SO HERE IN KNOXVILLE, PROTECTED BY THE TENNESSEE VALLEY EFFECT, the Snowzilla has been a bust — the faintest of snow dustings on my deck, etc. But to the east and west, they’ve got inches or feet of snow. I don’t know what it’ll be like here tomorrow, but for those in the storm’s path: Good luck!
Archive for 2016
January 22, 2016
EMPTY YOUR CLOSETS, FILL YOUR WALLET: Trade In Your Used Books at Amazon.
SHOCKER: Highest State And Local Tax Burdens Are In Blue States, Lowest Are In Red States. The GOP should make this contrast sharper by eliminating deductibility of state income and property taxes. Plus, it would be fun to make Democrats oppose a tax increase on “the wealthy.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Eight Movies to Get You Ready for Snowpocalypse.
…”Or, as it’s known in Wisconsin, ‘Friday,'” as Iowahawk tweets.
It’s a fun list (two guesses as to what the number one blizzard and isolation-themed movie is on the list), but missing three of my favorite late ’60s snow-packed movies, The Fox, with Keir Dullea, Sandy Dennis, and Anne Heywood; Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood’s Where Eagles Dare; and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the best James Bond film Sean Connery never made.
SO, WAIT, DOES THIS MEAN OBAMA’S GOING TO THROW HIM IN JAIL? Bernie Sanders has a Eugene V. Debs problem.
“I SAID BE CAREFUL, THAT OLD MAN IS REALLY A COMMIE:” “That song is an awful choice for a political campaign. It’s not about hope and promise. It’s about looking for America and not finding it. The lovers hop on the bus hopefully enough, but by the end they’re out of cigarettes and out of things to talk about, and she’s flipping through a magazine rather than looking out the window at the country rolling by. . . . A sad, superannuated song for a sad, superannuated candidate.”
Related: Time: The Democrats Stumble Toward 50 Shades of Socialism.
Update (Ed): Didn’t the Democrats “stumble” hard into a big steaming heap of socialism seven years ago, along with Time’s chief rival in the opinion business?
JAMES HUFFMAN: The New Sagebrush Rebels. “On the political front, rural westerners are overwhelmingly outnumbered. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that legislators in both houses of state legislatures must be elected on a one-person-one-vote basis, rural communities have been ruled by urban voters. While there are still a few states (e.g. Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah) where rural citizens have political pull, the federal lands are beyond their reach for legal reasons explained below.”
I believe that Baker v. Carr was incorrectly decided. By allowing significant numbers of communities comprising huge swathes of America to be governed entirely from a small number of urban areas whose citizens have very different lifestyles, it violates the Constitution’s guarantee of a republican form of government.
JONAH GOLDBERG DEFENDS ANTI-TRUMP NATIONAL REVIEW COVER STORY:
The idea that National Review should be lumped in with that establishment is the kind of insight one can only discover after successfully inserting your entire cranium past your sphincter. The K-Street/consultant-class Republican establishment is conservative, but their conservatism is secondary to their need to make deals, maintain access and, to be fair, win elections.
That last bit is important. The Republican party is in the election-winning business first and foremost. And that’s largely as it should be. That’s partly why former National Review publisher, the late, great Bill Rusher always used to tell the new hires at NR to be on guard: “Politicians will always disappoint you.”
The reason politicians will disappoint principled conservatives — and, for that matter, principled liberals and libertarians — is that there is always an inherent tradeoff between the purity of principle and the necessities of electoral politics and the limitations of what can be done via government action. National Review has always recognized this tension, which is immortalized in the rule of thumb that we should support “the most conservative candidate electable.”
Every conservative is supposed to believe that incentives matter. The incentives for the K-street/consultant establishment is keep their influence and their access. The incentives for the ink-and-pixel-stained wretches who run NR are different. I’m open to the complaint that our self-interest has driven us to become too invested in an ideology that too few voters subscribe to. But if that’s the case, the remedy isn’t to abandon all principle and just join the mob. I’d rather go down with my ship, thank you very much.
Read the whole thing.
REMINDER: THE SERVER IS THE SMOKING GUN. Robert Gates: ‘Odds Are Pretty High’ That Russia, China and Iran Compromised Hillary’s Server.
DON’T WORRY, IT’S PROBABLY NOTHING: German Government Can’t Account for 600,000 Refugees.
THE CASE AGAINST A Mid-Engined Corvette.
HILLARY DISSES A THOUSAND FANS IN IOWA:
After a day marred by a new poll showing Bernie Sanders leading her by eight points in Iowa, Clinton might have been expected to go for broke during a rally at the University of Iowa, which featured a performance by popstar Demi Lovato.
But Clinton did not refer to the Vermont senator, or much else, in her speech. The lack of length and substance of her address appeared to upset some in the crowd.
“It was like a political commercial,” said Allison Steigerwald, a 24-year-old graduate student at the university. “I thought she was saying goodbye to Demi and then she’d start her speech. But it never happened.”
“It was very short,” said Jennifer Marks, 22. “There were a lot of statements. Like: ‘We are we going to make things happen.’” Marks said. “No actual how.”
“I just feel bad for the people who got here at five,” she said.
Message: I care.
In a tangentially related story, Bernie Sanders has chopped Clinton’s lead in half in firewall South Carolina without even trying.
THE BEST DISASTER-PREP IS MOVING OUT OF THE DANGER ZONES: Pacific Northwest in fear of massive earthquake, tsunami.
DEALS ON SOFTWARE AND MORE at Amazon Tax Central.
UPDATE: So I had ordered a couple of things from Amazon that were supposed to arrive Monday. Just now a Budget rental truck pulled up and a FedEx Ground guy got out and delivered them. They’re “surging” to get ahead of the snow. Meanwhile, even with warning, DC’s government was paralyzed by a half-inch. The world that works, vs. the one that doesn’t.
THIS SEEMS LIKE SOUND LEGAL ADVICE: Passenger who beat his Uber driver should drop his countersuit.
READER BOOK PLUG: From Dexter Van Zile, Submitted Under Protest: Essays Written in Defense of Western Freedom. With a foreword by Richard Landes.
THE COLLEGE CAMPUSES WERE JUST A TEST: More Concerns Expressed about American Law Institute’s “Affirmative Consent” Project by ALI Members.
HILLARY’S PROBLEM: Women Won’t Save Her. Because they don’t much like her, and her pandering is pathetically transparent. “Young women are averse to the idea that we need a man to succeed, yet that is what Ms. Clinton exemplifies.”
MARK RIPPETOE: Strength Training For Women In The Military.
UPDATE: Sorry, this is by C.J. Gotcher. Rippetoe sent me the link, and I didn’t notice that it was by someone else.
DAVID MASTIO: Flint lead crisis getting a tad overdone: Before hitting the panic button, remember we are winning the war on lead poisoning. “Flint’s 8,000 children have not had their lives destroyed. Jesse Jackson can roll up his crime tape. Michael Moore can go back to promoting his latest film. Taken as a whole, in fact, Flint’s kids are better off than the previous generations of Michigander kids in at least one important way. Even after Flint’s disaster, the city’s children have far less lead in their blood than their parents or grandparents did at the same age.”
Yes, instead of lynching the Democratic town leaders who let this happen, it’s worth keeping things in perspective.
HARD ON THE MAKERS, EASY ON THE TAKERS: Revealed: Bernie Sanders’ New Tax Plan.
WATCH OUT OBAMA VOTERS, HILLARY WANTS YOU, BAD: Clinton lobbies hard to woo Obama voters in a Huffington Post op-ed, “What President Obama’s Legacy Means to Me”:
By the time President Obama was sworn into office, we were on the brink of another Great Depression. . . .President Obama changed all that. Look where we are today. We’ve had 70 straight months of private-sector job growth. Our businesses have created 14.1 million jobs. The unemployment rate is the lowest in seven years. And the auto industry just had its best year ever.
That’s a pretty outstanding record for any president — let alone one who took office amid an economic disaster. That’s not all. We’ve imposed the toughest regulations on Wall Street since the 1930s. We created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just over a year ago — and it’s already returned nearly $11 billion to consumers.
We’ve restored our standing around the world. Under President Obama’s leadership, we worked with Congress and the United Nations to impose crippling sanctions against Iran, which paved the way for a landmark deal that will keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We stood up for LGBT rights and women’s rights around the world. We brought Osama bin Laden to justice. And thanks to a lot of painstaking diplomacy by the president and his team, nearly 200 countries have signed on to a landmark agreement to tackle the urgent threat of climate change.
Then there’s the progress we’ve made toward a cause close to my heart: putting quality, affordable health care within reach for everyone. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 18 million Americans now have health coverage. . . .
As president, I will carry forward the Democratic record of achievement. I’ll defend President Obama’s accomplishments and build upon them. I’ll work to get incomes rising for middle-class families, make college affordable, alleviate the crushing burden of student debt, protect LGBT Americans from discrimination, preserve women’s access to health care and reproductive choice, and keep America safe from threats at home and abroad. And I’ll never allow the Affordable Care Act to be repealed.
We’ve made tremendous progress over the past eight years. That shouldn’t be dismissed or taken lightly. Let’s keep that progress going. Let’s make sure no one turns the clock back. We’ve come too far. We’ve accomplished too much. We can do even more for our families, our communities, and the country we love. And together, we can build an economy and a country that works for everyone. That would be truly revolutionary.
So apparently, to Hillary, everything is just peachy, and let’s keep this good thing going! Yeah, that will work.
With about two-thirds of Americans thinking the country is on the “wrong track,” I’d say Hillary’s attempt to run on a message of doing “even more” of what Obama has done–and selling herself as “truly revolutionary”–is about as useful as teats on a bull. Bless her little shriveled, lying progressive heart.
RELATED: Michael Mukasey in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Clinton’s Emails: A Criminal Charge is Justified.”
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST.
Shot: “In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today’s anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled.”
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr., September, 2008.
Chaser: “A potentially historic snowstorm churned Friday toward the eastern United States, where it is expected to transform into a massive blizzard that could bury the nation’s capital and other large cities under more than two feet of snow.”
—“Mid-Atlantic Blizzard Could Make ‘Legitimate’ History,” NBC, today.
(Headline via the London Independent in 2000.)
WHEN STEREOTYPES COLLIDE: Surprise, My Gay Dad is Sexist! “He’s not being sexist you guys. He can’t be sexist. He’s gay. He’s a trailblazer for the marginalized, trust me!”
Plus: “Growing up, I assumed our family was progressive because my dad was gay. But it was actually like being raised by an old Southern matriarch from a Tennessee Williams play.”