MORE ON WHY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS are jealous of “the rich.”
Archive for 2011
January 8, 2011
WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Illinois talking about borrowing money to fund its broke pension system.
“We owe this money to the pension fund. What we’re saying instead is we should put the money in the pension fund and owe the money instead to someone who would issue the bonds,” Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said.
With this kind of financial wizardry on tap, it’s amazing they ever went broke to begin with. But if I understand this correctly, if they borrow the money and put it into the pension fund, then they can — with much lower political cost — stiff the bondholders as opposed to the unionized state employees they owe now. So it’s sort of like running up your credit cards to pay off your mortgage or some other secured debt. . . .
DEREK LOWE: The PhD Problem: “Talk of a ‘higher education bubble’ may not be idle chatter. . .”
POLITIFACT: Score One Promise Kept In The House.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: The Problem With A Paul Ryan / Marco Rubio Ticket. “They’re practically still kids, at least in my aging eyes. And having them running the country would make me feel very, very old.”
FOR HER BOOK ON GLAMOUR, Virginia Postrel Is Surveying Star Trek Fans. If you’re one, do her a favor and take the survey!
REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS KILLED in Arizona mass shooting. Not clear what happened, but haven’t several other Arizona politicians suffered assaults lately?
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has more.
ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.
And judging from the comments to this post, people are already trying to score political points. Well, they kind of telegraphed this strategy, didn’t they? Remember Bloomberg making a fool of himself by blaming the Times Square bombing on the Tea Party? How about waiting until we actually know something, this time? That’s likely to be soon enough.
MORE: KOLD reports Giffords is alive and in surgery. Stay tuned.
MORE STILL: A blogger-email from Speaker Boehner’s office: “I am horrified by the senseless attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff. An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve. Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured, and their families. This is a sad day for our country.”
Ed Driscoll is updating with news. Kos is airbrushing.
EVEN MORE: His name’s Jared Lee Loughner and he seems like a garden variety nut:
Among his long list of favorite books in his YouTube profile are Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha.
Loughner also “favorited” just one video on YouTube, which shows the burning of an American flag and is accompanied by an anti-government screed.
Doesn’t sound much like a Tea Partier. And what the hell is “conscience dreaming?”
Media Matters: Don’t Score Political Points. Oh, wait . . . .
MORE: High School Friend: “As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy.” More here.
Also: Man linked to Giffords shooting called ‘very disturbed.’
A former classmate of Loughner at Pima Community College said he was “obviously very disturbed.”
“He disrupted class frequently with nonsensical outbursts,” said Lynda Sorenson, who took a math class with Loughner last summer at Pima Community College’s Northwest campus.
Sorenson doesn’t recall if he ever made any threats or uttered political statements but he was very disruptive, she said. He was asked to leave the pre-algebra class several times and eventually was barred from class, said Sorenson, a Tucson resident. . . . In a youtube.com video dated Dec. 15, entitled “Introduction: Jared Loughner” the accused gunman describes himself as a U.S. military recruit who had applied to join the Army. The Army, however, said it rejected Lougher as a recruit in 2008.
Stay tuned.
VIDEO: Testing An Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb. This is real One Second After stuff, though some say that’s a worst-case scenario. Well, I’d hate to think of worse cases.
THE CARNIVAL OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS UP!
SOMEBODY TELL JONAH GOLDBERG: Cleveland woman, family saved from fire by heroic feline.
A LAWSUIT? AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO SEND SOMEONE ON A QUEST OR SOMETHING? Brown Sues To Recover Stolen Sword.
THE RISE AND DECLINE OF military human enhancement. It’ll be back. And research into the civilian kind is continuing apace.
GAS PRICES UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA, in pictures. This two-year vs. two-year comparison leaves out the big 2005 runup under Bush, though, which I think helped turn Congress over to the Dems in 2006.
Related: Deep-Water Drilling Permits Down 88% in Gulf Since Obama Lifted Moratorium.
TRANSPARENCY: School District Puts Checkbook Online.
HUFFINGTON POST: If only the problem were simply “factual inaccuracies.”
A VISIT FROM THE SECRET SERVICE. “Something doesn’t sit right here.”
MITCH DANIELS: Hey, that Illinois tax increase will be great — for Indiana!
PEOPLE ASKED BACK OVER CHRISTMAS, but I’ve finally gotten around to putting an Amazon link at the top of the page — the tab labeled “Shop Amazon,” surprisingly enough. Just click there, and it’ll take you to Amazon and you can support InstaPundit at no cost to you, as Amazon will kick back a percentage of whatever you buy. Thanks!
UPDATE: Reader Michael Derrick writes: “Respectful suggestion: Don’t assume your readers will remember we can support Instapundit via Amazon. Help us to help you with regular reminders. This is the classic win-win. You get a percentage of something I was going to buy anyway!”
Thanks! I’ll try.
A HEARTENING REPORT FROM EGYPT: Egypt’s Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as “human shields.”
PASSPORT APPLICATIONS REPLACING “MOTHER” AND “FATHER” WITH “Parent One” and “Parent Two.”
Fausta Wertz is reminded of The Prisoner.
FINANCIAL TIMES: U.S. Jobs Report “An Utter Mess.”