Tuesday, February 07, 2012
A word for our times: "Squoob"
You are never to old to boost your vocabulary. Today's word: "Squoob." Prolly should not click the link from your quoob.
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Bismarck speaks
Way cool: In a cabinet in Thomas Edison's laboratory, the only known recordings of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke, taken in 1889. Von Moltke was born in 1800, so in addition to whipping the French in 1871 he is probably the first-born human being to have been recorded.
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Sunday, February 05, 2012
"It's halftime in America"
The budget mess, in a few paragraphs
The Big Four accounting firm Deloitte has produced a politically neutral summary of the Congressional Budget Office's latest forecast for revenues and spending over the next decade. It is not pretty, and it does not take much reading between the lines to see the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of both our political parties.
The "baseline scenario" includes the fairly unrealistic assumption that all the "Bush tax cuts" expire at the end of 2012 and other politically untenable results. The alternative scenario is the more realistic political answer, assuming entitlements remain where they are.
We do not need lower taxes (unless the Bush tax cuts do indeed expire). We do, however, need different taxes. In a big way. And we need to tell people that we will no longer subsidize retirement for otherwise healthy and productive workers. We should insure against disability, and only disability, whether brought on by geriatrics or otherwise. Everybody else should either work, or save enough money so that they do not have to work. Neither party's leaders will say that, and therefore neither party is even remotely honest. They are all betraying us.
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How the Obama administration has hammered an industry, in charts
A graphical look at how the regulatory policies of the Obama administration have hammered away at America's medical device industry, which creates jobs, is a net exporter, and adds immeasurably to the quality and length of lives of literally billions of people. And the rifle-shot excise tax aimed at the industry has not even kicked in yet!
Think of it: The Obama administration has, through both regulation and an industry-specific tax, intended as a policy preference to lower the rate of return of an industry that that supports a huge number of high paying jobs, exports billions of dollars of manufactures to other countries, and improves and lengthens the lives of countless people around the world. Why? Because it believes that capital ought to flow to some different use, such as clean energy. Seriously. This is what the White House believes. This is what lefty health policy wonks say in conversation.
It is unbelievable to the point of crazy.
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Super Bowl Sunday morning linkage
Some accumulated tabs to amp up your morning spin through the internets...
At the Atlantic, an interesting post about the long-term unemployed. The post includes a regional map with rates of long-term unemployment. One thing is clear: The rate of long-term unemployment is far lower if you live in a state that includes the western bank of the Mississippi river, or the next state to the west from there. The central core of the country is doing far better than either coast or the old Northwest Territory.
Conor Friedersdorf, also at the Atlantic, takes a long hard look at Newt's concession speech in Nevada. It is not pretty, and, while Friedersdorf is a liberal, it exposes the side of Mr. Gingrich that is least likely to play well in, say, suburban Akron. And if you do not believe Friedersdorf, here is a similar take from the right. Victor Davis Hanson calls him a "caricature of petulance." Indeed. Newt's compulsive requirement actually to express his anger at every affront to his ego is perhaps his least appealing trait.
Any conservative will like Dierks Bentley's newest hit, "Home." As will many liberals.
The Onion takes on the Huffington Post with, er, its usual gusto.
An interesting video about the parenting techniques of the French, by an attractive American woman who damages her credibility by wearing a beret. It sounds a lot like the way Americans raised their kids until the Baby Boomers and their wake lost their mind.
A CNN anchor lets his tongue slip: "Governor Morman"?!? Really, now. Get that guy a job at the New York Times!
A nice video explanation of the European debt crisis. Long on Keynes, however, and not really dealing with the thoughtful conservative critique: That the only way to make people confident now is to cure the long-term debt problem by reforming entitlements. Making fun of Apple fans. Nice PSA, scheduled to run during the Super Bowl:
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Tiger picture of the day
My cousin Tim, who writes the award-winning history blog Walking the Berkshires, visited the Bronx Zoo today. He took some pictures of the tigers and posted them on Facebook, ripe for the plucking.
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Saturday, February 04, 2012
Previewing the ads: "Not that complicated"
At least one Super Bowl advertiser is promoting the quid pro quo theory of relations between the sexes.
People who worry about the influence of advertising on popular culture -- whether of the right or left -- are going to hate this ad. Which is probably the point.
Note that I am not one of those people.
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James Stewart is just figuring something out...
* I should clarify that I don't think ALL the growth in inequality of income is due to the increase in flow-through business income from S-Corps, LLCs, etc., but it is clear that this number is a)large and b) has grown rapidly over the periods where income inequality has grown. So it is definitely a contributor, and a misleading one at that, since that income and tax accrued to individuals in the past but did not appear on individual tax returns.
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Subsidies always discriminate
Since I'm a contrarian by nature, I'll point out my reservations:
1. He's absolutely right that we've created two classes of citizens. Does everyone realize how we did that? we subsidize a particular type of relationship (one man one woman, more so with kids). Subsidies discriminate inherently. Sometimes we like the discrimination, sometimes we don't. In this case I find it revolting. But we could get rid of them and let people decide what sort of relationships they want.
2. Off the marriage topic, he talks about the state "creating millionaires" with tax revenues. There's only one way a government creates millionaires with any realistic hope of success. Some call it crony capitalism. Let's stop pretending there's another way.
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Thursday, February 02, 2012
SMBC: People are Citizens on the Internet Too
Pigs Fly and a Professor Teaches Why Socialism is Doomed to Fail
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
The real vote-buying scandal
An entirely different -- and essentially nonpartisan -- way to think about the buying of votes in our democracy.
Help the helpless, but do not help the clueless. That simple rule would (i) save us trillions, and (ii) give those people with choices to make a powerful incentive to decide against cluelessness.
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Cultural hara kiri
There are aspects of Japanese culture that most Westerners find surprising. None may be more surprising than this.
What would cause a significant percentage of young people to lose interest in sex? Or are they just lying for some other cultural reason we are unlikely to understand?
No arguing with the birth rate, though.
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Governor Awesome: "Spend less"
Sometimes, one must repeat the obvious to the point of tedium. Apparently, so it is with the need for smaller government.
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Wikipedia entry of the day: "Paregoric"
How many of you know what paregoric is? I had gone my entire 50 years without ever having heard of it (other than, perhaps, in a passing reference in some old novel), until the THGF mentioned that it is a very effective symptomatic treatment for, well, vomiting. Too bad the gummint banned it. Must have been the opium.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Tiger picture of the day!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Internet Slang 101: Troll
Example: "Don't listen to him, he's just trolling. It's obvious from the way he said the Jews caused 9/11."
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Neil Gaiman on Copyright and Piracy
