MICHAEL BARONE: Why Obama’s Tax Hikes Will Never Be Enough. “Under Obama, federal outlays — the technical term for federal spending — have increased to between 24 and 25 percent of gross domestic product. That’s a higher level of federal spending than in any year since 1946, when we were demobilizing after World War II. And the Obama budgets envision federal spending to continue at such levels more or less indefinitely.”
Archive for 2012
December 6, 2012
MICHAEL WALSH: Benghazi blunder: CIA opts for CYA. “The deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were a moral and military disgrace, bespeaking a failure of nerve and judgment at the highest levels. With significant military assets just a couple of hours away, the men were left to die. Their deaths were a tragedy, but now the ensuing blame game threatens to devolve into farce.”
JAMES TARANTO: ‘Voter Suppression,’ Debunked: A black activist’s surprising admission. “Hardy’s assessment of the 2012 election, however, directly contradicts the claim that voter ID laws actually suppress minority voting. According to her, they have precisely the opposite effect. . . . A common academic definition of ‘racism’ excuses racial hostility or bigotry on the part of minorities on the ground that one can’t be racist unless one has power. But the main thrust of the postelection racial commentary has been triumphalist, not downtrodden: Obama’s victory is understood precisely as a show of minority power and white powerlessness. Can the left really have it both ways? Well, they can certainly try.”
OBSTRUCTIONISM IN THE SENATE: Reid blocks Senate vote on Obama’s deficit-reduction plan.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday offered an amendment to force a vote on President Obama’s deficit-reduction plan, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was having none of it.
“Last week [Treasury] Secretary [Timothy] Geithner brought up a proposal that was so unserious,” McConnell said on the floor, “I would like to see if my Democratic friends would like to support it.”
McConnell suggested that the Senate vote on what he called the president’s “ridiculous” plan as an amendment to the Russian trade bill that is being considered.
Reid, however, was having none of it.
TRADITIONAL VALUES: Domestic Violence And Two-Income Homes. “Researchers at Sam Houston State University report that a survey of women shows that domestic violence is substantially more common in two-income homes than in homes where the woman is home and the man works.”
December 5, 2012
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Toys & Games.
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SO BAD IT’S GOOD: Uffie: Pop The Glock. This one goes out to Bob Costas.
UPDATE: Reader Mark Faby writes: “I think that Kei$ha $tole many of Uffie’s ideas and style. I come to this conclusion after having downloaded a TON of Uffie’s stuff; almost all of it pre-dated Keisha’$ debut and K’$ $ound is a blatant imitation of Uffie’s.”
Well, then keep her away from Tigra and Bunny. Hard to believe that Bunny’s got 4 kids now. How the years fly by. . . .
POINTS AND FIGURES: “Entrepreneurship is about a lot of things, and one of those things is failure. Instead of insulating ourselves from failure, we need to learn from failure.”
UPDATE: Reader Dennis Owens writes: “Unfortunately modern society, perfectly embodied in student loan debt, no longer allows people room to fail. Once you have a mortgage worth of unforgivable debt over your head, you no longer have the ability to take a low paying initial job to gain valuable skills, or take a risk and fail. This loss of margin of error has kept many people in my generation from taking the chances that are necessary for a thriving entrepreneurial society.”
ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP: Reader Jim Farley writes:
My wife requests that I thank you for the Lamb & Guinness stew recipe. We just had it for dinner tonight and it was fabulous. She would like to note that, instead of putting flour into the stew she rolled the meat in the flour, then seared it before adding.
When I was younger, I didn’t much care for lamb. In my better years I have come to love it. From aversion to affinity.
Nice touch, though personally I like the thickness flour adds to a stew. Otherwise it seems more like soup. And lamb is awesome. I had mutton as a kid in Germany, and though some complained that the flavor was too strong, I liked it pretty well. But lamb is lamb.
UPDATE: Various readers inform me that the flour used for searing thickens things nicely. Cool! I’ve never tried that.
IT’S ABOUT PORK, NOT SECURITY: DHS grants ‘like winning the lottery’ for state, local officials.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 10 Tools To Help You Paint Like A Pro.
MORE FROM THE ATLANTICS: Point Zero.
WHERE MASTURBATION AND HOMOSEXUALITY do not exist.
MEGAN MCARDLE: How Luxury Will Win The Shopping Wars.
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
GOOD GRIEF: I remember when Legos were cheap.
GROWING A BEARD, GETTING A MORTGAGE: When do men become grownups? Or women?
THE DURANTY STORY, UPDATED: Roger Simon & Sheryl Longin’s The Party Line is now available from Amazon. I’ve read it, and it’s terrific.
WEBB WILDER: ROCKET TO NOWHERE. Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big — wear glasses if you need ’em. I got women on every planet. Got one named Xena, one named Janet.
OMAR AND THE HOWLERS: Monkey Land.
ED DRISCOLL: How Western Civilization Lost It At The Movies.
CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Week 4 — In Which We Plateau.
STAND-UP DESKS: Andrew Morris emails that he has one of these and it rocks. “I got this adjustable one and it is awesome – easy to assemble, very customizable, and I can use it both standing and sitting. Service from the company was terrific too.”