MEGAN MCARDLE: What Are Ratings Agencies For?
Archive for 2010
December 23, 2010
JAMES LILEKS ON Christmas music. “I hear a certain song in a certain style, and it stops me dead. I’m ten.”
MICKEY KAUS: UAW READY FOR FRESH TRIUMPHS! “Two of the three firms we’ve organized have already gone bankrupt!”
THE FIERCE MORAL URGENCY OF CHANGE: Congress Bars Transfers From Guantanamo Bay.
PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning. “This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry. Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full. . . . The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice — but it proves that the unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually does run out, and when that happens, misery and turmoil follow.”
UPDATE: Paying the pension price.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Stacy McCain charges racism.
MATT DRUDGE IS HAVING FUN.
December 22, 2010
FOR THE RECORD, Nina Totenberg Loves Christmas, Was Tweaking Eric Holder:
Turns out her critics got it completely wrong: She was, she says, defending Christmas. The DOJ celebration was officially dubbed a “holiday” party, and she was gently mocking that generic designation. “I think that’s kind of silly because it’s obviously a Christmas party,” she told us. “I was tweaking the Department of Justice. It was a touch of irony at the expense of the Justice department, not at the expense of Christmas.”
As for the bloggers who were so quick to judge — without bothering to ask her what she meant: “Jeesh, these folks need a life — and perhaps a touch of the Christmas spirit, as well.”
Merry Christmas!
JAMES TARANTO: Our Islamophobic Political Class.
But incredibly, in neither the 1,000-word writeup nor the four-minute video report on the Holder interview is there a single mention of Islam. Not only are the “radicals” not described as Islamic radicals or radical Islamists, but Awlaki is described as a “cleric”–oh so generic!–rather than an imam.
We surmise that this omission is willful. The media and the Obama administration give the impression that they are extremely careful to avoid mentioning the religion in whose name al Qaeda and similar groups commit terrorist attacks. We have a distinct sense that this is driven by fear–that they are suffering from, if we may coin a word, Islamphobia.
Indeed.
INSPECTOR GENERAL: Risk of Illegal Aliens Working With Nuclear Weapons. “The risk of such access is more than notional as demonstrated by the Office of Inspector General report ‘Security Access Controls at the Y-12 National Security Complex’ (June 2005) . . . which found that, in the past, illegal aliens had gained access to Y-12 on multiple occasions.”
WORST. CONGRESS. EVAH!
AT AMAZON, more last-minute Christmas deals.
Two-day shipping has run out, but you’ll still be able to do overnight shipping until late tomorrow afternoon.
ERICK ERICKSON: Why the Senate GOP went squishy. “Because the Senate GOP wants to cut deals with the Senate Democrats and they know that just Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Jim DeMint will be able to force deals much more conservative than the Senate GOP is. So Senate Republicans decided to roll over on big issues now knowing that next year they will be forced further right than they might be comfortable.”
VERONIQUE DE RUGY ON EDUCATION SPENDING MYTHS.
STILL MORE GIRLS AND GUNS. Also here.
UPDATE: Also here. Heh.
IS INFLATION STARTING TO SHOW UP in fast food menus?
WHEN TO LEAK AND WHEN NOT TO LEAK: Hilarity At The National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
CHANGE: No Congress Since ’60s Makes as Much Law as 111th Affecting Most Americans. Because what Americans need more than anything now is to be affected by more law.
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1899.
TOM MAGUIRE CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT HE’S READING IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: Not All Global Warming Skeptics Are Crackpots?!? Plus, from the comments: “Pinch discovers the earth is dynamic? It’s a Festivus miracle.”
CHRISTMAS MARKDOWNS in Power Tools.
Also, note this markdown on the Leatherman Freestyle. Also, the Skeletool, which I own and like. Either would make a good stocking stuffer.
CALIFORNIA: The Golden State Of Denial. “How hosed is California? This hosed: State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Stephen Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of Self-Immolation the California Economy have taken to the L.A. Times to deny that they even have a problem.”
GUN CONTROL AS CHILD ABUSE: Toy Gun Buyback:
Dominic joined dozens of children yesterday at the annual Toy Gun Bash in the gymnasium of Pleasant View Elementary School. There, they lined up to toss their toy guns, from dainty purple water guns to camouflage-painted pistols, inside the Bash-O-Matic, a large black, foam creature with churning metal teeth and the shape of a cockroach spliced with a frog.
Prodded by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who wore a fuzzy Santa hat, the children stared curiously as the Bash-O-Matic mashed up their guns and digested them into a plastic bin near its tail. . . . Some children were not thrilled with the trade.
Malik Hall, a round-eyed second-grader, looked apprehensive as he stood in line with his favorite toy, a thick, blue gun with plastic sword underneath the muzzle. The 8-year-old was furious when his mother, Amanda, told him he would have to give it up. Yesterday morning, he tried to hide it under his pillow, she said.
“I’m worried,’’ she said. “He might cry.’’ . . . Diane Levin, professor of education at Wheelock College, said police and parents coming together to destroy toy guns sends a powerful message to children.
Pathetic. (Via SayUncle, who observes: “Indoctrination starts early, I guess. Teaching kids their things are bad. Evil totems that must be destroyed. Deodands.”) Really, if you had put this scene into a dystopian novel about lefty silliness, it would have seemed too heavy-handed.
UPDATE: Reader Eric Hardie emails: “I’ll be offsetting this trend by giving my little girl one of these for Christmas… What would we do without Amazon?” What, indeed? I love that it’s pink. I had one of those when I was a kid, but it wasn’t pink — which in my case is just as well. . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Rachel Pereira writes that she bought her first gun today: “A Springfield Armory XDM 40 in a fashionable shade of green.”
MORE: Reader Ben White writes: “I think Taranto had the best line about this a couple days ago: ‘Nothing says Christmas like taking away a child’s treasured toy and destroying it.'” Monstrous behavior, by monstrous people.
And reader Allen S. Thorpe emails: “They unwittingly created the perfect image to remember of ‘our’ federal government: ‘a large black, . . . creature with churning metal teeth and the shape of a cockroach spliced with a frog” there to take away your property.'” Well, it’s the Rhode Island state government, in the person of its risible Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who’s behind this, not the federal government. But if the shoe fits . . . .
MORE STILL: SayUncle emails: “I should point out that my girl has a real gun, one that you’ve shot.” Yes, I have. I prefer something more muscular, but I’m secure enough in my masculinity to shoot a pink AR-15. And this is why I’m not worried about America, long-term. There are the people traumatizing their kids by grinding up their toy guns in a hideous monster, and there are the people teaching their daughters to shoot. I know who I’m betting on, long-term.
STILL MORE: Reader Rob Robertson: “A recent NPR .. yes, N-P-R … piece. Photo makes the click worth it.” Heh.
EVEN MORE: Another reader emails: “Loved your NPR link (pretty high on the list of things I never thought I’d say!) This must be the year for first bucks. Attached photo is my daughter with her 1st buck, taken 3 weeks ago. Deer season is father/daughter time in our family.”
Also, reader Don Harris writes:
Those people have no shame. I just cannot fathom what sort of brain would come up with that one.
I taught my children how to handle firearms just like my Dad taught me 54 years ago when I was 10 yrs old. I’m happy that my first grandchild also learned to shoot when she turned 13 a few years ago. She doesn’t care much for hunting but she does enjoy shooting.
Here she is with a M1895 Nagant (loaded with .32 S&W Longs) the day her Dad & I took her to a public range to learn how to shoot. We didn’t get a pic of her with the Colt Police Positive .38 Special which she really enjoyed and was quite good at.
That’s a nice revolver. And reader David Wharton writes:
Thought you might enjoy this photo of my son teaching his little sister how to safely use a CZ-75B semi-automatic pistol. He is a third-year cadet at West Point (the gun was his 21st birthday present); she just turned 17 yesterday.
There really are two cultures, and not just as C.P. Snow was describing.