Saturday, June 14, 2008

Only the government can do the right thing in "Krugman World"

Krugman gets a Rotten Tomato

But, of course, any close examination of The Cranks dubious claims reveals little more than an attempt to blame his (and our) bellyaches on Grover Norquist, George Bush, and the vast Right Wing Conspiracy to reduce his government grants.....

Thursday, June 12, 2008

And how much did the price increase since Pelosi & Co. took control of Congress?

House Republicans vow push on oil drilling
"'We cannot drill our way out of this,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California countered. Opening the wildlife refuge in Alaska would reduce U.S. gasoline prices by one penny per gallon, she said. She and other Democrats blame President George W. Bush's energy policies for the gasoline price spike."

Of course she isn t accountable....
The Clinton Legacy
Mike Brown, a photographer for Memphis's Commercial Appeal, snapped a shot of a bizarre protest in which two people were covered in stage blood and wrapped in cellophane à la grocery-store meat. Brown wrote this droll caption:

Ashley Byrne, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign coordinator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), talks with Memphis police officers during a recent demonstration outside City Hall that coincided with World Vegetarian Week. When officers inquired about the well-being of intern Shawn Herbold (bottom) and volunteer Thomas Olsen, a sweat-soaked Herbold replied that she was in pain and feeling nauseated from the heat after being wrapped in cellophane for 30 minutes, and also asked how much longer she needed to stay there. Byrne let her know it wouldn't be much longer and left her under the hot afternoon sun for 30 minutes more while debating with the officers. PETA would never treat a cow that way, but I guess it's OK for an intern.

What Brown fails to note is that it was a certain past president who set the precedent for treating interns like pieces of meat.

Liberals could not care less about the less fortunate....

An Energy New Deal
But a paradox is that most environmentalists think of themselves as egalitarians. So, instead of objecting to the view of a derrick from the California hills above the Santa Barbara coast, shouldn’t a liberal estate owner instead console himself that the offshore pumping will help a nearby farm worker or carpenter get to work without going broke?

Another paradox: American laws and technology ensure a rig off Florida or in Alaska has far less chance of springing a leak than one in the Persian Gulf or the Russian tundra. If there really is a shared Planet Earth, then aren’t we all its collective stewards? By locking out energy exploration in the United States, we are encouraging it almost everywhere else.


Of course they are full of baloney; but this is all easy to do with Bush in the White House. When this changes, there is going to be hell to pay.... Bank on it.

Cranial/Rectal Reversal.....

86 Billion Barrels Of Oil
That's the estimate off-shore reserves that the Democrats in Congress yesterday voted not to produce or even explore.

The U.S. uses about 20 million barrels a day. 86 billion barrels of new reserves would dent the price of gas at the pump and provide more time for alternative fuels and new technologies to continue to advance.

Here's a Congressional Research Service report on off-shore reserves. The ones the Dems refuse to explore or exploit.

The Dems don't care. Obama doesn't care. The "change" they are bringing is $6 a gallon gas.

Vote to stay home in a dark, hot house. Vote Obama.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Via Instapundit

CANADIAN KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: The Kafkaesque Show Trial of Mark Steyn.

The Belmont Club

Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington:
"The idea of the Arkansas or Chicago machines coming to Washington in order to reform it is about as accurate as the idea that the Vandals came to Rome to clean it up. But it's fair to say that each successive waves of 'outsiders' who come to Washington promise to do something wonderful. And to keep the illusion viable the props must constantly be changed. The Clintons initially looked the part. But in the intervening years they simply got too old, coarse and threadbare to keep the show going. When the freshness faded it became necessary to audition for a new outsider. Appearances are probably more important in politics than in conjury. The spangles fix our gaze on the stage while the real magic takes place behind the curtains."

Read the whole thing - as usual, Wretchard has his finger on the pulse of the bullshit artists, especially the MSM...

Me Likey!!!!

Speaking of Windfall Profits

Barack Obama said yesterday that he wants to impose a "windfall profits tax" on American oil companies. This is a stupid idea, unless you want to reduce the supply of oil and thereby increase prices even further.

But it did cause me to wonder why we don't have a windfall profits tax on authors. Think about it: it takes as much work to write a 300-page book that sells 1,000 copies as to write one that sells 1,000,000. Yet the former author is paid almost nothing, while the author who happens to write a best-seller gets rich. Where is the fairness in that? Besides, the oil companies need their profits to make huge capital investments in oil drilling equipment, ocean platforms, pipelines, and so on. What capital investment does an author need his windfall profits in order to make? A new pencil? An author could easily pay extra taxes on his windfall profits and have plenty of capital left over for his next book.

A windfall profits tax on authors seems like a no-brainer. Coincidentally, Barack Obama's 2007 income of around $4.2 million came almost entirely from book royalties. Now, that's what I call a windfall! If authors' windfall profits are taxed at 90%, Obama can write a check to the Treasury for around $3.2 million. What do you say, Barack? Why not a windfall profits tax on authors?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Do ya' think (again)?

DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION -- Not a goal, apparently

You'd think with gas prices topping $4 and consumers crying uncle, Congress would be moving fast to spur development of a domestic oil resource so vast - 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone - it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

You'd think all of this, but you'd be wrong.

Do ya' think?

"DUDE, WHERE'S MY SUMMER JOB?"
According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent. In the past 11 months alone, the United States’ minimum wage has increased by more than twice that amount. So it should be no surprise to see teen jobs disappearing or to hear bleak testimony from employers across the country that make these hiring decisions."

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Mark Steyn

An epidemic of gay-bashing by Muslims in the most tolerant city in Europe goes unreported...

...while in Canada Lori Andreachuk, Alberta human rights commissar, sentences an evangelical pastor to a lifetime speech ban. He is never to utter anything disparaging about homosexuals ever again for as long as he lives. Note that legal concept: not illegal , not hateful , but disparaging .

PS As it happens, the intro to the new paperback edition of my bestselling hate crime, America Alone, does address the Dutch gay-bashing spree."