FINANCIAL TIMES: Exploding Debt Threatens America. “Under President Barack Obama’s budget plan, the federal debt is exploding. To be precise, it is rising – and will continue to rise – much faster than gross domestic product, a measure of America’s ability to service it.”
Archive for 2009
May 27, 2009
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT backing down on Internet censorship?
A NEW Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie. Only . . .
REASON TV: 128 Days Later: It Can Always Get Worse.
LUCIAN BEBCHUK on reforming corporate elections.
HOWARD KURTZ: Secretly Selling Sotomayor. “While the Obama administration is hardly the first to use background briefings, journalists have complained about the ground rules several times this year. Reporters for the AP, New York Times and Washington Post, among others, objected at yesterday’s session for print journalists.” Hope, change, and transparency!
THE CHICAGO WAY: CONSEQUENCES: “Bond investors literally can’t afford to lend to unionized companies because it’s clear that current power in Washington will take the unions’ side, despite past bankruptcy law precedents that favor senior creditors. That means Washington’s actions in pushing for these bankruptcy verdicts to come out in favor of the unions will probably hurt unionized companies in the long run.”
TA-NEHISI COATES: About that “wise Latina” statement. “The problem with this reasoning is it implicitly accepts the logic (made for years by white racists) that there is something essential and unifying running through all white people, everywhere.”
HOME-SECURITY robots.
THE MYTH OF the white Muslim’s burden. Aren’t Arabs white?
IS THE CLOSING OF CHRYSLER DEALERSHIPS a politically targeted operation?
DEFLATING the “green bubble.”
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: An electric jet-ski.
TEST-DRIVING THE Lexus 250h hybrid. “The interior of the HS is techy, cool and far more inviting and driver-oriented than, say, the Prius.”
NEWSPAPERS “PUSHING UP FLOWERS.” Photographic proof!
A student who wants to form a gun-rights group at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) has been threatened with disciplinary action for her efforts. Student Christine Brashier has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help after reporting that administrators banned her informational pamphlets, ordered her to destroy all copies of them, and told her that further “academic misconduct” would not be tolerated. . . .
In April, CCAC student Christine Brashier created pamphlets to distribute to her classmates encouraging them to join her in forming a chapter of the national Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) organization at CCAC. The handbill states that the group “supports the legalization of concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses.” She personally distributed copies of the flyer, which identified her as a “Campus Leader” of the effort to start the chapter.
On April 24, Jean Snider, Student Development Specialist at CCAC’s Allegheny Campus, summoned Brashier to a meeting that day with Snider and Yvonne Burns, Dean of Student Development. According to Brashier, the deans told Brashier that passing out her non-commercial pamphlets was prohibited as “solicitation.” They told Brashier that trying to “sell” other students on the idea of the organization was prohibited.
CCAC also told Brashier that the college must pre-approve any distribution of literature to fellow students, and that pamphlets like hers would not be approved, even insisting that Brashier destroy all copies of her pamphlet.
Brashier reports that she was also interrogated about why she was distributing the pamphlets, whether she owned a licensed firearm and had ever brought it to campus (she has not), whether she carries a concealed firearm off campus, and whether she disagrees with the existing college policy banning concealed weapons on campus.
When Brashier stated that she wanted to be able to discuss this policy freely on campus, she was told to stop doing so without the permission of the CCAC administration.
An absolute disgrace. There’s contact information at the link, but I hope that some Pennsylvanians will contact their state legislators, too.
More thoughts from Eugene Volokh, who notes that the college hasn’t given its side of the story yet — though, in light of the time lag, I’d say that’s indicative.
THE LATEST Grand Rounds is up!
IT’S ALL SPELLING BEE, ALL THE TIME, over at Throwing Things.
IN THE MAIL: From Claire Shipman and Katty Kay, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success.
MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Future of Iraq, Part II. As always, worth your time. Remember that, like Michael Yon, he’s supported by reader donations, so if you like his work, consider hitting the tipjar.
MICHAEL SILENCE TO AP’S JENNIFER LOVEN: “Hey, you made the bed. Sleep in it. Oh, and by the way, what made you think the White House would give you a honeymoon?”
TONIGHT, A NEW SHOW FOR SOUTH PARK CONSERVATIVES?
Director Mike Judge’s new animated television series “The Goode Family” is a send-up of a clan of environmentalists who live by the words “What would Al Gore do?” Gerald and Helen Goode want nothing more than to minimize their carbon footprint. They feed their dog, Che, only veggies (much to the pet’s dismay) and Mr. Goode dutifully separates sheets of toilet paper when his wife accidentally buys two-ply. And, of course, the family drives a hybrid.
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with driving a hybrid!
WHO IS JOHN GALT? TAX COLLECTIONS PLUMMET.
Meanwhile, China warns Federal Reserve over ‘printing money’. “China has warned a top member of the US Federal Reserve that it is increasingly disturbed by the Fed’s direct purchase of US Treasury bonds.” So am I. Plus, over $99 Trillion in unfunded pension and health-care liability, “built up by a careless political class over the years.”