Your Lying Eyes

Anatomy of a Coup

2012-01-19T00:11:00.000-05:00

Speaking of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, didn't the transformation of Mr. Mubarak into the Evil Man of the Middle East seem to happen faster than Dr. Jekyll could turn into Mr. Hyde with a drink of his special potion? Who was beating those war drums, anyway? Let's look at how the New York Times viewed Mubarak over time. Was he always a dictator? I searched the Times for all articles containing

Where's the Challenge in That?

2012-01-18T23:27:00.001-05:00

Tom Friedman, the great cheerleader for the Tahrir Square uprising, today discusses the Great Dilemma now puzzling our Foggy Bottom cogitators given recent developments: Is the now politically-dominant Muslim Brotherhood a modern, moderate force pretending to be radical to its backward Egyptian constituency; or a radical Islamic force pretending to be moderate to the international community?

Things Not to Do in 2012

2012-01-13T08:19:00.000-05:00

Do not skydive. Do not take a ride in a hot-air balloon. Do not fly in a small plane. Do not bungee jump. Do not go on a cruise.

We're Eating Less Meat - Hooray?

2012-01-11T23:55:00.000-05:00

It's taken about 3,500 years for high-density, sedentary societies to get to the point where animal protein is finally abundant enough to be eaten at every meal - and no sooner has this day arrived than our benevolent rulers have decided we'd be better off going back to 3 daily servings of gruel. Today the Times' food writer, Mark Bittman, celebrates the recent strides Americans have made in

The Fourth Way

2012-01-10T00:23:00.000-05:00

The start of the presidential election season - when a bevy of opponents battle in undignified jostling for their party's nomination and a hapless chief executive transitions the White House from executive mansion to re-electioncampaign headquarters - is often cause for lament that there isn't an alternative to this partisan bickering. But the alternative that everyone seems to want - a Third Way

The Most Awesomest Recovery

2012-01-05T21:33:00.001-05:00

An economist named Karl Smith, who writes at a blog called Modeled Behavior, seems to have invented a statistic that finally can demonstrate what an awesome recovery we are in. He calls it the "Labor Soakage Rate". I don't know if he actually did invent it - he doesn't make a point of claiming he did. But if you Google "Labor Soakage" you'll find references to his blog post and a bunch of stuff

Rather Predictable

2011-12-21T20:10:00.002-05:00

It's not even ironic that in the wake of a massive financial crisis driven by the Federal government's relentless pressure on lenders to relax lending standards and make more home loans to minorities, one of the few actions Eric Holder's Justice Department has taken in this sphere is to charge a bank with unfair lending practices to minorities. And not just any bank, of course, but the Typhoid

Illegal? There was Nothing Illegal!

2011-12-17T11:28:00.001-05:00

Obama has received characteristically little grief for his claim that the fraud that drove the Wall St. debacle wasn't illegal. For Obama and the left, such quaint, common-law legal concepts like "fraud" are irrelevant in a modern state. Regulations are the way to go - the government establishes detailed regulations and legions of regulators micro-manage firms actions. Fraud - a charge that

Asymmetric Political Warfare

2011-12-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Texas' appeal of a judicially imposed apportionment plan and issued a stay against the plan's implementation. The Justice Department claims that Texas's reapportionment discriminates against Hispanic voters by reducing their representation. But what this case really comes down to - and how I think the 5 conservative justices will decide - is the Justice

Virtuosi Ain't All That

2011-12-11T07:34:00.001-05:00

Friday night I attended the NY Philharmonic concert where they played Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with superstar Joshua Bell as soloist (NY Times review here). During the cadenza (an extended solo performance usually towards the end of the first movement of a concerto, for any Philistines out there), I got out my small pair of binoculars to get a good close-up look at his playing. But then I

So What Did Your Gay Uncle Give You for Christmas?

2011-12-02T23:53:00.001-05:00

In the wake of the Andrew Sullivan racial-intelligence flap, Half Sigma's post on the topic devolved into a debate over the heritability of homosexuality. Regrettably, despite it being an "HBD" blog, the commenters generally proved themselves rather dense, with the host not helping much either. A common theme was the absurd "Gay Uncle" theory. This theory posits that homosexuality would be a

Wishful-Politik

2011-11-22T22:08:00.001-05:00

U.S. foreign policy continues to be in safe hands. In a speech she gave a few weeks ago (but that I only just heard about tonight in a gushing report on NPR), Hillary attempted to explain the unexplainable - our Mideast policy. She gave a little FAQ apparently, including this Q&A:What will the United States do if democracy brings anti-U.S. governments to power? "The suggestion that faithful

How Come Super-Smart People Never Thank the Lord?

2011-11-19T08:31:00.001-05:00

I have found that people get annoyed when star athletes start off with a word of thanks to the Lord when they're interviewed after games (Tim Tebow being the latest high-profile example of this much reviled type - but it's fairly routine among athletes). But I find it very understandable and actually quite endearing. Think of it from their point of view. After spending their entire lives

Young People Saving Money - What a Disaster!

2011-11-17T16:49:00.001-05:00

The madness behind Keynesianism can be found in an article today in the Times ("As New Graduates Return to Nest, Economy Also Feels the Pain") featuring uber-Keynesian Mark Zandi of Moody's. Saving money is bad, you see - and squandering it on useless frills is what the economy needs. What Zandi wants young people to do when they get their first job is to get their own place and start spending

The Gap Continues to Shrink

2011-11-01T21:17:00.000-04:00

The 2011 NAEP results have just been released. Last year I provided some graphs on a declining trend in the Black/White gap in grade school scores. It appears that this trend is continuing - and not starting to flatten out. Here are the Math gaps: This represents a very small narrowing that if continued at the pace of the last 6 years would not eliminate the gap within the lifetimes of anyone

Immigration and the Destruction of Community - in the NY Times!!!

2011-10-31T21:12:00.000-04:00

The New York Times actually has an article on the sad loss of community when immigration and economic change intersect - specifically, in Santa Ana, California.Fourth Street — also known as Calle Cuatro — has long been the center of Latino business in Orange County, the place where Mexican immigrants could find nearly anything they might have looked for in their homelands...But as the economy has

No More Cool Stuff

2011-10-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

Alas, the great advances we rightfully anticipated in the wake of the wonders of post-war America never really materialized - with the exception of all that cool stuff that Mr. Jobs dreamed up for us. I actually never bought an Apple product, but their mind-blowing coolness never failed to impress. So will a pall of (relative) stagnation now be cast across this sector - the 'cool-stuff' sector -

Even 5-inch Deep Sea Squid Do It!

2011-09-21T07:02:00.000-04:00

From the featured Science story in the Times:A five-and-a-half-inch deep-sea squid that lives a solitary life up to half a mile down in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean is the latest addition to the hundreds of species that are known to engage in same-sex sex.So, so then Gay Marriage just has to make sense, doncha see?! The next six paragraphs continue to discuss same-sex activity of some

Does the Times Editorial Staff Owe Glenn Beck a Collective Apology?

2011-09-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

Tumult of Arab Spring Prompts Worries in WashingtonWhile the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring created new opportunities for American diplomacy, the tumult has also presented the United States with challenges — and worst-case scenarios — that would have once been almost unimaginable.--unless of course you're a ranting lunatic like, say, Glenn Beck --What if the Palestinians’ quest for

The Bullying Pulpit

2011-09-13T21:44:00.001-04:00

How do you bring about radical social change in a democracy? At the ballot box? Hah! Never happen - after all, the very people whose lives you want to throw into disarray are the very votes you'd need. Take your case to the courts until you get to the Supremes where you win a huge landmark decision overthrowing the old order? That's so 70's - what with the current makeup of the SCOTUS. No, the

How Much Are You Paying in Taxes?

2011-08-24T19:35:00.006-04:00

Greg Cochran alerted me to an Op-Ed in the WSJ ("My Response To Buffett And Obama") by the former CEO of Amex, Harvey Golub, claiming "of my current income this year, I expect to pay 80%-90% in federal income taxes, state income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and federal and state estate taxes." And Greg pointed out that with the maximum FIT rate at 35% and NY/NYC at ~12%, Medicare <

Laying it out Squarely

2011-08-23T09:05:00.000-04:00

The NY Times Editorial intones:The rebels — a ragtag band that overcame incredible odds [yeah, who'd've ever thought you could win with with NATO bombing your enemy? - ziel], battlefield defeats and bitter internal divisions — have showed extraordinary commitment and resilience...They have promised to build a democratic Libya. They must keep that promise.Yes, they must, the just must.

Is Krugman a Troll?

2011-08-17T08:48:00.001-04:00

An internet troll, that is. Krugman on CNN last weekend, talking about economic policy:If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months, and then if we discovered, oops, we made a mistake, there aren't

First They're Rotting, Now They're Walking

2011-07-22T00:31:00.000-04:00

After the latest "rotting in the fields" fairy tale, there's a new threat to farms: thieves stealing produce in the fields. That's right - farmers are - in some cases literally - up in arms over the very costly theft of their valuable produce - which it seems that just yesterday were "rotting in the fields." So one day because there aren't enough illegal immigrants to harvest it the produce is

Bronx Charter School Caught Cheating

2011-07-21T20:35:00.000-04:00

For skimming, to be precise:The violations go to the crux of the debate over charters, which are publicly financed but independently operated. Random admissions is a key tenet in most states, but critics have long contended that the schools surreptitiously weed out students who are unlikely to do well on standardized tests or are more difficult to educate.I'm sure it's pretty easy to find which

Italy vs. Japan

2011-07-18T22:22:00.000-04:00

Via Marginal Revolution, Paul Krugman wonders why there is such a disparity in the interest rates Italy has to pay on its bonds vs. Japan. Commenters seem unable to come up with anything plausible. Some mention cultural differences, but only one commenter at either blog mentioned trade policy. Japan's current account stood at 3.6% of GDP as of December, 2010 and has averaged 2.6% of GDP since

Chickens Coming Home to Roost, With a Vengeance

2011-07-17T09:42:00.000-04:00

Charter School Battle Shifts to Affluent Suburbs. Yet another neo-con policy disaster. Neo-conservativism is all about pursuing liberal goals with "conservative" policies. Starting out with the unshakable premise that performance in urban/minority schools has to be equal to those in white suburbs because - well, it just has to be, the neocons correctly observed that liberal polices - free

Is the Continuum Theory Plausible?

2011-07-12T20:27:00.005-04:00

I don't think it is. What I'm talking about is the Sexual-Orientation Continuum theory. According to the APA (via Wikipedia): Sexual orientation exists along a continuum that ranges from exclusive heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality and includes various forms of bisexuality. Over at Razib's there was some discussion around Tim Pawlenty's answers on Meet the Press regarding

Give the Guy a Break

2011-07-11T22:37:00.001-04:00

Christian Lopez, the guileless young man who caught Derek Jeter's dramatic 3,000th hit and asked for little more than some t-shirts and an autographed ball in return, could be facing a sizable tax bill that he can ill-afford. The Yankees gave him primo seats for the rest of the year and perhaps he could "StubHub" some of them, but that might not be permitted under the deal. This would seem to

The Voice of the People

2011-07-09T21:10:00.000-04:00

The Republican Leadership to the people: We hear you - you're sick and tired of illegal-immigration, your neighborhoods being trashed by Section 8 Vouchers, courts overturning the People's will, bailouts for big banks, military interventions in Middle East civil wars - We hear you loud and clear - and so we pledge to you - No New Taxes!

Obama, Right-Winger

2011-07-09T00:14:00.000-04:00

So alleges Paul Krugman. Obama is in cahoots with Republicans to sabotage everything Democrats hold dear. As a person, Obama could be thought of as a conservative. He's in a traditional marriage, raising two young, apparently virtuous, children. He's never been much of a rebel (like, say, John Kerry was). His foray into community organizing seems to have been rather half-hearted, and seems to

Plebiscites are, by Definition, Unfair, Apparently

2011-07-01T21:05:00.001-04:00

A Federal Appeals court has struck down Michigan's anti-affirmative action law because it was a voter-passed constitutional amendment.Because less onerous avenues to effect political change remain open to those advocating consideration of non-racial factors in admissions decisions, Michigan cannot force those advocating for consideration of racial factors to go down a more arduous road than

All The News That's Pro-Gay

2011-06-27T23:00:00.001-04:00

That appears to be the Times's motto - if it's pro-gay, we'll print it, however preposterous. And so we have For Many Immigrants, Marriage Vote Resonates. Having trouble making the connection? - don't worry, the reporter of the article can't quite pull it off, either.The news was celebrated over the weekend by gay immigrants just as it was by other gay groups. On Monday, after the dancing had

British Accents

2011-06-25T13:05:00.001-04:00

Some thoughts on British accents and how Americans are impressed by them. But where did that new, awful British accent come from? You know, the Russel Brand type accent - though there are much worse than him - really clipped and guttural? Has it always been around, but only recently with easier flow of communications has it been able to make its way across the pond? Or is it a kind of newish

The Legalization Canard

2011-06-20T20:07:00.001-04:00

Via Tyler Cowen, there's an Op-Ed in the Times arguing that legalizing marijuana will do little to stifle the power of the drug cartels in Mexico. The article notes that the cartels are more than capable of altering their "business model" to meet such a threat. But the real pointlessness of the legalization discussion is how preposterous the notion is. Sure, we could - and should - completely

Obama Was Dealt a Lousy Hand, But Still...

2011-06-09T23:08:00.000-04:00

No doubt Obama came into office with a big mess left behind by his predecessor. The glass-half-full take on that would have been that there's only one way to go - up. But that hasn't happened. The reason seems simple enough - Obama can't fathom what exactly it was that Bush screwed up. On the surface, Obama saw the problems simply enough. We had a dumb war in Iraq, a neglected war in Afghanistan

They've Got Our Backs

2011-06-07T21:20:00.004-04:00

As the economy falters and the Obama administration flails about while "Main St" languishes, it's comforting to know a strong opposition party is there to protect the interests of ordinary Americans. Case in point: Trade Policy: Republicans in the Senate are up in arms over Obama's failure to move unconditionally and expeditiously on free-trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. "

Criminalizing YouTube

2011-06-02T23:50:00.000-04:00

Via Drudge, I see that there is a bill in the Senate to expand the reach of criminal enforcement of copyright law. In theory, at least, it land you 5 years in jail for merely embedding or perhaps just linking to a copyrighted video. The whole idea of criminalizing copyright violations rubs me the wrong way. Sure, there needs to be a mechanism to crack down on wholesale illegal distributions of

Bring Us Your Tired, Your Poor...

2011-06-01T08:23:00.000-04:00

Invade the World/Invite the World all rolled into one: Before he was granted refugee status in the U.S. and settled down in Bowling Green, Ky., Waad Ramadan Alwan was allegedly a sniper and skilled bomb maker who targeted U.S. forces and bragged that his "lunch and dinner would be an American." Alwan is one of two Iraqi refugees who the Justice Department announced Tuesday had been charged with

I Bet He's Articulate, Too

2011-05-21T09:22:00.003-04:00

The CNN headline assures us that Judge in Casey Anthony case seen as sharp, respected and in command. I'm sure you've already guessed the backstory there, so I'll confirm your suspicions so you don't have to bother clicking thru if you don't feel like bothering.

Republicans are Useless

2011-05-04T07:38:00.002-04:00

A useless political party. From the AP (via Drudge): Boehner: US should not back away from Pakistan. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration was investigating whether Pakistan knew Osama bin Laden was hiding deep inside the country as House Speaker John Boehner and top lawmakers insisted the U.S. maintain close ties with the sometimes reluctant ally in the war on terror. The killing of Osama

Royal Musings

2011-04-30T21:47:00.004-04:00

Steve Sailer often notes that Obama proclaimed himself the great uniter in his 2004 Unveiling by noting his bi-racial descent, much the way Henry VIII would claim to unite the White and Red Roses of England as a descendant of the houses of Lancaster and York. Meanwhile, Larry Auster notes that the last time an English King was married to a commoner things didn't work out so well.Continuing on

Business and Health Care

2011-04-17T23:40:00.000-04:00

Obviously insurers who make money selling health insurance must lobby like there's no tomorrow to protect themselves when it comes to health-care reform legislation. But what of the rest of Corporate America? Do they stand back, not wanting to interfere in a "not our issue" kind of attitude? Do they stand together with the insurers out of some sense of Corporate Solidarity? Basically, what I mean

How Much Blood Can We Get out of Wealthy Stones?

2011-04-06T19:21:00.003-04:00

Greg Cochran challenges my assertion last week that if we were to raise taxes on the rich we'd get "probably no more than about $100b per year" with a pithy "Ridiculous." Had it come from any normal commenter, I'd have simply ignored such an offhanded dismal - but coming from a rocket scientist, I feel obliged to research further.First off, given that Obama had proposed raising taxes 3.5% on

Who Could Have Predicted It?

2011-03-25T07:43:00.003-04:00

Islamist Group Is Rising Force in a New Egypt blares the headline in the Times.In post-revolutionary Egypt, where hope and confusion collide in the daily struggle to build a new nation, religion has emerged as a powerful political force, following an uprising that was based on secular ideals. The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group once banned by the state, is at the forefront, transformed into

Hey, Where'd All the Rich People Go?

2011-03-18T23:51:00.002-04:00

Barack Obama kicked off his presidential campaign imagining he could transform America into his vision - which is one where there's all kinds of rich people whose surplus incomes could be tapped to provide "opportunities" for the under-accomplished. But that vision was dealt a severe blow by the financial crisis.Quite contrary to the massive taxes he thought he could garner to drive his

But What About the Kids?

2011-03-13T20:30:00.008-04:00

Surprisingly, in the imbroglio over the plan to strip away collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin public employees (at least those without the guns and fire hoses), most of the overheated rhetoric has been about how terrible it would be for the workers themselves, rather than for the school kids. That might have something to do with schools having to be shut down so teachers could march in

Hey, Cut the Guy Some Slack

2011-03-11T18:36:00.006-05:00

The poor guy I'm talking about is James C. McKinley, NY Times Houston Bureaus chief. He had the unenviable task of covering the sensational story of the gang-rape of an 11-year old girl in a small Texas town called Cleveland by around 18 men. Those arrested all all black and the victim is Hispanic. The town itself is a bit more than half white, and the remainder split approximately evenly between

Even the New Deal Was a Better Deal

2011-03-09T08:14:00.007-05:00

A few days ago I posted on our Bogus Recovery (which thanks to a Derb link has had a whole lot of hits). The point is that our deficit spending, which is supposed to have the counter-cyclical effect of putting money in people's pockets and snapping us back into shape, is far exceeding any growth in the economy, and so we're just digging ourselves a bigger hole.But what about the Great Depression?

Krugman: The Middle Class is Toast

2011-03-07T19:54:00.003-05:00

Paul Krugman basically comes out and admits it: This whole "invest in education to stay competitive" mantra is a sham. Oh no, he doesn't quite say it that way, because that would be debunking Obama's most articulated vision. But he comes close. "What we can’t do is get where we need to go just by giving workers college degrees, which may be no more than tickets to jobs that don’t exist or don’t

In Just One Month, It's All Good

2011-03-04T19:37:00.006-05:00

The giddiness over the wave of 'protests' spreading thru the Mideast has been a constant source of annoyance. But David Brooks's latest in the Times is particularly bizarre. Brooks has concluded - based solely on the events of the past month, that the muslim peoples of the Middle East have just the same vision for their societies that people on the West have - there is no cultural divide.Brooks

Doing More with Less

2011-03-03T23:03:00.002-05:00

Less workers, that is. The BLS released preliminary 4th quarter productivity results today. Manufacturing productivity rose at an annual rate of 5.9%. Output rose 4.4% while hours worked went dropped 1.4%. You can see how hard it is to improve the labor market by growing our manufacturing sector. Our plants just keep getting more efficient, needing less and less additional workers to produce more

The Bogus Recovery

2011-02-26T13:00:00.007-05:00

Not to beat a dead horse, but in my last two posts we looked at whether the Keynesian counter-cyclical deficit policies of the current administration are really working. Just to illustrate a little better how ineffectual these policies have been, I have below a comparison of the accumulated federal deficit vs. the accumulated growth in GDP for the first 6 quarters of recovery from the last 4

Did the Stimulus Work?

2011-02-24T23:04:00.005-05:00

A common refrain among administration apologists is "The Stimulus Worked!". But did it? Or perhaps the question is has Keynesianism, the policy of deficit spending during recessions to kick-start the economy, worked? Remember, the linchpin of Keynesian economics is the multiplier effect, whereby a dollar of government spending results in greater than $1 of economic growth, because this dollar is

Austerity or Stimulus

2011-02-23T08:36:00.003-05:00

David Leonhardt in the Times argues that deficit spending has been successful in the U.S. while austerity has been a failure in Germany. He points out that the U.S. economy has grown past it's low point while Germany hasn't quite made it back yet.But at what cost have we acquired this "prosperity"? As of 12/31/2010, our GDP is $836 billion higher than it was at it's lowest measured point, June

Aisle Seats

2011-02-02T00:06:00.002-05:00

I don't get the appeal of aisle seats. They are the first to go, and everyone nods knowingly when someone brags about managing to cop one. But the problem to me is that having the aisle seat requires not only that you get out of your seat each time you yourself wish to get up, but everytime anyone else in your row wants to get up. But if you have the window seat, you only have to get up when you

All God's Creatures

2011-01-14T20:26:00.002-05:00

On a less intense note, C. Van Carter demonstrates once again that he is the finest nature-writer in the blogosphere.

What Can the Right Say?

2011-01-14T19:06:00.003-05:00

While the President's words at the Tucson memorial rally were welcome, as they certainly seem to have defused - for now, at least - the unbridled anger on the left, there is nevertheless a discernible degree of disingenuousness in his message*. For nothing the President said contradicted the prevailing understanding that civility is defined for the left by how the message is delivered, but for

Back to the Real World

2011-01-14T07:42:00.001-05:00

I wonder how Daisy Hernandez, the young writer who breathed a sigh of relief that the Tucson shooter wasn't a Latino, reacted to this story? Ah, but it's just some local crime - who gives a shit, really?

Moving Right Along...

2011-01-13T20:48:00.002-05:00

Now that the NYT has received its marching orders from The One to avoid politicizing the tragedy in Tucson, it can now settle into its more regular routine and assign the blame where it clearly belongs: Pima Community College.

From the Asinine to the Ridiculous

2011-01-13T08:02:00.002-05:00

I haven't heard or read Obama's speech where he apparently pleaded for some calm. But NPR last night featured a commentary that was the absolute topper on the post-Pima commentary hysteria. It featured a young Latina woman discussing how relieved she was when she saw that the assailant's name was not Latino, but that he was a "gringo," as she politely puts it.Had the shooter been Latino, media

Good Investment Advice?

2010-12-06T23:27:00.006-05:00

Gold set a new record today, closing at $1422. Back in September 2008, when the homeowner's bailouts were first being proposed, I highlighted Peter Schiff's cynical take on it - namely, recommending that people should stop paying their mortgage and use the money to buy gold. He pointed out that you could probably go a year or two without getting kicked out of your home, so why not take advantage

I Wonder If Tom Friedman Will Be Writing about This?

2010-12-05T12:01:00.003-05:00

Our information overlords make it mandatory that in all public discussions it is understood that there is no such thing as "intelligence"; that if there were, it wouldn't be important to success anyway; and if it were, then it certainly isn't genetic; so all we have to do is implement a "race to the top" and "leave no child behind" and we'll have all the smart people we could ever need. Do you

Chris Christie

2010-12-02T22:13:00.002-05:00

As a New Jersey voter, I feel obligated to comment on our YouTube-sensation Governor, Chris Christie. Christie strikes me as being similar in temperament to another prosecutor-turned-Republcan-star Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani gained fame prior to 9/11 for his no-nonsense approach to street crime and his disdain for the various race-hustlers who tried to fight him. Christie's nemesis, the teachers

Somali Sex Trade Ring Busted in Minnesota

2010-11-23T21:58:00.002-05:00

The Times headline puts it in context: Sex Trade Charges Stun Minneapolis Somalis. Oh and the rest of us are just as shocked

The Paperless Society

2010-10-15T07:51:00.003-04:00

Ah, the lure of the paperless society. I'm an absolute klutz with paperwork as well as a disorganized mess physically, so I tend to embrace the paperless world our new technology affords us - but I have also seen its dark side. In a dispute, a paperless transaction is great if you've got the advantage - but how often are we holding the cards?And paperlessness is hardly a popular quality - a

The Free Market Doesn't Always Work

2010-10-07T21:39:00.004-04:00

So far, at least, the free-market has proven itself to be the most effective economic system known to industrial society - most effective in the sense of being able to deliver the most material benefit to the most people. And the reason for that is no secret - market-determined pricing is able to communicate the relative preferences of buyers and the scarcity of supply better than any other

The Transformation is Nearly Complete

2010-09-12T09:32:00.004-04:00

It started really the very first day, but with Obama's commemoration talks yesterday, 9/11 is well on its way to become a full on Islam Appreciation Day. Most Americans probably still think that remembering 9/11 would be about remembering fellow Americans who died that day as victims of a vicious attack by Islamic terrorists, but Obama seems to feel that it is a day more fit for contemplating the

Why Are Liberals So Defensive of Islam?

2010-09-11T09:22:00.005-04:00

In all the hullabaloo over the Ground Zero Mosque and the (now aborted) burning of the Koran, it has been the Left that has been most resolutely defending the Muslim side, often with invective and personal attacks against those taking the contrary position. Yet it is clearly liberalism that is most at risk from a growing Islamic presence in the West.Fundamental tenets over which modern liberalism

Republicans to the Rescue!

2010-09-03T07:41:00.002-04:00

What will be the first thing they do to tackle our severe economic problems? Why, fully extending the Bush Tax Cut. Here's House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence:Well, we're going to stay focused on Election Day. But I think before that, we're going to continue to demand that this administration and this Congress make it clear that no American will see a tax increase in January of next year, no

A Must Read

2010-08-26T23:11:00.002-04:00

Via the ParaPundit, I found this essay by Ayaan Hirsi Ali most compelling.

Just Where Does the Hysteria Lie?

2010-08-26T22:58:00.002-04:00

Speaking of anti-muslim hysteria, the poster-incident is of course the bizarre case of the young man who suddenly and without provocation began stabbing a cab driver after talking to him about his (the cabbie's) Muslim faith. I'm glad the cab driver is alright, but I fear there will be no stopping the elevation of this incident into grand theories of right-wing evil and hate-mongering. After

Oh No - Not 10!

2010-08-26T22:30:00.003-04:00

The Christian Science Monitor shines a light on the wave of anti-Muslim hysteria sweeping NYC that the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque is surely stirring up. They find some alarming data in the official police statistics:Ten hate crimes against Muslims have been reported so far this year in New York City, says Kelly. In 2009, there were 6 for the entire year. Since 2001, an average of 10

Questions About the Ground Zero Mosque

2010-08-25T21:33:00.005-04:00

I've had some questions about the GZM that never seem to get answered, with its supporters in the media too busy reveling in their own sanctimony while denigrating the sub-human intolerance of its opponents; and with said opponents preoccupied with focusing their anger in a direction that does not reveal them to be sub-human bigots.Basically I was wondering why was this particular site chosen?

Is It a Mosque? Is It a Cultural Center?

2010-08-25T08:40:00.002-04:00

The Ground Zero Mosque controversy has already devolved into the phase where semantics and fine distinctions in carefully worded arguments are now huge bones of contention on the talk shows. This I think means that the opponents of the mosque have probably lost.It didn't have to end this way. The controversy began with the opponents occupying the high ground, as evidenced by the mosque's

The Dog Days

2010-08-24T07:25:00.003-04:00

I watched "The Big C" last night (yes, I know - but there ain't no cure for the summertime blues). It's a new Showtime series about a woman who finds that her death sentence from an incurable disease is oddly liberating and unexpectedly rife with real-life fantasy moments - providing the show's dominant female demographic the opportunity to vicariously savor these fantasy-come-true moments with

Paying Teachers: Do You Get What You Pay For?

2010-08-08T13:42:00.009-04:00

(NOTE: UPDATE 9:55pm EDT - Additional graphs added below.)Some things are so obviously true that they needn't ever be discussed. For example, the more you pay teachers, the more our students will learn. So why bother even looking up the data to prove something so self-evident? Well, what the hell. The American Federation of Teachers publishes an annual survey of average teacher salaries by state

Our Dismal Recovery

2010-08-07T20:06:00.008-04:00

Obama and his Treasury secretary have been out there touting the "recovery," and the MSM have been playing along, but no one's buying. Again, let's compare the big recession that greeted Reagan in his first year in office, compared to that which greeted Obama, and the their respective recoveries have played out:Obama's been going around touting job creation. Geithner had the nerve to imply in a

On Vacation

2010-08-03T06:52:00.001-04:00

I've been on vacation since July 25 with very intermittent internet access - I should be checking back in next week.

Another Golf Graph

2010-07-23T23:58:00.006-04:00

Steve Sailer notes that even Charles Murray is opining on the Woods v Nicklaus controversy. Murray reproduces a chart from his terrifically fun book Human Accomplishment showing the distribution of career major wins by number of golfers. Here's Murray's chart:Since I've got this data already stored in a handy manner, I thought I'd update it thru today. It looks very much the same, except that the

Another No-Name Wins a Major

2010-07-18T14:44:00.008-04:00

OK so S. African Louis Oooooooslkdhzzn has won the British Open. It seems that the major winners these days, particularly with Woods in a distracted state, are often not exactly household names. But even when Woods was on fire he wasn't winning every major, yet no other big guns ever seemed ready to really take on the champion's role (other than Mickelson, with limited success).I've felt that

Just Walk Away, Renee

2010-07-09T10:25:00.003-04:00

The Times has an entertaining article on how the rich are walking away from their homes at a much faster pace than the middle class. It displays a Capra-esque disdain for the moralss of the wealthy in contrast to the more ethically-sound middle class.Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly

Our Future Elites

2010-07-08T22:55:00.004-04:00

High schoolers scoring above 750 on the Math SAT are good candidates to be out in the forefront of newer or at least dominant technologies and driving growth in our "Information Age". On the other hand, we are a race-obsessed society, believing that this elite must - surely must - reflect our wonderful diversity - that this elite should "look like America." Surely, as we all know from watching

The Gender/Math Gap

2010-07-07T23:09:00.004-04:00

An item mentioned over in Discover GNXP on the Male-Female Math Gap got me looking a little more closely at SAT scores. The gap in high-level achievement in math has been narrowing, at least as measured by the SAT's. But there's reason to suspect that the narrowing may not be quite as straight-forward a trend as it may appear.The SAT's - until last year - have published the number of male and

The 2nd Amendment Applies Everywhere

2010-06-28T22:39:00.003-04:00

I think the basic argument as to why the majority of Supreme Court justices ruled today that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms applies to state and local governments as well as the federal government can be found in Scalia's concurrence (starts on page 52 of the PDF), where he basically argues that if homosexual anal sex is a fundamental right incorporated in the 14th amendment, then the right to

Well What the F---

2010-06-26T08:45:00.002-04:00

Or, they still make real men down among the Kiwis:Trapped drunk driver opens another beer as awaits rescuePaul Nigel Sneddon, 47, pleaded guilty to careless driving and drunken driving after being nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit in a district court in the city of Palmerston North...Police found Sneddon, a former baker, trapped in his overturned Ford Laser on June 1, drinking a can

Some Great Job Opportunities in the Offing

2010-06-24T21:21:00.004-04:00

If you've got some talent in advocacy, particularly when it comes to constructing elaborate, unwieldy lies, then there will no doubt be some employment opportunities for you in the very near future. Mayor Bloomberg has announced that he will be going on the offensive, with the help of several other billionaires including Rupert Murdoch, to push for amnesty and increased immigration. He has said

Krugman's Desperate Plea: Spend, Spend, Spend

2010-06-22T08:09:00.003-04:00

You can tell Krugman's desperate, because he avoids invective and name-calling - he sincerely believes we need to have much, much more stimulus spending. But that kind of spending is a huge gamble - we're betting the pot on the effectiveness of stimulus spending to spur growth.But why can't he see what this recession is. This is not a retrenchment from excessive private sector demand like a

On Obama - I Told You So

2010-06-20T11:55:00.003-04:00

Well, I didn't really. But with all the talk now of Obama being the new Jimmy Carter, I thought of a way those of us who pulled the lever for McCain could do a little gloating. It would be a bumper sticker you could proudly display on the back of your vehicle and it would simply say: DON'T BLAME ME - I VOTED FOR THE OTHER IDIOT.Now don't go stealing it - I plan on making a mint off this idea.

There Is No Recovery

2010-06-18T00:47:00.002-04:00

We keep hearing talk about whether the recovery is stalling out or even that we've had a strong recovery but the job market is still shaky. In reality there hasn't been any "recovery". What happened was a massive economic shock caused by the vaporization of several trillion dollars of wealth. In the immediate aftermath revenues dropped about 30%. If you've been paying attention to earnings

Presidents in a Crisis

2010-06-03T07:45:00.002-04:00

We've now had two major catastrophes within 5 years and two different administrations down in the Gulf, and neither case did the president distinguish himself as a leader.In both cases neither president could have done anything to avert the catastrophic event itself, but in retrospect there's a lot they could have done to either lessen the human toll and certainly to have at least appeared to

Bush and the Financial Crisis

2010-05-27T23:12:00.004-04:00

As things have settled a bit in this new post-meltdown, perpetual-bailout reality we live in, it's become much clearer what caused it all. Owners demand high returns and low risk. Well that can't be done. Unless you make up your returns (like Madoff) or hide your risk (like everyone else). You can't say 'no' - that's not an acceptable response. Oh, sure, it is at first, but once someone figures

PMCPP

2010-05-25T00:03:00.004-04:00

Amusing, if sparsely updated, blog I stumbled upon: Paul McCartney Can't Play Piano. While the author insists it's tongue-in-cheek, he makes some convincing arguments.Every once in a while you might catch the PBS Great Performances "PAUL MCCARTNEY: CHAOS AND CREATION AT ABBEY ROAD" wherein Sir Paul plays around with various musical toys at Abbey Road studios to reminisce with a captive audience.

How We Gonna Grow Our Way out of This Again?

2010-05-23T21:47:00.003-04:00

The Keynesians believe that massive government spending will lead to big growth that will simply allow us to grow our way out of debt. The problem is our rate of growth has been declining since the sixties. While it's typically thought that our growth is above 3% annually, in fact it is now closer to 2%. Even if you look at just the good times, they're not rolling like they used to. Even the

How's That Recovery Doing?

2010-05-22T14:19:00.004-04:00

The recent correction in the markets probably have most people questioning the recovery. Unemployment claims shot up last week, which was not a surprise to me given all the layoff talk I've been hearing. But even if one doesn't believe we'll have a "double dip," how anyone can think we're going to grow our way out of trouble is beyond me.The last recession we had like this was in the early 80's -

Get Out Now, Or Wait for It to Bounce Back?

2010-05-21T07:41:00.002-04:00

Therein lies the cruel nature of these markets. As I sit here, futures are again pointing lower. So go to cash now, and get back in later when the markets settle? Might not be a bad idea. But then you never know when someone in Europe or the administration will make some fraudulent announcement that will suddenly juice the markets up, and of course there's no way you can get back in in time. And,

The Wealth Gap

2010-05-17T22:08:00.002-04:00

So many gaps. The Times' Michael Powell, basically a beat reporter, has been given an opportunity to write an Economix blog post on the "wealth gap" between whites, blacks, and Hispanics. The post summarizes a "study" by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis Universtity. Yes, it's ridiculous - but read it - if for no other reason than to see what gets to be called a "study" in the

'Stop and Frisk' is Fair and Balanced

2010-05-14T07:51:00.004-04:00

New York Minorities More Likely to Be FriskedSo blares the headline in the NYT.The lede graf explains a bit more:Blacks and Latinos were nine times as likely as whites to be stopped by the police in New York City in 2009, but, once stopped, were no more likely to be arrested.[Emphasis Added]The article has what I would call a moderate bias against the stop-and-frisk procedure. But the article's

'American Citizen' Arrested for Times Square Car Bomb

2010-05-04T07:03:00.004-04:00

This is a great country, isn't it, where a man named Faisal Shahzad could become an American citizen despite being a radical Muslim and in just one year of gaining citizenship commit a terrorist act against his new homeland? God Bless and Protect America - we sure can't.If we don't want to "racially profile," wouldn't it make some sense to at least keep a very close eye on anyone who travels to

Gordon Brown Victim of Open-Mic Syndrome

2010-04-29T06:27:00.002-04:00

Gordon Brown's "gaffe" - calling an nice old lady "a sort of bigoted woman" - is too funny. It underlines the knee-jerk reaction of all liberals that anyone who expresses concerns about changing demographics can be dismissed as a bigot. U.S. Republican politicians ought to be emphasizing this themselves on the campaign stump preemptively - fat chance!I particularly enjoy Brown's comeuppance as I