5 MYTHS WOMEN believe about men.
Archive for 2011
June 8, 2011
FROM JOHN HAWKINS, TRAFFIC BAIT: The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media (2011 Edition).
A 1,500 HORSEPOWER natural gas supercar.
DANA MILBANK: Lawmakers’ Fiscal Gambles Are Worse Than The Sexual Ones. We should be giving these clowns less power, not more. They can’t even run their own lives.
GENERAL MOTORS CEO: Hey, how about let’s raise gas taxes!
UNEXPECTEDLY: OPEC won’t increase production. “Get ready for higher gas prices.”
JOAN HEMINWAY: Sustaining Reform Efforts at the SEC: A Progress Report.
R.U. SIRIUS HAS A NEW SITE, Acceler8or.com.
IN THE MAIL: From Terrence O. Moore, The Perfect Game.
MICHAEL BARONE: Free Market, Not Government Policies, Drives Energy Boom.
The administration has shut down much offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (even though Obama cheered Petrobras’ drilling off the shore of Brazil) and has been denying permits for oil drilling in Alaska that is needed to keep the pipeline pumping. This on top of environmental groups’ successful attempts to prevent drilling on the desolate tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The State Department has even been stalling on approving the Keystone pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Environmental groups object to drilling techniques Canada allows.
It’s unclear why we should feel called on to second-guess the internal regulations of a competent and environmentally-conscious nation like Canada. And it’s incomprehensible why we should want to keep out a plentiful supply of oil from a dependable and friendly neighbor.
There is a lesson here for public policy generally, including health care. No centralized government expert predicted the vast expansion in energy supply from hydraulic fracking. It was produced by decentralized specialists in firms subject to market competition.
Read the whole thing.
BEWARE THE LIGHT BULB POLICE. “On January 1, 2012, seven months from this week, Washington will effectively ban the sale of conventional 100 watt incandescent light bulbs that Americans have used nearly since the days of Thomas Edison. Instead we will all be required to buy compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs. We’d like to believe that when the government decrees what kind of light bulbs you can screw into the lamp in your own bedroom, even liberals would be nervous about the nanny state.” Especially since the CFLs have not, to put it mildly, lived up to the promises made.
But it’s not too late to stock up!
UPDATE: Reader Dave Tulka writes: “I just had two CFL replacements for the old, reliable 100 watt bulb burn out with less than one hour of service.” Yeah, like I said, they really haven’t lived up to the hype.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: From Abbottabad To Worse. “There’s absolutely no mystery to the ‘Why do they hate us?’ question, at least as it arises in Pakistan. They hate us because they owe us, and are dependent upon us. The two main symbols of Pakistan’s pride—its army and its nuclear program—are wholly parasitic on American indulgence and patronage.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Dartmouth College Diverts Endowment Funds To Administration.
Given that administrative bloat is the biggest driver in higher education costs, that’s not such a surprise.
JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Tim Pawlenty’s Five Percent Solution. “Is 5 percent GDP growth a realistic goal? It’s certainly a great aspirational one, but many mainstream economists would say it’s not doable. Here’s the challenge: The U.S economy hasn’t grown so fast for so long since the late 1800s.” Hmm. What has changed since then?
MICKEY KAUS: Bad news for Ford? The big news to me is that anyone actually pays attention to J.D. Power surveys. I thought those were just for use in ads.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A proposal to double professors’ teaching loads.
WEST COAST SANITY: L.A. Police Commission votes to kill red-light camera program.
ON SALE, TODAY ONLY: Battlestar Galactica on Blu-Ray or DVD.
BLOGGINGHEADS TV on CNN’s anti-Breitbart bias.
PAUL REVERE: I Demand That Obama Recite The Longfellow Poem From Memory. “Without a Teleprompter.”
MICKEY KAUS: Weiner And The Ethics Committee Gambit.
I HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET, but Ed Larson has a new book out: An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science. He and I did a Court TV documentary on the Scopes trial some years ago, and he’s a terrific guy and a great author, so I expect it’s worth your time.
IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID. With emphasis on the stupid part. Actual unemployment vs. Administration predictions. “Back in January 2009, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein produced a report estimating future unemployment rates with and without a stimulus plan. Their estimates, which were widely circulated, projected that unemployment would approach 9% without a stimulus, but would never exceed 8% with the plan. The estimates, along with real unemployment rates, are posted below. In May 2011, using the latest figures available from the BLS, the unemployment rate reached 9.1%. In contrast, the Romer and Bernstein projections estimated that the unemployment rate would be around 8.1% for this month without a recovery plan, or 6.8% with a stimulus plan (which was ultimately passed). . . . And the unemployment trajectory appears to be getting worse, not better. The last two months have seen unemployment grow; again, against projections that unemployment would decline every single month after August 2009 with a stimulus in place.”