Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Best Halloween display evah!
ObamaCare debacle update...
ObamaCare debacle update... Because there's so much debacle goodness, I just have to share!
Would Obama sign a death warrant on his signature legislation? National Journal thinks maybe he would...
On metrics and the ObamaCare web site...
Obama's gift to the Republicans. From the uber-lefty Huffington Post. Pass the popcorn, please...
“Seething at a President I helped elect.” Obama voter Bruce Barcott is not happy with his policy cancellation – or its replacement...
Morose Obama asks his base for a psychological intervention. You just can't make this stuff up ... and there isn't enough popcorn!
Rasmussen: 58% unfavorable to ObamaCare. And 45% very unfavorably. Is that a light I see, way back there at the end of the progressive tunnel?
Their credibility is shot. Ya think?
Gallup: 56% now say access to healthcare is not the government's responsibility. Yes, yes, that is a light I see!
New metrics clear as mud. Megan McArdle isn't impressed with the newly announced metrics. I'm not, either, but I worry that the majority of voters might be...
Administration already lowering expectations about the November 30 deadline. Well, duh!
No bailouts for ObamaCare. Marco Rubio in The Wall Street Journal. A snippet:
Would Obama sign a death warrant on his signature legislation? National Journal thinks maybe he would...
On metrics and the ObamaCare web site...
Obama's gift to the Republicans. From the uber-lefty Huffington Post. Pass the popcorn, please...
“Seething at a President I helped elect.” Obama voter Bruce Barcott is not happy with his policy cancellation – or its replacement...
Morose Obama asks his base for a psychological intervention. You just can't make this stuff up ... and there isn't enough popcorn!
Rasmussen: 58% unfavorable to ObamaCare. And 45% very unfavorably. Is that a light I see, way back there at the end of the progressive tunnel?
Their credibility is shot. Ya think?
Gallup: 56% now say access to healthcare is not the government's responsibility. Yes, yes, that is a light I see!
New metrics clear as mud. Megan McArdle isn't impressed with the newly announced metrics. I'm not, either, but I worry that the majority of voters might be...
Administration already lowering expectations about the November 30 deadline. Well, duh!
No bailouts for ObamaCare. Marco Rubio in The Wall Street Journal. A snippet:
Americans are sick and tired of Washington politicians picking winners and losers—and nowhere is this practice more grotesquely evident than taxpayer-funded bailouts, which assault the economic values of our free enterprise system in favor of those who are politically connected and whose lobbyists know the right people to call and levers to pull. ObamaCare is a living monument to this culture, and no one loses more than the average American.ObamaCare: So, what could go wrong next? ObamaCare – the gift that keeps on giving!
Interview with Clarence Thomas...
Judge Sykes: “Stare decisis doesn’t hold much force for you?”I hope Justice Thomas is with us, and on the Court, for a long, long time...
Justice Thomas: “Sure it does. But not enough to keep me from going to the Constitution!”
The next generation...
Another piece of the puzzle...
Another piece of the puzzle... We suspected that Lois Lerner was a political hack; now we know...
One quote that sums up the progressive mindset...
One quote that sums up the progressive mindset... Walmart stores have some employees that they know are struggling financially. It might be because a spouse lost a job, or had unexpected expenses; there are lots of reasons why an employee might be hurting. To make the holidays a little brighter, Walmart has long supported a program of charitable giving by other employees, specifically to support their colleagues. Over the years, some $80 million in cash and goods has been distributed under this program.
But some employees are offended by this. Can you guess why? Here's what one had to say:
Me? I'm wondering why they're not grateful to have the opportunity to make some money, and to be part of a supportive group of colleagues. I wonder at the ignorance and naivete on display about how a business – any business – actually works. I shudder at the naked display of the entitlement mentality, and the completely missing work ethic. There's no notion that one's work ought to earn money for the company, and that you're paid because of that; that capitalist norm is upended completely, and replaced with something more like “I deserve high pay, because me”, or something equally incoherent.
But some employees are offended by this. Can you guess why? Here's what one had to say:
"Why would a company do that? The company needs to stand up and give them their 40 hours and a living wage, so they don't have to worry about whether they can afford Thanksgiving."I suspect you could use a person's reaction to that quote as a litmus test for a progressive mindset. The progressive will agree, and will share the speaker's anger at Walmart.
Me? I'm wondering why they're not grateful to have the opportunity to make some money, and to be part of a supportive group of colleagues. I wonder at the ignorance and naivete on display about how a business – any business – actually works. I shudder at the naked display of the entitlement mentality, and the completely missing work ethic. There's no notion that one's work ought to earn money for the company, and that you're paid because of that; that capitalist norm is upended completely, and replaced with something more like “I deserve high pay, because me”, or something equally incoherent.
A beautiful ad...
Another classy communication...
Another classy communication... From Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. The more I read from him and about him, the more impressed I am...
Comparisons...
Comparisons... Bret Stephenson takes The One to task in The Wall Street Journal:
Seven score and 10 years ago, Abraham Lincoln delivered his sacred speech on the meaning of free government. Edward Everett, a former secretary of state and the principal speaker for the consecration of the Gettysburg cemetery, instantly recognized the power of the president's 272 words.Ouch! I hope Bret Stephenson never gets mad at me...
"I should be glad, if I could flatter myself," Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day, "that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
Barack Obama is not scheduled to be present at Gettysburg on Tuesday to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the address. Maybe he figured that the world would little note, nor long remember, what he said there. Maybe he thought the comparisons with the original were bound to be invidious, and rightly so.
If that's the case, it would be the beginning of wisdom for this presidency. Better late than never.
The Gettysburg Address...
The Gettysburg Address... This most famous speech of Abraham Lincoln was made 150 years ago today, at the dedication of the cemetery for soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg just a few months prior. The speech was very short, just 275 words:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Though I've read it – sometimes out loud – dozens of times over the years, it still sends shivers up my spine when I read it again...
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The web makes lots of things easier...
The web makes lots of things easier... I bought a kilogram of Darjeeling first flush tea this morning – just a few clicks of my mouse, and the tea is on order and will be delivered on Thursday. “Disintermediation” – a fancy term for getting rid of the middleman – has revolutionized a broad range of industries.
Usually we think of these things as unalloyed “goods”, but there's a dark side as well. Like virtually any other tool or technology mankind has ever created, the web can be used either for good or evil. A new entry on the evil web front: a site dedicated to arranging crowd-funding of assassinations.
Usually we think of these things as unalloyed “goods”, but there's a dark side as well. Like virtually any other tool or technology mankind has ever created, the web can be used either for good or evil. A new entry on the evil web front: a site dedicated to arranging crowd-funding of assassinations.
Fake data in pre-election unemployment numbers?
Fake data in pre-election unemployment numbers? From the New York Post:
In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.At the time, the persistently high unemployment numbers were big political news – much was made of the need Obama had to show some progress toward a robust economic recovery. The reported drop in unemployment rate gave a tangible boost to Team Obama in the polls. They had motive, they had opportunity, and they have demonstrated corruptness. All that makes this story all too believable...
The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.
And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.