“POLITICS AS WARFARE.” My, for a party that just took the White House two years ago, the Democrats are sounding kind of shrill, lately.
Archive for 2010
December 1, 2010
MICHAEL TOTTEN: When idiots get degrees.
Related: Wikileaks as seen by dolphins.
NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON.
FIXING THE U.S. housing finance system.
MARK HEMINGWAY: Does the Southern Poverty Law Center think Barack Obama is spreading hate? Well, that bit about punishing racial enemies didn’t sound too nice. . . .
RECESSIONS, LIKE TAXES, ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: There’s One Housing Market Is Holding Onto Its Bubble Gains Better Than Any Other. “Probably the most grating aspect of the recent history of home prices around the country (at least, to me) is that, due in large part to the rise in government bailouts and federal deficit spending, the greater Washington D.C. area has been the best housing market for some time now, holding on to its housing bubble gains better than any other region as shown below in the latest data for the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes. And the home price gains near the nation’s capital just keep on coming, the September data showing an increase of 0.2 percent while every other region (except basket case Las Vegas) showed price declines.”
WHAT HATH OBAMACARE WROUGHT? Health Care Union Drops Coverage For Children. “They’re basically saying that the new law has made benefits more expensive, and that this is contributing to people cutting coverage–exactly the argument that opponents were derided for making during the debate. It’s like seeing Bill Bennett take to the pages of High Times with an op-ed on the costs of marijuana prohibition.”
SHOULD BE FUN: Chicago Tea Party Event: Wednesday, December 1 at 7:00 PM. (Reposted, for any interested Chicagoans who might have missed it the first time.)
RICHARD FERNANDEZ ON OBAMA’S FEDERAL PAY FREEZE:
News that President “Obama proposed a two-year freeze on raises for federal employees , apparently in some sort of concession to the reality of the midterm elections” signals the erosion of fixed incomes before the raging deficit torrents. . . . The politicians who did the hiring neglected to say they would be paying salaries on credit; funding it from the deficit; putting it on the credit card. Now that the monthly minimums can’t be met except by borrowing from the printing press, they’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that they have to welsh on those promised salaries and pensions to those already onboard.
Read the whole thing.
LATEST GLOBAL-WARMING PITCH: Fun new climate change solution: Let’s impose rationing on the developed world. Let’s not. Instead, let’s cut the budgets of people who spend their time partying in the tropics while lecturing us about rationing.
I’LL BE ON TRAVEL TODAY, so blogging may be a bit ligher, and email responses will likely be considerably slower. Sorry!
A SPECIAL SPECIES of snobbery. “If a passport were required to go west of the Hudson, these people would be proud they didn’t have one.”
CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS: Amtrak lifts ban on guns. “The rule was not based on any facts or any reality and was frankly punitive toward sportsmen, hunters and gun owners.”
MICHAEL YON: Defense Secretary Gates on the Wikileaks story. “Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest.”
November 30, 2010
TIM GEITHNER: Europe Is A Mess.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on electronics.
DOUBLE STANDARDS on children and publicity. “Is that right, tucking those kids away from the rest of the society? Why not be out and proud?”
PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH picks up the stone of Sisyphus.