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.

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.

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.

Well, back at home. Links?

1. A use for that valve cap.
2. Yer gubmit, looking out for … well, no good reason I guess.
3. No no no, don’t slander the teacher, if anything slander the administrators.
4. Speaking of teachers ….
5. Gender and quotes, not unexpected results.
6. Consequences for not towing the party line.
7. Prayer of very different sorts, here and here.
8. Of cold and calorie.
9. The IRS and implications.
10. Of hard drives and failure.

Good morning.

1. From the economists, trouble ahead and rebuttals to the notion that minimum wage increases don’t actually help the poor are very weak.
2. Why are you laughing? I’m trying to figure out why the side of his head is melting! That seems a lot more relevant than what he’s saying.
3. An unusual Iranian (putting it somewhat mildly).
4. Mr King.
5. On standing on the right side of history.
6. This would be a better side, or at least a side I’d like to, well, own.
7. Uhm, that would be yes.
8. Still a dumb idea, GOP people for impeachment seem to forget that as bad (horrible) as Mr Obama might be and whatever he does, Mr Biden would be far worse.
9. Mr Biden apparently thinks the Detroit economy is doing just fine.
10. Maybe? Don’t hold your breath.
11. Gills?
12. Editorial bias?
13. Nah, it’s a master-race kinda novel.

Links?

1. So there’s this survey …. I have a beef with one of their questions. There is a question asking if you value higher self-control or creativity. This is a confusing question to answer, I think creativity is incredibly important. I also think that self-discipline/self-control are a pre-requisite for creativity. If you think calculus is valuable can you weigh the relative importance of the ability to do algebra or calculus higher? I answered algebra, because calculus. Is this how we distinguish liberals from conservatives, liberals are those who don’t think creativity requires discipline? What? Do they think creativity just sort of “happens” magically?
2. A died in the wool classical liberal.
3. Mammals can learn.
4. So, cui bono and the minimum wage. When you factor in how much a higher min wage boosts automation, you can pretty much set aside notion that the beneficiaries are the “the poor”.
5. Ignorance, democracy, and gun control.
6. Safety nets.
7. Haute couture.
8. Obamacare. And the coming bailout.
9. Climate change, I’m missing the part where this is bad.
10. More on climate here.
11. A quality American education, eh?
12. “Republicans” do that? Not all of us.
13. Bigotry exemplified. Don’t judge on the quality of the work (content of character) but the gender count of your references, i.e., the color of your skin.
14. Income inequality.
15. That voter fraud.
16. Go girl!

Links?

1. A question of bias. Case in point.
2. Zoooom, or should that be “hyper-zoom”.
3. Eating only fast food, what really happens.
4. Moving towards single payer, because we all wish our health care was as good as the VA. The wealthy just wish they had it so so good. This is their strategy for getting that. File *that* under “cunning plan”.
5. Reading between the lines that means plastic = cheese and the big companies like Nabisco &c have figured out how to make sawdust taste “good”. Apparently we can thank Ms Obama.
6. Copyright silliness.
7. Our brilliant, err, cunning foreign policy plan. I recently read a hisory of the Crimean War. Cunning plans seem to spring up in foreign policy quite frequently. (as in Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words “I have a cunning plan” marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation?)
8. Poverty is ended in the US. Who knew? By the calculation a single person making about 11k per year is “below the poverty level”  but that same person typically gets 20k in aid .. putting them well above the poverty line, hence my conclusion. Oddly enough a single young 20-something makinger 11k per year but who live at home with his parents counts as “below the poverty line” by their calculation I think.
9. Our tone deaf and aggressively stupid Administration, exhibit A.
10. Putting Mr Coates down a few notches.
11. Diet and exercise are the key I suppose.
12. No no no. Congress-critters are on a par with used car salesmen, it’s the life long bureaucrats and executives that are on a par with criminals.
13. Well grammar is one culprit, I suspect “because they don’t read” is the other.
14. This was known before Oct. 1 2013.
15. Hint: people who defended Mr Obama vis a vis the IRS scandal don’t have a leg to stand on regarding criticism like that without being hypocritical.

Links?

1. So, will this news spread? Or will left wing MSM loyalists quash it successfully?
2. The scandal of the day, it’s been my impressions that people are also saying “the cover up is making it worse.” If cover ups always made it worse, politicians would learn an never do it. That they do, gives reason to believe that most of the time, the cover up is successful. Which likely means that like icebergs 90% of the crap is under the surface.
3. Watch for the smears to begin.
4. So, in the wake of a cold snap, we are warned that “weather doesn’t equal climate” … except apparently when it is convenient to pretend it does. Consistency is apparently not required.
5. Obama and Afghanistan. Has there been a more shallow President, ever?
6. Cross-aisle praise.
7. Thesis sometimes should begin with the letter “F” at the start instead of the di-graph “Th”.
8. Crime and concealed carry.
9. Stupid laws across the pond.
10. What is a right (hint: not having healthcare/job/food/home provided)?
11. An MIT climate scientist speaks on climate.
12. Modeling and economics.
13. Cold weather and verse.
14. A commercial has “people talking” … how they talk beyond saying … “that’s really dumb” escapes me. I suppose they could enumerate the many ways in which it is really off the rails.