Boyd

If you don't like Letters to the Editor, you won't like blogging.

Sid Blumenthal says Bush caused N.O. disaster. No word yet from Sid on Bush's role in The Black Plague.

We found a fall teeball league for our youngest (3). I am so happy. I hate soccer.

Kos is blind. He posts:

He's finally decided to show up to work.

'President Bush announced Tuesday that he would cut short his extended summer vacation and fly to Washington to begin work on Wednesday with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.'

It only took him what, four days? Well, in all fairness, he was busy playing guitar and trying to kill social security. You know, things that are important to Bush. And since Al Qaida and Saddam had nothing to do with the disaster on the gulf coast...

This vacation thing. I have resisted saying anything about it, but Kos posts on it about every two hours. Does anyone believe the President is not the President when he's away from Washington? He can't go on vacation. So what he's in Crawford. You think he's not still the President and still in touch. Give me a break.

Robert F. Kennedy said this Monday:

Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and--now--Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.

I am speechless. Is there nothing the American left won't try to exploit for political gain?

Thanks Hugh.

"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy." --Winston Churchill

Hewitt has more on the giving tomorrow. I think it was his idea originally.

Nice post at The Corner comparing preparations for the hurricane in N.O. to our preparations for the day a terrorist detonates a nuclear weapon in a major city.

This has got me thinking about terrorism too. One of these days, we're going to lose an American city to nuclear terrorism, and we will wail and gnash our teeth over what happened to us. NOW is the time to foresee this kind of thing, and to prepare for it as much as we can. I had in my office today an Israeli security consultant, who, talking about terrorism, said to me, "Americans are great in figuring out how to react to things after they happen. But you're not very good at preventing them from happening."

Jay Nordlinger asks the questions.

Instapundit has a round up of where to donate.

This officially kicks off tomorrow. As always, I am ahead of the game.

Update: Today is the day.

Atrios via Cone.

I agree. I have no problem with people taking food. I'd do it too.

I do have a problem with the guy toting a plasma TV out of a Walmart.

Those trapped in the city faced an increasingly lawless environment, as law enforcement agencies found themselves overwhelmed with widespread looting. Looters swarmed the Wal-mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, often bypassing the food and drink section to steal wide-screen TVs, jewelry, bicycles and computers. Watching the sordid display and shaking his head in disgust, one firefighter said of the scene: "It’s a f---- hurricane, what are you do with a basketball goal?"

I appreciate the compliment.

Better be careful though. I'm going to destroy the market for blogging. I've got so many opinions I'm going to increase the supply and drive down the price.

Ray Nagin. The mayor had it all figured out:

But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday.

According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.

"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.

Army Corps. Step back. The mayor's on the job.

It's a little early for CYA. Don't you think Ray?

I don't know. However, you've got the same issue with every coastal community and every community on a fault line. The probability is that you're going to get hit. It's just a matter of when. I guarantee that a category 5 hurricane will strike every major coastal city in the US. It may take 100 years or 1000 years, but it will happen.

Update: It's really an insurance question. And as always, it's a question of will we allow the free market to do its job.

How many counties in NC? 100? From today's N&R:

Estimates of how much the lottery will generate for education range from $350 million to $450 million.

What's that $3.5 million to $4.5 million per county? Looks like all of our education funding problems are solved.

There's not a lot of excess storage. If the pipelines into the Triad remain down for very long, stations will begin running out of gas.

Here's a recap of the damage the hurricane caused to oil and gas infrastructure.

Where could they possibly be taking what they're stealing?

The historic French Quarter appeared to have been spared the worst flooding, but its stores were getting the worst of human nature.

"The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked," Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. "We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops."

As Sen. Mary Landrieu flew over the area by helicopter, a group of people smashed a window at a convenience store and jumped in.

At a drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers. One looter shot and wounded a fellow looter, who was taken to a hospital and survived.

Michelle's site has been an unbelievable clearinghouse of information. She's a dynamo.

Breaking news link.

Prediction by no less than Dr. Z.

Doc also has the same SB prediction as yours truly. Carolina over Indy. He is obviously a smart man.

Update: Here's the SI link.

Lottery.

Eleanor Clift.

That's why there haven't been more attacks in the US since 9/11. It's as simple as that. Occam's razor indeed.

al Qaeda was allowed to flourish in the nineties. They had unrestricted communications, financing and travel. That is no longer as the case. Their life is much harder now.

If it wasn't for nuclear weapons, we could stop worrying about these jerks. The issue is that some deluded foreign leader decides to share his technology with them. In al Qaeda you have a delivery mechanism for a nuclear weapon. You also have cover. As the foreign leader, you can feign ignorance. That saves your skin. It'll be years before you're tied to the attack, if ever. In the meantime you inflict a terrible wound on the US. That's why it was so important to take out Saddam. Saddam wanted us to believe he had nuclear capability (hell, he may have believed it himself depending on how much he was lied to). We had no choice.

Read this.

This is Bush at his muddle-headed worst, conferring all the authority of the presidency on the teaching of pseudoscience in science classes. Why stop with Intelligent Design (the theory that life on earth has developed by a series of supernatural miracles performed by the God of the Christian Bible, for which it is pointless to seek any naturalistic explanation)? Why not teach the little ones astrology? Lysenkoism? Orgonomy? Dianetics? Reflexology? Dowsing and radiesthesia? Forteanism? Velikovskianism? Lawsonomy? Secrets of the Great Pyramid? ESP and psychokinesis? Atlantis and Lemuria? The hollow-earth theory? Does the president have any idea, does he have any idea, how many varieties of pseudoscientific flapdoodle there are in the world? If you are going to teach one, why not teach the rest? Shouldn't all sides be "properly taught"? To give our kids, you know, a rounded picture? Has the president scrutinized Velikovsky's theories? Can he refute them? Can you?

I get the impression that Intelligent Design advocates think it will lead to putting God in the classroom. This is nonsense. If anything, it will do the above. The door will be open to every crackpot theory imaginable. What should be taught in science class? How about hard science.

Brilliant.

Cindy Sheehan? I don't have much to add, but I think she's been badly misused. Obviously she's off her nut. I mean, is one allowed to say that? I suppose so — certainly on NRO, land of the free, home of the brave. (At least the land of the free.) What bothers me about mainstream Democrats is that they pretend she is not nuts, and they let her — yes, they let her — serve as a kind of spokesman, when she should be off having a rest or whatever.

It reminds me of what Mitch Snyder, the "homeless advocate," used to do in Washington, D.C. He'd have these poor homeless fellows as props — "Nothing wrong with Walter and Jeffrey here, just a little down on their luck, victims of a racist and capitalist society" — and they were obviously deranged. Snyder himself was barely hanging on. But everyone pretended.

And who has taught Cindy to mouth these lines? I know her greatest hits — about Bush as the world's No. 1 terrorist, about a war for oil, or for Halliburton, or for the Carlyle Group — but Victor Davis Hanson taught me a new one in his piece last Friday: "Yes, he [Casey Sheehan, Cindy's son] was killed for lies and for a PNAC neocon agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel."

No, someone had to teach Cindy to say that — "You've got to be carefully taught," as Oscar Hammerstein said. Who are the culprits? Who are these nasty and heartless exploiters? I think of the kids I went to college with. They'd arrive from Muskegon or wherever, perfectly sane, and within a month they'd be in the grip of nonsense. They'd met some smelly hippie at some stall — or, more likely, a teaching assistant in a classroom — and lost their marbles. Some recovered them relatively soon; others suffered lasting damage.

The Cindy Sheehan story is outrageous on 50 levels.

Nothing like making fun of celebrities.

Most of the reports I've heard recently had Andrew as the worst insurance disaster of all time costing $26 billion. This is going to be worse. I heard estimates yesterday of $9 to 26 billion on CNN. That's too low.

Oops. Sorry. It was just Martin Sheen.

Update: Maybe she can meet with Geena Davis next.

It seems silly to have to repeat this stuff over and over until you remember you are dealing with the left. Hitchens says it better than most. The president's PR and speech folks ought to listen.

I have no idea where those attacks on him came from last year (State? Iraqi political foes?). Anyway they were completely off-base. I know the WSJ has been a Chalabi cheerleader for years. However, they're right. The guy is practical and believes in democracy. What else is there?

Here's the link.

Greenspan's remarks from this weekend in Jackson Hole.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Friday that recent gains in U.S. home prices, stock values and other forms of wealth may be temporary and could easily erode if long-term interest rates rise.

Households and businesses have been able to spend more by transforming houses, stock and other assets into cash, he noted. But Americans should not assume that such good times will roll on forever.

Long-term interest rates remain very low, in part because inflation has remained tame outside of energy costs. Overseas investors have been pouring money into U.S. stocks and bonds, helping dampen long-term rates. But Greenspan said low long-term rates also reflect investors' belief that the U.S. economy is so healthy that there is little risk in lending money here.

Thus, lenders set rates lower because they demand a lower "risk premium," Greenspan said.

"This vast increase in the market value of [stocks, bonds, houses and other assets] is in part the indirect result of investors accepting lower compensation for risk," Greenspan said. "Such an increase in market value is too often viewed by [investors] as structural and permanent."

But we live in an ever-changing economy and an uncertain world, the Fed chief emphasized. Investors could easily get spooked, become more cautious, boost interest rates, and thereby deflate the values of homes and financial assets, he said.

It appears that much of the fuel for current consumer spending comes from rising home prices and new financial products designed to allow you to unlock the equity in real estate. These new products are not bad. On the contrary, they are quite effective as a means of freeing up capital and transferring it to more productive areas of the economy. However they assume that the resale market for real estate remains strong. If demand subsides, we could have all sorts of serious problems.

Economically speaking, I'm optimistic overall long-term. You've got the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the world getting ready to happen as the WWII generation die and leave assets to their profligate, baby-boomer offspring. You've also got the emerging Asian economic giant. As long as India and China continue on the path to capitalism and democracy (I believe capitalism will make China democratic.) there is going to be an unprecedented boom as their populations start building wealth.

That being said, there will be bumps in the road. The Fed has not defeated the business cycle. The US economy has been roaring for 12 years without pause. As Greenspan notes, folks are becoming complacent with regards to risk. Houses that were worth $400k six months ago are not suddenly worth $500k now.

Additionally, demand from China is going to slow. China is not immune from economic laws. Much of their recent growth has been government spending on infrastucture (roads, office buildings, etc.). This infrastructure may be necessary. However, you've got to generate a return at some point. If that return is slow, you're going to have negative returns for a while while you wait for output to catch up.

Article in Reason. Telling quote:

Trauma counseling flowered with the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995—where counselors reportedly fought over patients “because there were simply not enough to go around”—and the TWA Flight 800 air disaster of 1996.

The problem is that the supply of mental health workers is way bigger than the demand for them. Instead of exiting the field and doing something productive, they attempt to create demand. While this may help the mental health worker economically, it is an overall drain on society.

Update: Ditto for lawyers.

Tennis is already there. When you watch tennis, what do the crowds cheer most heartily for? Rallies. You have a lot less rallies when somebody serves at 160 mph. With golf, it's more interesting if second shots aren't always with a wedge. Here are the solutions: 1. for tennis, change the racket 2. for golf, change the ball.

While we're at it let's get rid of metal bats in baseball and softball. How many more pitchers are going to get killed before aluminum is banned? With softball, why not just have home-run derbies? That way you can sit around and drink beer while the other team is batting without having to stand in the hot sun.

Via Malkin.

This is why they've tried to change the subject from Cindy to what Cindy represents.

Guys. Word of advice. Go back to the middle. Just because you cut a few fringe loonies loose, you're not compromising.

The right is embarrassed by fringe people like Pat Robertson. Did you see how he was abandoned? That's how you do it.

Not bad. I'll give it another couple of viewings. One problem that always gets in the way of historical dramas is that the history part gets in the way of the character part. It's too early to tell with Rome. However, I can say without reservation that it's better than The Comeback. Of course, that didn't take much.

We have got to get back to a self-sufficient mindset.

Read this. Couple of quotes:

GOP partisans are thrilled that their tribe now gets to call the shots in D.C. But to libertarians living under Republican rule, the federal government's size, scope and oppressions seem worse than ever.

OK, so conservatives won the battle of ideas. In the real world -- where we have $2.4-trillion budgets, semi-socialized medicine, Social Insecurity, welfare programs, etc., etc. -- liberals seem to have won the war.

and...

It's foolish to hope that the Democrat idea-men will throw away the modern liberal playbook and start up a Grover Cleveland Institute for the 21st Century. But the Party of Jefferson -- and the country -- would benefit greatly from a return to the small-government, laissez-faire, 19th-century classical liberalism of the last great Democrat president.

So would the Party of Lincoln.

Yep.

Why do stories about China's economic boom overshadow India's? India has about the same number of people as China. India is more democratic. More Indians speak English so interaction with the West is easier. Indians are younger. The median age for India is 25 years old. The median age for China is 32 years old. India's economy is more service-oriented (48% of workforce vs. 33% for China).

Story from the AP today.

Add it up: current debt and deficit, promises for those big programs, pensions, veterans health care. The total comes to $43 trillion, says Walker, the nation's comptroller general, who runs the Government Accountability Office. That's where the $145,000 bill for every American, or $350,000 for every full-time worker, comes from.

Simply hoping for good times to return won't erase numbers like that, Walker says.

"There's no way we're going to grow our way out of our long-range fiscal imbalance," he says, adding that the country must re-examine tax policy, entitlement programs and the entire federal budget.

"I really do not believe the American people have a real idea as to where we are and where we're headed, and what the potential implications are for the country if we don't start making some tough decisions soon," he says.

I hate to be an alarmist, but this time it's real. Read the whole thing, pay off a credit card and save a little bit.

Katrina.

C'mon Gretchen.

CNN has the story.

Al Qaeda in Iraq issues virulent manifesto
Group calls for violence, destruction of 'American empire'

Money quote:

The document warns there will be no end to the insurgency. "The call for jihad goes on until doomsday, whether there is an imam calling for it or not."

There's nothing to do but kill them. They'll not leave us alone no matter how hard you close your eyes, plug your ears and stamp your feet.

Lenslinger has toughts.

You see, back in the 1980's, when Boy George, Thompson Twins and Duran Duran were filling the airwaves with the frilly sounds of a slick new British invasion, Stevie Ray was busy re-writing the electric Blues guitar. He did so because he knew how to do nothing else, he lacked good looks, sound judgment and a musical pedigree. But what Stevie had in spades was TONE, that indefinable aural quality that most guitarists would sell their souls to possess.

I don't know about the lacking good looks though. I always thought he was a cool looking cat. He definitely wore a poncho better than Martha Stewart.

John Robinson is a thoughtful fellow. He seems to be ahead of the curve on using the Internet as a newspaperman. However, I still feel for him. He's in a tough position. He's got this massive organization with lots of people and their 401(k)s and health benefits and accrued vacation and he is rapidly losing the one thing that insulated him all these years: a hammerlock on distribution.

I get three newspapers: the Greensboro N&R, the Burlington Times-News and the Wall Street Journal. There's nothing I read in the N&R or the T-N that I can't read online. Why do I continue then? Habit. It's enjoyable to start the day with the heft of a paper. However, the more wired I become, the more I question spending $250+ per year on those two papers. When you've got broadband at your fingertips and a good news site, there's not much going on in the world that you don't know about immediately.

The WSJ is a different story. The WSJ does a heckuva lot of original reporting and analysis. However, this is an expensive proposition and I don't know if it's able to be duplicated at the local level. There's just not the numbers available to sustain that much good, original reporting at a local level. Additionally, it's a real possibility that folks may be able to get what local news they want from blogs. This remains to be seen, but if I was John, I'd be worrying about it. It seems to be getting harder and harder for a local newspaper to make itself indispensable.

The other shoe is going to drop when we have the next recession. We haven't been through a recession since the Internet became ubiquitous. When companies really start looking to cut expenses they're going to look hard at advertising. I've got a feeling the booming economy of the past 12 years has been masking a lot of weakness. I don't expect that many newspapers will fail, but some of the weaker ones will. The rest will have to re-assess. It's much more difficult to run a business when your prospects are regression instead of growth. Finance equations don't work quite as well.

From a post on ProCare:

An article in The New Yorker addresses the issues surrounding the moral factor that has driven Americans to pay far more than other western countries for health care while having access to less technology and lower quality of care. In his article, Gladwell addresses the paranoia American policy makers and economists have of a Universal Health Care system, despite the success of these systems in other industrialized nations, as well as the appeal of the Bush administration's new Health Savings Account.

I don't see the success from other nations. Canadians come to the US for procedures. You've got bureaucratic nightmares in Europe. I challenge you to prove Americans have access to less technology or lower quality care than any other place in the world.

The real answer to health care issues in this country is to let the market take care of it. When you substitute a middleman (whether it be an HMO or the government) for the consumer you create waste, inefficiency and abuse. The worse thing that ever happened for health care was when employers started offering health insurance as a benefit. This eliminated the incentives for insurance companies to compete for individuals. It also made everyone with a job feel entitled to 'free' healthcare.

The way health insurance should work is that you go out and by catastrophic health insurance from a broker of your choice. Something that's going to pay if you're in a serious accident. Say something with a high deductible like $5000. You get the flu and go to the doctor, you pay out of your pocket. This does two things, cuts down on needless office visits and makes you more likely to shop doctors for lower prices.

People treat health issues differently than other economic decisions because of some nostalgic, romantic view of the doctor/patient relationship. This ridiculous notion has cost us billions and keeps us from having real efficiency. Going to the doctor is no different than any other transaction. You feel bad. You go for treatment. You pay money. You feel better.

Rich expands on the bankruptcy of this liberal rallying cry.

Money quote:

Its logic (the term chicken hawk), if taken seriously, actually would boost the hawks. If only members of the military — who are overwhelmingly conservative — were considered competent to decide the nation’s posture on matters of war and peace, we would have an even more forward-leaning foreign policy. I’m comfortable letting the 82nd Airborne decide what we do about anti-American rogue states. Are opponents of the war?

My thoughts.

Kos seems to be criticizing Bush for military bases that are being closed. He writes:

Regardless of what gets cut and what doesn't, Republican lawmakers are feeling betrayed the Bush Administration even put their bases on the chopping block.

Of course it was "bush league". That's what happens when you have an incompetent running the joint.

Traditionally, liberals have been for cuts in the DOD. What do you want Bush/Rumsfeld to do? Open more?

You're soon going to be a non-factor Kos. It's only a matter of if it's before '06 or '08.

I've been pondering this from Bill Simmons' column for a couple of weeks.

Q: In your "Midseason Form" column, you write about how your wife hates Mariah Carey and that most women do. Try this: Tell your wife that you find Jennifer Love Hewitt attractive and you enjoy her acting. You may even be able to squeeze a whole column out of her reaction and the pure bile that women spit when hearing her name. Ask any sisters, sisters-in-law, other female friends; they all hate her universally, and it is unexplainable.
--Jack, Cleveland


SG: Just for the record, I tried this with the Sports Gal this week ... she reacted like George Brett in the Pine Tar Game. Highest of high comedy. Somebody needs to film the pilot, "Everybody Hates Jennifer."

It's undeniable.

Here's a follow up from Bill's latest column.

In response to why women hate Jennifer Love Hewitt: First, who told her to be an actress, because someone LIED to her. Obviously her acting skills are not why she is so popular (among men). Did she learn nothing from Pam Anderson? Just pose in Playboy, that is if she hasn't already, and shut your mouth. Who actually watched "VIP" or "Barb Wire" with the mute off? NO ONE!! and no one watched "Heartbreakers" or "I know what you did last summer" for the Oscar award-winning acting or story lines. Put America out of its misery and stop with the pathetic attempts at acting or singing. Second, if I have to see her on the cover of MAXIM/STUFF/FHM one more time talking about her humanitarian efforts to save little pink bunnies. I swear on my 1998 Yankees World Series tape that I will do not so nice things to her. And finally, it should be illegal to be that skinny and have breasts that large, literally a walking, talking, real-life barbie doll. Not that I'm jealous or anything. Seriously. That pretty much sums up why we hate her. Hey Jennifer, "WHY DON'T YOU GO BACK TO YOUR HOME ON WHORE ISLAND!"
-- Isabella M.

There's an MTV Punked episode where they bring in Jennifer for a meeting with a fake producer of some made-up epic movie where they want her to star. The joke is that the producer owes some gangsters a bunch of money and they bust in during the interview. Jennifer is afraid for her life. They had to cut the joke short because she was freaking out (it's in a subtle way because she's afraid she's about to be killed). It's hilarious. I only wish she'd have not consented to putting it on TV. That way it would have gained legend status. The copy would have been passed around the Internet like the Pam and Tommy tape.

Everybody wants to be a victim.

There's not much surprising about this. Portray yourself as persecuted and get coverage and/or converts. For some reason, folks like to feel oppressed.

He was good on Larry King last night. The problem the French have is that even if they do have evidence, you have to question it because of their vindictive quest to smear Armstrong. These guys hate it that an American, and a Texan, is the best there's ever been in their sport. Sorry le guys. If you don't like it, train harder. Lay off the pastries and the runway models and go ride your bike in the mountains.

Our pundits look better than theirs. Malkin, Coulter, Ingraham, Hannity (just kidding)...

They do have Katrina. However, Michael Moore cancels her and then some.

Oh, yeah, it's because the NYT gives him a megaphone. Malkin has a nice summary of Krugman's latest problems.

Ed has the post from the New Yorker. It's the fault of group health.

Yes. Is ours perfect? No. However, I can say without any reservations that a culture that promotes and condones female genital mutilation is worse.

Tracy is Kevin Harvick. Payne is Bobby Labonte. I don't know who the guy in the middle is. Payne won.



Update: Yes, I know he's Tony Stewart. I don't know his real name.

This is when the Grasshoppers allowed you to play on the field before the game one Sunday. They made us sign waivers which I thought was silly until I got to the outfield and baseballs were flying everywhere.

Via Volokh.

From Article 5...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

How does voting against taking someone's house to give to a private developer violate Article 5?

If they did they'd stop shooting at us. That's the whole problem with the idea of appeasing these guys. You can't give them what they want unless you agree to your own destruction. They simply want to kill everyone that's not like them. Want to agree to that?

What a woman. Instapundit agrees. Although, I disagree with him on Rudy.

Listen to him Democrats. Come back from the wilderness. Take my advice. Be a factor. Kos is steering you wrong. You're going to get trounced in '08. Let's just hope it's by Rice and not Frist.

I read a while back, may have been Jay Nordlinger's column, about someone asking for advice for their college-bound daughter and how to keep her from being indoctrinated by the left. Jay's response was to teach her to be skeptical. The rest will take care of itself.

Be confident and skeptical. Ask for proof. Demand results. Take intentions for what they are. You'll do better than OK.

Comments from one fellow who the left failed to convert.

I agree Scott. What a boondoggle. The only place rail really works is Manhattan. It doesn't even work all that great in the rest of NY. It'll never work in small to mid-size southern and western cities for one obvious reason - the places people want to go are too disparate. Give up the dream. Build more and better roads.

Somebody please propose something sensible. Nuclear. LNG plants. Drilling. One standard for gasoline.

Be careful.

Starts on 9/1 for NC. Here's the real site.

Don't be ridiculous, Tim. If proved, doping will destroy Lance Armstrong. It'll be even worse than baseball because of the cancer angle.

One of the things working for Armstrong, ironically, is the passion of the French to hang doping around his neck. Their zeal to get him taints any evidence they bring forward.

Parking at UNCG. I think the idea was that AOL signed up more users than it had capacity for?

One other trick for parking at UNCG is to avoid 10:00 am classes as your first class of the day. Take 8:00 classes. You'll never have a problem. Or go in the afternoon.

I'd be worried. Traditional media have enjoyed a monopoly for a long time. The worm has turned. The Internet blew everything up. The key to everything media related is distribution. The only hope for folks with traditional leanings is that the Internet causes so much new interest in news that folks gravitate to all sorts of different outlets. I doubt it though.

I had a problem with Web Forwarding from Register.com. Chris from PowerBlogs fixed me up. Very responsive. Thanks, Chris.

Retire. Please. You said it. You know you said it. If you meant it, defend it. If not, back down. Don't say you were misquoted.

Many do it. Few do it as well.

Part of the problem with Friedman, Dowd and other columnists is that they are expected to write something by a certain date in order to get paid. This creates a conflict in that they are expected to produce whether or not they have any good ideas.

Update: Sort of like this blog except for the getting paid part and the deadline part.

In the former post I told an old joke about economists:

Have you heard how an economist escapes from a deserted island? First, he assumes a boat.

Finance is no better. I've taken tons of finance classes with all kinds of equations. These equations are supposed to tell you if an investment is worthwhile. Know what everything depends on? Profit. That's it. What do you think your sales will be minus what you think your expenses will be? Who the hell can know? Some guesses are good. Some guesses are bad. However, once you commit to a number you can plug it into all kinds of equations that make you look smart.

I always thought this point was glossed over. I suppose there's really not that much to say about it though. Once you say something is unknowable, there's not much you can teach about it. It just seems that finance professors are not very comfortable with talking much about how their elegant equations hinge on a guess.

This article from The New Yorker is like most articles from The New Yorker: a few simple points hidden within a lot of words. I assume that magazine pays by the letter. Anyway, here's the gist: the uninsured go for check-ups less than the insured, therefore the uninsured have serious problems diagnosed later than the insured and end up costing American society more money. Maybe. All I know is that an economist can justify anything. Have you heard how an economist escapes from a deserted island? First, he assumes a boat.

Anyway, to fix health insurance all we have to do is ban group health coverage. The market will take care of everything else. I promise. It works for every other type of insurance. If you're sicker you should pay more for insurance. Just like someone who has lots of speeding tickets pays more for auto insurance.

If it costs more for someone to skip physicals, some bright, ambitious number-cruncher will figure it out and offer incentives to his customers to have physicals and he'll charge less. People will flock to his company. He'll get rich. Other companies will offer incentives for physicals.

I'll allow you government assistance for the old or young or disabled. We'll let it be in the form of vouchers. The power of the consumer will enable competition. Competition will take care of everything else.

I caught a little of Mick Mixon the other night on the Panthers' broadcast. That must've been some grudge someone in the Panthers' organization had against Rosinski. He must've got caught with someone's wife. I cringe to think about hearing Mick Mixon doing the play by play on Inside the NFL. Let this be a short-lived experiment.

Gezellig. Nice word too.

Come on, Ed. You know she's not talking about NY police and fire. She's talking about folks like the Jersey Girls who tend to dominate the national conversation as examples of the New York state of mind.

He's right. Supporters be careful of what you wish for.

Slightly related. The best thing schools could do is teach students to be skeptical. That way they could think to ask questions themselves and then we'd really get somewhere.

Glad to see they backed down. Take note committees of the future, be sensible.

First Horizon is way better than War Memorial in every way. I hate to see the old parks go too, but it's a lot more fun to go to the new place. I'm sure the ACC feels the same way.

Why does the left insist on this standard? The answer is that they don't really. It's just a device they use when someone says something they like who happens to have been in the military.

Horowitz has thoughts.

This post is absolutely true. It's unbelieveable that the current administration is so inept at communications.

It's hard to believe this is for real. Michael Graham has been fired from ABC Radio in DC. Here's his statement:

THE TRAGEDY OF ISLAM

By Michael Graham

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I take no pleasure in saying it. It pains me to think it. I could very well lose my job in talk radio over admitting it. But it is the plain truth:

Islam is a terror organization.

For years, I've been trying to give the world's Muslim community the benefit of the doubt, along with the benefit of my typical-American's complete disinterest in their faith. Before 9/11, I knew nothing about Islam except the greeting "asalaam alaikum," taught to me by a Pakistani friend in Chicago.

Immediately after 9/11, I nodded in ignorant agreement as President Bush assured me that "Islam is a religion of peace."

But nearly four years later, nobody can defend that statement. And I mean "nobody."

Certainly not the group of "moderate" Muslim clerics and imams who gathered in London last week to issue a statement on terrorism and their faith. When asked the question "Are suicide bombings always a violation of Islam," they could not answer "Yes. Always." Instead, these "moderate British Muslims" had to answer "It depends."

Precisely what it depends on, news reports did not say. Sadly, given our new knowledge of Islam from the past four years, it probably depends on whether or not you're killing Jews.

That is part of the state of modern Islam.

Another fact about the state of Islam is that a majority of Muslims in countries like Jordan continue to believe that suicide bombings are legitimate. Still another is the poll reported by a left-leaning British paper than only 73 percent of British Muslims would tell police if they knew about a planned terrorist attack.

The other 27 percent? They are a part of modern Islam, too.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is outraged that I would dare to connect the worldwide epidemic of terrorism with Islam. They put it down to bigotry, asserting that a lifetime of disinterest in Islam has suddenly become blind hatred. They couldn't be more wrong.

Not to be mean to the folks at CAIR, but I don't: Care, that is. I simply don't care about Islam, its theology, its history — I have no interest in it at all. All I care about is not getting blown to smithereens when I board a bus or ride a plane. I care about living in a world where terrorism and murder/suicide bombings are rejected by all.

Essentially Graham was fired for saying Islam is a terror organization. You may or may not agree. However, the discussion must occur.

Here's the thing. Tactics in wars always change. Remember your American History where the British would bring their troops out in rows to fight the colonists? Remember how the colonists resorted to guerilla warfare? The Americans knew they couldn't stand against the British. They changed tactics to improve their odds.

The goal of the Islamist is the destruction of the West. Islamists don't have a prayer of winning this war by taking on the US directly. They know this. We know this. That's why they have adopted the tactics they have. They get unbelievable mileage out of a few gullible believers who they can get to blow themselves up. That mileage is multiplied by skillful manipulation of the media. It is further multiplied by the useful idiots at WMAL. Their aim is to have Western Civilization destroy itself from within. They take our values and use them against us. They do not have tolerance, but they expect it. They do not give mercy, but they demand it. They do not defend free speech, but they use it.

We are enabling those who seek to destroy us. By giving Islam every benefit of every doubt, we are making it easy. Let the moderate Muslim who wishes to live in peace with the West stand up and condemn those who kill in his name. Let the moderate Muslim defend Islam as a religion of peace. Our politically correct assumptions about the motivations of the moderate Muslim are going to get us killed.

Peter King (SI football writer, not NY Congressman) writes:

Per-gallon gas prices at a Chevron station on the Pacific Coast Highway between Oxnard and LAX Friday evening:

Regular: $3.07.
Special: $3.17.
Premium: $3.27.

Sixteen months ago, when I covered the draft in Oakland, I wrote in this space about the outrage of gas being over $2 a gallon. Not whe interesting thing is I don't sense much outrage, just the willingness of Americans to dig deeper to buy the stuff.

I wish people were outraged enough to demand a sensible energy policy.

With the exception of the last five minutes, SFU was excellent. This show has gotten better through the years because the characters have become more complex, more real. Some have grown. Some have regressed. Just like real life.

The last five minutes, showing how the main characters die, was an awesome idea. It was, however, poorly executed. The makeup was child-like. It took away from the overall effect.

That was one of the better Entourages of the season, too. I think the writers are hitting their stride. The first season and a half have been conflict free. Which has been OK because the characters have been cool. But if the show is to have staying power, there has to be turmoil. I think they know this.

The greatest risk has always been that the government that replaces Saddam will be worse than Saddam. One way to get a worse government is that it be fundamentally Islamic rather than secular.

I've always agreed with Bush that people everywhere want to be free. I also believed, like the administration I think, that after Saddam fell the Iraqi people would rise up and take over. This was an obvious mistake. Why? My best guess is that it has to do with the corruption inherent in the Middle East. These folks know nothing else. Better to sit on your hands and see who ends up in power before risking anything. They've been burned by the US and others before.

Here's the dilemma. You can't leave a lawless Iraq. After a civil war, you'll end up with another Afghanistan pre 9-11. It'll be a terrorist haven, only worse than Afghanistan because all the potential terrorists will be right next door.

So what to do? At some point we're going to have to have a sit down with Islam. We're going to have to get beyond our tolerance based mind set and explain why our culture is better than theirs. It is not acceptable that there are no checks and balances to their religious leaders. It is not acceptable that women are treated worse than dogs. It is not acceptable that you get killed for looking at pornography. It is not acceptable that you strive to destroy Jews. It is not acceptable that you desire the death of the West and for all the world to submit to Islam.

In retrospect, it is unfair that we expected the Iraqis to a priori understand what democracy is. We are going to have to make the case to the Islamic world. We are going to have to counter the hate, the fallacies and the incorrect assumptions of Islam.

This battle is coming whether you like it or not. These fundamentalist Islamic leaders are not backing down and they are in control. We will confront them or we will submit.

What a great movie. Beauty. Duplicity. Deception. Lust. Love. Betrayal. Sword fights. Jealously. Intrigue.

Illegal immigration is a different matter entirely. What's so hard to understand about this? Turning a blind eye to people streaming across your borders is not a policy, it's suicide. By the way, I like the song and the lyrics.

We need two viable political parties. If the Democrats remain hijacked by the extreme left, Republicans will continue to trade principle for opportunism. Contrast the Contract With America to the pork-laden farm and energy bills of the past couple of years. Not that the Democrats aren't complicit (at least raise an objection or two instead of gleefully accepting any and all handouts), but the Republicans are in control.

Top five issues to run on:

1. End illegal immigration. The Republicans are scared to death on this one. Their base is 100% for it. Those against? Some businesses and most political consultants who believe you'll alienate Hispanics. For the Democrat, frame it as the security issue that it is. Say that we no longer have the luxury of tolerating illegals. You'll peel off a heck of a lot Republican support. If they won't vote for a Democrat, they'll at least sit at home rather than vote for a Republican who will continue to be wishy-washy on illegals.

2. Fight the War On Terror more effectively. Say that Saddam had to go, but it is not acceptable for us not to have anticipated the resistance that has occurred. You can't leave Iraq in a vacuum. You must finish the job. Say that a new administration will have more credibility in this area.

3. Energy policy. Devote resources to making us less dependent on oil from the Middle East. Make the point that we can't keep financing terrorists. It's immoral.

4. Balanced budget. Say that you'll eliminate government waste starting with the Department of Defense and working down. Be responsible with the people's money.

5. National Sales Tax. Make the argument that this is a progressive tax (the idea that the rich don't pay taxes anyway). You can make the exemption for the poor whatever you want. Make your opponent defend the IRS.

Minor positions to stake out:

1. Say that abortion is OK for the first four months. After that it should be banned except for the life, health qualifiers. This is the uneasy position most people hold. Don't argue against parental notification.

2. Be for clean water and air, but don't go overboard with the enviromentalists.

3. End corporate welfare. Make the point that your tax reforms will end favoritism.

4. Real campaign-finance reform. Explain what a joke McCain-Feingold is. Make yourself the anti-establishment candidate. State that competition is good for everyone, including politicians.

5. Argue for term limits and against safe districts. See number 4.

6. Don't emphasize gay anything. Say that you're for privacy and equal treatment, but not special privileges for anyone.

7. Be for free trade. Hammer home that it must be fair.

I'm going to miss this show. It's grown on me the past few seasons. I'm still not sure what to think of American Beauty. However, I do know that Alan Ball has matured as a writer and producer through the years with Six Feet Under. It's more complex than American Beauty.

Can the new The Sopranos season get here soon enough?

Over on Instapundit. A simple theory as to why box office receipts are down. Hollywood ought to realize something is up when March of the Penguins cleans up versus supposed blockbusters. March of the Penguins is quite good by the way. Kind of proves the theory, huh?

I love to watch him run. Dear God, don't let him get hurt.

One of the main reasons liberals aren't successful on TV or radio is the dreadful personalities of the true believers. Al Franken is the best you can do? Janeane Garofalo? Not if she were the second-to-last woman on earth.

and the possibility they might acquire them, al Qaeda would be the laughingstock of the terrorist world. I guess they've sent all the smart ones on suicide missions by now. How could you miss a 40,500 ton ship?

On Daly Kos from Bill in Maine. Bill sends a list of quotes. Here's the key one:

America:
"The administration says the American people want tax cuts. Well, duh. The American people also want drive-through nickel beer night. The American people want to lose weight by eating ice cream. The American people love the Home Shopping Network because it's commercial-free."
--Will Durst

This is why liberals lose ground. They believe the people are stupid and need to be told what is good for them.

Yes, I know I'm late to the party. However, this quote of hers from the 10th keeps coming up. Speaking of Bush, Dowd writes:

But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.

What does this mean? Is it just more prattle from Dowd? Or does she really believe it? If she believes it, did she think about that sentence for more than two seconds? Does she really think it possible that all parents of servicemen killed in Iraq think the same way? If not, which parents get to have moral authority? Those whose sons or daughters were killed early on? Those whose sons or daughters were killed most violently?

For a sobering perspective read this by Ronald Griffin from today's Wall Street Journal. Care to convey absolute moral authority on him, Ms. Dowd?

Big butts are in. Know what makes a woman sexy besides a big butt? Confidence. Not some false bravado, but real confidence that comes from.........hell, if I knew that I'd write a book and retire.

Update: Oh, yeah. Enthusiasm too.

What a dupe.

"I had raised money for Jeffords; in 2000, I had even campaigned for him in Vermont. Six months later, this was the way he repaid me," Lott wrote.

"He'd always had a habit of bartering his crucial vote on legislation for his own pet projects," Lott said.

When all you do well is pander, you will get taken advantage of.

By the way, the use of a preposition at the end of a sentence is a grammatical error up with which I will not put. Apologies to Winston Churchill.

What small, jealous person coined the term McMansion? Your buddy works hard and decides to spend his money on 4000 sf in a suburb. You don't want to work as hard (or as smart or in an enterprise that pays well or maybe just weren't as lucky) and can't afford a $3000 a month mortgage. So what do you do, you disparage his achievement by using this pithy little term.

I was all set to rant on this story about monster homes. The headline is "Die, die, monster home! Die!" So what do you think the story is about? I thought the story was about a bunch of do-gooders out to limit everyone to 1100 square feet. Turns out it's just people who want to limit development in a couple of established residential neighborhoods. Sounds reasonable to me. Does this paragraph fit with the headline?

It's not necessarily the size that matters -- location is a big part of it. Few people oppose McMansions in new suburbs with uniformly large homes, or to single monsters set apart on ample acreage. What raises hackles is Gulliver-sized homes on lilliputian lots.

Many older, closed-in suburbs that are in demand for their easy commutes are already built out. Builders put in large homes on whatever shoebox-sized lots remain or knock down smaller houses and replace them with palaces. They fill in nearly to the lot line and build as high as regulations allow, dwarfing neighboring homes.

I've got to remember this (you have to watch an ad). My God what a line. Could a man say this with a straight face? The issue in question is nude photos of Jude Law. Here's the quote:

In other words, those pictures are hot because when we look at them, we're not thinking of Jude Law, we're thinking of you: Our husbands, our boyfriends, not the strangers but the men we've known.

So now all these congressmen go to Alaska and report back that the affects of climate change are noticeable and dramatic. Wasn't it widely reported recently that climate change is gradual? That we'd likely see temperatures increase by one degree or so in the next century? I've got degree day charts from the fifties for Burlington. They show the fifties way colder than the nineties. I have little doubt that there's climate change. The climate changes all the time. It's always changed. It always will. I saw a story the other day that said an area of ice in Russia had melted. You know when the ice formed? 11,000 years ago. Know what this means? The ice didn't exist 11,001 years ago. This means that area is now as warm as it was 11,001 years ago.

The real issue is man's affect on the climate and whether it's significant and/or detrimental. The jury's on vacation. They won't be back for a while.

Can we all agree that it's now time for the Palestinians to show some progress?

In granting the Palestinians statehood, Sharon has imposed the cruelty of responsibility. If they end up with a truncated West Bank, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Will the Palestinians embrace the opportunity to build something? Or will Hamas take this as a sign that its tactics work? Let's see if 'Land for Peace' is the panacea its promoters say it is.

Article in Reason states that the poor have more and cleaner water when capitalism replaces socialism. It's not hard to extrapolate to areas beyond water (electricity anyone?). Money quote:

Segerfeldt shows that even imperfect privatization efforts have already successfully connected millions of poor people to relatively inexpensive water where government-funded efforts have failed. For example, before privatization in 1989, only 20 percent of urban dwellers the African nation of Guinea had access to safe drinking water; by 2001 70 percent did. The price of piped water increased from 15 cents per cubic meter to almost a dollar, but as Segerfeldt correctly notes, "before privatization the majority of Guineans had no access to mains water at all. They do now. And for these people, the cost of water has fallen drastically.

Via Instapundit

If you have to be told to stand up and assert your right to masculinity, there is already no hope for you.

Ed Cone blogs about Maker's Mark, martinis, red wine and beer. The weekend can't get here soon enough.

Bureaucrats cover themselves better than any other group. Watch out when the start blaming each other for their failings.

I thought for sure Clinton would take this title once he became a civilian. However, Carter is unstoppable. He is the heavyweight champion of pessimism and self-pity.

I heard a re-run on the Mitch Albom show of an interview with Carter from the summer of 2004. Albom was fawning all over him as Albom is wont to do. Carter was talking about how he wouldn't have invaded Iraq. Of course, he wouldn't have. That's why the Iranians pushed him around.

Want to get to know a real genius? The link is to the right under Blogs/Columns. Here's the first bit I read by him. I go back to it every so often. The rest of the site is equally good.

Via Hugh Hewitt. Read the letter from the UND President.

Let me tell you what is likely to have happened at the NCAA. They formed a committee of busy body overachievers to address this issue. They wouldn't tolerate dissent since they all knew the PC position. They put together what they knew in their mind to be the 'right' stance. The committee voted. The decision was made without input from the people affected. The absolute absurdity of the NCAA position was evident minutes after the decision was published. The committee is quiet because they want the whole thing to blow over.

By the way, the NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis. Are you going to petition the city to change its name, NCAA?

Here's Myles Brand's response.

Gaza Settlers Defy Evacuation Deadline

Gaza Deadline Passes; Settlers Empty Out

Both from the AP. The first is from Yahoo. The second is from My Way. Headline writers have a lot of power. No?