Something all too rare. I’m sure that they’ll be attacked for blasphemy, but Arizona State doesn’t think that the president has enough experience to entitle him to an honorary degree.
Gee, it’s nice to see someone pointing out the Emperor’s sartorial problems.
The case against universal health coverage.
From a libertarian perspective, your generosity is reflected in what you do with your own money, not in what you do with other people’s money. If I give a lot of money to charity, then I am generous. If you give a smaller fraction of your money to charity, then you are less generous. But if you want to tax me in order to give my money to charity, that does not make you generous.
But it does seem to make you self righteous.
Who is the greater world leader, President Obama, or Dear Leader?
They describe Kim Jong Il as a “peerlessly great man” who is said to have the “organizing ability of leading millions of people” and is “the greatest of great men produced by heaven.” Similarly, Obama has been described in American media as “the agent of transformation in an age of revolution” and as “a lightworker — an attuned being.” CNN’s Jack Cafferty said, “It’s almost as though our president was born to do exactly what he’s doing.” Songs are written throughout North Korea to proclaim Kim Jong Il’s greatness, but there are also songs written to praise Obama, such as “Yes We Can” by will.i.am and “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. Throughout North Korea, there are paintings of Kim so all can admire his poofy hair and leadership, and here in America there are posters of Obama and many paintings of him (often with him naked and riding a unicorn) so we can see his smile and be assured that everything will be alright. Furthermore, it appears that Kim has supernatural powers, as it is said that when he was born “frost exploded with the sound of firecrackers” and “lakes thawed with such a noise that it caused mountains to shake.” Not to be outdone, Obama said that when he was elected would be “when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
So both Barack Obama and Kim Jong Il are greatly admired by their people and are possibly magical demigods who exist for no other purpose but to lead us, but who is the better of the two?
It is a tough choice.
Congratulations to Jon and Tiffany Goff on the new member of the family. We missed Jon at Space Access last week because this event was imminent.
Even though he was only able to attend Friday night and have dinner with some of us, Alan Boyle, intrepid science reporter that he is (though it’s not just about science), has a good link-rich round up of the conference.
Iowahawk nominates himself:
As such, I realize the industry is not suffering from a lack of law professors — it is suffering from a lack of imagination. They gave us cup holders and electric seat warmers when we wanted angel fur and bubble tops. They pushed micro-clown cars and hybrids when the market was rife for chromed 8-deuce Chrysler Hemis. Well, Bucko, all that outmoded thinking is going to end during the reign of Czar Dave. Saving the American auto industry is going to be a big job, but I won’t be doing it alone. I have already appointed my own shadow Council of Automotive Advisors, a select group of successful auto manufacturers whose qualifications appear after the jump. Many are close personal friends of mine, and I can attest to their patriotism, integrity, ingenuity, and wonderful lack of law degrees.
Why not? We could do worse. And almost certainly will.
And as you can see, his advisory council is without peer. I particularly like the discreet tasteful town car to get him to important meetings in our nation’s capital.
John Pike and I have a little tête à tête about the recent missile test over at the Gray Lady.
[Thursday morning update]
I should note that this wasn’t really a debate in any sense of the word. It was just two opinions, neither of which was informed in any way by the other. I didn’t see what John wrote until I had already submitted mine, and I suspect the same was true of his input.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick used to say that the San Francisco Democrats (who seem to have proliferated around the country, all the way into the White House) blame America first. Victor Davis Hanson says that if the president was going to throw stones, this should have been his first one:
“Today we witness a global financial meltdown — a result of a dangerous nexus between lax politicians and unethical high finance. I know this well, and wish to apologize for taking thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the now-bankrupt AIG financial firm, which sought to escape proper regulation by offering campaign contributions to politicians like myself, who unilaterally renounced the three-decade tradition of public campaign finance.”
“Smoking is a great plague on the world, killing millions each year and giving great profits to modern merchants of death. I, President Obama, as a long smoker, know that temptation well and the global health problems entailed with tobacco addiction. We all also most avoid the perils of drug usage, a plague on all our nations. I can attest that as a youth I used cocaine, not only endangering my health, but doing my small part to send profits back to drug cartels abroad that cause so much death and destruction.”
“Racism is an insidious pathology that reaches even into the pulpit; it is a human sin that no one race has a monopoly on. I am well aware of the havoc it causes the innocent — after failing to say “No! Stop!” to my own Rev. Wright as he caricatured in my church whites, Jews, Italians, and almost anyone else who does not look like himself and our congregation. Likewise, class prejudice and stereotyping are often at the heart of much of the world’s problems; I too have engaged in such hurtful condemnations when just recently I labeled, in blanket fashion, the working class of rural Pennsylvania as xenophobes, fundamentalists, and nativists.”
Unfortunately, the time to hand out opprobrium is the only time it’s not about him.
I’m actually working on this trip — in Torrance this morning, have to drive down to Seal Beach for lunch with an old Rockwell (now Boeing) colleague, then back up to El Segundo for a two o’clock meeting, then to Burbank this evening for Whittle’s half-century birthday. He didn’t look a day over forty-nine to me last night.
Then an early morning flight back to Florida in the morning, so probably not much new until Thursday. For those who read the New York Times, though, I may have some thoughts on North Korea there this afternoon. With a bonus picture.