Category Archives: Media Criticism

…has arrived.

Plus, Crashapalooza on the exchanges.

[Update a while later]

What ObamaCare and the debt limit have in common.

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Convert ObamaCare

October 1, 2013 Rand Simberg 23 Comments

…to a free-market system.

What a concept.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

John Kerry And The IPCC Report

September 30, 2013 Rand Simberg 3 Comments

No, Mr. Secretary, it is not “science”:

I have been publishing comparisons of data with climate models outputs for about two years. The climate models used by the IPCC clearly cannot simulate Earth’s surface temperatures, precipitation or sea ice area. Additionally, there are numerous scientific research papers that are very critical of how climate models perform specific functions. Looking at those papers independently, the faults do not appear too bad, but collectively they indicate the models are fatally flawed.

In my book Climate Models Fail, I have collected my past findings about climate models, and illustrated others, and I’ve presented highlights from the research papers critical of climate models. I would be happy to forward a link to a free copy of Climate Models Fail to your offices for your personal use. Please have one of your staff members leave a comment at my blog Climate Observations if that interests you.

I’m quite confident that it won’t interest the fool.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Obama’s Presidency

September 30, 2013 Rand Simberg

…and the government’s damaged brand:

Believing that government officials break the law is one thing; believing that they face no consequences when they’re caught and it becomes public is another. Not only is this a sort of “broken windows” signal to other bureaucrats — hey, you can break the law and get away with it — but it’s particularly damaging where the IRS is concerned.

America’s tax system, despite the feared IRS audit, is fundamentally based on voluntary compliance. If everyone starts cheating, there aren’t enough IRS agents to make a dent. Beyond taxes, that’s true regarding compliance with the law in general. Moral legitimacy is what makes honest people obey the law even when they can get away with breaking it. Undermine that and you get a country like, say, Italy, where tax evasion is a national sport.

Meanwhile, there’s another bit of bad news buried in that poll, this time for Democrats. The bad news is that a majority of Americans thinks the IRS broke the law even though the news media have consistently downplayed the scandal. But as the scandal has dragged on for months, word has filtered out anyway. Come 2014, the government’s damaged brand will reflect poorly on members of the president’s party, regardless of media efforts to protect them.

Let’s hope.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary