Wednesday, May 19, 2010

MORE TERROR ATTACKS SOON? NYC and Washington, D.C. in the next 6 months.

Frankly, except for the Taliban’s incompetence, I’m surprised there haven’t been more already.
UNDER MY BUS: ZoBama reminds of us that it’s getting crowded under the Obama bus.
TEXAS DOCTORS opting out of Medicare at alarming rate. I guess I won’t be moving back to Texas anytime soon; at least in Virginia I have a doctor who will probably continue to see me when I’m forced to enroll in Medicare.
NO ‘PAPERS’ FOR YOU, but required for me.
JOIN THE CIRCUS! If you want to know where it is, go to Washington DC and look for the big building across from the Washington Monument.

“[Soon-to-be-former House Speaker Nancy ]Pelosi tells an audience in DC that ObamaCare is an “entrepreneurial bill,” because it will let people quit being productive and allow them to leech off of … entrepreneurs”:
We see it as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.
Yeah, just join the circus and let Mom and Dad (the taxpayers) pick up the bill.
FLORIDA TAR BALLS not linked to Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Unwelcome news for the environmental community, I suspect.
WILL LOS ANGELES GO DARK? The Arizona Corporation Commission [state utility regulation panel] is offering the option.
TWILIGHT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT: Incumbents should be very afraid, and the candidates themselves are not the only endangered species. Party bosses and traditional power players in American politics are also being threatened.
A DOWNSIDE TO RACIAL AWARENESS. Steve Chatman, a researcher at UC-Berkeley, pulled data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey that distinguish "interpersonal and diversity skills, campus climate, overall satisfaction and inclusion, and individual characteristics [religion, income, race, etc.]," including data on the respondents' programs of study, allowing Chatman to break down student perceptions by major. Here is what he found:
Upper-division area and ethnic studies students rated Climate of Respect for Personal Beliefs at 4.16. Humanities and social science students gave it a substantially higher 4.80, and science, engineering, math, and business students rated it even higher at 5.05. Obviously, field of study affected scores.
“Chatman attributes the low climate scores in area and ethnic studies precisely to the instruction students receive in those classes.... Whereas a math student might hear a remark and think nothing of it, an African American Studies student might discern prejudice and stereotyping.”

In plain English, “area and ethnic studies” students may be being taught to become racists.
IS THE TEA PARTY a feminist movement? Not really, I think. It’s a low tax, limited government movement that has attracted "a lot of mama bears worried about their families."
MICHAEL BARONE: the top five lessons from Tuesday’s elections.
• Appropriators lost
• Tea tastes good
• Democrats can still win
• The far left isn’t dead
• Politics will still be polarized
Victories are still victories, but the war isn’t over.
THE REAL DAMN OUTRAGE is the disdain with which elitists ... treat voters who don’t share their sophisticated policy preferences.
AWW ... those conservative Tea Partiers are stealing our word. Don’t they know that only liberals can be “feminists” (starts at 1:57)?
BILL WOULD REQUIRE GOVERNMENT to track body mass of American children. For what reason?

I have a great idea: let’s track the BMI’s of politicians first and require them to diet and undergo counseling if they’re found to be “overweight or obese.” Let them be the exemplars of the “Healthy Choices Act.”
“IN CASE YOU HAD ANY DOUBTS about whether Washington bureaucrats were completely out of touch with ordinary Americans, the Environmental Protection Agency is here to reassure you—they are."

"While Americans across the country have been tightening their belts and dealing with a wave of new taxes, fees, and regulations, the EPA has launched a video contest to celebrate their brand of over-regulation.”

The Heritage Foundation has an entry here. Reason TV submitted three entries; they can be found here.

Enjoy them all.

Linked from Instapundit.
REDNECKS TO THE RESCUE: sometimes it’s better to ignore the nuanced, sophisticated “experts” and just tackle the problem head on. Watch the video.



C W Roberts Contracting has just received contract to do the “hay thing” for all the 26 miles of Walton County, Florida beaches including Sandestin. If it works, it will make the EPA look silly.

The YouTube link is here.
FROM MY EMAIL, a short lesson in PC terminology. It is wrong to call people "illegal immigrants;" the correct term is "unregistered Democrats."
SOCIAL JUSTICE: a term for politicians to ”drain away other people's money in order to hand out goodies that will help get themselves re-elected.”
CHRIS MATTHEWS: let’s nationalize the oil industry.

For Matthews, the solution to every problem is more government.
LET SARAH BE SARAH. “[A] successful politician wears the persona he is most comfortable with. Ronald Reagan reveled in playing the old codger who stuck to his principles.... Now we find Sarah Palin as the pretty girl who stuck to her principles. A young Reagan in a skirt, if you will.

Read the whole thing, and follow the comments. Clearly Palin was at least as experienced as now-President Obama, but she’s probably ruled out in 2012, less by her own hand than by the President’s incredible incompetence in office. They may will be wrong, but voters will probably be looking for extensive – and visible - prior executive experience in 2012.
THE “WE’RE NOT EUROPE” PARTY: The bill comes due for a life of fairness at the expense of growth.
HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM IS NOW LAW, giving millions of Americans access to the full resources of our health-care system for the first time. The question becomes: How can we ensure that they receive value-based and high-quality care?

Read the whole article, then ask yourself one question: “Who’s not represented?”

The consumer. The patient is – at best – a thing to be fixed (cheaply).
ARE DEMOCRATS PLOTTING TO STEAL YOUR 401(k)? Megan McArdle comments on the Department of Labor’s "request for comment" on what it can do to encourage more people to annuitize their 401(k)s, rather than actively managing personal investments.

[T]he government hasn't offered much evidence that a widespread return to defined benefit options [annuities] is a net improvement for society.
I think she’s right. The evidence to date suggests to me that on my worst day I’m better at managing my investments than the government could possibly be on it’s best day.