LOOKING AT PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF NUCLEAR TERRORISM: “It has been the experience of REACTS that many people express some of the preliminary symptoms of ARS (Acute Radiation Syndome) — particularly nausea — due to their anxiety. It is important that responders and medical care providers are able to recognize the difference between real victims and those who are simply afraid.”
And don’t forget to Duck And Cover!
AT AMAZON, new book releases in History.
DOES AMERICA HAVE A LAWYER PROBLEM, OR A LAW PROBLEM? My Sunday Washington Examiner column is up.
UPDATE: Reader Karl Keller emails:
Your column today about the law being the problem, and not the lawyers, brought to mind one of the key points made in Federalist #62 — in my view, among the greatest of the papers. There Madison wrote:
Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few, not for the many.
In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.
Alas, our Founders were wise, and Madison among the wisest. Too bad much of our political class fails to understand them.
Or maybe it understands them all too well.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Obama Preaches the False Religion of Corporate Social Responsibility. “Wrong. The social obligation of business is to sustainably maximize long-term profits for shareholders. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
I JUST HOPE THERE’S NOT A “BLUE HADES” COLONY DOWN THERE OR SOMETHING: Scientists Race To Breach Antarctica’s Lake Vostok. “Russian scientists are set to pierce through Antarctica’s frozen surface to reveal the secrets of an icebound lake that has been sealed deep there for the past 15 million years.” Admit it, it sounds just like a thousand horror-movie setups.
UPDATE: Reader Russ Hochstetler writes: “Let’s hope this isn’t the start of ‘A Colder War’.” Yeah, I was kinda feeling a Stross vibe in that news story.
TYPOGRAPHY FOR LAWYERS.
MORE ON COMMON CAUSE, FROM DON SURBER: What is unforgivable is the outright hypocrisy over the filibuster by this faux-nonpartisan group of lefties.
Plus this: “By the way, hate speech is protected — as is corporate speech, even from those corporations who pay no taxes at all — such as Common Cause.”
UPDATE: Reader Robert Schenck writes: “I think when they start calling for the lynching of Clarence Thomas you’re allowed to spell it ‘Kommon Kause’.” Korrect.
CHANGE: Ahmadiyya Muslim community launches ‘Muslims for Loyalty’ campaign. “The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA is spreading the word that, despite all the bad press — by way of terrorist attacks, honor killings, and the like — Muslims have a duty to be peaceful and loyal to the United States.” What’s sad is that this is newsworthy, at this late date.
MORE ON THE FAILURE OF STATE MULTICULTURALISM. Unfortunately, a lot of people who are basically unemployable in productive fields have chosen it as their rice bowl.
But Nick Cohen writes in The Guardian that appeasement may be over. “I am not sure the prime minister understands that he is taking on a sensibility as much as a political platform. Because Britain was never invaded by the Nazis, and never suffered from any of the other versions of 20th-century tyranny, there is an unforgivable frivolity about our dealings with totalitarianism. Dilettante bureaucrats, journalists and intellectuals play with extremists and their ideas with the insouciance of men and women who know that they will never have to suffer the consequences of coping with extremists in power. The best gift the British can give the world in this moment of crisis is to imitate the crowds in North Africa and say enough of all of that. It is time to break away from a shameful past.”
EGYPT: A LETTER FROM SALIM MANSUR. “I am more convinced now, as I wasn’t when Paul Kennedy wrote about the rise and fall of great powers, that the West has gone over the tipping point in its terminal decline. That intelligent people, or people who claim to be intelligent, (I have in mind the talking heads in the U.S. media such as Chris Matthews or Fareed Zakaria) cannot make the difference between the sham of the Muslim Brotherhood talking about freedom and democracy and the generic thirst in man to be free. These are the people who have like the Bourbons learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They are glibly about to put the Lenins of our time into trains heading for Moscows of our time, they find nothing odd that they are pushing for the Muslim Brotherhood to be taken into governing when everything needs to be done to keep the Muslim Brotherhood out.”
EXPLOSIVE ARCHAEOLOGY: Chinese find caucasian mummy too hot to handle.
Shades of Kennewick Man. Science must not be allowed to overturn the favored narrative.
A ROUNDUP OF Valentine’s Day gift ideas and markdowns.
CHART: The GOP Galaxy. This chart could also make for a good game of Crisco Twister. Not that I’ve every played that game or anything. No sir.
PALIN VISIT CANCELED OVER THREATS, ATTACKS.
GETTING A JOB AFTER 50? Good luck. Obviously we need more Age Discrimination suits, and affirmative action for older job applicants.
UPDATE: Reader Jeff Brown writes: “That kind of puts a damper on the whole raise the retirement age plan of action. Or do we want a bunch of 50 yr olds starving in their upper middle age?” I believe you mean “late youth.”
And reader Greg Joyce emails: “I’m guessing your tongue is in cheek when you say more age discrimination suits are needed to help the unemployed over 50. I’m on the wrong side of 50 and was recently laid off when our hi-tech company closed shop. If someone doesn’t want to hire me because of my age, that should be their right. Whatever, I started my own company. Job security is a myth anyway.”
PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH EXPLAINS WHAT ISN’T WORTH YOUR TIME. My days of not taking Yglesias seriously have certainly come to a middle.
HOPE AND CHANGE: ST. LOUIS SOUP LINE PROTEST Forms at Claire McCaskill’s Delmar Office.
Photos and video at the link. Also, more video here, and more photos here.
MEDIA MATTERS blows it again. I think they’re actually a right-wing plot to dissipate as much Soros money as possible to no real effect.
SO MAYBE IT’S GLOBAL FREEZING AFTER ALL? It keeps looking more and more like Fallen Angels. Or maybe a John Ringo novel. I don’t want to live in either. . . .
BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “The idea that suppression of freedom will make human nature angelic is the fable of the leftists. Freedom as practiced for two hundred years in the USA produced the kindest most generous and most prosperous society the world has ever known.”
MORE PUBLIC PENSION PROBLEMS, THIS TIME IN PITTSBURGH: City Officials May Need Hail Mary Pass As Unfunded Liability Hits $700 Million. “By relying on outdated actuarial tables, making only minimum payments, and failing to limit benefits as the number of active workers paying into the plans fell, Pittsburgh has accumulated a $700 million unfunded liability, and its 29.5% funding level is among the lowest in the U.S.”
THIS MUST BE MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” I WAS TOLD ABOUT: Obama Administration Distances Self From Own Envoy to Mubarak. I’ve never been a fan of Frank Wisner myself, since my space-policy days, and I’ve never thought he’s a good choice for anything mission-critical. Apparently, I’m right again. But then, I wouldn’t have given him the mission. . . .
UPDATE: A reader points out that Frank Wisner was vice-chairman of AIG. Like I said, not a good choice for anything mission-critical. The reader adds: “I also doubt that he had much to do with the implosion; he was involved with the political side. However, it is an interesting connection that another former AIG exec has such a high position in the Obama administration (in addition to Holbrooke, a former board member). I am not trying to start a conspiracy theory, but it is curious.” The added links are mine, for background.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES TRYING TO SHUT DOWN TUCSON TEA PARTY? “We were having a town hall/forum on mental health on Feb 18th and one by one the County Prosecutor and Sheriff have spoken to our speakers and intimidated them to the point where they will no longer speak. This really can’t happen.”
It used to be that Democratic sheriffs in Mississippi smeared innocent groups as a bunch of violent brutes. Now, apparently, it’s Democratic sheriffs in Arizona who do that.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.