JOHN HINDERAKER: America’s Vast Energy Resources.
Archive for 2011
December 7, 2011
YOUR POLITICAL CLASS UPDATE: Sidwell Friends’ Surprising Pearl Harbor Day Menu.
A lunch that will live in infamy? That’s what at least one parent at elite Sidwell Friends (yes, Sasha and Malia’s school!) wondered upon seeing what the school cafeteria listed as its “Pearl Harbor Day” menu Wednesday: A heavily Japanese-inspired lineup, including teriyaki chicken and edamame (as well as more generically Asian delicacies like tofu, fried rice, fortune cookies and “oriental noodle salad”). A school rep told us this was just a fluke — not a meal intended to commemorate the 1941 Japanese attack on U.S. forces: The contractor that prepares school lunches randomly assigned an Asian menu to Dec. 7, and the subcontractor that prints the calendars automatically marked Wednesday at Pearl Harbor Day. “It was completely coincidental,” said Ellis Turner, associate head of the school.
At least they didn’t serve gunpowder tea.
JOEL KOTKIN: Illinois: State Of Embarrassment.
Most critics of Barack Obama’s desultory performance the past three years trace it to his supposedly leftist ideology, lack of experience and even his personality quirks. But it would perhaps be more useful to look at the geography — of Chicago and the state of Illinois — that nurtured his career and shaped his approach to politics. Like with George W. Bush and Texas, this is a case where you can’t separate the man from the place.
The Chicago imprint on Obama is unmistakable. His closest advisors are almost all products of the Windy City’s machine politic: ConsigliereValerie Jarrett; his first chief of staff, now Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel; and his current chief of staff, longtime Chicago hackster William Daley, scion of the Windy City’s longtime ruling family.
All these figures arose from a Chicago where corruption is so commonplace that it elicits winks, nods and even a kind of admiration. Since 1973, for example, 27 Chicago Aldermen have been convicted by U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois.
That culture of corruption affects the rest of the state as well. Both Gov. George Ryan (who served from 1999 to 2003 and and his successor Ron Blagojevich have been convicted a major crimes. So have four of the state’s last eight governors. Blagojevich’s felonies are part and parcel of a political climate that also includes the also newly convicted Antonin “Tony” Rezko, a real estate speculator and early key Obama backer, sentenced late last month to a ten-year prison sentence.
Crony capitalism constitutes the essential element of what the legendary columnist John Kass of the Chicago Tribune has labeled both the “Chicago way” and the “Illinois Combine”, not primarily an ideology-driven movement. The political system, he notes, “knows no party, only appetites.”
Read the whole thing.
ONLY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CARRY GUNS: Sevier County officer’s gun discharge takes out store’s frozen bologna. “The .40-caliber round went through a 15-inch computer screen, continued into a nearby cooler and lodged itself in lunchmeat inside the cooler, Hodges said.”
UPDATE: Reader Mark Ferrigno writes:
Couple of things about the sheriff’s deputy firing his weapon into Bologna”
1. When I read “suspended without pay” I mistakenly assumed that mean while an investigation was carried out and while the department determined if he would be fired or not. What I did not expect was the “suspension” was for 18 hours.
A trained law enforcement officer fires his own weapon in a public place accidently and his punishment is 18 hours unpaid and “retraining”
2. Are Police Officers immune from gun laws the rest of us have to follow? As law professor can you answer this? Are they theoretically covered under the myriad of guns laws that are imposed on law abiding citizens? I am guessing that if a concealed carry permit holder “accidently” shot a PC screen and Bologna charges would be forth coming and he would most likely never see that weapon again, nor his permit.
Well, they might not be so harsh in Sevier County.
December 6, 2011
JIM ROGERS: The Fed Is Ruining An Entire Class of Investors.
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Explaining things to Josh Marshall, and correcting Fox Butterfield.
THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WE WERE PROMISED: Obama Pushed Early Elections In Egypt Knowing That It Would Likely Lead to Islamist Victory.
Of course, maybe the theory is that — as you know if you’ve been reading Spengler — things are likely to get a lot worse in Egypt very soon, so we might as well let the Islamists in and leave them holding the bag. That really would be smart diplomacy, which is why I kinda doubt it’s what we’re about. But I’d love to be wrong.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Irish Accents Surpass French Accents As The World’s Sexiest, Supposedly. Bah. Everyone knows there’s nothing sexier than a Tennessee accent.
#OCCUPYFAIL: The Canadian magazine Adbusters sparked the Occupy Wall Street movement. It also has a weakness for Israel-bashing conspiracy theories. Good thing none of that spilled over into anti-semitism at the #Occupy protests.
CAPTURING ELECTRICITY with a shoe. An important step toward powering the wearable electronics suites coming later this decade.
AT AMAZON, 12 Days Of Deals in shoes and accessories. For men and women.
EUROZONE: First, Let’s Kill All the Creditors.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Whoever’s Behind Sabotage, Attacks In Iran: Keep It Up!
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? Who Needs It!
#OCCUPYFAIL: Woman Stabbed At Occupy Baltimore. “Police say dispute was over cat.”
THIS IS WRONG: Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn’t a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court–Imposes $2.5 Million Judgment on Her. I don’t believe in journalist shield laws, but they should cover bloggers too, if they are going to exist. Note, however, that Ms. Cox represented herself, which is generally a bad idea.
INSIDER: $56 BILLION LATER, AIRPORT SECURITY IS JUNK. “According to Ben Brandt, a former adviser to Delta, the airlines and the feds should be less concerned with what gels your aunt puts in her carry-on, and more concerned about lax screening for terrorist sympathizers among the airlines’ own work force. They should be worried about terrorists shipping their bombs in air cargo. And they should be worried about terrorists shooting or bombing airports without ever crossing the security gates.”
Can I say I told you so? Because, you know, I did tell you so. And I did so again and again.
CHANGE: “Germany has agreed to lend Israel a Patriot anti-aircraft system radar so that the radars in Israel’s six Patriot batteries can be sent back to the United States for upgrades. Each Patriot battery is manned by about a hundred troops, and contains a radar, plus four launchers. “
AT AMAZON, IT’S THE Holiday Flurry Deals Week.
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE: Gay Street, 1910.
IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS, affirmative action for men. Next I think we need a campus Men’s Center, and sensitivity training for professors and staff on how to make male students feel comfortable in the feminized environment of today’s campuses.
UPDATE: A reader emails: “I’d like to add one important item to the list: concealed carry on campus. Just think of it as the male version of the rape whistle.”
Hey, celebrate diversity! I’ve been saying that for a long time.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader — who gives his name but I’m going to omit it in case it would get him in trouble — writes: “I teach at a community college that has cut its budget by 40% over the last 3 years. I keep wondering at what level of spending do we consider cutting the Women’s center that is staffed 14 hours a day and the Executive Dean of Diversity and Retention (it would be great if we could at least cut that last bit from his title….yuk). I guess the other way of looking at this is that we must have been spending about 60% too much already because as far as I can tell the place keeps running and my program is more or less the same as it ever was.”