Good morning.

1. Considering the filibuster.
2. A question for the climate crowd.
3. Art and geometry (and physics). The first link is there because the (mini) version was a recent purchase.
4. Not misogynism, duh. It’s tragic when a woman dies, not so much when a guy does. That’s, oddly enough, not because women are hated or thought less of, in which case it wouldn’t, you know, be very tragic.
5. Well, it’s because some of us don’t think highly of the competence of people who go into those fields.
6. A succinct rebuttal to those who bristle at the use of the term socialist in non-exact casual ways.
7. Heh, “freedom whisperer.” That’s rich.
8. A joke I’ve used with my kids.
9. Defending Mr Huckabee vis a vis Islam.
10. Why only men as priests in Orthodoxy.
11. Of the dying canaries.

Good morning.

1. Who is angry at God, a cricket race.
2. Much recently was said about the strong liberal bias in (soft) Academia membership, another such bias noted.
3. Ms Palin and Libya.
4. From/about the high court … habeus and CA.
5. Conspiracy and the lone wolf, which is perhaps an insult to wolves.
6. Unusual ice cream. Fifteen years ago, on account of my eldest having an extended hospital stay after birth we had a quart or so of frozen breast milk in the freezer. We made hot chocolate. 
7. Budget naivte becomes partisan “hackery”. A month or so ago a study was cited (WSJ) that investigated some 50-100 nations over the last three decades and their methods and successes at attacking budget deficit. It was found that the successful attempts did not (statistically) raise taxes but instead focused on cutting spending. The most successful were those that included small tax cuts and aggressive spending cutting. Those that were not successful focused on raising taxes to address shortfalls. 
8. The West is beginning to notice Metropolitan Hilarion. 
9. Economics and education.
10. Qaddafi’s fundamental problem. More on Libya here.
11. Non-defense of human ontological dignity and a consequence.
12. Mr Rezko, not in the news.
13. Miracles.
14. Obamacare and consequences unfolding.

Good morning.

1. Public sector unions … across the pond.
2. For the Palin fans.
3. Well, I’m a Cassian fan … but I’d note he got his eight (not seven) sins from Evagrius.
4. A liberal talks about his Obama disillusionment.
5. Heh. And also on the ligher side, do watch this.
6. Snow rececession not warming … will you see this noted by the anthro-warming brainwashed crowd?
7. Tunisia.
8. Oddly enough the left notes (every?) use of violence tinged rhetoric they can find (why?) … but gives their own side a pass. Even those on their own side who use that rhetoric after just recently blaming the AZ violence on the same.
9. A question … my question is why does anything believe a word Mr Obama says ever.
10. A lawyer (and non-DOMA supporter) questions the wisdom of Mr Obama’s passive aggressive tactics.
11. And for those who approve of the tactic … consider it on the other foot.
12. The effect of unions “to make it harder to find work” … consider we are in a recession in which unemployment is the largest remaining issue.
13. Ya think?
14. Regulators and mission creep.

A question for those who support unions … now that the “right to work” issue is front burner (perhaps shot down) in Indiana … this brings up the question of what justification not having right to work might be. That is, by what justification do closed shop union states and areas rationalize that stance. In a non-right to work state, you can’t work for the public schools (for example) without joining the union. You <em>must</em> pay union dues (60% of which typically go to PACs contributing to Democrats). How do you justify that? 

And up front, please let’s dismiss any notion that “the union is working/negotiating for you so you must contribute” as a rational argument. It isn’t. Following that as an argument would mean that you must provide payment to anyone for any unsolicited action claimed to be done on your behalf. Obviously that isn’t reasonable and for the same reason the above argument is fallacious. 

So … why is “right to work” not an unalienable right for workers? 

Good morning.

1. Good links (for thinking as it were) from Brandon.
2. Well, if government should find happiness for its people … looks like the way to prosperity in concert with non-individual honor/shame society is the goal, eh?
3. Currents not driven by dynamo.
4. Getting pretty close to the spread of democracy theme of Mr Bush.
5. Talking Jersey. Here too.
6. And … the Democrats holding the line against budget cuts.
7. Not the biggest drinkers, just the most lethal.
8. Huh? 
9. Union and cporporate influence on politics.
10. A pointed question for Fox News.
11. A missionary.
12. Violence and threats in Wisconsin.
13. Perhaps THE interesting question asked about Wisconsin.
14. Pizza, saving a life.

Good morning.

1. LOTR from another point-of-view. Yikes.
2. Urban deconstruction.
3. The man-who-needs-to-buy-a-saddle noted. A co-conspiratorial advice.
4. “higher productivity is not the answer” (to employment) … which, taken to its logical conclusion, is a call for a return to subsistence farming, after all employment was almost 100% then.
5. Zapow!
6. Cooi. A liberal against the teachers union in Wisconsin (or perhaps he’s just confused as to whom the “people” are in this case, i.e., the taxpayers).
7. Intervention?
8. Ms Arendt got excommunicated by the intellectual elite for suggestions of Jewish complicity with the Nazi genocide, I guess she just chose the wrong audience.
9. Economics is a kernel, not the whole picture. Reductionism isn’t normally all that helpful in describing the human experience.
10. Libya.
11. Commit to memory.

Back to the routine. So … whaddeyemiss?

1. Brandon notes a series of discussions on the ethics of lying here, here and here.
2. Some common ground betwixt Atheists and Theists regarding the existence of God.
3. An evangelical view of how to go about seeking God … missing the whole fasting, rejection of the passions, and prayer thing, which as Lent approaches is a thing which stands out.
4. Not, I think the innovation he suspects as it’s likely that Stalin or Hitler beat him to it.
5. Comparing Al Jazeera and the UN.
6. Time to panic? But hey, at least the President is unserious about the problem.
7. Sorrow.
8. Words from Iraq.
9. Self referential words from Mr Krugman.
10. Time to step away slowly.
11. Putting Wisconsin unions in perspective.

Good morning. Interrogative day at link central. 😀

1. Money lost, is that stimulatory?
2. Liberation or conquest?
3. Zoom or huff-puff?
4. How to control costs in healthcare?
5. Who didn’t expect this? After all while there is consensus that spending should be cut there hasn’t been any consensus on what to cut. It’s why the Left’s “plan”, raising taxes is more feasible (even though raising taxes as a method of addressing deficits doesn’t actually work) is what will likely win. There’s no consensus required to just tax more. To bad the easy solution is the one that doesn’t work in this case.
6. Why oh why will the anthropogenic climate people not read stuff like this? I would call attention to the study of weather data for the last 140 years … noting “So we were surprised that none of the three major indices of climate variability that we used show a trend of increased circulation going back to 1871.” You know the recent (Krugman!) notes about increased storms and droughts. All confirmation bias. Ooops.
7. Is this a statement that the Palin haters would get on board with?
8. Is this not exactly to the point?
9. So what eactly is solertia and eustochia?
10. Is this a sign of our decline?
11. How to find a path between progress and history?
12. Abortion is here. How about that back alley?
13. Speaking of abortion, is this useful? At least he’s not bringing up the regrettable Violinist thang.

Good morning.

1. More grist for the sociology departments lacking conservatives conversation. 
2. 27% … that’s basically almost all the Democrats … Seems to me you could argue he’s back ot the base and that’s the extent of it.
3. What passes for “not depraved.”
4. Well, that’s one asthetic, there are others. It is my understanding that an asthetic is a method by which you judge art … and after choosing your asthetic criticism is the application of the asthetic to artworks. If you want to use an asthetic that is sympathetic to ethics, then juding art on how it mananges to expose beauty would be in line with a view that ethics is also an enterprise trying to uncover beauty (or the good). 
5. What truth to power really looks like, the left’s preconceptions notwithstanding.
6. Getting it upside down. Parents not the government are responsible for the well being of their children, regulation of governmen schools is done to try to accomplish that. 
7. Iago and Rummy.
8. Booom. A less violent event here.
9. Talking cosmology.
10. Accuracy.
11. What Nicene Christians can learn from the LDS (Mormon).
12. Democrat misstep noted. Here too.
13. And some thoughts (and links) on Darwin.

Good morning. 0 (F) this morning … expecting -10 or less tomorrow. Cool, eh? (heh)

1. Regulation.
2. Mr Krugman talks more on climate. Oops.
3. High in the Coptic government. Some more here from Japan.
4. A book noted.
5. How to jump to a really bad example to (not?) demonstrate a point. The question is asked, in sports, does firing the coach help win championships. If it didn’t why do they keep doing it over and over and over?
6. Speaking of sports, a good example.
7. More sports talk here.
8. Liberals sounding like “right wingers”.
9. How that budget neutrality works, by moving it to kill state budgets … oh, and your budget too.
10. All the hypocrisy that’s fit to print.
11. You can choose your ideology … or not. Perhaps by choose he meant change.
12. Of Cairo and Chicago.

Good morning.

1. Inability to express something in words, alas, doesn’t mean it’s incoherent. You can’t, for example, use words to describe how you even ride a bike.
2. Talking about the Coptic situation.
3. Mr Wilders.
4. Stupid economics tricks … a prime example to counter the notion that skepticism and IQ don’t go hand in hand.
5. Stealth drone. More fun tech toys here.
6. And it won’t be sold in the US.
7. 2/14 geek giftery.
8. On Mr Christie and the trains and that tunnel thing.
9. Some suggestions on how to find happiness.
10. Religious freedom and blasphemy laws.
11. One “shocking” ad banned from the Superbowl in most markets.
12. Heh.
13. A long piece on suggesting anti-semitism and (some) new atheists.
14. A “cool” contest noted.
15. Hmm. My first impulse is not to side with the injured party. 
16. Maths and the world.

Good morning.

1. Abstinence and condom vouchers? Apparently the left things those things are really really expensive.
2. Freedom and the Middle East (and North Africa).
3. The PC movement and consequence.
4. An administration like no other … or not.
5. Breaking new ground on the “Open” front too.
6. Heh.
7. Of economics and regulation.
8. A book recommended.
9. Regime change, here and here.
10. Three Presidents.
11. Beltway spending practices and a comparison noted.
12. The regrettable SEC.

Good morning.

1. Two links on the PP sting, here and here.
2. The (do you believe in) the sanity clause returns.
3. The individual mandate.
4. The crux of why power to tax isn’t used as a defense of the mandate but the commerce clause is.
5. An Orthodox man and the Super Bowl.
6. Speaking of Orthodoxy … some notes regarding the East and evolution.
7. Kodachrome no more.
8. Someone is forgetting that the left prefers social entitlements to science programs.
9. Some notes on the Coptic situation.

The discussion of whether or not Mr Obama is “smart” came up again in a conversation. I thought I’d lay out a few thoughts on that. Before I begin I want to emphasize that I don’t know whether or not he is smart or not. People say he is … and I think they have no real good way of knowing that. The reason I say I don’t know is that I don’t have the background or experience to judge whether or not largely because I really have no instincts or experience of lawyers who are or are not considered, in their field, smart.  Read the rest of this entry

Good morning.

1. Talking about abortion, alas starting with the regrettable Jarvis thing.
2. Antisemitism (or not) of one of the three great church Fathers.
3. Talking about Vinson. So is inactivity a commercial act? Are there any conceivable limits to Constitutional authority in the liberal view?
4. And an application of inactivity and the law.
5. And on that topic, Mr Obama’s campaign rhetoric returning to bite him.
6. Are those the two legal alternatives, of which Mr Obama is not to follow choosing either?
7. A water/land switch.
8. Holding one’s heart aflame.
9. America’s poor in context.
10. Snow meets Plato.
11. To counter the “snow a result of global warming nonsense.” 
12. Payoffs and transparency.
13. Multipliers and crowding.
14. Humor meets the pizza.
15. Meta-conceptual notions.
16. Heh.