I haven’t studied this in detail, but my dim understanding is that the objection is to potential environmental impacts to the Ogallala Aquifer (that’s the official objection — we all know that the eco-loons real problem with it is that they hate fossil fuels). So why not propose starting the pipeline at the two ends now, at the Canadian border and in Houston, work toward the center, and defer the final routing of that section until they’ve studied it more? If they refuse to do this, we’ll have put the lie to their objection and showed their real agenda.
Category Archives: Economics
On The Economic Illiteracy
…of Democrats:
That Democrats are generally illiterate about basic economics is not a matter of mere conjecture. In 2010, Daniel B. Klein and Zeljka Buturovic analyzed answers provided by a random sample of 4,835 Americans to a list of eight questions about economics. The results, which noted the party affiliation of the respondents, were not flattering to our friends on the left. “Those responding Democratic averaged 4.59 incorrect answers. Republicans averaged 1.61 incorrect, and Libertarians 1.26 incorrect.” And these were not arcane questions. They involved elementary concepts, like the effect of price controls, covered in any Econ 101 course taught at the lowliest community college and even some of the better high schools. Yet the average Democrat respondent got nearly 60 percent of the answers wrong.
It is precisely this kind of ignorance that led so many Democrats to believe Obamacare would somehow render health care less expensive. One of the first items covered in any introductory economics course is that the price of any good or service will rise if the quantity demanded increases without an accompanying increase in the available supply of that commodity. Nonetheless, it held no message for the average Democrat that the supply side of the equation was ignored by “reform,” though it increased the number of patients in the health system as well as the range of services to which they are entitled. The issue of supply and demand was utterly lost on Obamacare’s Democrat supporters. Thus, at the time of its passage, fully 78 percent of them favored the law. Even now, 52 percent still support it.
This is typical of the ignorance that was on full display in the president’s speech the other day.
A Comedian In My Comments Section
?If Obama does win re-election, he’ll likely preside over four more years of slow recovery, protect the Affordable Care Act until people get used to its benefits, protect Roe-v-Wade with another court pick or two, and go down in history as the best Democratic president since FDR. Come 2016 we’ll regret the 22nd Amendment.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah…[take a breath]…hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah…
Oh, man, my sides hurt.
How The GOP Should Explain Climate Change
Ken Silber explains. My main problem with it is that it gives far too much credence to AGW theory.
The President Uses The Pearl Harbor Anniversary
…to push his big-government agenda. Shocking, I know.
Biases Of Risk And Reward
An interesting article on human psychology. I may think about how this plays into issues of human spaceflight safety, for both professional and recreational space travelers, for a couple papers I’m working on.
[Via Geek Press]
The Fed
…is financially ruining an entire class of investors. I agree with Ron Paul that it needs an honest audit.
Death To Pennies
I’ve wanted to get rid of it for at least thirty years. When you can’t purchase something with a single coin, it’s time to end it, and with the penny, it’s long past time.
Hatching Giant Black Swans
The problem with “too big to fail.” It’s just another example of the knowledge problem.
The Latest Plans At The UN Kleptocracy
The administration is figuring out a new way to screw us extralegally:
Negotiators at the conference are considering “a new tax on every foreign currency transaction in the world,” according to the Center for a Constructive Alternative (CFACT). “Every time you travel abroad, you’ll have to pay a climate tax,” explains CFACT, the group that released the “Climategate” emails. “More importantly, every time we import goods, every time we export our fine products (think jobs) we will do so with a climate tax skimming off the top.”
European countries would evade much of the tax burden, however, because “transactions within the Eurozone won’t have to pay this new tax.”
CFACT suggests that Obama is open [sic] implementing this tax and similar policies in the absence of a full climate treaty, which would require congressional approval. “We have learned that while many have discounted this conference, knowing that a full climate treaty is difficult to achieve especially with a U.S. Senate that will not vote to ratify,” CFACT says. “Obama and his fellow climate travelers are working around the Senate and planning to stick America with the bill.”
OK, I have no doubt that they’d like to do it, but how would it work without getting a treaty through the Senate? How would they actually enforce it, and what would happen when a bank or an individual got a judge to issue an injunction against it?