Archive for 2013
October 15, 2013
JAMES TARANTO: Co-Op Country: A real estate metaphor for Washington.
No one can outdo Thomas Friedman in the production of labored metaphors, but give Paul Krugman an “E” for Enron–uh, we mean effort. . . .
To begin with, he implies that congressional Republicans–the bad guys in his analogy, in case you’ve never heard of Krugman–are committing crimes (threatening “bodily harm to your family”) as well as engaging in behavior that is vexatious and unreasonable yet completely lawful (filing a “spurious lawsuit” and demanding a settlement). The latter part of the analogy may be defensible, but the former is not.
Spurious lawsuits are of course a problem in the real world, and Krugman misses an opportunity to endorse tort-reform proposals such as the “loser pays” rule, which would compel the fictitious neighbor to pay the reader’s attorney fees after the defendant wins the case.
But note that he prejudges the imagined lawsuit, deeming it “spurious” before it has been litigated. And actually this aspect of the analogy is a bit cleverer than that, for Krugman is inviting the reader to imagine himself as the victim and thereby to empathize with the Democrats. Before even revealing the subject of his column, Krugman rules out the possibility that there is any legitimacy to the substance of the Republican point of view.
The biggest problem with the analogy, though, is procedural. Krugman imagines the Republicans as some jerk who has no right to bother anybody. In reality, they are elected lawmakers, part of a coequal branch of government. They hold a majority in one house of Congress and a large enough minority in the other house to frustrate the will of the majority under its rules. What they are doing is, strictly speaking, entirely legitimate, even if it can be reasonably seen as reckless and obnoxious. (The same was true of the Democratic majorities that enacted ObamaCare in 2009-10.)
To Krugman — and, apparently, to most Obama-supporting Democrats — there’s no such thing as legitimate opposition.
#THIRDWORLD: Regime To Sponsor Protests Against Its Opposition.
Send some plants with Confederate flags — or, even better, Cuban and Soviet flags — to the OFA march . . . .
CHARLIE MARTIN: I Told You So (Obamacare Edition). “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me for five years, I’m an Obama voter.”
SPYING: NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally. “The collection depends on secret arrangements with foreign telecommunications companies or allied intelligence services in control of facilities that direct traffic along the Internet’s main data routes. Although the collection takes place overseas, two senior U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged that it sweeps in the contacts of many Americans. They declined to offer an estimate but did not dispute that the number is likely to be in the millions or tens of millions.”
THE “GOOD” ROGER SIMON, OF PJ MEDIA, IS GETTING FLAK BECAUSE OF THE HACK ROGER SIMON, AT POLITICO. Good Roger responds with characteristic good humor.
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: FDNY’s court-mandated class flaming out. “The first court-ordered class of FDNY trainees — the oldest and most diverse in history — is flaming out. Halfway through the 18-week Fire Academy course, the dropout rate has hit a sky-high 15 percent and could climb to a third of the 318 who started on July 29, according to insiders. . . .In addition, an alarming number of ‘probies’ have been injured — suffering sprains, fractures and other ailments — and put on medical leave, insiders say. Others teeter on the cusp of flunking out because they can’t handle the physical or academic demands.”
SHOCKINGLY, THEY’RE ALL PLACES WHERE THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT ENDING INCOME INEQUALITY: Places Where The Middle Class Can’t Afford To Live Anymore.
October 14, 2013
FIGHT THE POWER: Insane Tourists Blatantly Defying The U.S. Government’s Demands.
HOW YOUR BRAIN interprets food as love.
AT AMAZON, Fall Deals in Patio, Lawn & Garden.
Plus, the Men’s Denim Store.
Also, 60% or more off on Hunting & Tactical Knives.
And, today only: Calibre Men’s Trooper Watch Sets at $49.99 (74% off).
ELECTIONEERING ON THE TAXPAYER’S DIME: Illegal use of DoD Communications Systems by Obama Administration.
REMEMBER ALICE PALMER? “It’s getting harder to tell what part of the current sycophancy of the MSM is ideological mind-melding and what part is fear, considering the way those in the media who dare to lob anything but softballs at Obama have been treated. Nixon had an enemies list, but how many people were truly afraid of him? And the people who were afraid of him actually were his enemies. With Obama, it seems that quite a few of the people who are afraid of him are his admirers and supporters, fellow-liberals and Democrats in the press and elsewhere.”
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Mainstream baffled as French turn to far right. “The ruling Socialist party and the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, face humiliating reverses in municipal and European elections next year if the FN can sustain its current standing in the eyes of an electorate thoroughly fed-up with record unemployment, rising taxes and a perceived increase in crime and insecurity.”
MAYBE WE SHOULD HIRE DETECTIVES TO FOLLOW THEIR EXECUTIVES AROUND: Amid NSA Outrage, Big Tech Companies Plan to Track You Even More Aggressively.
Related: Richard Stallman: How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand? Not much, if it’s abused for political purposes.
AT AMAZON, 40% or more off on select TVs.
Plus, deals on generators.
PRIZE OFFERING: Coolidge Foundation Offers $20,000 Prize for Best Blog Post.
INFOWORLD: How federal cronies built — and botched — Healthcare.gov. “The contracts awarded to those who built it were, by and large, existing government contractors with ‘deep political pockets.'”
I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Bill Ayers: Didn’t think Obama connection ‘would blow up like this.’
MISSING IN ACTION: The Obama Campaign’s Life Of Julia. “I’m annoyed not to be able to find the actual slideshow. (It’s less annoying than the way the Obamacare website doesn’t work. Is Obama ashamed of ‘The Life of Julia’ or just unable to do internet?)”
Well, the Healthcare.gov experience suggests the latter, but common sense and decency would argue for the former. So who knows?
From the comments: “Julia was the one who designed the Obamacare website.” Well, that explains a lot.
RICHARD KAHLENBERG: A Fresh Chance To Rein In Racial Preferences.
TRUST THE GOVERNMENT: The DHS Has Been Using A Fake Mexican Constitution Article To Deport US Citizens For 35 Years. “In rejecting Saldana’s bid for citizenship, the government sought to apply an old law that cited Article 314 of the Mexican Constitution, which supposedly dealt with legitimizing out-of-wedlock births. But there was a problem: The Mexican Constitution has no such article.”