Archive for 2011
June 12, 2011
IN THE MAIL: From David Mamet, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture.
SO I SAW THIS AT THE GROCERY STORE, and my first thought was “Monica Lewinsky’s got a new spokesmodel gig?”
PETER HITCHENS RESPONDS TO THE ARCHBISHOP: “Why is it so bad to draw a line between the deserving and the undeserving poor? I have searched the Sermon on the Mount for the words ‘Blessed are the Spongers’ and I cannot find them – or anything remotely like them. So why does the Archbishop of Canterbury speak as if it was obvious that we should treat people who can work, but won’t, in the same way as we treat those who are truly in need?” Because drawing such distinctions would not advance his agenda.
Plus this: “As Dr Williams has decided to take up political commentating, I think I shall do a little bit of Archbishoping.”
NEW YORK’S IRRATIONAL TAXATION OF NON-RESIDENTS.
HENRY COPELAND: Beware the Facebook “Bimbots.”
ON FACEBOOK, Virginia Postrel writes that she thinks “there’s no chance the Republicans will even seriously try to repeal the light bulb ban, which would require actually bringing a bill to the floor (or at least having committee hearings). They want the benefits of public anger without actually addressing it–even on this easy issue. Needless to say the budget is much harder.”
Disgraceful. And maybe they’ll do better than Virginia thinks. But if you lack faith in them, it’s not too late to stock up!
AT AMAZON, markdowns in Sports & Outdoors.
MARK STEYN: It’s all bumps, no road in Obamaville.
“There are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery,” President Obama said at a Jeep plant in Toledo the other day. “We’re going to pass through some rough terrain that even a Wrangler would have a tough time with.” His audience booed. They’re un-fire-able union members with lavish benefits, and even they weary of the glib lines from his 12-year-old speechwriters.
We’re not on the road to recovery. You can’t get there from here, as they say. Obama was in Toledo to “celebrate” the sale of the government’s remaining stake in Chrysler to Fiat. That’s “Fiat” as in the Italian car manufacturer rather than “an authoritative or arbitrary decree (from the Latin ‘let it be done’),” which would be almost too perfect a name for an Obamafied automobile. The Treasury crowed that Fiat had agreed to pay a whopping $560 million for the government’s Chrysler shares. Wow! 560 million smackeroos! If you laid them out end to end, they’re equivalent to what the federal government borrows every three hours. That’s some windfall! In the time it takes to fly Obama to Toledo to boast about it, he’d already blown through the Italians’ check. But who knows? If every business in the U.S. were to be nationalized and sold to foreigners to cover another three hours’ worth of debt, this summer’s “Recovery Summer” would be going even more gangbusters. I’d ask one of Obama’s egghead economists to explain it to you simpletons, but unfortunately they’ve all resigned and returned to cozy sinecures in academia.
Don’t be knocking those cozy sinecures in academia. . . .
FRANK J. FLEMING: Tips For Not Appearing Crazy On The Internet.
NEAL BOORTZ ON Recovery Summer II.
LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Check out Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Union bosses come first for Obama.
SKYROCKETING: Consumers’ electric bills likely to spike as coal plants close.
All is proceeding according to plan.
PROGRESS: First wood-digesting enzyme found in bacteria could boost biofuel production. “By making woody plants and the inedible by-products of crops economically viable the eventual hope is to be able to produce biofuels that don’t compete with food production.”
HUGO CHAVEZ undergoes emergency operation in Cuba.
OBAMA LOGO HACKED, with this new Tea Party logo for 2012.
THOUGHTS ON POLITICAL IDOLATRY.