Saturday, May 23, 2009

Mark Steyn

What Are We Stimulating?:
"The stimulus will do nothing for the economy, but it will advance the cause of statism."

Quote of the Week...

Popehat:
"So hey, keep giving the government power. Because they’re here to help you. And I’m sure this time they won’t put that power to any broader use than you hoped."

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Italy in the 1930's?

Coming to Your Garage: Le Car:
"Just consider it charity or an 'investment.' Needless to say, you might as well pony up the dough; your tax dollars already are keeping the auto industry afloat.

Then again, despite my profound appreciation for all the decency being showered upon me, it is difficult not to marvel at the demagoguery and corruption that's employed to get it done. Take this supposed coming together of California, the United Auto Workers, Washington, and the auto industry in support of stringent new standards that would cut an entire 0.05 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions."

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Only the beginning...

Banking Committee Democrats Threaten Private Businessman:
"Am I missing something here, or is this blatant intimidation by these members of Congress? Are they not threatening new laws, regulations, and embarrassment at a public hearing in retaliation for and specifically directed at a private citizen exercising his right to oppose and legally challenge a policy he believes violates his rights?"

Megan McArdle

The Moral Hazard of a State Bailout:
"Farewell, Federalism . . . we hardly knew ye"

Quote of the Day...

Patterico:

First, you have Harry Reid, telling us Ted Kennedy’s cancer is in remission (it’s not), and that Robert Byrd is expected to be released from the hospital this week (he’s not).

The kicker: Reid says he certainly doesn’t want Gitmo prisoners a) released in the U.S., or b) locked in prisons in the U.S. Which leaves . . .?

Ooh, I have an idea! Gitmo!

The Obama model for the USA...

Megan McArdle:
"California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. And not a little garden hose. More like this. Their outflow is bigger than their inflow. You can blame Republicans who won't pass a budget, or Democrats who spend every single cent of tax money that comes in during the booms, borrow some more, and then act all surprised when revenues, in a totally unprecedented, inexplicable, and unforeseaable chain of events, fall during a recession. You can blame the initiative process, and the uneducated voters who try to vote themselves rich by picking their own pockets. Whoever is to blame, the state was bound to go broke one day, and hey, today's that day!"

Let's regulate and screw ourselves....

Keith Hennessey:
"EPA is in the midst of taking comments on an “endangerment finding” that is a huge deal in the climate change policy world. If the EPA Administrator finds that greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks “endanger public health and welfare,” then it starts a regulatory process. It appears the President is prejudging the result of this regulatory comment process: “… the Department of Transportation and EPA will adopt the same rule…”

As a former colleague has taught me, a proposal to regulate greenhouse gases (under section 202 of the Clean Air Act) would greatly accelerate when greenhouse gases become “subject to regulation” under the Clean Air Act. This would trigger ramifications that reach far beyond cars and trucks. As early as this fall, greenhouse gases could become “regulated pollutants” under the Clean Air Act. Once something becomes a “regulated pollutant,” a whole bunch of other parts of the Clean Air Act kick in, and EPA is off to the races in regulating greenhouse gases from a much (much) wider range of sources, including power plants, hospitals, schools, manufacturers, and big stores.

One of the scariest elements of this is called the “Prevention of Significant Deterioration” permitting system. In effect, EPA could insert itself (or your State environmental agency) into most local planning and zoning processes. I will write more about this in the future. It terrifies me.


Read the whole post!!!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Do you really think they care?

Israel’s Fears, Amalek’s Arsenal:
"As the crisis worsens, Mr. Obama will find his options few, and those that exist will require him to bring to bear all his talents of persuasion. In his effort to engage Iran, he will need to promise a complete end to its international isolation in exchange for a halt to its nuclear program. But at the same time, he must be ready to threaten Iran with total estrangement from the West — the limiting of its gas imports, the choking-off of its banking system — if it continues its nuclear program.

To do this, he must convince Europe, China and Russia that a nuclear Iran will be catastrophic for Middle East stability as well as for their own economies. If he’s unwilling to take military action against Iran, President Obama might soon enough be forced to design a containment strategy meant to scare a nuclear Iran into something resembling quiescence."

Via Taranto:

Everyone knows by now what happened: Pelosi was encouraging the Angry Left as it demanded retribution against Bush administration officials for their efforts to protect America from terrorist attacks in the wake of 9/11. Now that she has been exposed as complicit in those efforts, she is reaping the whirlwind of hatred that she helped stir up. And she is going to war with the CIA--a war in which even someone with much more intelligence than Nancy Pelosi would be vastly outmatched.

Couldn't be having any more fun than this.....

More is less...

Obama Wrong on Nuclear Weapons?:
"Nuclear weapons are the single best thing that has ever happened in mankind's long history of war."