IT’S BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE: As A Christmas Gift, Tell Your Friends and Relatives They’re Fat. “Christmas may be a time of indulging for many, but health experts believe it is the perfect time to tell a loved one they are overweight. The National Obesity Forum and International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk said it was important to be upfront because of the health risks.” I’d rather get fruitcake. Which kills the appetite anyway. . . .
Archive for 2011
December 22, 2011
IS MARRIAGE the new status symbol?
IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MATH: Pelosi Calls For Tax Cuts For 160,000,000 American Workers – Too Bad There Are Only 140,500,000 American Workers Today.
IRONY: UNATTENDED POLICE CAR STOLEN AS POLICE CRACK DOWN ON UNATTENDED CARS: “The Denver police officer who left the cruiser running unattended in front of her home Monday morning is now the subject of an internal investigation. Ironically, it was stolen the same day that Denver police held a news conference to warn motorists about leaving their cars running and unattended.”
December 21, 2011
WASTING AWAY IN OBAMAVILLE: Federal Air Rules May Shut Down An Entire Town.
AT AMAZON, holiday deal in Sports & Outdoors.
HANS VAN SPAKOVSKY: The Justice Department Condones Perjury … Again. “More disturbing, according to my sources, is that Ms. Gyamfi is now being treated as a hero by some of her Voting Section colleagues. Many of them are gratified at her efforts — illegitimate or not — to make the Bush administration look bad in its preclearance of Texas’s earlier redistricting submission.”
BYRON YORK: Romney Changes Stance On Iraq Invasion.
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Calling for “heads to roll” on the 9/11 security failures. Nothing much happened, of course.
LOCAVORE OF DEATH: How Kim Jong Il Starved North Korea. “Agriculture has always been a dicey proposition in North Korea, where the cold, mountainous terrain is short on high-quality farmland. A normal economy could cope by importing food. But during the 1980s, the North Korean government embarked on a policy of radical self-sufficiency known as juche. Farmers were expected to overcome mother nature and grow enough crops to feed the entire population. To do it, they relied on heaps of chemical fertilizer. But that crutch was yanked away in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.”
ACTUALLY, THE WORST THING ABOUT THE SHOCKING DOWNWARD REVISION IN HOUSING SALES isn’t this: “it may be more difficult to trigger the rebound in housing activity necessary to clear the overhang of inventory sitting in the shadows.”
Instead, it’s correctly identified by a commenter: “It also means we can’t trust anyone’s numbers.” Yep.
UPDATE: Reader Douglas Bass writes:
When I read the post about how we can’t trust anyone’s numbers, I recalled this quote from Vaclav Havel, first seen at smalldeadanimals. He was writing about Communist regimes, but why do I feel he’s writing about us when I read it? (emphasis mine)
The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.
It’s all about preference falsification. It helps to have state-controlled media. We aren’t there, but it’s easy to spot the behavior of those who wish we were. That said, the NAR’s data aren’t wrong for the reasons Havel outlines — they’re just the patter of a salesman.
BLOGGING: When The Police Knock On Your Door.
TWO-DAY SHIPPING IS ALMOST OVER, but they’re still running new “lightning deals” all the time at Amazon.
ALAN BOYLE: 2012 Watch: The Countdown Begins. “What is it about doomsday that draws a crowd? Time after time, doomsayers have predicted the breakdown of society on a date certain, stirring up a buzz that builds to a crescendo and ends in a crash when doomsday doesn’t come. 1844 brought the Great Disappointment, 1999 brought the Y2K alarm, 2011 brought the Rapture ruckus, and exactly a year from today, we’re due for the Maya apocalypse. If the past is any indicator, we’ll be intently blogging, tweeting and indulging in black humor as the clock ticks down to Dec. 21, 2012. Then, on Dec. 22, we’ll look around for the next doomsday.” Actually, I think the world ended as predicted back in May, and everything since has been an illusion perpetrated by Satan.
Hey, admit it: It would make a lot of sense. . . .
AN EARLY TRAILER FOR Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.
MICKEY KAUS: “For the record–before it becomes the CW–let me note that the Feiler Faster Thesis suggests that, should the economy improve, Obama can recover more rapidly than previous Presidents seeking reelection at the tail end of recessions. In other words, an unemployment drop can come later in his term than before and still be enough to reelect him. It’s not that people will quickly forget the previous 3-plus years of joblessness. But they will forget it more quickly than they did two decades ago. … The incumbent could have more time than optimistic Republicans think.” That’s clearly the Democrats’ hope.
ER, THAT’S WHY WE HAVE GUNS: What if you called 911 and nobody answered?
SMART DIPLOMACY: Jay Carney Calls For Assad’s Ouster.
HMM: Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up to $250K Per Vehicle. “Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Hohman included in his analysis 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICAL WISDOM. And the sad tale of its decline.
HOW THE OSPREY is performing in combat.
HOW OBAMACARE is destroying medical innovation.
Hey, I told you so.
TOP HOLIDAY DEALS in Kitchen, Home & Garden.
Also, a roundup of holiday gift ideas.
#DSCCFAIL: Huffington Post: “DSCC trying too hard: Distributes video of George Allen being normal/charming. Calls him an out-of-touch whiner.” Background, with video, here.