Month: August 2011

Are social issues being used as a “cover” by Republican legislators who seek to back away from painful fiscal conservatism? An intriguing article in Michigan Capitol Confidential (“Are Reluctant Reformers in Republican Ranks Seeking Cover Behind Social Issues?”) offers evidence that they are, and cites the case of a state senator who backed away from…

I love gunners. The Government uses the Drug War against you (same as Alcohol Prohibition) and most of you guys and girls fail to notice. Say. Where is the Drug Prohibition Amendment anyway? Something I have failed to notice.

In Running? I was asking the question: “Is Sarah Palin running?” A topic that really captures my interest. Obviously some research is in order. So I’m reading the comments at the Hill Buzz piece I linked to earlier and found this little gem: jenforpresident Kevin, there appears to be an “easter egg” on the Tea…

While I liked Rick Perry’s earlier (since modified) take on the Tenth Amendment, former Senator Rick Santorum did not: “We have people who say, ‘States have the right to pass gay marriage,’” Santorum said last night in Waterloo. “I say, ‘No they do not because they do not have the right to do wrong.’” I…

Pretty nice campaign ad huh? Kevin at Hill Buzz thinks she is running. He likes the video too! Me? I’m a Palin fan. I think she has enough cultural sensitivity to unite libertarians and social conservatives the way Reagan did. “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.”…

While I have long known that I should read more science fiction, Glenn Reynolds really drives the point home with this Heinlein quote: “Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be…

When I read that lefty actor Matt Damon is being urged to run for president, my first impulse was to laugh. After all, the far left is promoting him. Like many other progressives, Damon has grown weary of Democrats looking for phony centrism instead of standing up to a shockingly far-right Republican party. Against this…

You may have heard that the EPA is planning to shut down roughly 20% of coal generated electrical capacity by 2015. Francois Broquin, a co-author of reports on coal by Bernstein Research, said the combined rules could push as much as 20 percent of U.S. coal-fired electric generation capacity to retire by 2015. “Obviously that…

Speaking of new management, if this Washington Times report (via a comment here) is correct, it looks like the current administration may have literally become a player in the illegal drug business: In an effort to prevent a Los Zetas takeover, Uncle Sam has gotten into bed with the rival Sinaloa cartel, which has close…

While it always annoys me to have to read foreign news items to learn what’s going on with the United States government, I guess I should be glad that thanks to the First Amendment and the internet I can keep abreast of what agencies like NASA are now up to. According to this report in…

As a follow up to Dave’s recent post Cowen and Krugman and Volcker, Oh My! I’d like to present this little factiod about the Philly Fed and recent prognostications (via Zero Hedge). And here is Wall Street’s economist brigade again proving they are worth every penny based on their predictive skills: we just had an…

Who was most responsible for what we call the “War on Drugs”? This is a separate question than the wisdom of the war, but I have noticed that a lot of people like to point at Reagan, while others point at Nixon. M. Simon aside, few contemporary political discussions mention the role of Harry J.…

I got a link from Instapundit to an article bashing the usual and continued left wing idiocy and especially its connection to the recent flash riots. Comments like this one pop-up regularly in such posts. It’s all just more evidence that liberals are mentally ill. They cannot figure out cause and effect. Logic and facts…

Addressing an argument on whether gov’t spending creates growth at all, Tyler Cowen cautions us to beware the trend towards favoring bloggers’ interpretations over the more formal literature, noting that Krugman’s use of Keynesian thinking should be distinguished from Keynesian thought generally. As for me, I’ll just bang the Rahn curve drum here again, and…

The infernal slowness of all things online has been taking its toll on my sanity. I am old enough to remember the dialup days, when I would type a URL into one of the early browsers (I started with Chameleon and then moved up to the new Netscape 1), and then you would just wait.…

You know the drug has hit home when dying cancer patients are being robbed and beaten savagely for their pain-killing narcotics.  As if that weren’t bad enough, the media put out deliberately redacted stories to prevent us “little people” from knowing what  happened. A Fredericksburg cancer patient is recovering after being brutally beaten during a…

The post I just did Liberty? We Can’t Afford It – Says Coulter got me to thinking about how to end the welfare state. Coulter is incensed that welfare money would be going to support dopers if drugs were legalized (as if that isn’t the case currently). Well Ann is not too bright. Just think…

Glenn Reynolds recently linked an April post he wrote about some poor schlub who found himself raided by a SWAT Team because person(s) unknown had downloaded kiddie porn using his unsecured WiFi signal. That had prompted this advice from a reader: Never, EVER set a password on your Wi-Fi router. Background : 30 years in…

I don’t especially like Rick Perry. (So far, at least.) My main objection to him politically is grounded in his longstanding support for sodomy laws, something I find annoying in this day and age. It is one thing to oppose gay marriage, but to support imprisoning adults for consenting sexual activity with other adults strikes…

A really smart woman discusses the pleasures and pitfalls of high IQ dating. Many people equate high IQ with “high achieving”, but they are two distinct things. Women with an above-average intelligence (IQ range of 110-130) are likely to be professionals: lawyers, nurses, dentists, mid-level civil servants, journalists, managers, teachers, pharmacists, librarians, or the like.…