Author: Simon

It’s a Beautiful Day is the band. Led by possibly the finest rock violinist ever. David LaFlamme. I had the honor of seeing one of their concerts back in the day. On another related note: I play harmonica (Marine Band) and was rather good at it when I practiced regularly. My favorite was to do…

The government of the US is engineering a shortage of doctors. Read it and weep: … the Justice Department has unambiguously stated that refusal to accept government price controls is a form of illegal “price fixing.” The FTC has hinted at this when it’s said physicians must accept Medicare-based reimbursement schedules from insurance companies. But…

H/T commenter Chuck at Free Book Cross Posted at Power and Control

From the YouTube site (or should that be sight?) of this video. July 28, 2009 — CORRECTION: The description originally stated that exposed film was to be used, but you actually have to use blank, developed film. A chemical used in the development process is what gives the film it’s visible light filtering capabilities. First…

Riehl World View is discussing why the GOP online efforts will fail. One commenter is looking for: a leader that embraces conservatism instead of power. That will never happen until the majority of the “conservative” base gives up on social engineering. i.e. really embraces small government instead of paying it lip service.In the meantime we…

Details here. Tom announced his presence here: I’ll be giving one of the opening talks at the Balticon Science Fiction Convention this Friday, May 28, at 9 PM, near Baltimore, MD. This will be an updated version of the talk I’ve given before. I won’t have any earth-shattering news, but I will have my recently-overhauled…

Why do beautiful women get cheated on so much? “Beautiful women are prey to men who want to use their beauty to elevate their own status. Because of their beauty they’re used to being adored, and they are flattered by guys who go completely goo goo for them,” explains relationship expert, Dr. Gilda Carle, who…

Ed Driscoll notes that J. Neil Schulman’s Alongside Night is available for free download. “Just look at TV news or read a newspaper,” Schulman said. “Plot point after plot point is identical. In my 1979 novel I have General Motors go bankrupt — General Motors then files for bankruptcy. I have Europe issue a common…

There is a Drug War going on in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. As you might expect, it is not going well. CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico– Authorities battling drug traffickers in this violent border city have begun to suspect that their efforts to impede the flow of drugs into the U.S. has fostered demand–and turf wars–on their own…

More video: Glenn Beck Part 2 Glenn Beck Part 3 Glenn Beck Part 4 Books mentioned: George Washington’s Sacred Fire New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell Cross Posted at Power and Control

H/T Vanderleun at American Digest Cross Posted at Power and Control

House Bill H.R. 5143 is touted as a review of Criminal Justice in America. According to the summary its purpose is: National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2010 – Establishes the National Criminal Justice Commission. Directs the Commission to: (1) review all areas of the criminal justice system, including federal, state, local, and tribal governments’…

Watts Up With That reports on a primary race in Oregon. Art Robinson ran in the GOP Primary to represent the Oregon in 4th Congressional District. Wise Republican voters selected Dr. Art Robinson to represent them in the November 2010 Congressional race against Democrat Peter DeFazio. I saw an online video by Art Robinson at…

Retired police officer Howard Wooldridge meets up with some big time illegal pot growers (inadvertently) and finds out what they fear. Hint: it isn’t the police. I spent my second week of the Oregon speaking tour like the first… speaking to various groups, media etc. The most memorable question of the tour came from a…

Commenter Forgotten Man at The Belmont Club had this to say about how to win the battle in Afghanistan: …things like opium growing and Heroin production need to be stopped. Yes. Of course. We have been working on stopping it for 96 years so far and real soon now we will have success. Or we…

I was reading the comments at this Victor Davis Hanson piece and came across an interesting set of observations on the state of the economy. 14. Foobarista As for the “gray market” in California, I’m convinced that regulators – and politicians – are well aware of its existence and don’t want to touch it. My…

Dr. Housing Bubble is looking at the state of the real estate market. It is not good. Not good at all. Let me start with a quote that explains the above chart. The ultimate sign of housing distress is foreclosure. This should be obvious. So for all the talk of a housing recovery I point…

La Raza means The Race. And some people call Tea Partiers racist. The gentleman in the video wants to take back the lands stolen from Mexico. In 1848. The war that started in 1846 was over whether Texas could join the Union ( Mexico was against it) and what the boundary with Mexico would be.…

I’m still waiting to see a Conservative stance on the drug war: “We should do the conservative thing and go back to the way things were before Progressives screwed it up with their ideas of prohibiting plants and plant extracts in order to gain moral uplift.” Conservatism these days is not a thought out ideology.…

The recently passed Health Care initiative is already raising medical insurance costs. Letting young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26 will nudge premiums nearly 1 percent higher for employer plans, the government said in an estimate released Monday. The coverage requirement, effective starting later this year, is one of the…