Stones Cry Out

(This is part of the script for the latest episode of my podcast, “Consider This!”. You can listen to it on the website, or subscribe to it in iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Blubrry, Player.fm, or the podcast app of your choice.)

For the month of May, 2013, the number of shooting victims in New York City went up 43% vs. May of last year. New mayor Bill deBlasio is proud of this. Well, OK, not the statistic per se, but of the fact that he’s made the New York police force reactive instead of proactive. Sure, 129 people were shot last month, but hey, at least gang-bangers are free from having to be stopped and frisked. I mean really, you have to have your priorities, people!

OK, here’s the thing. If liberals like deBlasio think that guns are the problem, why are they against getting them off the street? I understand the personal liberty issues, and I think they are worth serious consideration, but was any judgment ever passed on them in this case? If not, the mayor is reaping what he’s sown. Well, actually the citizens of the Big Apple are the ones getting reaped.

Look into those questions, but meanwhile, if you see what works and what doesn’t, and still ignore it, you might be a Democrat. And sure enough, that’s what he is.

(This is part of the script for the latest episode of my podcast, “Consider This!”. You can listen to it on the website, or subscribe to it in iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Blubrry, Player.fm, or the podcast app of your choice.)

Sometimes people ask what the real difference is between the Republicans and Democrats, and sometimes, for certain issues, I’m inclined to agree; not much. However, when it comes to promoting economic growth, there’s certainly a trend that favors one over the other.

It’s been said that the states are the laboratories of American democracy. Though more and more autonomy has been taken from them by the federal government, there is still enough that one can look across the country from sea to shining sea and see what works and what doesn’t. So what has the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis told us about the year 2013?

Here were the top 10 states in GDP growth:

• North Dakota — 9.7 percent
• Wyoming — 7.6 percent
• West Virginia — 5.1 percent
• Oklahoma — 4.2 percent
• Idaho — 4.1 percent
• Colorado — 3.8 percent
• Utah — 3.8 percent
• Texas — 3.7 percent
• South Dakota — 3.1 percent
• Nebraska — 3.0 percent

This was all while the nation’s GDP growth was just 1.8 percent. Tom Blumer writing at the NewsBusters website noted that only Colorado and West Virginia could be considered something other than deep-red states — and despite having several prominent Democrats in statewide and national office, they both arguably lean red.

And let’s not forget, as I covered back in February, that Wisconsin, under Republican Governor Scott Walker, went from running a deficit to a $1 billion surplus by cutting taxes.

In all of this, you’d think that someone would have predicted such an economic outcome from these policies. Oh wait, they did, and those people are called “conservatives”. So if you indeed see what works and what doesn’t, and still ignore it, you might be a Democrat.

Thor’s Day?

1. Why those of us with less talent drift to the slow twitch sports where discipline and good training can put us at least in the pack.
2. A foreign view.
3. A biting remark (hint: what threat … or else we will taunt you a second time?)
4. Beauty in the eye of beauty specialists from other countries.
5. There’s an explanation for the IRS email problem.
6. Nanny state curtailed.
7. A cop not honoring his responsibilities.
8. A point which the green movement finds somewhat perplexing.
9. Apparently by making a “extreme” (ridiculous? incompetent?) argument Obama and his admin intentionally worked for a 9-0 ruling against themselves. Believe that and you’re one of the few who believe the IRS accidentally lost those emails.
10. Now there’s a dumb idea. Here’s a better one, to disambiguate “hot” (use spicy, thermy and hot for the three common meanings. As in habanero peppers are spicy. Coffee out of the machine is thermy, and that girl over there is hot).
11. But, you know, she’s not running … hah!

Woo. Tomorrow US/Germany FIFA, eh?

1. Getting close to Japanese bushido (goal in life is a good death) or Christian thoughts (that you will not perfect your life without (a) God’s intervention and (b) not in this life). Well, that’s how I saw that quote.
2. Saurovka.
3. Yet thousands and thousands of 500 foot tall windmills taking terawatts out of wind energy out of the atmosphere will have no climate effects.
4. In part because the security industries continued existence depends on them actually not solving the problem.
5. Back when fossil fuel burning industrialized Woolly Mammoth society endangered the planet.
6. Fire them all.
7. Resistance to antibiotics.
8. A little cuteness.
9. Except the man was stupid enough to not notice while finding his gate, boarding and talking to fellow passengers.
10. Actually it’s not criminal. However a Volokh poster the other day did point out the actual consequences, which are interesting to consider (but I’m not finding the link). The upshot was that in a court of law if you fail to produce expected evidence like this with no excuse the ruling is that the expected evidence is held found to be against you. Which in this case means the IRS emails should be viewed in the absence of their production, as indicating both White House involvement and intentional political motivations. Glad they settled that so firmly, eh?
11. One of the world’s demographic time bombs.
12. Just one election.
13. One of the two Benghazi scandals involving Ms Clinton. The other being her claim that she had no involvement in the security arrangements, which is either a lie or evidence of law breaking (by statute the Sec of State must sign off on all embassy security details).

Hey.

1. Pretty.
2. Left wing smear machine, first step, misinterpret.
3. The President’s tendency to fabulous talk, first step, attack the straw may.
4. Hmm. Here’s to hoping that “married” doesn’t mean what it sounds like it means.
5. A very very strange custom noted.
6. Heh.
7. An interesting trend.
8. There may be substantial problems with Mr Cruz, as viewed by left or right … but this particular leftist manages not to note a single one in his diatribe. Seriously looks like Satan and takes long showers!?
9. Of profit and place, a map.
10. A life without hardship and a few millions banked away will do that.
11. Bad men can make art and science and stuff. Do we connect the two and reject it on account of source? Or not. I’d have to say, not … after all Jesus came in to the world to save sinners, of whom I am first. And as I am first of such, seems to me to reject another sinner’s attempts at doing good would be uncharitable.

G’day.

1. Missing the point, badly. Not a few prophets were willing to tell “the Jews” they were going the wrong way (hint: Jesus was yet another Jew). Odd that. Mr Schraub (a Jew) isn’t afraid to tell Christians when he thinks they were wrong. Perhaps he thinks turnabout is not fair play. It might be observed however, the point in question (that Jesus criticized fellow Jews might be better served to point that we should not fail to criticize other Christians when they stray … hmmm to what might that be applied?).
2.  Markets everywhere, and everywhere markets appear the state tries to rear its ugly head, apparently.
3. Liberal elite and their cargo cultic magic, noted.
4. Our mainstream media acting cliquish and stupid. Idiots abound.
5. “Cheese, Grommit!” says Wallace.
6. Biden, “I’m not rich” (just really dumb). No investments at all. Dependent forever on the kindness of, well, the public till.
7. For the past 25 years, in a continuous trend, gun violence has been trending downward (while gun ownership has risen). However, facts and trends don’t matter to the real gun nuts. Guns and firearms give you the heeby-jeebies isn’t an argument for the curtailment of other peoples liberties. More people die on motor cycles than by gunshot, should those be banned?
8. Apparently Roman Catholics don’t exchange a kiss of peace during their services.
9. Forgetting the Civil War. Woops.
10. Yeah. And Swiss cheese can’t be from Wisconsin. Oh, wait.
11. Failing to give consent during a drunken encounter … compared to what the rest of the world calls rape.
12. Speaking of rape, this has been making the rounds.
13. And this too is not unrelated. That brings the old colonial British anecdote to mind, in which a British fellow was ordering the arrest of the people who had burned a widow on the death of her husband. He was informed this was an ancient custom of their people. He replied that it was an ancient custom of his people to hang people who burn women.

Well the Midwest has been having a spate of T-storms. Last night’s flight suffered a few delays, but eventually I got home.

1. Entropy is the clue, I’d think.
2. Heroism.
3. Echoes of that seminal Ratzinger/Habermas debate (the debate text can be purchased as a book, btw).
4. Professional students, literally.
5. If you intentionally misunderstand and then pretend insult … that’s a form of lying.
6. Liberal academics on employment push the “do what I say, not what I do” tactic it seems.
7. Much of this post might be right, but it ends with an absolute falsehood, “The widespread availability of high-powered military-grade weaponry does not keep us secure from tyranny ” … uhm. Hello? high powered military grade weaponry is illegal, scarce, and anything but widespread and available. Sorry. Fantasy doesn’t help you make your point.
8. The actual trademarks you can freely use now.
9. Cyber-warfare, electoral variety.
10. 2 against 55.
11. He probably regretted both.

Woo, going home tomorrow night. 14 hours ahead of schedule.

1. A self-referential (somewhat hilarious) remark by Ms Clinton. Seriously though she’s right, the left elite should not terrorize the rest of us.
2. Higher education and some more self-referential remarks by another left elitist.
3. Somewhat in the same vein, an employee becomes an actual loyal employee, when apparently he figures he’s doing something else. Color me confused.
4. Who in their right mind thinks it was accidental (or actually lost) … but setting that aside, that brings up the other side of the coin, i.e., those document saving standards they’d like us to keep … well? If y’all can’t do what you force us to do, well … (hack spit) words fail!
5. On that same topic, at the end points 1-6 … well only 2 seems right. Five an indictment of the current President. Regarding #4 … there should be lots and lots of copies of those “missing” emails on different, uhm, tapes and servers.
6. Dog. Wagged. Just like with Mr bin Laden.
7. A story. (HT) 21st century Tinkerbell.
8. Some FIFA stats.
9. Well, as for the last two panels, the guys you realize are talking about guns, sports, or beer … the girls about, well, people they know. There is a difference (viva la and all that)
10. Not mentioned in this list is how many the Ukraine gave up when Clinton assured them the US had their back. Bet you they regret giving them up now, eh?
11. In which “they are paid” apparently doesn’t mean “have a job” which it normally would I’d think.
12. Germs.
13. What is learned from studying history.
14. Snowflakes chance you know where of that.
15. Dismal indeed.

Well, back in Georgia. Probably still very busy. Go-Live tomorrow morning.

1. Getting cooperation in foreign affairs, a tale of two Presidents.
2. On that topic, here’s a rumination on a possible theme, Bush made a mistake in Iraq (and highlights the error) compounded and made worse by Mr Obama.
3. But don’t lose this point.
4. When goverment forgets what rights mean and who’s working for whom.
5. Why identity isn’t substance or property, but ontology and relationship.
6. Missing repentance in a list.
7. Recent Lerner lie lost the left. Probably only the loons remain on that fence-post.
8. Some meta-linking but that billboard (and response) is a hoot.
9. Anyone surprised?
10. Explody stuff.
11. One way to explain the popularity of climate alarmism.
12. What is ISIS?
13. On not quitting.
14. A scholastic experiment.

One of the alternatives to ObamaCare that the Left suggested is that Medicare should just be expanded to cover everyone. It “worked”, so they said, and thus that would be a simpler way to get health care coverage expanded.

But an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services said that the program spent $6.7 billion (with a “b”) too much for office visits and other services. And that’s just in 2010; just one year’s worth of fraud, abuse and/or incompetence.

We keep hearing about how this politician or another wants to save the government and the taxpayer money by eliminating this kind of waste, but it never happens. Here’s one reason why. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Medicare, said it doesn’t plan to review the excess billing payments that account for this because it isn’t cost-effective to do so. Essentially what they’re saying is that it would cost more than $6.7 billion to save that $6.7 billion. Really? Is…is that job opening available? Because if it is, I think I could do it for half that cash. Or, at least I’d like to try.

See, this is a prime example of the problems of big government. It can waste billions – billions – and then claim that it’s not cost effective to deal with the waste. And then the recipients of that fraud have nothing to worry about. Their scam is safe within the walls of a massive bureaucracy. Oh sure, it’s helping the poor and elderly, but really, is there no way at all for that to happen without flushing away billions every year? Really?

This is also a prime example of what happens to centralized government programs. They become bigger and costlier, and, as Ronald Reagan observed, they wind up being the closest thing to eternal life we’ll see this side of heaven. They are a power unto themselves, and any attempt to rein them in has to deal with that inertia, not to mention that, as I said earlier, any attempt to curb such waste gets those attempting it the injustice of being considered hateful, racist, and whatever else the Left can come up with today.

There’s a trend here on the issue of big government programs, both in the money they cost, and the way they’re defended in spite of their results. And yet, we just keep adding to their numbers. If one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results, it’s time to have the government committed.

It has been a tenet of the Left that government can be a force for good, and no one’s really denying that. It’s just that there are places for it, and places where it shouldn’t be, and if you overextend government’s reach, prepare for these very consequences. The Constitution was written to keep those kinds of folks in check. Unfortunately, there’s not been enough pushback, and now too many Americans expect this sort of overreach, but they want others to pay for it.

Yo. Without much ado … links?

1. Family matters and geography.
2. ’cause doing that sort of thing what politicians like she do all the time, you’re just supposed to pretend it’s not so.
3. A policy and the effect as predicted.
4. The part that claims to be “friendly to women” isn’t. If one suspects the primary reason that party claims the other party is unfriendly to women is to provide cover for their own sins … you’d be right (oh, the other reason is that they, to paraphrase Mr Obama figure little girls grow up dreaming they will kill their babies and that sort of thing is women-friendly).
5. My #1 daughter bought some ghost-pepper salsa. I’m not a fan. But, it makes for interesting viewing.
6. I had a joke in mind when I saved this link. But I forgot it. You can roll your own.
7. That probably goes the other way too.
8. Dubious claims noted.
9. In the “say something positive even if it makes no sense” mode, the President claims the GOP electoral results likely to stiffen House Republican’s willingness to compromise means they will be more willing to compromise. Riiiight. One wonders if he even read the statement before he made it.

And another day done.

1. Go. My one intuition from playing a little Go in high school is that it teaches you recognize a  non-winning position and abandon that before losses mount. Looking at Japan in WWII, playing the game doesn’t translate that skill to real life.
2. It was a liberal tenet that fighting terrorism was a legal not military matter. To bad that presumption is both wrong and one held by an administration for almost a decade. (stupid or evil, eh)
3. Why the left large brained administrators like euthanasia. Solves the GOMER problem.
4. For the carbon entranced.
5. Piketty problems.
6. Taiwan and Tiananmen (HT)
7. Color me unsurprised.

(This is part of the transcript of my latest podcast episode, "Consider This!")

An article at the Hoover Institution asks, do chimps have human rights?

No.

Well, links?

1. Stupid scholastic tricks.
2. In a barely comprehensible move, an openly sexist site bemoans sexism.
3. This is not unrelated, i.e., sexism noted.
4. Obamacare continues to be a disaster.
5. Just think some publisher paid her money to write that tripe. As for myself, it would take a great deal of money to convince me read even a little bit of it. I suspect that is true of a lot of people. Which makes it confusing why a publisher would want to publish such things. She is however, quite color blind when it comes to money.
6. This book however, looks interesting.
7. Speaking of books, this is what happens when two administrations in a row ignore David Petraeus’s book on counter-insurgency. Particularly the importance of other governmental agencies and specialties be engaged in rebuilding and enriching the country in question.
8. Ice sheets melting, CO2 not implicated, oops.
9. So I missed this when I sojourned in the wilderness. Did you?
10. Medical ethics.
11. Stupid liberal reactions noted.
12. Two speeches.
13. Screw the nanny state. Just stop it now!
14. Why not “and”?
15. Awesome illustrations.

(This is part of the transcript of my latest podcast episode, "Consider This!")

In an opinion piece at the Huffington Post by H. A. Goodman, he argues that Republicans have been complaining about how bad the VA is, but hypocritically voted against a bill for various funding for the VA back in January.

Here’s a problem with that, and it’s not something you’ll hear on most newscasts. For the last 5 years, the VA has not spent its full health care budget; as much as $1.163 billion extra to as “little” as $450 million in medical-care funding from this past fiscal year. And still vets have been waiting too long for care, some paying with their lives. Clearly, clearly, throwing more money at the problem has done nothing whatsoever to fix it.

The Republicans, back in January, said that if the huge catch-all bill were split up into separate bills, there were plenty of items they would vote for. The issue was fiscal responsibility. Democrats, on the other hand, really do have the mindset that enough greenbacks will solve any problem, especially if the problem is one that makes liberalism look bad. And the single-payer VA medical system absolutely fits that particular bill. Creating a single source of a particular product or service (in this case, health care) inevitably leads to scarcity (in this case, waiting lines). If vets could choose any hospital they wanted, and if the government still picked up the tab, would we have this problem? No. But this would be an indictment of a system that Democrats want to see implemented all over, and so it cannot be seen to fail.

Remember this when Democrats like Mr. Goodman accuse Republicans of “hating the poor” or of being “racist” because they don’t want to throw more money at programs that are similarly flawed. Since the mid 60s, when the “War on Poverty” began, the poverty rate has been bouncing around between 10 and 15% of the population. Nothing has changed. Prior to that, the poverty rate had been steadily decreasing, from 30% in 1950 to 15% when we went to war on it. We were gaining ground, but since “going to war”, it’s been nothing but a stalemate, even though the programs have been costlier every year. But just look askance at the programs, just try to reign in some of that continue rise in cost, and you get accused of all manner of hate and villainy. For nearly half a century we’ve been pouring more and more money into it, just like the VA. And, just like the VA, it is not doing what it is supposed to be doing, or doing it incredibly inefficiently.

But if you want to change the flat tire and try to get things done better, you’re accused of hating the car. The flat’s got us this far, it can go further, right?