STYLISH, YET PRACTICAL: A necklace that’s also a bottle-opener. Sure to impress the guys, too. . . .
Archive for 2010
March 23, 2010
MARKDOWNS ON a bunch of new Blu-Ray releases. Helen watched The Blind Side the other day and liked it.
THE UNIVERSE AS A Quantum Computer.
SECRET SERVICE PAID HACKER INFORMANT $75,000 / year.
THE ALLURE OF self-defeating behavior.
SEARCHING FOR another Earth.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
REASON TV: Why Is The “Live Free or Die” State Banning Fish Pedicures? They’re nibbling away at our freedoms . . . .
JONATHAN ADLER PRAISES O.M.B.:
Earlier this month, with little fanfare, the Obama Administration took a small but significant step toward encouraging greater technological innovation. On March 8, the Office of Management and Budget issued a guidance to federal agencies on the use of challenges and prizes to spur technological innovation. This memorandum seeks to “strongly encourage” federal agencies to “utilize prizes and challenges as tools for advancing open government, innovation, and the agency’s mission.” It further explains that many federal agencies have sufficient statutory authority to create technology inducement prizes with existing funds and spending authority. More here.
The Obama Administration is to be commended for this initiative. If the federal government is to encourage greater technological innovation, it needs to move beyond the traditional (and largely ineffective) tools of subsidies and mandates.
I had a column on this subject a while back.
ARE AQUARIUMS GETTING too lifelike?
SHOCKER: Arne Duncan manipulated school lists to favor powerful. “Chicago Breaking News reported late last night that former Chicago schools chief and current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan manipulated a system to favor powerful political allies by placing their children in the schools of their choice. The discovery of a list, the existence of which had been long denied by the city, and its composition of mainly high-powered political figures calls into question the appeals system used to reconsider applications that had been denied by the top Chicago-area schools.”
Prediction: There’ll be special “lists” for powerful people who need kidney transplants, too.
GROWTH FACTOR boosts stem cell growth.
CHEMISTS WARMING to Cold Fusion.
HOW THE TABLET COMPUTER will change the world.
NOT BACKING DOWN: AP: Tea Partiers Vow Revenge Over Health Overhaul. “Instead of being discouraged by passage of health care reform, tea party activists across the country say the defeat is a rallying cry that makes them more focused than ever on voting out any lawmaker who supported the measure.”
STONE AGE CENSUS? The 2010 US Census Is So 1990: Lack of an On-Line Option Is Embarrassing. I take the point, but — although the case isn’t as strong as the one for paper ballots — I can see why there might be good anti-fraud reasons for not doing this online.
COMING TO THE U.S.: A Lexus Hybrid Hatchback.
WARTHOG: Some cool A-10 photos from Michael Yon.
THANKS, GOOGLE: For doing the right thing on China.
WHAT CAUSED THE FINANCIAL CRISIS? Too much testosterone, or not enough?
IN THE MAIL: From Elizabeth Kelly, Apologize, Apologize!
RADLEY BALKO: Another Senseless Drug War Death: Stunning developments in the 2009 police shooting of Georgia pastor Jonathan Ayers. “Last September, Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from Lavonia, Georgia, was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in the parking lot of a gas station. Ayers had not been a suspect in any drug investigation. And even today, police acknowledge he was not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. . . . Ayers’ last words to his family and medical staff were that he thought he was being robbed. The police found no illicit drugs in his car, and there was no trace of any illegal substance in his body.”
SMEARING THE TEA PARTIES: Dana Loesch responds on O’Reilly. And, yes, that’s a “Public Enemy” t-shirt she’s wearing. And yes, O’Reilly was fairly clueless.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Roger Pilon at CATO:
One hesitates to weigh in on this mud-slinging for fear of getting muddy oneself. But neither should commentary on Republican and tea-party reaction to Sunday’s House vote be left to the suddenly self-righteous Democratic left: After all, it’s their appalling disregard for democratic principles and processes that gave rise to the weekend’s demonstrations and outbursts. So a few points are in order, simply to put things in perspective.
First, let’s not leap to factual conclusions. Last evening the Lehrer News Hour reported (along with Politico this morning) that Rep. Randy Neugebauer shouted “baby killer” as Rep. Bart Stupak was speaking Sunday night. Yet NPR reported that Neugebauer actually shouted “It’s a baby killer” — referring to the bill, not to Stupak. Neither version is acceptable, but there is a difference. Likewise, claims about protesters taunts should be treated cautiously as well, especially since they’ve been denied, and as yet no footage has emerged to support them. Yet we see here at the Arena this morning that Harvard’s Theda Skocpol is writing, without a shred of evidence, that ”Quite a few Republican public officials are even flirting with threats of violence against political figures they oppose.” So let’s not pretend that the right has a corner on irresponsibility.
Second, even if the claims about protester’s taunts prove to be true, how is that a warrant for condemning the entire tea-party movement, or the Republican party, as many on the left are doing? No broad political movement can control its every “member.” Yet we find people like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn saying that GOP leaders “ought to be ashamed of themselves for bringing these people here to Washington.” Perhaps Rep. Clyburn has forgotten that we still have the right to protest. That’s what the first tea party was about. And let’s remember that George Washington had to wade into the “mob” from time to time to keep order.
And that brings me to a final point. The symbolism of the Democratic left’s hostility to the “tea baggers” should not go unnoticed. The tea party movement’s roots are in the American Revolution. These ordinary Americans are protesting the Washington ”Establishment” — which presently is the Democratic juggernaut – much as American Patriots were protesting the oppressive British Establishment that was “eating out their substance” with “a long train of abuses and usurpations.” The Democratic left should think long and hard about those parallels. The times they are a-changin’.
I should also note — as Dana points out above — that when goons, wearing SEIU t-shirts even, beat up Ken Gladney and called him a “nigger” the press wasn’t interested at all despite the presence of video, and charges filed, while it’s been happy to run with a story about tea partiers that the video contradicts. So the whole have-you-no-decency routine here seems kinda contrived and desperate.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Members of Congress playing the race card. “These people are very powerful members of Congress. It’s unbecoming to act like you’re some woebegone victim.”
MORE: Further thoughts at Power Line.
STILL MORE: Ed Frank emails:
I’ve seen your coverage of the “racial slur” charges on the Hill last weekend, and I know there’s no way to prove a negative, but the video posted on Instapundit seems to show Congressman Jesse Jackson filming the crowd with two Flip video cameras as he and his colleagues walk toward the Cannon Building. Since he apparently walked the entire way with those cameras rolling, at least one of them presumably would have picked up any racial slurs that were uttered along the way. Interestingly, I don’t think Congressman Jackson has released the video he filmed on Saturday – maybe it’s out there, but I can’t find it anywhere. And I’m pretty sure that if there were racial slurs captured on his camera, he would’ve had the clips out there in a heartbeat. In any case, he should probably release whatever footage he shot, just to add some additional transparency to the discussion.
Indeed.