Reform ATC for the Economy's Sake

(Originally posted by guess who over at NRO-The Corner)

Over at the DC Examiner, I argue that reforming Air Traffic Control will be a stimulus plan in itself, helping a struggling industry, reducing oil imports, and delivering real benefits to airline passengers. And, if that's the sort of thing you're into, it will also be extremely effective in lowering greenhouse-gas emissions. Sadly, it's also the sort of policy that will never get off the ground without a strong presidential push, so no wonder it hasn't been seriously advanced for over 20 years.

False Lamentations

Dr. Helen talks about how Fathers these days have lost their "status" as the "authority" of the family.

I'm pretty sure this is a false lamentation. I'm willing to argue that since the dawn of humanity, once a pair-bond was formed and children were born, fathers pretty much lost their authority and moms took over - at least in hearth and home.

Example, while yes, there was a law in Medieval Europe limiting the size of the rod that a man was allowed to use in order to beat his wife, there are also innumerable legal records of women being hauled before the local magistrate for beating up their husbands. There is even an Ancient Greek play about wives refusing their husband's "privileges" in order to stop a war. (It's funny because its true.)

What was lost was only the semblance of sole male authority. Healthy couples share familial authority, smart healthy couples admit its the mom who rules the roost.

(I know, I pretty much destroy my own argument when I make that snarky comment above.)

Axelrod - Class Act

Calling Miss California a dog.

You stay classy, Axelrod.

Jackass.

Bad Regulation Hurts More Than Deregulation

This article titled "Diminished Returns" in the New York Times magazine makes a complelling argument for the benefits of deregulation.

Human beings are as good at devising ex post facto explanations for big disasters as they are bad at anticipating those disasters. It is indeed impressive how rapidly the economists who failed to predict this crisis — or predicted the wrong crisis (a dollar crash) — have been able to produce such a satisfying story about its origins. Yes, it was all the fault of deregulation.

There are just three problems with this story. First, deregulation began quite a while ago (the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act was passed in 1980). If deregulation is to blame for the recession that began in December 2007, presumably it should also get some of the credit for the intervening growth. Second, the much greater financial regulation of the 1970s failed to prevent the United States from suffering not only double-digit inflation in that decade but also a recession (between 1973 and 1975) every bit as severe and protracted as the one we’re in now. Third, the continental Europeans — who supposedly have much better-regulated financial sectors than the United States — have even worse problems in their banking sector than we do. The German government likes to wag its finger disapprovingly at the “Anglo Saxon” financial model, but last year average bank leverage was four times higher in Germany than in the United States. Schadenfreude will be in order when the German banking crisis strikes.

We need to remember that much financial innovation over the past 30 years was economically beneficial, and not just to the fat cats of Wall Street. New vehicles like hedge funds gave investors like pension funds and endowments vastly more to choose from than the time-honored choice among cash, bonds and stocks. Likewise, innovations like securitization lowered borrowing costs for most consumers. And the globalization of finance played a crucial role in raising growth rates in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, propelling hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The reality is that crises are more often caused by bad regulation than by deregulation.

You know the drill, read the whole thing.

Biden Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot

Too bad for Obama that he can't convince Biden to go into the bunker.

At least Cheney stayed out of the way.

Like a Teenager with whisky and his father's gun

Glenn Reynolds (aka instapundit) has an opinion piece up in The Wall Street Journal about Obama's stupid IRS "joke" at the ASU commencement.

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it's hard to see the humor. Surely he's aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason. Should the IRS come to be seen as just a bunch of enforcers for whoever is in political power, the result would be an enormous loss of legitimacy for the tax system.

I agree with Glenn. That joke was dumb, dumb, dumb. And as I said in a previous post, that joke is not only completely inappropriate for Obama to make but displays incredibly poor judgement.

Just like the poor judgement that impelled him to bow to the Saudi King. Just like the poor judgement that places tax cheats in key cabinat positions. Just like the poor judgment to cheat our allies while hobnobbing with our enemies.

Obama's poor judgement in threatening IRS audits on innocent civilians - even in jest - makes Bush's occassional misproununcations look good. Real good.

Please Ignore the Economy Behind the Curtain

(And again with my husband - my he's busy this morning. Taken from NRO-corner)

With the Waxman-Markey global-warming "cap and trade" bill facing Henry's self-imposed deadline of reporting by Memorial Day (something Rep. Joe Barton says is sure to embarass the Energy & Commerce Committee), expect the usual suspects to be lauding the fact that Europe, which has a cap-and-trade scheme in place, reduced emissions last year.

Of course, the reason for the reduction has precious little to do with cap and trade. Here's the real reason.

Eheu!

(Another by my husband at NRO - The corner. Kinda short)

O tempora, o mores!

Food vs. Fuel, Again . . .

(Originally published on NRO-The Corner by my husband)

Food prices spike again and, surprise surprise, government policies bear much of the blame. Here's two separate experts commenting on the role of the pernicious ethanol mandate:

[Bill Lapp] 1. Reduced availability of corn: Based upon Agriculture Department estimates released on May 12, corn supplies will decline to the lowest level (relative to usage) in 14 years. This largely reflects a 35 percent increase in the use of corn for the production of ethanol over the past two years.

2. Battle for acreage: As more corn is needed to meet ethanol demand, acreage devoted to other crops, such as wheat and soybeans, is reduced, leading to higher prices for those crops as well. A hiccup in weather this summer could drive prices significantly higher for corn, wheat or soybeans.

[Michael J. Roberts] For food prices, specifically, a big factor is whether the U.S. sticks with current (and in my view, ill conceived) ethanol policy. My own research suggests that prices of key food commodities — like corn, soybean, wheat and rice — are about 30 percent higher as a result of U.S. corn-based ethanol production.

We're in a recession. People need to pay less for food. Instead, we have a harebrained fuel policy that pays people to burn corn, which Congress is happy to let lie so that next year we'll pay more taxpayer money to burn more corn. We need a Bread Party or two to go alongside the Tea Parties.

What About Lying To Americans?

The LA Times and Washington Post are publishing House Minority Leader John A. Boehner's call for Pelosi to either present real evidence that the CIA lied or apologize to the CIA.

"Lying to the Congress of the United States is a crime," Boehner said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” "And if the speaker is accusing the CIA and other intelligence officials of lying or misleading the Congress, then she should come forward with evidence and turn that over to the Justice Department so they can be prosecuted."

He added: "And if that's not the case, I think she ought to apologize to our intelligence professionals around the world."

If lying to Congress is a crime, what about lying to the American people?

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

I've heard of this but had been terribly lazy.

Calvin Dodge re-invigorated me and now I am watching and laughing my butt off!

Link here!

DC Bag Tax

Somehow charging tourists and residents of DC five cents a bag is going to help DC's economy and save the Anacostia river.

Or folks can do their shopping in Virginia.

Art

My brother-in-law's website. Buy his artwork.

As in UK

I think that this article by my husband and published at www.conservativehome.com makes a good point for both British and American conservatives. While the "political crisis" has not struck America as it has in Britain. It will. And American conservatives should watch the unravelling of the Labour party and start helping liberals down the same path sooner rather than later.

...it strikes me that in the depth of this severe political crisis, there is a genuine opportunity for the conservative movement in Britain. We can capitalize on the anti-politician sentiment most effectively if we adopt, explain and push a series of policies that reduce the power of politicians and their opportunity, not to put too fine a point on it, to rob us blind.

It's Time For The Plan

Save These Children

Visit this site and see what you can do to save children from being kidnapped and forced into armies, kidnapped and sold as slaves, kidnapped and sold as sex slaves, and kidnapped and brutally treated.

Just go. I need to cry now.

TV Party Tonight - Friend Olivia Keeps Day Job!

So totally psyched that Dollhouse is renewed because..
1) My husband and I enjoy all things Joss.
2) An old acquantance is on the show (Olivia Williams)
3) It's a good show (I liked Buffy, Firefly, and Angel too).

Here is the current standing of the Fall TV lineup as published by Entertainment Weekly.

Here's my schedule (yes, I totally like weird stuff)...
ABC
Better Off Ted: Could go either way. Now officially renewed.
Castle: Could go either way. Now a safe bet. Now officially renewed.
Scrubs: Prospects brightening. Now officially renewed.

CBS
The Amazing Race: Already renewed.
The Big Bang Theory: Already renewed.
How I Met Your Mother: Sure thing.
Numb3rs: Safe bet.

FOX
Bones: Sure thing. Now officially renewed for two seasons.
Dollhouse: Now officially renewed for 13 episodes.
Fringe: Sure thing. Now officially renewed.
Kitchen Nightmares: Already renewed.
The Simpsons: Already renewed. [GREATEST SHOW EVER]

NBC
30 Rock: Already renewed.
Heroes: Sure thing. Now officially renewed.

The CW
America's Next Top Model: Already renewed.


These are the shows I'm going to miss!
Reaper - Sock, I'm gonna miss you and The Devil most of all!

Gettin' All Cheney

Jules Crittenden puts up an excellent blog piece on former VP Dick Cheney.

You know, I'm liking the man more and more every day.

Protesting Notre Dame

Gateway Pundit has some excellent links and video clip from the Notre Dame commencement.

Hey Obama, how does it feel to be treated like a republican?



UPDATE: Yahoo news is reporting that nearly 40 protesters were arrested at the Notre Dame Commencement ceremony including "Roe" of "Roe v. Wade"..

At least 39 people were taken into custody on trespassing charges, police Sgt. Bill Redman said. Among those arrested were Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff identified as "Roe" in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. She now opposes abortion.

The Unloveable Press

The Financial Times talks about both the British press and the American one in an excellent and pithy article, here.

One does not have to be a hyperventilating tabloid columnist to expect better behaviour than that which has been revealed.

Revealed, we should remember, by the unlovable press. Michael Schudson, among the best of the academic writers on the media, has seen in the raucousness and hype of newspapers a pearl beyond price: the instinct to create trouble for the establishment, the panjandrums – them. In this collection of essays, the central one – which shares the book’s title – lays out four elements of necessary unlovability. These are: a love of the unplanned and the disruptive; an even greater love of conflict and dissent; a scepticism about the claims of politics; and a willingness to name names and connect the names with crimes and misdemeanours.

Schudson writes: “That is what serves democracy: the irresistible drive of journalists to focus on events, including those that powerful forces cannot anticipate and often cannot manage.” Thus when Matt Drudge began his subsequently richly rewarded career by showing, from his bedroom laptop, that President Bill Clinton was an adulterer; or when bloggers uncovered a speech made in 2002 by Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader, which pointed to racist views; or, more recently, when Paul Staines, a British blogger operating under the incendiary nom de guerre of Guido Fawkes, uncovered a sleazy plan on the part of prime ministerial aides to tar leading Conservatives with sex scandals – in all of these cases, the people glorying in their ill-gotten power and tearing down the powerful did well by us.

They fulfilled one of the necessary prerequisites of the free press: that it is free. In the words of Walter Meers,a veteran AP reporter quoted in another of Schudson’s essays: “There are too many excursions into trivia,too much play for the public opinion polls, too many words about who’s ahead and who’s behind. There’s a reason. That is what people want to know.”

But here is the rub. Schudson is writing of American newspapers.

Read the whole thing.

My one quibble is the absurd belief that American Newspapers are willing to take down politicians - sadly this "free press" is still too enthralled with its own navel to do its job as stated above.

Still here's to hoping.

Queen Handbags Gordon Brown

You must understand that this is ginormously HUGE for Great Britain.

The Queen of England NEVER allows her views on a politician or government to be known publically or "officially" known. NEVER. She is not allowed to favor one political party or another.

She simply advises the Prime Minister - and given that her first PM was Winston Churchill and her great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, the Queen has got some good advice to give.

So when this article comes out in Britain's Daily Mail with the headline, "The Queen Tells Gordon Brown she is 'deeply troubled' over MP's expenses", that is a big deal.

But OH SNAP, the article goes on to say...

She discussed the explosion of public outrage over the scandal in what is understood to have been a candid exchange of views when she met the Prime Minister for their weekly audience at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

(italics mine)

The phrase "a candid exchange of views" is British press code phrase for the Queen tore the Prime Minister a new one. (Another example of a code phrases is "tired and emotional" which means completely and utterly drunk.)

For the Queen to allow a leak regarding her private meetings with the political leader of her kingdom - and a negative leak at that - means only one thing for Gordon Brown.

Pack your bags my friend, you're leaving 10 Downing Street real soon.

Man predicts own murder on Youtube

Umm, Wow!

UPDATE: Guatemalans protest president-murder.

The Fallen and The Risen

BusinessWeek.com has a wonderful and insightful article on how "the mighty" can rise and fall and rise again - important reading for both corporations and countries!

Destroying Isreal

Obama has figured out a way to destroy Isreal, let the UN handle it.

He can claim to help while the evil/useful idiots at the UN who brought us the hate-fest Durbin II will viciously attack our one Middle Eastern democracy.

Truly trashy diplomacy on the part of Obama.

President Palin's First 100 Days

By the inestimable Victor Davis Hanson. Another excellent parady for your Sunday pleasure.

SOS

Guy Benson is a tad heavy on the irony but this townhall.com "article" about Nancy Pelosi is hilarious.

Enjoy.