CAN WE REALLY BAIL OUT CALIFORNIA? “I’m pretty sure that the feds can afford to bail out California. I’m pretty sure they can’t afford to bail out fifty states who have learned that if they are just intransigent enough about spending more money than they make, Uncle Sugar will come in and pay the bill.”
Archive for 2009
June 12, 2009
FASTER, PLEASE: Gene therapy technique thwarts cancer by cutting off tumor blood supply. “University of Florida researchers have come up with a new gene therapy method to disrupt cancer growth by using a synthetic protein to induce blood clotting that cuts off a tumor’s blood and nutrient supply.”
APPLE TRIES TO CRUSH DISSENT.
CAR LUST: Saying goodbye to Saab, with a tribute to the 9-3 Viggen. Meanwhile, I think the steel Pig Truck is probably a better metaphor for the future of GM — only with nothing but veggie sandwiches . . . .
MICHAEL SILENCE: ” The Obama administration wants to keep secret the locations of nearly four dozen coal ash storage sites that pose a threat to people living nearby. So much for transparency.”
CLEANING TEETH with a plasma blowtorch.
PJTV: An Iran election report. Government shuts down text messaging amid talk of violence?
UPDATE: Everyone’s a winner in Iran!
DODD-KENNEDY HEALTH-CARE BILL NEWS: Dodd’s wife serves on health care company boards. “The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of four health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry. Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, serves on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living, and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals, a financial disclosure report the senator released Friday shows. . . . Dodd, who as Senate Banking Committee chairman also has been an architect of the nation’s financial industry and housing rescue plans, did not file a new disclosure report outlining his personal finances as most other senators did in May. The Senate was releasing those reports Friday. Dodd sought a 90-day extension to file his report covering last year, giving him until mid-August to submit his report, but released his report Friday to The Associated Press.”
It’s like he was trying to keep this under the radar until after the bill was done.
SEVEN SUMMERTIME AUTO MYTHS debunked.
MILK CONSUMPTION tied to Parkinson’s disease? Some are blaming the Vitamin D, though I think that’s a stretch based on present data.
A ROUNDUP OF NEWS on Polywell Fusion.
JOE PAPPALARDO on questions to ask about civilian bombings in Afghanistan.
UPDATE: Various readers snark about Obama’s campaign claims that we were “just air raiding villages and killing civilians.” Well, I suspect he has a better grasp on the situation now. I hope so, anyway.
“DAVID LETTERMAN, the voice of Dude Nation.” (Via Feminist Law Professors).
THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF CHANGE! Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children. Who were the rubes on this one? I think we know now. Remember: If you’re not sure who the mark is, you’re the mark.
EARTH LOSING ATMOSPHERE faster than Venus and Mars.
IN THE MAIL: From Robert Wright, The Evolution Of God.
Be careful what you wish for.
No segment of American industry did more than high tech to elect Barack Obama as President of the United States. The 2008 Obama campaign will go down in history as having made better use of digital technology than any before it. From a hugely powerful website to the reproduction of the “Hope” poster on thousands of Facebook pages to the President’s own ‘tweet’ on election night, Silicon Valley played a crucial role in the success of President Obama . . .and Silicon Valley naturally assumed that the new President would do the same in return.
It hasn’t quite turned out that way. . .
The first surprise to many Valleyites is how innately anti-entrepreneurial the new Administration has turned out to be. Candidate Obama looked like a high tech executive – smart, hip, a gadget freak – and he certainly talked pro-entrepreneur. But the reality of the last six months has been very different.
Another bunch figures out who the rubes are.
ED MORRISSEY: “David Freddoso tried to explain that the only change Barack Obama would bring to the Beltway would be an introduction of the Chicago Machine politics that made him successful to the Beltway. The Inspector General of AmeriCorps, one of Obama’s pet projects, has discovered this the hard way. . . . Congress gave IGs this level of protection precisely to avoid this kind of action by the White House. Obama doesn’t want IGs investigating his cronies and political allies, and the evidence for this is rather clear from the way the White House handled it.”
STILL MORE ON THE KENNEDY-DODD HEALTH CARE PLAN, from Keith Hennessey.
ELISABETH EAVES: Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Recession! Yeah, a recession can be nice if you’ve got steady income. And, of course, a recession under President Obama is surely a good thing for America and Americans! Under Bush it would have been a disaster of Steinbeckian proportions, but under Obama it’s a “purifying fire!”
MEGAN MCARDLE: Why I Think the Housing Bubble Has Not Yet Bottomed. “They bought near the height of the bubble. Yet they think their house has appreciated by nearly 10% in the intervening four years.” I see the same thing in my area: People who bought in 2005 or 2006 who think their houses are worth 20-25% more today. And they’re very resistant to cutting the price, even though their house isn’t selling.
VIDEO: 1,000 protesters greet Obama in Green Bay. Funny that these protests don’t get the kind of national-media coverage that much smaller anti-Bush protests got. . . . More here.
A LOOK AT CALIFORNIA’S BUDGET PROBLEMS: “In spite of having the highest taxes in the nation, the state is broke.”