Good morning.

1. Repair work in house and self.
2. Irony alert.
3. Culture wars.
4. One way in which Mr Obama can truly be thought really really smart (or why he selected Mr Biden as running mate?).
5. Some aphorisms: here and here.
6. Coptic links.
7. The judge makes a ruling.
8. Yah think?
9. Artwork, oil on canvas I think.
10. A child is ill.

Good morning.

1. When Mr Bush was President and today little policy change, big change however in the volume of criticism. Hmmm, and that’s likely one example among many.
2. Climate. And some words on the snowy winter we’re having.
3. Yet another elephant in the room, which is not unlike the childhood obesity elephant.
4. What? He’s going to just fold? Riiiight.
5. Coptic images.
6. Democracy and the kayak.
7. Communications and self-censorship.
8. Cutting to the heart of the problem with liberal notions of the welfare state, “A movement whose main promise is the relief from responsibility cannot but be antimoral in its effect, however lofty the ideals to which it owes its birth.”
9. A failure of imagination. So many times “if X then Y” does not follow. Liberal multiculturalism likes to tout the notion that there are many ways to think about things … except apparently when they argue.
10. Measuring an uprising.
11. Fun with maths.
12. What normally doesn’t happen when you fall 1,000 feet off a sheer cliff.
13. Bully in transit, and I think it helped that the person assisting with the bully was taller.
14. Well, at least political rhetoric laced with military images  haven’t (yet) been blamed.

Good morning.

1. For the open borders crowd.
2. The Constitution a continuing series.
3. Envy? Really!?
4. Fundamentalism.
5. Fan/Fred.
6. Some local NJ history.
7. Belief and unbelief in Russia.
8. A US map.
9. Rahm and Chicago. Somewhere I read that almost all of Rahm’s financial backing for this run, which exceeds by far that of his opponents, comes from big Wall Street banks. Awareness of the cognitive dissonance on the part of the party of the people seems to be missing.
10. Silence in the left wing echo chamber.
11. Hitting some of my pet peeves regarding the Holocaust.
12. Stupid cop tricks in the land of liberals.

Good morning. 

1. An honest man, Diogenes sought … found.
2. Historical crime.
3. Naming conventions and ethics.
4. In the wake of the rhetorical regrettable moments last night …. a great rhetorician noted.
5. Palestine and Israel.
6. A point made, but perhaps better by the demotivators poster “None of us is dumb as all of us” … the truth of which makes one doubt the sanity of the Democrats who continually place great faith in the ability of that really really dumb “all of us” part.
7. A point Hollywood hasn’t missed.
8. A cold ride.
9. A progression of sorts.
10. Some good advice.
11. I’d buy it (If it’s affordable) … but 1 gets you 10 that it won’t be available in the US cause of our regulatory barriers.
12. This does work. In our house the shower drain is against an exterior wall and when a hard cold snap comes (-10 or worse) we often get a frozen drain. A gallon of boiling salt water opens that up right away.
13. Why do they believe him? Clue in. 

So. Did anyone listen to the address? If so, why? After all, just last week he when he was going on about helping business get out from under regulatory burdens he touted an executive order which (a) repeats a standing order anyhow and (b) has loopholes for the agencies one could drive a truck through. Why would you believe anything he says? And if you don’t, why listen at all?

With the Dodd-Frank financial bill and Obamacare (or whatever it’s called) much more discretionary (ad hoc) power has been placed into the hands of the executive branch. It seems to me those supporters of these moves on the left should consider them in the light of, say, a Palin Presidency instead of a continuing succession of really “smart” liberals like Mr Obama (whatever “smart” means in this context, the meaning of which remains quite opaque to me).

To put it more bluntly, these bills place more political cheese to hand out to supporters and shore up your power as well as make your particularly political notions stick better. You should consider that to the good or ill not in the light of a President you favor but one which you do not.

Commenter Boonton requested a concise summary of the healthcare bill, sans notes or google lookups.

Liberal Congressmen last Spring and Summer dialed in range and windage of their Leupold scopes what they considered the most egregious faults of the current healthcare and “fixed” it with a bill they passed with no little chicanery and much cajoling this Summer. So, what were the primary features of this “great big bill” as one might explain to an outsider who was (blissfully) ignorant of the whole affair. Well, in short, as the Democrats saw it there were two big problems with healthcare that needed focus, the first being … that the current healthcare system had too many people falling into gaps and had no coverage and the second was that healthcare costs have been rising faster than just about any other sector in the economy.  Read the rest of this entry

This afternoon (finally) I drive home. As another note, in reaction to the “civil discourse” push, I’m pushing back (like this) for the next week or so. So with that being said, let’s lock, load, and line up our sights on some links. 😀

1. Super Bowl and the President. Chicago is Mr Obama’s “home town.” I live in a town, Lemont, and have lived there for 18+ years. In the eyes of most in my town, I’m a newcomer. I won’t be considered “from Lemont” by those in Lemont until my family has lived there for a few more generations. 
2. Defining liberalism and a bullet list of points that define the same. Is it right? What’s missing? 
3. Hydrolic energy storage, of which I know little.
4. Two deathly posts from Dr Platypus here and here.
5. I suppose it would help if I knew what “cert” meant.
6. A conversation to watch unfold.
7. Obamacare repeal and budget.
8. A book noted.
9. Speaking dismissively of athletics for intellectual development. For myself, I started cycling a sport which requires physical perseverance and endurance. Those traits are learn-able and can be improved. My impression is that training has carried over to my perseverance in non-physical matters.
10. That undulation costs fuel … a counter suggestion.
11. Last words on Mr L.
12. And an aphorism on evil.

Good morning.

1. More on the left getting stupid in the wake of the AZ shooting. And the Orwellian nature of the “civil speech” movement (especially given that civil or non-civil speech had nothing at all to do with the recent event).
2. A case of PDS exposed.
3. Speaking of stupid, a Jewish liberal takes umbrage to Christian terminology, used by a Christian politician in a Church (of all the places). Hint, Christians call fellow Christians brethren (a term in use for just shy of 2000 years). What do they call non-Christians? Neighbors. What are they called to do for their neighbor? Love them. Wow, that’s just sooooo exclusionary. 
4. Another look at the economy and recovery.
5. The trillion dollars spent for what? 8000!?
6. College ejukation.
7. The wikileaks problem from a practical standpoint.
8. How they got there, a suggestion which might be humorous but slightly offensive to those on the left of the aisle. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
9. More right leaning satire here.
10. A film review untangled.
11. About that Doc fix thang.
12. Wait and see. I’ll bet its going to turn out to be a forgotten empty gesture.

Good morning.

1. Racists remember MLK, if somewhat snarkily.
2. A less snarky way to note the occasion. 
3. Interview with an influential journalist, or at least influential in one corner of the world.
4. Life and Sanctity.
5. Tunisia noticed elsewhere.
6. Silly talk of the NRA. Seriously though, I think just about the most civil place I’ve enjoyed was at the firing range, at which I’ve never ever seen anything but civility (HT).
7. Attempting to minimize budgetary ignorance.
8. Somebody somewhere has never witnessed a Montessori school.
9. For your String theory primer.
10. Hard work that calls to some.
11. Media crackdown.
12. The left’s echo chamber decries the lack of intellectual vigor on the right. Turnabout.
13. Arithmetic correction for Mr Krugman.
14. Soap opera coming to the high court?

Good morning.

1. Of “blood libel” and Ms Palin’s speech.
2. And a consequence Jewish faux outrage.
3. On the topic of the post AZ incident speeches, the Scripture usage by Mr Obama is examined.
4. And one Democrat noted who apparently has never heard mention of Mr Christie.
5. A unintended consequence of QE2.
6. Our administration has jobs on the front burner.
7. Notice Hungary.
8. And Tunisia.
9. The Coen brothers films … and another note here.
10. A challenge for Western theology.
11. A somewhat pointed remark concerning Mr Greenwalds public discourse and methods here.
12. On the civility push.
13. Dragon moms.

Good, err, day.

1. Cinema and China.
2. Cinema and the law.
3. Of atheists and anger.
4. Politics and Voldemort.
5. Next on the scene, Magnesium?
6. Talking foreclosures.
7. Perhaps not an error but a feature.
8. Illinois and taxes … and about not getting the cut spending bit.
9. The US and China.
10. Say goodbye to net anonymity (or more stupid liberal tricks).
11. Science and beer.
12. When libs talk their talk about consequences of rhetoric, they might look to their own first and foremost.
13. And this is not unrelated.

Good morning.

1. The ‘danger’ of conservative talk radio and the like.
2. An energy crises noted.
3. Not playing nice in the atheist/theist discourse.
4. While it may be true that the extreme left and right are close … that question in the case of the AZ shooter alas for the poster is quite irrelevant. Why? …
5. Well, a good insight into why can be found quite explicitly here.
6. For causes leading to violence, why has the left echo chamber jumped for rhetoric and not something like this? Perhaps it wasn’t self-serving enough?
7. Speaking of that echo chamber. One loud gong examined.
8. Hate speech, an example.
9. Notable quotes.
10. Global warming.
11. Market corruption.
12. Global climate and models.

Good morning.

1. The fantasy in Obamacare noted.
2. Gun control in the context of AZ.
3. Something a bit lighter. I’ll admit to, in my wilder days in school, cat bowling with a stressed out roommate. To be fair, the cat had claws and got its fair share of hurt in on us.
4. Wise words for pundits talking about the shooter.
5. And from the same source, the problem with calling for better screening of kids like him … the problem is there are tens of thousands of them … and your screening problem (false positive/negative) is going to bite you big time.
6. The political environment, or getting the blame wrong.
7. Solzhenitsyn and his remarks regarding the West.
8. Rule and meta-rule. In college we tried playing variants of chess in which one could alter movement rules as one’s move instead of a piece movement. If I remember our initial attempts weren’t interesting enough to develop meta-rules to make that very playable.
9. Beauty and the world. So few today seek to witness and express beauty.
10. 3% is not insignificant in the context of today’s 9%+ unemployment.
11. And the unfortunate problem of the death panel discussion is that the basis of it (a) is real and (b) needs to be talked about. Health care will be rationed, supply is less than the demand (and if anything Obamacare’s regulatory burdens works most to decrease supply). The pro- vs con- Obamacare position boils down to whether you trust the government. The oddity is of course, that those who trust the government never seem to notice that the same government invaded Iraq … a far much more straightforward decision and implementation (and have ignored their own Administration’s willingness to use their power to exempt for insurance requirements of the new laws companies and groups to curry political favor). 

Good morning.

A lot of talk about events in AZ.

1. The “is he right wing theme” gets a lot of play. Seeing as one of his two favorite books was the Communist Manifesto, that seems a bit far fetched.
2. Another concise rebuttal of the “right winger” theme here.
3. Demographics.
4. Some praise for abstractions.
5. His real political alignment … nuts.
6. A question for those the pundits pushing the right-wing theory.

Elsewhere

1. Whence the anger or “America where the poor are rich too.”
2. Krsna Slava.
3. Person or not? Mr Solzhenitsyn offered that which separates man from animal is repentance not cognition. Ms Delsol noted that the move to see man as not-exceptional is one of the unlearned lessons from the tragedies of the 20th century.
4. Addiction. When they find a procrastination vaccine … that might be of more general use.
5. Heh.
6. Praise of Muslim interaction with Christians … to bad this is newsworthy and not more automatic.
7. A lay introduction to String Theory by the master.
8. Work.
9. My next economics book to be read.
10. Why the fixes in place won’t work.
11. The USS Enterprise captaincy.

I noticed a remark yesterday to the effect of “taxing the rich more still polls well” as an argument for the Democrats being for higher taxes “on the rich.”

Long ago I noted that “conservative/liberal” for many people tend to mean “more conservative/liberal” than I because most people view themselves as somewhat average. I’d offer that the tax the rich notion follows that same suit. That is to say, “the rich” means “people who make substantially more than I ever expect to earn.” In that sense, “tax the rich” is just another “tax somebody else” please and is to my view very suspect in that it really is just a way of trying to get free stuff/money by putting the hurt on some other fellow. 

The American virtue of self-reliance (as celebrated by Emerson) is fading fast. Why does the left hate it so?