INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: KILL THE INTERNET “KILL SWITCH.”
Archive for January, 2011
January 31, 2011
NARRATIVE FAIL (CONT’D): ARRESTED MOSQUE-BOMBER LOONY turns out to be loony anti-war lefty. This kind of thing just keeps happening.
Related: He was Bill Ayers, not Tea Party.
“BECAUSE THIS TIME, IT REALLY IS PERSONAL:” Michael Walsh will be spending more time at The Corner.
JESSE WALKER: Looters And Leviathan: Hobbes Turned Upside Down. “If Robb’s scenario turns out to be true, Egypt has inverted the Hobbesian story of the state: The police are spreading disorder and the voluntary sector is containing it.” Somebody should write a book on this kind of phenomenon.
MARKDOWNS ON portable DVD players.
INTERESTED IN DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.
And here are some disaster-prep supplies, and — following up on the Jed Babbin item below — some bug-out-bag recommendations.
UPDATE: Reader Robert Balkenhol says that this tool should be part of your emergency preparation. Yes, and know where your water and gas shutoff valves are, and make sure the tool fits.
THINKING OF GETTING AN MBA? Think Twice.
WHITE HOUSE FLUMMOXED? “I think it’s a bit curious that the White House would send an ‘anonymous’ official to criticize the ruling of an Article III judge, and surpassingly curious that a gaggle of reporters would agree to respect the aide’s anonymity in exchange for the ‘anonymous’ quotes. Shouldn’t the reporters either tell the official to go on the record, or refuse to take part in a ‘briefing’ that amounts to simply a colorful attack on an unfavorable opinion?”
UPDATE: An analysis of the opinion here, and another one from Ilya Somin here. The judge appears to have adopted what Dave Kopel and I have elsewhere called the “non-infinity principle” — the notion that “for a Commerce Clause rationale to be acceptable under Lopez, it must not be a rationale that would allow Congress to legislate on everything.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: White House caught unprepared. And, apparently, blew the severability argument.
Much more here: “I’ve often said that I think the Washington Post is the most respectable voice of the Democratic Party, but that paper’s instant analysis of Judge Vinson’s decision, by Ezra Klein, is pathetic. Klein has no legal training, and it shows. His reaction to the decision is shrill, partisan, and unencumbered by any knowledge of the law.” You want informed legal analysis, you got to Jennifer Rubin. You want the JournoList talking points, you go to Klein. Either way, the WaPo’s got you covered.
Plus this: “There is, obviously, considerable humor value in seeing a kid who is on record as believing that the Constitution is too ‘confusing’ to be understood, since it is more than 100 years old, trying to critique the constitutional analysis of a federal judge with almost 40 years of experience as a lawyer and 27 years as a judge. But is the Washington Post really in the business of providing its readers with that sort of amusement?” Obviously, the answer is yes!
ANOTHER UPDATE: ObamaCare Hoisted On Obama’s Petard. “I had forgotten that Obama himself once upon a time took seriously the broccoli hypothetical.”
THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.
THE COUNTRY MAY BE BROKE, but keep those theater subsidies coming!
WIKIPEDIA: Less than 15% of its contributors are female. But remember, this doesn’t reflect badly on women’s willingness to toil for the common good. Instead it’s evidence of sexism at Wikipedia or something. Now if the genders were reversed, it would be because men were selfish or lazy or whatever.
UPDATE: Thoughts from Little Miss Attila.
SOME DISASTER-PREPAREDNESS ADVICE from Jed Babbin.
THE RIPPED AND THE RIGHTEOUS: It’s good to be healthy and fit, but physical fitness isn’t a form of moral superiority. It’s not even evidence of moral superiority.
FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN OBAMACARE. “A federal judge declared the Obama administration’s health care overhaul unconstitutional Monday, siding with 26 states that argued people cannot be required to buy health insurance.”
SCIENCE: Men should concentrate on playing with their children and leave the care to women. “Fathers should stick to just playing with their children as their efforts to look after them just end in arguments with their wives, a study claims.” Not my experience, but hey, who am I to argue with science?
A SHORTCUT TO designer nanostructures?
LIST: Memorable Movie Hitmen.
JON HUNTSMAN WILL RESIGN HIS AMBASSADORSHIP TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012: I’m told that the Utah Tea Party folks aren’t thrilled.
THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE IS UP!
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Molecular machine switches magnetic state at room temperature.
ETHICS: Conflict of interests for ranking Democrat on House Ethics Committee. “Linda Sanchez became the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee after the departure of former chair Zoe Lofgren last week, and therefore helps control the actions of the evenly-split panel. That creates a conflict of interest in the committee’s most high-profile case, that of Maxine Waters, whose legal counsel is related to Sanchez’ chief of staff — and who represented Sanchez and her sister in an earlier ethics probe.”
IT’S AS IF ALL THAT “NEW CIVILITY” TALK WAS JUST A PLOY TO SHUT DOWN DEBATE: “Showing no concern for the new civility push that followed the Arizona massacre, a group of leftist activists from groups including Code Pink, Common Cause and jewel of liberal think tanks, the Center for American Progress, turned into a loud mob complete with Nazi imagery outside a conservative gathering in Rancho Mirage, California.”
UPDATE: Say, you think some enterprising reporter will ask Obama or a spokesman whether the President condemns this sort of behavior? No, me neither.