Friday, May 29, 2015

IMPRIMIS: Frank Capra on "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God".
GREAT NEWS: that puddle in your front yard is a federally protected waterway. I was considering reinstalling the rain gutters on my house ... now I'll have to think again lest they become a 'federally protected waterway'. And I suppose if I had to remove the protective berm in my back yard, my basement would become a (protected) seasonal wetland....
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS: another ObamaCare failure.
Let’s force doctors to spend a lot of money to become technology dependent and adopt electronic health records when the old way of doing things was working just fine. And hey – as a bonus, our health information is now more vulnerable to hacking and we can lose some privacy along the way! Electronic health records haven’t saved a single life or a single dollar, but they have created a lot of expense, confusion, and tremendous demoralization for our health care providers. It wasn’t broken, and it shouldn’t have been “fixed.” If the Republican Congress was smart, it would repeal this onerous, useless provision of Obamacare.
Let's help -- call your Congresscritter today.
I COULD BE paying my student loans until I'm 77. Yes, and you could have not taken the loans in the first place. Sorry, but my sympathy meter is not impressed.
SOME THOUGHTS on the unintended consequences of intended consequences. Less regulation is always better regulation.

I remember (unsuccessfully) pointing that out back in the late 70s when seat belt laws started to become de rigueur. Yes, deaths decreased (slightly), but the number of accidents increased dramatically as drivers, assuming they were better protected, took more driving risks.
INSURERS OUTRAGED over new measure to cap Medicaid costs. Progressivism at its finest: we provide the mandates; you provide the money.
A NEW BUMPER STICKER from the Ted Cruz campaign: "Friends don't let friends turn Left".

Heh.
DARWIN AWARD DEMONSTRATION: What not to do with self-driving cars. Luckily (for them, not the gene pool) they failed.
EPIC MOCK-ALANCHE: labor unions who pushed for $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles now want an exemption.

What a choice! A union job at less-than-minimum-wage, or no job at minimum wage. Scroll down to the comments -- and bring your popcorn.
A FLIGHT over the Great Barrier Reef. The pictures are spectacular, but what I liked most was this comment:
The landing was pretty much terrifying; all I saw the pilot doing was spinning some wheel next to his seat which doesn't seem legit, but we made it!
The pilot landed using only the rudder pedals and the trim wheel, which is the mark of an excellent - and experienced - pilot. My instructor tried to teach me how to do it, but I was never able to make it all the way to the ground using trim-and-rudder alone.

Linked from Instapundit.
MUSLIM PREACHER: masturbation will make your hand pregnant. I suppose he should know....
THOMAS SOWELL: How to open the mind of a college graduate. The recommended books are excellent; the problem is that being a college graduate does not necessarily imply the ability to read.
WHY AREN'T people moving to America's 'best' cities?

Could it possibly be because Americans want to move where it's best for them, not where the government thinks knows it's best for them....
CLOSING RAPIDLY: New Horizons spacecraft returns most detailed pictures of Pluto ever seen.
FORMER DIRECTOR ON IRAQ: We 'underestimated how deep the hole' we dug. That's not true; we completely misunderstood the depth to which tribalism is central to the cultures of the entire mid-east.

Here's a thought: the reason the Iraqi army is 'cutting and running' isn't due to a lack of training or equipment; it's a result of the fact that the individual soldiers aren't loyal to the state; they're loyal to their respective tribes within that state. The same is true in Afghanistan.

That was true when I first went to Iraq in 2006; it's still true today. And it will remain true (and the chaos will continue) until the Obama administration or whatever one succeeds it grasps that simple fact.

Joe Biden almost got it when he wanted to partition Iraq way back when.
AN INTERESTING DETAIL: Bill Clinton formed his shell company two days after Hillary was picked as top diplomat.
#MANSPLAINING: Not a day goes by without a really, really stupid feminist being outraged by something.
HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REFORM advocacy isn't hypocrisy, it's self protection.

I think it's fair to say that whatever the Clintons say or do, it isn't to our benefit....
MEET ZOOX, the robo-taxi start-up.


Is it coming? Or going? Or both?
TESLA'S ROBOCAR TO DRIVER: Accept the liability (but not the control).

Methinks there are some very interesting lawsuits on the horizon....
POLITICAL SCIENCE: If the data doesn't agree with your hypothesis, make it up.
ANOTHER MISSED MEMORIAL DAY COLUMN:
Our current leaders are manifestly unworthy of those they lead. So this Memorial Day, let’s ignore the opportunists and frauds who seek to clothe themselves in the glory of better men and women. Instead, let’s remember the men and women who died for this country and its Constitution. And let’s remember what it was like to have a real president.
Harsh, but absolutely, utterly true.