Boyd

AP:

Millions of years ago the Earth experienced an extended period of natural global warming. But around 55 million years ago there was a sudden supercharged spike of carbon dioxide that accelerated the greenhouse effect.

Scientists already knew this "thermal event" happened but are not sure what caused it. Perhaps massive releases of methane from the ocean, the continent-sized burning of trees, lots of volcanic eruptions.

Many experts figured that while the rest of the world got really hot, the polar regions were still comfortably cooler, maybe about 52 degrees Fahrenheit.

But the new research found the polar average was closer to 74 degrees. So instead of Boston-like weather year-round, the Arctic was more like Miami North. Way north.

and...

And the new research also gave scientists the idea that a simple fern may have helped pull Earth from a hothouse to an icehouse by sucking up massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, this natural solution to global warming was not exactly quick: It took about a million years.

With all that heat and massive freshwater lakes forming in the Arctic, a fern called Azolla started growing and growing. Azolla, still found in warm regions today, grew so deep, so wide that eventually it started sucking up carbon dioxide, Brinkhuis theorized. And that helped put the cool back in the Arctic.

What does this mean? I have no idea.

Coulter:

Of course illegal immigrants will "work for less." They don't have to pay taxes at all now, and under Bush's plan they will have to pay taxes for only — at most — three of the last five years. Not only that, but illegal aliens don't require their employers to comply with OSHA regulations, overtime and minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, disability laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, a slew of oppressive environmental regulations, and 4 million other ways the government has developed to make it extremely expensive to hire legal employees.

Instead of creating a separate class of citizens who are immune from oppressive government rules, how about relieving all of us — even us shiftless Americans — from the cost of government?

David Boyd Rule of Life Number 7 is that for every well-intentioned rule or law there is an equal and opposite unintended consequence.

An unintended consequence of the nanny state and regulations imposed on employers is that employers have found a class of people to employ who are outside the reach of the nanny state.

Stein:

When I got back to Los Angeles, I started to read a book I can't finish, called A Writer at War by Vassily Grossman, a correspondent with the Red Army newspaper during World War II.

The part I can't get past is the atrocities of the Germans towards the Jews when they took the Ukraine in the early part of World War II. One incident just haunts me every day.

The Germans came upon a kosher butcher. They asked him if he were really a good butcher. He said he hoped he was. They brought his two small sons to him and said, "Show us. On your sons."

I keep putting the book down at this point and wondering, "Why did God bother making creatures as wicked as man?"

BBC:

According to the Wall St Journal, there is evidence that marines killed civilians, including women and children, without provocation.

Several marines are likely to be charged with murder and others with attempting to cover up the incident, the newspaper said, quoting civilian and military officials close to the investigations.

One of the marines in Haditha that day, Lance Cpl Roel Ryan Briones of Hanford, California, told the Los Angeles Times he had taken photos and carried bodies out of homes as part of a clean-up crew:

"They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood."

I've been hoping this will turn out not to be true, but that is seeming less likely.

To win the struggle against terrorism, we have to be the shining city on a hill. If we're not, there's really nothing to win.

Buchanan:

Many now in power are in reality conservative impersonators, the sort of people the conservative movement was first mounted to run out of town. Indeed, under George W. Bush, the party of Goldwater and Reagan has become a second party of government.

I was thinking about Rush Limbaugh today. If the Democrats had been in power the last few years, Rush would be on fire railing against out of control spending (including especially the prescription drug bill) and expanding federal power. But, he doesn't. Not really. When he does his heart's not in it for fear of giving Democrats ammunition.

However, this is foolish. Why worry with tactics when you have lost on strategy? It's as if you're leading an army that is completely surrounded and you're worried about defending a bridge.

In addition to the logic of the decision to leave Aniston for Jolie outlined here, it is now apparent that there was a more, shall we say, divine reason.

AP:

Nothing was normal about the birth of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s child, so naturally, neither was their baby’s name.

The child — whose pending arrival created a frenzy of hyperbole making it for some the most awaited baby since Jesus — was named Shiloh, which fittingly means "Messiah" or "Peaceful One."

So there you have it. He did it for us. Let me be the first to say, thanks, Brad.

Brown:

...President Jimmy Carter was defeated for a second term in 1980 primarily because of a voter consensus that although he was a good, honest man with the right priorities, his administration could not organize a one-car funeral.

In general, any way back in the public opinion polls for this President Bush would require he and his administration to demonstrate their ability to deal with the nation's problems in a way that satisfies the public.

That may be. However, I suspect that after five and a half years if they could demonstrate their ability we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I was at Sunday dinner this afternoon at the home of my favorite in-laws and the wildly underrated Rock Star was on the TV. My wife caught a glimpse of Jennifer Aniston and made a statement about how pretty she is and what an idiot Brad Pitt is for leaving her.

(This is the Public Service part.)

Gentlemen, do not in this type of situation, under any circumstances, no matter how truthful or accurate you think you are going to be, no matter how obvious you think it is to anyone with a working pair of eyes, say something like, "You must be out of your mind. You can't blame Brad Pitt for leaving Jennifer Aniston when he had the opportunity to get with Angelina Jolie. Please."

(End PSA. Further explanation continues below.)

The transformation that this indisputably accurate statement brings on is remarkable. Extreme rage is reached from all females present in less time than it takes light to travel around the earth. Imagine PMS coupled with you skipping her birthday and leaving her with the kids to go to Vegas for a week with your buddies, one of whom is recently divorced. Even then, I'm not sure we're at the same exact level, but at least we're in the zip code.

This is all fairly disconcerting to me. I attempt to take women at their word that they are not the emotional, irrational creatures that they have been stereotyped as being from less enlightened males. I try to communicate with them using logic and facts just as I would with any man. However, when presented with contrary evidence in the form of their child-like reactions to the mythical beauty of Angelina Jolie as I was today, there is nothing to do but to reconsider this liberal approach.

Women, you may resume reading now.

Steyn:

What does the Republican base's despair with Congress boil down to? That the Gingrich revolutionaries have turned into the pampered potentates of pre-1994 Washington, a remote insulated arrogant elite interested only in protecting the privileges of the permanent governing class.

All that's left is to raise taxes to pay for their wasteful spending and they will have abandoned every principle held by the people who put them into office in 1994.

Daily Michael Kelly posts ended yesterday.

'You handled yourself pretty well back there,' she said.

'Well,' I said coolly, 'I've had a lot of experience handling myself.'

I hope you all have enjoyed these as much as I have. It's sad to seem them go, yet much good came of it. There were the laughs, the feud, my battles with legions of Kelly fanatics and surf nazis who thought I was dissing our shared hero, lengthy email exchanges between Kelly and myself explaining our positions and coming to a common understanding and, finally, a planned vacation where I take my family to visit him and his mother in England. My wife and I are to have Kelly's mother's bed, while the old woman sleeps on the ironing board. The children are to sleep in drawers pulled out from the bureau.

Kelly assures me that after being in the country for six hours we will be eligible to get on the dole which will make us fabulously wealthy once we bring all those pounds back to exchange for the weakening dollar.

Update: Some of ye be confused. The Michael Kelly we worship here is not the same Michael Kelly of The Atlantic who was killed in Iraq.

Saunders:

Washington politicians, especially on the GOP side, often complain about inheritance taxes. U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, however, thinks elected officials should be talking about "the birth burden," the $156,000 that represents each American's share of the $8 trillion federal debt, plus $35 trillion in unfunded spending promises. Every child born in America receives this dubious legacy: a $156,000 IOU.

Walker was in San Francisco on Tuesday, speaking at what participants call, "The Fiscal Wake-up Tour." Their first hurdle is to break through Americans' numbness on numbers. You see a tab in the billions, and it doesn't mean anything to you. So Walker puts the numbers in personal terms. The average household share of the federal fiscal mess is $411,000. Imagine if every household in America had a $411,000 mortgage, but no house.

I'm optimistic overall about the economic situation in the world. More and more people getting richer and richer is nothing but a good thing. It'll help us all in the end.

However, if there's anything that scares the hell out me, that jeopardizes everything, it's our complete unwillingness to do anything about entitlements. In fact, it seems that rather than momentum to reduce entitlements, there's momentum to increase entitlements.

I don't get it. Maybe it doesn't seem like a real problem to people. Who knows? Maybe we'll just keep doling out entitlements until our money is worthless and folks begin to starve. Perhaps then it won't seem all that wonkish.

Nordlinger:

"Change is a constant,” says Aziz (Prime Minister of Pakistan), "and globalization is upon us—it is not a cliché." Having said that, he cites a cliché, and a true one: "Globalization is a tidal wave: You can either ride it, and go far; or resist it, and be swept away."

They've decided they don't care anymore and they'll offend everyone. Cool.

Fox:

"We are furious!" roared "View" moderator Meredith Vieira in the opening moments of the show, "Furious!"

In Time's cover story this week, Dixie Chick Emily Robison says that the group takes its political views very seriously and will try to limit appearances to high-caliber, meaningful gigs.

Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines' "new motto is, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?' " says Robison. "Not that we're of that caliber, but would Bruce Springsteen do 'The View'?"

Results here. When the show started, who would have thought it? We are clearly holding tight to the rope and directly over the shark at this point.

In honor of Chris (and due in some small part to baseball season starting) we've stopped watching.

I haven't watched the NBA seriously since Jordan retired. I saw a little of the Spurs championship runs, but not much.

This year, however, I've been watching a bit more due to better offense and HDTV. And yet, the end of games, that should be exciting, are protracted commercial fests because of the timeout. It seems to have gotten worse during my absence. Or maybe I'm just more critical and distracted now. Whatever. But Josh Levin is right, the only reason for timeouts is so that coaches can show us that they matter.

...they use timeouts to show the world that they're really coaching—settling their team down, drawing up a play, making a considered substitution. During the game, the focus is on the athleticism and creativity of the players. In a timeout, it shifts to the guy with the whiteboard and the Magic Marker.

Ban this abomination.

Bartholomew:

A society that widely regards capitalism as bad will, in due course, destroy it. Incredibly, it seems necessary to assert afresh that capitalism is the goose that lays the golden eggs - the foundation of the extraordinary wealth we now enjoy, compared with all previous eras of world history.

Very good discussion at Althouse's, with many clever points, about Reynolds's piece in the WSJ about the incentives for Americans not to have kids, or to have fewer kids than they used to. This article in Foreign Affairs was his jumping off point.

Longman:

Although many factors are at work, the changing economics of family life is the prime factor in discouraging childbearing. In nations rich and poor, under all forms of government, as more and more of the world's population moves to urban areas in which children offer little or no economic reward to their parents, and as women acquire economic opportunities and reproductive control, the social and financial costs of childbearing continue to rise.

I ain't buying Instapundit's argument that people don't have kids because having kids isn't cool or that it's too hard. It's purely economic. Kids used to be a resource; now they're not. End of story.

So this is how it will end, a bunch of codgers sitting around a nursing home in the dark waiting for someone youthful to cook something.

It's madness though, isn't it? The higher our standard of living gets, the less likely we are to propagate the species.

Codger: Bring me something to eat.

Hallucinated youthful servant brought on by starvation: It's your fault you know.

Codger: What?

HYS: It's your fault.

Codger: What?

HYS: YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE KIDS!

Codger: But then I wouldn't have all this money.

These guys linked to me for praising Mark Harris in this post.

I like how they define conservatism. The Sharon Statement:

In this time of moral and political crises, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths.

We, as young conservatives, believe:

That foremost among the transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force;

That liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom;

That the purpose of government is to protect those freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice;

That when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power, which tends to diminish order and liberty;

That the Constitution of the United States is the best arrangement yet devised for empowering government to fulfill its proper role, while restraining it from the concentration and abuse of power;

That the genius of the Constitution- the division of powers- is summed up in the clause that reserves primacy to the several states, or to the people, in those spheres not specifically delegated to the Federal government;

That the market economy, allocating resources by the free play of supply and demand, is the single economic system compatible with the requirements of personal freedom and constitutional government, and that it is at the same time the most productive supplier of human needs;

That when government interferes with the work of the market economy, it tends to reduce the moral and physical strength of the nation; that when it takes from one man to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both;

That we will be free only so long as the national sovereignty of the United States is secure; that history shows periods of freedom are rare, and can exist only when free citizens concertedly defend their rights against all enemies;

That the forces of international Communism are, at present, the greatest single threat to these liberties;

That the United States should stress victory over, rather than coexistance with, this menace; and

That American foreign policy must be judged by this criterion: does it serve the just interests of the United States?

I'll go along with that.

Drudge flashes up this big, red headline about bird flu maybe once a week. Frankly, it's getting annoying. Every time I see it, I panic a little until I realize there's a 99.9999% chance I will die from something else.

Simmons:

Went to the Yankees home opener and was using one of the urinals in the men's bathroom. Two stalls over, a guy had his daughter in one of those baby papoose things around his neck. The guy between us strikes up a conversation with the dad. "So how old is she? Is this her first baseball game? Is this her first Yankees game?" Then he says, while talking stupid baby talk, "I bet this won't be the only time you go to a Yankees game." Just then, another guy walks behind us and says, "I bet this also won't be the only time she's in the men's room," and keeps on walking past. Welcome to Yankee Stadium.
--J. Coyle, Morristown, N.J.

Regarding 'rainbow parties,' Young:

...as Caitlin Flanagan points out in a lengthy review essay in The Atlantic, the different colors of lipstick would almost inevitably smear and destroy the supposedly sought-after rainbow effect. Besides, a boy would have to be a sexual superathlete to complete the circuit.

What is it about being an adult that makes one believe that the current crop of kids is having more fun that you ever did?

but he is good enough for the NFL?

Yasinskas:

The former voice of the Carolina Panthers is about to become a radio voice for the entire NFL.

Bill Rosinski said Tuesday morning he has agree to contract terms with Westwood One (the sports division of CBS Radio) to broadcast 16 Sunday games and the Thanksgiving Day game.

I don't know what kind of pictures Mick Mixon is in possession of, but they better be of Richardson himself. Just excruciating. He might even be worse than when he was on the UNC broadcasts. Which is the one good thing about all this - at least he's gone from there.

Thomas:

The Democratic economic policy is higher taxes, more spending and bigger government. Republicans aren't much better. Their policy is lower taxes, more spending and bigger government.

Conservative rock song may be a stretch, but Southern reply to Northern tyranny? Damn right.

Long:

"Sweet Home Alabama" is not really a paean to the place, though it is a little of that. It is absolutely not a boast about the racist Southern past, though that is where most rock critics prefer to begin and end. "Sweet Home Alabama" is in fact a Great Equalizer—a hacked-off taunt at anyone who thinks he's better'n me: Down here, "we all did what we could do," and since most folks talk more than do, "does your conscience bother you?" That goes for Neil Young, the Canadian singer who sneered his way through "Southern Man" and "Alabama," as well as post-Watergate poseurs above the Mason-Dixon Line. You look down on us, but what did you ever do besides gripe?

We Southerners are a little paranoid, but not without reason. To those who haven't lived among us, the south's history is easy: a hundred years of mint juleps, black skin, and white teeth, followed by fire hoses and flaming crosses until the enlightened young proletariat arrived in Nineteen-Sixty-Something to cleanse our redneck souls. Now, they say it's a Red State Wonderland of jingoism, xenophobia, and ignorance waiting for its next renaissance—not that we deserve it, voting Republican and all. Still, in their charitable moments, Our Northern Betters imagine that a Blue Roses South will rise, chastened and humble and a little slow, naturally, but better in that it will be "just like us."

Ed King, Gary Rossington, and Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd put as much principle as pride to their highway rhythm, answering invective with something bigger. Things aren't perfect here or anywhere else, they seem to say, but we've been known to pick a song or two, we have ourselves some blue skies, and the road will always carry me home to see my kin. We have secrets and shames, but so do you, so don't dare preach to me. That's far beyond a singularly southern sentiment. That's what every free man ought to say. Turn it up.

The lyrics:

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the Southland
I miss Alabamy once again
And I think it's a sin, yes

Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Here I come Alabama

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they've been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue
Now how about you?

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet Home Alabama
Lord, I'm coming home to you

Sweet home Alabama
Oh sweet home baby
Where the skies are so blue
And the governor's true
Sweet Home Alabama
Lordy
Lord, I'm coming home to you
Yea, yea—my governor's got the answer

Not just us. Bloomberg:

China's money supply expansion unexpectedly picked up in April and bank lending more than doubled, increasing pressure on the central bank to rein in liquidity growth.

M2, which includes cash and all deposits, rose 18.9 percent from a year earlier after gaining 18.8 percent in March, the People's Bank of China said today on its Web site.

BBC:

Jordanian officials say they have arrested a senior al-Qaeda figure heavily involved in Iraq's insurgency.

Security officials in Jordan's capital, Amman, refused to identify the man, said to be a key aide to Iraq's most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

5,000 key aides captured. 5,000 more to go and we'll about have this thing wrapped up.

Has there ever been a flame-out this spectacular? I'm searching and I just can't think of one.

Instead of that Kentucky Derby horse breaking his leg running around the track this would be like the jockey bringing the horse to a stop in front of the grandstand, dismounting, pulling out a Glock and shooting the horse in the eye. This descent has been so steep that it's hard to remember when the girl was even remotely attractive. What must K-Fed think? K-Fed is the guy who put all his money into dot-coms in February 2000, took his losses in September and put what was left in Enron.

At this point, it's better than even odds that, in he next six months, K-Fed makes a play for Jamie Lynn.

Article on Salon about this site.

The idea is genius.

People who need money request it, and other people bid for the privilege of lending it to them.

Be the bank.

Prediction. The whole thing falls apart the first time someone misses a payment and gets their kneecaps busted.

This interview with Jed Babbin is mostly about the possibility of war with China and the extent to which they want war. Who knows? However, if it isn't China, it'll be someone else. That's why Utah polygamists put their sons out on the street and what Bill will do to Ben after Ben and Margene (who finally grows tired of being the maid and gardener and embraces her inner vixen) take the next step, if the Big Love writers are any good. Where was I? Oh, yeah. War with China.

Human Events:

But doesn’t China need us? Aren’t we their biggest market? Won’t they go broke if they can’t sell us their manufactured goods?

They need us only so long as we don’t conflict with their ambitions. They do take an enormous economic risk by confronting us, but the risk is mutual. They may go broke regardless. China’s banks are burdened by almost $1 TRILLION in bad debts. We should be helping those debts go bad, but as they are mostly internal it’s probably beyond our power to do so.

Chinese bad debts are the short-term key to political maneuvering. China's the new bogeyman, but, good lord, the parallels with Japan are just too similar not to have learned anything. Remember how Japan was going to buy up the United States? What happened? Their 'command economy' imploded. Same thing will happen with China, just more pronounced. You can't ignore economic laws and you can't continue to deceive investors. Even China.

One small difference, Japan had no military.

First. What? Edie Falco had a Paris vacation added to her contract? Gandolfini goes to Italy a few years ago and she wants Paris. I thought I was watching Rick Steves for a while.

Worst. All those weeks of Vito gayness for that? What a let down. He couldn't have taken out Finn like he was supposed to? Instead Finn flees to Cali with Med? Not only is Finn still alive, but our girl is gone.

Update: The stripper wasn't bad.

The N&R has an editorial today regarding Mecklenburg County's plan to use lottery proceeds to give its residents a tax cut. The N&R, in support, states:

Sometimes, even tax relief counts as a critical need.

We may have turned a corner here. The next thing you know they'll be admitting that the property being taxed doesn't actually belong to the government in the first place.

It appears that another class has graduated from me alma mater. This year they allowed a female to address the graduates. How long has this been going on? At any rate, the optimism on display is nauseating. The only acceptable optimistic commencement address can be found here.

A deconstruction of the more naive parts of the speech.


Westmoreland:

I've never been able to fully understand the person with no drive, with no ambition. How can you not look out at the world and just want to spend your life trying to make it better?

Not technically a part of the speech, but what caught my attention. This is a person in desperate need of a little worldly guidance. Otherwise a few inevitable disappointments later, we will find ourselves susceptible to the smooth talking, world promising, film producing mavens of the San Fernando Valley.

And with that, I leave you with a transcript of my commencement speech to the Class of 2006. It was my first commencement address, but it won't be my last. Mark my words.

Also not technically part of the speech. Another commencement address? I'm confused by this. Is there a speakers bureau for this sort of thing? Does it pay anything?

Melissa Westmoreland's Address to the UNCG Class of 2006

The actual speech.

Good morning, my name is Melissa Westmoreland, and I bring greetings from the Class of 2006.

Greetings, y'all. I'm from Gamma Gamma 9. Ooops. I mean Kinston.

I love UNCG, and I can't even imagine leaving it, but then again, I'm excited about what the future may hold.

The answer, my dear, is graduate school. You can stretch it out for at least four years. This delays having to go to work and puts you that much closer to death once you do sign on somewhere. Also, dating your professors is not frowned upon as a graduate student. In fact, it's practically expected. Especially the married ones. Ask Wharton. Existentialism. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

...I think the best part of graduation is not knowing what lies ahead of you.

I'm not sure why someone wouldn't know. It's fairly well documented. The only thing you may not know is for whom you will toil. However, it's all the same in the end now, isn't it.

So I have decided that, since I can't really give you any advice on how to land your dream job, I would leave you with something more along the lines of a plea: Please, whatever you do, do something GREAT.

Dear lord, yes. For you liberal arts people, you need to be prepared to refresh my drinks at exactly the right moment. Wait too long and I begin to get parched and I grow irritable. Come around too often and you're hovering. For someone to get it just right brings joy like nothing else.

The stereotype of a typical college student has gone from that of a passionate political protestor to a couch potato who will go to great lengths to keep from having to move one inch. Our generation is defined by convenience, laziness, and apathy.

Passionate political protestors? Who? Those dolts from the sixties? They only protested, got high and went to concerts because there were no big screen, high definition TVs and Xboxes for their parents to buy for them. Don't sell yourselves short. You are taking advantage of what previous graduates are making possible. It is now your job to go out and invent things to make life easier for your younger brothers and sisters. I'd personally like to see a little movement on the transportation front. They've had that teleport thing in various science fiction flicks for a while now. If I were able to go from my couch to the liquor store and back again without having to stand up, I'd be quite content.

This is our chance to prove them all wrong, to prove that we ARE motivated, that we CAN accomplish great things. This is our chance to make a difference in the world. I hate cliches, but I believe with all my heart that we can do anything we put our minds to.

Uh-huh. At some point you will be compelled to have children. Against all your better judgment you will inevitably think that if you don't, you will miss something important. And when you make this fateful decision and bring said demon into the world, you will find that their will is stronger than yours. You will lose faith in hated cliches. (Speaking of cliches, maybe you could invent a keyboard that allows one to put that little checkmark looking thing over 'e.' I'd also like that two dot thing over 'o' that Motorhead uses when they write their name.)

We, my fellow UNCG graduates, are the future. Society might have lowered its standards for our generation, but I have not. I want to see our graduates excelling in every field, curing cancer, solving world hunger, bringing peace to the Middle East! You might think I'm exaggerating, but that's really just how much I believe in the power of us. I want to see a UNCG graduate in the White House.

Is anyone hungry anymore? And can't we give up on peace in the Middle East already? Osama ain't listening to any twenty-two year olds from Greensboro when it comes to his political agenda. Perhaps we could get a new list of dire problems for commencement speakers and beauty pageant contestants to recite when commenting on their goals for their fellow man? Maybe something like let's excel by making sure that The Sopranos is extended for another season or let's figure out how to grow six-pack abs without having to go to the stupid gym.

We are in the best years of our lives. We are living in an amazing time. We are graduating from an excellent school. Use it all to your advantage.

Yeah. Don't screw it up.

Last, but certainly not least, never forget where you came from. Your dreams may pull you all over the globe, but never let UNCG slip from your mind.

Don't worry. UNCG will never slip from your mind. The alumni giving department has the ability to track you down wherever you may go. If you are climbing Mt. Everest and have not made your annual donation, you can be sure that there will be a sherpa with an envelope waiting for you at the summit.

So, all that being said, is the future as really as bleak for new graduates as I make out? For most of you, the answer is yes. It takes a lot of people to build that hump in the bell curve. (If you don't know what a bell curve is because you slept through statistics, don't worry, you're in it.) So, what should you do then, UNCG grads? Make life as easy as possible for your future bosses - the true elites and the folks who will really make a difference in the world - UNC Chapel Hill grads.

Until this very moment, I figured Michael Kelly, author (presumed) of the French Intellectuals in Afghanistan thing, was some hotshot writer, or, at least, some hotshot writer writing under an assumed name for amusement and the possibility of untraceable, extracurricular groupie activity. It never entered my mind that his constant complainings and recountings of being an unpublished novelist and sometimes file clerk who lives with his mother were anything but either a humorous interlude between chapters to relieve stress or the latest exercise for brilliant intellectuals debuted at a winter retreat at Gstaad a few years past. Alas, it seems I was mistaken. It does indeed appear that he is the wannabe novelist and ne'er-do-well that he claims to be.

Update: This passage from Thursday of the third week's Journal of Distraction had nothing to do with the above post.

PS. Private message to David Boyd of Carolina:

David, I still have the negatives. You and I know the girl was only a midget, but to everyone else she'll look underage. Besides the thing you did with the chicken is illegal in most states anyway. The thing with the dachsund, illegal even in Holland. I don't care if your readers are ready to lynch you, you keep linking me every damn day or else.

Update II: Again, I do not know why they make it difficult to link to these posts. They do appear to have jobs involving fraudulent paintings so that may have something to do with it.

Update III: If any of you has ties to publishers who might like to read my downtrodden friend's manuscript, let me know. On the off chance it is any good, he would then be eternally in my debt and I may be able to get the negatives back.

Update IV: If the manuscript is as bad as feared, consider buying art from the site where Monsieur Kelly is employed as a file clerk.

Update V: They have nudes.

Simmons:

Q: What do you guess the over-under is on the number of times Tyrus Thomas' Tremendous Upside Potential gets mentioned in the 2006 NBA draft? I'm picturing an ecstatic Jay Bilas talking faster and faster till his head just explodes like a FemBot from "Austin Powers."
-- Matt Mertens, Boston

SG: I'm more excited for Dick Vitale to pull out a chainsaw on live TV and start swinging it like Leatherface when J.J. Redick drops into the 20s. And it's going to happen.

Nope. Won't happen. Redick will never go in the first round.

I haven't had much sympathy for the Duke lax guys. At best, the Duke boys are getting drunk, hiring strippers and emailing each other about fantasies involving killing said strippers.

I was kind of feeling bad about maleness in general because of the whole incident and wondering if maybe we ought to just let the women have it for a while, but then what do the women do? They find their own lacrosse team at an exclusive, private college to hire a stripper and then post pictures of the whole thing. You can find the damning pictures here (Not too obscene, but probably not safe for work, depending, as always, on where you work. The Wake and Elon pics are elsewhere on the site as well.). Granted, the women involved didn't rape the guy as far as we know nor is the stripper claiming to have been raped, but come on, ladies, it's one thing to participate in this kind of thing, it's another to take pictures and it's yet another to put the pictures on the Internet. What are y'all thinking? Let's be a little more subtle with our future transgressions, shall we?

Update: From the AP.

The school's athletic director says if any students willingly took part, they'll be disciplined.

What? Is it possible the stripper kidnapped these innocent lasses? I'm sorry, ladies, for implying otherwise.

Greatest political stunt of the past decade.

In a Mt. Lebanon race, 21-year-old-college student Mark Harris delivered a stunning defeat to long-time big-government incumbent Tom Stevenson. Mr. Stevenson tried to save his job by attacking Mr. Harris as too young and inexperienced to hold office, but Mr. Harris responded by sending the incumbent a copy of "Economics for Dummies." That tactic evidently sealed Mr. Stevenson's fate. (We can think of many Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who would benefit from that book.)

Sun Tzu:

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

In this post I wondered if the Todd Oakley of Suicide Darlings was the Todd Oakley I hung out with back in the day at Northeast Junior High School. Turns out he is.

I had an email conversation with Jason Blaustein of the band about it. Evidently he's the My Space guru. At any rate I ended up asking for a CD. They sell them at their shows for $5. I sent him $15 to cover shipping and as a tip. He sent me the CD and $10 back.

It's terrific. 5 songs. Four of them are online at their site. Listen there and then get up and mail them $5 for a copy of the disc. The address is 1000 Westover Terrace, Greensboro, NC 27408. Twenty minutes worth of material.

The CD is pretty well produced. Amazing what you can do recording wise for not much money compared to a few years ago where studio time was hundreds of dollars an hour. Now you can build your own studio for almost nothing. I don't know if that's what they did (they must not be hurting for cash to send my $10 back), but whatever they did, it's a good product.

So what do they sound like? Duran Duran (this is not a bad thing), the tune Vacation North of China is reminiscent of The Knack and The Go-Gos with the backup girl singers and the drum beat, The Police in parts, Howard Jones, a little U2 mixed in and a few others. However, they've got their own style without a doubt. This is the most impressed I've been with a Greensboro band in a long time. I don't see how they don't have a shot. Some of what they do is a bit melancholy, but it's hooky and clever at the same time. And from their pictures, they've got panache. Kind of a Robert Palmer/Michael Hutchence thing going on.

So buy the disc, go to a show, be amazed that Greensboro is turning out such good stuff and then be thankful that you heard of them early.

Well, that's what Althouse would say, but not me. There's really no such thing, now is there? However, if there were such a thing, view it here in the form of Eva Herzigova who appeared at the premier of the supposedly atrocious new movie about how the Mona Lisa is really Jesus or something or other.

And yes, it's safe for work. Or not. Depends on your job, I guess.

A vile creature this is. Going on week two. Preparing to strangle someone.

If you do get chigger bit, you're about to learn things about yourself you're unlikely to learn any other way. For one thing, you're about to find out just how much self-discipline you have and just how valuable it is. You'll become mentally and emotionally vulnerable. You're about to discover that you'll mutilate yourself because of a tiny but persistent itch.

Found this story from CBS at Cone's:

In another in a series of notable pronouncements, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says God told him storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.

Money quote:

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8. On Wednesday, he added, "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."

Ignoring, for now, the not going out on a limb prediction of storms in 2006 and the single greatest hedge in the history of man, "If I heard the Lord right," (just in case there are no storms!), let's consider the premise of this whole thing for a minute. God doesn't talk to many people, as far as I know. He certainly doesn't talk to me and no one I know has ever said God talks to them. And I'm pretty sure if God talked to someone I know that they'd tell me about it. Come to think of it, hardly anyone I don't know has ever said God talks to them either. Which means Pat Robertson is in some pretty select company. Which brings me to my point - if you were God and you could talk to anyone you want, but you didn't want to keep a bunch of different conversations going, would you choose Pat Robertson? I mean, really.

Help this man build a patio in his backyard and be monumentalized for the next several decades (or at least until he sells his house, but don't worry, that'll be a while and you'll probably be dead and no one will know who the heck you are anyway).

Besides, if you buy a brick I bet that you might be able to talk him into throwing a backyard bash on the new patio which will definitely be worth $40. Besides, he has a really nice family who are sane and who could use a place to play.

All the details at 2000Bricks.

Klein:

"But, you know," Caddell told me years later, "the thing that really blew me away in north Jacksonville was when I'd ask them about the war. They didn't see themselves as hawks or doves. They weren't part of the elite conversation that was taking place in the media. It was their kids who were over in Vietnam bleeding to death. And so it was, 'Stop this horseshit! Either go all out and win the damn thing, or get out and bring the boys home.' It was mind-blowing, and it made perfect sense. The people who were polling the war had it all wrong. 'Are you in favor or are you opposed' just wasn't the right question."

Douthat:

With this in mind, I would also suggest that David Boaz's fear—"that the Republican Party has shifted from a business-oriented party reaching out to social conservatives to a social-conservative party trying to hold on to business and economic conservatives"— misses the real point of the last six years, which is that economic conservatives and social conservatives have both been marginalized by business-class conservatism, which cares about neither abortion nor the free market, and is mainly interested in using the power of the purse to dole out corporate welfare.

Economic conservatives believe in free markets and competition. Business conservatives believe in profits. The two are not synonymous. If your motivation is profits, you will do what it takes to gain favor with government. You will also do what it takes to eliminate competition. Competition is a direct threat to profits. If you can use the government to achieve this aim, so much the better.

I'm about as pro-business as you can get. However, I've had this inkling for a while that business, in general (and this is all in general, Roch), has given up the good fight and has become entirely pragmatic. And this is OK. Really. Their job is to look out for themselves. However, if this is so, it means that government has to be more fair and more impartial. By continuing to dole out corporate welfare, government is changing the equation of what it takes to succeed. Business makes decisions all the time based on tax strategy. This perversion is a path away from free markets.

So what's the answer? The most important answer is to eliminate corporate income tax (other answers are to eliminate capital gains and estate taxes, but those are other posts). It's a less than worthless tax. In the first place, business doesn't pay taxes; individuals pay taxes. Taxes that business pays must be incorporated in the price of their products. Hence you pay them anyway. However, the less than worthless part is that the corporate income tax is a both a carrot (welfare) and a stick (no welfare) that politicians use to reward companies who take care of politicians. Obviously this leads to all sorts of bad behavior.

Government's mandate is to treat everyone equal and let the chips fall where they may. Granted, this reduces the power of government, but it leads to more perfect markets. More perfect markets lead to more profits for everyone, not just those who are good at gaining government favor.

Kelly:

And of course decadence can be liberating and corruption can be fun. And I'm a child of decadence, and if I didn't reconcile myself to that I'd go insane, and in any non-decadent society I would have been exposed on a hillside at birth, or stoned to death the first time my writings were distributed. And I would definitely have preferred to be one of the declining Romans reclining on couches, eating grapes and fondling slave-girls, than one of those dour indestructible virtue-filled early ones fighting and force-marching all over the place... just keep your head down and hope Nero or Caligula doesn't look your way, keep shtumm when they adulterate the currency or the arbitrary arrests start... but there comes a point when the barbarians are at the gates, inside the gates, when it doesn't look too good and you start wishing you'd done a few more press-ups and a few less orgies.

Update: The way to find the original entry is to go to Art of Europe and click on Journal of Distraction by Michael Kelly. This is Monday's post from Week 3. Until Tuesday's post is up, however, this post will be the latest one and will not require a click away from the Art of Europe page.

Update II: I do not know why they made it so damn complicated.

Update III: They purport to be British.

I think every time I've taken this stupid test I've been an INTJ. Early on, in my liberal years, I was dismayed at being a 'J.' A 'J!' Heaven forbid. Who was I to judge others? The converse was a 'P' for Perceiving. I much rather would have been a 'P.' Walking around, taking it all in. A wise Buddah. Turns out I was wrong about the whole judging vs. judgmental thing. It doesn't mean that (And why not? Why can't these psychology types just label things accurately? Why do I have to figure out their lingo?).

But, none of this matters. The older I get, the more I embrace my judgmentalism. So does my new favorite author:

'One has only to look at Henry to imagine the matrix that formed him... a nasty and narrow environment... I detest the social order which sprouts these mildewed souls - all that should be changed, for everybody... But there is also in each individual the faculty of transcendence; there is in each of us a limited freedom. I myself have been poor and I am not sentimental about poverty - poor people must be judged, like the rest of us... Everybody who will judge himself has the right to judge others and to be judged also. This abrogation of judgement you practice is an insult to man's dignity. Everybody has the right to be judged and to judge in his turn.'

So, see? All you have to do is be hard on yourself and you can be hard on everyone else too. Works for me. But, don't go cutting corners now - this depends on the honor system. If you can't be hard on yourself, just shut up and go about your business.

Oh, so who's writing about Mary McCarthy? Michael Kelly, of course.

Chu:

Week after week, Eleanor and Todd Hugus of La Jolla, Calif., are reminded of the price of raising an active teenager.

In April, their 13-year-old daughter, Brooke, went on a whirlwind eight-day East Coast tour with her history class to, as Eleanor Hugus puts it, "walk in the paths of our Founding Fathers." The cost: $1,800, broken into four payments.

"This was something we weren't anticipating," says Hugus, 49. "But you kind of have to think that she's going to be the only kid left at school; how is she going to feel?"

Have you seen My Super Sweet 16? It's a show on MTV about girls (I think it's only girls. I've seen parts of a few episodes and it's always girls.) who have these extravagent parties for having accomplished the exceedingly difficult task of having lived for sixteen years.

I saw an episode over the weekend about Alex from Minnesota. Her parents flew her to Paris to shop for a dress and then rented some fab hotel for her party where she walked down the red carpet after having arrived in a carriage.

The kids were giddy all night about a surprise entertainer who was performing. They all thought it was going to be Eminem. Turned out to be Luther Lackey (Luther Lackey, btw, is such a nobody that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry). None of the kids have heard of Luther Lackey and they ridicule Alex (I can't really blame them because if I'd have been at that party and Luther Lackey showed up to sing, I'd have ridiculed her too, but that's not the point. The point is that when you turned sixteen you were lucky to have some paper party hats and an off-key rendition of Happy Birthday sung by your parents and an assorted cast of aunts and uncles, not a paid performer with an agent. A very good agent evidently.). Anyway she's brokenhearted and on the verge of tears until Daddy steps up with the keys to a 5 series BMW.

What have we come to when folks lobby to get MTV to come to their kids' birthday parties so that they can show the world what excessive and indulgent parents they are and what spoiled brats their kids are? For several hours after watching the show I was ambiguous in my support for the War On Terror.

Hieb:

But then there's Democrat Kirk Perkins, who voted "no" along with Yow and Arnold.

Perkins has an interesting point of view:

"What the county is doing is giving Mr. Carroll incentives to compete against other projects downtown. I don't think the role of government is to subsidize one company to compete against another. I don't think basic equity and fairness can be abandoned no matter how good the project looks."

I wonder what would happen if, instead of giving out incentives, the region would adopt an 'everyday low price strategy' when it comes to taxes? If low taxes help Carroll, they'll help other entrepreneurs too.

Lenslinger explains how he got turned on to the Chili Peppers and how the world is bigger than a punk kid can visualize.

Bush:

...the United States must secure its borders. This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation. It is also an urgent requirement of our national security. Our objective is straightforward: The border should be open to trade and lawful immigration, and shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals, drug dealers, and terrorists.

Show me.

The New Yorker interview with Malcom Gladwell on an upcoming piece:

You write about political phrasing, and how a politician like Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan is better at calming and inspiring an audience than a politician like George W. Bush is. How much difference does that make to voters watching speeches on television? How much does phrasing overlap with personal charisma?

That’s a good question, and not one I have a good answer to. Television has a strangely muting effect on a lot of this stuff. A former aide to Clinton once said to me that if Bill Clinton had been able to personally shake the hand of every American, he would have been elected unanimously. I think that’s right. In person, people like this are far more impressive than on television: we pick up so much more on nuance. I remember the first time I saw Jesse Jackson live. I’d seen him many times on TV, and was unimpressed. I thought he was kind of a clown. In person, I was floored.

You'd never guess that the piece is on the Dog Whisperer from that, would you? Cesar Millan and Bill Clinton, peas in a pod. I kid, I kid. I know what he's saying. People who can dominate a room are fascinating. Television mitigates a lot of that power, but not all.

The Sopranos was quite good last night.

* Hated to see Johnny Sack go. Hopefully we'll see him in jail.

* Reckon Phil will cry when he finally gets pinched?

* Brutal what Janice did to Ginny once Tony got the house away from Johnny.

* Ain't no way fat Vito packed up his stuff and snuck out without waking the fireman.

* If someone runs into you and they're from the mob and they want to pay you in cash for the damages, take it.

* Finn, neglecting Meadow is unforgivable even though she is whiny, clingy and needy. You must take advantage of the good in the relationship, my boy. Otherwise, you don't get the good and you still have whiny, clingy and needy. However, do not worry. Vito is coming. Once he finds that you ratted him out, your demise will not be far off. It will also be painful.

* Pussy's wife irritates me doing her deals when she's out with the girls. Carm irritates me being jealous of her success. Carm wants to be successful too. She just wants others to do the work.

* I'd give $25k for a Maserati. However, I'd make sure it got put in my name.

* Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.

Salam:

Your average middle-class European is constrained in many ways a middle-class American is not, but chances are she's not afraid of seeing her child catch a flu because she happens to be between jobs. Simply put, you can't take something away without giving something else in return. Root-canal reforms that sharply reduce economic security will be resisted unless you can make the compelling case that there is some compensating benefit, a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the short run, free markets take faith; government providing medical care does not.

In the long run, government providing medical care takes faith; free markets do not.

Short run thinkers get votes.

I found this at Joe Killian's site. (If I was Joe, I would have wrote, 'Found this at Joe Killian's site. Am hoping you like it.' Am unclear as to when the use of pronouns fell out of favor. Find it irritating. But digress.)

Title:

How to Explain Conservatism to Your Squishy Liberal Friends: Individualism 'R' Us

Author:

P.J. O'Rourke

Money shot:

Government is an abstract entity. It doesn't produce anything. It isn't a business, a factory or a farm. Government can't create wealth; only individuals can. All government is able to do is move wealth around. In the name of fairness government can take wealth from those who produce it and give wealth to those who don't. But who's going to be the big Robin Hood? Who grabs all this stuff and hands it back out? (Remember: even in a freely elected system of government, sooner or later that person is going to be someone you loathe. If you're a Republican, think about Donna Shalala; if you're a Democrat, think about Ollie North.)

When government takes wealth from those who produce it, people become less inclined to produce more of it-or more inclined to hide it. Conversely, when government gives wealth to those who don't produce it, they too become less productive since they're already getting what they'd produce in return for not producing it.

Galbraith or: How I learned to stop worrying and love absolute power.

Crook:

Much of the Left still longs to sneer at the very idea of capitalism, especially at the claim that it has real ethical foundations (all the more so, in comparison with the attempted alternatives). There is still a wish to regard the whole thing as a scam: gulled and witless consumers; scheming and rapacious businesses; phony markets and bogus "competition"; politicians, media hacks, and other assorted apologists for "the system," all cozily in the pockets of the people in charge. It is a comprehensively false diagnosis.

What's more likely - scams and scheming when we have competition among many or scams and scheming when we have a few brilliant intellectuals in charge of allocating resources?

Roch and I have been having a discussion regarding this article by Krassimir Petrov. It may not be the mother of all conspiracies, but it's at least a great uncle. A quick Google search indicates that a lot of people are buying in.

Go read the article.

I'll wait.

Done?

Did you really read it?

Go back.

Did you really read it this time?

OK. Here is the key paragraph:

In 1971, as it became clear that the U.S. Government would not be able to buy back its dollars for gold, it prepared an alternative arrangement to hold the world hostage to its fiat dollar: during 1972-1973 it struck an iron-clad arrangement with Saudi Arabia—to support the rule of the House of Saud in exchange for accepting only dollars as a payment for Saudi oil. By imposing the dollar on the OPEC’s leader, the dollar was effectively imposed on all OPEC members. Because the world had to buy oil from the Arab oil countries, it had the reason to hold dollars as payment for oil. Because the world needed ever increasing quantities of oil at an ever increasing oil prices, the world’s demand for dollars could only increase. Even though dollars were no longer exchangeable for gold, they were now exchangeable for oil.

See the problem? At no point does Petrov make any provision for foreign exchange. Let's say BP wants to buy oil from an OPEC member or on the NYMEX and BP has pounds. BP simply converts those pounds to dollars in the foreign currency exchange markets - no need for BP to hoard dollars. The OPEC member or contraparty in the trade then receives dollars. They have three choices: hold the dollars, buy something with the dollars or convert to some other currency. All are easy.

The point is that OPEC members or contraparties on the NYMEX only receiving dollars for oil does not increase the demand for dollars since they are not compelled to hold dollars. The minute they receive dollars, they are free to convert them to whatever currency they want. Those dollars will go wherever return is greatest.

Convinced?

You say you want concrete proof?

OK. The dollar was falling versus the euro well before the implementation of an Iranian oil bourse. How could this be when demand is steady and unending?

Gladwell:

...the United States spends $5274 per person, per year, on health care and the United Kingdom spends $2164, or substantially less than half as much. The question is—what do we get, in terms of health, that for extra $3100 a year?

Bear in mind that Gladwell is commenting on a column by Krugman, so be cautious, but assuming these basic facts regarding costs are right and assuming that the study's conclusions of superior UK health are not outrageously overstated, what to make of this? Krugman and Gladwell attribute the cause to higher stress on behalf of Americans. I'm dubious.

My initial thought is that I'd like to see the data on costs to know if the UK spends as much as we do on a small percentage of cases. It's my hunch that healthcare costs in the US are affected disproportionately versus the UK by large expenditures on very few patients. However, it's just a hunch. I have no idea how the UK treats extremely difficult cases that consume vast resources.

I'm also curious about insurance costs between the US and the UK. It's my understanding that much of Europe has a 'loser pays' legal system, meaning that if you sue someone and lose, you pay their costs. Obviously if this is in effect in the UK, they have a substantial advantage when it comes to insurance premiums.

I'd also like to know what the per capita consumption of drugs is in the US vs. the UK. Another hunch is that we overmedicate. If so, this would drive up costs considerably while doing little to help overall health.

How else to explain the offensive explosion by the Elon White Sox last night? The pitching, on the other hand, left something to be desired.

Guarino has an excellent post from yesterday on how to squander a surplus.

The conundrum:

Governor Mike Easley had a wonderful problem on his hands. A $2 billion surplus unexpectedly materialized.

The choice:

With the surplus, Easley proposes to increase state spending 10% this year, including pay increases for teachers and state employees.

The looming disaster:

The problem is that the massive spending increases lock in spending on individual items at a higher level; and notch upward the budget baseline. We are stuck with the higher spending level when less prosperous years arrive. The pattern sets us up for later tax increases.

2004 Democrat platform (p. 42):

We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a "Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.

Howard Dean 2006 interview with Christian Broadcasting Network News:

The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says.

Later alerted to the discrepancy and unable to decide who to pander to next, Dean recanted.

AP:

I misstated the Democratic Party's platform, which does not say marriage should be limited to a man and a woman.

I love this chart. TaxProf blog via IP:



I grow to despise the income tax more and more every year. It now ranks just behind capital gains and estate taxes on my list of things to change once I achieve benevolent dictator status.

The subhead to Peggy Noonan's piece today is:

It may take a defeat in November for the GOP to unlearn the lessons of power.

Or maybe they'll do what Congressional Democrats did starting in 1994 and dig in and wait for the other guys to screw up.

When you think of Congress as a really cushy job that politicians will do anything to hold on to, current GOP behavior makes all the sense in the world. And when you think of it this way, what's more likely - a GOP revolution and return to small government principles or circling the wagons?

Tyrrell:

Those of us who favor tax cuts can now look proudly at the recent record of tax payments. According to the Treasury Department's monthly report, tax receipts were up 11.2 percent for the first seven months of Fiscal 2006. That is $137 billion. In Fiscal 2005 tax receipts were up 14.6 percent, which is $274 billion. These increases come as a great surprise to those Democrats and Republicans who insist tax cuts cause deficits.

Altogether now. What causes deficits? Spending!

Kelly (Wednesday):

I am no longer a man, I am some dehumanised filing machine... Then I came home and had to write this nonsense. Who the hell does Jeremiah think he is, forcing me to work just in order to get money? If he really fancies himself as a patron of struggling writers he should just give me the money just for being me. Writing is really the least interesting part of a writer's existence. The hours of supine contemplation is why most of us go in for this line of work.

That's pretty much why I want to be a pundit or win the Mega Millions. I'd like to get paid for being me.

Wife: What did you do today, hon?

Me: Contemplated. Supinely.

Wife: Does that mean the lawn was mowed?

Me: ...

Wife: You see? If you hadn't become this world famous pundit and got everyone to go along with your idiotic idea of secure borders, there might be someone to work in the yard.

Me: ...

Wife: Blockhead.

I don't recall ever agreeing with David Allen about anything. However, I will give him props for his concern and interest and activism when it comes to electronic voting. This is a non-partisan, fairness issue. You ought to want integrity when it comes to voting because at some point your side is going to lose and you're going to want to be sure everything was on the up and up.

Here's a post on his experiences with new machines used in the May NC primaries.

American Idol needs you more than you need them. Ask Bo Bice.

Look, I know you wanted to win, but it's really going to be better this way. You don't fit their formula. You'll be in control now. Be cool, baby.

WP:

Nearly half of the nation's children under 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, according to a census report released today.

What does this mean? Besides an obviously less non-rhythmic population in coming years, the Aryans are going to be really, really mad.

Aryan: White people rule!

Disinterested observer: Not for long.

Aryan: Come again?

DO: Demographics.

Aryan: ...

DO: Demographics. Birth rates are down for whites and up for Hispanics. Within another generation or two it's going to be obvious to everyone that the future of the US is with Hispanics. And you know what happens when there's an identifiable trend.

Aryan: ...

DO: It means that within two or three generations Hispanics will outnumber whites, but within the next generation everyone will realize it and the culture will flip. Radio, TV, music, film, business, education, housing, everything will be geared toward Hispanics.

Aryan: How is that possible?

DO: On the part of whites?

Aryan: Sure.

DO: Too much war. Too little love.

Williams:

One of the wonderful things about free markets is that the path to greater wealth comes not from looting, plundering and enslaving one's fellow man, as it has throughout most of human history, but by serving and pleasing him. Many of the wonderful achievements of the 20th century were the result of the pursuit of profits. Unfortunately, demagoguery has led to profits becoming a dirty word. Nonprofit is seen as more righteous, particularly when people pompously stand before us and declare, "We're a nonprofit organization."

Profit is cast in a poor light because people don't understand the role of profits. Profit is a payment to entrepreneurs just as wages are payments to labor, interest to capital and rent to land. In order to earn profits in free markets, entrepreneurs must identify and satisfy human wants in a way that economizes on society's scarce resources.

Would you rather be served and pleased due to the generosity of your fellow man or served and pleased due to your status as a consumer? Easy answer, no? If I'm relying on someone's generosity, they have tons of power over me. Little wonder then that so many people in government want to be generous.

Stein:

But life without historical context is shallow and unsatisfactory. If you don't know how mankind suffered in World War II, if you don't know how your fellow Jews or Slavs suffered in the Holocaust, if you do not know what Communism did to fifty million good people, you cannot possibly know how blessed your life in the United States of America is in 2006. If you do not know how much your grandparents had to work to get you where you are, you cannot know how precious that car your parents gave you is, or how lucky it is that you can study without having to work at a part-time job. If you do not know how your fellow African Americans were treated in rural 1920s Mississippi, you cannot know how lucky you are to live in an America that has the opportunities this nation now affords men and women of every race.

Kelly (Tuesday):

When I finally get rich in spite of them I'm going to set up a company that manufactures:

Nuclear weapons, Vibrators, and Crisps

Just to show them. Of course I will have to be very careful not to get any orders mixed up. President of Iran: 'Western Dogs, Iran has joined the 21st century, we are now equal in power to you Zionist infidels. Behold, the ultimate weapon!' Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Headlines: Iran liberalising?

And a very embarrassed woman somewhere has her ____ declared a no-go area by a team of men in asbestos suits wielding geiger counters. I make it up to her with a free packet of crisps.

I might be the only one. If so, I hope he can get rich off my buying his book.

Collins:

Stop calling the current condition in Iraq a war. Stop the President and his Secretary of Defense from continuing to call for a continuation of the "war in Iraq." It's over. We won. By any measure of conflict. What we are now engaged in is the confusion of a postliminium made impossible by the very nature of the defeated. It was not, is not, a nation. It is the invention of a long-past British Empire, a tri-partite amalgam whose pieces are not acquainted with nationhood and whose allegiances are sectarian, if any.

If it wasn't for oil we might very well declare victory and go home.

Update: By which I mean no one is going to risk instability in the region with oil prices nearing all time highs.

Update II: By which I mean more instability.

Lowder links to a Freakonomics post regarding the role of luck in success.

Dubner is right on. Luck is a far greater contributor to success than many of us like to believe.

In the vast majority of the "success literature" I've read (including rags-to-riches autobiographies as well as the biographies of politicians, athletes, businesspeople, etc.) and the vast, vast majority of the media appearances and lectures I've seen by successful people, luck is almost never mentioned as a major contributor. It's always dedication, hard work, brilliance, grace under pressure, etc.

No question that randomness plays a huge role in everyone's life. The key, I think, is putting yourself consistently in a position to take advantage when opportunity appears and not doing something automatically disqualifying when you get your chance. Other than that, recognize that fifty-fifty is not bad and don't get too down when you lose and don't get too high when you win.

Reckon Tony Robbins is scared yet?

The Economist:

In general, Iranians approve of the nuclear programme, though not all believe official assertions that it is peaceful. As long as the programme threatens neither their wallets nor their security, their enthusiasm for it as an expression of national self-assertion, and their irritation at what they see as the duplicity of Western nuclear powers, are likely to endure. Indeed, from the huge numbers—almost half the population, according to the tourism ministry—that holidayed away from home over the Persian new year, and the lavish wedding parties held nightly in the capital's smarter hotels, you might think Iranians are pretty cheerful about the future.

But that picture is incomplete. Look, for a corrective, to the private investors who fled the stockmarket last October, frightened by the furious reaction to the president's suggestion that Israel should be "wiped off the map", and have yet to return in large numbers. These investors are cool towards the building industry, once-profitable but now in recession. Nor do they want to buy state enterprises: by its own admission, the government stands little chance of hitting its modest privatisation target. Instead, Iranians seem to prefer gold: the price of Iranian gold coins reached its highest level in over a decade last month, before the central bank's intervention brought it down again. From fancy hillside stud farms to Tehran's textile bazaar and scores of suburban estate agents, the refrain is identical: "The market is depressed." The reason? "Politics."

Here's hoping the investor class is more powerful than the mobs that assemble for the cameras.

Aljazeera:<