TESLA MODEL S HITS THE ROAD. Also, Volvo is crash-testing electric cars.
Archive for 2011
January 19, 2011
IN THE WASHINGTON POST, a review of O: A Presidential Novel.
THOUGHTS ON BANKRUPTCY FOR STATES.
CONGRESS: U.S. Rep. David Wu loses staffers, political team amid complaints of public behavior. “Since the November election, U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., has lost at least six staffers plus the leadership of a veteran campaign team that guided him to a seventh term amid complaints about his public behavior. . . . The staff departures come amid questions about Wu’s behavior during the campaign. On Oct. 27, he gave a speech so negative and loud that a Washington County Democratic Party member complained formally to his office. The outburst was followed two days later by an episode at Portland International Airport, where Wu used his influence as a member of Congress to enter a restricted area and campaign for votes from off-loading passengers. One passenger filed a complaint, and a Transportation Security Administration employee was later required to be retrained for his lapse in letting Wu past security.” Following the rules is for the little people.
UPDATE: Actually, reading the story it sounds like he’s undergone some sort of personality change. Could that be true? Is he really just a shadow of the man that we once knew?
THE NEW CIVILITY: House Democrat Compares GOP To Nazis In Health Repeal Debate.
RAYMOND IBRAHIM ON the Washington Post’s Islamophobia.
ADVICE TO WRITERS: Go John Galt?
REPORT: Men have upper hand in sexual economy. Maybe that’s what has Natasha Vargas-Cooper so unhappy.
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY settles religious-discrimination lawsuit brought by Christian astronomer. I had an earlier post on this case here. It seems that this is a black eye for the Kentucky biology department, too. And a note to P.Z. Myers — nobody was saying the world was flat. This guy’s not even a young-earth creationist. He just thinks the Big Bang might have been divinely inspired. At any rate, applying “collegiality” to beliefs on religion is a dangerous business, as a few moments’ reflection might suggest.
UPDATE: Reader Matthias Shapiro offers a sort-of-defense for the university:
It seems that the researchers at University of Kentucky weren’t even really that concerned about Mr. Gaskell’s Christian worldview. (Incidentally, Gaskell’s views are actually pretty mainstream. I’ll bet he and Francis Collins – a Christian geneticist appointed by President Obama as director of the NIH and author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief– would probably have a grand old time talking science and religion.) Their biggest concern was that the media wouldn’t be able to understand the subtleties of Mr. Gaskell’s line of argumentation and would interpret any discussion about evolution coming from a Christian as “creationism”. These idiots looked at Gaskell’s views, and imagined that the media wouldn’t be able to comprehend a calm, intelligent discussion about science and religion.
Where ever would they have gotten that idea?
Where, indeed?
CHANGE: Housing Starts in U.S. Decreased in December to One-Year Low. Unexpectedly! “Builders began work on fewer homes than projected in December, a sign the industry that triggered the recession continued to struggle more than a year into the U.S. economic recovery.”
IN THE MAIL: From Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics 4th Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy.
I BLAME SHEILA JACKSON LEE FOR THE CLIMATE OF HATE: The New Civility: Democrat Says Repealing ObamaCare is ‘Killing Americans.’
ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: Glenn Greenwald: It’s like Bush-Cheney all over, but worse! So much for the fierce moral urgency of change!
IOWAHAWK: CSI: Tucson.
WHAT CONGRESS should cut.
CLARICE FELDMAN: “Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, B.A. Yale. J.D. University of Virginia, may not be the dumbest member of Congress, but it would be hard to defend her from such a characterization.” Once you recognize, that “unconstitutional” is merely a synonym for “things I don’t like,” it all makes sense.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE on the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on the IPO market.
SOMEBODY TELL TIM GEITHNER: At Amazon, markdowns on TurboTax.
MARTIN LUTHER KING AND HIS GUNS:
Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid-1950s, as the civil rights movement heated up, King kept firearms for self-protection. In fact, he even applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
A recipient of constant death threats, King had armed supporters take turns guarding his home and family. He had good reason to fear that the Klan in Alabama was targeting him for assassination.
William Worthy, a journalist who covered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, reported that once, during a visit to King’s parsonage, he went to sit down on an armchair in the living room and, to his surprise, almost sat on a loaded gun. Glenn Smiley, an adviser to King, described King’s home as “an arsenal.”
As I found researching my new book, Gunfight, in 1956, after King’s house was bombed, King applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama. The local police had discretion to determine who was a suitable person to carry firearms. King, a clergyman whose life was threatened daily, surely met the requirements of the law, but he was rejected nevertheless. At the time, the police used any wiggle room in the law to discriminate against African Americans.
Give the authorities discretion, and it will be abused.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Three issues Obama should raise with Hu – but probably won’t.
UBIQUITOUS VIDEO: Today only, Panasonic HD video recorder for $69. These kinds of portable videocams played a key role in beating back bogus racism charges against Tea Party protesters. I suspect they’ll play an even bigger role in the next couple of years.