MONEY COMES IN THE MAIL. I was reading an article the other day about the dearth of manufacturing in the U.S. (link, alas, is gone). The gist of the author’s argument was that for too many in America – especially those of the liberal persuasion – the link between income and productivity has disappeared: the money comes in the mail, and not in return for a product shipped out the door

I would add that for many - again, especially those of the liberal persuasion - electricity comes from the outlet on the wall. The link between the outlet and the power plant that produces the electricity has broken as well.

THE PLEASURES OF MEDICINE; or not. Click through to the post by Thomas Sowell as well.

More reasons to look askance at ObamaCare.

“IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST and the story appears only on MSNBC, does anyone notice?”

A comment from Ed Driscoll’s post on “Drudge-Driven Journalism’ Versus MSNBC-Driven ‘Journalism’”.

THAT "HOPEY-CHANGEY" THING is changing ...

...especially in my neck of the woods. Obama stickers are indeed disappearing.

"THESE TEA PARTY FOLKS seem to most liberals -- well, to most of us who live in the 'reality community,' or, as I like to call it, 'reality' -- like crazy fuckers.

And the use of the word “fuckers” tells you all you need to know about the “reality community.”

Via Hot Air.

[Added thought]: These are the folks who think that TV reality shows really are ....

YET ANOTHER NONTROVERSY As a former pilot myself, I say the kids did damn well on the radio. Very professional.

DEMOLISHING THE MEDIA NARRATIVE "Three political issues stood out as being the most important to Tea Party activists. When asked which issues were 'very important' to them, 92 percent said 'budget,' 85 percent said 'economy,' and 80 percent said 'defense.' No respondents listed social issues as an 'important direction' for the movement."

The study is here.

RIGHTS VERSUS RESPONSIBILITIES

Our politicians and our press have become too loose with "rights talk." Everything is now a "right." The "right" to work. The "right" to health care. The "right" to a own a home. Each and every one of these "rights" is actually a restriction on liberty.

The right to work, for example, requires someone else to give you a job. The right to health care requires someone else to provide health care for you. These are not true rights, but tyrannical impositions, taking from Party A and giving to Party B.

Agreed. It’s only on the right side of the political spectrum that I ever hear the word “responsibility” in a context other than “government responsibility.”

WALTER WILLIAMS ASKS “Who poses the greater threat?”

The answer is obvious.

I DUNNO. My problem with Roger Simon’s analysis of the California governor’s race is that a large fraction of California’s electorate is either employed by the state or on the dole.

Unlike Kansas, I can’t imagine California’s welfare staters “voting against their best interests.”

CARD CHECK appears to be little more than a union-sponsored Ponzi scheme.

CALIFORNIA DRONISM

[O]ur Eloi elite need to get a little more real, and our Morlock non-elite need to become a little less frighteningly real. And the rest of us in the middle? A little more pragmatic, and a little less sanctimonious, a little less politically — and environmentally — correct, if all our children are to inherit even a semblance of what we were born into.

Read it all.

INCORRIGIBLY CORRUPT OR INCORRIGIBLY STUPID? I vote for both.

IT’S USUALLY the loose nut behind the wheel. Click through to the Bainbridge post for more

STEYN ON MEDIA STUPIDITY. “Putting to one side the stupidity of the Dutch establishment in attempting to criminalize legitimate political opposition, one is struck by the media boilerplate: Wilders is the ‘extreme’ ‘far-right’ ‘fringe", but the parties he beats are the ‘mainstream’? ... Maybe he only seems so ‘extreme’ and ‘far’ because [they]'re the one[s] out on the fringe.”

ANOTHER NONTROVERSY. Read the comments.

ANN COULTER ON Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ announcement that "no criminality has been found" after his investigation of the videotapes which show ACORN employees counseling journalists Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe on getting a mortgage for a house of prostitution: “I'm not a lawyer -- oh, wait, yes, I am -- but I count approximately a half-dozen state law crimes being discussed on those tapes, from money laundering to advancing prostitution.”

SNOWMAGEDDON: one month later. It’s been almost a month since “snowmageddon” in Washington, and finally – finally – the ground has begun to reappear. As recently as two days ago, the front yard was still fully covered with snow.

These first two pictures are views roughly tha same as those from my post on February 6th.





This last picture is of the snow mounds that still exist from scraping 20-plus inches of snow from the back decks. The piles were originally as high as the deck itself (4-6 feet above the ground).

ONE OF THE BIGGEST REASONS for higher medical costs is that somebody else is paying those costs, whether an insurance company or the government. What is the politicians' answer? To have more costs paid by insurance companies and the government.

TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: “Twenty-five years ago, a little after sunrise on a Monday morning, the front door of my house was kicked in by a man who had blown his mind with crack cocaine. He marched my family upstairs at gunpoint. When I reached the top of the stairs and turned around, he put the gun in my forehead and pulled the trigger.”

Now read the rest.