FORGET HIGH-SPEED RAIL: We need a monorail! “But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken!” “Sorry, ma’am, the mob has spoken!” “What about us lazy slobs?” “You’ll all be given cushy jobs!”
Archive for January, 2011
January 25, 2011
JENNIFER RUBIN: Where was Obama the centrist in his State of the Union?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: “WASHINGTON – The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other. Obama spoke ambitiously of putting money into roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives in his State of the Union speech. . . . But Obama offered far more examples of where he would spend than where he would cut, and some of the areas he identified for savings are not certain to yield much if anything.”
FROM FACEBOOK: “I have smoked a salmon, but I never inhaled it.” From Lurleen Blogovitch.
HEARING ECHOES OF Jennifer Granholm.
UPDATE: Investor’s Business Daily: Obama Refuses To Learn From Government’s Clean Energy Failures.
ROGER KIMBALL gets the joke.
WELL, I’M NOT ENJOYING THIS THAT MUCH, BUT AT LEAST I’M NOT ALONE. From just before the high-speed rail bit. Are we having fun yet?
LIVE SOTU COVERAGE AND PREGAME SHOW AT PJTV NOW.
UPDATE: Ann Althouse is Fisking the prepared text. Excerpt: “He’ll work together with Republicans, but only if they offer little tweaks to the big overhaul he rammed through, with no consideration for their opinion, when they didn’t hold the seats in Congress.”
STEPHEN GREEN will be drunkblogging the State of the Union. They’ll also be liveblogging over at United Liberty.
Stephen Green opens: “Word is, the President’s forward-looking speech will place heavy reference on Sputnik, launched in 1957 by a country which ceased to exist 20 years ago.”
UPDATE: They’re also liveblogging at Cato.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Brian Gates emails: “Re Sputnik – They told me if I voted for McCain the President would get nostalgic for 1950s America….” And they were right!
PSYCHOLOGY: WHY PEOPLE LIKE burning other people’s money. And what that means for politics.
MARKDOWNS ON men’s shirts and warm flannel.
EUGENE VOLOKH ON the ethics of publishing cease-and-desist letters. I think it’s fine. I’m not surprised that people who are doing the bullying feel otherwise.
THERE’S MORE TO A SMILE than lips and teeth.
MAKING DENTISTRY more appealing.
WHY THEY’D RATHER TALK ABOUT SARAH PALIN (CONT’D): Price Drop Points to Likely Double Dip in Housing Market.
SANDMONKEY IS tweeting events in Egypt.
A SHAMWOW FOR OIL SPILLS: “When Osorb comes into contact with oil or other water-hating (nonpolar) chemicals, such as oils, fats and other hydrocarbons, its stacks of benzene-silicon plates expand like an accordion to absorb the contaminants. Each gram of material can hold up to eight times its own weight. Because electrically charged liquids, like water, don’t interact with Osorb, the contaminated material can easily be filtered out of it, making Osorb an ideal candidate for cleaning up all kinds of water pollution.”
EGYPT ROCKED BY ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS. More here.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
PATRICK RICHARDSON: Is Science Fiction Getting More Conservative?
Oh, and on a related note, you can get Baen books in Kindle format via the excellent Baen Books website, which also has a lot of free ebooks.
FASTER, PLEASE: Study: Blocking “rogue gene” may stop cancer spread. “The culprit gene, called WWP2, is an enzymic bonding agent found inside cancer cells, the researchers explained in their study, published in the journal Oncogene on Monday. It attacks and breaks down a naturally-occurring protein in the body which normally prevents cancer cells from spreading. In tests in the laboratory, the UEA team found that by blocking WWP2, levels of the natural inhibitor protein were boosted and the cancer cells remained dormant.”
MIKE HUCKABEE SNORTS WITH DERISION AT LIBERTARIANS.
Helen and I talked with him, back when PJTV was young, about his feelings for libertarians and libertarianism. That video is now available on YouTube.