The EU is understandably upset by the Bush tariffs on steel (well, partially understandably–it’s not like they’re exactly innocent of subsidies and other market interference). I am also.

But I found this headline bizarre:

EU condemns Bush’s ‘Wild West’ steel tariffs

What do steel tariffs have to do with the “wild west”?

This is like when they were calling Bush a “cowboy” because he wouldn’t go along with Kyoto or ABM.

Just what is it with Europeans and the American West? Is it too emblematic of individualism? Is it the guns? Do they hate non-metric ten-gallon hats? Were they scared by a cow when they were young?

What?

I’ve already gone on the blogrecord with a prediction of a Simon win in November, but if Mr. Welch wants to make it interesting, I’m game. Just state the terms.

And I don’t think that I’m “genetically-predisposed” against Mr. Riordan (“Mrs. Simberg, you have a bouncing baby boy. And he came out of the womb holding a sign saying ‘Simon For Governor.’ Just like his daddy…”). No, it’s based on my observations and experience.

While I’m not a “rabid right-winger” (I’d be sure to fail the test on the gay, drugs, evolution, cloning, and immigration issues, among many others), I can certainly understand why Republicans would be loathe to support someone who funds the campaigns of rabid left wingers (like Maxine Waters), who thinks the minimum wage is too low, who doesn’t even seem to know where he stands on abortion, who has no problem with confiscatory taxes or gun laws, whose own wife can’t vote for him in the primary because she’s a registered Democrat…

I can understand why Democrats would like to vote for Riordan against Davis, but I have trouble figuring out why Republicans would want to bother. And as the Democrats should have learned in the Bush-McCain primary battle, Republicans like to choose their own candidates, and not those that some members of the opposite party want them to choose.

And I have to assume that Mr. Welch is just pulling our collective legs when he says:

I wish I could give all the ?Riordan isn?t a Republican? crowd copies of the LA Weekly from 1992, when Mayor Dick was presented as the most craven of influence-peddling, Old Guard Catholic, right-wing rights-abusing firebreather we?d seen in a generation.

Really? The LA Weekly? In 1992? Presenting anyone to the right of Tom Hayden as an Attila-the-Hun reactionary? I’m shocked…just shocked.

I’ve already gone on the blogrecord with a prediction of a Simon win in November, but if Mr. Welch wants to make it interesting, I’m game. Just state the terms.

And I don’t think that I’m “genetically-predisposed” against Mr. Riordan (“Mrs. Simberg, you have a bouncing baby boy. And he came out of the womb holding a sign saying ‘Simon For Governor.’ Just like his daddy…”). No, it’s based on my observations and experience.

While I’m not a “rabid right-winger” (I’d be sure to fail the test on the gay, drugs, evolution, cloning, and immigration issues, among many others), I can certainly understand why Republicans would be loathe to support someone who funds the campaigns of rabid left wingers (like Maxine Waters), who thinks the minimum wage is too low, who doesn’t even seem to know where he stands on abortion, who has no problem with confiscatory taxes or gun laws, whose own wife can’t vote for him in the primary because she’s a registered Democrat…

I can understand why Democrats would like to vote for Riordan against Davis, but I have trouble figuring out why Republicans would want to bother. And as the Democrats should have learned in the Bush-McCain primary battle, Republicans like to choose their own candidates, and not those that some members of the opposite party want them to choose.

And I have to assume that Mr. Welch is just pulling our collective legs when he says:

I wish I could give all the ?Riordan isn?t a Republican? crowd copies of the LA Weekly from 1992, when Mayor Dick was presented as the most craven of influence-peddling, Old Guard Catholic, right-wing rights-abusing firebreather we?d seen in a generation.

Really? The LA Weekly? In 1992? Presenting anyone to the right of Tom Hayden as an Attila-the-Hun reactionary? I’m shocked…just shocked.

I’ve already gone on the blogrecord with a prediction of a Simon win in November, but if Mr. Welch wants to make it interesting, I’m game. Just state the terms.

And I don’t think that I’m “genetically-predisposed” against Mr. Riordan (“Mrs. Simberg, you have a bouncing baby boy. And he came out of the womb holding a sign saying ‘Simon For Governor.’ Just like his daddy…”). No, it’s based on my observations and experience.

While I’m not a “rabid right-winger” (I’d be sure to fail the test on the gay, drugs, evolution, cloning, and immigration issues, among many others), I can certainly understand why Republicans would be loathe to support someone who funds the campaigns of rabid left wingers (like Maxine Waters), who thinks the minimum wage is too low, who doesn’t even seem to know where he stands on abortion, who has no problem with confiscatory taxes or gun laws, whose own wife can’t vote for him in the primary because she’s a registered Democrat…

I can understand why Democrats would like to vote for Riordan against Davis, but I have trouble figuring out why Republicans would want to bother. And as the Democrats should have learned in the Bush-McCain primary battle, Republicans like to choose their own candidates, and not those that some members of the opposite party want them to choose.

And I have to assume that Mr. Welch is just pulling our collective legs when he says:

I wish I could give all the ?Riordan isn?t a Republican? crowd copies of the LA Weekly from 1992, when Mayor Dick was presented as the most craven of influence-peddling, Old Guard Catholic, right-wing rights-abusing firebreather we?d seen in a generation.

Really? The LA Weekly? In 1992? Presenting anyone to the right of Tom Hayden as an Attila-the-Hun reactionary? I’m shocked…just shocked.

The meme of free-enterprise space activities continues to spread. The lastest example is a piece by Radley Balko over at Tech Central Station.

My main critique is that his title (“Lost In Space”) is a little trite and overused.

I think that the media are missing the big story up in “Condit Country.” The amazing thing is not that he lost, but that sixteen thousand people voted for him…

Now that it’s become clear that Riordan has been blown out in the Republican primary, I just want to say…

YYYYEEEESSSSSS!!!

Riordan was the “moderate Democrats'” last great hope to defeat Gray Davis, who even they couldn’t stomach.

Sorry, folks, but the notion that Riordan had a better chance than Simon against Davis in November is a myth (and one that the Davis camp bought into, which will accrue to their great regret next fall).

No real Republican was going to vote for Riordan, had he won the nomination. They would have voted for a third-party candidate, or stayed home.

Yes, Simon will have an uphill battle in California, but now, at least the Republican Party is energized in a way that it never could have been by Maxine-Waters-contributing, no-fire-in-the-belly Dick Riordan. Riordan would have lost for sure. Simon has a chance. This is a blog, and my words are recorded for history. November will make me, or break me.

I do regret, however, Gary Condit’s loss of the Democratic primary. I was hoping for his loss in the general election. This was a Dem win.

Matt Drudge says that John Nash’s opinions about Jews might cost Ron Howard an Oscar win.

Yeah, we’ll just rewrite history to make it a love story, and not mention the first wife, the homosexual liaisons, or the Jew hating…

There was always one policy area in which I thought the Clinton Administration did a reasonably good job, or, at least, had relatively-reasonable policy positions–trade policy.

Now the Bush Administration, after being on a hot streak of superior performance over the previous one, has stumbled badly.

At least Bill Clinton seemed to believe in free trade. It sickened me just now to hear Ari Fleischer trotting out the economically-ignorant phrase “fair trade.”

Will anyone point out how many jobs this will cost us, or how many jobs won’t be created as a result of this Administration’s spineless refusal to explain and defend the Law of Comparative Advantage?

I don’t normally quote Professor Reynolds, because I know that almost everyone visits his site before they come here, but I just loved this simile:

…it shines through their reporting like too-small Hanes through the seat of a cheap suit.

One wonders idly, though, if he has any personal experience with such a phenomenon…