ANOTHER READER KINDLE BOOK: My Last Testament. A doctor meets the Zombie Apocalypse. 99 cents.
Archive for 2012
April 10, 2012
SPACE PROPERTY RIGHTS UPDATE: How the U.S. Can Lead the Way to Extraterrestrial Land Deals.
CHINA: Ex-Chongqing leader Bo stripped of party posts, wife detained. “Bo Xilai, the charismatic former Communist Party chief in the Chinese city of Chongqing, has been stripped of his remaining leadership roles for ‘violations of party discipline’ and his wife has been detained on suspicion of murdering a British businessman, state-run media reported Tuesday. . . . Bo, the son of Communist Party founder Bo Yibo, had been considered a contender for the top leadership in China for his revolutionary zeal and inspirational powers in his populous southwest municipality. He was sacked as Chongqing party leader on March 15. The move was seen as censure after a longtime ally and former police chief, Wang Lijun, sought temporary refuge at a U.S. consulate in February.”
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Scientists use nanotechnology to hunt for hidden pathogens.
ARE THE MEDIA WINDS SHIFTING on global warming?
GREEN CAR UPDATE: Hybrids lead fastest growing segment but still may not be worth the extra price.
Here’s my response to such criticisms.
JEFF CARTER: Instagram and Facebook. “The better question might be, how can you cannibalize the Facebook wall to start a business Facebook might pay a billion dollars for?”
THE CARNIVAL OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS UP!
BILL MCGURN: What Would Atticus Do? ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ meets the Trayvon Martin shooting.
More: “Good lord, what an ugly place we are in right now. Who would have thought that in the last year of Obama’s presidential term, the public mind would obsess over race at this level? I’m recalling the media coverage of election night, 2008, and the inauguration, when there was a rhapsody of closure and a feeling — some called it ‘hope’ — that we had entered a new era of harmony. How did we get sucked into some nightmare parody of the past? If it’s not Obama’s fault, can he at least do something to yank us up out of this awful place? In 2009 or even 2011, he would have given a speech. He would have believed he could rescue us with a speech, perhaps because we kind of thought he could. Maybe no one believes anymore. There’s a hope vacuum, and look what’s moving in.”
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE: IRS pension stall: Why, Mr. President?
The bad news keeps piling up for local governments in California bedeviled by surging pension costs. Last week, it was Los Angeles’ turn. Miguel Santana, chief administrative officer of the Golden State’s largest city, warned of ruin ahead without new revenue and reduced pension costs.
Yet hopes for relief from Sacramento are nonexistent. The Democrats who control the Legislature oppose the ambitious reform plan offered by Gov. Jerry Brown last fall for all public employees and vow to block all but minor changes.
So if the state can’t help local governments, is there something the federal government can do to help? Absolutely – and it is high time this issue became part of the presidential election campaign.
Read the whole thing.
FACT-CHECKING Mad Men. “It’s absolutely true that many executive lunches were 3-martini affairs.”
TOM MAGUIRE: THE PLOT THICKENS ON NBC’S EDITGATE: “NBC is busy taking down the evidence of its repeated usage of its bogus edit of the George Zimmerman 911 call. This follows the firing of a producer for the use of the same bad edit on the March 27 Today Show. Left unanswered – what about the March 22 use on the Today Show? [LATE ADD: a third usage of ‘He looks black’ has been found and edited out of existence (but not Google Cache!) at NBC 6 Miami, as described below. When will the Elite Media sniff a cover-up?]”
Plus, a look on the bright side: “We can’t get Howard Kurtz and the Bigfoot media watchers to take on NBC, but at least NBC is reading their critics.” (Bumped).
REPORT: ObamaCare’s Phony Accounting. “Charles Blahous, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and one of the two public trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs, is out with a study that confirms the common-sense argument conservatives have been making for years: You can’t vastly expand and subsidize gold-plated health-care insurance and expect to save money.” Who could have seen that coming?
MY THEORY IS THAT THEY’RE HOLDING OUT FOR SOME SORT OF DEAL: Why Won’t Santorum and Gingrich Quit?
HOPE AND CHANGE: Gas Prices Grow More Under Obama than Carter. As I was saying quite some time ago, a Carter rerun is now the best-case scenario, and I’ll add that at this point it’s mostly visible in the rearview mirror.
MORE BAD LAW NEWS: Legal Sector Shed 1300 Jobs In March.
BRIAN TAMANAHA: The Law School Crunch Is Here–Finances and Quality to Suffer. “Not since 1986-1987 have law schools seen total applicant numbers this low.”
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: What is the Matter with Kansas? If You Like Oil, Nothing.
Kansas’ oil boom is important for two reasons. Firstly, here we have another example of the incredible job-producing abilities of brown industry. Compare the furor over Kansas’ oil and gas explosion with the unfulfilled and overhyped “green” jobs, which have yet to materialize. And while green jobs will require subsidies for years, brown jobs don’t require federal upfront money — and will deliver taxes to the Treasury right from the start.
Secondly, just when it looks like America’s energy supply will dominate domestic politics and foreign policy alike for years to come, we seem to be literally swimming in new reserves of oil and gas, sinking new wells across the country while finding ways to squeeze the last drops out of old ones, and all the while leading the world in inventive and efficient (and increasingly environmentally friendly) technologies to get it all out.
Well, you can count on the Administration to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery if possible.
IT’S THE Amazon Wedding Registry.
Also, today only: Harry Potter digital movies as low as $3.99.
SYRIA UPDATE: Syrian violence spills into Lebanon and Turkey.