PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON: How Are the Copenhagen Talks Supposed to Overcome Collective Action Problems?
Archive for November, 2009
November 30, 2009
GALLUP: Gallup: Opposition to ObamaCare almost at majority … of adults. “Without leaners, the picture looks just as grim for ObamaCare advocates. Only 35% of adults — not registered or likely voters — support the bill, while 42% oppose it. Not only is the latter the highest level of opposition so far this year, it’s higher than support ever reached this year, too.”
AT COMPUTATIONAL LEGAL STUDIES, Visualizing the East Anglia Climate Research Unit Leaked Email Network. (Via Andrew Revkin). Related item here.
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:
The return of coffeemaker blogging.
Dubai and Islamic Finance.
The continuing gender gap in unemployment.
Disillusionment in Britain.
A double standard on Tiger Woods?
A huge St. Louis Tea Party.
ClimateGate discouraging young scientists.
A bad Black Friday at Williams-Sonoma for the InstaDaughter.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Nicholas Kristof, Obamacare, and the Broken Window Fallacy.
Sure, it would be great if John had health care insurance. But at what cost to everybody else? Should women under 50 be denied mammograms so as to hold down health costs so that John can have government-subsidized insurance? How about men over 70 with slow acting prostate cancer? Should we deny them treatment on the assumption that something else will kill them first, so that the government can afford to insure John?
The point is that Kristof and his ilk are basically running a con. They want you to focus on the most sympathetic cases, while ignoring the large and amorphous mass of individuals who will be adversely affected.
Read the whole thing.
MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY: In Elections, Honduras Defeats Chavez.
NIALL FERGUSON ON FINANCIAL WEAKNESS:
The deficit for the fiscal year 2009 came in at more than $1.4 trillion—about 11.2 percent of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That’s a bigger deficit than any seen in the past 60 years—only slightly larger in relative terms than the deficit in 1942. We are, it seems, having the fiscal policy of a world war, without the war. Yes, I know, the United States is at war in Afghanistan and still has a significant contingent of troops in Iraq. But these are trivial conflicts compared with the world wars, and their contribution to the gathering fiscal storm has in fact been quite modest (little more than 1.8 percent of GDP, even if you accept the estimated cumulative cost of $3.2 trillion published by Columbia economist Joseph Stiglitz in February 2008).
Like World War II, only with ACORN instead of the Manhattan Project. What could go wrong? Plus, Paul Krugman re-spins the deficit. But where Ferguson worries about a decline in U.S. military power as a result, I think some people in the Administration regard that as a feature, not a bug.
NEW JERSEY BLOGGER was on FBI payroll. “He used his website to establish his credibility, often posting content to incite those same groups. The FBI is said to have had concerns over his content even as he was being paid.”
INTERACTIVE MAP: food stamp usage across the country.
ROGER KIMBALL on humor from Jacob Weisberg.
November 29, 2009
CLIMATEGATE: FROM JIM TREACHER, A friendly chat with the global warming evangelist who lives in my head.
Related: The worst scientific scandal of our generation?
Plus, the dog ate my climate change data! “SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.”
How convenient. Kinda like the “flood” that “destroyed” Michael Bellesiles’ probate records . . .
UPDATE: “Botch after botch after botch.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Investigations Beginning in the UK.
PAUL MIRENGOFF: The Obama-Holder Justice Department turns a blind eye to ACORN. “DOJ has initiated grand jury probes of major businesses, and government contractors, with far less in the way of evidence than is available in the public domain on ACORN right now. It’s also ironic that the DOJ has had in place for several years a Procurement Fraud Task Force that goes after contractors who receive federal funds through fraud or collusion, or bribery, or the like.” But not connected contractors . . . .
MICHAEL BARONE: Global Warming Consensus: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Women lead Swiss in vote to ban minarets. Why would women, in particular, be opposed to the visible spread of Islam in Europe?
UPDATE: Some thoughts from Roger Simon.
HOW TO HANG HDTVs using wall hangers.
UH OH: Black Friday weekend spending down 8 pct per person. “U.S. consumers spent significantly less per person at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010.” I hear that ammo sales were strong, though.
UH OH: Man sought in Washington police ambush was freed by Mike Huckabee.
UPDATE: More from Michelle Malkin.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Huckabee’s statement.
HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE DAMAGE? Rand Simberg on ClimateGate.
And “hockey stick” graph creator Michael Mann is being investigated by Penn State.
THE WEEK IN WINDOWS: PC vs. Mac for the Holidays. Windows 7 has already outpaced Mac OS in adoptions.
ANOTHER GITMO OFFICIAL RESIGNS: Who Is Accountable Now?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON XM/SIRIUS RADIO, the latest PJM Political is now online, with Alvin Toffler, Mark Hemingway, Michael Malone, and Jennifer Burns.
RON ROSENBAUM: When Global Warming Advocates Trivialize the Holocaust.