SCIENCE: Uncertainty Can Increase Romantic Attraction. Ya think?
Archive for 2010
December 24, 2010
“RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH” PARTY CANDIDATE to run against Obama. We can all use a little levity. . . .
MIRACLE ON 22D STREET: “Two New York City men feel a tremendous responsibility to respond properly when they mysteriously receive hundreds of letters addressed to Santa Claus at their Chelsea apartment.”
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, the federal government would oppose protecting Polar Bears. And they were right! “Environmentalists who challenged the listing in court had hoped that Obama administration officials would seize the opportunity to ditch the Bush administration’s decision and extend stronger protections to the species.”
UPDATE: Obama Administration Defends Bush Polar Bear Position.
EXPLODING A TAX MYTH: A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that ‘taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.’ More so than Sweden or France. The problem in the United States is that too many people vote, but don’t pay income taxes.
MARRIAGE LITE: Straight Couples Choosing Civil Unions.
SERVICES I DON’T USE: Amazon Tote: Sorry, Prime seems better. Amazon Fresh: I’d use this, if it were offered where I live. But it’s not. Sigh.
UPDATE: Yeah, I know Tote’s not in my area either, but I wouldn’t use it if it were. What’s the point, exactly?
ANOTHER UPDATE: A Seattle reader emails:
Prime is better but we do use Amazon Tote occasionally, because:
1) The tote is awesome. It is large, strong, waterproof and it is yours to keep.
2) Waterproof delivery. Living in Seattle means that it rains most days and not only is there not much protection from the weather at our front door, one of the regular UPS delivery drivers tries to be helpful by hiding our packages in the bushes — where the boxes frequently get wet and dirty. We haven’t had an order get damaged but it is a worry.
Sounds like it should be called Amazon Dry!
MICKEY KAUS: Obama, Hispanic Immigration Activists Rethink Core Strategy. “In the wake of the defeat of the DREAM Act—long considered the immigrant legalization bill that would be easiest to pass—the once-confident ‘immigration reform’ movement has entered an introspective, questioning phase. Activists are openly asking how their leaders, such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez, could have so misjudged the public mood as to lead them to near-total defeat.” But read the whole thing.
TEEN BIRTHRATE HITS RECORD LOW. I credit all the porn and videogames.
UPDATE: Reader Dick Moore emails: “Teen birth rates are going down due to effectiveness of depo-provera shots; check on % of health dept budgets spent on Depo-provera around USA.” This may explain teenage weight gain, to some degree, as well . . . .
A COMPUTER CHIP THAT CAN sequence a genome in minutes?
MEDIA TALKING POINTS SURVEY: Not Journalism, but JournoListism.
SPIRIT OF AMERICA on the ground in Afghanistan. And Rob “N.Z. Bear” Neppell emails to remind that you can donate to ’em here.
CHANGE: Union Visits Private Home To Intimidate: Local Media Calls It Caroling. “Are you kidding me? A caravan of 80 people to sing insults and, according to eyewitnesses, shouting ‘F*CK YOU’ at various houses right before Christmas? This isn’t ‘caroling,’ this is intimidation.”
Have pro-lifers do the same thing at Planned Parenthood folks’ homes, and see how they cover that. Just remember, the political pitchfork is turning, people are paying attention, the media don’t control the narrative any more, and all this stuff is precedent . . . .
GUESS WHO LOVES the enlightened despotism of Chinese-style family planning? Also, strangely, mandatory abortion doesn’t get pro-choice people too upset. Or even intrusive “gynecological surveillance.”
MAKING SENSE of the Chevy Volt’s EPA label.
MEGAN MCARDLE: Is Chris Christie Sarah Palin, Or Ronald Reagan? “I’d just point out that Chris Christie just finished his first year as governor in a state where ugly budget problems offer extremely unpleasant choices. He’s made real, deep cuts, as he’s had to–unlike Obama, to whom he is now being compared, he can’t just borrow money to paper over the holes.”
BYRON YORK: Smiling Dems Will Soon Cry “Washington Is Broken!”
With a significantly smaller, 53-seat majority in the Senate, Democrats will no longer be able to pass contentious legislation all by themselves or with just one or two Republican votes. On the other side, Republicans, with 47 votes, will no longer have to achieve perfect unity to sustain a filibuster and stop objectionable legislation. They’ll be able to lose three, four, five, even six members of the GOP caucus and still stop a bill.
That’s why you’re hearing confidence from the likes of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and deficit hawk Sen. Tom Coburn. “There aren’t going to be any big spending bills,” Coburn told ABC recently when asked to assess prospects for legislation next year.
It’s also why you’re hearing new rumbling about what many Democrats consider the ultimate fix for the Washington-is-broken problem: eliminating the filibuster. A perennial complaint, unhappiness with the filibuster is likely to reach new heights among Democrats in the next few months. Already, the entire returning Democratic caucus has signed a letter by Sens. Carl Levin and Mark Warner calling for rules changes that will make it easier to kill filibusters. Some are also hoping to make it possible to change the Senate’s rules with a simple majority vote, rather than the two-thirds vote required now. That way, Democrats could do anything they want, even without that 60-vote majority.
It won’t happen; there aren’t the votes. It could even be that Democrats are pushing the anti-filibuster argument so loudly because they know it won’t happen. That way, they can position themselves as favoring “filibuster reform” with the comfort of knowing they’ll still have the filibuster the next time they’re in the minority, which might be soon.
Indeed.
AT THE MOMENT, IT’S LOOKING PRETTY GOOD: Would Global Warming Be So Bad?
NO MORE SHIPPING IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS, but you can send Kindle books or gift cards. Otherwise, I can’t help you. If you’ve procrastinated this long, it’s brave-the-malls time!
DER SPIEGEL: ‘Barack Obama Was the Biggest Loser of 2010.’ Hey, I thought electing Obama was supposed to make the Europeans approve of us. . . .