I have some thoughts on the passing of Johnnie Walters and Howard Baker, in the context of the current IRS criminality, over at Ricochet. For those not members, I hope it will get promoted to the front page. If not, I’ll repost here at some point.
[Update a while later]
The post has been promoted, and should be visible now.
Given current events with the IRS, how eerie is it that both Johnnie Walters and Howard Baker die in the same week?
What a contrast Walker is with Koskinen (not to mention Lerner), and Baker with Harry Reid.
I can’t imagine what is going through the minds of people who take pictures of their junk at all, let alone send it across the ether.
…and media bias:
Historically, reporters and editors have believed that their job is to disseminate news. That is no longer true. Now, most reporters and editors believe that their principal function is to prevent people from learning things they are better off not knowing. Day after day, they run interference for their party, the Democrats. Blockading inconvenient stories from making the news is job number one.
Yes. As he notes, if the parties were reversed, there would be non-stop coverage until the Republican president was hounded out of office.
[Update a few minutes later]
Joe Scarborough went on a similar rant:
“You know, if George W. Bush or any Republicans had an IRS member that went after Democrats and then there was an internal investigation launched, you would not have time or space on the front page to talk about [other] issues,” Scarborough said. “This really is a scam!”
“Scam” is far too kind a word for it.
The launch delays are costing money. Note this, though:
Commercial satellite fleet operators have said that with a price differential so large — more than 50 percent in this case — they can absorb the cost of even lengthy SpaceX delays without much trouble.
They’re changing the rules.
If you want to see how ludicrous SLS is, look at this chart.
That is not a spacefaring civilization.
Did it really end, or are we just entering a new phase?
“…a contracting economy is only a surprise if you’re an idiot. Or a member of this Administration and the press. But I repeat myself.”
Based on Megan McArdle’s assessment that the economy is bad news for Democrats (but, again, good news for liberty in the long run).
Poland’s top diplomat thinks it’s worthless.
But to be fair, that’s only because, under Barack Obama, it is.
It’s the face of government as it actually exists.
Between ObamaCare, the IRS, the VA, and now the EPA, it’s been a bad year for cheerleaders of big government. Which means a good year for liberty. We’ll see what it means in November.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Note Glenn’s quoting of Pournelle’s law of bureaucracies:
…the strongest priority of most bureaucracies is the welfare of the bureaucracy and the bureaucrats it employs, not whatever the bureaucracy is actually supposed to be doing.
I often say that there are a lot of good people at NASA, and there are. But they are trapped in a similar system.