IN THE MAIL: From S. M. Stirling, The Golden Princess: A Novel of the Change. I’ve read this already, and he does a great job of keeping the ball rolling in this series, which I wasn’t sure he’d be able to manage.
Also, today only at Amazon: Up to 62% Off Select Actron Automotive Diagnostic Scanners.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 490.
JON BISHOP: On September 11th and Generational Blindness. I’m not sure that Gen-Xers and Millennials are the problem here.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Health Care Takes Bigger Bite out of Americans’ Shrinking Budgets.
Health care took a bigger bite out of Americans’ budgets in 2013 than in 2012, even though Americans spent less overall as their incomes decreased. A new report from the Department of Labor found that, in 2013, overall U.S. consumer spending declined .7 percent, after a 3.5 percent rise in 2012. Many constituent areas saw big drops (for example: clothes, 7.6 percent and entertainment, 4.7 percent), but spending in two areas rose despite the overall decline. . . . Policy makers must make choices that will make health care cheaper, and some tools for lowering costs already exist. Clinics are cheaper places to receive care than emergency rooms and nurse practitioners provide care at a lower cost than doctors do. Laws that restrict the scope of NPs’ practice could, therefore, be relaxed. Price transparency all on its own can lower spending; state governments can be much, much more proactive in collecting and disseminating that information. Hospitals could do a better job adopting technologies that lower costs instead of technologies that increase costs.
Related: Obamacare Premiums Are Magical Mystery Tour.
The important thing to keep in mind is that when the “benchmark rate” goes down, that doesn’t mean that the cost of the old benchmark plan has fallen. It just means that whatever plan is now the second-cheapest “silver” plan on the exchanges is cheaper than whatever was the second-cheapest plan last year.
Uh huh.
WHEN REDISTRIBUTION COMES TO ORGAN DONATIONS: Liver transplant plan could punish donor-rich South.
LIFE IN WISCONSIN’S “DEEP STATE:” John Doe prosecutor John Chisholm objects to what Stuart Taylor Jr. said about his anti-Walker vendetta.
Chisholm’s lawyer gave the newspaper text that it prints in its (presumably) original form. . . .
Reading these 2 articles this morning, I’m thinking that Taylor raised suspicions that Chisholm and his lawyers and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have not adequately refuted. I want to see a specific statement from Chisholm that goes into the details, something more than expressions of outrage and denials that could be based on Chisholm’s belief that he compartmentalized his prosecutorial decisionmaking and his personal political beliefs and husbandly tenderness.
Were there blue fist signs in the office and other expressions of support for unions and antagonism to Walker? What was the extent of participation in the protests? Did Chisholm speak openly about his wife’s feelings in the context of the case? Taylor’s article created a strong motivation to respond on that level, and neither Chisholm nor his lawyer provided that response.
Well, that’s kind of revealing.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF WE-TOLD-YOU-SO: Surprise: Post-Obamacare Deductibles Going Through The Roof.
REVOLVING DOOR UPDATE: The Great Obamacare Cashout: Medicare overhaul chief cashes out to CareFirst.
Another argument for my revolving-door surtax.
AT AMAZON, Fall Deals on Men’s Shoes. Also, Women’s Shoes.
Plus, Generators and Portable Power for Storm Season. Winter is coming.
THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN. I THINK IT DEFINES OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY: “Jobless claims unexpectedly rise 11,000 to 315,000 last week.”
SO NOW IT’S THE 13TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11. Back then, InstaPundit was shiny and new new. Now it’s not, and some people have been warning of “blogger burnout.” But I’m still here. On prior 9/11 anniversaries, I’ve given shooting lessons to a Marine, I’ve taken the day off from blogging, and I’ve even gone to a Tea Party with Andrew Breitbart.
This year, as in most past years, it’ll be blogging as usual. And here’s a link to my original 9/11 coverage — just scroll on up. At this late date, I don’t have much new to say on 9/11. But these predictions held up pretty well. Which is too bad.
The picture above is by my cousin-in-law Brad Rubenstein, taken from his apartment that day. You might also want to read this piece by James Lileks.
And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.
Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.
…
They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.
The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating today.
Now, of course, with the Syria debacle last year, leading into this year’s Iraq rerun, it seems like we’ve gone from tragedy to farce and back to tragedy. Are you feeling the hope and change? I’m not.
God bless America. We need it.
YES. ALSO BARACK OBAMA. NEXT QUESTION? Is Eric Holder Trying To Protect The IRS?
ROGER SIMON: The Nowhere Man Goes To War.
YEAH, THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” STUFF ISN’T LOOKING SO GOOD: Becoming secretary of state could be Hillary’s biggest political mistake. “Hillary Clinton enjoyed remarkably high approval ratings during her time as secretary of state under President Obama, but those numbers have evaporated as the Middle East burns and Moscow continues its expansion westward — leaving her legacy in tatters. This development is occurring at a terrible time for Clinton, months before she is expected to announce her 2016 presidential ambitions.”
ROLL CALL: Stalled Georgia Judicial Nominee Presents a Dilemma for Senate Democrats.
The troubled judicial nomination of Michael P. Boggs is stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee as the days grow short for congressional action this year, and the panel is moving other nominations ahead of his.
The committee added a slate of 10 judicial nominees to its agenda for votes this month, likely next week. That agenda does not include Boggs, one of President Barack Obama’s nominees to a federal district court in Georgia.
A vote now on Boggs’ nomination would unnecessarily risk a potentially awkward intraparty conflict among Democrats, Senate aides and nominations experts familiar with the nomination said. Committee Democrats either could reject one of Obama’s judicial picks for the first time. Or the nomination could advance to the full Senate with opposition from many Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. . . .
Most Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee, however, oppose Boggs’ nomination based on positions Boggs took on abortion and same-sex marriage as a Democratic state lawmaker in Georgia in the early 2000s. Reid voiced opposition to Boggs, and so did progressive groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America.
They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney. . . . Oh, Hell, you know the rest.
THE HILL: Cheney points finger at Obama’s ‘indifference’ for rise of ISIS.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday said there is a connection between the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and President Obama’s disengagement abroad, accusing him of “principled indifference.”
“The terrorists who threaten this country and our friends are on the wrong side of civilization,” he said during prepared remarks at the American Enterprise Institute. “They will be on the wrong side of history only if we put them there. We must deal with threats before they become grave dangers and dangers before they become catastrophes.”
I think that the only danger Obama has paid any attention to was the danger of a Republican electoral victory.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Even the Bush White House polled better than this.
YA THINK? Uneven playing field? Judge, prosecutor who let Ray Rice walk toss book at single mom.
And where’s Chris Christie? Haven’t heard a peep from him.
NAH, HE’LL BE REMEMBERED FOR BEING A FUCK-UP, TOO: Michael Moore: A hundred years from now, Obama will only be remembered for being the first black president.
Also, although — as I predicted — Obama’s portrayal has gotten steadily “blacker” as his problems have mounted, I expect a post-term revisionism that will stress his privileged white background, concluding that he wasn’t a “real” black President at all. Expect this to peak around 2025-2030.
AT AMAZON, Fall Deals on Gardening Products.
Plus, End-of-Summer Deals on Outdoor Cooking and Grilling Products. Grilling season is year-round if you do it right.
“Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“ISIL.”
“ISIL who?”
“ISIL have no idea what to do about this $#!+.”
— @BarackObama to WH Press Corps, 9/10/14
Jim Treacher, trenchant even on vacation.
BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WOULD BE POLITICALLY UNPOPULAR? Why didn’t Obama pass immigration reform when he had the chance?
LIFE IN OBAMA’S AMERICA: Army officer is told not to enter his daughter’s high school because he’s wearing his uniform. “Before he was allowed in, the security guard stopped him and said sorry you’re not allowed in the school. Security told him men and women in uniform weren’t allowed because it may offend another student.”
Also: Firefighters Say They Were Sent Home for Refusing to Remove Patriotic Stickers.
ANOTHER SPEECH: Obama: ‘Relentless’ campaign to destroy ISIS.
Background: NYT Baghdad bureau chief: The White House lied to Americans for years about what bad shape Iraq was in.
UPDATE: Heh.
Shorter Obama… pic.twitter.com/aO2zMtlog5
— jon gabriel (@exjon) September 11, 2014
ANOTHER UPDATE: “Operation Iraqi Mulligan.”
MORE: Wish we were going to war with a Michael Corleone, instead of Fredo.
STILL MORE: Obama vs. the Islamic State: The Speech.
ALSO: Stephen Green: Drunkblogging Obama’s Foreign Policy Speech.
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