race card played against Lou Dobbs.

On use of the race card against Sharron Angle: here and here.

On a set of bumper stickers.

On the Blio EULA. (Scroll down to 'gs on October 1, 2010
at 10:38 pm').

Bio-Geo-Engineering

According to a preliminary study, apparently carbon sequestration with genetically modified trees merits investigation.

I completely agree with the proposition that we shouldn't impose 20th-century technological limitations on a 21st-century issue. (Iirc part of Freeman Dyson's climate skepticism is that he does not think that climate models adequately characterize biospheric response.) Nor should we preclude the economic growth that will underwrite such technological progress.

Humanity should not be reckless about manipulating the planetary climate, but it should not have a conniption fit if and when unintended consequences occur.

Religious Nuts and the Tea Party

I have no doubt that the people who brought the country into stagnation and decline under Bush would like to take over the Tea Party over. According to NPR:

For their part, religious conservatives have benefited hugely from the rise of the Tea Party...evangelicals and conservative Catholics were dispirited after the 2008 election. They were disillusioned by what they saw as President Bush's unfulfilled promises and a disappointing Republican presidential candidate. At the same time, once-powerful organizations such as the Christian Coalition have petered out. Enter the Tea Party movement.

My concern is that the Rove/Robertson/Dobson/Reed Religious Right would like to co-opt the Tea Party in the same way that the GOP establishment would. The NPR link has quotes consistent with that concern (of course, NPR cannot be trusted to be unbiased).

Otoh, I read a Christian's online comment that perhaps Caesar's sword was not the right tool for doing God's work. I can ally with people of faith like that.

More Intellectual "Property" Insanity

Tax strategy patents:

A tax patent is a patent that discloses and claims a system or method for reducing or deferring taxes.

So if someone sets up a trust, foundation, or other mechanism for tax purposes, they can be sued.

This is a real intrusion of intellectual "property" on people's actual property.

How about landscaping patents, to be enforced via aerial or space-based imaging? How about interior decorating patents, to be enforced via bounties to deliverymen and the like? (Until, in their never-ending quest to protect creative people and grow the economy, Congress can mandate home monitoring.)

Hair style patents, to be enforced by accosting people in the street and requiring documentation that they have paid a licensing fee?

I try to stay optimistic as a matter of moral principle, but it is increasingly hard to avoid creating a label titled Let It Burn.

Three Words: Peaking Too Soon?

Some polls are moving the Democrats' way (HT: Instapundit).

Certainly the chest-beating triumphalism on some conservative/libertarian blogs has roused my concern.

Such echo-chamber chest-beating preceded the blowout victory of Congressman Doug Hoffman.

And they don't call the GOP the Stupid Party for no reason.

New Scapegoat: High-Frequency Trading

My reaction to a Yahoo/CNBC piece follows. It has been submitted as a comment but has not yet appeared.

A sensible individual investor, as I understand the term 'investor', will buy a stock and hold it for at least a year so as to get the tax savings on long-term gains.

I don't see how such an investor will be damaged by high-frequency trading that scalps a tenth of a cent or so off the price he pays at any given moment. As far as I can see, the long-term value of a stock remains determined by the company's economic performance.

Even a day trader, who is taxed at the short-term capital gains rate, should be able to adjust to high-frequency biases of a fraction of a cent. Anyway, if high-frequency traders have learned to do faster and better the kinds of things that day traders do manually, so what?

Like any innovation, high-frequency trading has benefits and disadvantages--and unintended consequences. It sounds like regulators are learning to get a handle on the unintended negative consequences. A transformational technology like high-frequency technology should continue to be scrutinized by regulators, but afaic regulators should only intervene if it is "reasonably" clear that more harm than good would come if they do not act. Flash crashes are a case in point. However, it sounds like high-frequency trading is being invoked as an all-purpose scapegoat. ("I don't understand how this stuff works and I can't afford the technology, so that must be why I lose money in the market." Whaaat?!)

Investing and trading are challenging and risky under the best of conditions. We do not have the best of conditions: the country has been misgoverned and the economy has been mismanaged for ten years. The people responsible (for) the misgoverning and mismanaging are happy to create scapegoats. It's taken (little) for ordinary citizens, who miss the prosperity we had back when the country was run competently, to be taken in.

Simply Put, and Well

'Langshorn', an American who had visited China, wrote:

It is difficult living in a nation in decline.

His entire comment is worth reading.

(A number of people in that thread correctly respond that one shouldn't get carried away. One who does get carried away rhapsodizes about life in Thailand: yes, life in the Thailand that is currently wracked by extreme political factionalism.

Economic downturns seem all but inevitable given the rapid rate of China's growth. They were part of US growth in the 19th century. A key test for China will be how they handle such downturns.)

But Langshorn's perception of the USA remains apposite.