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Monthly Archives: July 2010

An Open Letter From the President

July 8th, 2010 - 11:56 am

Dear Business Leaders,

You’re all just too stupid and greedy to realize that getting taxed and regulated back to the Stone Age is what’s good for you.

And we’re going to do what’s good for you a lot.

Yours,

Barry.

San Francisco’s city government is tackling the tough decisions by… considering a ban on pet sales?

They Hear Us Five by Five

July 8th, 2010 - 10:56 am

Trifecta: Another 600,000-plus Americans up and left the workforce just last month — so what does President Obama do next? You have questions, the guys have answers.

Plus, a plan. I call it “Five by Five.” It’s simple, it’s politically doable, and if the Democrats take it, they’ll wipe the floor with the GOP in November. And it goes a little like this:

• 5-year moratorium on new regulations
• 5-year moratorium on new taxes
• 5-year extension of current tax rates
• 5-year suspension before implementing any more Obamacare provisions
• 5 percent across-the-board, net spending cut from pre-crisis levels

Perfect? Hardly. But let’s look at these one at a time — from the Democrats’ point of few.

• Tax moratorium — a tough pill to swallow for Dems, but a necessary one as people continue to feel the economic pinch. Besides, job creation has got to come from somewhere, and threatening to tax the bejeebus out of job-creators hasn’t seemed to do the trick.

• Same as above, only now Obama can put his name on the “Bush tax cuts.”

• Anywhere from 55%-60% of Americans want Obamacare repealed, but that’s just not going to happen with the Democrats in charge. But if they promise to suspend it until the economy recovers, they could heal some self-inflicted wounds.

• In 2008, Obama promised a “net spending cut” from then-current levels. Well, here ya go.

And since there’s not a chance in hell the Democrats will use even one of my suggestions, I hope the Republicans will take them all — except for the Obamacare suspension. That turd needs to be flushed, twice.

Random Cruelty

July 8th, 2010 - 9:46 am

After reading Nick Gillespie’s oh-so-apt description of Medical Maladjuster Majordomo Dr. Donald Berwick as “Harvard’s latest train wreck of an appointee,” I was overcome by a cruel idea. It goes a little like this: Why not make forbid any and all Ivy League grads from taking government jobs, elected or appointed?

But then, of course, you have to ask yourself, “What did the private sector ever do to deserve this?”

So how about something slightly different: Ivy League grads will be permitted only to work for –wait for it– Ivy League institutions? Sure, there’s not much room for advancement, but with those massive endowments, they have plenty of wealth to spread around. And that’s good for everybody, right?

Anyway, just something to think about while I work on making some radio and TV and stuff today.

UPDATE: I just now got around to reading the actual article Nick quoted, and get this bit:

“In America, the best predictor of cost is supply; the more we make, the more we use—hospi tal beds, consultancy services, procedures, diagnostic tests,” Dr. Berwick wrote. “… Here, you choose a harder path. You plan the supply; you aim a bit low; you prefer slightly too lit tle of a technology or a service to too much; then you search for care bottlenecks and try to relieve them.”

That’s right — the way to reduce prices is to –wait for it, one more time– decrease supply!

It must take a major IQ and a Harvard degree to wrap your brain around that one.

NASA Trades Apollo for Mohemmed

July 7th, 2010 - 4:46 pm

Trifecta: One of these days, Achmed — straight to the moon!

Radio, Radio

July 7th, 2010 - 8:46 am

Did you miss Saturday’s PJM Political? I did — but it’s not too late to catch up with all this great stuff:

•Glenn Reynolds on the Supremes’ Second Amendment decision, and the Elana Kagan hearings, plus the fallout from the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel and JournoList scandals.

•Allen Barton of PJTV.com and Terry Jones of Investor’s Business Daily interview C. Bradley Thompson and Yaron Brook about their new book, Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea.

•From PJTV’s Poliwood series, Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd on Hollywood’s moral inversion: why is supposed children’s movie maker Pixar making more emotionally satisfying films than 99 percent of Hollywood’s “grown-up” product?

•Ed Driscoll interviews Rick Calvert, the CEO of Blog World and New Media Expo, for what to expect this year, and Calvert’s take on the Weigel scandal.

That’s a whole lot of radio in under 60 minutes.

Trent Reznor’s new project — How To Destroy Angels — has released its first EP.

Did I mention it’s free? Or that you can upgrade to the lossless format of your choice for two bucks?

(Hat tip, Agent Bedhead, who always knows this stuff way before I do.)

Bottom-Up Leadership

July 6th, 2010 - 10:02 am

Yes, Coast-to-Coast Tea Party is back after a lovely Independence Day break. On today’s episode, Ryan Hecker and the Contract From America.

I thought it was a typo, too, at first. But it makes perfect sense.

Check it out.

Thus Endeth the Vacation

July 6th, 2010 - 8:56 am

Mort Zuckerman had an interesting hand-wringing piece on President Obama’s fall from grace with the American people. But one bit stood out — for all the wrong reasons. Read:

The administration’s stimulus program, because of the way Congress put it together, has created far fewer jobs than anyone expected given the huge price tag of almost $800 billion. It was supposed to constrain unemployment at 8 percent, but the recession took the rate way above that and in the process humbled the Obama presidency.

Note that to Zuckerman the stimulus wasn’t a bad idea, it was just poorly-implemented. It’s that same old liberal conceit — that there’s nothing wrong with the government having huge levers of power, we just need “the right people” to work them.

We’ve been hearing that excuse for a century or longer. Give it up already.

Bowing, Scraping, Leading!

July 3rd, 2010 - 7:08 am

What would Independence Day Weekend be without another exciting episode of… The Week in Blogs? Un-American, that’s what.

So watch already. It’s your patriotic duty.

Clarence Thomas: Civil Rights Hero

July 1st, 2010 - 9:29 am

Trifecta: The Supreme Court, the Second Amendment, and race.

Honestly, there’s not a single hotbutton issue we won’t delve into — honestly.