And so it goes (as they say … whomever constitutes “they” is not something I understand).

1. So, you want to commit horrible crimes?
2. Playdough law.
3. Cui bono. I’m still confused on who benefits from this law.
4. Re-design .. the axle?
5. Say it ain’t so Joe, err, James. (but note … new blog)
6. The hair makes the man, holds for other species.
7. Snerk.
8. A wordy math proof.
9. Oh, joy.
10. Gosh, I haven’t heard the President using the bully pulpit to denounce this. I’m thinking I didn’t miss it.
11. That’s really cool.
12. This may be a little offensive (which is kinda the point) but it does make good point about PC speech.
13. Going off the deep end (in two ways) … the writer finds someone who went off the rails … and the does so himself. Seriously, when you write “is now how quickly adults are willing to shoot teenagers” … re-read that. Then … count the number of adults in this country. Count how many of those adults actually “quickly shoot teenagers”.  How many is that? Then make your decision, write stupid things or shut up. Alas …..
14. Putting the IRS in its place.
15. How the beltway will doom us all with its good intentions.

So. More snow was apparently what someone influential in the Mid-West ordered. And we got it.

1. Exploiting God and other notions.
2. Speaking of snow and ice.
3. Actually, untrue. Chicago’s “paper of Record” page 2 columnist (Kass) had a page 2 column at the beginning of the Olympics in which he went to the Stalin residence. Well, let me correct that, he didn’t ignore it, but he also noticed that the Olympics and the rest of the crowds were mostly ignoring the site noted.
4. Yikes.
5. The world’s ugliest equation on record.
6. 10 bullet points on Orthodoxy for Western protestants.
7. Reverse colonization.
8. How to watch those Olympics.
9. Speaking of the Olympics and those graceful ice artists.
10. Losing or gaining freedoms and pedagogy.
11. The only way to construe this statement as reasonable, is to be clever about what you mean by “largest”. He must mean by volume, not be any count of deaths or damages.
12. A dangerous marine noted.
13. What science has to say to the feminist.
14. Yah, yah. Valentines day was last week, but heh.

Well, I got home last night. Woo.

1. Government intrusion into market, what could go wrong after all it can be “more just”?
2. So the courts have some gun control rulings, a few remarks here and here and … here.
3. Bad metrics matter.
4. Speaking of economic metrics.
5. Our balanced Olympics coverage.
6. Zoom.
7. Obsession.
8. In the “do as I say not as I do” department.
9. And the First Lady follows suit … w.r.t. “what to eat”. I have to say that “12k” dress wasn’t worth $10. Looks horrible.
10. Following the IRS matter.
11. Say it ain’t so!
12. Codes of the Vikings.
13. An hypothetical question.

Ok then. Links? I guess the NorthEast is up for another helping of snow now that they’ve got a slap in the face the cold weather we just had. We’re predicted to have the first “above freezing day” in quite some time … but I don’t believe it will quite happen. The last four days the temperature predictions have all been about 4-5 degrees (F) on the high side.

1. So there’s a study (probably needing verification) that mammograms don’t help statistically. So some jump to policy. Others ignore this side of the equation, the Queen of Hearts had it apparently (“Off with their heads”) … she missed by a foot or so.
2. The knee jerk liberal economist apparently forgot that interest rates remain toxic low level, why? Oh, the debt is why. With that much national debt worldwide if we had healthy 5-7% interest rates loans, nations never ever make their interest payments.
3. More on the knee jerk effect.
4. Shania Twain and medical science  .. It only breaks when it’s beating.
5. What teachers don’t do. Why? This makes no sense when you think about it. But when you do, it’s obvious.
6. I don’t get the “courage” allusions. Look a year ago (?) a basketball player came out and became nationally famous. Turns out he was a 12th man and would never have a spot of mention anywhere without “bravely” coming out (to unexpected national fame). Now an “expected 4th round pick” comes out and gets the same national fame and every team is talking about it. Brave to face fame and fortune? Please.
7. Breaking news! NOW spokesmen fail literacy tests! Please. I read the column too. Here’s an out of context (for maximum misunderstanding) of what they misconstrue: In theory that means, as FIRE notes, that “if both parties are intoxicated during sex, they are both technically guilty of sexually assaulting each other.” In practice it means that women, but not men, are absolved of responsibility by virtue of having consumed alcohol. So how does NOW read that, … that Taranto is “enhancing a rape culture.
8. Speaking about intentionally misunderstanding. Seems Twain missed one. Twain said that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics”, to which we can add “and progressives practicing journalism”. Or should I say “mal-practicing”.
9. Well, yesterday we had “scary bad aunt” and today we have a good uncle.
10. Liberals misbehavior on display. People who have manners, all know not to speak ill of the dead. And on this matter, WTF anyhow?
11. So, the Obamacare scorecard … 1 million more covered at a cost of 120 billion a year and 2.5 million jobs. A little more aid for the needy like that and we’ll all be underwater. And … now we have a recipe to dismantle it.
12. Affirmative action noted. The film (and the historical) Tuskegee Airmen disproved the (flawed) assumption behind affirmative action. If you make things hard on a group that group will become elite. The reverse is true as well. If you want to make them substandard, make things easier for them. Works every time. The only choice then is that supporters of aff action are either stupid or evil (they don’t realize how to make an group better or … they do and want to harm the group they pretend to help).
13. What not to play soccer while wearing.

Yo!

1. So, monkey-boy thinks he’s safe in the trees eh? Crocodile says … not so fast!
2. If you have the big bucks, you can(!) get the girl, err, the photo.
3. Somebody else isn’t a fan of the FDA monopolizing choice with respect to risk.
4. Horrible, if true, … but it is interesting to note the dichotomy between studying and practicing ethics.
5. Sanity scarcity.
6. Words fail me, I mean I think he’s spot on but … geesh. I mean I know the standard trope is that lib/progressives think conservatives are evil and conservatives typically on the other hand think their counterparts are merely naive or misguided. Perhaps the evil thing is a better fit, but that presumes intention.
7. On a lighter note, speaking of evil.
8. Continuing (the lighter note thing) … oh no! Don’t do that! If you’re going to use American Football teams just do some variation of the current Superbowl champs with a local twist, how about “SteppeHawks” for this year. And change the name every year, that’d be fun.
9. On a not-lighter note, uhm, that description of the “romantic aunt” sounds a lot like like incest-ridden pedophilia (two words you just never ever ever want to see together, incest and pedophile). Just replace “aunt” with “uncle” … yech.
10. Well, that combination will torque the tail of the atheist.
11. Obamacare, screwing the middle class by design. Just google “Doc Shock” if you don’t believe it.
12. Unneeded legislation … I mean, what airline in their right mind would voluntarily allow that? Why, oh why, would Washington think it needs to pass laws against things nobody is doing or would do?
13. Who was the knucklehead who thought Cuban health-care was better than that of the US?
14. Kinda like this guy who forgot Caesar was a Tribune.
15. Global warming models and their results. Climate scientists can now slink to the back of the room and shut up for a while. Please?
16. All right thinking people abhor female genital mutilation right? But they also (apparently) praise voluntary sex change (genital mutilation as well) and other voluntary body modification. Coherence? Not!

Well, a busy weekend … working Sat & Sun. 5 more to go for a break.

1. Food and community under stress.
2. Arabian anarchy.
3. Government overreach. But don’t worry, government is uniquely situated to more fairly apply justice … or not.
4. Here’s one reason why, the big brained guys running things … aren’t (hint: aren’t as smart as they pretend).
5. Turning down a lot of money … for what?
6. Things break more often when subjected to more stress. Who knew?
7. Art criticism … is based on something  called an aesthetic basically a criteria which you establish and then use to judge artistic merit.
8. Speaking of art and beauty, the rarity of beauty in modern art gets remarks like this to be offered. This is a topic I’ve ranted (or mentioned) before. One reply is that much of the beauty that remains in our culture is encased in in things like the SR-71.
9. Speaking of aesthetics … one might be suggested here, eh?
10. I haven’t seen the movie … so did have that joke?
11. Knowing God … what I was taught is that has a Trinitarian answer, you cannot know the Father (except through the Son), specifically the Father is unknowable.
12. Thankful for my alma mater at which more often then not, we read the whole damn book (including for example “read War and Peace for next class, which fortunately was after the one week Spring break … and more fortunately for me I had two about 24 hour train rides in which to easily do that reading).
13. Smoking may be illogical, but addiction is psychological and chemical.
14. For your valentine.

Reflect a moment on the Olympics, the US and many Western leaders have decided “not to attend”, Google followed suit with a rainbow Olympic rings display, and publicly gay (privately … who knows) stuffed shirts were sent as part of the US delegation and many others. This was supposedly in response to how Russia is perceived to deal with public homosexuality.

Consider the following. Make an honest list of the top 10 economic, liberty, social, legal, and cultural issues facing the Russian people and the Russian Federation today. Order these by which have the highest priority and will do the greatest good. If you are honest (and I will charitably assume that is the case), gay rights did not appear on the list. Extend it to 20. Gosh. Still not there. In fact, I’d be willing to bet, if you put the time and effort it that gay rights might not even (if you are honest) make the top 100.

So …. why is that a putative issue for our leaders? Could it be because all politics is local and this is a safe way of pretending to do something about gay issues in their country without having to actually, you know, do anything about those issues? Crocodile tears all around.

Well better late than, uhm, tomorrow.

1. Let’s see, you can’t make it legal to shoot them down and at the same time you can’t fly them. The libertarian argument gets better every day.
2. The President feels the fetus is guilty … (of what?) or something like that. Just remember, liberals like Rawls at least pay lip sevice to it, but just don’t pay attention to the consequences.
3. The Boston bomber and penalty.
4. Obamacare and economic consequences. More on the same … attack a straw man is one strategy in Obamacare defense (apparently someone doesn’t realize that if you stop working to pay for your medical care and instead stop working and let taxes (other peoples money) to handle it … that’s not a net gain for the country).
5. And one more “how not to defend” Obamacare.
6. A book suggested. I picked up the first one, as I’ll be on the road starting tomorrow night until Thursday night.
7. Or you could just figure out it’s just a cat or a dog, and get a new one.
8. Hello? The surprise would be the government doing it well. Duh.
9. “more likely to seek treatment” … that would be on planet liberal-pipe-dreams-come-true. Back on this world, the mentally ill rarely seek treatment voluntarily because they are, wait for it …, mentally ill. This can be put along side of the “those without insurance don’t have it because they can’t afford it (as opposed don’t really want it and want to spend their money elsewhere).
10. Self parody. In which the poster notes in his second part “one of those annoying columns that comes so close to making an important point, only to swerve away into inanity” and then in his response, does exactly that. Examine for example, ” Ironically, government is far, far better at this — by maintaining a monopoly on sanction, they can make punishments more precise and ultimately more just” … in the context of the IRS “justly” decided to single out one parties groups for antagonistic vetting at the prompting of the President.
11. In which “strange” probably means “kinda neat”.
12. And the problem is … likely that the NSA doesn’t have the data but ordinary people do. Ordinary people, on might note, having such information is less problematic than the government.
13. Quantity and quality.
14. Trust and vendors.
15. Don’t worry, wait 2 more years and the expected costs will double again, … why not worry? Well, it was all part of the original “cunning plan.” All part of the “Obama = BlackAdder” (with Biden as Baldrick) theme.
16. Scurillous for whom? I’d hope Ms Hurley would have far better taste than spending time with a sleaze like that.

Well, the 3-6 inches of snow turned out to be closer to 6 than 3, perhaps 5 here.

1. I’m on a 6 month “fix it with diet” deal with my doctor or these are likely in my future. Apparently I “lost the genetic lottery” as exercise which normally has a big effect in normalizing your LDL/HDL ratio doesn’t work for me.
2. Misunderstanding miracle.
3. Yesterday I linked a piece noting the silent assent which permitted Mr Hoffman’s death. It’s not like this isn’t a somewhat regular thing.
4. We’re just glad it doesn’t include the partially female athletes.
5. So, does Madison avenue have a clue? Or do the Democrats? Here is a suggestion that November might be a litmus test for that question.
6. So, decades ago, science fiction writer Poul Andersen wrote a series of books featuring the exploits and adventures of a Dominic Flandry. Mr Flandry’s problem was he was knowingly fighting a lost cause, his people (a large human dominated stellar empire) was failing due to cultural decadence. He knew it was a lost cause, but soldiered on regardless. This post reminds me of that. As does this one. And this one.
7. Meanwhile lawmakers concentrate on what is important.
8. Apparently the “new atheists” are “very certain” about many things, kind of like the global warming crowd. Odd then that this is in the context of a Physics community (which involves measurements far more accurate and simpler systems) that isn’t sure if protons decay.
9. Let’s see, first sexual slavery/trafficking and the Super-Bowl was a problem, then it wasn’t. It seems the former might have been more accurate.
10. The real reason.
11. Seriously?
12. Climate and negative feedback. Uhm, the climate has been amazingly stable for hundreds of millions of years. If you don’t think there are lots and lots of negative feedback mechanisms keeping on the rails, then check your shoes, you probably never learned to tie them for that’s clearly pushing your cognitive boundaries.
13. That’s not a “car” engine. It’s a jet fighter plane that forgot to wear its wings.

G’day.

1. Beating a dead horse as it were.
2. Yikes.
3. The crux of the liberal notion that in government lies the solution.
4. Mr Hoffman, justly mourned or a death enabled.
5. Clever.
6. The upcoming political moves by the Admin noted.
7. Lame duckisms.
8. Two governments move toward economic suicide.
9. Obamacare looking more and more like a cunning plan.
10. Well, heck, that describes everyone who came of age in the Nixon era.
11. Mr Obama interview notes “politicians are liars“.
12. Cool tech.
13. 29ers, the new trend. Thank your Democrat leaders for that.
14. Hawkings and the black hole.
15. Some towns have snow removal problems, others don’t.
16. Obama and his “art history” diss … setting aside why he didn’t go for the actual popular fluff majors.

So, everybody thinks … and perhaps rightly that Chechin terrorists are a looming threat for the safety of the Sochi Olympics. I don’t understand the following in that respect. So, you’re a dissident or rebel in Chechnia or elsewhere. Why would you set a bomb or attack in Sochi? If you do, you and your cause will be universally reviled the world over. How to you benefit from that? I fail to understand the motives behind an act like that. Why do you want your cause hated and reviled?

One of the nice things about the Internet and blogging is you hear ordinary voices from all over. Atlanta recently had a few inches of snow a condition with which drivers in Atlanta are not experienced at driving and the road crews are not equipped with the supplies of shovels and salt or sand that we have in the north. So … before y’all get all cocky about how you don’t even blink at a few inches in your area and schools don’t close unless more is dumped. Consider. I read a few years back from an Alaskan blogger who pointed out that schools in her town don’t close unless more than 48″ are dumped on the town in less than 24 hours. So. Set your pride aside and consider how Chicago, Minneapolis, or New York (or your town) would react to having a few inches less than 48″ of snow on a Tuesday and remember those Alaskans would treat it as business as usual.

G’day.

1. Not Crazy, more specifically defined.
2. Mr Obama apparently imitates one of my favorite Calvin/Hobbes cartoons (use your own words). Immigration will help businesses “to locate”, yah. Whatever you pretend that means I guess.
3. Some more detailed remarks, apparently the speech was very, if unintentionally, humorous.
4. Tech notes.
5. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
6. Faith and action.
7. More Democrat Senators who haven’t been to a drug store to price condoms in quite some time.
8. India “perplexed” that the US is bug-nuts crazy. I am too I guess.
9. What to do? You mean besides learning to like red-beans+rice and/or split-peas with spam?
10. “Science” apparently confused which kids are fat, uhm, duh.
11. Speaking of childhood obesity … it’s not necesssarily permanent.
12. Palinquin lady.
13. ‘Cause industrial Carbon in the 11th century was omnipresent. Alas, the seas rose and killed everything (just after it had been turned into a newt). But, “it got better.”
14. Stupidity in schools.

Hello. Cold out there it seems. Mr Gore apparently not in touch (this weather may be cold but it only “extreme” if you are susceptible to confirmation bias … in which case you think the climate is radically changing because of normal weather patterns like el Nino (Nina?) moving the jetstream). Links?

1. Place and income mobility. At a glance, you’re best of in the Mid-west and West.
2. Chaos and electric demand.
3. Another question for the pseudo-intellectual Gore.
4. Repealing the 14th in practice.
5. Twitter as precis practice.
6. Finding love.
7. Or finding something akin to love in the wrong places.
8. Energy balance and the sloth.
9. Always beware of the “I can’t imagine” argument, it’s a not-well-known rhetorical/logical fallacy.
10. Cinema.
11. Mr Huckabee was he recently abused for making sense?
12. Return query, replace “all women” with “All men” or “all fans of Charles Dickens” “all prefer pink to purple” (to which you’d should object). If the criteria isn’t germane to the topic using it is a criteria is bigotry or race/sex/whatever-criteria -ism.
13. Language does not commute (order matters).
14. Uranium enrichment numbers.

So, -8 F here this morning. Seems like the weather is returning to that pattern of a few years ago, of about a week of bitter cold with occasional warming spells during which snow is dumped on us. #2 daughter opted to be dropped off at school instead of walking.

1. This person seems to have more difficulty with their child’s choice than might be expected.
2. I’d have to support the Att. Gen. decision if honest (even though I disagree with his conclusion), you have two choices when electing an official, that you want him to guess and vote/act according to his perception his constituents, or the constituents should expect evaluate him and expect him to vote/act according to his conscience. Back in the day, Mr Kerry claimed he did the former. I think the former is not right.
3. More Benghazi lies. First “it was the video” canard, now it was the Ambassador’s fault. Geesh.
4. We’ll be seeing lots of posts of this sort on this anniversary. Liberals often like to base civic ethics on Rawls and “they are to be of the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society” … somehow they pretend that the fetus is more advantaged, has a louder/stronger voice in society, and more empowered than the mother. That illogical twist fuels much wickedness.
5. One more, “abortion allows women … to fulfill their dreams”. Say what? Little girls dream of many things, few dream of killing their child. I mean, I’ve joked with my daughter’s about embarking on the career path of “evil genius” and that they should practice their “evil laugh” but they just roll their eyes at me when I do that.
6. Revenge ala Christie claimed. I wouldn’t put it past the Admin.
7. So, in those states with legal marijuana … apparently the illegal street price is lower than the legal price. So, what besides taxes might cause that? Perhaps the FDA has a hand in raising those prices too.
8. Hacking and gas.
9. Another Obamacare suit which may have  legs.
10. More on the min wage.
11. Obama’s NSA speech (which apparently was roundly panned) graded here.