Archive for October, 2010

WHY NPR IS LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH. And why it’s different.

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND MEDICAL SCIENCE: “Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?”

IN CANADA, THE MASSES ARE REVOLTING and the media missed it:

Like my friends, the people who work in much of the major media – the CBC, the Toronto Star, even my own beloved paper – were stunned by the Ford tsunami. After all, the polls had predicted a squeaker. But there’s another reason they didn’t see the big wave coming. Very few of these people live or work outside downtown Toronto. Very few ever hang around with someone who voted for Mr. Ford and will own up to it. They remind me of the super-smart editorial writers at The New York Times who are sincerely convinced that Tea Partiers are dangerous crackpots – even though they’ve never met any.

The media think they understand why people voted as they did. As one Toronto Star pundit helpfully explained, the voters – Ford voters, that is – “were full of largely pointless rage.” Only pointless rage could explain why voters ignored the editorial endorsements of two leading newspapers, as well as a long line of former mayors who begged them, in the name of decency, to vote for George Smitherman. Even Justin Trudeau’s twinkle dust didn’t work.

Funny that in these circumstances they never ask “why do they hate us?”

Plus this: “The problem is simple. People have a lot more government than they can or will pay for. Mr. Ford and Tea Partiers know that. Scaling down the scope of government is the political challenge of the next generation. And if mainstream politicians stay in denial, they’ll be toast.”

THE IMPACT OF “STUDENT AID:” “Increasing government subsidy for attending college doesn’t lower costs — it increases them and spreads them to taxpayers who would rather do something else with their money if they had any choice.”

AN OVERWHELMINGLY WHITE CROWD at the Stewart/Colbert rally. Well, Stewart and Colbert are Stuff White People Like.

But they had a fundamentalist Islamist to add diversity. “The inclusion of Yusuf Islam in the Rally to Restore Sanity is sure to raise a number of eyebrows, given the controversy surrounding his alleged support of the fundamentalist Islamic fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. As Andy Levy tweeted ‘Rally To Restore Fatwas?'”

BEDBUGS CAUSING COUPLES TO BREAK UP: “Stacie Handwerker, a real estate attorney, said that one man asked her point blank if she had bed bugs in her apartment. If she said yes, her date would have ditched. He didn’t even ask her if she carried any sexually-transmitted diseases. ‘Well, a condom can’t protect you from bedbugs,’ Handwerker said.”

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails: “Hmm, is it easier or harder to make DDT than methamphetamine in a home lab? Because once bedbugs start interfering with peoples’ sex lives, there’d be one hell of a black-market opportunity. Just sayin’.”

I’ve written about homemade DDT before.

JON STEWART’S WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY? “Rally to Resore Sanity” pledges to “strictly prohibit filming” at National Mall. “The claim that Comedy Central can prohibit filming on federal property during an event open to the public is completely wrong.”

But it’s revealing that they’d try. It’s really the Rally To Reassert The Failed Narrative. Plus, from the comments: “We smell their fear.”

UPDATE: Charlie Martin emails: “It’s pretty clear that ‘sanity’ in this context means ‘seeing and hearing what we think is good for you.'”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Cornell and Dartmouth Shame Students for Not Adding Their Real Money to the Ongoing Bonfire of Imaginary Money. “Fundraisers at Dartmouth and Cornell singled out students by name for failing to donate money to the universities.” Chutzpah. Plus this: “The single student from Dartmouth’s 1,123-student Class of 2010 who did not contribute this year was criticized in a column in the college newspaper and on a popular blog, which posted her name and photograph.”

And this: “Why would anyone with a normal human level of income give any money to these universities? Today’s endowments and their fluctuations exist in a budgetary fantasyland; from the schools’ point of view, individual gifts are literally worthless. It is like writing a check to the Department of Defense.”

And, from the comments: “Who was the holdout, and does she need a job? I like the cut of her jib.”

DON’T GET COCKY. No, really, I mean that. Just sayin’ . . ..

JOSEPH CAO UPDATE: “Obama’s favorite Republican” is on the ropes. “Meanwhile, Obama didn’t let his past fondness for Cao interfere with his desire to elect a Democrat. The president personally recorded a TV spot on Richmond’s behalf.” Cao’s pro-ObamaCare vote left him with no friends.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “This is how the great post-partisan, post-racial, New Politics presidency ends – not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a desperate election-eve plea for ethnic retribution.”