Archive for 2010
February 4, 2010
GUESS WHAT ROSE “UNEXPECTEDLY” AGAIN? “The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.”
POLL: Obamanomics: 42% said it made things worse, only 11% say better. Don Surber: “That means 8 in 9 people think spending $787 billion on a stimulus made no difference or made things worse.”
UPDATE: Laughing it up about the deficit won’t help.
“I FEEL I’VE BEEN HAD.” A magazine editor writes:
Because of manmade global warming, I warned in 1996, that “sea levels could rise as much as three feet by the year 2100 … warming can lead to hotter and more frequent heat waves … stronger and more frequent hurricanes to Hawai‘i … endanger native plants species [and] coral reefs.” These dire predictions came from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia provide much of the IPCC’s analysis and predictions. In November 2009, hackers released thousands of e-mails from the CRU, going back years, and it is these e-mails that reveal the very unscientific, unethical activities I described above.
Read the whole thing.
SECRET SERVICE BREAKS JIM TREACHER’S KNEE. Well, who could blame them, really?
UPDATE: A reader emails:
Yeah, that ain’t funny. Not even close.
Those scumbags are going to get away with this without punishment. There will be bureaucratic stonewalling and legal arguments and paid administrative leaves and national security and so on and so forth and nothing meaningful will happen except to waste a lot of money.
This is part and parcel of the division between the political elite and the rest of us.
Isn’t there a Titles Of Nobility clause or something to prevent this?
UPDATE: Later reports say it was State Department security guys, not Secret Service.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: The White House’s Illegal Piggy Bank.
TOYOTA’S OUT-OF-CONTROL RECALL: “So let’s set the record straight about how a perfectly normal Toyota, or any other car, truck, or SUV, can accelerate wildly ‘out of control’ with an even reasonably competent driver behind the wheel. Can’t happen. Period. End of story if the driver simply puts the gearshift in neutral (that ‘N’ just above ‘D’) and safely steers over to the shoulder of the road. And if the engine races until you shut it off, so what? All you really care about is keeping you and your passengers safe.”
Related item here. “Nice car company ya got there, be a shame if anything happened to it.”
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, seasons 1-6, steeply marked down from $238.72 to $89.99.
ED DRISCOLL: Mr. President, We Cannot Afford A Demon Sheep Gap.
MARK TAPSCOTT: Third party is the wrong party for Tea Partiers.
There is no mystery about what most Tea Partiers seek — a limited, transparent government that listens to them and resists ideologues with millennial blueprints to remake America in their own image, minimal taxation and regulation, strong national defense, and an unapologetic commitment to American exceptionalism abroad.
Tea Partiers should seek out or field candidates in both major parties who support those aims and do everything possible to elect them, then hold their feet to the fire of accountability. Just imagine a bipartisan Tea Party Caucus with sufficient numbers in Congress to drive the national agenda.
That could be a conquering army like none before in American politics.
I agree. Don’t emulate the traditional parties — disintermediate them.
ATF AGENT SUES AGENCY, and it sues him.
HOPE AND CHANGE? White House: No, we’re not going to have regular Question Time sessions.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are open to the idea.
MULTICULTURALISM AT VANDERBILT:
Vanderbilt University last night moved to distance itself from the controversy over a statement made by its Muslim chaplain last week at a campus event.
At a forum entitled “Common Ground: Being Muslim in the Military” on Jan. 25, Chaplain Awadh A. Binhazim responded to a question from student Devin Saucier, vice president of the V.U. chapter of conservative group Youth for Western Civilization, by saying he would have to “go with what Islam teaches” regarding the imposition of capital punishment on practicing homosexuals.
Several Islamic countries, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, are known to have put people to death for homosexual activity.
After accounts of the event and YouTube footage of Binhazim’s comment led to widespread criticism on both conservative and gay-oriented blogs, the university put out a statement Monday evening noting that the event was part of its “Project Dialogue,” a series meant to bring “diverse viewpoints” to campus.
Luckily, he was Muslim, not Baptist, so it won’t be a big national scandal.
L.A. TIMES: Congressional Democrats are nay-saying Obama’s budget. “All that underscores a potential gap between Obama’s governing agenda and congressional Democrats’ political interests.”
HOPE. It’s what’s for breakfast!
DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE ECONOMY:
The good news is that, when it comes to reshaping the U.S. mortgage market [any market for that matter — ed.], the Obama administration’s top guns are bringing to bear all of the brisk, rough-’n’-ready entrepreneurial know-how they picked up in their previous careers as university professors, nonprofit activists, and holders of political sinecures.
The country’s in the very best of hands.
February 3, 2010
FROM AMAZON, Electronics Outlet deals.
UPDATE: Reader Dan O’ Brien writes:
BTW: at least this reader appreciates your monitoring the Amazon.com sales specials. Last week, you highlighted a home entertainment sale on Amazon and I found the speakers I needed on sale, $50 off each (needed two) with free shipping, plus the center speaker marked down $25 and also free shipping. Saved me a bundle. Thanks!
De Nada.
TEA PARTY VS. ESTABLISHMENT in Virginia’s 5th district?
AN ODD STATEMENT BY OBAMA:
Obama said he would attempt to convince his party’s left wing to take a less ideological approach to economic challenges.
“We’ve got to make sure that our party understands that, like it or not, we have to have a financial system that is healthy and functioning, so we can’t be demonizing every bank out there,” Obama said. “We’ve got to be the party of business, small business and large business, because they produce jobs.”
Like it or not? Who wouldn’t like a “healthy and functioning” financial system? According to Obama, the answer is . . . Democrats.
Who writes this stuff?
YEAH, I’VE BEEN IN THIS MOOD on occasion, too.
RAHM EMANUEL re-apologizes for “retarded” remark.
UPDATE: Leadership That’s Working!
SPENDING OUR WAY to stagnation.
UPDATE: Reader Dennis Owens writes: “I’m afraid that we’re actually spending ourselves to stagflation.”