Archive for December, 2010

HOW IT WORKS: CHINA’S NEW CARRIER-KILLER MISSILE. Unfortunately for them, it’s nothing compared to Ben Bernanke’s creditor-killing monetary policy . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Richard Wagner emails:

Regarding your recent post on Chinese Carrier-Killer missiles:

No doubt China’s present capabilities were enhanced by the Clinton Administration weakening controls on missile technology flowing to the Chinese, and that this has enabled the subject of your post. Now Obama is doing the same thing in demoting the present missile-tech-to-China decision process from the White House to the Commerce Department. With whatever they get as a result of this Obama decision, the Chinese will undoubtedly be able to close the technology gap further due to yet another unwise lessening of controls.

Curious thing about American exceptionalism: In the defense area it not only allows us to stay ahead of our competitors, it also allows us to make up for the stupid decisions of our leaders who would give away the fruits of our exceptionalism.

Meh. When Bernanke’s done with ’em, they won’t even be able to afford a single Congressman.

CREDENTIALED, NOT EDUCATED: Ezra Klein: the Constitution is Impossible to Understand Because It’s Over 100 Years Old.

Just another dismissal of those long-dormant ideas from dusty bookshelves . . . Because educated credentialed people don’t care about those!

UPDATE: Reader Dave Ivers writes: “And the Left says Palin is stupid?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Daniel Barenholtz emails: “. . and after all that talk about Bush wanting to ‘shred the constitution’. Now a meme seems to be developing among some liberals that the Constitution is outmoded.”

I guess Bush should have just said “Whaddya mean, it’s over a hundred years old!”

MORE: Reader Mark Meyer notes that although the headline at Eyeblast is “impossible,” Klein actually says the Constitution is “confusing.” I don’t see this as being as big a difference as Meyer does, but I suppose it’s worth noting.

SCIENCE: Relationships are better if you wait over a month to have sex. Huh. I’m not sure I ever did that. I’m not even sure I know anyone who did that . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Colin Frazier writes: “You don’t know any married people? Oh, you mean wait over a month before the *first* time… Nevermind.” And I guess we’re back to our discussion of “maintenance sex. . .” Or maybe this one.

Meanwhile, though, there’s a question of when the clock starts. If you start with the first official date, the above is true, but most of the women I dated were women I already knew — I’d known Helen for over a decade before our first official “date.” So how does that figure in?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Michael Gebert writes:

Seems to me that the author of this piece, and the scientists involved, misread their own study (not that that ever happens with journalistic reports on, say, the economy).

A bad relationship with sex may plug along for a while just because of the sex, but a bad relationship that doesn’t also have sex going for it is quickly over. Therefore, the body of bad relationships will have fewer sexless relationships in it than the body of good relationships. So all this means is that there is a higher proportion of good relationships which don’t include sex– not that sex leads to better relationships.

Sex, casual yes, causal no!

Hmm.

MICKEY KAUS: Did Congress screw up telecommuting? “What employer will want to push telecommuting if that means he’ll have to think twice before not promoting, let alone firing, an underperforming telecommuter (because it might mean a lawsuit)?”

NEW YORK POST: Sanitation Department’s slow snow cleanup was a budget protest. “These garbage men really stink. Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts — a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned. Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.” Sounds like the time might be ripe for more demotions. Or even . . . gasp . . . actual firings.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Schubert writes:

t might be worth pointing out that these guys make around $70k a year, base salary, plus a lot of overtime and incredible pensions.

If I were a NYC voter…well, “torqued off” wouldn’t cover it.

Indeed. Can ’em all and outsource it?

IOWAHAWK: I’ll Never Wear Pants Again: “Something about being clad in a jumpsuit gives a man renewed confidence, a glint in his eye, a virile take-charge swagger.”

IS THE THREE-DAY HOLIDAY A RIGHT?

LOOKING AT THE NEXT Solar Max. “Recurrence of a 1921 event today would fry 350 major transformers, leaving more than 130 million people without power, it heard. A bigger storm could cost between a trillion and two trillion dollars in the first year, and full recovery could take between four and 10 years.”

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Hey, why don’t we pour our vitality into un-Constitutional boondoggles like ObamaCare, instead of improving infrastructure?”

IRAN’S SPECIAL GROUPS in Iraq.

Well, hell, they’re in Afghanistan.