LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT up in arms over Shpoonkle. “The U.S. has lots and lots of un-and under-employed lawyers. The U.S. also has lots of people who have legal problems that they can’t afford to spend a lot of money on. In the latest application of computer matching, buyers and sellers can get together on a site called Shpoonkle, the brain child of Robert Niznik, who is just finishing at New York Law School. Here is the story in the Chronicle. Predictably, the legal establishment is up in arms.”
Archive for December, 2011
December 28, 2011
AT AMAZON, winter deals in the Automotive Outlet.
CHANGE: New Law Assumes Americans Abroad Are Tax Criminals, Imposes Billions in Compliance Costs on Foreign Banks. “The IRS, under pressure from angry and confused financial officials abroad, has extended the deadline for registration until June 30, 2013, and is struggling to provide more detailed guidance by the end of this year. But beginning in 2012, many American expatriates — already the only developed-nation citizens subject to double taxation from their home government — must furnish the I.R.S. with detailed personal information on their overseas assets.”
Perhaps we need to harmonize our customs with other nations’. Isn’t it “arrogant” and “inconsiderate” for us to be so far “outside the mainstream” of civilized practice? Or does that only apply to things like capital punishment?
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Europe: If Tomorrow Comes.
The New York Times featured the town of Laviano in Italy. Only half its houses were occupied. But any closures of its churches were the least of its problems. It’s problem was even worse: it didn’t have enough kids to keep the schools open. The newly elected mayor “racked his brain and came up with a desperate idea: pay women to have babies.” . . . What happened? The problem as Steyn succinctly puts it, is that socialism not only “runs out of other people’s money”, as Margaret Thatcher once put it. It simply runs out of people. Future historians, if there are any left, will puzzle over how this came about. The economists will have an easier time explaining it. Through some process, socialism has apparently increased the discount rate to the point where the future is consumed for the sake of the present. Not only is investment taxed to feed consumption, tomorrow is hocked to pay for today.
If the fiscal deficit is the direct monetary expression of this high discount rate, the collapsing population is its equivalent demographic expression. Both are saying the same thing, in different terms. In incentives terms, the future is no longer real; so people don’t save up for it nor do they have any incentive to sacrifice for it.
Steyn points out that one feeds into the other. By failing to provide for the next generation to feed present consumption, the present West has also reduced its capacity to service the debt when tomorrow rolls around.
The future belongs to those who show up.
ANDREW MALCOLM: What Ben Nelson’s Surrender Means For 2012. “The GOP would have to nominate a large number of Elmer Fudds to blow this one. Holding their own and grabbing four seats gives Republicans a majority in that body, which means the country could have a federal budget for the first time in nearly three years.”
WAIT, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE LAST TRILLION WE LET YOU BORROW? Obama to ask for debt limit hike: Treasury official. “The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.”
Remember back in 2008 when he was promising a “net spending cut?” Just in case, here’s a reminder.
I think that the 2012 question will be What happened to the money?
Just don’t call him unpatriotic.
NOT JUST BARNEY FRANK: Eight Veteran House Democrats Retiring. “The retirement of rank-and-file Democrats is an especially bad sign for the Democrats if they have any hope of retaking the U.S. House. The nine House retirements are even more notable because each ranks high in seniority for key House committees — if the House returned to Democratic rule, they would be in line to assume chairmanships. Chairmanships are great perks, offering hideaway offices in the Capitol building and less restrained power and authority. Voluntarily walking away from Hill leadership is uncommon: House members can sit for twenty years on the Hill and never get close to a chairmanship. To Democratic Party faithful, the nine retiring congressmen present a dramatic picture of the hostile environment Democrats are facing as the 2012 election begins. Some of the retirees had easily won re-election with 60-70% majorities. Their stampede for the exit is yet another admission that the Democrats face a potential “wave” election, and of course, it portends considerable trouble for Barack Obama.”
TODAY ONLY: Black & Decker Steam Mop for $44.99.
UPDATE: Rachel Pereira writes:
I have something similar to the steam mop you linked; I love it and highly recommend steam mopping. I got mine for free & got paid to blog about it, but I love it anyway! Mopping is a task I loathe more than any other task (except sweeping), and my steam mop seriously improved my mood about having to mop.
My paid mop review from back in the day, if you interested.
I haven’t bought chemicals to clean my floors since I started steam mopping, and I feel a lot better about allowing my small animals to run
around on my tile floors now, knowing they won’t inhale residual chemicals, and I can steam away their germs.
Sounds good.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Gene Humphreys writes:
‘m a daily reader and love your site.
On the steam mop review (update) you posted today, your readers might want to know that, while they’re great for tile, some hardwood floor manufacturers and a lot of refinishers say that a steam mop will void the finish warranty. This is especially true of the newer “green” waterbased finishes.
I didn’t know that, but it makes sense.
MORE ON RON PAUL AND HIS NEWSLETTERS, from Ilya Somin.
HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Iraq In Crisis Following U.S. Withdrawal. Obama was more interested in politics than success, with predictable results.
DOG BITES MAN: New York Times guilty of shoddy journalism on gun story.
Plus, more scorn aimed at the Times, from gun journalist Bob Owens. “In other words, 200 permit holders were convicted of felonies out of 240,000 permit holders, or 0.0833333334-percent of NC concealed carry permit population. I would love for the New York Times to do the research and see what percentage of the NYPD, Chicago PD, Los Angeles PD, or New Orleans PD is convicted of felonies in any given year.”
Research? Where guns and the NYT are concerned, “research” means copying the latest press release from Brady or Bloomberg.
And, from SayUncle: “Of course, no expose into the Mayors Against Guns crowd, who are 45 times more likely to be a criminal than a FL permit holder.”
He’s not joking about that. “Comparatively speaking, Mayors Against Illegal Guns members are almost eight times more likely to be convicted of crimes than Florida concealed firearm license holders – but that number is based off 23 years of licenses versus four years of MAIG. Assuming the mayors had as much history as the licenses, and assuming the same trend (11 mayors convicted in four years – a sizeable assumption, but it is all the data we have to operate on), you are looking at MAIG members being over 45 times more likely to be convicted of crimes than Florida concealed firearm license holders. How funny is that?”
Related: BlackFive: Misused Gun Statistics Kill The Truth. “Did you know there is a nationwide rampage going on where crazed fanatics with concealed carry permits are slaughtering innocent citizens? Neither did I, but thankfully the NY Times is on the story. With their usual, thoroughly accurate, fact-checked, journalistic professionalism propaganda, they have concocted a faux outrage that simply doesn’t add up.”
Plus, from Robert VerBruggen:
All of these numbers are completely meaningless; in any large population, there will be some crime. The only way to see what these numbers mean is to compare concealed-carry holders to the general population. Fortunately, state-level murder data are easy to find.
North Carolina has a statewide murder rate of about 5 per 100,000. Even without counting manslaughter, that’s 25 murders committed per 100,000 North Carolinians every five years. There are about 230,000 valid concealed-carry permits in North Carolina, so by pure chance, you’d expect these folks to be responsible for nearly 60 murders over five years. And yet only ten of them committed murder or manslaughter. Instead of “rais[ing] questions,” the Times has demonstrated yet again that permit holders are more peaceful than the general population.
Oft evil will shall evil mar.
HOW THE GOVERNMENT HAS CAUSED AMERICA’S OBESITY PROBLEM: “While blaming lack of exercise, overeating, and (this week) poor parenting, the real culprit has been almost entirely overlooked: The awful dietary advice dispensed by mainstream medical science over the last 30 years. If we want a healthier, slimmer population, we have to stop eating the sugar-laden diet so many experts have recommended to us.”
Of course for the real story, read this. If you dare.
AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, “Politics Drive Law Enforcement.”
December 27, 2011
JOHN HINDERAKER endorses Mitt Romney. “The ‘anybody but Romney’ mentality that grips many Republicans is, in my view, illogical. It led them to embrace Rick Perry, who turned out to be unable to articulate a conservative thought; Newt Gingrich, whose record is far more checkered than Romney’s; Ron Paul, whose foreign policy views–indistinguishable from those of the far left–and forays into racial intolerance make him unfit to be president; and Michele Bachmann, whom I like very much, but who is more qualified to be a rabble-rouser than a chief executive.”
If you’re not happy with this, there’s always Operation Counterweight.
UPDATE: A different take from John Hawkins.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): America’s Dirty Little Housing Secret Is Rocking The Suburbs.
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Driving my grandmother to Birmingham, then driving back, in one day. Leading to little blogging, what with the lack of ubiquitous wifi and EVDO back then. I miss those drives, and I miss her.
AT AMAZON, up to 70% off on clothing and accessories. For men, women, and children.
NASHVILLE: Mt. Juliet car dealership shut down for alleged terrorist ties. “A lawsuit was filed by the U.S. government against a group of overseas banks Dec. 15 in U.S. District Court in New York. It names Cedar Exports & Auto Sales at 7787 Eastgate Blvd. as part of a nationwide network of auto dealers who received money from an international money laundering concern with ties to drug traffickers, some of whom are supporters of Hezbollah.”
RIOT AT THE MALL OF AMERICA. “I recently read Stephen Hunter’s Soft Target, about a terrorist attack on the Mall of America. While the outcome yesterday was entirely different–no one was seriously hurt, and reportedly no shots were fired–the beginning of the riot, with screaming shoppers fleeing from gangs of ‘youths’ amid the sound of broken glass, and people being herded into the back rooms of stores for safety, was eerily reminiscent of Hunter’s novel. The moral, I suppose, is that civilization faces various threats against which we do not yet have adequate antidotes.”
Actually, we do. If “youths” felt they were at serious risk of being shot when attacking innocents, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. And, in fact, not so long ago they were, and it didn’t. If these problems become widespread, the antidote will present itself. “Youths,” in general, do what they can get away with, and don’t do what they can’t.
UPDATE: Reader Richard Kaul writes: “Minnesota has a shall-issue concealed carry law that’s worked well, despite the metro DFL’s prediction of street bloodbaths. But the law does allow establishments to ban concealed carry, and the Mall of America does so. Which is one reason I rarely go there. I figure I can go other places that choose not to make me an easy target.”
And reader Eric Klaus writes:
It wasn’t too long ago that when a plane was hijacked, the “expert” advice was to sit quietly and acquiesce. We all know how that worked out on 9-11.
Robberies and rioting youths are still in “acquiesce” mode. Things that can’t go on forever, won’t.
Indeed.
SOPA BLOWBACK: “The dynamic is clear. Once SOPA — and its Senate counterpart, Protecting IP Act, or PIPA — became high-profile among the Internet community, the lazy endorsements from companies and various hangers-on became toxic. And now, those supporters are scrambling, hollowing out the actual support for the bill. Suddenly, a bill with ‘widespread’ corporate support doesn’t have much support at all.”
AN ARMY OF DAVIDS APPROACH TO LITIGATION: Car owner takes legal fight away from lawyers. “Working together but filing lawsuits independently, consumers could force companies to go mano a mano with individual plaintiffs in far-flung courtrooms nationwide. Call it a small-claims flash mob.”
PENELOPE TRUNK: Shortcuts To Common New Year’s Resolutions.