Archive for 2012
October 18, 2012
YOU CAN HAVE BIG GOVERNMENT OR TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE BIG, TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT: That’s what I’ve been telling my liberal friends in the transparency advocacy community for years. Now, the Columbia Journalism Review and Pro Publica combine to compare Obama’s promise to have the most open government ever with the reality. It’s a sad, entirely predictable story, but well-worth reading.
MULTIVITAMIN USE TIED TO LOWER CANCER RISK. “After a series of conflicting reports about whether vitamin pills can stave off chronic disease, researchers announced on Wednesday that a large clinical trial of nearly 15,000 older male doctors followed for more than a decade found that those taking a daily multivitamin experienced 8 percent fewer cancers than the subjects taking dummy pills.”
HOW VIDEO GAMES are changing Disney.
PAID INTERNSHIPS FOR STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES, at the Institute For Humane Studies.
ELIZABETH BATHORY CALL YOUR PHLEBOTOMIST:Transfusion of young blood could delay onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
GALLUP: Romney 52, Obama 45 among likely voters.
APPLIANCE FADS: What’s Next When Stainless Steel Runs Its Course? “It is a pivotal moment in kitchen design: While stainless steel is still the dominant look, there are clear signals it has outworn its welcome, even with no clear successor in place.” I predict a return to Harvest Gold and Avocado.
UPDATE: Ric Manhard writes: “After stainless steel? May I posit a scenario wherein Apple’s design leads to appliances using aluminum and Gorilla Glass, possibly tinted to any shade the consumer would desire? I have no connection with design in any industry but I could see it happening. Look what influence the original colored iMacs had on industrial design.”
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: As it struggled, A123 showered Democrats with donations, hired pricey lobbyist.
TEAM OBAMA JUMPS THE BINDER: When you’ve lost Mark Halperin…
AL GORE’S NEWSPAPER ENDORSES ROMNEY: “To say this endorsement by The Tennessean is an eyebrow raiser is an understatement. This is the same newspaper where former Vice President Al Gore got his start in journalism, that endorsed Obama in 2008. Of course, the paper endorsed Gore in 2000. In 2004, the paper endorsed Democrat John Kerry over President Bush. Also, Middle Tennessee is a traditional Democratic stronghold.”
BIG LEFTY STARS TO MAKE 9/11 TRUTHER FILM: And yet, curiously, they don’t seem at all worried that a government that they believe coolly assassinated 3000 private citizens will attack them as well*.
Not to mention that they’re also tacitly making President Obama part of the cover-up; as Mark Steyn told Hugh Hewitt in September of 2009 when Van Jones was underbussed:
We’re supposed to be the crazy guys. We’re supposed to be the ones who don’t distance ourselves from the loons. You know, we’re the…Glenn Beck is supposed to be bananas. The birther movement are supposed to be the nuts. And yet, and yet, it is somehow the reality-based community, or whatever these guys call themselves, that has managed to put a 9/11 truther two doors away from President Obama in the Oval Office. And if he really thinks that the federal government pulled off 9/11, then he’s inside the system. Why doesn’t he uncover the truth of it? He’s the green jobs czar. Presumably, in the previous administration, George W. Bush was the steel melting czar. So why doesn’t he just take a look in the filing cabinets, and expose the truth on it?
I look forward to Hollywood blowing the lid off this conspiracy as well…
* See also: previously ability to make Kennedy assassination conspiracy movies without reprisal.
KICKSTARTER IS AWESOME: I launched a Kickstarter project 36 hours ago to fund my trip to Libya, and I’ve already exceeded my goal. Thanks to everybody who pledged!
UNEMPLOYMENT RISING in Massachusetts.
MICHELLE O. HAS NO SELF CONTROL: As evidenced by the fact that she led the applause at the 2d presidential debate, when moderator Candy Crowley unprofessionally (and incorrectly) interrupted Romney to side with President Obama when he falsely asserted that he’d called the Benghazi attack an “act of terror” since the day after it occurred.
One of the rules of decorum in the debate was that applause was not permitted (for obvious reasons). Can you imagine how the MSM would excoriate Ann Romney if she had done something so rude and inappropriate?
PETER INGEMI: Obama’s only drawing 85% of the black vote?
I wonder if it’s these ads, the statements by Bishop Jackson, or just the sentiments behind them? Probably the latter.
GREAT MOMENTS IN HEADLINES: Eva Longoria Goes Full Weiner.
DID I SAY WE NEED AN ADULT IN THE WHITE HOUSE? Officials: Obama ready to veto a bill blocking ‘fiscal cliff’ without tax hike for rich. Enough of the wounded child and his fractured ego, already.
IT’S THE SPENDING, STUPID: New CBO budget numbers prove the silliness of Obama’s desire to raise taxes while continuing out-of-control spending:
“[D]espite countless changes to the tax code — which included raising the top rate to 90%, then lowering it to 28%, then raising it and lowering it again — taxes as a share of GDP have rarely deviated much from that average.
So, even if all the Bush tax cuts were made permanent, federal taxes would end up slightly higher as a share of GDP than the historic average.
The CBO report also makes clear that it’s out-of-control federal spending that’s driving the deficits.
According to that report, the federal spending as a share of GDP is on track to steadily rise over the next decade and beyond, reaching 22.3% of GDP by 2022.
That’s significantly higher than the 1948-2008 average, and much higher than it’s been under previous Democratic presidents. In President Clinton’s last year in office, for example, federal spending consumed just 18.2% of GDP.
h/t to John Merline, Investor’s Business Daily.
NEWSWEEK TO END PRINT EDITION IN DECEMBER: From what I’ve written about the magazine in the past I can’t say that’s exactly shocking news. But Matt Drudge, linking to this Daily Beast story on their host magazine’s demise, takes a well-deserved victory lap.
UPDATE: Mickey Kaus is having fun as well: “In other words, the Titina is back where it was–a website–before all the fuss about the purchase of Newsweek‘s print magazine. That effort has failed.” Plus some thoughts on what happens next to Newsweek’s high-priced DNC steno pool.
YOUR THURSDAY MORNING DOSE OF DOOM AND GLOOM: (Why wait for Friday, I say)
Terrorists ‘acquire nuclear container to smuggle uranium’
Hizbollah ‘launching rocket attacks into Syria’
Syrian rebels may have acquired surface-to-air missiles
Now get out there and work to get an adult in the White House. We won’t have another chance.
IT’S COME TO THIS: MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: Romney challenging Obama is totally unconstitutional. “‘After the clip ended, Matthews seemed appalled. “I don’t think [Romney] understands the Constitution of the United States,’ Matthews said. ‘He’s the president of the United States. You don’t say, “You’ll get your chance.”’”
CHANGE: Virginia Town’s Airport Is Collateral Damage in Obama’s ‘War on Coal.’ “The population of Grundy, Virginia, is 1,105. It is the county seat of Buchanan County, population 23,581, where the median household income is $29,183, far below the U.S. median average of $51,914. This community, about 10 miles from the Kentucky border and 15 miles from the West Virginia state line, is quite obviously in need of economic growth – so why is the Obama administration standing in the way?”