…to come up with the space toilet of the future.
Count me out.
Feeling Old
As Rick Brookhiser points out, for the first time in my life, the next president will be younger than I am.
“No One Is Going To Bail Out America”
Some sobering thoughts on the financial future. We have to get spending (particularly entitlements) under control. And socialized health care is one of the worst things we could do in that regard.
[Update a few minutes later]
Some thoughts on the disaster that was the New Deal:
The New Deal tripled taxes, which meant consumers had less money to spend and employers had less money for hiring; a number of New Deal laws made it more expensive for employers to hire people, which also meant less hiring; New Deal soak-the-rich taxes discouraged investment, and it’s almost impossible to create private-sector jobs without investment.
Other policies hurt Americans in other ways. Several New Deal laws banned discounting, when desperate people needed bargains; the New Deal authorized the destruction of food when people were hungry; the New Deal established hundreds of cartels and monopolies; the New Deal centralized the power of the Federal Reserve, and the Fed’s first major policy decision was a blunder that brought on a crisis within a crisis (the depression of 1938); the New Deal broke up the strongest banks and did nothing about laws that prevented thousands of banks from diversifying their depositor bases and their loan portfolios (Canada didn’t have these laws, and it went through the Great Depression without a bank failure).
Unfortunately, we just put a lot of people in power who want to (or at least claim to want to) do it over again.
Iowahawk’s Crystal Ball
He has his 2009 wrap-up early this year:
MARCH
Controversy erupts over new David Beckham ad for Calvin Klein underwear after embarrassed football star admits “accidentally” stuffing briefs with a potato; “I didn’t know it was supposed to go in the front,” says Becks
Stocks cautiously rebound on strong earning reports from Sterno, GunMart, American Hobo Supply
I liked the Superbowl prediction as well.
Blogroll
As you can see, I’m starting to rebuild (and update) my old blogroll over on the left. It’s going to be a long, painful process, though. Also, the link widget in WordPress seems to just alphabetize both links and link categories, so I can’t get it to present the links in the order desired (does anyone know if there’s a way around this?). If you have a space web site that I didn’t have on the old one, it might be a good time to post it in comments here, where I can collect them for eventual inclusion.
Get A Third Life
Protesters are invading Second Life Israel, to the point at which all visitors had to be banned.
“Anything But Cole”
Martin Kramer explains why you shouldn’t vote for Juan Cole’s blog (assuming that you were even considering doing so). The professor really is a piece of work, and makes me ashamed to be a Michigan alumnus.
[Afternoon update]
The problem with the “ABC” strategy is that it dilutes the anti-Cole vote, perhaps giving him the victory. As I noted in comments over at Michael Totten’s post on the subject:
Michael, the only problem is that by not encouraging people to coalesce around one of the non-Juan blogs, he’s likely to win by vote dilution of the “neocons” (yes, scare quotes deliberate). Perhaps you and the other competitors should go check out the poll at some predesignated time, see which of you is leading, and then “give up your delegates” to that blog via an endorsement for any remaining voters to prevent such dilution.
Into Arthropods?
Here’s the blog for you. It’s a good guide for IDing creepy crawlies.
[Update a few minutes later]
Not related, and yet it sort of is. How did pterosaurs get into the air?
Is The Economy Bottoming?
Larry Kudlow (ever the optimist) has some thoughts, and advice for Republicans.
My biggest concern is that there’s still a big housing overhang, with adjustables coming due over the next year, which will continue to exacerbate the real-estate market and finance.
“A Nanny State On Steroids”
(Doctor) Paul Hsieh explains why lovers of freedom should fear “universal health care”:
Government attempts to regulate individual lifestyles are based on the claim that they must limit medical costs that would otherwise be a burden on “society.” But this issue can arise only in “universal healthcare” systems where taxpayers must pay for everyone’s medical expenses.
Although American healthcare is only under partial government control in the form of programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, American nanny state regulations have exploded in recent years.
Many American cities ban restaurants from selling foods with trans fats. Los Angeles has imposed a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South L.A. Other California cities ban smoking in some private residences. California has outlawed after-school bake sales as part of a “zero tolerance” ban on selling sugar products on campus. New York Gov. David Paterson has proposed an 18 percent tax on sugary sodas and juice drinks, and state officials have not ruled out additional taxes on cheeseburgers and other foods deemed unhealthy.
These ominous trends will only accelerate if the US adopts universal healthcare.
But how could it be a nanny state on steroids? That’s probably one of the first things that will be banned…