Archive for 2010

SAY, I JUST NOTICED: An Army of Davids is now on Kindle. Seems kinda . . . fitting.

UPDATE: Reader Kristin Theerman writes: “Thanks for posting the update that Army of Davids is available on the Kindle. I just bought my copy… (I would have bought sooner but I’ve only bought digital book content since buying my Kindle). I rarely write or post any comments on your PJTV content, but I’m a big fan. Instapundit.com is my favorite online destination for staying caught up on things that matter to me. Can’t wait to read your book, and thanks to my Kindle, I don’t have to…” Instant gratification! Thanks, Kristin. (Bumped).

IF YOU’RE TAKING STATINS, you may want to take Coenzyme Q10. I’ve been taking low-dose statins for nearly ten years, and I’ve noticed that adding a CoQ10 supplement really made a difference in terms of energy and vitality. I’ve mentioned that to a few other people and heard the same thing. For a while I was taking a resveratrol supplement that also contained Coenzyme Q10, then I switched to one that didn’t and noticed that I didn’t feel as good. As an experiment, I stopped the resveratrol and started just a Coenzyme Q10 supplement and it became clear that it, not the resveratrol, was the reason I had felt so good on the earlier supplement.

UPDATE: Reader Mary Forman writes:

As a physician, I’ve recommended plenty of Coenzyme Q10 for statin takers without having to provide references. However, isn’t it pretty unusual for Instapundit to make a recommendation of this nature without some linky goodness?

Well, that’s because I’m writing from personal experience. If you google statins and Coenzyme Q10, you’ll find that statins deplete blood levels of Coenzyme Q10, though there’s some question about whether they deplete it in tissues and organs. It’s all pretty inconclusive. But this is about my experience. Use it as you choose.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Manny Klausner writes:

After reading your post about your taking low-dose statins, I thought you’d be interested in knowing about my experience.

I had been taking Simvastatin 20 mg for nearly 3 years and I was having some adverse side effects that seemed to be related to the statins or my blood pressure medication.

I told my internist in August that I was now regularly practicing Tai Chi, and had improved my diet — and I’d lost 10 pounds — and I’d like to discontinue the statins and my blood pressure medication. I stopped taking the statins and was examined by my internist nearly 3 weeks later.

My cholesterol levels (after 18 days without the statins): 177 total; 115 LDL & 50 HDL. My blood pressure was 110/70.

My doctor said that I don’t need to take the statins any more and reduced the dosage of my blood pressure medication.

He said, “Keep doing what you’re doing; it’s obviously working.” I expect that he’ll take me off of my blood pressure medication on my next exam.

My blood pressure is awesomely low. Cardio in combination with the statins gives me good blood numbers, but neither seems to make as big a difference on its own. But that’s my experience. There seems to be a lot of individual variation here. The Insta-Wife’s cholesterol is borderline high, but is actually lower now than it was when she was a vegetarian who ran marathons. I credit the addition of bacon to her diet — is there anything it can’t do? . . . .

JAY COST: Our Hyper-Partisan President. “What’s peculiar about Obama (beyond the total lack of good cheer) is that he campaigned against the very type of partisan warfare he now engages in.” You’re either with him, or against him.

Related: “We are so in his head.” Living rent-free!

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: CU tuition plan: 9.5% hike next year, up to 9% for four more years. At a time when inflation is reported as negligible, can the market continue to absorb increases like this? Or will people seek lower-cost alternatives?

UPDATE: Reader Amy Ready writes:

Our local 9 news reported that the current freshman class at CU-Boulder had decreased 6.5% and is the smallest since 2005. The best part was that CU’s financial chief, Ric Porreca, told the Board of Regents it was due to glitches in the online student management system which frustrated students so they enrolled elsewhere. Certainly couldn’t have been the rapidly increasing tuition and/or tenured Professors like Ward Churchill…

Certainly not. The fact that they’re closing dorms because of a shortage of freshmen has nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, reader Danielle Emery notes that the Colorado School of Mines isn’t raising tuition: “Are they blessed with a fantastic endowment? Or could it be that they know how to run a business, deliver value, or simply that they can do math and therefore balance a budget?” I’m going with the math. But that’s actually a really good school, teaching really useful stuff.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A couple of readers point out that Mines may be raising tuition, just less than the 9% that triggers legislative oversight.

AT AMAZON, a sale on Halloween costumes. I was going to go as the deficit, but I decided that would scare the children too much. And with reason.

I LINKED MY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN EARLIER, but it’s worth breaking this bit out:

But those establishment GOP figures who think that they’ll cruise to victory and a return to the pocket-stuffing business-as-usual that marked the prior GOP majority need to think again. This election cycle is, in a very real sense, a last chance for the Republicans. If they blow it, we’re likely to see third-party challenges in 2012, not only at the Presidential level but in numerous Congressional races as well.

For the national GOP, it’s do-or-die time. So guys, you’d better perform — unless you want me to be writing another “I told you so” column in 2013. And trust me, you don’t.

I don’t really think that the people who most need to read this follow InstaPundit, but just in case . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Richard Knudsen writes: “So it’s safe to assume you’re not on McConnell or Boehner’s speed dial?” If I were, they’d be doing better. That goes for Obama, too . . . .

SALENA ZITO:

More than distance and altitude separate “Main Street” Americans from those who govern them. The disconnect is so deep, so wide, that filling it is hard to imagine. . . . In less than a year, this columnist has traveled 6,609 miles, interviewed 432 people registered as or identifying with Democrats in 17 states, and written about scores of races for U.S. Senate and House seats and governors’ mansions.

In the process, I lost my car’s transmission, wore out four new tires (and promptly flattened two replacements), cracked a windshield, broke a passenger window, had emergency surgery, was chased by a funnel cloud on the Great Plains, staggered through two blizzards, was pelted by hail, wilted in record heat and even saw a lot of locusts (although a farmer assured me it wasn’t a swarm).

All along “blue highways,” Americans spoke about their disappointment in the change they so proudly supported in 2008 — some whispering for fear of being labeled racist, some shouting at tea party rallies.

In coffee shops, on streetcorners and farms, at factories, the narrative was always the same: How could such great promise have let the country down so much, so quickly?

Beltway pundits talk of how angry America is. They seem incredulous that Americans somehow find this historic president’s administration anything but exceptional.

What’s exceptional is the blame coming from Washington, which only deepens the divide between the elite and Main Street.

Indeed. All I can say is, I told you so. . . .

IT DOESN’T SEEM TO BE WORKING THIS TIME EITHER: Gloria Allred Has Played The “Nanny Card” Before. But as a loyal apparatchik, she’ll give it the old college try.

More on Allred’s willingness to sacrifice her credibility for The Combine, from Professor Jacobson. “Gloria Allred played the race card this week for political gain. In so doing, Allred exposed her client to criminal prosecution and deportation.” Does Allred really have clients? Or just tools?

LOST ROVER FOUND ON MOON, with retroreflector still intact. “The rediscovery of the reflector could have an important impact in several areas of science that depend on accurately measuring the position and orbit of the Moon. Laser rangefinding currently provides the most precise tests of many aspects of gravity, including the strong equivalence principle, the constancy of Newton’s constant, geodetic precession, gravitomagnetism and the inverse square law.”

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO OBESITY: “Reward pathways in the brains of overweight people become less responsive as they gain weight. This causes them to eat more to get the same pleasure from their food, which in turn reduces the reward response still further.” Sorta like politicians and spending.

SHOULD THE I.R.S. GIVE TAXPAYERS AN ITEMIZED RECEIPT? The notion that people would be more supportive of big government if they knew where their money was going betrays an almost touching naivete.

THE INEVITABLE 10:10 Remix.