Category: Uncategorized

There is an ongoing discussion at Classical Values about whether the Federal Government can force you to buy a product. Like heath insurance say. Or a car from Government Motors. I just came across an interesting mp3 from the Volokh Conspiracy on that very question. It is a discussion by the Attorney General of Colorado…

The demise of the Pravda and Izvestia media is in full swing. CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year. But the news is not all bad for them. Some of…

I just got a wonderful e-mail promising $500,000 for victims of Obama’s scams. On behalf of the Obama’s Foundation and UNITED NATIONS, we wish to notify you as a beneficiary of $500,000 USD in compensation of scam victims.This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the Obama’s Foundation and UNITED NATIONS…

(to John Scalzi, lately author of the very entertaining and well-written The God Engines) John, I’ve noticed there is a large fairness gap in writing. While a large proportion of writers are unable to garner even 1,000 book-purchasing readers, others are routinely taking hundreds of thousands or even millions — and most shockingly, many books…

After reading various reactions of doctors and other health care providers who submitted posts to the Grand Rounds special post-healthcare reform edition that Glenn linked earlier, I’m worried about what might happen over the next two years. I think everyone who opposed Obamacare should be worried too. From a partisan political standpoint, the worst thing…

When read that Ricky Martin had come out of the closet, I was not terribly surprised. Nor was anyone. Glenn Reynolds said this was the “BOTTOM story of the day,” and quipped,”Who’s next — Elton John?” Don’t laugh. People are still guessing about Richard Simmons. Will such pesky rumors never cease? As to the merits,…

Dr. Helen links an article in USA Today I found horrifying. Government-run homeless shelters (places that basically provide people with a cot to sleep) end up costing more than it would to rent private housing. Much, much more: Cities, states and the federal government pay more to provide the homeless with short-term shelter and services…

Finally, there’s something about President Obama that I like! And I mean, really like! I did not know it until today, but according to this article, my favorite beer, Yuengling — a great, 175-year-old beer from “America’s oldest brewery” — is also Barack Obama’s favorite beer: OTTAWA – President Barack Obama followed through on his…

I realize it’s self-indulgent to carry on about the love affair I’m having with my rice cooker, but I just made a big pot of Sushi rice, and wow! It’s as addictive as salt and vinegar potato chips. Which isn’t surprising, considering that virtually all Sushi rice recipes call for rice vinegar and salt. But…

While American animal rights activists busy themselves with legislation making criminals out of loving dog owners for tethering a family dog to the front porch, our smug anti-American neighbors to the north are busy skinning seal pups alive. This horrifies Canadian Jamie Glazov, and if you read his article and you’re sensitive to shocking scenes…

Last night I read Cathy Young’s piece on health care reform just before going to bed, and some of what she said had me tossing and turning. the life-and-death nature of medicine throws a major wrench into the libertarian paradigm. Ouch! I hate wrenches are thrown into libertarian paradigms, and I wish I could just…

The public scenes (Senate hearings) are pretty faithful to the record according to what I can tell. Very few words have been changed or left out. Compare the movie version to newsreel clips of them. This came up because of Congressional hearings threatened against companies revealing material losses caused by the Health Care Bill. And…

Noting the difficulty inherent in proving that something did not happen, Dave quotes an AP piece which criticizes Andrew Breitbart for not providing evidence to rebut the claim that racial epithets were shouted by Tea Party activists: Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members…

Glenn Reynolds wonders about the timing of a series of federal raids in the general area of Southeast Michigan. Southeast Michigan happens to be where I live, and I’m wondering about more than just the timing. The focus of what has been repeatedly described as a “massive federal raid” is Adrian, Michigan, which is about…

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but one of the things which most worries me right now is the way libertarianism is being increasingly written out of serious discussions of what it is that defines us. What George Lakoff would call the “framing” of political theory itself. One of the…

The inimitable Jeff G brings it, as only he can: I mean, what teen in his rebellious stage isn’t going to embrace the edgy cries of, “all our shower heads are uniform in pressure!”, or “hell no, we won’t go (to restaurants that cook with table salt)!”. Why, it’s just like following the Dead around…

The forces of drug prohibition won a big case that will reverberate in the fight against the health care bill. They won it in 2005 in the Supreme Court. Read it and weep. Lawsuits from 14 states challenging the constitutionality of the new national healthcare law face an uphill battle, largely due to a far-reaching…

Historians may well mark this as the moment Iraq entered a new phase of existence, beginning to enter the Western world the way South Korea and Japan did after U.S. occupations: BAGHDAD – The secular challenger who stunned Iraq with his razor-thin parliamentary election win turned his attention to negotiations over a future government Saturday…

Has the Culture War come full circle? I’ve pondered the question in some recent posts, but a story I read about today makes me seriously wonder. A friend emailed me link to a story in the New York Times “Arts Beat Culture at Large” section titled “Protests and Defense of a Transgender Comedy at Tribeca…

In a post which shrilly and gratuitously indicts libertarians, a leading left-wing blog looks at a Seattle outrage in which the cops improperly tasered a woman over her refusal to sign simple traffic ticket: Three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a…