Anti-Cell Phone Law

A driver is weaving in and out of their lane.

Or driving under the speed limit.

Or simply driving in a way that indicated their attention is elsewhere.

Virtually every single time I see that happening, the driver has been on their cell phone.

It's pathetic really.

And against the law.

So why don't people turn off their cell phones while driving or pull over on the side of the road to take an urgent call?

Because the "inconvenience" of following the law is more than the penalty for breaking the law. Except when your bad driving hurts me and my kids.

I have been sick and tired of this selfish behavior for years and years. My children are growing up hearing mommy shout "Shut Up And Drive" their entire lives. But a solution never occurred to me until now.

A Cell Phone Usage Penalty.

On the closest main road to my home, if you get caught speeding on the residential section of it, you get a speeding ticket PLUS a $200 penalty charge.

Why not apply this principle to cell phone usage. Caught speeding and records show you were on the cell phone, $200. Caught running a stop sign or red light and records show you were on the cell phone, $500. Hit a car and records show you were on the cell phone, $1,000. etc. etc.

For every driving offence on the books, simply add a cell phone usage penalty.

I do not own a cell phone but I presume it would be simple enough for the police to ask to see a driver's cell phone and check when the last incoming or outgoing phone calls were made.

Better yet, then they can confiscate the phone until the ticket is paid or after a court date.

I am not necessarily anti-cell phone, just anti-jackasses driving like jackasses because they were too busy talking on their cell phones to other jackasses to pay attention to their own jackass driving.

That's all.

Ask a Democrat

Next time you see a democrat, ask them why we should take them seriously when they aren't taking the ethics scandel around Rangel seriously?

Let alone all the other bozos coming out of the woodwork.

Seriously, has anyone done a conservative vs. liberal scandel count?

Crackberry President

Well, he did mention his pot and cocaine use in his autobiographies. And, of course, he is a smoker.

So it makes sense that he'd indulge his addiction-prone impulses by refusing to give up his blackberry until "Obama's Blackberry tumbled from his belt as he got out of his limousine and onto his plane in Washington. A Secret Service agent hurried to pick up the pieces, gathering the Blackberry and battery off the frigid tarmac."

Blackberry problem solved, right?

Wrong.

He's switching to a smartphone so he can "stay out of the White House fishbowl".

Whatever.

And when assassins use the phone to target Obama's whereabouts because he was too addicted to text messaging to give up the damn thing, then what? Who will be blamed?

Probably conservatives. But as a husband and father, you'd think Obama would care just a little bit more about his personal safety.

Queenie is Losing Her Head

Queen Pelosi has become quite autocratic and her minions are getting a bit upset.

She may face rebellion if she isn't careful about snubbing her "experts" as she's locked herself in her office to write some pretty important bills.

Since when was this Congressional practice? The democrats are calling for a return to order, Mrs. Pelosi. You may want to heed their cries.

I could watch Onion TV All Day Long

Congress Debates Adding Elaborate Dance To Obama's Inauguration Ceremony

A Sickening Taste

Over at Townhall.com, Amanda Carpenter reviews the spending bill complete with links. The SMALL portion of items in this bill will turn your stomach.

She's right, this is frightening.

And remember, this is your money they are spending on this crap.

Manufactured Outrage

GayPatriot has a great post on the manufactured outrage of liberals over all things Bush. I like this site.

Coal is our Friend

Nuclear power is our BFF but it looks like coal might get the break it deserves as it does supply something like 60% of all US electric energy.

Plus, the USA is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We've got something like 600 years of it at current rates of consumption.

So if we can't drill, baby, drill. Then let's dig, baby, dig.

Go Coal!

Joe-The-Plumber Strikes Back

And in a far more dignified, intelligent and, dare I say it, classier way that Mr. Sanchez who comes across as an arrogant, pompous ASS.



I think the reference at instapundit to status anxiety definately applies to the talking heads blowholes like misters Sanchez and Olberman. Let's face it, when bloggers and plumbers are doing better at bringing us the news via the internet than they are, they should be anxious about their status because, right now, it is circling the drain. Probably where it belongs.

Hat Tip Glenn Reynolds

Mr. Montalban Mash-Up with Love

A perfect blend of his most famous TV Commercial and his most famous Movie role.

Rest In Peace.

Artificially Raising Milk Prices

My kids drink three glasses of milk every day. I drink milk every day. I would appreciate it if the government and subsidy-whores - I mean trade associations - didn't artificially increase the price of a product that helps keep my children growing healthy and strong.

What's wrong with you people?!?

Calling Out Rich Liberals

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that a group of protesters is explaining to hypocrits like Robert Redford that his anti-drilling stance is prejudice against poor people.

Finally real truth is being spoken to power.

The protesters, led by the Congress of Racial Equality's national spokesman Niger Innis, suggested Redford should "relinquish his wealth" and live like a poor person. They complained that the filmmaker's anti-drilling stance could lead to higher energy prices for inner-city residents, forcing them to accept a lower standard of living.

The clergymen prayed for Redford "to see the light" and linked his environmental activism with racism.

"The high energy prices we're going to see this winter are essentially discriminatory," said Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of the Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., chairman of the High-Impact Leadership Coalition, a petroleum industry advocate.

Machine vs. Eco

TCS Daily has a great piece up on the economy - is it a machine or an ecosystem.

It is an ecosystem. You can't "fix" an ecosystem as large as our economy. Central command and control has failed over and over and over and over again. Yet, these lefties think they are smarter than the collected lot of us.

Wow

Plane crashed in Hudson River.

Early News says everyone is okay.

Presidents Morphing

This is a cool video of all the presidents morphing into one another from George Washington to about-to-be Obama. Watching the changes in hair styles and beards (check out those Victorian face rugs!) is hilarious.



One thing I did notice was until FDR, all the portraits show somewhat stern, serious men. FDR starts off a chain of small, slight smiles.

Then we get Carter. With that big ole grin of his, and every president afterwards (except Bush Jr. - I have no idea what's going on with his mouth there) has an open-mouth smile.

I think I like the older guys better - at least they look like they are taking the job seriously.

I Won The Canon/Redskins Sweepstakes

Back in September,I won a Canon/Redskins sweepstakes where I got a new Canon camera and tickets to Game 4 of the Washington Redskin’s season where I got to be on the field taking pictures during the game with the team photographer.

Well, the second phase of that sweepstakes was to submit one of the pictures I took while on the field and at the end of the regular season the picture I took would be judged against the other home game winners. And I won the second phase that sweepstakes!

My husband and I will get two VIP tickets to the Washington Redskins Summer Training Camp! I am presuming that means we can meet the players and get autographs – at least that’s what I’m hoping for. I am too pleased for words.

Here is the picture I took.

And here is the website where you can see what I competed against.

Look out Sports Illustrated.

Do Ya Like Bacon?

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/2009/01/bacon_bacon.shtml, Bacon, Bacon. Who doesn't like bacon?

I copy Alton Brown of FoodNetwork/Good Eats fame. I line a quartersheet baking pan with tin foil and put cooke cooling racks on top. I preheat the oven to 350 - 400 degrees and lay an entire pound of bacon on the racks and throw it in the oven.

This method produces crispy bacon, beautiful clear bacon fat, and other than the cooling racks, no mess. (Well you really have to be good about how you line the tinfoil.) By putting the bacon on racks, the strips aren't stewing in their own fat either.

Plus, you have your stovetop free to all the other breakfast side dishes that go with bacon - eggs, pancakes, grits, whatever.

Keep Elaine at Labor

Based on W. James Antle III's post over at NRO and that Obama has not to the best of my knowledge appointed a Secretary of Labor, I vote for keeping Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor.

Can you imagine a cabinet level appointee who actually and consistently reduced their own budget. For that alone, she deserves a standing ovation!

But wait there's more, read the post.

Try Not To Smile While Watching This

Hat Tip Jonah Goldberg

Thank You Mr. Roarke

Ricardo Montalban has left us.

The world feels a little smaller without Khan/Mr. Rourke in it.

I LOVED Fantasy Island as a young girl. Mr. Roarke was so mysterious and glamourous. And as a trekie, Khan was the kick-ass best villian ever.

I am going to miss him. And I had no idea how much work he was still doing.

An amazing man.

Gerrymandering Heights

Slate has a interesting piece up on the upcoming gerrymandering free-for-all we can expect after the 2010 census and what the mathematicians are up to the make sense of it all.

When you look at the accompanying slide show of The Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts, you can easily see why finding a better way makes sense.

Under the Hirsch plan, any public proposal would have to comply with the law and current standards for equal population, continuity, and so forth. For all the plans that passed this threshold, there would be three further metrics:

- County integrity (matching district lines with county lines when possible);

- Partisan fairness (roughly half the districts should be more Democratic than the state as a whole, while the other have should be more Republican—the system doesn't include third parties);

- Competitiveness (a little more complicated, but recalculating previous election data according to the new districts).

The advantage of a plan like Hirsch's, which draws heavily on a lot of the mathematicians' research, is that it's quantifiable. Once plans start rolling in, any future proposal would have to score higher on those three metrics to be considered. And it would be fairly easy to substitute metrics if a particular state wanted, say, to value compactness (or nonbizarreness) over country integrity.

Another Eulogy

I've mentioned Father Richard John Neuhaus previously on this blog due to his recent death and amazing grace. Here is another eulogy from the Washington Post.

Three-Way Tie

I don't care who ends up with who, I'm loving these three - Jindal, Palin, and Blackwell.

Jindal today over at townhall.com was especially good.

And I've gone on for quite some time on the merits of Palin and Blackwell.

These three could be the triumvirate that re-invigorate the conservative party. Let's support them as much as possible!

Floating My Boat

Jennifer Rubin has a really nice Flotsam and Jetsam column over at Commentary. Today's offerings are particularly savory.

The Prescience of Caspar

The El Paso Times is reporting on a US military report warning of Mexico's possible sudden collapse due to "its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels."

Interestingly in the early 1990s, I read a book by Caspar Weinberger that I never forgot. It was called The Next War and in it Weinberger outlined six possible scenarios where the US could be drawn into war. Surprisingly, one was Mexico.

...an American expeditionary force invades Mexico to topple a corrupt and recalcitrant drug-running regime in an attempt to stanch the flow of millions of refugees over the southern U. S. border.

The book is well worth a read and startling for its relative accuracy given the risky nature of predicting the future.

What a lovely surprise

I don't necessarily agree with everything she says but what a lovely surprise Camille Paglia's opinion column over at Salon.com is.

I have to say thank you.

Super Gay Pride

Why, Stan Lee, Why?

Gives new meaning to "Superman is so gay."

Inaugeration Costs

Back in 2005, the website Salon complained about the "unprecedented" costs of Bush's second inauguration ($50 million) and how the media were so uncritical (yes, I know).

Today, Bush declared a "state of emergency" (no irony there) over the security plans for this upcoming inauguration which is costing $160 million. Note that the UK Daily Mail link above specifies the costs while this AP report from WTOP only mentions the declaration.

However, there does not appear to be quite the same level of outrage at Salon over the "unprecedented" costs nor uncritical media. 131 stories about "Impeachment" and 0 stories about "Inauguration" in their index.
Hmmmm. Any guess as to why?

Better slow and right, than fast and wrong

Congress rushed a bailout and it is a diaster.

Now the Senate is rushing Timothy Geithner's confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary. Why all the rush to spend bailout money and confirm hugely important financial positions but no rush at all to ensure transparency, disclose ethical violations, or cut taxes?

I tell my small children, it is better to do something slow and right than fast and wrong. Now I'm telling grown men and women in Congress that.

Don't make me come down there and put you in Time Out.

Not that they don't all deserve that (except Sen. Inhofe - we like him).

Why Not More Complaints

This AP article talks about how an elementary school flyer was sent home via schoolchildren with the title "Why I HATE Black History Month" and only got a "handful" of complaints.

Why just a handful? That is a horrible title and, of course, they "tweaked" it to read "Why I love Black History month" and resent the flyer home. But seriously, three-fourths of this elementary school's 350 children are black and only a "handful" complained.

Goodness!

Experts Don't Always Know Best

Here is a pretty good example of how central command decision making isn't always the best way to go.

Cats, rabbits, rats, and mice get onto a previously "pristine" island. The cats threaten the native seabirds. In a bid to eradicate the "invasive" species, human experts decide to kill all the cats. The rabbits eat all the vegetation. And now the seabirds are dying off even faster because the vegeation that gave them cover is gone.

Rather than allow adaptation, natural evolutionary innovation, or have just gone in and killed all the small mammals at once, the experts messed up.

That's just one decision on how to manage one tiny island in the pacific. There are "experts" who want to take countrol of chaotic/organic systems such as the Climate or the Economy of whole nations/the world.

Yikes!

Stinkin' Pile of Blarney

Well, the New York Times has exercised its unerring ability to make a bad choice and let Bono run rampant through its editorial pages.

Couldn't even read it all the way through, it is so awful.

So very, very bad.

Meandering and meaningless, this is quite possible the worst dreck published by NYT's ever.

It hurt my eyes.

Joe The Reporter on PJTV from Israel

Check out Joe - Better than most talking heads on broadcast, I'll tell you that.

And here's Thomas Sowell's take.

Roland Burris - Latest Tin Cup Senator

Apparently and according to this DC Examiner article, Mr. Burris has a lot of donation "issues" in his background.

What a surprise.

Universal Healthcare is BAD.

This is what happens when you don't listen to ME.

Look at Europe. It is a nightmare of rationing, bureaucracy, and filthy hospitals.

Look at Canada. Ditto.

Look at Massachusetts.

Just a year after the universal coverage law passed, The New York Times reported, state insurers were already jacking up rates to twice the national average. According to Dr. Paul Hsieh, a physician and founding member of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, 43 mandatory benefits — including those that many people did not want or need, such as invitro fertilization — raised the costs of coverage for Massachusetts residents by as much as 56 percent, depending upon an individual’s income status. So much for “affordable” health care.

Small businesses with more than 10 employees were required to provide health insurance or pay an extra fee to subsidize uninsured low-income residents, yet the overall costs of the program increased more than $400 million — 85 percent higher than original projections. To make up the difference, payments to health care providers were slashed, so many doctors and dentists in Massachusetts began refusing to take on new patients. In the state with the highest physician/patient ratio in the nation, some people now have to wait more than a year for a simple physical exam.

When a Massachusetts politician (Dem. Gov. Patrick) says their state government spending is "unsustainable", then it is bad. Real bad.

A Mosiac To The Dear One

"Children in a public school form human mosaic of the Dear One. Not in North Korea… in Chicago. So much for the separation of cult and state."

Hat Tip GayPatriot and V the K (aka Viking the Kitten)

Not Particularly Worried

Surveillance cameras don't really bother me. I don't consider being "on camera" a problem. And I'm not particularly worried about them as a "Big Brother" thing because we still live in a free country were rule of law and innocent before proven guilty mean something despite the ACLU's feverdream paranoia to the contrary.

I don't like that they aren't terrifically effective given their costs, but as they do help a bit, then I'm really not fussed.

California, the new rust belt?

Interesting post over on Chicago Boyz on the slow demise of California thanks to the blessings of socialism.

As I wrote before, those states where once the industrial dynamo for the entire Earth, yet they destroyed that enormous economic dominance by political policies hostile to economic creativity. Likewise, California had a golden era as an economic and cultural dynamo. Well up until the late 1980s California was the place to go to make it big. People moved from other states to California. Now, internal migration has reversed. California looks less like a dreamland and more like basket case waiting to happen.

It seems that in post-New Deal America, economic and civil success sow their own seeds of destruction. When things are going good, socialist experimentation seems harmless. A booming economy can pay for increased government spending and an ever-increasing scope of government power. Eventually, however, socialism strangles the economic engine and destroys civil society.

Coulda told ya.

Hat Tip to Glenn Reynolds.

There is also this article from AP about California's ailing economy too.

Just put the damn thing down

My husband has a crackberry and while, at times, it has been convenient, it mostly annoys me when he starts constantly checking it. If I am sitting next to you then I have not sent you an email, therefore no emails more important than me have arrived. Put the damn thing down.

All this leads to the pathetic handwringing over Obama giving up his Blackberry.

B. F. D.

The only good I can see is this:

Then there is the fashion concern. Mr. Obama is known to sport his BlackBerry in a holster on his belt, which to many is the sartorial equivalent of wearing socks with sandals. Ridding the president of the phone could avoid legitimizing that look.

It really is pathetic. Men's suits come with tons of pockets. Women carry purses. Put the damn thing away - out of sight. Wearing your cellphone does NOT make you appear important, rather sad and needy. Additionally, talking on your Bluetooth in the middle of a store or restaurant makes you look crazy - like the homeless talking to themselves.

And just for the record, the only time you should take a cellphone call is when you are alone. Period.

If you are not alone, make sure the damn call is truly urgent and excuse yourself from your company before continuing the call.

Anything less is rude, uncivil, and shameful.

Oh, and stop the car before you take a call. If you harm my children because you were driving and chatting at the same time, I will find you and stab you in your sleep. This I truly mean.

I have NO sympathy for Obama or any other crackberry addict (oh the irony).

Why?

I have never owned a cellphone or blackberry. There I said it.

Nope, never.

Yes, I know. Yes, I get that. Yes, I'm sure it would be handy.

But given all the bad behavior I see relative to cellphone and crackberry ownership, why would I want to risk that?

Obama give the damn thing up and deal. The rest of you, put the damn things down and act like civil human beings.

Sorry, I really had to get that off my chest.

6th Place?

How has Hong Kong gotten "freest economy" status for the last 15 years and the US is now in 6th place?

We need less regulation, less subsidies, less tariffs, less corporate taxes.

Maybe if we impose less, we'll get more. More jobs, more money, more credit.

New White House Pet

Media Lapdogs.

That's what NewsBusters and the Chicago Sun-Times journalist Carol Marin are saying about journalists who are allowing Obama to pre-pick the journalists who get to ask questions.

For her part, it seems that Carol Marin is starting to wonder at the "bizarro world" that is being invented by the pliant and smitten Obama loving press corps.

As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance.

The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.

Will the rest of the press retake their manhood and again become the tough guys they have always claimed to be or are they going to stay so smitten by Obama and their love for The One that they will allow themselves to continue being forced into a subservient role?

One has a sinking suspicion that the press is allowing itself to become Obama's lapdog extraordinaire.

Show you care. Vote For James The Cat.

Stuff My Husband Wrote

Here is his commentary from The Detroit News on how to help American automakers without a bailout.

And he is quoted in this Detriot News editorial on how electric cars require too much electricity to be viable right now.

"We don't have enough energy to switch to electric vehicles today," says Iain Murray, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "We need extra generation capacity, and renewable is not the way to do it. We're going to need to invest in nuclear and coal."

Good Lord!!

Hindo Boy vs. High-Speed Train over at RightWing video.

This site is fun enough to go on my blogroll.

Goodness gracious!

Vote For James

My daughter's cat is in a cute contest. There he is.

Please vote early and vote often.

Thanks

How the Press (don't) Think

Jay Rosen hits the nail on the head over at PressThink.

Send Them Thank You Notes

The sore losers of Prop 8 have published interactive maps to the homes of folks who donated their money to defend the ancient and universal meaning of marriage.

There's no threat or scare tactics there.

On one hand, if this is some kind of "Name and Shame" campaign, then what if we did this to gay people? Or illegal immigrants? Or any other "victim" group? That would be okay right?

So let's turn the tables and use this map to write some of these donors thank you notes for helping to keep marriage between a man and a woman.

These men and women have been treated very badly for exercising their democratic rights and a little support is warrented.

Hat tip to Mark Hemingway

Chevron's Man of The Year?

Vladimir Putin.

Well, no one can accuse Chevron of naked self-interest.

But surely, along with their use-less-gas ads, isn't this self-defeating at best?

The First of Two from NRO The Corner

This is the first of two posts from NRO The Corner (and by David Freddoso) that made such good points and weren't really linkable that I decided to post them entirely.

Dems Attack Minority Rights by David Freddoso

During the 19th Century, the motion to recommit was used mostly by the majority to correct small errors in a bill. But in 1909 Rep. John Fitzgerald led a rebellion against House Speaker Joe Cannon (R.) to establish it in the House rules as a tool for the minority. The CRS report quotes Fitzgerald stating that the motion's purpose is to give "the minority the rightto have a vote upon its position upon great public questions."

The most obvious impact of the rules change is that these motions will no longer offer the House minority party a chance to force a vote on tax increases. This is because, under the new rules, motions to recommit must comply with budget and pay-go rules in the context of the larger bill. Minority Republicans will no longer be able to use motions to recommit in order to strip tax increases out of larger bills. As Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.) told me last week, "What they are doing is cutting off the ability of the minority, the Republicans, to prevent a tax hike. If there is a tax hike right now, we have a right to demand an up-or-down vote on it, and the public will know. With the rules change, this will no longer be the case. At best, we can only offer another tax increase in its place."

To put it another way, the change allows Democrats to vote for tax increases without having to put themselves clearly on the record for higher taxes. In the last Congress, minority Republicans forced four such votes, putting Democrats squarely on the record for tax increases that were contained in two energy bills, the farm bill, and a bill related to bailing out holders of troubled mortgages. In all four cases, the Democrats won, but at least their priorities were recorded for the record.

And that is the real problem. The CRS report describes the dilemma for members of the majority who face such motions, by stating that they "have the effect of creating a diffcult political choice for Members who support both the underlying measure and the amendment contained in the motion to recommit." It goes on:

If such proponents of the measure vote for the motion to recommit with "non-forthwith" instructions, they are voting to send the measure back to committee, delaying or potentially killing the bill and perhaps breaking with their own party. However, if such Members vote against the motion to recommitthey may be on public record as having voted against a policy that they (and perhaps their constituents) strongly support.

The report then notes that such a vote could later become the subject of a political ad. With the new rules change, Democrats are protecting themselves from the kind of accountability that Republicans faced when they were in the majority, and which majority Democrats also faced prior to their loss of Congressional control in 1994.

"The new rules basically shield them from taking embarrassing votes," said Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee. "It denies us the ability to have clean votes based on our policy alternatives." Note how Ryan's language echoes that used by Fitzgerald 100 years ago.

The CRS report references several occasions in which Republicans, while holding the majority, complained about motions to recommit. As recently as 2003, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) complained on the House floor that Democrats were using such a motion to put the squeeze on Republicans — forcing them to take a tough vote or else kill their own bill. The motion, he said, "refers the bill back to committee and we are promptly to deal with it. For those of you who are not that familiar with the nuance, the effect of this motion is to kill the bill."

Still, as much as Republicans disliked Democrats' use of the House rules against them, they never tried to take away the minority's right to do this. Democrats are now cracking down.

Given the opacity of such obscure procedural issues for the average voter, Democrats have every reason to believe they can limit the rights of their legislative adversaries without any political consequences. But they may regret such changes some day, when they next lose control.

Direct From NRO The Corner

This is the second of two posts on NRO The Corner that I thought were so good, that I would post them, in their entirety (not really linkable) on my site.

The Case for Committee Term Limits by David Freddoso

Another way in which the Democrats' new House rules consolidate power in the hands of the already-powerful is the abolition of committee term limits, and this has received some ink. Republicans established the term limits after the 1994 revolution in order to end the legislative culture of backroom dealing by entrenched insiders.

In response, Democrats have argued that the term-limits only encouraged members to compete for chairmanships by raising lots of campaign money, and that this somehow corrupts the system further. Hoyer argued for it in this way:

I understand that our Republican colleagues once wrote term limits into the rules in an effort against entrenched power. But it is now clear that that effort fell victim to what conservatives like to call the law of unintended consequences: With chairmanships up for grabs so frequently, fundraising ability became one of the most important job qualifications, and legislative skill was sacrificed to political considerations.

Although the term-limits may not have worked as well as anyone hoped, it is hard to see how a return to "chairmen for life" improves anything. It offers the House's most powerful members a permanent platform from which to extort campaign contributions from the industries they regulate. At best, this is a choice between six of one or half a dozen of the other in terms of the integrity of the campaign finance system. And so one has to believe that this change is motivated by concerns other than those cited.

Hype Bites

Via "EventMe", I've just received an invitation to one of the Inaugural Balls, The Inaugural Purple Ball - honoring veterans.

EventMe is an interesting program - you sign up, tell them your interests, and when an event organizer hosts a party and wants to drive up attendance, they contact EventMe and they hit their lists. Private parties don't go to EventMe, nor do events that have "filled up".

So why is an inaugeral ball hitting Event Me unless the hype over Obama's inaugeration has frightened away folks. This Purple Ball is a pay-to-play event and ticket prices range from $300 a person to $5,000 a person. Ouch!

Between the hype and the bubble, somethings gonna give.

Giving Guns and Whiskey to Teenagers

To paraphrase the great O'Rourke, giving more money to Congress is like giving beer and car keys to teenagers.

Letting the second half of TARP to be released - as Obama has requested from President Bush - continues this obscene fiasco of a "bailout". Now it is as if we are giving guns and whiskey to teenagers.

What is it about socialist-liberals that makes them so addicted to repeating their failures over and over and over again?

Just stop for the Good Lord's Sake. STOP!

God Bless Angry Joe

Joe-the-Plumber has a new job and he is doing a damn fine job of it, taking other "investigative journalists" to task.

Go Joe!

Pop

Over at Charlie Foxtrot, they are predicting an Obama Bubble.

It is a rather reasonable assumption. Expectations are so stratospheric and when did any president have so many baubles and commemoratives for sale? Not since George Washington and Obama is no founding father.

Disappointment and tears are sure to result when the bubble is burst.

I hate to say it but once the splatter from the pop dries, we'll be in for a real ugly mess. The economy has as much to do with mindset as it does money. If people feel down about Obama when his status as human being is driven home, they are not going to feel good about their financial situations either.

The very fact that expectations were so high might contribute to this recession being longer and deeper than necessary (excluding of course the recession deepening stimulus packages being hosed about right now).

I feel like those who drank the Obama Kool-Aid are getting what they deserve but why do the rest of us need to be dragged down with them.

I've got to buy that "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Palin" bumper sticker now.

I like this Place

GM's Place. Check it out.

From Your Mouth To God's Earts

New York Times reporter predicting one term for Obama.

Good.

Pick Your Target

As the title of this piece goes, Rich People vs. Politicians.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, with about $60 billion in assets each, are America's richest men. With all that money, what can they force us to do? Can they take our house to make room so that another person can build an auto dealership or a casino parking lot? Can they force us to pay money into the government-run retirement Ponzi scheme called Social Security? Can Buffett and Gates force us to bus our children to schools out of our neighborhood in the name of diversity? Unless they are granted power by politicians, rich people have little power to force us to do anything.

A GS-9, or a lowly municipal clerk, has far more life-and-death power over us. It's they to whom we must turn to for permission to build a house, ply a trade, open a restaurant and myriad other activities. It's government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce and make our lives miserable. Coercive power goes a long way toward explaining political corruption.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich's hawking of Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat; Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel's alleged tax-writing favors; former Rep. William Jefferson's business bribes; and the Jack Abramoff scandal are mere pimples on the government corruption landscape. We can think of these and similar acts as jailable illegal corruption. They pale in comparison to what's for all practical purposes the same thing, but simply legal corruption.

Thank you Glenn Reynolds for point this one out.

Economic Round Up

Slicing and Dicing Fannie and Freddie.

Save the rich, Save the economy. The case for lowering tax rates.

Start Lending or Start Losing.

Road to Ruin is Paved with Keynesian Economics

Crime and Parenting

An excellent article by a LAPD police officer.

Perhaps we should return to the days of parents being responsible for their children's behavior. Someone would grow up fast.

Speaks for Itself

Van-tastic

I have a Windstar, not an Odessey but I still like this ad. Now if only I had some bitchin' flame decals for my minivan. Then I'd be one happy mommy.

A Lovely Tribute

Below is a lovely tribute to a man I never read or knew but now deeply regret his absence in my thinking - Father Richard John Neuhaus.

Like the moment you first understand Shakespeare and regret you hadn't started reading him earlier, I am discovering a new voice at the moment the man behind the voice joins his beloved creator. Another reason to look forward to heaven.

This is from NRO-Corner

RJN & the Jews by David Novak
Along with his many other friends and admirers throughout the world, I mourn the death of my co-worker Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

I first met Richard, briefly, during the mid-1960s, when he was a Lutheran pastor and leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement. I became a foot soldier in that movement when my late, revered teacher, the incomparable theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — Richard’s mentor and fellow leader — enlisted me. From my teacher and his, Richard learned to love Jews, especially those Jews whose faith he saw as intending the same God he himself served. And this God, for him and for us, is not only Creator of heaven and earth, but also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and, for Richard as the faithful Christian he was all his life, the God of Jesus, too.

This God in common, the deepest teachings of whose Torah we both loved, is what brought us together again — this time with true and ever-deepening friendship, in the mid-1980s, when Richard was organizing his Institute on Religion and Public Life (then called the “Center on Religion and Society”). He enlisted me as a Jewish theologian and ethicist. This renewal of our relationship changed my life forever, and I am convinced that change was for good.

One of the highlights of our friendship was my annual two-day visit to his summer cottage in the Ottawa Valley, where we would engage in the most intense conversations possible between two persons. These talks could only deal with “first things,” and took place over the tasty kosher food I brought from Toronto and the good cigars, good whisky, and good accommodations he supplied.

Alas, those conversations — at least in this world — are over. But I know from time to time, when I am confused in my thinking, I will hear his rich baritone voice saying, “Now David, you don’t really mean that!” and I will gain some clarity. And that, no doubt, will whet my appetite for resuming our conversation in the true future, before the same God whose world-beyond is without end. Richard, I hope you can save a place for me there, God willing (see Malachi 3:16).

Rabbi David Novak is the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.

For more tributes, go here and scroll down.

The Great Inflation

City Journal (excellent publication) has a book review up about economics and inflation that sounds fascenating. The book is titled, The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath by Robert Samuelson and it covers the time between 1960 and 1980 and what inflationary control devices were used to the relative detriment of our economy as well as how "economics" is more like fiscal anthropology than any more "mechanical" science.

Dane Stangler wrote the book review and made several strong points. I particularly enjoyed his conclusion...

Samuelson concludes by pointing out that capitalism’s inherent restlessness is the source of both its prosperity and instability: “Our relentless search for some sensible balance can never reach a permanent resting place. . . . Some economic turmoil is always inevitable, and the very effort to suppress it may bring it about.” The great lesson of The Great Inflation, though, is one that Samuelson himself may not fully recognize. A highly developed market economy achieves order and avoids chaos because, for the most part, individual actions are remarkably well-coordinated. The crucial organizational tool is the price mechanism. In 1945, Friedrich Hayek observed:

The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form, but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.
The only way to coordinate such decentralized information is through prices that constantly adjust according to innumerable individuals’ states of knowledge. When prices get distorted, the entire system can break down. The great mistake of the 1960s and 1970s was to believe the conceit that government could actually control and guide economic order. The economy, it turned out, was not a clockwork, and the result was havoc-wreaking inflation. This should be a timeless lesson for all of us, especially presidents-elect

Obama Picks Socialist

Hopefully, the outing of Carol M. Browner as "one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change" in the Washington Times will prevent her from serving in Obama's administration.

Socialism has no place in American society. It's ultimate goal is to supplant the capitalism and Constitution this country was based on and place American in a subordinate position under the extra-national governance of organizations like the UN.

Unacceptable.

I do like this Mommy

This is a wonderful website full of very realistic views of parenting and being a mom in particular.

It's called Bad Mommy Moments. And I've been laughing out loud for the last 10 minutes.

Not going to worry when I'm dead

Using crematoriums to heat your home is so ghoulish but folks in Halmstad, Sweden are buying it.

What I find amusing is the first sentence, "you’re dead and worried about the carbon emissions created from your cremation, relax."

If I'm dead then I'm having a dirt nap - you can't get more "relaxed" than that.

Damn EU

Now they are attempting to ban plasma TVs. Of course, their ban ripples across our economy so buy your big TV now.

Ironically, it is being done because they can not meet their nonsensical Kyoto Treaty emissions agreements and they foolishly still believe in global warming rather than the coming ice age (see post below).

Finally, as energy becomes scarce - thanks to Russia - EU elites think they can control consumption by edict.

This is yet another example of socialism at work.

Before the Illinios Taint

ABC News has posted an article from France containing a long lost interview with the Obamas from before Obama entered politics.

Centering on marriage, it is an interesting and rare glimpse into Obama's past belief system. Let's hope some of that past returns.

Retaining Wall Against PCBS

Dr. Helen explains her views on Social Justice Advocacy(doesn't that just send chills down your spine).

Let's face it, this is nothing more than attempts for elites to find employment by creating victims who are never encouraged to get out of victimhood. Or any other 'hood.

Peace Lovers Love Hate

A good point from the Australians.

Crikey!

Vicious and Laughing Out Loud Hilarious

P.J. O'Rourke is scathingly funny in his column over at The Weekly Standard.

Titled, A New Circus Comes to Town, Mr. O'Rourke ponders whether it is too soon to call it Obama's failed presidency.

Ouch.

While I do think he's a little tough on Hilary Clinton, this was pure O'Rourke fun! Here's a snippet but do read the whole thing. I promise you'll laugh.

So we may speak without compunction of the failed Obama presidency. What a blessing that it's a failure. Things are bad enough the way they are. There's already a huge ongoing government intervention in the economy. Bringing the government in to run Wall Street is like saying, "Dad burned dinner, let's get the dog to cook." Now the government's going to take over the auto industry. I can predict the result--a light-weight, compact, sustainable vehicle using alternative energy. When I was a kid we called it a Schwinn. And next in line for political therapy is health care. Voting will cure what ails you. Go to the doctor when you've got cancer, and he'll say, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. I'm going to treat your disease by going inside this small, curtained booth and putting an 'X' next to a very special name."

70s Revisited

A lengthy article in the Russian newspaper Pravda is reporting that we are on the brink of a new ice age.

Not only do I remember the ice storms of New England in the early 70s, I also remember watching a documentary about the coming ice age as a little girl.

What's the big deal about the 70s, well that was when...

Since the late 1970s, the Milankovich theory has remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists, and hence the Milankovich theory is always described in textbooks of climatology and in encyclopaedia articles about the Ice Ages.

According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.

I'm sure the "global warming" and "climate change" folks are going to have a field day with this.

Especially the ending of this article...

The AGW [anthropogenic global warming- my addition] theory is based on data that is drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.

Apparently Slovenia is experiencing -49C, brrrr.

Consumption-sumption, what's your function?

I think ScreenDoorRepublic has it right, here.