Archive for 2009
January 18, 2009
OH, STOP TEASING US HUGO: Venezuela’s Chavez says Obama has “stench” of Bush.
IN THE MAIL: From Peter Tsouras, Britannia’s Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History. Britain takes the side of the South in the Civil War, and things go downhill from there.
IF YOU WANT RESPECT, YOU HAVE TO TERRORIZE PEOPLE A BIT, I GUESS: Germany OK’s Hamas Flags at Rallies… Rips Down Israeli Flags.
Who knew that the occasional bombing or beheading was a prerequisite of free speech? But, okay, message received. May the Germans have joy of the incentive structure they’ve created . . . .
UPDATE: A reader is reminded of Tom Kratman’s Caliphate. “Recent events in Germany are eerily similar to the decline of Europe portrayed in Kratman’s novel. Yikes.” Yes, but remember, Barack Obama hasn’t been sworn in yet. Things’ll turn around once that happens.
MARK STEYN: Our Permanent State of Routine Emergency.
So a “federal emergency” is no longer a nuclear strike on Cleveland or even a Category Three hurricane, but now a snowfall in New England and an inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel. As Mister Incredible shrewdly observes to his kid in “The Incredibles,” when everybody’s special, nobody is. Likewise, when everything’s an emergency, nothing is: We live in a permanent state of routine emergency.
The metastasization of FEMA teaches several lessons – the first and most obvious being that any new government program, agency or entitlement will always outgrow whatever narrow purpose it was created for. Which is why we small-government types are wary of creating any new ones in the first place. Thus, an itsy-bitsy bit of inconsequential government tinkering on the periphery of the mortgage market expanded to the point where federally mandated home loans to the uncreditworthy came close to collapsing not just the U.S. property market but the global financial system.
If you’d suggested in the Seventies a new federal agency to cope with municipal snow removal in Connecticut, you’d have been laughed out the room. But, with government, mission creep isn’t a bug but the defining feature. In mid-September, the “bailout” was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency measure to save the planet. A mere four months later, it’s the new baseline
And yet things don’t actually, you know, get done any better, for all the promises . . . .
UPDATE: Okay, you gotta love this bit, too:
If Washington is now a federal disaster area, it would be nice to think of Barney Frank and the gang waving from the roof of the Capitol until they can be evacuated somewhere safe, like one of the outlying South Sandwich Islands or Charley Rangel’s vacation property in the Dominican Republic. But, alas, Washington is one of those disaster relief cases, where they get the relief, and the rest of us get the disaster.
Indeed.
MICHAEL YON on attacks in Kabul.
UPDATE: A reader whose wife is in Kabul emails:
Please don’t use my name, or my wife’s name – she’d be in big trouble. I just wanted to confirm, very first hand, the Kabul attack.
The attack is exactly as described. My wife called shortly after to tell me the explosion went off about 200 yards from her office, but that she was fine. She works for the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian and is currently deployed to Kabul. Here are the facts as she experienced them:
1. The bomb went off just outside the German Embassy, which is just outside the gate of the compound she is on – within 200 yards of her office.
2. While it was a big explosion, it was not even close to the size she experienced in Baghdad four years ago. As suicide attacks go, this was pretty weak.
3. There were a mix of military and civilian deaths and injuries and some aftermath injuries to rescuers – she thinks the numbers are getting mixed together, but they seem accurate from what she saw.
4. The immediate reports on CNN, FOX, etc. were largely accurate – there is also video from immediately after the attack on AP and other organizations.
5. Security in that area of Kabul is excellent. She is actually more afraid of the frequent earthquakes that happen there.
6. No one on her compound was injured and she didn’t know the people that were killed or injured.
The local feeling is that this is an isolated incident and that it must have been pretty hard to get a bomb to that area and it is unlikely to happen again. Basically, a lucky shot with a fairly small device. They were probably aiming for the general area, as it is the Army Corps offices, the German Embassy and a school that admits girls all in the general area. It is hard to tell the exact target and whether it was a political statement or some weird version of an honor killing.
The funny/infuriating part is that FOX, CNN and CNN Headline were all talking about the inauguration and barely mentioned the attack. It seems significant because it is unusual and US service members were killed in what is generally a safe area, but no one seemed to care. It was hard for me to find information about it. My wife was told not to talk to the press or anyone about it and tell them to watch CNN for information. Yet another indication that the press is failing – I got 100% of my information on-line, from raw video footage and could have posted quite a bit about it if I were a more active blogger.
Obviously, the answer is to be a more active blogger. And, yeah, “news” is what fits the current narrative, not just what’s happening. If the narrative were “Bush losing in Afghanistan” instead of “Hope and Change come to America,” it would have led on every program.
KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: Looks like we may see some “human rights” sanity in Canada.
JONATHAN ADLER: “The Cape Wind experience illustrates how existing regulatory regimes are not particularly welcoming to alternative energy development. . . . If wind power and other alternative energy sources are to ever make a significant and cost-justified contribution to the nation’s energy supply, the regulatory thicket will need to be cleared. The Bush Administration showed little interest in such an undertaking, despite its stated commitment to less onerous regulation and technological innovation. Perhaps the Obama Administration will recognize the need innovation-enhancing regulatory reforms.”
“KEEP YOUR GRUBBY LAWS OFF MY BODY:” Unless, you know, you’re a Federal Health Board.
January 17, 2009
TIGERHAWK: Don’t End the Obama Honeymoon Too Soon. “If Barack Obama weakens quickly few conservatives (other than rank partisans who simply want Democrats to fail) will like the results.”
I predict that the honeymoon will end first on the left.
ROGER KIMBALL: Dramamine Alert!
MORE GEITHNER TAX QUESTIONS. Plus, charges of press conflicts of interest.
THE ANGUISH OF Maureen Dowd.
A BUNCH OF Blu-Ray markdowns.
PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1942.
THOUGHTS ON inaugural oratory.
LOOKING TOWARD A FRUGAL FUTURE, at the Detroit Auto Show.
UNIVERSITIES HOPING FOR MANNA FROM HEAVEN OBAMA: “As colleges and students around the country struggle with the effects of the worldwide economic downturn, help appears to be on the way from the nation’s capital. And plenty of it, to judge from a draft of a massive, $825 billion stimulus package released by Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives Thursday.”
HMM: “Two U.S. attorneys appointed by Dubya are refusing to leave the Justice Department when Obama takes office. Their explanation: they’ve got too many corrupt Democrats to prosecute!”
MORE ECONOMIC TRAGEDY: Arabs lost 2.5 trillion dollars from credit crunch.
WHILE AMERICA GETS POORER, Washington is getting richer. “After the 2000 Census, the richest county in America was Douglas County, Colorado. By 2007, Douglas County had fallen to sixth. The new top three are now Loudon County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Howard County, Maryland. All three are suburbs or exurbs of Washington, D.C. . . . All of this is fine if you happen to live in the D.C. area. It’s not so great for the country as a whole. . . . The problem is that, save for the tech corridor in D.C.’s Virginia exurbs, the Washington Metro area doesn’t actually produce anything. Washington doesn’t create wealth, it just moves it around—redistributes it. As government grows and takes control of more and more of the private economy—either through spending, regulation, or taxes—more and more wealth that’s created elsewhere comes to Washington to be devoured.”
Nope. The pattern of wealth flowing toward the capital is one that the United States avoided for nearly 200 years. Not anymore.
HEH. DON’T WAIT: Prepare now for the coming post-stimulus hyperinflation with these million-dollar bills featuring Barack Obama’s picture! Why wait until the government gets around to issuing them in 2011, when they’ll buy a single measly gallon of gas?
They’re also amusing at parties.
GOOD NEWS! THE ECONOMY IS STILL FINE FOR THOSE WHO LIVE OFF TAXES:
While the private sector was shedding millions of jobs in 2008 and government budgets were collapsing under the weight of waste, fraud and carved-in-stone personnel costs, the public sector had another banner year. Governments at all levels hired 164,100 new employees and were largely responsible for the addition of a further 96,600 jobs in education and 371,600 in health care. Now President-elect Obama wants to add 600,000 to the bloated federal payroll. Untold thousands more local, county and state employees will be needed to fill all the new and bigger public facilities built with stimulus cash. As it is, nearly 15 percent of the civilian work force draws government paychecks.
Meaning that Democrats only have to compete for the other 85%. Speaking of Democrats, I love this bit:
Sen. Dodd still has a job, and his recent $4,100 raise will make it easier to afford those sweetheart mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial.
Heh.