COMMENT OF THE DAY: "To the private sector a half a billion dollars is enough to start a whole new industry. To the federal government it is a rounding error. How many new industries will be lost due to a wasteful spending of a totally dysfunctional federal government?"

JOHN GALT tells oregon politicians to screw off - and goes to Texas.

PESKY DOCTORS keep practicing in the wrong places.

The number of pediatricians increased by 51 percent from 1996 to 2006. The supply of family doctors grew by 35 percent over the same period. The population of children grew by only 9 percent during those years. So there are plenty of doctors for children, right? Oh, how wrong you would be! Turns out the doctors are simply selfish human beings who practice in the wrong areas, refusing to listen to government planners and academics who could tell them where the right areas are located.

Any perceived inequity is sufficient reason in the liberal's mind for more government control.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY: the valley that jobs forgot.

California’s Central Valley woes are entirely a government creation.... [T]he decision by a federal judge to cut off water supplies to an area that literally fed the world turned the Central Valley from an agricultural export powerhouse to a center of starvation within two years.

A resident of California’s Central Valley, Victor Davis Hanson has written extensively about it’s woes. Here’s one example.

SARAH FOR PRESIDENT? There is probably no one more qualified for the White House than Sarah Palin. But is she electable?

We will find out, I think, over the next year. I believe she is. My wife agrees, but believes Palin would better serve America from outside government. She may be right.

CONGRESSMAN PETER KING: I have nothing but contempt for the New York Times.

Welcome to the crowd.

HIGHEST COURT OF MARYLAND holds that second amendment does not protect carrying (concealed or not) of guns outside the home.

So I’ve got to go out and trap the deer, bring it into my house, then shoot it?

Are city dwellers naturally stupid, or is there something in the water?

[Update] It’s the flouride.

“HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY JANET NAPOLITANO is warning America's allies in the fight against terrorism that they must expand the monitoring of the global supply chain to include everyday substances that can be used to make weapons.”

Next step - the match police.

RETHINKING PUBLIC EDUCATION: The school board in a wealthy suburban county south of Denver is considering letting parents use public funds to send their children to private schools—or take classes with private teachers.

"These days, you can build a custom computer. You can get a custom latte at Starbucks," said board member Meghann Silverthorn. "Parents expect the same out of their educational system."

The opposing view holds that "a common cultural experience comes out of public schools" and districts shouldn't undermine ít by letting parents design a "boutique education" for their children at public expense, said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the liberal Brookings Institution.

The problem, of course, is that many of us understand that the “common cultural experience” found in public schools is neither common nor cultural.

I’m in favor of setting some minimum standards - basically the “three R’s” plus history and civics - and then letting the marketplace sort out the rest.

MISINFORMED? or just unwilling to accept liberal propaganda at face value?

EXPLAINING GUN CONTROL: a timely reminder.

On Wednesday, October 16, 1991, [Suzanna] Hupp and her parents were having lunch at the Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen [TX]. She had left her gun in her car to comply with Texas state law at the time, which forbade carrying a concealed weapon. When George Hennard drove his truck into the cafeteria and opened fire on the patrons, Hupp instinctively reached into her purse for her weapon, but it was in her vehicle. Her father, Al Gratia, tried to rush Hennard and was shot in the chest. As the gunman reloaded, Hupp escaped through a broken window and believed that her mother, Ursula Gratia, was behind her. Hennard put a gun to her mother's head as she cradled her mortally wounded husband. Hupp's mother and father were killed along with twenty-one other persons. Hennard also wounded some twenty others.

I remember it only too well, since at the time of the massacre, I was living about 90 miles south of Killeen in Mountain City TX.



Gun control advocates argue that strict gun laws could have saved those lives by preventing George Hennard from acquiring the weapons he used. But that ignores the dual question: how many of those lives could have been saved had less strict gun laws allowed Suzanna Hupp to carry her weapon into the cafeteria?

There are roughly 12,000 gun-related homicides annually in the U.S. How many could have been prevented had there been armed and able citizens in the vicinity at the time of the homicide?

Suzanna Hupp’s biography is here.

[Update] “If we got to fight, we got to fight.”

SNOWMAGEDDON, VIRGINIA STYLE.




It’s not expected to amount to much, but it is snowing here.

PITY THE MAN who earns six figures. That’s “relatively modest pay” according to his boss.

It’s too bad the President doesn’t believe in “relatively modest pay” for the rest of us.