Category Archives: Political Commentary
An Open Letter To Davis Guggenheim
Don’t go back over to the Dark Side:
Guggenheim was right to make unions the villains of his film. But now that he’s starting to backpedal about collective bargaining, he’s getting heat from the reform community. There’s a bit of a mutiny on the “Waiting for ‘Superman’” Facebook page. The comments are decidedly opposed to Guggenheim’s view, with some supporters going so far as to say they’ll no longer promote the film.
Perhaps they’ll gravitate towards “Kids Aren’t Cars,” a film series that pulls no punches and shows the ugly impact collective bargaining has had on American public education.
It’s not too late to stop going wobbly.
Don’t Know Much About Geography
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute just released Enlightened Citizenship: How Civic Knowledge Trumps a College Degree in Promoting Active Civic Engagement, which shows that college has zero positive influence in encouraging graduates to become politically engaged — although many universities promote that in mission statements.
I’m not surprised, given how ignorant of it our elected representatives seem to be. Just another sign of the higher (and lower) education bubble and the worthlessness of many college (and high school) degrees. And of our educational system in general.
Vanity Press
I see that Mark Whittington has found a new place to self-publish his ever-illogical ignorance.
Note that the commenters are unremittingly clueless as well.
[Sunday afternoon update]
Just in case anyone ever bothers to read Mark’s web site, he is now (as often, and hilariously stupidly) claiming that I have “leaped the length of my” (imaginary, just like the “Internet Rocketeers Club”) “chain,” once again demonstrating his complete inability to accurately discern human emotions. He also accused me of lying, with zero basis, since I never claimed that he wasn’t being paid. But then, as always, reading comprehension has never been been his strong suit, either.
Cleanup On Aisle Three
I have a troll infesting the blog at Competitive Space. That’s the problem with having a comments section.
The Japanese Economy
Will this disaster be the last straw?
Immediate thoughts:
1) Depending on how much of the nuclear industry was affected, this could result in the need for more imported oil, putting more pressure on global prices.
2) If the yen collapses, it can’t be good news for either Europe or us, as the article points out.
3) This is good news for Korea and Taiwan, and even China, who will pick up a lot of the manufacturing slack at least in the near term.
4) Expect to hear a lot of ignorance about how this is the best thing that could have happened to the Japanese economy, with all the jobs that will be created rebuilding, and comparisons to how they recovered from much worse devastation after the war. This will be a display of the broken window fallacy, and it will be ignoring the fact that the resources necessary for that renaissance (which took decades) came from the US. Any time wealth is destroyed (see “cash for clunkers”), the world is worse off, even if localities benefit.
[Sunday morning update]
The financial impact: five things to watch.
More Unconstitutionality
Today former Congressman Ernest Istook testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee about the $105 billion slush fund in advance appropriations liberals tucked inside Obamacare. The $105 billion bypasses the traditional yearly budgeting process and is spread throughout the 2,700 page legislation. It took the Congressional Research Service (CRS) seven months to identify all the disparate funds and it was not until February (11 months after the bill passed) that all of the funds could be totaled up.
Well, Queen Nancy told us we’d have to pass the bill to find out what was in it. This one only took a little less than a year.
It looks kind of unseverable to me, too.
I’d add that anyone who knew about this and voted for it is either ignorant of the Constitution, or indifferent to it, or both. I’d bet on both in most cases, but if the latter, it’s a violation of their oath of office.
Thoughts On The Smiley-Faced Fascists
The irony, of course, is that just a few days ago they were likening Scott Walker to Hitler. And Stalin. And they don’t even begin to see the irony of the second comparison in conjunction with the first.
[Update a while later]
“We might have resorted to cannibalism a bit early.”
Space Isn’t A Jobs Program
That’s the headline of an op-ed I have at the Washington Times (it should be in print on Monday).
Unfortunately, at least for now, or at least in the eyes of Congress, it’s not true.
[Crossposted at Competitive Space]