Archive for 2011

SHOCKER: Thousands Leave Indiana Public Schools When Given A Choice. “We’re constantly told that the Democrats are the party of choice so it’s funny how angry liberals get when people don’t choose them. It’s what we just witnessed in Wisconsin. It’s why teacher unions overwhelmingly support Democrats and Obama. It has nothing to do with children, choices or education. It’s about moneymoneymoneymoneymoney. This is exactly why Obama is against school vouchers for poor kids in Washington, DC.”

GIBSON AND MICHELLE: Aristocracy Hypocrisy: Michelle Obama’s Gibson guitar gift. “If it turns out that the Indian rosewood in question is illegal contraband in the eyes of Obama’s DOJ, then Michelle Obama is just as guilty of trafficking in it as Gibson. In 2009, Michelle Obama gave Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a Gibson guitar with a fretboard made of the material.” Laws about wood are for the little people.

DISASTER-PREP TIP: How To Keep Your Cellphone Going As Long As Possible.

Note this in particular: “Text messages use a tiny fraction of the power required to make an actual phone call. In addition, there are very good selfish and selfless reasons to use SMS instead of calling during a wide-spread crisis: Texting helps keep the network from being overwhelmed, and texts are more likely to get through than voice calls.”

Also: “Need to check Twitter? Don’t forget that your 3G Kindle has a web browser in it.”

ROBERT SAMUELSON: Say “Yes” To Oil Sands. “We would be crazy to turn our back on this. In a global oil market repeatedly threatened by wars, revolutions, and natural and man-made disasters — and where government-owned oil companies control development of about three-quarters of known reserves — having dependable suppliers is no mean feat. We already import about half our oil, and Canada is our largest supplier with about 25 percent of imports. But its conventional fields are declining. Only oil sands can fill the gap.”

So, naturally: “Environmentalists are outraged.”

JEFF CARTER ON FARMAGEDDON. “This documentary illustrates the plight of the organic farmer, specifically the organic dairy farmer. If a dairy farmer wants to sell raw milk, they will be run out of business and many times imprisoned by the federal bureaucracy. The USDA actively tries to run Raw Milk Producers out of the business. They work closely with agents from state agricultural agencies. The documentary shows film of agents descending on various organic farms and outlets, guns drawn, SWAT teams present. It’s straight out of science fiction and something that you can’t believe happens in America. I can understand a huge police presence when going after a drug lord, but a family farmer? Sure, farmers keep guns but in my experience they aren’t violent people.”

Slash their budgets.

BILL QUICK ON the unfortunate state of the publishing industry.

Meanwhile, we’re thinking of doing a much-needed update on the space law textbook, but there’s a problem. The contract gives Westview Press — now Perseus Westview, intermediately HarperCollins Westview — the right of first refusal. But the phone number gets me a phone tree with no operator, and a directory that requires me to know who I’m calling. And everyone I worked with there is long since laid off or moved on. I guess I’ll have to just write them a letter. . . .