Archive for 2012
February 23, 2012
HOW MEN deal with cancer.
MICKEY KAUS NOTES a case of eerie prescience.
AT AMAZON, Wagan 600 Amps Battery Jumper II with Air Compressor, $74.95. I have one of these gadgets — a several-years-old Black & Decker — and it’s very handy to have around.
INSTAVISION: The Three Principles That Make The Tea Party Tick. I talk with Prof. Elizabeth Price Foley, author of The Tea Party: Three Principles. What the Tea Party is about, why it’s winning, and why it’s okay that there’s not a Tea Party Candidate for President this time. Plus, a Bearded Spock appearance. No, really. (Bumped).
SPEAKING OF YOUR BEARDED-SPOCK MOMENTS: A Pro-American War Flick. No, really. “Ever since Vietnam, Hollywood’s message has been: Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be soldiers. ‘Act of Valor’ hits the reset button on that notion.”
ED MORRISSEY: Why Romney’s High-Growth Tax Plan Trumps Obama’s.
HOW HELPFUL FOR THE ADMINISTRATION: GE “Forcing” Employees Into Chevy Volts.
BEACON: Meet The President’s Billionaire Playboy Bundler.
And, in other playboy-related news — well, actually it’s Playboy-related news — reader Eric Klien thinks he’s found a leading electoral indicator:
Just read the following good joke; the reason I am sending it to you is that I read it in the latest Playboy magazine which as you know is left-wing. I don’t think you have to worry about Obama getting reelected:
PLAYBOY PARTY JOKE FROM MARCH 2012 ISSUE
In the tough economy, an educated woman was forced to apply for a job in a lemon grove. After the foreman had reviewed her résumé, he frowned and said, “I must ask, do you have any actual experience in picking lemons?”
“As a matter of fact I have,” she answered. “I’ve been divorced three times and I voted for Obama.”
Heh. Well, I do remember thinking that Carter was in trouble when a girlfriend reported ladies-room graffiti saying that “Carter has done for America what pantyhose did for finger-f*cking.” This is sort of the same thing. . . .
FROM THE TELEGRAPH, a backgrounder on the Greek Crisis.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Mormon Theocracy Meme Debunked.
Bigotry is bad; how hard is that to remember?
Apparently, very hard for a lot of American liberals who have allowed their dislike and suspicion of Republican politics to lower their defenses against cheap and ugly religious bigotry. Nasty, ill-founded slanders against alleged Mormon plans for theocracy are spewing forth from news organizations and writers who, when the better angels of their nature are more fully in control, recognize the vicious and evil nature of religious bigotry in other contexts.
Yes, I’ve noticed this, too.
HEH: “Lunch-In” Protesters Will Eat Homemade Lunches on Federal Property. “Concerned parents and their supporters will be having a ‘lunch-in’ on Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. at noon on Thursday, February 23 to protest federal school nutrition guidelines that allegedly forced at least one student to forgo her mother’s home-packed lunch in favor of chicken nuggets. Thursday’s protest is part of The National Center for Public Policy Research’s ‘Occupy Occupy D.C.’ events at Freedom Plaza. The National Center obtained a five-week permit from the U.S. Park Service that forces the Occupy D.C. encampment to share the park between February 12 and March 15.”
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, CORPORATE FAT-CAT TAXES WOULD BE SLASHED BY 20%: And they were right! “The Obama administration proposed lowering the top corporate tax rate to 28 percent on Wednesday as part of a proposal to reform taxes on businesses.”
LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Twenty Additional Law School Class Action Suits Are in the Works; Is Your School One of Them?
JAMES TARANTO: Unplanned Parenthood: Illegitimacy and the liberal elite.
Roiphe’s views are fully consistent with the selective nonjudgmentalism that is an essential component of contemporary feminist ideology (selective because feminists are happy to stigmatize men–“deadbeat dads,” for instance–and women like Sarah Palin who reject the pieties of feminism). It’s also true that Roiphe is blasé about the effects on children, including children less privileged than her own offspring, of growing up without fathers. To her, the only risk worth worrying about is that they will bear the brunt of others’ censure.
But when you read Roiphe’s article, it turns out there’s more going on here. For one thing, ideologically she is just confused. . . . What these anecdotes show is that the stigma against illegitimacy (though not abortion) is alive and well among affluent social liberals. Surely that is an important reason that, as Charles Murray has shown, their out-of-wedlock birthrates are much lower than those of the less privileged.
Roiphe seems to want society to shed what standards it has left in order that she can feel good about herself.
Do as I say, not as I do.
WHITE HOUSE HYPOCRISY: “Moments after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney eulogized journalists who have died reporting from Syria, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked him why the White House talks such a big game about press freedom abroad, while back home it indicts whistleblowers and subpoenas the journalists to whom they come clean. Carney denied that was the case, and referred Tapper to the DOJ press office.”
As Jim Treacher said yesterday, “Jay Carney used to be a journalist. Why is he so bad at lying?”
OBAMA’S LEGACY: MOUNTAINS OF DEBT.
February 22, 2012
WELCOME TO THE NEW ECONOMY: Fact of the Day: Even on Less Than $15,000 per Year, 56% of 18-24 Year Olds Have Smartphones.
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: ON THE NEW SPINSTERS blog, Gena Lewis compares university sexual harassment rules to Saudi adultery law in a surprisingly persuasive post.
UPDATE: Some kind of link-screwup. If you want to read Gena’s post, go here and scroll down.
BLUFF, CALLED: Christie: Buffett Should ‘Write a Check and Shut Up’.
HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRESS: Hate speech section of Canadian Human Rights Act nears repeal.
OUT TODAY: The new Playstation Vita.
CHANGE: Florida Drivers Shelling Out Nearly $6 A Gallon At Some Gas Stations.
UPDATE: Rachel Pereira writes:
Lake Buena Vista = Disney. Of course gas is more expensive there. It always is.
And the Suncoast station is right next to the airport. It is regularly $2 higher than anywhere else in Orlando.
A mile up the road from that Suncoast station, I saw gas last night for $3.69 at Mobile and $3.69 at RaceTrack.
I drove a 10 mile section of that road last night. Gas prices ranged $3.79 down to $3.62 (at a citgo – I won’t pay for citgo).
I saw gas this morning for $3.64, again at a citgo. I paid $3.69 this morning at a Shell.
Yes, we’re high. But not (yet) $6 high… except in the “screw you tourists” sections.
I hate those.
SCORING TONIGHT’S DEBATE: The Candidates Were Fine, but CNN is a Joke.