BETTER AND CHEAPER: So Consumer Reports has ratings of LCD TVs again, and they’re better and cheaper — and bigger — than when I bought mine a couple of years ago. You can get a high-rated 52″ Toshiba for much less than I paid for my 46″ JVC just a couple of years ago. And you can get a 42″ JVC for well under a thousand bucks. According to the piece, they’re also a lot better than the HDTVs of a couple of years ago. If only everything improved like electronics . . . .
Archive for 2009
July 4, 2009
STREAMING VIDEO from the Dallas Tea Party should be here in about an hour.
ROGER SIMON: Storm Clouds On The Fourth of July. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen my country so divided and depressed on the Fourth of July in my lifetime and – no matter what Bob Dylan dreamed up – I’m not young, forever or otherwise. That includes the Vietnam War period when both sides at least had some conviction and excitement for the future, even if wrong. Not so now. The current situation is grim. Obama is already over. In six short months the now-spattered bumper stickers with ‘Hope and Change’ seem like pathetic remnants from the days of ’23 Skidoo,’ the echoes of ‘Yes, we can’ more nauseating than ever in their cliché-ridden evasiveness. Although they may pretend otherwise, even Obama’s choir in the mainstream media seems to know he’s finished, their defenses of his wildly over-priced medical and cap-and-trade schemes perfunctory at best. Everyone knows we can’t afford them.”
READERS ARE SENDING PHOTOS FROM TEA PARTY PROTESTS AROUND THE COUNTRY. Here’s one from Perrysburgh, Ohio, sent by reader Chris Zarecki, who reports about 3,000 people attending.
Here’s one from Bel Air, Maryland, sent by reader Maya Leonetti. The Debt Star makes another appearance!
Here’s one from Washington, DC sent by reader Larry B who writes: “Several thousand here, more arriving.”
And here’s a news report from Pittsburgh. Plus, from the Christian Science Monitor: Round 2 of Tea Party protests: a political powerhouse in the making? We’ll see.
And here’s one from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Reader Matt Drachenberg emails: “Crowd estimated at 1,500, in the rain.”
Plus, David Vickers writes from Kansas City:
It’s hard to people from Kansas and Missouri to agree on much, but over 2,000 of them agreed to come out on July 4 to celebrate freedom and express common political views. This is looking across State Line Road from Leawood, Kansas into Kansas City, Missouri. The Tea Party stretched over 5 blocks on both sides of the state line.
Only one local affiliate showed up to cover it.
Lots of families. LOTS of horn honking by supporters.
He sends pics, too.
And here’s one from Lansing, Michigan, sent by Blogging Prof Chris Kobus: “Glenn, About 2000 attendees so far and the event hasn’t even begun! (attached pic) I’ll update my site when I can find a hotspot.”
UPDATE: Reader Harold Combs writes from Hernando, Mississippi. “Over a thousand people filled the Courthouse square in the little Mississippi town of Hernando, where John Grisham got his start, to tell our representatives that we have had enough and we won’t take it any more. This Tea Party thing is taking off.”
And here’s a press report from Tallahassee’s Tea Party protest:
Citizens in Tallahassee participated in the latest round of “Tea Party Protests” today, joining people in many cities around the country. Local attorney Pace Allen, founder of taxteaparty.com, organized the event that took place in front of the steps of the Historic Capitol on North Monroe Street. . . . A large group of protesters of all ages gathered in support of the cause around noon, including many families. A stand offered “tax free tea” and there were tables containing petitions and fliers. Most stood near the road, holding signs with slogans like “American, Not Socialist,” “Don’t tax me, bro” and “R.I.P. GM. Murdered by bailout.”
Also, here’s a report from Syracuse, and here’s one from Frankfort, Kentucky:
Hundreds of Kentuckians carrying flags, signs and brown-bag lunches gathered at the Capitol steps to protest taxes and government as part of a national effort known as the “tea party” movement.
The Saturday rally was organized by the group TEA Party of Kentucky – with TEA standing for “taxed enough already.” Similar rallies were held in other cities statewide and nationwide.
The Frankfort event featured music and speakers as those gathered sat on walls and in lawn chairs they brought from home. All age ranges were represented in the crowd, from babies in strollers to retirees.
Stay tuned.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a report, with photos, from Boston.
THE HOUSING COLLAPSE: As far as I can tell, it’s caused in no small part by idiots. At both ends.
I’ve learned this by watching HGTV. On the one hand, I saw a rerun of a show on people buying their first house the other night. It was from 2007. The buying couple paid pretty much the asking price for an overpriced home. (Wife: “I think we’re getting ripped off, but I really like the house.”) Then at the closing they did a 100% loan.
Meanwhile, today on Real Estate Intervention, we see people who want way too much for their houses resisting any suggestion that they should drop the price, and hence having trouble selling. Watching them argue with the expert is simultaneously hilarious and infuriating.
People who paid too much for irrational reasons. People who ask too much for irrational reasons. Not surprising that things aren’t going well.
UPDATE: Reader Rhonda Ulen writes:
It’s really funny to sit here and read your posts about HGTV. I have been watching it for several years now and it was mind boggling to see what some of these people paid for homes all across the country. The big light bulb moment for me came when a “My First House” buyer who lived in California, wanted to move to Denver and buy his first home. He had no job, no money down and really bad credit. Yet he was still able to buy a house for over $250,000 in Denver at 14% interest rate. Both his mortgage and down payment were financed at this rate. I knew then something really bad was happening in the housing market. My husband and I steered clear of any investments remotely tied to mortgages and we still have our money. I still watch HGTV now and especially like “Real Estate Intervention”. That guy knows his stuff.
Indeed.
PETER SPIRO rains on the parade of 4th of July naturalization ceremonies. He’s got a point about the expense and difficulty of obtaining legal immigration and citizenship status — as my family knows firsthand — but he’s still kinda negative.
IN THE MAIL: Andrew Fox’s novel, The Good Humor Man, a sort of Fahrenheit 451 for food.
THOUGHTS ON SARAH PALIN’S RESIGNATION from Katie Granju.
PJTV: The Spirit of ’76: The Cancer of Congressional Corruption Betrays Our Founders’ Sacrifice. Always nice to see Jim Moran put in his place. With a supporting appearance by John Murtha.
JIM GERAGHTY: “The lesson that the ruthless corners of the political world will take from the rise, fall, and departure of Sarah Palin that if you attack a politician’s children nastily enough and relentlessly enough, you can get anybody to quit.”
And I don’t want to hear any of that dishonest have-you-no-decency posturing from the usual moral poseurs if that happens to somebody they like. They have sown the wind.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “I’m not even a Sarah Palin fan, but her treatment by her political opponents has been outrageous.” Yeah, that’s how I feel, too. I don’t know if it was really all about Trig or not, but the explosion of nastiness has been something to behold, and it will, as always, trigger a similar response at some point.
RUTH WEDGWOOD: The Strange Case of Florence Hartmann.
A striking consensus is emerging in Washington for a closer relationship with the International Criminal Court. Even some staunch conservatives have backed the idea of lending logistical, political, and diplomatic assistance to the ICC on a case-by-case basis – to act against the most shocking outrages of genocide, crimes against humanity, and systematic war crimes.
Yet, with notoriously bad timing, the path to this cooperation may be washed away, due to a troublesome and unnecessary fight brewing at a sister criminal tribunal in The Hague. . . . It does not advance the cause of international criminal justice to threaten a person who described the boggled procedure with criminal contempt.
It’s a clown show that the clowns want kept secret. Why should that undermine confidence in international institutions, when that already describes pretty much all of ’em?
VIDEO FROM THE Rowlett, Texas Tea Party. More from Rowlett, here.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.
WASHINGTON POST UPDATE: Every newspaper is a glass house.
Of course it was a bad idea. Arguably the Post did even more damage to its credibility in trying to explain itself than it did with the original concept — as for instance with the declaration that a beautifully designed and widely distributed flyer was a “draft.” . . . But before the critiques gets too self-righteous, let’s recall that the blurring of editorial and business lines is happening everywhere. Magazine journalism is full of it. We will see even more of it as the business of print publishing continues to decay and publishers scramble for revenue. The Post’s “salons” aren’t the first instance of this kind of aggressive monetization of a journalistic reputation, and they won’t be the last.
That’s true.
“SMART DIPLOMACY?” Report: U.S. to block Iran sanctions at G8 summit.
MARK STEYN: “National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.” And those responsible will not be the ones to pay the price, for the most part.
July 3, 2009
PUT THE STATE IN CHARGE OF LIQUOR, and look what happens to booze.
I’VE ENJOYED STEVEN PRESSFIELD’S BOOKS like Killing Rommel, and Gates of Fire. But now I discover he’s got a blog.
BILL QUICK: What Sarah Palin could, and should, do.
CYNTHIA YOCKEY: The bullies will multiply unless we get David Letterman fired. With advice on what to do.
JUSTIN BINIK-THOMAS SENDS THIS PICTURE from the Dayton Tea Party, in progress, and reports an estimate of 4000 people according to police.
