In Flint, Michigan.
We used to go to Kearsley Park when I was a kid — I don’t remember them having them downtown. It must be a new thing.
Category Archives: Business
More Waxman-Markey Thoughts
It’s funny how so many liberals have become “realists” of late, insisting that we can’t expect to cajole sovereign nations into doing what we think is right if it’s not in their interests, but the same liberals insist that if we hobble ourselves with the dull-rusty axe of cap-and-tax, our example will inspire other nations to do likewise. Yes, yes, liberals will likely say that fighting global warming is in these nations’ interest, but they just don’t realize it. Well, maybe. But who are we to tell these countries what their interests are? Isn’t that the sort of imperial hubris these folks usually denounce? Regardless, there’s zero evidence and sub-zero reason to believe that countries such as China and India will ever be inspired by our action on global warming.
As he says, W-M may not accomplish much, but at least it’s expensive.
Intended Unintended Consequences
Gee, ya think? Senators Worry That Health Overhaul Could Erode Employer Insurance Plans.
Hey, guys. That’s the whole idea.
And Blanche Lincoln doesn’t get it:
Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, said preserving employer-sponsored insurance “needs to be a huge objective.”
No, senator. The “huge objective” should be to get people out of plans that are tied to their employers, and into their own private plans that are portable, by leveling the tax-deduction playing field.
The United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small employers, said the proposed requirement amounted to a new tax and would frustrate the creation of jobs.
Only an economic ignoramus (i.e., much of the Congress) would think otherwise. So a company has a choice of hiring someone who doesn’t need or want insurance (because she’s young and healthy, or has it through her husband’s plan) but the cost of hiring her is buying a redundant policy for her to government specs. Guess what? Others will work overtime instead. That’s assuming that the business case closes for the business to get started at all, of course.
Geeks In Space
An interesting story of the orphans of Apollo.
Burger King Ads
The Case Against Waxman-Markey
Here. Bottom line:
Waxman-Markey would impose costs at least 10 times as large as its benefits, would not reduce the deficit, and doesn’t even really cap emissions.
But other than that, it’s a great idea.
Not to mention that the bill is twelve hundred pages long. I wonder if they’ll be given an opportunity to read it?
[Afternoon update]
What this bill will and won’t do for the climate.
Liars
The problem with the Obamacare scam:
Faced with incontrovertible evidence that he and his allies have no intention or ability to fulfill their commitment to Americans regarding their current coverage, President Obama decided today at his press conference to try to redefine the promise. What he meant, he now says, is that the government wouldn’t force people out of their health-care plan. If tens of millions of people get pushed out of their current coverage, it would be because firms chose to drop their insurance plans — never mind the fact that they would do so based on the financial incentives the government put in place.
They must think we’re stupid. Of course, based on last November’s election results, they have some basis for it.
The First Weightless Wedding
Back in the early nineties, when I unsuccessfully tried to get a weightless experience business started, this was one of the markets for it. It took a lot longer than I hoped or expected back then, and I didn’t make it happen, but I’m glad that someone did. And I see that she used one of the designs that Misuzu had the contest for as a wedding dress.
Of course, as usual, almost everyone gets this wrong:
The idea of these flights seems to be that the plane makes 16 huge dips from 36,000 feet to 24,000 feet to simulate zero gravity.
The weightless effect doesn’t just occur on the descent — it occurs through the entire parabola, up and down. If it only happened on the way down, the weightless period would only be half the time that it actually is.
Barack Obama…
Whew! What happened? Well, that, no doubt, is what the Obama team must be wondering. It is not merely the president’s poll numbers which are crumbling; it is the premises which formed his world view and domestic agenda which are disintegrating. The world is a dangerous place with despots immune to even “smart diplomacy.” Governments really can’t spend their way to prosperity. And even in an economic recession America remains a right-of-center country.
Obama, it seems, never confronted a critical media or a viable political opponent who could effectively quiz him on his assumptions and policy prescriptions. He waltzed through an election on essentially a “not Bush” campaign and a cloud of feel-good messages ungrounded in the real world. But once in office he finds the world — filled with rogue states, recalcitrant laws of economics, squirrely citizens, and cold, hard budget numbers — is not so easily charmed. Facts are stubborn things, after all.
I always find hilarious the lack of irony with which these people presume to call themselves the “reality based community.”
The Ten-Year Orszag Test
…and the health-spending gap. An analysis by Keith Hennessey:
Combining Kennedy-Dodd with all of the President’s proposed Medicare and Medicaid savings would make America’s long-term entitlement spending problem much worse than under current law.
Gee, ya think?