HOW A BAILOUT really works.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Effective January first, 100-watt incandescent light bulbs will be banned in the U.S. by an act of environmental stupidity. So when my supply of 100-watt bulbs gives out (in a year or two) I'll end up replacing the fixtures where I need 100-watt bulbs with fixtures that will hold two 60-watt bulbs.

So consider this: where I now use a single incandescent bulb that consumes 100 watts of electrical power and produces 1440 lumens of light output, I will eventually use two bulbs consuming 120 watts of electrical power and producing 1580 lumens of light output (which I could use, by the way, as my eyes are getting older).

So for all practical purposes, I will get a modest 9% improvement in light quality by paying a 20% increase in the cost of electricity for every 100-watt bulb I replace. Plus the cost of the new fixture.

All in the name of "improving energy efficiency."

UPDATE: Temporary reprieve.

ANDREW KLAVAN: Wall Street on Trial.



Linked from here.

I MUST BE doing something right -- I just got a hit on this blog from the U.S. Senate office of the Sergeant at Arms.

SPHINX WITHOUT A RIDDLE. Those who fail to learn history are condemn us all to repeat it.

CLIMATE CORRUPTION 101: "[I]n the name of 'climate', the United Nations wishes to regulate and tax the economy of the planet — stripping resources from the most productive economies to hand them out as assorted UN bureaucrats deem fit."

It's well past time to withdraw from the U.N.

FORMER SENATOR EVERETT DIRKSEN: A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money. House passes one trillion dollar (annual!) budget bill.

IN THE LONG RUN paternalism doesn't look all that great to me.

Linked from here.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The rise of the new German empire.

NEWT IS RIGHT: I'm glad I cleaned the bathrooms.

"YOU'RE CARRYING WATER for the Mexican on the Fourth Floor."

GINGRICH: A walk on the wild side.

Who was the last person to actually cut government? Who was the last person who actually led a movement that balanced the federal budget? . . . The last time there was true welfare reform, the last time government was cut, Gingrich did it.

[W]hen government last made progress he was part of it. They have a very practical sense of politics now. The heroic era of the presidency is dead. They are not looking to like their president or admire him, they just want someone to fix the crisis. The last time helpful things happened in Washington, he was a big part of it. So they may hire him again. Are they put off by his scandals? No. They think all politicians are scandalous.

The criticism of Gingrich reminds me of something I once heard during the time the old Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended: that the Soviets were genuinely fearful that the U.S. was 'crazy enough' to blow them all away. Perhaps it's time to show the world that America is no longer a paper tiger.

DANA LOESCH responds to a Media Matters article blaming Christians for poverty. Read the charts to see who to blame -- they're damning.

As for Media Matters, the best description of their article is a single word: incoherent.

MICHAEL REAGAN: Has the Right gone mad? No, only the Republican establishment, and they'll get their comeuppance in 2014.