Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

State Of The Union, 2012

2012-01-25T15:20:00.000-06:00

Late Anniversary

2012-01-24T18:15:00.001-06:00

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission turned two on January 21 this year. Walter Olson excerpts a key portion of a Washington Post article that outlines the basic rationale behind the decision.

Corporations are not people, but corporations are tools used by some people as a vehicle for exercising constitutional rights. The article describes a few unconscionable situations that woudl arise is that were not the case.

Political Correctness Update

2012-01-23T17:55:00.000-06:00

Okay, how is the appearance of these new Lego figurines for girls fundamentally different from non-Barbie, non-Bratz dolls marketed to girls for the past several decades?

The Choice

2012-01-23T17:40:00.000-06:00

This political cartoon really does say a lot.

I Was Off By One Year

2012-01-18T11:00:00.001-06:00

From my predictions for 2011:

Greece will attempt to balance its budget by selling Parthenon timeshares.

From AFP (emphasis added):

In a move bound to leave many Greeks and scholars aghast, Greece's culture ministry said Tuesday it will open up some of the debt-stricken country's most-cherished archaeological sites to advertising firms and other ventures.

The ministry says the move is a common-sense way of helping "facilitate" access to the country's ancient Greek ruins, and money generated would fund the upkeep and monitoring of sites. The first site to be opened would be the Acropolis.

Andrew Sullied

2012-01-18T09:10:00.000-06:00

Patterico has more on that Newsweek article.

Environmentalism Goes Barking Insane

2012-01-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

Well, squeaking insane.

Andrew Sullivan Is Nuts

2012-01-17T09:15:00.000-06:00

Here's a snippet from his recent Newsweek article:

The great conservative bugaboo, Obamacare, is also far more moderate than its critics have claimed. The Congressional Budget Office has projected it will reduce the deficit, not increase it dramatically

The CBO (and the White House) also significantly underestimated the 2010 and 2011 deficits - contrast the original projections with more recent number-crunching.

Another War On Speech: Victory

2012-01-17T09:00:00.001-06:00

The SOPA Internet censorship bill is killed.

For background info, read the Electronic freedom Foundation's What’s Wrong With SOPA? report.

Happy Civil Rights Day!

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-06:00

(An annual blog tradition continues.)

In 2006 I mulled over the idea that instead of having a Martin Luther King Day we should have a Civil Rights Day, so that we can have a single holiday for all civil rights crusaders, and, for symbolic reasons, it shoudl be set on July 5, the day after we celebrate out nation's independence. As stated in that post, I had originally considered that Civil Rights Day replace Labor Day, but I have long since settled on the latter holiday giving way to Commerce Day, a day for celebrating all the contributors to our economy and not just labor.

A July 5 holiday for any reason is even a bigger pipe dream than Commerce Day, and the MLK Day tradition is already firmly entrenched, so from this day forward I will recognize the third Monday of January as Civil Rights Day. Dr. King will always get a little extra notice for being the one to inspire the holiday, but the table of honor will feature all civil rights leaders past and present.

Following is my original argument for the holiday:

For years I'd heard news stories about debates over whether or not to establish an official Martin Luther King holiday, and never did anyone report the arguments against. I always suspected that one was that we had way too many day-off-of-work holidays as it was. Having one three weeks after Christmas does seem a bit superfluous. MLK Day would be only the third national holiday named after a person, the others being Christmas and Columbus Day, commemorating the chief catalyst for Western culture and the chief catalyst for extending Western culture to the Americas. (In the case of the latter, make that Western cultures; English and Iberian influences were vastly different.) Some, I imagine, feel that only those rare individuals who have had such a radical impact should have holidays named for them. Dr. King isn't in that league; the only Americans who are are the Founders; their holiday is July 4.

Here's my argument against making January 15 [Update: MLK Day is celebrated on the third Monday of January, which happens to fall on the 15th in 2003] an official holiday: it's not fair to everyone else involved in the civil rights movement. Independence Day isn't just about one guy. We have a holiday for all those who made the Declaration of Independence happen. We should have a federal holiday called Civil Rights Day. It would be like Memorial Day, honoring leaders of past civil rights struggles instead of soldiers of past wars.

Just In Time For Valentines Day

2012-01-09T18:30:00.001-06:00

Beer for dogs.

Man's best friend deserves a treat.

InstaRoundup

2012-01-09T17:50:00.000-06:00

Justice is swift.

But not always.

Definitely not always.

The Envelope, Please II

2012-01-07T09:10:00.000-06:00

EIA presents the 2011 Public Education Quotes of the Year. The top quote:

"If you want to divide that $240,000 into the amount of hours spent, I think you would find that the per hour was probably not much at all, considering the work that had to be done." - Former National Education Association President Reg Weaver, explaining why he deserves his $242,657 annual pension from the state of Illinois. (October 23 Chicago Tribune)

Follow the link and check out the rest of the top ten. Number 5 is especially chock full of hubris.

Somebody Answer Me This

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Why does the Iowa Caucus logo look like the French flag?

My First New Year's Resolution

2011-12-31T22:45:00.002-06:00

In Althouse comments:

I'm not going to hoard 100-watt bulbs. Instead, I'm buying two-socket lamp adapters. Take that, greenies!

For those who want to hoard, Ann has a link for 24-pack Sylvania 100-watt bulbs. Happy incandescent New Year!

Predictions For 2012

2011-12-31T00:01:00.009-06:00

The Mayan Doomsday Prophecy will get a lot of serious attention when Cthulhu places second in the Iowa Caucuses.

Ghost Hunters will claim to have footage of the ghost of Christopher Hitchens tormenting Kim Jong-Il at the North Korean leader's deathbed.

Turned down by the IMF, the Greek government will seek a bailout loan from the Kardashians.

Rumors of a brokered convention will arise when the RNC announces that its keynote speaker will be Howie Mandel.

An unknown party will hack into Barack Obama's teleprompter. Officials will discover the breach when the President utters the phrase "I can haz stimulus" during a Rose Garden speech.

J. J. Abrams will threaten to produce Lost: The Next Generation if Congress doesn't balance the budget.

At the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama will conclude his nomination acceptance speech with the words "Klaatu barada nikto," spurring new questions about teleprompter security and Obama's birth certificate.

Occupy Wall Street protesters will storm the Republican convention, only to recoil in horror as delegates approach them with soap-on-a-rope and garden hoses.

Turned down by the Kardashians, the Greek government will seek a bailout loan from Walmart.

As Congress becomes deadlocked over the budget, J. J. Abrams will call the House Speaker and say "I just signed Charlie Sheen."

The next President of the United States will be...uh, hold on, some Greek official just sent me an email about helping him with a cash transfer.

On Thanksgiving, an unknown party will hack Cowboy Stadium's "Jerrytron" to show the film Titanic, with high-quality CGI effects replacing the face of the ill-fated liner's captain with that of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. The entire population of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex will be questioned as suspects.

The Doomsday Prophecy won't come to pass, but J. J. Abrams will be doing lunch with Justin Bieber, Congress will unanimously pass a bill granting its members an antidepressant allowance, and Greece will ask Jim Cramer for some stock tips.

Adventures In Volokhland

2011-12-30T09:00:00.000-06:00

Conspirator Orin Kerr reports Paul Rahe's healthcare prescription, and in comments I left this little essay, with talent on loan from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and references to some personal experiences with LASIK and MRI.

Did They Find Any DHARMA Hatches?

2011-12-29T20:25:00.001-06:00

There's a new island in the Red Sea. How did it get there?

Holiday Surge

2011-12-28T19:00:00.000-06:00

Big Lots already has Valentine's Day items on the shelves. Dang, it's not even New Year's yet.

The Envelope, Please I

2011-12-28T18:55:00.003-06:00

Media Research Center hosts the Bestof Notable Quotables for 2011. Here's the Quote of the Year:

“What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. [The] atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neo-cons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons....The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.”
— New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in a September 11 posting to his NYTimes.com blog

The same quote also won the America Is the Real Evil Empire Award.

The Damn Those Conservatives Award illustrates the poisoning of the memory of 9/11 - but not by Krugman's formula:

“So when does SEAL Unit 6, or whatever it’s called, drop in on George Bush? Bush was responsible for a lot more death, innocent death, than bin Laden. Wasn’t he, or am I wrong here?”
— Left-wing radio host and former CNN producer Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show, May 2.

The Ku Klux Con Job Award for Smearing Conservatives with Phony Racism Charges is a doozy:

Clip from RNC ad: “Stop Obama and his union bosses today. The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.”
Host Lawrence O’Donnell: “The Republican Party is saying that the President of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this President around, the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are trying to consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course, of course a black man can’t be the real boss?”
Ex-Governor Jennifer Granholm (D-MI): “Wow, I hadn’t thought about the racial overtones....”
— MSNBC’s The Last Word, February 25.

To me, the phrase "Obama and his union bosses" insinuates that the bosses are in Obama's pocket, not the other way around - otherwise the ad would have referenced "Obama and his union boss bosses."

Maureen Dowd wins the Poison Tea Pot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble, in a column written well before Halloween, oddly enough:

“Tea Party budget-slashers....were like cannibals, eating their own party and leaders alive. They were like vampires, draining the country’s reputation, credit rating and compassion. They were like zombies, relentlessly and mindlessly coming back again and again to assault their unnerved victims, Boehner and President Obama. They were like the metallic beasts in Alien flashing mouths of teeth inside other mouths of teeth, bursting out of Boehner’s stomach every time he came to a bouquet of microphones.”
— New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, August 3 column.

Go check out the rest!

Update: No, John Boehner did not get one of these in his stocking.

Directions To Mordor

2011-12-27T09:10:00.001-06:00

Via Iowahawk.

I'm guessing the Balrog is somewhere in Lincoln Park.

Snakes (And A Lot More) Almost On A Plane

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

AFP headline: Man tried to take 247 animals on plane

Which Is Stranger?

2011-12-26T22:33:00.003-06:00

Fact: Playmobil Security Check Point

Fiction: Occupy Wall Street: the Lego Set

The Reasons For The Season

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-06:00

(Original posted on December 23, 2002)

While Christmas is officially a celebration of the birth of Jesus, for much of the Western world December 25 has come to be a celebration of family and community. No other time of the year is so thoroughly saturated with images pointing to our highest hopes for such relationships - and no other time of the year so effectively highlights the difference between our ideals and the world as it really is. Jesus came to Earth to bridge not only the chasm between humanity and God, but also that rift that separates people from each other. Christmas reminds us that we live in a broken world, and it seeks to encourage us by showing us through religious and even many secular trappings how that brokenness can be fixed.

Best of holiday wishes to all my readers.

Environmental Policy Finally Turns On Itself

2011-12-21T09:05:00.000-06:00

Years back, the greenies got grocers to get rid of paper bags to save the trees. Now they're seeing the environmental impact of plastic bags, and some cities - Seattle the latest - are banning plastic bags.

Coming To A Theater Near You

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Farewell To A Tyrant

2011-12-18T21:30:00.001-06:00

Kim Jong-Il is dead .

Hitch And Newt On The "War On Terror"

2011-12-18T18:35:00.001-06:00

Blast from the past, originally aired in 2002.

On naming the war, I think "War on Islamic Supremacism" is better than the alternatives offered by Lou Dobbs (cited) and Hitchens and in the video. I'm not changing the tag for these posts, though - this is the 115th post with the "War on Terror" tag.

Vaclav Havel (1936-2011)

2011-12-18T15:30:00.000-06:00

One of the greatest voices for freedom in our lifetimes has passed away.

Instapundit links a worthwhile 2003 essay by Matt Welch.

My Henderson Prize for the Advancement of Liberty tells the story of the Velvet Revolution.

I Nominate This For Israel's New National Anthem

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

George Takei: Twilight Sucks

2011-12-14T09:00:00.003-06:00

Darth Venomous (who blogs here) emailed me an interesting article. George Takei has a little fun with Star Trek/Star Wars rivalry (see the video), and then turns on Twilight.

"[T]here is an ominous mutual threat to all science fiction. It is called Twilight and it's really, really bad. Gone is any sense of heroism, camaraderie or epic battle. In its place we have vampires that sparkle and moan and go to high school...there are no great stories, characters or profound life lessons to be had in Twilight. In Twilight, the only message that rings out loud and clear is, 'Does my boyfriend like me?' Let's band together to defeat this mutual threat."

To Takei, Twilight comes across as a mere soap opera that vents teenage girl anxieties. Maybe that's all it was meant to be. But he has higher aspirations for fantasy literature.

The International Committee Of The Red Cross Responds To The Video Game Flap

2011-12-11T09:00:00.000-06:00

ICRC has a FAQ on the issue of combat video games. The short version: The Red Cross wants to dialogue with video game developers on incorporating the rules of war into realistic combat games - acknowledging that some of these games already do that. The ICRC sees educational value in these games and wants to explore that potential.

Sonic Blast From The Past

2011-12-08T09:10:00.001-06:00

Ohio resident Carson Williams' 2004 Christmas light display. A lot of the videos of the house are a bit on the blurry side - this is excellent resolution.

Random Thought

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

Do Christmas carolers ever show up on Simon Cowell's doorstep?

Day Of Infamy, Day Of Hope

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

See my annual Pearl Harbor remembrance here.

Pliocene Park

2011-12-05T19:15:00.001-06:00

Scientists have a plan to bring back the woolly mammoth.

Just think of the restaurant possibilities...

See If I Ever Give A Dime To The Red Cross After This

2011-12-03T09:00:00.003-06:00

They want realistic video war games to adhere to the Geneva Conventions:

At the 31st meeting of the International Committee of the Red Cross, held this week to discuss many issues in modern combat throughout the world, a smaller panel was convened to discuss videogames and the effect they have on the public. Specifically, the Red Cross investigated several games that depict modern warfare and examined whether the rules of the Geneva Conventions governing protections for wounded soldiers, civilian non-combatants, and prisoners of war should be applied to videogames.

Hat tip to Andrew Ian Dodge.

Update This ultra-realistic military video game should have no problem passing Geneva Convention muster.

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

Note: Onion videos are preceded by a commercial - and the one playing at the time of this posting is pretty amusing. The ad is slightly edited for time constraints - I found the entire ad on YouTube. The music playing is Camille Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre.

Look Out Below

2011-12-02T13:00:00.001-06:00

Mysterious metal cylinder crashes through warehouse roof. Early analysis rules out aircraft part and space junk.

Silent Malarial Spirng

2011-12-02T09:00:00.002-06:00

Happy 41st birthday, Environmental Protection Agency. Your DDT ban is killing millions.

The article is six years old, but it tells the DDT tale quite effectively.

White Racism Is On The Decline In America

2011-12-01T13:10:00.000-06:00

A small church in Kentucky won't accept interracial couples as members.

So how does that fit with the title of this post?

A small-town church doesn't make the news unless it does something out of the ordinary.
The church itself is divided over the policy. The article doesn't state the size of the church, but when the policy was put before the body, only 15 members voted. The measure passed by a 9-6 vote. Ironically, the policy is "intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve."

There's chance for an appeal, but in the long run Stella Harville and Ticha Chikuni don't have much of a personal stake:

[Dean] Harville said he plans to ask the conference of churches to which Gulnare Freewill Baptist belongs to overturn the vote.

Even if that happens, however, "I don't think I'll be able to go back there," his daughter said.

If it hasn't done so already, Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church is about to witness a church split. There is no way a church body stays together when there's this much division. I know people who save seen (and participated in) church exoduses. People look to church as an extended family; you can't pick your relatives, but you can pick the ones you hang out with.

Good Riddance

2011-11-29T21:55:00.000-06:00

Career politician Barney Frank will not seek another term in the House of Representatives. Boston Herald writer Michael Graham has a fitting sendoff.

The bad news is that come 2013 the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Financial Services will be Maxine Waters.

Awesome

2011-11-28T23:20:00.000-06:00

Harold And Kumar Get A Defense Contract

2011-11-28T23:15:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't want to buy military hardware from these guys.

The Play From Tonight's Cowboys-Dolphin Game That Everyone Will Remember

2011-11-24T23:15:00.001-06:00

Wham!

A Year Of Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:30:00.001-06:00

For the first time in this tradition, one entry does not link back to previous bloggage.

Dom Meredith entertained us on the gridiron and behind the sports announcer's booth.
U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords survived.
Wisconsin takes one small step against union rent-seeking. So does Miami.
The Second Amendment treks on.
Osama bin Laden is out of commission.
Donald trump will not run for President.
The name of the prize is dubious and all, but Helmut Kohl is awarded for his role in German Reunification.
The legacy of an honest bureaucrat is honored.
Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA title.
Geert Wilders is acquitted of "hate speech" charges.
Peter Falk entertained us.
Close encounter with shark doesn't get too close.
No-knock raids were bound to one day force a homeowner to shoot a cop mistaken for an armed robber. It happened to Cory Maye, he was wrongfully convicted of murder, and after several years he finally wins his freedom.
The FCC officially rejects the Fairness Doctrine, which is a good thing since the FCC abolished it in 1987.
Woman punches bear, woman wins.
Steve Jobs innovated.
Texas Rangers win their second pennant.
Let's not be thankful for the downfall of the Libyan tyrant until we see who his replacement is.
Tom Easton and Virginia Postrel are honored with the Bastiat Prize for their achievements in economics journalism.
Andy Rooney entertained us.

ClimateGate II

2011-11-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

Another batch of emails from the University of East Anglia has been leaked.

Why Mitt Romney Will Not Be The Next President

2011-11-21T09:05:00.002-06:00

Because he still supports Romneycare, people fear that he is too morally compromised to do the right thing regarding Obamacare.

Romney will either lose in the primaries, or he will lose in the general election.

Just In Time For Christmas

2011-11-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Commie Obama hat.

How Europe Will Solve The Debt Crisis

2011-11-16T09:00:00.002-06:00

(Link emailed to me by YouTube member CrocsKilling)

Update: Link fixed.

A Chant For The Occupier-Occupying Lice In Portland

2011-11-12T12:15:00.000-06:00

Humans are one species out of 8.7 million, but they have all the technology and make all the laws. WE ARE THE 99.99999989%!

A Musical Treat For 11/11/11

2011-11-11T09:00:00.001-06:00

The movie scene that put the number eleven on the cultural map.

Untruth In Advertising

2011-11-07T21:10:00.001-06:00

I just looked at a Google Maps aerial map of Zuccotti Park. Excuse me? This isn't a park. It's pavement with a bunch of trees and a few patches of grass.

On another note, every time I see the word "Zuccotti" I automatically try to envision some pasta dish.

Welcome To The Jungle

2011-11-07T18:00:00.000-06:00

AFP press release, via Breitbart: Half of US students face sex harassment: survey.

What do you expect? We live in a culture that ridicules sexuality. How many teenagers are mature enough to rise above the general culture?

Andy Rooney (1919-2011)

2011-11-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

Rest in peace.

Birthday and Blogiversary

2011-11-05T16:15:00.003-05:00

I turn 51, and the long-neglected Henderson Prize turns 9.

It's been a busy year. I purchased a house in January ( I really should sent Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Alan Greenspan thank-you cards for their roles in depressing home prices), and assorted chores have taken from blogging time in general.

Congratulations

2011-11-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Tom Easton and fellow blogger and LASIK customer Virginia Postrel win the Bastiat Prize.

A Rerun Of The Fourth Annual Blogger Costume Party

2011-10-31T00:01:00.001-05:00

It's been a busy year for me. Haven't had the time to whip out the Paint Shop Pro.

This year's theme: X-Men.

As Professor Charles Xavier (Roger L. Simon) tours the X-mansion...

...Magneto (Andrew Sullivan) hatches his latest plans for mutant domination.

Beast (Hugh Hewitt) enjoys a good read.

Wolverine (Dean Esmay) senses trouble.

Never start a flame war with Pyro (Markos Moulitsas Zúniga).

Storm (Michelle Malkin) goes into action.

Courtesy of Chris Muir, the stars of Day By Day show up to the party: Sam as Dr. Jean Grey, Zed as Cyclops, Damon as Iceman (keeping the bottle of champagne chilled), and Jan as Rogue.

Designer notes: Heh, looks like Kos is the only one not wearing hat or helmet who keeps his original hair. His is my first Paint Shop Pro creation to make use of the directional illumination effect.

I created the Hewitt image and an earlier version of the Sully image prior to October 25; that interview had nothing to do with their inclusion in the costume party.

The first Sullivan image used a closeup of Magneto, but it required blowing up his face so that it came out real blurry. I got Sully's image by screen-capturing a YouTube video of one of his appearances on The Colbert Report - you can see a purple glow above his right eye from the Colbert set lighting.

As challenging as getting Wolverine's hairline to look reasonably natural on Dean, the most time-consuming task was getting Hugh Hewitt's face the right shade of blue.

Many thanks to Chris Muir for his contribution.

He's Making A List, Checking It Twice

2011-10-29T11:15:00.001-05:00

Andrew Breitbart is tallying up OWS lawbreaking.

Powerline's John Hinderaker is right - Occupy Wall Street is a crime wave.

HEARTBREAK

2011-10-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Texas Rangers utterly collapsed from the second inning onward. Just sad.

False Alarm

2011-10-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

Chelsea Clinton will not be running for Congress.

She seems a bit young for the gig at 31, only because of the size of our problems. Not that age has been an asset for sorts like Barney Frank or Maxine Waters.

I Wish This Were A Parody

2011-10-27T09:10:00.000-05:00

Chelsea Clinton might run for Congress.

I Sure Hope This Is A Parody

2011-10-27T09:05:00.002-05:00

Ken Jennings is the 99 percent.

(Click image to embiggen photo.)

Not A Parody

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Volokh Conspiracy headline: PETA Tries to Use the Thirteenth Amendment to Free Whales from Sea World.

Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men?

2011-10-24T04:35:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict does, but only up to a point:

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

It condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.

Memo to the Vatican: central planners are just as immoral as and far more economically destructive than the private sector. The public sector is responsible for the Great Recession. In this country, the Fed lowered interest rates abnormally, and the United States Congress pressured lenders to overextend credit. This combination masqueraded high-risk mortgages as low-risk, and a lot of folks took the bait.

The sovereign debt problem falls on the lap of the sort of people the Vatican wishes to empower. The Western powers simply cannot afford the level of welfare statism and economic intervention that they crave.

Free markets are a moral necessity because they minimize theft. Thieves operate in all economic systems, but their power waxes as economic freedom wanes.

The Most Important Thing To Keep In Mind About Qadaffi

2011-10-21T09:05:00.001-05:00

Just because an evil dictator has been killed doesn't mean Libya becomes a better place. We don't know how peaceful - or how violent - the contest for power will be. We don't know who will fill the power vacuum. We don't know if the new boss will be someone the West can establish amenable relations with.

Don't break out the champagne glasses until we see how this thing turns out.

NRO On Qadaffi

2011-10-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

Ion Mihai Pacepa - who once had a price on his head, placed by Qadaffi - applies a bit of Cold War thinking to the Arab world.

KLo interviews expert on Islamic supremacism Barry Rubin.

Katrina Trinko reports Perry and Romney's reactions.

Jack David issues words of caution.

"Look On My Works, Ye Mighty, And Despair!"

2011-10-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

Muhammar Qadaffi has reportedly gone the way of Ozymandias. US State Department cannot confirm just yet.

Lost In Translation

2011-10-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Oops.

The Fleabaggers Were For Wealth Redistribution...

2011-10-19T09:05:00.001-05:00

...before they were against it.

Pop Quiz

2011-10-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

New York magazine tests Zuccotti Park OWS protesters on their knowledge of certain issues. A majority got the inflation/deflation question right. Only 38% of the respondents were able to name the Federal Reserve chairman, but all the answers but "don't know" deserve partial credit.

I wonder how many fleabaggers know the significance of the term helicopter drop.

MLK Statue Fail

2011-10-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

I don't mind if a statue of an American civil rights leader is outsourced to an overseas firm. But if the designer is the same guy who designed Mao statues for Communist China, well that's just cruel.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

And there's the unanswered question of whether slave labor might have been employed in the statue's creation.

Even Maya Angelou finds fault with the memorial:

On Feb. 4, 1968, two months before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a haunting sermon at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church about a eulogy that might be given in the event of his death.

“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King told the congregation. “Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

...

Carved on the north face of the 30-foot-tall granite statue, the inscription reads: I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.

“The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit,” Angelou, 83, said Tuesday. “He was anything but that. He was far too profound a man for that four-letter word to apply.

“He had no arrogance at all,” she said. “He had a humility that comes from deep inside. The ‘if’ clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely.”

The crossed arms strike me as more appropriate for Bull Connor than Martin Luther King, Jr. It's a "look on my works, ye mighty, and despair" sort of posture. I think this pose woudl have been more appropriate. (Yes, that's from the "I Have A Dream" speech.")

Recycle the Chicom marble and start all over. Maybe someone could buy up some of that marble to make a Tiananmen Square monument - in Taipei.

Reenactment Of Battle Of San Jacinto

2011-10-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

Photos here.

Tell me the guy in the sixth photo isn't Ben Linus from Lost.

Texas Rangers Win Second Pennant

2011-10-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

With an amazing 15-5 blowout against Detroit.

This Ain't No Disco

2011-10-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

California legislator goes after raves, due to the prevalence of drugs (mainly Ecstasy) at these events.

Snooki's Revenge

2011-10-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Tanning tax fizzles.

For those who missed the Jersey Shore star's riff on the tax...

Hey, any chance of getting her to make a Tea Party appearance?

OWS And Anti-Semitism

2011-10-11T23:30:00.001-05:00

One of the driving forces behind the Occupy Wall Street protests is Adbusters, an environmentalist and anti-consumerist organization based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

"Anti-consumerism" is a movement that claims that the Western world buys too many luxury consumer goods. Think of Adbusters as Greenpeace meets Fra Girolamo Savonarola, the Florentine Dominican friar who had instigated the most famous of the historic Bonfires of the Vanities.

Aside from OWS, Adbusters launched the anti-consumerist Buy Nothing Day and TV Turnoff Week campaigns.

It also has a nasty anti-Semitic Street, as Rush Limbaugh describes:

You know, Adbusters is also very much involved in the Occupy Wall Street Now movement. And David Brooks, you know, a clock is right twice a day. David Brooks has a column in the New York Times today with an interesting implication. He writes that the impetus for Occupy Wall Street was sparked by Adbusters magazine.

Now, Adbusters magazine, you may not have heard of them, but within certain circles Adbusters magazine is known for quite a lot and one of the things that they did that stands out was an essay in 2004 entitled "Why Won't They Say They Are Jewish?" David Brooks says that that 2004 essay in Adbusters outed influential Jews as a tiny elite with a nefarious grip on America. The old Jewish power brokers, the movies, the bankers, that stereotype, that conspiracy theory.

Commentary writer Abe Greenwald sees lots of anti-Semitism among the OWS protests (hat tip to Rand Simberg):

The Jew-hatred among protesters and sympathizers is diverse and unapologetic. It is, in fact, atmospheric. Tune in randomly to live television coverage of the spectacle and you’ll see—as I did—placards scapegoating Israel, Zionism, or “Hitler’s bankers.” Check out the continuous flurry of protest-supporting tweets and blog posts, and you’ll get more of the same.

Glenn Beck caught one anti-Semitic rant. Note that nearby OWS protesters do nothing to diss the ranter.

I See A Pattern

2011-10-11T09:00:00.001-05:00

First it's Charlie Sheen costumes, next it's marijuana-shaped candy.

Just In Time For Halloween

2011-10-10T18:45:00.000-05:00

Charlie Sheen costumes.

If The Shoe Fits

2011-10-10T13:00:00.002-05:00

A little while ago on the Rush Limbaugh Show (guest-hosted by Mark Davis today), a caller offered his take on the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Their one consistent message is "Give us free stuff," so they're just a bunch of parasites. He says we should call them the Flea Party, or "Fleabaggers."

Heh.

Rod Serling, Call Your Office

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran backs the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Iranian protesters were unavailable for comment.

A Woman After My Heart

2011-10-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

First image in this slideshow.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

2011-10-08T00:00:00.001-05:00

All you folks involved or sympathetic with the Occupy Wall Street movement, front and center! Y'all think Wall Street is a hive of scum and villainy? So act like it.

What do people do when they identify a commercial enterprise they find morally reprehensible? They refrain from trading with that company. All you Wall Street bashers should show some moral consistency and refuse to buy any products or services sold by any company publicly traded on the NYSE, American Stock Exchange, or NASDAQ. Buy from foreign corporations not listed on those exchanges (like Nestle), or from private firms. Starve the Wall Street beast!

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

2011-10-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Pejman Yousefzadeh has some thoughtful words.

Kevin Williamson notes a characteristic of Apple Computers that the government does not enjoy: economies of scale. "Once you figure out why your cell phone gets better and cheaper every year but your public schools get more expensive and less effective, you can apply that model to answer a great many questions about public policy. Not all of them, but a great many."

I don't own a single Apple product. No iPhone (or any other cell phone), no iPod, no iPad. But I have enjoyed one of Steve Jobs' other legacies: Pixar. While Disney feature films in latter years produced more mediocrity than quality, in its short time Pixar created some of the best animated feature films of all time: Toy Story and its two worthy sequels, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and a personal favorite, Ratatouille. Few live-action films have a scene as moving as this:

Like the restaurant in the film, the microcomputer revolution owes much of its talent to humble origins. Apple was started by two college dropouts in Steve Jobs' bedroom. It now ranks 35th in the Fortune 500. Steve Jobs and his pals have made the world a better place.

Yawn

2011-10-05T09:10:00.001-05:00

CBS headline: Russia, China veto UN sanctions on Syria.

So what? It's not like sanctions accomplish anything. Especially UN sanctions.

Nothing short of military action will curtail Syria. Anything else is make-work.

The Show-Me State Shows Protest To Obama

2011-10-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

Party on!

Did God So Love The Worlds?

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Philosophical question of the day: Did Jesus die for Klingons too? Best comment, from sharrukin:

You know I am not a Christian but it would be priceless if aliens showed up and started talking about saving our souls for Jesus just to see the look on Dawkin’s face.

I always thought that "Romulan Catholic Church" had a nice ring to it.

Is Chris Christie Too Fat To Get Elected President?

2011-10-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

If food fascists ever become an election issue, I'd say his girth is a plus.

Solyndra Musings

2011-09-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

How much money would Solyndra have saved if it had located in Texas instead of the incredibly commerce-unfriendly state of California?

And how much more if the company hadn't built such an incredibly lavish plant?

Rand Simberg wonders what Disney tunes the robots were chirping. i suggested this one.

Why Obama Isn't The Antichrist

2011-09-27T23:10:00.000-05:00

(Inspired by this story)

His poll numbers are too low.

His second-in-command is Joe Biden.

Birth certificate doesn't reek of sulfur.

Tim LaHaye totally failed to predict his presidency.

His political opponents don't spontaneously combust.

The real Antichrist can create jobs.

Did I mention his poll numbers?

The Book of Revelation predicts a one-world currency - you think any American politician is capable of that?

Did I mention jobs?

Obama's number is 787,000,000,000, not 666.

Solyndra And Enron

2011-09-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

What do the two have in common? Steven Hayward at Powerline draws two parallels, the first being the companies' precarious financial state:

Enron’s collapse bears some striking similarities to Solyndra, namely, a business model that increasingly depended on government support for profitability. When that government support didn’t come in time, Enron’s house-of-cards collapsed.

I blogged on one particular Enron project back in 2002: the doomed Dabhol, India LNG power plant. The US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform has a fact sheet detailing the history of the venture. When the World Bank refused to finance the project, Ken Lay turned to his government connections:

After the World Bank declined to fund the Dabhol project, U.S. government entities provided key funding for the project. OPIC ultimately supplied Dabhol with a total of $160 million in loan guarantees and $200 million in risk insurance. The Export-Import Bank provided a roughly $300 million loan in late 1994.89 (Of this, $202 million is outstanding, but four Indian banks have guaranteed the loan, eliminating any risk to U.S. taxpayers, according to an Export-Import Bank spokesperson.)

In addition, numerous Clinton Administration officials supported the project. For example, Commerce Secretary Brown wrote to India’s minister of Commerce before a January 1995 trip to India, asking the minister to facilitate “financial closing” of the Dabhol project “in time to be celebrated during my visit.” Once in India, and accompanied by Ken Lay, Secretary Brown oversaw the signature of loan agreements by Dabhol Power Company with U.S. Export-Import Bank and OPIC. In visits to India, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary expressed Washington’s concern that India stand by commitments to investors. For example, Secretary O’Leary warned India that it was hurting its reputation with foreign investors.

Solyndra was refused funding by the Bush Administration, its business model deemed suckworthy, so it hit on the next administration and landed a $535 million loan guarantee via the Obama Energy Department.

Hayward hits a second parallel:

Here’s the salient point: like Solyndra, Enron was a favorite of environmentalists, and Enron was a huge backer of the Kyoto Protocol. A decade ago, people liked to talk about links between Enron’s chairman, Ken Lay, and President George W. Bush. But they leave out that the main thing Lay was urging on Bush was the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Enron probably would have fared much better under a Gore administration. Enron thought they’d make money on the trading operations from a cap and trade scheme. After Enron’s collapse, an internal memo from the late 1990s came to light that said Kyoto would “do more to promote Enron’s business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States,” and concluded that Kyoto would be “good for Enron stock.”

The greenies let their infatuation with clean energy blind themselves to Solyndra's financial unsoundness. Then again, greenies tend to be welfare statists, and they're not used to thinking of projects in terms of their ability to stand on their own two feet.

Quote Du Jour

2011-09-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

"And then I thing this, this 30-year anti-government rant that America's been on, something no other country in the world is doing, including all the ones that have predominately been governed by conservatives..."

- Bill Clinton, at 1:23 in this Yahoo video interview.

Note the time frame. He's not just talking about the recent Tea Party movement. Thirty years goes back to the dawn of the Reagan administration. Clinton is claiming that the American conservative movement as a whole is a "rant" unique to America.

What would Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and East German-born Angela Merkel say to that?

Okay, Clinton specifically said "something no other country in the world is doing," not "something no other country in the world has done," so maybe Walesa, Havel and Merkel shouldn't feel slighted.

But what about today? Is there no "anti-government rant" in Western Europe? Or the Islamic Republic of Iran? Egypt? Tunisia?

We know there hasn't been such a rant in Cuba or North Korea. Not publicly. That's not a good thing.

I Want A Remake Of The Wild One

2011-09-19T22:25:00.001-05:00

And I want Glenn Reynolds to write the script. Heck, he should play the Honda Odyssey driver.

Still A Few More Hours...

2011-09-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

...for Talk Like a Pirate Day XXVIII.

Did pirates use those scurvy Roman numerals?

Sing like a pirate, mateys!

Musical Friday

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Ten Years Ago

2011-09-11T04:00:00.003-05:00

On September 11, 2001, Islamic supremacism launched its greatest attack against Amercian targets.

Since then, Osama bin Laden has been killed, al-Qaeda devastated, its Taliban allies toppled.

President Bush realized that al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies were not our only enemies in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein was a persistent threat - he was running off UN weapons inspectors for a reason - and Bush decided that this threat must be nipped in the bud. That task has been accomplished.

The war has yet to be taken to all our enemies. Hezbollah has been at war with us since its founding. The US has yet to make so much as a fender scratch, and many of our politicians complained when Israel fought back against Hezbollah attacks in 2006. We're allowed to seek victory over al-Qaeda, Israel isn't allowed to defeat even one of the many warring Islamic terror organizations.

Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy, thus we are in a state of war with Iran. The United States must defeat of the theocratic regime and gain friendly relations with its successor government. Unless the mullahs step up their hostilities to drastic levels, we must seek this victory through a cold war. The Cold War brought a lot of American (and Soviet) meddling in that country, and it bred lots of resentment that continues to this day - even among those friendliest to the West. The solution to this problem must elevate those Western-friendly sorts to power, and we resist the urge to play band director and trust them to restructure their government.

Islamic supremacists believe that Mohammed promised global conquest to to his followers. If this stems from a faulty interpretation of the Koran, then Islamic scholars must step up to the plate and publicly explain why this is so. A key concern is Mohammed's long list of military dictates - scolars must explain logically (and not with Jaques Derrida deconstructionist sleight-of-hand) that those commands were intended to address existing wars, and contained no calls for future generations to fight future wars agianst the infidels.

Update: Randy Barnett reprints his September 18,2001 article acknowledging the role of the milita on Flight 93.

Eliminationist Policies

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

At National Review, Jim Lacey explores the death toll of Western leftism.

Astronauts' Tracks On Moon Photographed

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

Don't Race-Card Me, Bro

2011-09-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

Busybodies claim that the display of the Internet slang phrase "you mad bro" at a football game is racist.

Andrew William Meyer was unavailable for comment.

Blast From The Past

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

From Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kinkaid: "NBC’s Mitchell Should Resign Over Telling Gaddafi’s Lies" - Parts One and Two.

Separated At Birth

2011-09-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

Maxine Waters, U.S. Representative for California's 35th congressional district..

...and "Nancy Fichandler," frequent commentator for The Onion.