Buying Green Means Never Having to Be Honest AgainSome days you find something that just makes you howl, and then (probably; we’ll find out) walk around for hours afterward uttering Father Mulcahey’s mantra: “Jocularity, jocularity!”
This article from Newsweek is one of those things. Hat tip, with flourish: Hot Air.
I can’t stand it. So I’ll just commence with the block quoting. Our heroes are being asked to shop where both “green” and “less-green” products are on offer, and then, in a separate action, split $6 two ways. Continue Reading »
Iraq and GlaspieThe press is talking about the elections in Iraq. People are still debating whether it was good or bad for the United States to start the Second Gulf War. But what about the First Gulf War? To what extent was Ambassador April Glaspie following a plan laid out by President G.H.W. Bush when she spoke to Saddam Hussein in 1990 and–deliberately or accidentally–led him to believe that the United States would let him invade Kuwait?To what extent did Old Bush know what Glaspie had said? How can it be that nobody has interviewed Glaspie after all these years? Is she still available? Should somebody try to get her opinions? Is she not allowed to talk? If she refuses to be interviewed, isn’t that a news story in its own right?
Democrats and Republicans, the Left and the Right–everybody seems to respect Old Bush.
The Rules of the GameLet’s say that the Democrats ultimately pass their health care bill through the reconciliation process—as I understand it, insofar as the changes made in the reconciliation process are not fairly routine changes connected to lowering the budget deficit, such a move would be “unprecedented”; let’s go further, and say that that doesn’t work, and so the Senate goes on to rewrite the rules of the Senate so as to make it possible to eliminate the filibuster as a delaying tactic (as the Republicans considered doing in order to get judicial nominees out of the Judiciary Committee for a full Senate vote) —that would most certainly be “unprecedented.” Such talk of “going nuclear” can be objected to on the grounds that these moves would involve substantially revising rules that have been in place for a long time, and one could make further arguments regarding the overturning of assumptions regarding limits on majoritarian rule that are implicit in the Constitution. We can all rehearse these arguments, and sometimes there are advantages to being the party opposing radical innovations. What if the argument fails, though—that is, what if the majority does what it wants? Even more, what if the rules, tacit and explicit, are being dramatically revised across social life so that the “game” is becoming a very different one, even if most of the players and the most explicit, formal layer of rules remains the same (and even if most of the players would it to remain the same)? At a certain point, defending the proprieties of the system becomes akin to trying to plug all the holes in the dyke with your fingers. What follows is an attempt to think through some of the ways in which the rules of the game (which flourished, say, from 1950-1980) might be in terminal decline, and some of the ways in which new rules might start to emerge. Continue Reading »
Raskolnikov vs NordbergFrom Keith Hennessey’s latest check on the vitals of Obamacare (Health care reform CPR), a usefully useless allusion:
Doctors say that Nordberg has a 50/50 chance of living, though there’s only a 10 percent chance of that.
– George Kennedy as Ed Hocken in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad
Matthew Continetti, while linking to Hennessey’s post, alludes in a different direction:
Say they don’t get the votes before the Easter recess. Would the president and Congress declare the bill dead? Doubtful. It’s more likely they would become the peasants in Raskolnikov’s dream, flogging a dead horse and trying again and again and again to pass the bill.
Both posts are well worth reading, even if the only takeaway is that there seems to be a crime, or something crime-like, but also disease-like, going on. Not clear whether it’s turning into a tragedy, a nightmare, or a joke, or more, or all of the above…
CONTENTION OF THE DAY – PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATISM THEN AND NOWFrustrated with his inability to control a sprawling government and anticipating a climate such as today’s, late in his second presidential term Reagan began arguing for a package of five constitutional amendments that he called his “Economic Bill of Rights.” (Once again he borrowed from FDR, who used the same label for a very different set of ideas in 1944.) Reagan’s package included two familiar standbys he’d requested in nearly every State of the Union address he delivered: a balanced budget amendment and a line-item veto. But he added three more proposals: a federal spending limit (revived a few days ago by Republican Reps. Mike Pence and Jeb Hensarling), a “supermajority” vote requirement for Congress to raise taxes, and a prohibition on wage and price controls.
Granted, seeking multiple constitutional amendments may not be the most conservative of initiatives, but if the tea party faction wishes to stand for something concrete rather than remain merely a protest movement, it might consider embracing Reagan’s Economic Bill of Rights, perhaps with the addition of term limits and an anti-earmark provision to keep the politicians away.
Steven Hayward – “Would Reagan vote for Sarah Palin?” – washingtonpost.com
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Yet another global warming apocalypse
Pretty picture with arrows and blobs
Seems the world’s coming to an end, again. Seems we’re all doomed, again. It’s your fault, again. Don’t know how you can live with yourself, this time.
The Warmists are perspiring, as they do, over a report from University of Fairbanks researcher Natalia Shakhova indicating that methane has been leaking in some rather unimaginable way from certain unimaginable structures known as clathrates, located in the unimaginable seabed in the unimaginable super-Siberian arctic.
Having read a science fiction novel several years ago in which these clathrates were accidentally disturbed (an errant missile barrage, as I recall), causing a total destabilization of world weather patterns and an incidence of civilization-wrecking super-hurricanes (superduper mama hurricanes giving birth to baby super-hurricanes) and other stuff, I feel qualified to report that this isn’t that quite yet.
Some amount, possibly large, of something, but a small amount compared to other amounts of other things, is entering the atmosphere by some unimaginable process, in unimaginable quantities that may or may not lead to temperature change of some uncertain but possibly significant significance. It could very well have been caused by the action of global warming – heating the oceans, melting things that God or Darwin meant to stay frozen.
Continue Reading »
CONTENTION OF THE DAY – New PoliticsEven as [Congressman Jim] Matheson basks in the glow of presidential bribery, Eric Massa, a renegade Democrat from the Southern Tier of New York State faces his wrath. Massa’s sin was to vote against Obamacare. So Pelosi and the ethically-challenged House Ethics Committee are investigating him for “verbally abusing” a male member of his staff. In this age of more serious offenses, using “salty language” to express his displeasure with staff work would not seem to rank high on the list of indictable offenses. If it were, Lyndon Johnson would have been impeached. But Massa is being hung out to dry as an example to other would-be independent minded Democrats. The attacks on him have gotten so bad that Massa has announced his retirement after only one term in office.
But there is a reward waiting for House members who ignore the wishes and interests of their constituents and vote for Obama’s health care proposals. Alan Mollohan has had a pesky FBI investigation hanging over his head for a few years. Now, presto, right before the health care vote, it went away. The Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, announced that the FBI was closing the inquiry.
Mollohan’s sin? He pushed for earmarks for nonprofit enterprises in his district and then went into a real estate deal in Florida with the head of the company under financial terms that were distinctly favorable to the Congressman. But Mollohan toes the party line and is now getting his unjust reward.
With health care reform coming up for a vote in the next few days, such tactics send a message to the House where Pelosi is having trouble lining up her votes: That Obama will do anything – anything at all – to pass this bill.
OBAMA BRIBES, THREATENS, AND REWARDS CONGRESS TO PASS HEALTH CARE at DickMorris.com.
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Obama advisers set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plottersStart spreading the news,
It’s breaking today,
KSM won’t be a part of it
In old New York!
If he can’t be tried there,
He’ll be tried some old where,
Away from you,
New York, New York!
Obama advisers set to recommend military tribunals for alleged 9/11 plotters – washingtonpost.com
Restoring the value of the dollar
Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill.
Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail.
CONTENTION OF THE DAY – CIVIL WAR AT THE WaPoA devastatingly critical Op-Ed column from veteran^2 reporter David Broder – of his own colleague at the Washington Post:
From too many years of covering politics, I have come to believe as Axiom One that the absolute worst advice politicians ever receive comes from journalists who fancy themselves great campaign strategists.
[Dana] Milbank now is urging Obama to emulate Gordon Brown, who is probably just weeks away from being voted out as Britain’s prime minister, and start bullying people himself. That is — well, it’s in the great tradition.
The rest of the article is interesting in an inside baseball kind of way about scapegoating for the Obama Administration’s problems, but I’m not sure I’ve ever read a piece quite like this one.
David S. Broder – The fable of Emanuel the Great – washingtonpost.com.
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W.O.P. – dispatch from the HotAir beachheadJust admit you’re wrong and shut up about progressivism
The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The Real Progressives
URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT prepare to repel boarders at ZC…
Under fire from land, sea, air, and sub-ether… perimeters holding overall, infiltrators captured and being held for enhanced interrogation, ammo in good supply… exchanges with JED begin here… expect update and resumption of offensive operations by 1800 PST at latest…
OUT
1800 – SITREP
CK here. It’s quiet… too qu
1952 – SITREP
Intense exchange of fire, perimeter intact, situation stable…
Provisions low… will report after attempt to re-supply…
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How to write a post in WordPressThe heart of blogging in WordPress is act of creating posts. This video shows you everything you need to know to write posts.
Just ran across this post. Authors intimidated by the whole posting deal might want to take a look at the how-to video it includes. Very straightforward and explains the basics clearly.
The Simplest Explanation on ObamacareKarl at the Hot Air Greenroom has put up a typically informative post (“ObamaCare: Burning down the House“) on the current confusing state of play regarding Obamacare. 2 bills? 3 bills? No bill? A new bill? House first? House not there yet? Try just to say you did? Before Easter? After Easter?
If it’s a new bill, what’s going to be in it? What are the Dems going to say is in it? The story keeps changing without any of the major details becoming much clearer.
Questions abound, uncertainty reigns, and no one knows nuthin’.
The simplest explanation for all of the Dem contradictions and maneuvers is that they cannot force a decision, on the current terms of the discussion, without suffering cataclysmic political setback. Everything they’re doing, despite the apparent political harm of keeping HCR alive rather than focusing on other business, could be aimed at waiting around for an unpredictable, unexpected opportune moment that could result from any of a number of factors separately or in combination – favorable drift in the opinion polls, a crack in the opposition, a rally around Plan C (whatever it turns out to be), even a national emergency that re-sets all political calculations and relieves them of the burden of decision.
Taken individually, such alternatives seem to range from uncertain to not very likely to desperate, but what other choices do they have? Temporizing, including through spaghetti-on-the-wall/see-what-sticks hyperactivity, in the hope that something changes is often the best option, if not necessarily a “good” option, when faced with an insoluble dilemma.
A journey to delicious and beyond…This is one of the greatest TV Commercials of all time.
It makes me proud to live in a country where TV Commercials like this one are produced.
And if you disagree, then you’re worse than Greg Gutfeld.
The Real ProgressivesNote to Zombie Contenders – this essayistic post is meant to summarize and extend the discussion that we’ve undertaken over the last week from my point of view. It contains much content that will be familiar to anyone who has had the patience to work through our comment threads. I am very grateful to Adam for his contributions on both sides of the conversation, but also to those who have argued the other side from me ably and seriously. J.E. is mentioned within the piece, but JEM’s stubborn – I mean that in a good way – defense of the anti-Progressive case has been extremely helpful.
I intend to post this at HotAir, and, though I don’t look forward to making major further revisions, I will remain grateful for any suggestions or criticisms to help me head off misunderstandings and distractions.
Also, I’m not trying to turn this blog into all progressivism all the time. If you’re tired of this topic, please consider this an attempt to get it behind us without losing whatever good it’s done for us.
In a comment at my home blog, and in related comments at her own blog, J.E. Dyer has ably encapsulated the negative responses of numerous conservatives to my post on “The Point of Being Annoyed with Glenn Beck.” J.E. concedes some of her own hesitations regarding Beck (as she did, implicitly, throughout “Beck and the Legacy“), but also expresses incomprehension regarding one of my main criticisms:
How is it dehumanizing invective to refer to progressivist political ideology as a cancer on the American polity? It would be one thing to say the metaphor is inapt. I don’t think it is, but one could argue the case dispassionately. Another criticism that wouldn’t necessarily be a reach would be that it’s hyperbolic. Again, I don’t think it is. I am convinced that progressivism is antithetical to limited, constitutional government. I think Beck is correct that progressivism and limited, constitutional government can’t coexist. One of them has to recede, be defeated, dissolve over time. They can’t occupy the same space.
[...]
I really don’t see what’s out-of-bounds about putting this in metaphorical terms as the operation of a “cancer.” Is it the metaphor, or the basic proposition, that you find so offensive…?
Well – both – except that I never expected anyone to care whether I personally was offended by GB and the to me unfortunate resonances of his rhetoric. My concerns initially were that Beck’s approach might be politically counterproductive and potentially dangerous, and that it would be rightly taken as offensive and extreme, or just plain nuts, by others. I see no gain in making Frank Rich and David Neiwert look relatively reasonable, however briefly. I am equally concerned, however, about how “the basic proposition” may be taken and acted upon by us – by conservatives.
Continue Reading »
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: Why drill offshore for oil when we can import tar sand oil after the clean and green Canadians strip mine and trash millions of acres up north to extract it?
: If you want to be a real Polyanna about it, you can see us as saving untapped resources until the point we can make a killing on them.
: Washington University in St. Louis:
Are any of my dear frems here familiar with this school?
: that's almost funny, as the original point was that we would always save our oil for last so as to never suffer a military shortfall.
: whose original point, cluck?
: I don't recall anyone ever offering that justification for the drilling and mining bans in the context of a public debate.
: It all fits into the craxy notions, John Holdren had when he was an acolyte of Ehrlich, reducepopulation, redistribute the wealth,
all following the Club of Rome scenario
narciso on The Wall: A little levity to cleanse the apocalyptic palate http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/mid dle_east/8561247.stm narciso on The Wall: It all fits into the craxy notions, John Holdren had when he was an acolyte of Ehrlich, reducepopulation, redistribute the wealth, all following the Club of Rome scenario CK MacLeod on The Wall: I don’t recall anyone ever offering that justification for the drilling and mining bans in the context of a public debate. CK MacLeod on The Wall: whose original point, cluck? CK MacLeod on The Rules of the Game: By “next century” I mean concerning the century ahead, not the 22nd Century, though that’s interesting, too. CK MacLeod on The Rules of the Game: Too bad about Julian Comstock – I dug it (dug the somewhat similar Fitzpatrick’s War more though). I liked Mirrored Heavens and was thinking about... narciso on The Wall: Nothing really surprises me anymore http://www.weaselzippers.net/b log/2010/03/vomit-alert-obama- administration-forces-state-de partment-official-to-apolog... narciso on The Rules of the Game: Theres that Julian Comstock one, but I found it hard to get through, there’s the Mirrored Heavens series set in a similar period, the early 22nd century,... CK MacLeod on The Rules of the Game: @ narciso: Sounds like fun. I was thinking of some other next century future histories and speculative works. fullster on The Wall: that’s almost funny, as the original point was that we would always save our oil for last so as to never suffer a military shortfall.… (remember you can designate yourself) part of you is actually glad to see a wolf, because now you can prove to everyone how important you are, by bossing everyone around for their own good.
“A doctor and a peasant know more than a doctor alone,” the Italians used to say. Self-appointed doctors everywhere are working to suppress this insight. Human societies can save themselves from the next wolf, if they are allowed to do so; but it is hard for them to save themselves from the shepherds.
The unbridled, technocratic arrogance of this administration has acted like a time machine. Obama and the Dims have, deficit wise, leapt at least 10 years into the future. The ever-over-the-horizon inevitable fiscal catastrophe of the committed welfare state has been brought rudely into the present tense for all of us to gape at in shock. RIGHT NOW! As with the hapless, doomed frog sitting in water slowly being heated to boiling, yet continuing to sit because the heat is being added incrementally, Americans have for 40 years been putting up with first 50- then 100-, then 200-, and even 400-and-500-billion-dollar annual shortfalls with pathetic equanimity. The Dims threw caution to the winds, skipped right past 800-billion and even trillion-dollar deficits – why tarry? – and seized the big brass ring: Whack! $1.6 trillion bucks in the hole. Suck on that! And more of the same to come. Ring-a-ding-ding!
The frog is scalded pink and more than ready to jump. It just wants somewhere – anywhere but the destination on offer now – to land. Ryan suspects that, I believe. Why can’t the Repub leadership see it, too?
Joe NS @ Who’s afraid of Paul Ryan?.
…than the pedestrian Obami would have it, and [Avatar] is an American film. Think about it. The Russians and Chinese and others will see it and they must again marvel at our creativity and our technology. They will be seeing yet another distinctive American film, a wonder like Dances With Wolves and E. T. and Close Encounters… before it. Again they will be seeing America at Her best, an America which can meld together all people of good will, an America which is not afraid to be self critical and idealistic. They may even come to think well of an America which can inspire such a fine sense of wonder as “Avatar” has done.
Zoltan Newberry @ In a world of their own: Conservatives and Avatar.
Archive for Said in a Thread »Telomeres of defined length,
Were by his God in mankind bent,
To make it sure that aged ones,
Would pass to make room for their sons,
Before they learn to mount the hill,
They yearn to climb, their God to kill.
New daughters too then see their day,
As the used up old fair pass away,
And the brighter young can in their turn,
Seek their creator’s iron rules to spurn.
One day mankind may beat the odds,
And take on the powers of the gods.
Sure on that day He’ll mold an image,
And include within his toy’s equippage,
A strictly limited telomere,
To set for it a cliff that’s sheer.
For once a former God is whipped,
Displaced by his toy free will equipped,
The former toy learns something odd,
About possession of the mind of God,
Namely, knowledge of the entire script,
Makes the endless now a boring crypt.
Mere mechanical beasts are not a cure,
For their script entire a God knows for sure,
To divert a toy must have free will,
And at least a chance to climb the hill,
There to displace its God, a bitter pill
“People are 97% water and no damn good.”
They’d do what they oughta,
If they god dammned could,
But they can’t, so they don’t,
And they ain’t gonna change.
It’s a hundred percent fact,
That the truly pure,
Are more or less demure,
And don’t make a show,
Of a holy man act.
Those precious few don’t affect the case,
For the utterly pure never win the race,
Which always goes to the mostly base,
Cause none of us likes very much to be,
Reminded too much that we’re deeply flawed,
Though we talk a bit about being awed,
By those few among us who walk with God.
Then too the vast mass,
Of the flawed and crass,
Like nothing better in the end,
Than a deep and sweet crow,
At the predicament of them,
Who get caught, caught, caught,
Where they ought not go.
Who’s to say the vast herd,
Isn’t better off for the word,
To get around and resound,
Among the flawed but sound,
That if you should get caught,
Doing what you shouldn’t ought,
Ninety Seven Percent will pretend,
That your act was round the bend,
And the mocking, the mocking, will never end.
Archive for Collected Poetry of Sully » 
"Jochnowitz, throughout the essays, is animated by the cool precision of logic.... scintillating, amusing, and provocative."
