Isaac Schrödinger

Pointless rage

Vox Popoli:

The African community in America, abetted by the mainstream media, has completely missed a potentially important teachable moment. Instead of attempting to media-lynch a decent Hispanic man who was merely attempting to protect his neighborhood, they would have done much better to teach their young men that in a nation with millions of concealed-carry permit holders, and millions more who carry without bothering with permits, it is not merely criminal, but criminally stupid, to attack even the most apparently indefensible individual.

A black guy attacks a white / hispanic person. Gets shot. Dies.

Reaction from blacks? Attack more white people! 

Life is tough. It's tougher when you're stupid.

Run corgi run!

Don't tell Obama.

United no more

Vox Popoli on the fractured future of America:

[...] once the Hispanic portion of the country exercises its legitimate right to self-determination and goes its own way, presumably before 2033, it seems readily apparent that White America will at long last separate into its "liberal" and "conservative" halves when conservative America finally realizes that the country, to say nothing of the nation, was literally unable to survive the self-destructive tendencies of its liberal population.

Vagina overload

Ramzpaul uploads an entertaining video.

The narrative must be maintained

Obama dissected by Glenn Beck. Isn't it amazing how the MSM has to go back decades to "report" on Romney (that big bad bully) but showcasing the lies and broken promises of Obama is not newsworthy.

Smash!

$200 million in three days for The Avengers.

Damn.

Be not raciss!

Instructors provide more positive, and thus useless, feedback to minority students than to white students:

"The social implications of these results are important; many minority students might not be getting input from instructors that stimulates intellectual growth and fosters achievement," notes Harber. "Some education scholars believe that minorities under-perform because they are insufficiently challenged -- the 'bigotry of lowered expectations,' in popular parlance," he explains. "The JEP study indicates one important way that this insufficient challenge might occur: in positively biased feedback," according to Harber.

It's funny that teachers behave in this extra-favorable manner largely so that others don't accuse them of being biased. If they weren't super nice to blacks or hispanics, then obviously they'd be racist.

Link via Instapundit.

The composite girlfriends

One of the most cruel comments evar!

Plus, from the comments: “Similarly, the dog he ate was a composite too. It wasn’t one dog, it was an amalgam of many breeds, like casserole.”

Eew! Damn you brain for showing me a combination of siberian huskies, golden labs / retrievers, German shepards ... all chopped up!

Eew.

No lassi for you!

Vox Day on Obama:

It confirms what many of his detractors, and increasing numbers of his former supporters, have long suspected about the man. While he is a United States citizen, he simply isn’t an American in the cultural or nationalist sense. He does not share the traditions, customs and fundamental perspectives of most of the people over whom he presides, which is why his administration has been one of the most bumbling, tone-deaf and obtuse in American history. He remains, at heart, a foreigner, a stranger in what to him will always be a strange land.

Very true. The hints have been like anvils. For example, the 57 US states, Marine corpses, and of course, spreading the wealth around.

The lassi confusion

Oh, this is gold:

One time Barack Obama went to an Indian restaurant and ordered the lassi. Was he ever disappointed when the waiter brought him a yogurt drink!

Click here for your lassi lesson.

First link via Instapundit.

Bad Economics

Vox Popoli:

In a free and well-governed society, exile is a punishment. In an unfree and misgoverned one, exile is impermissible. There is no stronger indication that America is no longer free than the fact that its leadership is seriously contemplating the idea of attempting to imprison its citizens within its borders.

That's one reason why increasing numbers of Americans are renouncing their citizenship. It's difficult to appreciate freedom when you feel like a slave.

Ugly truth II

Mark Steyn via Vox Popoli:

The net result of Derb’s summary execution by NR will be further to shrivel the parameters, and confine debate in this area to ever more unreal fatuities. He knew that mentioning the Great Unmentionables would sooner or later do him in, and, in an age when shrieking “That’s totally racist!” is totally gay, he at least has the rare satisfaction of having earned his colors.

Deceptive editing

Instapundit provides the latest example from the media. Their credibility is in the toilet and yet they keep on pulling such stunts. Truth bends to ideology.

Some women are more equal than others

Right Wing News:

One of the latest liberal talking points is that conservatives are waging a “war on women” because they won’t agree that the Pope should be forced to buy everyone’s birth control. In other words, it’s completely imaginary.

You want to see what a real “war on women” looks like? Start watching the way vile, misogynistic liberals talk to conservative women.

The best example of this was about four years ago when Sarah Palin made the national stage. The rabid attacks on her and her family showed just how women-friendly the liberals really are.

Hypergamy + Economics

EconLog via Instapundit:

Lots of interesting discussion in the comments, including this: “I’m a stay-at-home mom with three small kids. My husband’s income is quite good, but not amazing (especially since we live in an expensive state and have three children.) My MTR is about 45%. Between that and day care I would have to make about $70,000 a year before I would take home $1. Not worth it. So I’m home with the kids. BTW, I’ve had this conversation with many many SAHMs around here and almost all of them are home because of this. Now it turns out I like being home and probably wouldn’t go back anyway now, but that’s not true of many people I’ve talked to. Ironically, with the rise of assortative mating, its often the highly educated, accomplished women who marry men with high enough incomes to put them in this predicament, so we’re probably selecting for the drop out of some of our most productive workers.”

Women who are interested in having a family will definitely face this situation. Often, the logical and economical choice is for the mother to stay at home. The extra, net income could be negative if the wife works while the child or children are in daycare.

This is the type of conversation forward-thinking men have with women when they are on a date. Do you understand the perverse effects of such a tax system? Are you willing to stay at home and raise the children while I bring home the bacon? Unfortunately, the cancer of feminism results in women calling such men SEXISSS!

Intellectuals are not that smart

John Hawkins interviews Thomas Sowell:

why do you think so many intellectuals are so hostile to capitalism, Christianity and conservatism when over time all of those things have proven to work so well in building societies?

They may work well in building societies, but they don’t work well at making intellectuals important. What makes intellectuals important are finding things to complain about and they love to see themselves on the side of the angels against the forces of evil. So they look at all kinds of issues within that context.

Housing is a classic example. A few years ago there was a big to-do with the fact that blacks were turned down for mortgage lines at twice the rates of whites — and they were off and running all across the country and all the media at the universities, et cetera. What they left out is those same statistics would have told them that whites are turned down at nearly twice the rate of Asian-Americans — one of the reasons being that whites have higher credit scores than blacks and Asian-Americans have higher credit scores than whites. So what was presented as a moral melodrama was actually just an elementary case of economics that the lenders lent to people from whom they expected to get their money back.

Crazy Expensive Sex

Steyn on Fluke:

No, the most basic issue here is not religious morality, individual liberty, or fiscal responsibility. It’s that a society in which middle-aged children of privilege testify before the most powerful figures in the land to demand state-enforced funding for their sex lives at a time when their government owes more money than anyone has ever owed in the history of the planet is quite simply nuts.

So, in addition to being a slut, she's also crazy.

It's people! It's people!

Because the American government really cares:

Pink slime -- that ammonia-treated meat in a bright Pepto-bismol shade -- may have been rejected by fast food joints like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, but is being brought in by the tons for the nation's school lunch program.

I've heard so many people say that health care ought to be the sole domain of the government since businesses can't be trusted with our well-being -- those bastards only care about profit, you know.

As though the laws of economics don't apply to the government. When something is made "free", demand increases and when government spending explodes and tax revenues are nearly not enough, the supply shrinks or in this case the supply is morphed into something that was rejected by fast food companies.

Earlier this year some official idiot didn't allow an American school girl to consume her lunch (turkey sandwich, chips and apple juice) because it was too damn unhealthy!

But today: "Pink slime is good for you!"

Link via Instapundit.

Pimp Hussein

WND:

Mike Lester illustrates President Obama coming to defense of Sandra Fluke.

Sexisss!

This is too good via Prof. Reynolds:

Q: I attend a small university studying engineering. I hold traditional values and I would like to get married to a woman willing to stay home and raise our children. I am lucky enough to not have any student loans and will be able to support a wife and children on my salary. Preferably, I would like to marry a woman who has a college degree and is smart because we would match intellectually and she would provide the best environment for my children. Women I meet on campus frequently call me sexist. I never thought of myself as sexist because I have no problem whatsoever with women who work in general and I respect my fellow female students and professors. Just because I don't want my wife to work does not mean I think women in general shouldn't work. Am I sexist? Is there any way I can meet a woman who shares my values, or was I born 40 years too late?

A: You sound like the male equivalent of the bride in the letter above who much preferred planning her wedding without the bother of a real person to marry. Of course we all have ideas of what our ideal life would be, then life happens and we have to--even want to--adjust to reality. Yes, there are women, even well-educated ones, who would prefer to stay home with their children. But dictating these terms before you've even gotten far enough to go steady makes you sound rigid, dictatorial, and yes, sexist. Instead of announcing your life plan for the so-far nonexistent woman you plan to marry, you should just date interesting, intelligent women and find out what they want out of life. But if you're determined to only spend time with women who meet your qualifications, go to a rally for Rick Santorum. He shares your views of women's roles, and during his Q&A ask if he can fix you up.

Does feminism actually make women dumber? This guy wants certain qualities in his future wife and he articulates them clearly. For his candor, women call him a sexist. What exactly is sexist about a guy who wants to see if he's compatible with his dates? 

Imagine a similar scenario from the other side: A woman is not interested in working when she gets married. She wants to stay at home and homeschool her kids. So, her future husband will be the only one bringing home the bacon. She tells her dates early on about her views. Is that sexist?

So predictable

6 rules of modern poster design.

The superhero movie poster is often the biggest, er, offender.

Just take a look at this poster for the Avengers. Those who're not familiar with the Marvel universe will likely be left confused by it.

Honest sluts

Alpha Game:

Remember, this is the attitude with which you may, unbeknownst to you, be dealing. "[A]nother pretty, young Miami college girl, who does not want to be identified, is more direct, asking specifically for 10 to 20-thousand dollars monthly. The 22-year old claims to be looking for someone who will never say ”NO” to her needs."

So much for the idea that all women want is for a man to be nice and confident with a sense of humor.

Is there really some guy out there willing to pay $20,000 a month for the same, boring prostitute? I can understand a few hundred or thousand dollars but 20k is mighty shocking.

Vox asks:

Question du jour: As a college man, would you prefer to enter into a long-term relationship with a typical college slut (N=15+) or with a sugar hooker with N<6?

I'd reject both choices. Such girls have never interested me. I prefer someone with N=0.

How a man lives

Classical Liberal left a comment; he provided this link where one can read a speech by the late, great sci-fi writer, Robert Heinlein:

The simplest form of moral behavior occurs when a man or other animal fights for his own survival. Do not belittle such behavior as being merely selfish. Of course it is selfish. . .but selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative. An animal so poor in spirit that he won't even fight on his own behalf is already an evolutionary dead end; the best he can do for his breed is to crawl off and die, and not pass on his defective genes.

The example Heinlein provides at the end is quite incredible.

Lincoln hunted what!?

Stunning.

I want to see Hollywood make Mohandas Gandhi: The Terminator. I bet Connor won't see that one coming!

Moocher lifestyle

Zero Hedge:

Tonight's stunning financial piece de resistance comes from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. In what is sure to inspire some serious ire among all those who once believed Ronald Reagan that it was the USSR that was the "Evil Empire", Emmerich analyzes disposable income and economic benefits among several key income classes and comes to the stunning (and verifiable) conclusion that "a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year." And that excludes benefits from Supplemental Security Income disability checks. America is now a country which punishes those middle-class people who not only try to work hard, but avoid scamming the system. Not surprisingly, it is not only the richest and most audacious thieves that prosper - it is also the penny scammers at the very bottom of the economic ladder that rip off the middle class each and every day, courtesy of the world's most generous entitlement system.

There really are Two Americas. One is where people work hard and don't scam the system. The second is filled with entitled parasites.

Hard fought football

Tom Brady goes to his fifth Super Bowl. Truth be told, he gave a horrible performance today given his lofty standards: 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions.

The other game is still going strong in overtime. It'd be cool if the Giants won.

It cannot be refined

Andrew Roberts interviewed on Uncommon Knowledge:

This week on Uncommon Knowledge historian Andrew Roberts discusses, with Hoover research fellow Peter Robinson, his book The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. In the book, Roberts investigates what led up to the war, the historical factors responsible for Hitler’s rise to power, Hitler’s shortcomings as a military leader, Nazi Germany’s defeat, and Allied contributions to the victory.

I've read and watched more history about the Allied efforts in North Africa, Western Europe and in the Atlantic Ocean. So, the statistic that four out of five Germans in the war were killed by the Russians is just stunning. It's difficult to wrap your mind around the sheer scale of human suffering in those terrible years.

Where is the right hope?

Vox Popoli:

Remember, Reagan and George W. Bush were the more conservative candidates. (Bush '43 wasn't really conservative, but he was definitely perceived that way.) Both won two general elections. George H.W. Bush, Dole, and McCain were the less conservative candidates and Bush '41 won one general election. However, I was at the Republican convention in 1988 and I can testify that he was being pushed as the natural heir to Reagan and billed as a True Conservative. By the end of his first term, everyone knew better.

Quite right. The point about the "conservatism" of George W. Bush is correct which means that the last time the US had a true conservative president was about twenty four years ago! That's despressing. Worse, another Reagan isn't on the horizon. Of course, there are many conservatives in America but none with the magnetism possessed by the 40th.

History in color

The Daily Mail via Instapundit:

They are considered to be part of one of the most important collections of early colour photographs ever seen, capturing key moments in history and the dying embers of many cultures.

And now - more than a century after the ambitious project was launched - these incredible images are being brought to a mass audience for the first time.

The digital crowd today would call the photos a bit "noisy".

Understanding economics

Richard Epstein writes about the effects of the "living" wage and the minimum wage laws in the United States:

When the minimum wage law was equal to $5.15, about 6.6 million individuals earned less than the $7.25 wage level. By 2010, after the wage level was increased, unemployment rates did move sharply upward. Some of today’s workers will be lucky enough to ride the living-wage tide upward, but others are likely to be cast aside. The empirics on matters of degree are always up to debate, given the huge set of other regulations that hit labor markets. In principle, the law of demand says that as the wage demanded increases, the jobs offered will decline. Unless demand curves are flat, there must be unemployment effects. The only question is their magnitude. The imposition of a high minimum living wage will reduce, all other things being equal, the demand for labor.

No question about it. There will be some who will have their wage cut down to $0 because of such laws.

Americans getting poorer

PJ Media:

The essay below is excerpted from the December 2011 issue of Stansberry’s Investment Advisory. Its author, Porter Stansberry, examines the question of whether America is growing richer or poorer based on an analysis of its per-capita gross domestic product (GDP). Said simply, is our economy growing faster than our population? As individuals, are we becoming more affluent? Or is the economic pie, measured on a per-person basis, growing smaller? It’s a hard question to answer, and this article provides Porter Stansberry’s insight.

I was stunned by the level of credit card debt of older Americans.

Nolan finishes the trilogy

"When Gotham is ashes, you have my permission to die."

That's a very interesting line. I wonder, is he speaking to the Dark Knight? If so, then he knows his identity.

Smaug has guests

One of the greatest fantasy books of all time will be making it to the big screen in late 2012 and 2013. The first trailer is out.

It cannot be fixed

David French: When Is $16 Trillion Not Enough?

A commenter there writes:

She [Megan McArdle] cites the example of a friend from a middle-class background who had a child at 17 with her 30-year-old drug-dealing boyfriend who went to prison, and now lives on public benefits and minimum-wage jobs. McArdle says there is nothing that can be done with this woman; she refuses all help to rejoin the middle class. She made her choices in life despite having solid role models and generous resources available to her.

One wonders, however, why her friend chose this path? I bet that she was attracted to the drug dealer because pop culture nowadays glorifies such lifestyles. Not only do we exalt single mothers and drug use, but our culture bitterly mocks and tears down the hallmarks of bourgeois life, such as marriage, steady employment, thrift, and moderation. We can't assume that a constant assault on middle-class values won't have an effect.

Link via Instapundit.

Is harass one word or two?

Earlier this month:

A nine-year-old boy in the US was suspended by his school, when he told a friend that he thought his teacher was 'cute'.

He confused cute with cruel.

America is broke

Vox Day:

In 2000, it would have been possible to cut government spending by 15 percent, and that would have sufficed to keep it in line with tax receipts. In 2007, it would have been possible to cut it by 25 percent, and that would have been enough to prevent the debt spiral from getting worse. Due to vast increase in spending that led to the doubling of federal debt since 2008, it is now necessary to cut federal spending in half simply to keep the situation from getting worse.

Illegals doing illegal things

Victor Davis Hanson provides a picture of his hometown today.

Link via Instapundit.

The government can

Yesterday's post reminded me of this performance from Tim Hawkins.

Education in amerikkka

A video of Karen Lewis, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union. The fact that I find interesting is that this woman went to university, graduated, and now after many years, of likely bogus accomplishments, she is in a serious position of authority. Yet, she has a victim mentality. She is sure that soon she'll be sent to jail by, er, the man for her behavior.

MPAI.

The eternal victims

The Thinking Housewife provides an EPIC fisking of a New York Times piece regarding the sad, sorry state of women in the upper hierarchy of labour in the United States.

Dennis galore

Dennis Miller is 58 today. Dang!

Here's a video of his that I hadn't seen before. The commentary on Nancy Pelosi at the end is spectacularly hilarious.

Hussein gets spanked

Michael Berry does the honors.

Whittle on America

Via Instapundit: WFP Interviews Bill Whittle.

Whittle's comments on the self esteem movement are especially good.

The Obama Equation

Aptly summed up by a commenter at Jihad Watch:

Hear no Evil + See no Evil + Speak no Evil = No Evil

Here's the proof:

Dwight C. Holton, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, emphasized that training materials for the FBI would be purged of everything politically incorrect: “I want to be perfectly clear about this: training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this president, this attorney general and Department of Justice stands for. They will not be tolerated.”

Ignoring fourteen hundred blood-soaked years of Jihad does require some impressive, er, skill.

Skirtgate

Marcotte vs. Walsh. The same questions are asked and then the answers of the two women are presented. What kind of questions? Here's one:

What was your reaction to the Park Slope incident in which cops warned women about wearing short skirts?

The image below is from the link. Why did I post it? I really like, er, pink.

Pipping the POTUS

Jobs to Hussein:

"You're headed for a one-term presidency," he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where "regulations and unnecessary costs" make it difficult for them.

Jobs also criticized America's education system, saying it was "crippled by union work rules," noted Isaacson. "Until the teachers' unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform." Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

Wow. I read that Jobs was blunt but this is off the charts. Obama must have been furious. He had wanted to meet the inventor of cool but then ended up getting spanked!

Still, it's strange. Why did Jobs support Obama?

Loud and frustrated

Mike writes about the "99 percent":

The price we've paid for their "find yourself, you're worth it, indulge" culture has been a weakening of the social supports that the state needed to support the community and the increasing isolation of individuals.

I doubt there is any good way out of this. These people demand a return to the 1950s economy when our working class enjoyed global middle class quality of life because most of the world's industries were recovering from World War II.

Read the whole thing.

Comment of the day

Simon at Althouse writes:

Sarah Palin's the black guy who used to be the Illinois Senator, right?

Yup.

Perverse incentives. Example 87,451

WSJ via Greg Mankiw:

Social Security judges and employees in Florida, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Arizona were among those instructed to set aside disability cases this week, with the slowdown allowing managers to boost their performance numbers for the coming fiscal year, which starts Monday.

Top officials, in a bid to meet goals to win promotions or thousands of dollars in bonuses, directed many employees to refrain from issuing decisions on cases until next week, according to judges and union officials. This likely would delay benefits paid to thousands of Americans with pending applications, many of whom are financially needy and have waited for a government decision for more than a year.

The bureaucracy is already painfully sluggish and now they're being intentionally slow to get a fatter paycheck.

The same old deal

James Pethokoukis via Instapundit:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was Barack Obama’s signature achievement in dealing with the most worrisome set of economic conditions since the Great Depression. It was how Obama, to use a pair of his now seemingly abandoned metaphors, sought to drag the economy out of the ditch while the Republicans were standing around sipping Slurpees.

As Obama said on the first anniversary of signing the bill, “It is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second Depression is no longer a possibility.”

No, it's partly thanks to the epic and wasteful government spending that we'll see the Great Depression 2.0.

The New Deal had the same effect in the 1930s. FDR tried many different policies which were puzzling and economically destructive but it gave the appearance that he was doing SOMETHING instead of doing nothing like those heartless republicans.

A small sample of what went on in the 1930s:

1. Farmers, who were a decent chunk of the voting bloc, hated low prices for food. So, the US government gave handouts to farmers to not grow food! That's right. Millions are without jobs. Many have lost their savings when hundreds of banks failed. They don't have money for utilities or food. Yet, the government is taking money out of the private sector and handing it to a special group ... so that food prices stay high.

2. The government enforces a minimum wage. If a person wants to buy a service, let's say a haircut for $0.50, then that's illegal because the minimum charge ought to be $0.60. Some "criminals" ignore the law and offer a haircut for $0.50 anyway. When the cops find out, they go to jail. This actually happened -- a person spent time behind bars because they took a lower than mandated wage for a haircut!

3. Promotion of labor unions. They increase the wages of workers in the union but overall decrease the number of employed workers in the economy. Not something you would want in the middle of a depression.