Wotka World Wide

2012-02-11T01:23:00.002-06:00

You know who is behind the 5 Hour Energy drinks? Turns out he is an Indian-American who spent twelve years living as an ascetic monk in India. He got the idea from attending a supplement trade show and now he's worth well over a billion. Not too shabby.

2012-02-10T16:49:00.002-06:00

The media is misrepresenting the Citizens United decision? I wonder why? Especially when you consider that most of them are corporations... An excerpt:

There are two media myths and inventions that are most commonly cited.

Myth 1: The Court invalidated disclosure requirements in political advertising, thereby allowing donors to remain anonymous.

Wrong. The Court ruled just the opposite and upheld, by an 8-1 vote, the McCain-Feingold requirement of identifying donors.

Myth 2: That the Court’s ruling in Citizens United opened the door to wealthy individuals like Sheldon Adelson to pour millions of dollars into PACs.
Wrong again. The Citizens United ruling had NOTHING to do with the ability of individuals to spend their money to support candidates. That had been decided back in 1976, when the Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment protected the right of individuals to make unlimited independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates for federal office. In Citizens United, the Court ruled that corporations and unions were entitled to the same rights.

But do read the whole thing.

2012-01-28T11:00:00.002-06:00

If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA:

Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement are just as pernicious as anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland and Japan.

Many of these countries have already signed or ratified it, and the cogs are still turning. The treaty has been secretly negotiated behind the scenes, with unelected bureaucrats working closely with entertainment industry lobbyists to craft the provisions in the treaty. The Bush administration started the process, but the Obama administration has aggressively pursued it.

It doesn't even seem real, reading this. And then you find out that President Obama signed this treaty in October, with little regard to its potential effects on internet freedom. Even more chilling is the fact that the Administration has recently asserted that the treaty relates to executive authority, and shouldn't be subject to Senate approval, which is clearly unconstitutional given the Constitution's directive for Congress to regulate patents. It looks like the global internet community must remain ever more vigilant in opposing this international undemocratic power grabs. Write or call your Senators today!

2012-01-23T23:54:00.000-06:00

Who needs SOPA when they can already do things like take down Megaupload in other countries? In my mind, doing this the day after the wikipedia blackout, was the government and Hollywood's way of saying "Oh yeah? You think you can protest our internet domination plans? Well screw you, internet users!" Also, other tech companies have to be wondering, how the hell is the whole concept of the cloud even legal if Megaupload isn't?

2012-01-23T12:02:00.002-06:00

The Supreme Court has unanimously decided that a warrant is required to track someone with a GPS device. This is a great decision, but it is too bad they didn't go further and deal with GPS tracking of wireless devices. Still, take what freedoms you can get from Washington in this era.

2012-01-18T13:07:00.002-06:00

Jeffrey Zients is Obama's new acting director for the Office of Management and Budget. He is also an alum of Bain & Co. He will replace Jack Lew, a former Citigroup mortgage derivatives trader, who has moved on to become Chief of Staff for the White House. Remember all this when Obama starts criticizing Romney later this year for his extensive history with Bain. You can be sure most of the media won't.

2012-01-05T22:43:00.002-06:00

U.S. threatens Spain with blacklist for not implementing site blocking law? Great, now we are strong-arming other countries into doing the bidding of the RIAA and MPAA. I really am coming around to the view that the corporations (in this case the media ones) control this country. It is a shame. And there is no one on the horizon even discussing changing the status quo, other than potentially Ron Paul, and he is unelectable.

2012-01-03T11:38:00.002-06:00

Think twice before bringing a gun to New York, as a few well-meaning folks have learned recently:

Ryan Jerome was enjoying his first trip to New York City on business when the former Marine Corps gunner walked up to a security officer at the Empire State Building and asked where he should check his gun.

That was when Jerome’s nightmare began. The security officer called police and Jerome spent the next two days in jail.

The 28-year-old with no criminal history now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of three and a half years in prison. If convicted, his sentence could be as high as fifteen years.

Jerome has a valid concealed carry permit in Indiana and visited New York believing that it was legal to bring his firearm. He was traveling with $15,000 worth of jewelry that he planned to sell.

Scary stuff in a country where the 2nd Amendment is supposedly in force.

2011-12-15T21:37:00.002-06:00

Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post has a great perspective on the Orwellian STOP Act, which will essentially eliminate free speech on the internet if passed in its current form, along with running contrary to numerous other Constitutionally guaranteed rights:

Harvard law professor and Supreme Court advocate Laurence Tribe (whom I don’t always agree with but who takes the Bill of Rights quite seriously and was instrumental in developing the jurisprudence that confirmed the Second Amendment is an individual right) has submitted a memo detailing the multiple ways in which SOPA runs afoul of the First Amendment. For example, “SOPA provides that a complaining party can file a notice alleging that it is harmed by the activities occurring on the site ‘or portion thereof .’ Conceivably, an entire website containing tens of thousands of pages could be targeted if only a single page were accused of infringement. Such an approach would create severe practical problems for sites with substantial user-generated content, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and for blogs that allow users to post videos, photos, and other materials.”And likewise: “The notice-and-termination procedure of Section 103(a) runs afoul of the ‘prior restraint’ doctrine, because it delegates to a private party the power to suppress speech without prior notice and a judicial hearing. This provision of the bill would give complaining parties the power to stop online advertisers and credit card processors from doing business with a website,merely by filing a unilateral notice accusing the site of being ‘dedicated to theft of U.S. property’ — even if no court has actually found any infringement. The immunity provisions in the bill create an overwhelming incentive for advertisers and payment processors to comply with such a request immediately upon receipt.”

Rep. Issa(R-CA) and Sen Wyden(D-OR) have introduced a competing bill(the "Open Act") that is a lot more restrictive in its languange, not to mention respective of the Constitution, but it remains to be seen if the Congressional sponsors pushing the STOP Act will accept this alternate version. This is because their pay masters, the RIAA and MPAA, are heavily invested in remaking(destroying?) the internet to line their own pockets.

And, of course, it is no coincidence that the largest donations from these organizations have gone to the STOP Act sponsors, chief among them Rep. Lamar Smith(R-TX), who must be either unaware or unconcerned that he is doing the bidding of two organizations that operate contrary to the beliefs and ideals of the majority of the constituents that elected him. Hopefully a primary challenge is in order.

Meanwhile, it is no surprise that former Senator Chris Dodd heads the MPAA. These career politicians take any opportunity to further screw over all Americans while enriching themselves.

2011-12-13T14:17:00.002-06:00

While pedophile Jerry Sandusky generates front page news daily, there is surprisingly little being said about the recent Hollywood pedophilia charges. Disturbing.

2011-12-13T13:09:00.002-06:00

Canada opts out of Kyoto Protocols. This decision was expected, but just goes to show how unreasonable the restrictions of Kyoto are on signees, while allowing those who refused to get involved, like China, India, and the US, to do whatever they want. Canada has also recognized that economic development outweighs cutting emissions, which given worldwide financial conditions, seems like a prudent course of action. But this hasn't stopped the UN from suggesting a worldwide climate tax. The environmentalists never seem to let reality get in the way of their delusions of shutting off all emissions and eliminating growth worldwide, despite the fact that first world countries overwhelmingly respect their natural environments much more than developing countries, and the proposed restrictions would keep billions stuck in abject poverty while making the elites feel good about themselves taking actions that won't change anything in the long run.

2011-11-23T02:32:00.001-06:00

Tilting at windmills?

Minnesotans for Global Warming report that in the last 30 years, the United States has had 14,000 wind turbines abandoned. Apparently, once the subsidies and the wind run out, these 20-story high Cuisinarts are de-bladed and retired. This means more bats and migratory birds will live.

From Minnesotans for Global Warming: “The symbol of Green renewable energy, our savior from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the ~~subsidies~~ taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.”

2011-11-13T23:27:00.003-06:00

Canada is looking to sell more oil to the Chinese, now that Obama has pushed back until after the 2012 election the decision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, to be built from Alberta to Texas. When environmental concerns override every other practicality, it is no surprise we maintain such a high level of unemployment. And of course we can just keep buying oil from Venezuela and the Saudis...

2011-11-04T17:10:00.003-05:00

Congress declares war on the internet, via the Stop Online Piracy Act, at the behest of Hollywood lobbyists. This legislation has the potential to dramatically alter the freedom and openness of the internet around the world, allowing the government and those connected to it to shut down any website they deem offensive with no hearing whatsoever. It is like we are rushing to adopt the authoritarianism of China for the internet as quickly as possible. These tools in Washington have no idea they are seeking to regulate one of the great drivers of creativity and jobs in the modern era. Absolutely stunning. Call your Congressman today, there is no excuse not to.

UPDATE: And what do you know, all the major sponsors in Congress have received hundreds of thousands in donations from entertainment industry companies.

2011-10-26T17:37:00.002-05:00

While people camp in the streets in protest over the actions of Wall Street, the links to our political classes that cause so much actual inequality of outcomes continue to be ignored. Just in the news today, former Democratic Senator and New Jersey Governor John Corzine made headlines for bringing derivatives broker MF Global to the brink of collapse, apparently by buying large tranches of European banking debt earlier this year. Perhaps that wasn't the smartest bet to be making? Not to worry though, Corzine has a $12 million golden parachute that pays out if the firm gets bought out, as well as an interest as an operating partner in investment firm J.C. Flowers. So he should be ok. Those who used MF Global to manage their money? They might be in a little more trouble. This should be no surprise though, given Corzine's track record managing the state of New Jersey, which was billions in debt after his four years of leadership.

2011-10-17T22:20:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama, Drug Warrior? Yes. His campaign promises about changing that arena of American policy were appparently just hot air, as Jacob Sullum of Reason amply demonstrates:

In retrospect, there were warning signs that Obama would disappoint supporters who expected him to de-escalate the war on drugs, just as he has disappointed those who expected him to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a U.S. senator he bragged about co-sponsoring the Combat Meth Act, which is the reason cold and allergy sufferers throughout the country are treated like potential felons whenever they try to buy decongestants containing pseudoephedrine. He staunchly defended the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Grant Program, which has fueled the incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders and funded the regional task forces behind racially tinged law enforcement scandals in places such as Tulia, Texas. As New York Times columnist Charles Blow noted last year, this grant program, created at the end of the Reagan administration, “has become the pet project of Democrats” because it’s “an easy and relatively cheap way for them to buy a tough-on-crime badge while simultaneously pleasing police unions.” In 2006 Obama warned that George W. Bush’s attempt to eliminate the Byrne grants (which Obama revived with a $2 billion infusion as part of his 2009 stimulus package) “gives criminals and drug dealers a break by taking cops off the streets.”

Even on an issue that seemed to genuinely trouble him—the sentencing rules for crack cocaine, which treated the smoked form of the drug as if it were 100 times worse than the snorted form—Obama seemed less than fully committed. In 2007 he told a gathering of African-American newspaper columnists in Las Vegas that as president he’d appoint a panel to study crack sentences, which are imposed on defendants who are overwhelmingly black, and issue a report “that allows me to say that based on the expert evidence, this is not working and it’s unfair.” As Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson observed at the time, that was a weird thing to say, since the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the panel of experts empowered to decide what penalties are appropriate for federal crimes (within the parameters set by Congress), had repeatedly said crack sentences were irrational and unjust. Obama also wondered whether “we want to spend all our political capital on a very difficult issue that doesn’t get at some of the underlying issues.”
In the event, the Obama administration, to its credit, did support crack sentencing reform, although it’s debatable how much political capital it spent in the process. “Attorney General [Eric] Holder really wanted to see crack reform happen,” says Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, “and I think so did Obama.” The Fair Sentencing Act, which Obama signed into law in August 2010, shrank the 100-to-1 weight ratio dictated by federal law (so that five grams of crack, for example, triggered the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as 500 grams of cocaine powder), making it 18 to 1 instead—also irrational and unjust, but considerably less so. “That was the best that they could get out of the Congress,” says Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, “and the administration worked for that.” But by the time Obama took office, there was a bipartisan consensus, including conservative Republicans such as Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and Rep. Dan Lungren of California, that crack penalties were unjustifiably harsh. The Fair Sentencing Act was approved by unanimous consent in the Senate and by a voice vote in the House.

Read the whole thing. Sad that a man with a mandate for change couldn't even be bothered to pardon one unjustly imprisoned non-violent offender.

2011-09-21T12:03:00.002-05:00

If you wanted to destroy H-P, the world's largest computer producing company, here is a one year plan on how to do so. Note that this is actually what the company has done in the past year. The most ridiculous move?

Announce plans to maybe sell the PC business. Or maybe spin off PCs as a stand-alone company. Uncertainty will damage the price.

Never mind the years of effort H-P spent -- including a controversial merger with Compaq -- becoming the world's largest PC maker. Never mind that the PC business feeds H-P's more profitable businesses. Dumping it is a beautiful absurdity that one analyst, Jayson Noland of Robert W. Baird & Co., described as "like McDonald's getting out of the hamburger business."

2011-09-17T19:09:00.001-05:00

Obama administration reworked loan to favor Solyndra donor, such that they have repayment priority over the U.S. government in the event of a default. Crony capitalism at its finest!

2011-08-31T13:57:00.003-05:00

Robert Samuelson writes on the folly of the attempts to block the planned Keystone XL pipeline that will move oil produced from Canadian oil sands developments to refineries in Texas. The most salient argument is the fact that if we don't build the pipeline, the Canadians will, to the West Coast, and then sell the oil to the Chinese. This would understandably create more greenhouse gas pollution (while of course driving up oil prices and production costs and necessitating we buy our oil from overseas thugs), but this sort of logic never gets in the way of environmentalists and their ideals, as Daryl Hannah's arrest in front of the White House the other day for protesting the pipeline amply demonstrates.

2011-08-31T12:28:00.002-05:00

The Justice Department is messing with Gibson Guitars, raiding their facilities and seizing materials and guitars with no notice of violation. Their CEO is wondering what is up, as are more and more Americans. The nature of the violation may stem from the rosewood used in some guitars, legally imported from India, but a concern for conservationists. The funny thing is, the Gibson CEO is a big donor to Republican causes and their facilities are non-union shops. Meanwhile, their top competitor Martin, makes guitars using rosewood as well, but nothing has befallen them. And their CEO is a major Democratic donor. Draw your own conclusions here.

2011-08-23T22:21:00.002-05:00

Freedom of Information Act requests combined with new reporting requirements in the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill have finally forced the Federal Reserve to reveal the extent of emergency discount window loans of funds to troubled banks. And it turns out they loaned out nearly twice the amount of the TARP bailouts, $1.2 trillion, during the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009. There were huge payments to the usual US banking behemoths, but also to many of the large banks in Europe that likely would have gone under without these funds. Even the major brokerages got huge loans, which apparently kept Morgan Stanley afloat in the weeks after Lehman Brothers collapse. Left unanswered is why Lehman wasn't extended the same courtesy... I wonder why certain firms were loaned tens of billions, while others were allowed to collapse. Maybe the Fed did the right thing here, but then why the hell were they picking winners and losers to such a large degree? Saving Morgan and Goldman while letting Baer Stearns and Lehman go, saving RBS, UBS and SocGen while permitting the major banks (and economies) of Iceland and Ireland to collapse, bailing out Citi and BofA above and beyond the TARP funds while Washingon Mutual and others were allowed to go under. Will we ever get answers to these questions? Or is it just simply who was politically connected? Hopefully at some point we will get an insider's account of who made these decisions and how they were made.

2011-08-23T22:18:00.003-05:00

Medicare Regulation Causes Shortage of Cancer Drugs? Who would have thought? And this stems from Bush's Medicare drug reform. Who knows how Obama's health care reforms will impact availability of drugs, not to mention surgeries and other procedures.

2011-08-05T01:08:00.003-05:00

Remember that whole brouhaha about a female KBR/Halliburton worker claiming she was drugged, gang-raped and locked in a shipping container while working in Iraq? The same case that Al Franken championed his first month in the Senate? Well, a jury decided that she made the whole thing up. Don't expect to see too many stories highlighting that fact though. The New York Times had one buried paragraph giving the barest of details, when they had her claims running front page for weeks. Can anyone say Duke lacrosse team redux?

2011-07-21T19:08:00.002-05:00

A substantive critique of the debt reduction plan offered by the "Gang of Six" in the Senate, from Keith Hennessey. He is doubtful that the suggested changes in tax deductions will raise the revenues enough to allow reductions in marginal overall rates, while also pointing out that no major changes to Social Security or Medicare are made, essentially suggesting that the plan does nothing more than kick the can down the road for another decade via tax increases. Somehow I don't think Congressional Republicans are going to go along with this.

2011-07-05T10:42:00.003-05:00

The recent curbs in Wisconsin placed on public employee unions are already having a dramatic impact on some school district finances:

The Kaukauna School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous.

In the past, teachers and other staff at Kaukauna were required to pay 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance coverage and none of their pension costs. Now, they'll pay 12.6 percent of the cost of their coverage (still well below rates in much of the private sector) and also contribute 5.8 percent of salary to their pensions. The changes will save the school board an estimated $1.2 million this year, according to board President Todd Arnoldussen.

Of course, Wisconsin unions had offered to make benefit concessions during the budget fight. Wouldn't Kaukauna's money problems have been solved if Walker had just accepted those concessions and not demanded cutbacks in collective bargaining powers?

"The monetary part of it is not the entire issue," says Arnoldussen, a political independent who won a spot on the board in a nonpartisan election. Indeed, some of the most important improvements in Kaukauna's outlook are because of the new limits on collective bargaining.

In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.

Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.

Then there are work rules. "In the collective bargaining agreement, high school teachers only had to teach five periods a day, out of seven," says Arnoldussen. "Now, they're going to teach six." In addition, the collective bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37 1/2 hours a week. Now, it will be 40 hours.

The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes -- from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining.

Teachers' salaries will stay "relatively the same," Arnoldussen says, except for higher pension and health care payments. (The top salary is around $80,000 per year, with about $35,000 in additional benefits, for 184 days of work per year -- summers off.) Finally, the money saved will be used to hire a few more teachers and institute merit pay.

Sounds like this was a fight worth having. I expect more states will come to this realization in the near future.

2011-07-04T16:02:00.000-05:00

Another Obama flub ignored by most media... This one is pretty damn egregious too.

2011-06-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

Michael Totten on the Palestinians of 1967:

Around 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs. Unlike their brethren in the region’s refugee camps, they remained in Israel after the Jewish state’s declaration of independence from the post-Ottoman British Mandate, and so they were naturalized. Some people refer to them as the Palestinians of 1948, and they’re politically and culturally distinct from the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza, most of whom will eventually become citizens of Palestine rather than Israel.

Israeli Arabs get precious little attention in the media, and as a consequence are largely ignored and even forgotten outside Israel. There’s a third group, only a few hundred thousand in number, that gets even less attention than the Palestinians of 1948, and they are who I think of as the Palestinians of 1967.

I’m referring here to the Arab residents of Jerusalem. Like Israel’s Arabs, they were offered citizenship, only this time in the wake of the 1967 war rather than the 1948 war. In June of that year Israel defensively took the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, but it never annexed the territories. Both remain beyond the borders of Israel not only according to the “international community,” but also according to the Israeli government.

Israel did, however, annex the formerly Jordanian-occupied parts of Jerusalem. Everyone who lived in those neighborhoods at that time were Arabs because Jordan ethnically-cleansed the Jewish residents when it completed its conquest of the eastern half of the city in 1949. Victorious Israel didn’t ethnically cleanse anyone, though, so annexing east Jerusalem meant annexing its people, and the Palestinians there were offered Israeli citizenship.

It is long, but read the whole thing. There are several interesting perspectives on the situation from both Palestinians and Israelis.

2011-06-27T12:44:00.003-05:00

James Taranto wonders why asking for ID is only discriminatory within the context of voting, but not when traveling via airplane or train, renting a car, visiting the doctor or checking into a hotel. These are the types of questions no one else seems to be asking, while listening to Dems cry racism at the first mention of a voter ID requirement. Anything to preserve the vote buying that goes on in many city wards.

2011-06-27T12:35:00.003-05:00

The Gunwalker scandal is getting bigger and bigger, and who will get taken down in the Obama Administration beyond some ATF underlings is unknown. However, it would seem to behoove the House Republicans to pursue this case with a great deal of zeal, as American and Mexican law enforcement officials lost their lives to firearms that U.S. government officials deliberately allowed to be smuggled to Mexican cartels, all to further the lie that U.S. gun shops were arming the cartels. The lunacy of these actions cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the progressive mindset where the ends always justify the means. It will be interesting to see how long major media outlets can play down this scandal before the greater American public finally understands the gravity of the violations that have occurred, from treason on down to perjury, with no regard for those killed by such reckless actions.

2011-06-24T07:17:00.002-05:00

When the Washington Post sides against the government in the case of Boeing trying to open a new factory in South Carolina, you know that the National Labor Relations Board must really be stretching their powers far beyond what they should. Not that this will stop them. Absolute obedience to union bosses is required by our commander in chief and those he has appointed, never mind the harm to the U.S. economy. When looking for reasons why companies move overseas, cases such as this are prime factors in the decision to relocate.

2011-06-23T01:07:00.002-05:00

Amidst all the news of the "Arab Spring" and the continuing revolts, actual good news about Morocco's king proposing a new constitution that contains explicit guarantees for the rights of women, minorities, religions, speech, assembly and the press doesn't really get much press. Which is too bad, because this is a fantastic development for North Africa, which hopefully will serve as an example to states looking for a direction like Egypt and Tunisia.

2011-06-23T01:06:00.001-05:00

Popular Mechanics has you covered in case you were wondering about the latest developments in the field of fusion power. Still sounds like we are a couple decades away...

2011-06-11T20:22:00.002-05:00

Obama sides with Argentina over the Falklands? Siding with Venezuela and Nicaragua as well, against our strongest ally in Great Britain, seems to be quite foolish to me. I guess this is more of that "smart diplomacy" which is too sophisticated for us normal folks to understand the reasoning behind.

2011-06-10T00:24:00.002-05:00

EPA closing functional power plants to "protect the children"? I am always doubtful of any motive that uses "the children'"as their modus operandi. And in this case, whatever happened to Congress passing the laws? Now some unelected government bureaucrat makes willy-nilly decisions that have a chilling effect on job creation and growth in this slow economy, in this case to supposedly "save children from asthma". It sounds like something farcical news story.

Step one to create jobs in the country would be removing the power of new regulation from government agencies and restoring this power to Congress. Then maybe businesses wouldn't be moving overseas at an unprecedented rate... Let these agencies fulfill the obligations they already have, not create new ones.

2011-06-10T00:20:00.002-05:00

RIAA corporate lawyer to represent government interest as solicitor general. So a guy who made a living suing Youtube and Limewire gets this cushy job? Why do I get the feeling the inmates are running the asylum?

2011-06-05T11:26:00.001-05:00

Homeowner forecloses on bank? This is a headline I'd like to see more often. Maybe this will show Bank of America not to be so reckless when dealing with foreclosures and paying what they owe.

2011-05-24T23:04:00.002-05:00

Have a look at the consequences of raising taxes on oil and gas companies. An excellent analysis from a contributor on Seeking Alpha. Don't look for thorough analysis like this from the mainstream media or even from CNBC. But bet that certain members of Congress are paying attention, which is why this proposal won't go anywhere.

2011-05-24T23:00:00.002-05:00

Lost Egyptian pyramids have been rediscovered using infrared satellite technology. The implications from these findings are staggering, as archeology now has a tool for searching for lost sites the world over. It might be a good time to get into archeology!

2011-05-24T22:54:00.002-05:00

How Wikileaks vindicated Bush's anti-terrorism strategy, from Donald Rumsfeld in the Washington Post. What he says here is basically irrefutable, leaving it to the lefty commentators to cry "liar" somewhat hollowly, knowing full well that their anointed current President has fully endorsed what has happened before him by continuing all of Bush's policies. Don't expect them to ever admit it though.

2011-05-19T02:12:00.002-05:00

Did you ever notice that Democrats are only hawkish when their party is in charge? Kind of despicable, putting their lust for power over the good of the country when not in charge, but pulling a complete 180 when they are. The really shocking thing is that more people don't notice it.

2011-05-14T00:25:00.002-05:00

The latest state to curtail public employee union bargaining rights? Would you guess Massachusetts? Of course since this was passed by Democrats, there was no need to have protests like in Wisconsin...

2011-05-13T12:30:00.001-05:00

Check out this amazing view of the sky, showing a 360 degree view of the stars visible from earth.

2011-05-13T12:28:00.002-05:00

How Bin Laden emailed without being detected by the US. It is amazing what one can do with a few flash drives. The strategy makes perfect sense, and illustrates how simple it is to avoid being tracked in the digital age.

2011-05-07T19:33:00.001-05:00

NPR hires firm to lobby for its taxpayer funding. Wow. Somehow I think their efforts might backfire.

2011-04-30T19:03:00.003-05:00

When it comes to news from China, often times the best news to follow is what the authorities want censored. The Latest Directives From The Ministry of Truth has weekly posts about what is being censored. It is very Orwellian, but with the technology of communication today, it seems like those who are curious are reading the leaks of the censor's lists like a Chinese 'Drudge Report' to find out what is really happening in their country.

2011-04-30T19:00:00.001-05:00

China ably demonstrates why high speed rail is a complete waste of $$$:

For the past eight years, Liu Zhijun was one of the most influential people in China. As minister of railways, Liu ran China’s $300 billion high-speed rail project. U.S., European and Japanese contractors jostled for a piece of the business while foreign journalists gushed over China’s latest high-tech marvel.
Today, Liu Zhijun is ruined, and his high-speed rail project is in trouble. On Feb. 25, he was fired for “severe violations of discipline” — code for embezzling tens of millions of dollars. Seems his ministry has run up $271 billion in debt — roughly five times the level that bankrupted General Motors. But ticket sales can’t cover debt service that will total $27.7 billion in 2011 alone. Safety concerns also are cropping up.

Thomas Friedman couldn't be reached for comment.

2011-04-27T11:41:00.002-05:00

Syria has been shooting mourners attending funerals, among other atrocities against civilians, but that won't stop them from joining the U.N. Human Rights Council. Sickening. But yet more proof that the U.N. is a complete joke and not worthy of all the support the U.S. provides.

2011-04-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

More DC priorities: military diversity. Just what we need.

2011-04-15T00:52:00.002-05:00

The Left's obsession with the Koch brothers is really getting ridiculous. The Weekly Standard has a nice response to the scathing New Yorker piece from last year that has informed much of the hatred from major lefties (despite containing enough inaccuracies and innuendo to fill a supermarket tabloid).

I find it hard to believe that two men who routinely give tens of millions of dollars to charity every year are so vilified. Especially when they have been supporting free market economics for over thirty years, not just since Obama has been elected. Throw in their opposition to foreign wars, belief in gay rights and advocacy of drug legalization, and you start to wonder how these guys are such big targets today. But the Left needs someone to vilify. They need their two minute hates, like at the anti-Koch protest outside a Koch-sponsored conference in California earlier this year, where some protesters advocated lynching some Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Scalia for being Koch pawns. Somehow they became an issue is the Wisconsin union protests too.

I suppose it was inevitable, with George Soros funding every progressive cause under the sun, that lefties would start looking for a corollary on the right. And I guess the Kochs fit the bill, but it seems to be a pretty big stretch to me.

2011-04-15T00:04:00.003-05:00

More examples of bank shenanigans that helped cause the sub-prime mortgage bust in 2008:

The Permanent Investigations Subcommittee report added new flesh to the litany of tales of greed and neglect fueling the housing bubble whose bursting sank the economy. For example:

• Two Washington Mutual loan offices in Los Angeles were writing subprime loans with such soaring default rates that company officials reported their failures to higher-ups. Not only was no disciplinary action taken, but also the loan officers were rewarded with trips to Hawaii for setting sales records.

• Internal Washington Mutual documents lifted any mystery about the reason the firm plunged into the subprime market. According to the company's data, upon sale of a subprime mortgage to investors or Wall Street, the firm booked a 1.5 percent gain on sale, more than seven times the 0.19 percent gain from selling a conventional, fixed-rate mortgage.

• Mass ratings downgrades by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's in July 2007 exposed the risky nature of mortgage investments that the same ratings agencies considered to be as safe as Treasury bills a few months earlier. But internal emails show that the credit rating agencies knew their ratings wouldn't "hold," yet delayed taking action "to preserve market share."

• Goldman Sachs was net 'short" by more than $10 billion at times, but when the price of short bets rose in the spring of 2007, its traders tried to engineer a new version of a 'short squeeze," which occurs when people betting against a security are forced to buy it back because it's gaining value. In this case, Goldman sought to mark down the value of bets against the housing market, allegedly to scare some players into selling so the firm could more cheaply enlarge its bets on, and its profits from, a housing slump.

I'm sure these types of tales will trickle out for years. The rating agency actions are the worst in my view. Their actions helped to set the high market for sub-prime mortgage securities, when they knew they were no where close to AAA.

2011-04-04T02:37:00.002-05:00

Finally some Republicans in Washington are starting to talk seriously about cutting the budget. And it is about time:

Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program for the elderly, a move that will dramatically reshape the budget debate in Washington.
The budget has been prepared by Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican and the new chairman of the House Budget Committee, and it represents the most complete attempt so far by Republicans to make good on their promises during the 2010 midterm elections to cut government spending and deficits.

Though Rep. Ryan based the Medicare portion of his budget on a previous plan created in collaboration with a Democrat, Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and long-time budget expert, the current plan isn't likely to get much Democratic support. Instead, it will set up a broad debate over spending and the role of government heading into the 2012 general election.

The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills. Mr. Ryan and other conservatives say this is necessary because of the program's soaring costs. Medicare cost $396.5 billion in 2010 and is projected to rise to $502.8 billion in 2016. At that pace, spending on the program would have doubled between 2002 and 2016.

Mr. Ryan's proposal would apply to those currently under the age of 55, and for those Americans would convert Medicare into a "premium support" system. Participants from that group would choose from an array of private insurance plans when they reach 65 and become eligible, and the government would pay about the first $15,000 in premiums. Those who are poorer or less healthy would receive bigger payments than others.

A lot of what is being suggested was recommended by President Obama's debt reduction commission. But don't think that will stop Democrats from immediately using the proposal to score political points suggesting Republicans want to cut off health care for seniors. However, serious minds from both parties will have to get together at some point with the goal of implementing similar reforms if progress will ever be made in reversing our growing $14 trillion debt.

2011-03-27T17:16:00.001-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson hits the bulls eye again with his latest:

For two weeks, the administration was largely quiet about the unrest in Libya until the insurgents began taking entire cities and seemed on the verge of closing in on Gaddafi’s Tripoli. Then President Obama called on Gaddafi to step down and stop the “unacceptable” level of violence. But things then got worse, not better, once Gaddafi began to employ a level of violence that his ilk counts on to stay in power (cf. Assad in Syria or Ahmadinejad in Iran). So at last we announced a funny sort of no-fly-zone, inasmuch as Gaddafi can put down the rebellion without use of his planes and gunships. We vowed to have an international commander soon; we promised to restrict our activity to patrolling the air only (after sending missiles into quite a lot of initial targets on the ground). We are not going after Gaddafi himself (although the tyrant has nowhere to go, must be taken out for the rebels to succeed, and seems to be already targeted by the Europeans, without our “knowledge”). In the new Middle East multilateralism, America supplies the firepower, Europeans the policy and high profile, Arabs the public cover, and the international community the legitimacy — as long as the campaigning is brief, the losses small, and the rebels supposedly somewhat Western in outlook. But no one yet has told us why we must not “meddle” in Iran, must ignore the Saudis going into Bahrain, should continue “outreach” with Assad, must support the ouster of Mubarak and Ben Ali, but are so far mum about further challenges to pro-American authoritarians in the Gulf and Jordan.

Read the whole thing.

2011-03-21T12:15:00.000-05:00

Megan McArdle has some very good questions about the planned Florida and California rail projects:

[T]he idea seems to have become to build trains where it's possible to build trains, and hope that development follows. But trains succeed where they are better than some alternative form of transportation. In the case of Tampa to Orlando, they're worse than a car, and there isn't even any air travel to replace; in the case of Fresno-to-Bakersfield, it may be better than a car for a few passengers, but there are too few passengers to make the trains better than cars for the environment.

Meanwhile, projects that do make economic sense, like an actual high-speed Acela, or Southeastern High-Speed Rail Corridor, are going nowhere. They might have a better chance of success if rail advocates hadn't abandoned them in favor of building whizzy demonstration projects with dubious economic appeal.

But is it really a good demonstration project if the train doesn't have any passengers? Or if the people to whom you've demonstrated it finish their trip in Bakersfield, sans car? It seems to me that this is a very good way to demonstrate cost overruns, disappointing passenger figures, and a single-minded commitment on the part of rail advocates that defies common sense.

Not that anyone will listen to her.

2011-03-19T00:57:00.002-05:00

Helen Thomas makes it clear in this month's Playboy interview that the remarks about the Jews that got her fired were just the scratching the surface of the way she feels. And it isn't pretty to hear. Don't expect this story to get too much mainstream play though.

2011-03-18T12:18:00.002-05:00

Media ignoring death threats against Wisconsin lawmakers. Could their bias be any more obvious? After their calls for civility following the Giffords shooting, their silence now is especially galling.

2011-03-16T12:34:00.002-05:00

Streaming copyrighted material soon to be a federal felony? Looks that way if the new White House recommendations are put into place by Congress. They also want the ability to wiretap suspected offenders. Good thing they are worried about the real problems facing our nation.

2011-03-10T23:59:00.002-06:00

The reaction from the Left and the mainstream media over Rep. Peter King's congressional hearings into radicalization of American Muslims is really sickening to behold. They are throwing around terms like "inquisition" and "McCarthyism" when King is really trying to address a serious problem facing the US and the world. Letting Hamas-linked groups like CAIR frame the debate is dangerous. America's politically correct attitude is causing it to ignore the serious danger in our midst, as seen recently from home-grown radicals like Major Hassan, the Times Square bomber and the underwear bomber, among others. When over eighty percent of terrorist activities being investigated by the Justice Department concern radical Islamists, there is a real problem that needs to be addressed. The New York Daily News has a great op-ed on the subject today:

The real underlying story here is how the self-anointed leadership of the Muslim community - groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America Muslim American Society - are the ones responsible for instilling panic into the Muslim community by suggesting that these hearings will lead to "hate crimes" against Muslims. and the

That canard has been used by these groups for years in their attempts to intimidate the media, commentators and critics of radical Islam from truly analyzing the role of these groups and others in radicalizing their constituents in the American Muslim community. The documents showing the creation of these groups with the assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood were introduced into evidence in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development FBI expert as a front for Hamas, and was also listed, together with the Islamic Society of North America, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation indictments. several years ago. At the trial, the Council on American-Islamic Relations was described by an

Groups such as these routinely play the "Islamophobia" card, and get attention for doing so in the mainstream media, in order to silence criticism of Islamic radicalism. In fact, these very same groups, just like the Obama administration, categorically refuse to even use the term "radical Islam" in order to excise the term from the American vernacular.

Critics have taken issue with King's focus on one religious minority. But, in fact, in previous years, Congress has held numerous hearings into various ethnic subcultures that have spawned illegalities - including the Italian mob, Hispanic drug cartels, black and white prison gangs, white racists and neo-Nazis.

Hopefully Rep. King can get more publicity for the actual purposes and findings of his hearings, as opposed to the publicity being generated by those lying about his intentions. There is quite a difference.

2011-03-10T23:56:00.001-06:00

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is going on trial in Pennsylvania for allegedly soliciting sex with an underage girl and exposing himself via webcam. And this isn't the first time allegations have been made against him. I hope they throw the book at him this time and let him see what hard core prisoners think of guys like him. The real question, though, is why this is getting coverage from a UK paper but not in the US...

2011-03-07T13:28:00.001-06:00

Charles Krauthammer hits one out of the park with his latest:

Now that revolutions are sweeping the Middle East and everyone is a convert to George W. Bush's freedom agenda, it's not just Iraq that has slid into the memory hole. Also forgotten is the once proudly proclaimed "realism" of Years One and Two of President Obama's foreign policy - the "smart power" antidote to Bush's alleged misty-eyed idealism.
It began on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first Asia trip, when she publicly played down human rights concerns in China. The administration also cut aid for democracy promotion in Egypt by 50 percent. And cut civil society funds - money for precisely the organizations we now need to help Egyptian democracy - by 70 percent.

This new realism reached its apogee with Obama's reticence and tardiness in saying anything in support of the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran. On the contrary, Obama made clear that nuclear negotiations with the discredited and murderous regime (talks that a child could see would go nowhere) took precedence over the democratic revolutionaries in the street - to the point where demonstrators in Tehran chanted, "Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them."

Now that revolution has spread from Tunisia to Oman, however, the administration is rushing to keep up with the new dispensation, repeating the fundamental tenet of the Bush Doctrine that Arabs are no exception to the universal thirst for dignity and freedom.

Read the whole thing.

2011-03-01T12:31:00.002-06:00

Megan McCardle on bias in academia:

It is just my impression, but I think what conservatives want most of all is simply recognition that they are being shut out. It is a double indignity to be discriminated against, and then be told unctuously that your group's underrepresentation is proof that almost none of you are as good as "us". Haidt notes that his correspondence with conservative students (anonymously) "reminded him of closeted gay students in the 1980s":
He quoted -- anonymously -- from their e-mails describing how they hid their feelings when colleagues made political small talk and jokes predicated on the assumption that everyone was a liberal. "I consider myself very middle-of-the-road politically: a social liberal but fiscal conservative. Nonetheless, I avoid the topic of politics around work," one student wrote. "Given what I've read of the literature, I am certain any research I conducted in political psychology would provide contrary findings and, therefore, go unpublished. Although I think I could make a substantial contribution to the knowledge base, and would be excited to do so, I will not."
Beyond that, mostly they would like academics to be conscious of the bias, and try to counter it where possible. As the quote above suggests, this isn't just for the benefit of conservatives, either. Just as excluding blacks and women from academia by tacit agreement allowed for a certain amount of wrong-headed groupthink, so does excluding people with different political views. No, I'm not saying you have to hire a Young Earth Creationist to be a biology professor, but I don't see why it should matter in a professor of Mathematics or Sociology.

Trying to be more conscious of one's own bias, and even to attempt to work against it, should not be such a hard task for people as brilliant, open-minded, and committed to equality and social justice as I keep hearing that liberal academics are.

And their attempts at explaining away the bias are pretty pathetic too, as Paul Krugman ably demonstrates by using statistics that simply don't prove his point at all. Read the whole thing.

2011-03-01T00:17:00.002-06:00

A fair and balanced look at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie from the New York Times? Unbelievable, but true:

Perhaps the most consequential episode between Christie and the union, at least as far as public perception was concerned, had to do with the pay freeze. Almost as soon as the scope of the budget problem became clear, the governor called on teachers, who received scheduled raises during the recession, to accept a one-year freeze. He reminded the teachers that a lot of private-sector workers felt lucky if they could keep their current salaries, and he said a voluntary freeze would enable the union to avoid widespread teacher layoffs in cash-poor school districts. Most local chapters of the union ignored him. Ultimately some 10,000 union members — teachers and support staff — saw their jobs eliminated. Christie hasn’t stopped talking about it since.
The union maintains that Christie’s plea was mere gimmickry, because the layoffs would have happened even if its local chapters acceded to the demand for a freeze. But even if this is true, it would seem to reflect a staggering lack of political calculation. Had the teachers agreed to take the short-term hit by acquiescing to a temporary freeze, it would have been worlds harder for Christie to then run around the state demanding longer-term concessions on pensions and benefits. And when the layoffs did materialize, the governor would most likely have shouldered most of the blame. Instead, the whole affair seemed to prove Christie’s point about the union’s self-involvement, and it enabled him to blame the teachers themselves for the layoffs.

Christie is letting the unions hang themselves, which is always a great strategy for winning a political argument. The fact that it plays well with the voters and the NYT is a bonus. This guy seems to have the chutzpah and broad appeal required to be President, and I hope he gets enough done this year in New Jersey to decide that he is needed to tackle similar problems at the federal level and that our federal government is dying for some of his tough love.

2011-03-01T00:03:00.002-06:00

First deepwater drilling permit granted for Gulf of Mexico since BP oil rig disaster last year. It took a direct order from a federal judge to get a decision, with hopefully more approvals to come soon. Drill, baby, drill!!

2011-02-27T10:36:00.002-06:00

The case against public sector unionism, from Professor Bainbridge. Quite a thorough analysis. The biggest would be that it simply runs counter to the tenets of a fair and open democratic system.

2011-02-21T00:24:00.003-06:00

If Chris Christie and/or Mitch Daniels are on the ticket for President in 2012, I will be very happy. And if neither of them are, I fear for the future of our country. They seem to be about the only ones willing to address the fiscal crisis that faces our country, as Michael Barone illustrates here.

2011-02-13T01:30:00.001-06:00

Should you be encrypting your cell phone? A good question, with a variety of answers.

2011-02-10T20:34:00.001-06:00

Are Health-Care Waivers Unconstitutional? An interesting analysis from a Columbia law professor. I think he makes a pretty convincing case.

2011-02-08T22:20:00.003-06:00

More hypocrisy from the left, this time during the Common Cause rally at the Koch brothers' event in California, where violent and racist rhetoric against Justices Thomas and Scalia was advocated by some protesters. Apparently everybody does it, so it is ok. But if this was a Tea Party rally, hello New York Times front page!

2011-01-28T15:51:00.002-06:00

Egypt shut down the internet completely at 12:34 am on Friday morning. Kinda scary, but that is life under a dictatorship, even one allied with the US. Hopefully this will remind people why we don't need such a thing here. There is no good reason to shut down communications. Unless you want control.

2011-01-28T15:42:00.003-06:00

A Hollywood film about the gulag and the horrors of Stalinism, directed by Peter Weir? Maybe some people are finally realizing that the Nazis weren't the only evil ones.

2011-01-26T22:39:00.003-06:00

Obama nominates RIAA lawyer for Solicitor General. Well, at least he has great practice grinding the little guy into the ground, so he should be a natural fit defending an overweight bureaucracy. I'm wondering when the twenty-somethings that fawned over Obama early on will realize the fact that he is not really supporting any of their natural interests, but rather those of big business. I don't expect too many journalists to actually point this out though...

2011-01-26T22:33:00.002-06:00

More Climategate shenanigans from the supposedly independent inquiries, each of which featured outright climate change advocates on their review boards while asserting that nothing improper occurred. However, British MPs aren't buying the cover-up, and from the looks of the comments, neither are the people.

2011-01-22T15:04:00.002-06:00

Jacob Sullum recently had yet another excellent piece on the drive to regulate political speech:

The over-the-top reactions to Citizens United reflect a view of corporations as giant, soulless automatons that are fine for producing goods and services in a regulated environment but bound to wreak havoc if let loose in the halls of political power. That view obscures the fact that corporations, no matter how large or profit-driven, are by definition associations of individuals who have joined together for a common purpose. It also misleadingly suggests that behemoths such as Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil are typical corporations, when in fact the vast majority of the 6 million or so corporations registered in the United States are small businesses or nonprofits.

“In 2010 almost everything is incorporated,” notes Allison Hayward, a former George Mason University law professor who recently became vice president of policy at the Center for Competitive Politics, which favors deregulation of political speech. “Anything you want to do as a group with other people—apart from the context where partnerships might work, like practicing law—you’re going to do through a corporate form of some kind.” Civil society, including churches, charitable organizations, and grassroots political groups of every interest and ideology, consists largely of corporations.

For an illustration, one need look no further than the case the Supreme Court decided. Citizens United, founded by the conservative activist Floyd Brown in 1988, is not a huge corporation seeking subsidies or permission to pollute. It is a nonprofit, ideological organization with an annual budget of $12 million that wanted to run a documentary about Hillary Clinton on pay-per-view TV. It was forbidden to do so, under threat of fine and imprisonment, because a) Clinton was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and b) the documentary made her look bad. The movie therefore violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a.k.a. McCain-Feingold, which banned “electioneering communications,” defined as TV or radio ads sponsored by unions or corporations that mention a candidate for federal office within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election.

Contrary to all the rhetoric about corporations drowning out the voice of the people, corporations are the voice of the people—people who pool their resources because they hate Hillary Clinton, love the rainforest, worry about the national debt, support gay marriage, think abortion is murder, oppose gun control, or even believe that corporations have too much influence on politics. McCain-Feingold told these groups they were not allowed to talk about their issues close to an election if the discussion happened to mention any politicians running for federal office.

It is long, but read the whole thing.

2011-01-19T02:36:00.002-06:00

Americans are playing checkers while the Chinese play grandmaster chess:

Every deal to tap the vast Chinese market comes with a requirement that they turn over their technology to the Chinese: nuclear plants, green energy products, autos will be made by American companies in China –until the Chinese complete construction of their copycat plants. The initial orders satisfy the American executives, their eyes focused on the next quarterly report. The Chinese, their eyes focused on 2020 and beyond, know that the technology in hand, they can duplicate the factories and techniques needed to dispense with the American capitalists. Westinghouse Electric recently turned over 75,000 documents to its Chinese customers as the initial part of the technology transfer to which it agreed as part of a deal to sell four nuclear plants to China. Nothing seems to have changed since Lenin observed, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

Read the whole thing.

2011-01-19T02:23:00.007-06:00

Cool map from The Economist comparing state economies to world countries.

2011-01-10T00:08:00.003-06:00

Great article from the Weekly Standard on Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Bob Corker and the value of becoming highly knowledgeable on certain subjects to affect change in that area.

2011-01-05T11:16:00.002-06:00

New Obamacare restrictions ending construction at 45 doctor-owned hospitals? Is anyone surprised by things like this being in the bill? I expect more and more stories like this every day...

2011-01-05T10:41:00.002-06:00

Jacob Sullum highlights the craziness of Western advocates for China's one child policy, along with the attendant barbarism that accompanies enforcement:

The tools that Chinese officials use to enforce this policy include "family planning contracts," birth permits, gynecological surveillance, fines that may amount to several years of income, denial of employment and government services, and forced abortions, sterilizations, and IUD insertions. CHRD finds that enforcement is wildly uneven, varying from one jurisdiction to another and over time in the same jurisdiction. While women in some parts of the country may get away with bearing an "over-quota" child by paying a fine, elsewhere women in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy are abducted so their not-quite-born children can be killed and extracted. Areas where limits on family size are flouted for years with impunity may be suddenly subject to crackdowns in which population control officials use fines, property seizures, beatings, arbitrary detention, and kidnapping of relatives to whip people into line.

Yet another reason to be thankful that we live in a free country. The arbitrariness of the policy only underscores the tyranny under which the Chinese live. But problems like these never bother fans of enlightened despotism like Thomas Friedman and his ilk. Funny that they don't seem to be rushing to move there or even volunteering to follow similar restrictions on their own families.

2011-01-05T10:35:00.002-06:00

Environmental water controls are causing massive unemployment in California's Central Valley, all over protecting an endangered bait fish. The best thing this country could do to jump-start the economy would be to halt unilateral environmental acts like this by the EPA and the judiciary. Unelected people shouldn't be making these decisions without some form of review and accountability. However, yuppie Californians would rather have a quarter of the state unemployed and going hungry so they can feel like they are helping the environment. As long as it doesn't directly affect their lifestyles...

2010-12-22T22:50:00.002-06:00

According to the recently released Census Bureau data, population growth was fastest in states with little or no income tax. Probably more than a coincidence, eh? Michael Barone has other observations, via the link.

2010-12-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

Victor Davis Hanson on the decline of rural California and the contradictions in policy and action by state authorities in National Review:

California does not care whether one broke the law to arrive here or continues to break it by staying. It asks nothing of the illegal immigrant — no proficiency in English, no acquaintance with American history and values, no proof of income, no record of education or skills. It does provide all the public assistance that it can afford (and more that it borrows for), and apparently waives enforcement of most of California’s burdensome regulations and civic statutes that increasingly have plagued productive citizens to the point of driving them out. How odd that we overregulate those who are citizens and have capital to the point of banishing them from the state, but do not regulate those who are aliens and without capital to the point of encouraging millions more to follow in their footsteps. How odd — to paraphrase what Critias once said of ancient Sparta — that California is at once both the nation’s most unfree and most free state, the most repressed and the wildest.

Read the whole thing.

2010-12-17T03:14:00.001-06:00

Red Cross bans Christmas in the UK. This sounds like a satirical headline, but it is real. Political correctness strikes again. You have to wonder if the bozos in charge know what the symbol of their organization stands for...

2010-12-14T22:38:00.002-06:00

The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the Kelo decision by refusing to hear the eminent domain case involving Columbia University. This is a sad day for average Americans, as another huge independent organization has just received government approval for seizing private property to put to private use. Especially considering an organization with a $7 billion plus endowment could probably afford to buy whatever they need at a fair price.

2010-12-10T13:09:00.002-06:00

You'd think Republicans would have gotten the message on spending and earmarks, especially after their drubbings in 2006 and 2008 and the primary challenges of big spenders by Tea Party candidates in 2010. But apparently some Republicans in Congress intend to stick to their big-spending guns, damage to the party and the country be damned. Too bad. But I hope they realize they are setting themselves up for minority status and primary challenges in the future, as the current fiscal path is unsustainable, and the whole trend of earmarking special projects is only a couple decades old.

2010-12-09T15:22:00.002-06:00

Warren Buffett, Robber Baron? It looks that way from here:

Here's a story about Warren Buffett, the estate tax, and the life insurance industry.
Did you know that the life insurance lobby is actively lobbying to restore the estate tax?

Why would the life insurance industry care about that? It turns out that ten percent of life insurance industry revenue is related to the estate tax. Wealthy people take out life insurance in order to reduce estate taxes because when you die, your life insurance payout doesn't count as part of your estate.

Did you know that Warren Buffett owns six life insurance companies? Did you know he supports the estate tax? You do now.

Warren Buffett isn't just noted as an owner of life insurance companies and a supporter of the estate tax. He's also noted as a buyer of family businesses. As Dick Patten shows, these two business strategies support each other.

A family business owner or farmer takes out a large life insurance policy which he sinks tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into each year. When he finally passes away, the life insurance pays out his policy to his family--tax free...

Even as Mr. Buffett's insurance companies are "protecting" family businesses from the IRS, he is buying companies that are forced to sell themselves to pay the death tax. Mr. Buffett's ability to buy family businesses at bargain basement prices depends on families being desperate to sell-and nothing produces family businesses desperate to sell quickly like a 55% bill from the IRS on all of the businesses' assets.

2010-12-05T13:12:00.002-06:00

Fascinating revelations about the Stuxnet worm that targeted Iran's uranium production capabilities. The whole story has a 21st century James Bond aspect to it. Glad to know that there are other options besides just bombing the hell out of them though... Not sure why this story is only on Fox News.

2010-11-29T13:42:00.002-06:00

So it turns out that the Southern Poverty Law Center has an off-shore Cayman Islands bank account. I wonder why they need something like that? This piece has a look at the group and its founders, who make six figure salaries and live in opulent mansions, while not ever really doing much about, you know, poverty. They are more interested in attracting donors through direct mailings about the next batch of hate groups they are supposedly fighting. However, I have found they are quite good at putting a couple terrible groups right next conservative voices that they oppose, a tactic that seems pretty damn slimy and underhanded to me. But rich lefties keep donating hand over fist... I wonder if they would continue to do so if they knew how much money they control and how the operators of SPLC live in such splendor?

2010-11-26T00:59:00.002-06:00

Caving on civilian trials for terrorists, ably demonstrated by the Obama Administration... This kind of thing is seriously unbelievable to me, but it is in the same vein as closing Gitmo, i.e. all for show, without actually doing anything because to do so would endanger the country. What a great way to make policy.

2010-11-18T08:50:00.001-06:00

Unionize the Transportation Security Agency? The Obama Administration is all for it. What could go wrong?

2010-11-16T21:20:00.002-06:00

In-state tuition for illegal immigrants has recently been preserved by the California Supreme Court. But is anybody really surprised what happens in that state anymore? Fortunately, this does set up an eventual Supreme Court hearing on the matter, where hopefully saner heads will prevail.

2010-11-16T21:18:00.003-06:00

Money doesn't equal electoral success, as Jacob Sullum observes in his latest, "Can't Buy Me Love". This also goes to show that the whole uproar by Democrats over the Citizens United decision was really much ado about nothing...

2010-11-10T13:24:00.001-06:00

Joe Biden has a meeting on government transparency today. Which is of course a closed meeting. You can't make this stuff up.

2010-11-06T09:58:00.002-05:00

Will protectionism and trade wars result from the Federal Reserve's latest round of quantitative easing of the money supply? Turns out other countries don't like their dollar-denominated US debt being inflated away. And it makes it kinda hard to get China to let the yuan float freely when we are manipulating our own.

2010-11-01T02:32:00.002-05:00

Is NATO getting phased out? I hope not, but if no one besides the US contributes $$$, then it doesn't really make sense. Still, the organization has been a force for good in the world, and there are no military alliances of the last half century that have positively impacted so many regional conflicts like NATO.

2010-10-31T23:02:00.003-05:00

Megan McCardle on eliminating the corporate income tax. She lists the reasons to do so, and I couldn't agree more. It seems to me one major way to grow the economy and create jobs while giving companies an incentive to stay in the United States would be cutting or eliminating the corporate tax. The idea that the current Administration is open to the idea can only be seen as a good thing. It will be interesting to see if parties in Congress are as open to the idea.

2010-10-31T00:26:00.003-05:00

PJTV on Youtube. The Fix Is In: How Public Sector Unions and Incumbents Shakedown America:

2010-10-28T13:12:00.002-05:00

Israel as fossil fuel exporter? This could conceivably change some of the dynamics of Middle East politics. Hopefully reports of these oil and gas finds are true. Although Lebanon claiming the gas fields could be troublesome...

2010-10-25T00:29:00.002-05:00

Why we should be focusing on developing thorium reactors instead of uranium ones... Apparently uranium was used initially because the plutonium by-product was ideal for making weapons. With thorium, this is not the case, making it an ideal fuel for today. Add in the facts that thorium is more efficient and its by-products decay in centuries instead of millenia, and you have to wonder why there isn't more of a national push to fund these kinds of developments. Japan and China certainly aren't waiting for us to take the lead in this department; they are forging ahead, leaving U.S. researchers in the dust.

2010-10-20T11:35:00.002-05:00

It will be interesting in the next few weeks to watch the reactions of the British public to the planned cuts across the board in government, along with raising the retirement age to 66 much earlier than planned, all recently announced by the new Conservative government. Labour had planned large cuts as well, so it isn't really surprising, but compare the coming reactions of the British public to the wide-ranging protests, slowdowns and disturbances occurring across France from the news that the retirement age will go from 60 to 62. Kind of makes the French seem a little silly, all in all. Then again, the British are always a lot more willing to do what is necessary when the going gets tough...

2010-10-14T13:50:00.002-05:00

Looking at the travesty of the recent Washington D.C. mayoral race at PJTV. A must view, as they dissect why racial identity politics won out over a reformer who was actually making the city safer and improving failing schools. Sad that this only hurts the kids in failing D.C. schools the most.

2010-10-11T22:51:00.002-05:00

Casting call for MTV's town hall meeting with President Obama? Applicants required to list their "political views". Sounds about right, wouldn't want to give him any questions he might not be able to handle from someone who disagrees with him. Also yet another example of the mainstream media working to brainwash the younger generations, since they know they have lost the older generations that actually bother to follow what happens in the world from sources besides MTV, Comedy Central and the major networks.