Amigos

Mark Steyn is less than impressed with the Senate:

With enemies like Chuck, who needs amigos? Whatever happened to the party’s fearsome forensic skills at “the politics of personal destruction”? Granted, blathering on about how, if the other guy doesn’t agree with your views, he must be deficient in “compassion and humanity” is a lot of baloney even by mawkish Dem standards. But, if you’re going to twitter about the fullness of somebody’s heart, why get Chuck Schumer to play Senator Oprah? He has the shifty air of a mob accountant, even with every intern on his staff holding onions under his eyes. Likewise, sneering at Roberts’ life of privilege may be a smart move, but not if you entrust it to Dianne Feinstein, one of the wealthiest women in the galaxy.

Marketing Blunder

Iain Murray notes that:

The New York Times is going to start charging for people to read its oped columns online. Projected annual income: two boxes of crackerjack and a signed photograph of Paul Krugman.

I’m willing to pay for Tierney, but I’d how much of a discount will they give me to have to read Dowd and Krugman? Otherwise, I’ll just pass completely.

Ingrates

Commenter Josh Reiter has some second-hand reporting from the Houston evacuee site:

Many of the people while screaming in anger, spitting, and fist pounding while demanding that they receive better food. Note above that my girlfriend has eaten the food there at the convention center and describes it as the same quality that you’d get at a Chili’s, Fridays, or at worst a Boston Market. They were angrily demanding McDonalds’ value meals to satiate their palates.

One young girl who was pregnant was asked where she was from. She very quietly mumbled something while several people were talking loudly and the buzz of lighting ballasts blared overhead. When asked to repeat herself the girl grabbed the clipboard and pen out of her hand and scribbled a series of indecipherable letters on the form. Then, threw them back down in disgust…

…I understand that anger is one of the natural reponses to a tragic situation. But there is a difference between venting types of anger and those in which someone really shows their true colors. They did nothing but display direct anger at those things and people around them that they truly despise. I think we see here the reason these people are in the situation that they are in for a reason. These people have been giving shelter, comfortable beds, good food, free medical care, free medicine, and money. For which they have little or no consideration for those who are trying to help them or appreciation for what they are being given.

Mark Twain once wrote “…a dog will not bite the hand that feeds him. This is the principal difference between a man and a dog.”

Blowhards

An article in this week’s Economist says that hurricanes are getting worse. It doesn’t offer any particular support for the theory that this is a result of global warming, though. And the sample that it shows is only over the last third of a century, so it’s entirely possible (and even likely, if one goes back further for data) that this is a periodic phenomenon, not a secular one. We’re simply heading into a near-term period of increased activity. It’s not a propitious time to own real estate near the Florida coast (as we do).

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!