Of course, when a racist anti-semite defends a racist anti-semite, it’s not really a shock.
Archive for 2019
February 12, 2019
UNEXPECTEDLY: The Twin Cities’ ‘affordable housing’ shortage was caused by their politicians.
Seeing this problem, many people then demand that the government ‘do something’ about it. Typically, that ‘something’ involves spending more money or issuing a new raft of regulations. Thus, the $40 million Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has earmarked in his 2019 budget for affordable housing and the $71 million, three-year housing initiative which Saint Paul’s Mayor, Melvin Carter, has announced.
But before rushing in to spend and regulate away the lack of ‘affordable housing’, shouldn’t they take some time to ask how it arose?
When, in 2017, the Pioneer Press surveyed 60 government officials, builders, Realtors, housing and energy lobbyists, and home buyers on the causes of high housing costs in the Twin Cities they found that “…regulations, including energy-saving rules and safety codes, are tougher and costlier than in surrounding states…The cost of metro-area land is elevated by centralized planning, larger mandated lot sizes and a public resistance to development [and] An increasing use of city fees, tucked into the price of a new house, can add tens of thousands of dollars.”
As Thomas Sowell wrote about the Bay Area’s own “affordable housing shortage,” it’s “The Housing Price of Liberalism.”
In this part of California, liberalism reigns supreme and “open space” is virtually a religion. What that lovely phrase means is that there are vast amounts of empty land where the law forbids anybody from building anything.
Anyone who has taken Economics 101 knows that preventing the supply from rising to meet the demand means that prices are going to rise. Housing is no exception.
Yet when my wife wrote in a local Palo Alto newspaper, many years ago, that preventing the building of housing would cause existing housing to become far too expensive for most people to afford it, she was deluged with more outraged letters than I get from readers of a nationally syndicated column.
What she said was treated as blasphemy against the religion of “open space” — and open space is just one of the wonderful things about the world envisioned by liberals that is ruinously expensive in the mundane world where the rest of us live.
As Sowell writes, “Much as many liberals like to put guilt trips on other people, they seldom seek out, much less acknowledge and take responsibility for, the bad consequences of their own actions.”
WHY IS IT THE FRESHMEN ALWAYS HAVE THE BEST IDEAS? Because they still remember life back home in the real world? In any case, freshmen GOP senators Mike Braun of Indiana and Rick Scott of Florida introduced a proposal Tuesday to end tax-funded congressional pensions.
“It’s time for term limits and it’s time to make those in D.C. realize that the era of career politicians is over. Americans should not have to foot the bill for generous salaries and pensions for members of Congress,” Scott said.
Both men promised not to accept tax-funded pensions when they leave Congress, an important both for their credibility and because they believe they have to grand-father all current members of the Senate and House for their proposal to have any chance of becoming law.
With that grand-father clause, things could get real interesting if the guy sitting in the Oval Office takes notice and starts tweeting about Braun-Scott. Go here for more.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Apparently, the Green New Deal Runs on Gaslight.
To be fair, the proponents of the old Green New Deal were also rather found of the surprisingly environmentally friendly substance as well from 2008-2016.
TRAIN DERAILED; QUESTIONS ASKED: “During Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first State of the State speech Tuesday, he surprised listeners by announcing he would put the quest for high-speed rail connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles championed by his predecessor far on the back burner.”
Meanwhile, questions asked and possibly answered at Twitchy: “Tell me I’m wrong. Pelosi had Newsom kill the CA train today on purpose, right?” Why? “To signal to the GND crew that we will shut down your batshit dreams of unicorns ‘n’ shit.”
Earlier: The Politician Behind California High Speed Rail Now Says It’s ‘Almost a Crime.’
DESPITE, BECAUSE, WHATEVER: Despite guns and schools debate, participation on high school rifle teams is increasing.
PROTECTION: Real estate isn’t all cheery open houses and glitzy listings. Here’s why 1 in 6 agents carries a gun.
Scott Smith works as a real estate agent in Baltimore. He’s in and out of properties every day, never knowing what he could encounter. He protects himself thanks to a concealed carry permit he received legally.
Smith, who has also worked as a firearms instructor, says he’s never used the gun he legally carries when he’s conducting business. But he trains regularly so he’s prepared, knowing fellow real estate agents who have been assaulted or robbed in the course of just doing their jobs. Smith has had his own scare.
“I was completely taken off guard,” he explained. “There was a person hiding in the house. Actually they were hiding in the shower. I had no clue they were there, and that was obviously pretty scary.”
Real estate, by its very nature, is an industry that comes with some risk. Real estate agents regularly visit homes with floor plans they’ve never seen. They often meet strangers at the homes they’re trying to sell. A 2018 report from the National Association of Realtors showed 33 percent of those surveyed experienced a situation that made them fear for their safety. The survey reported 5 percent of respondents claimed they’d been the victim of crime at work.
John Smaby is a Minnesota Realtor who grew up in real estate thanks to a Realtor father. He’s been in the industry for decades and was recently installed as the new president of the NAR.
Smaby told Circa, “The real estate business is really an individual business, so we many times meet people in places that could put ourselves in peril. We can’t do it blind.”
Smart.
THE WHOLE AIPAC THING IS A DEFLECTION: Why Rep. Omar was accused of indulging in anti-Semitic rhetoric: “So the anti-Semitic implications of Omar’s initial tweet are rather clear: ‘[House Minority Leader] McCarthy isn’t criticizing me because it’s an obvious political move for a Republican to criticize anti-Semitism among Democrats, but because he’s been bought off by Jewish money.'”
FASTER, PLEASE — WELL, ACTUALLY THIS IS ALREADY PRETTY FAST: The 205-MPH 2020 Alpina B7 Is the Fastest Sedan In the World.
AT AMAZON, deals in Health and Personal Care.
BUT THE NARRATIVE! Study Shows Voter ID Laws Don’t Stop People Voting.
The new research, from an economics professor at the University of Bologna and another at Harvard Business School, indicates that “strict” voting laws of the type implemented in those ten states do not have a statistically significant effect on voter turnout.
To determine this, the professors took advantage of different timing of the implementation of voter ID laws in different states to construct a “difference-in-differences” analysis, looking at how voters behave in states that do and do not have strict voter ID laws, before and after those laws were implemented. They used data from the progressive data service Catalist, “a U.S. company that provides data and data-related services to progressive organizations and has a long history of collaborating with academics.”
The data from Catalist contained both demographic information—age, sex, race, and party affiliation—as well as information on whether or not a surveyed person was actually registered. This means that the paper’s authors could test whether or not voter ID not only stopped registered voters from voting, but discouraged unregistered voters from registering.
“Strict ID laws have no significant negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any subgroup defined by age, gender, race, or party affiliation,” the paper’s authors found.
“Most importantly,” they write, strict ID laws “do not decrease the participation of ethnic minorities relative to whites. The laws’ overall effects remain close to zero and non-significant whether the election is a midterm or presidential election, and whether the laws are the more restrictive type that stipulate photo IDs.”
I haven’t figured out exactly how this is racist, but I’m sure it must be.
UNEXPECTEDLY: Linda Sarsour Defends Rep. Ilhan Omar Amid Anti-Semitic Controversy.
Meanwhile, sorry, not sorry: Rep. Omar: I Am Sorry That I Hurt Jews, But AIPAC Is Still A Problem.
INTERVIEW: Tyler Cowen’s Gospel of Prosperity. “The George Mason University economist and Marginal Revolution founder explains why a richer world is a better world.”
“AMBITIOUS TIMETABLE:” SpaceX seeks FCC OK for 1 million satellite broadband Earth stations.
THE NYT WANTS YOU TO THINK YOUR FAVORITE CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS ARE SECRETLY GAY-THEMED.
I’m so old, I can remember when lefties mocked fellow “Progressive” Fredric Wertham for seeing gay themes everywhere in books for children.
AT AMAZON, THERE’S STILL TIME TO shop the Valentine’s Day Gift Shop.
Plus, protect yourself with the PortaPow 3rd Gen Data Blocker.
