I can't watch the SOTU

I'll read the transcript later.  In the meantime, here's the Minuteman discussing how Obama wants to punish Americans who are trying to save for college via 529 accounts.  Like me.  Because responsible parents must suppress their instincts for individual initiative and get on the government program.

"Black lives matter" protesters pay no mind

Via Gateway Pundit, we have confirmation that the protesters who shut down a major Boston artery last week are about what you'd expect: "White #BlackLivesMatter Boston Protesters Found Living with Parents in Luxury Mansions."  Needless to say, they are untethered to the responsibilities of a job, which makes this story from yesterday's Boston Globe all the more infuriating: health care workers at a chemotherapy clinic lost wages when they didn't clock in on time:

Some of her friends, most of them, like her, women of color, weren’t as lucky. They got stuck in the mess and were hours late for work. They are paid by the hour and the hours that they don’t work are hours they aren’t paid.
“She was worried about the patients who were late,” Linskey said. “She was worried about her friends who were late and would lose pay. And she wondered what she would have done if she had lost a couple of hours of pay because people claiming to speak for her had done what they had done.”

Congratulations, hippies.  You are exactly the kind of people we thought you were.

Patriots win as expected

Gonna be a good Super Bowl.  Oh, man, I forgot about "Downton Abbey!"

Seattle beats the Packers

That may have been the craziest game ever.  What a comeback.

Three stupid things the Packers did to lose this game:
1) Taunting penalty on the 5-yard line that pushed the ball back to the 20, leading to a field goal instead of an easy-six.
2) Giving up a cross-field blooper pass for the two-point conversion by Seattle.
3) The onside kick.

Well, let's see who's going to play the Pats.  Go Patriots!

Cats and dogs living together

Or: "I may have to re-think how I feel about Bill Maher."  Legal Insurrection: "Bill Maher rips liberal fear of free speech."

Yeah, right, everybody's super-stoked on Krugman

Townhall: "Paul Krugman rejected by his peers."  "Paul Krugman has become an embarrassment to the economics profession. Despite his Nobel Prize and despite his previous high regard in the profession, his twice-a-week editorials in The New York Times are causing even progressive economists to treat him as somewhat of a kook."  And here's Jeffrey Sachs on Krugman's austerity flip-flop.

Saturday diversion

Oh, man, I laughed at this.  America!

Western Massachusetts update

Not from the Onion: "Mount Holyoke College group cancels 'Vagina Monologues' production citing lack of transgender role."  "The fact that Eve Ensler's celebrated play about women, "Vagina Monologues," does not have a transgender character has prompted the theater group at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley to cancel its annual production."  This is Meta.

Best comment: "Did any of the Mt. Holyoke theater productions feature a character who was a disabled transgendered Eskimo?

Their lack of diversity makes me SICK."

This is a joke, right?

Daily Caller: "Apology Tour: John Kerry Brings James Taylor To Paris To Play “You’ve Got A Friend”."

Kerry awkwardly stood by as Taylor played his song for the crowd, who applauded loudly when he was done.

To be fair, everything Kerry does is done awkwardly.  No word on whether friendship bracelets were lovingly wrapped around French wrists.

Extra - Twitchy: "No way this really happened."

More - Hit and Run: "That's Secretary of State John Kerry and his pal James Taylor in Paris, singing America's condolences for the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Terror experts are unsure how the French will retaliate."

Update - France has responded with the Grass Roots:

Wonky

Social Security trustee Charles Blahous discusses the dynamics of Social Security's trust fund and the disability program.  "The recently-enacted House rule conforms to the guidance repeatedly given by the program’s trustees on a bipartisan basis over several years.  Those who suggest that DI’s impending reserve depletion warrants no action beyond taking revenues away from the Social Security retirement fund appear to be unfamiliar with the basis for the current allocation as enacted in 1994."  Yeah, there's a lot of that going around.

Forget it Jake...it's Massachusetts

Protesters prevented hundreds of people from getting to work, sucked up public resources and - topping on the cake - "'Black Lives Matter' protesters prevented ambulance from reaching Boston hospital."

The religion of environmentalism

George Will: "The Keystone catechism".  "Obama revealed his economic sophistication years ago when he said that ATMs and airport ticket kiosks cost jobs. He does not understand that, outside of government, which is all that he knows or respects, all jobs are “temporary.”"

By a 2-1 margin, Americans want the Keystone pipeline constructed.  Are we going to get 42,000 "temporary" jobs or will Tom Steyer's money carry the day?

You may ask but we won't answer

In a remarkable example of self-censorship, a group of activists went on a Reddit AMA and said: "We're working on overturning Citizens United - ask us anything!"

The top questions were voted to the top of the page and...they all ran away.  Hilarious comments ensued.

Cough it up, kids

It's not just the national debt burying future generations.  PJ Media: "Why the Coming Pension Bomb Will Destroy Your City and State - Screwing future generations to take care of non-workers today."

Don't worry: you'll almost certainly get 75% of your promised Social Security benefits.  Maybe.

Ignorance is strength

Matthew Continetti: "Blasphemy for Me, but Not for Thee - Do liberals actually believe in the right to offend?"

In related news, "Largest Islamic Body in the World Calls for More Anti-Free Speech Laws in Wake of Charlie Hebdo Attack."  The New York Times responded: "Where do I sign up!?"

Sally Kohn's stupid article is stupid

Over at CNN, some dummy says we shouldn't purposely antagonize Muslims because "free speech comes with responsibilities."  What it all boils down to is another liberal who wants to decide the limits of First Amendment rights.  Who decides what is disrespectful and what will get you killed for blasphemy?  Kohn makes desultory points that dance around this fundamental point before falling back on a wan call for respect.  Because let's be nice.

If Kohn believes her insipid blather, then let's pull "The Book of Mormon" from Broadway.  I remember when Kanye West appeared as Jesus on the cover of Rolling Stone, somebody remarked that if he really wanted to make himself a controversial figure, he would have appeared as Mohammad.  The difference, it needn't be said, is that Christians aren't going to murder Kanye and firebomb the offices of Rolling Stone.

I'm insulted by Kohn's article and, so insulted, I demand its immediate retraction.

Extra - Taylor Marsh: "Unity rally celebrating liberty and those who would police speech."

More - And this from Iowahawk:

A president who believes in free speech doesn't apologize to foreign governments for videos made by his country's private citizens.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 11, 2015

Fear of a backlash

National Review: "Islamophobia is a myth."  "Islamophobia is a code word for mainstream European elites’ fear of their own populations, of their native hordes, whom they imagine to be unenlightened, prejudiced, easily led by the tabloid media, and given to outbursts of spite and violence."  Those poor, dumb people.

Schadenfreude overload: Western Massachusetts update

If you enjoyed the wailing of Harvard elites complaining about Obamacare, you're going to love this development from the other side of the Bay State.  The most left-wing city here in Western Massachusetts is Northampton, which Wikipedia calls "the most politically liberal medium-size city (population 25,000–99,000) in the United States."

Without a doubt, the flagship store of Northampton is Faces, a quirky arts and clothing store.  It's right in the center of town and it's always packed with people picking up their "Faux News" magnets and Bob Marley posters.  But now, after 40 years, Faces is closing and everybody's upset.

What killed Faces?

Vogel said in a prepared statement he did not make the decision to close lightly, and cited the pressures of running an independent store, including the increasing costs of health insurance, personnel, taxes and business insurance, and utilities.

Health insurance costs rising?  Check.
Higher personnel costs?  Check.
High business taxes?  Check.
Higher utilities costs?  Check.

To paraphrase Obama, if the left-wing created a business model it would look like Faces.  Buh-bye.

I've heard that song before

I want one

Hot Air: "Charlie Hebdo survivors, former contributors to publish edition next week."

My son took a class trip to France last year and he claims he has a friend over there who can get me an issue.

The future of commentary

Freedom of speech

Here's Victor Davis Hanson back in 2012: "Please, no more apologies for free speech"

Apparently leaders of the Islamic world present a non-negotiable demand to the West that they be given a blank check for their governments to defame Jews, Christians, and Americans, but the United States must condemn any private individual who, quite apart from the knowledge of the U.S. government, does the same to Muslims. That is the issue, and anything less than an unapologetic defense of free speech is not only a betrayal of our Constitution, but a very dangerous concession that will only incite more violence in the near future. Unfortunately, Western hedging, appeasement, and apologies to theocrats and authoritarians have never won gratitude, but instead such magnanimity is seen as either weakness to be exploited or proof all along that the apologizer admits culpability and will do so again in the future — a fact well known to history’s thugs, big and small, whether Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Osama bin Laden, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

It's just coming over the wire just now that two of the three gunmen are in custody and the third is dead.

The NY Times drops the mask again

Remember this story in the NY Observer about a year ago about simmering resentment from the Times staffers towards the editorial page?

Said one staffer, “Andy’s got 14 or 15 people plus a whole bevy of assistants working on these three unsigned editorials every day. They’re completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual. I mean, just try and remember the last time that anybody was talking about one of those editorials.

Fast forward to the new Republican Congress and we have this gem in an otherwise balanced editorial:

For months, congressional Republicans have been drawing up plans on how they would run Congress if they won the Senate in November. In anticipation of more jockeying and complicated procedural fights on the floor, members of both parties have built up their staffs, bringing back some experienced veterans.

"Procedural fights?"  In other words, the filibuster, that crude cudgel of obstruction when it's in the hands of the Republicans and a principled tool of opposition when in the hands of the Democrats.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.  Golly, I wonder if they'll endorse Hillary in 2016.

Harvard is crimson

With anger over Obamacare.  This is the most delicious story to come out of the Grey Lady in ages: "Harvard Ideas On Health Care Hit Home, Hard."

For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

It only gets better from there.  Professors at Harvard earn just shy of 200 large and now they're whinging about having to pay a $250 deductible.  Also: did you like going to Harvard Medical School hospitals?  Not so fast!

To create a network of high-value providers, Harvard would probably need to exclude some of its own teaching hospitals, or discourage their use.

Great stuff.  Take it away, William F. Buckley:

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

Indeed.

This is news?

NY Post: "How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations."  The tax-dodger was pulling this scam back when he was only a regional race huckster.

Back on the campaign trail

LA Times: "Obama to hit the road again, selling economic progress."  First stop: Detroit!

Honestly, this guy is way beyond parody now.  It's all campaigning, fundraising and golf now with the occasional vacation thrown in for good measure.  By federal law, Obama is legally required to submit a budget plan by the first Monday in February, something he has done only once.  I'm guessing the over/under will be sometime around April.

Confirmation bias

Isn't it easy to confess how great we are?  WSJ: "A Magician’s Best Trick: Revealing a Basic Human Bias."

State the state

Hit and Run: "Why the Supreme Court Should Ignore Insurance Subsidy Disruption in the Obamacare Subsidies Case."  Because words mean stuff.

Come back, you racist pigs!

DC Trawler: "OUT: ‘Go Away, Cops!’ IN: ‘Where Did You Go, Cops?’"

Rest in peace, Mario Cuomo

WSJ: "Mario Cuomo: Direct, unapologetic liberal."

I grew up in northern New Jersey when Cuomo was governor of New York and, although I disagreed with him, there was no doubt he was an intelligent advocate.  One night I heard him on a radio show and a caller asked why he didn't "bow to the will of the people" and allow the death penalty in New York.  Cuomo gave a lucid and reasoned answer about how the populace votes for leaders to use their judgement and they are not merely a rubber-stamp.

That's why I think it's an inapt comparison to call Cuomo "The Elizabeth Warren of the 1980s."  Cuomo was a smart man whlie Warren is a dimwit who regurgitates populist buzzwords while making zero progress to actually fix anything.

Extra - A different view from Maggie's Farm.

The only thing certain is uncertainty

Interesting read from Business Insider: "122 Things Everyone Should Know About Investing And The Economy."

The S&P 500 gained 27% in 1998. But just five stocks -- Dell, Lucent, Microsoft, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart -- accounted for more than half the gain. There can be huge concentration even in a diverse portfolio.

Ah, yes, Lucent.  That was a great investment tax write-off.

Silent Cal in Boston

National Review: "Where de Blasio is right - How Calvin Coolidge handled a 1919 police strike in Boston holds lessons for New York today."

I will take what is mine with fire and blood

Hit and Run: "Free Speech Review: 22 Significant, Silly, or Otherwise Noteworthy First Amendment Cases From 2014."

The meltdown

In keeping with today's criticism of the media, Hot Air's top 10 posts for 2014 includes several journalistic lapses culminating with MSNBC's objective analysis of the midterm election results.

Speaking of "journalism"

A month ago, I noted that the popular "Serial" podcast was going nowhere and that there was scant evidence to indicate the guy in prison right now was falsely convicted.  Now that the series is over, the Federalist adds this: "‘Serial’ Has One Of Those Big Flapping In The Breeze Red Flags Of Journalism."

And now, just this morning, on the non-mainstream media site "The Intercept", Jay Wilds talks about why he didn't want to talk to the police or the "Serial" people.  And it pretty much confirms what was obvious about halfway through "Serial": Adnan was guilty and the focus on minutiae to heighten suspense was nothing.

Yup

Commentary: "Public trust in media at an all-time low."

I blame Ben Trovato.

Extra - Don Surber: "The top 10 failed narratives of 2014."

Gruber's loose lips

Daily Caller: "Obama Adviser Jonathan Gruber In 2009: Obamacare Will NOT Be Affordable."

Gee, the media missed that one too.  If there's any question about how damaging Gruber's "stupid" statements will be to the King v. Burwell case before the Supreme Court, take note that the brief filed by the plaintiffs waited only to page 4 to remind the Court.

That darn media

Before going on his wedding-disrupting vacation, Obama sat down for an interview with NPR.  The recipient of the most fawning media coverage in the history of the White House informed us that, gosh darn it, the media just won't report how great everything's going:

It is the media’s fault he is not more popular
But even while touting economic progress and his breakthrough with Cuba, Mr. Obama couldn’t resist what has become like a crutch in his public statements: blaming the press for not communicating his successes to the American people.

It's never the dog food with this guy, it's always a failure of marketing.  The New York Times recently piled on by reporting that Medicaid reimbursement rates will decline by 43% under Obamacare which will certainly lead to even more doctors dropping patients.  Ed Morrissey explains how we came to this bait-and-switch moment:

Doctors initially opposed ObamaCare, though, which is why Harry Reid snuck in the delay in reimbursement cuts (for Medicare in this instance) at the last minute almost exactly five years ago. The “doc fix” dodge had been going on for some time, but Reid took it to a new level in order to fool the CBO into scoring ObamaCare as deficit-neutral. He submitted the Senate-written bill with the cuts to the CBO while winning AMA endorsement with a separate and temporary suspension of those cuts that the CBO didn’t get to see. That and the “temporary” Medicaid reimbursement rates have kept up the pretense of deficit neutrality ever since while pushing off the day of reckoning … until now.

Here's my question: where was the mainstream media then?  While the conservative news outlets were warning that Obamacare was full of questionable policy patches and budget games, the MSM was busy with the low-hanging fruit of showing Republicans pushing Grandma over a cliff.  Where was the investigative journalism back then?

The great mission of husbanding Obamacare into existence now completed, the MSM can now turn their attention on costlier deductibles and premiums, vanishing policies, the dwindling doctor base, and the rising tax penalties.  Obama will have the sads.

Laughing in/at the French

Twitchy: "Gerard Depardieu was right! France scraps its 75% ‘super tax’"



Related - WashPost: "The Laffer Curve turns 40: the legacy of a controversial idea."

Things that bug me

Have you seen the Geico commercial where a guy is walking from the street towards a public (that is, not residential) office building and cannot enter when he pulls on the door handle?  Suddenly Salt-N-Pepa appear and urge him to "Push It."

I'm almost positive that national fire codes require that all public buildings must have doors that open outward.  The reason is that if there's an emergency a crush of panicked people would prevent the door from being opened inward, preventing escape.  Furthermore, I'm pretty sure these changes came about after the Cocoanut Grove Fire of 1942.

That door is in violation of the fire code.

But Koch brothers!

Powerline: "Democrats: Party of the rich"

And the media.

Merry Christmas

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Christmas Eve

Layers of fact-checkers

According to the Free Beacon, if you see an article on Vox, you can assume it's wrong.

Google searches - how do they work?

Zero Hedge totally called it

Zero Hedge: "Here Is The Reason For The "Surge" In Q3 GDP."  "In short, two-thirds of the "boost" to final Q3 personal consumption came from, drumroll, the same Obamacare which initially was supposed to boost Q1 GDP until the "polar vortex" crashed the number so badly, the BEA decided to pull it completely and leave this "growth dry powder" for another quarter. That quarter was Q3."

They predicted this artificial bump in June.

Headline of the day winner

MassLive: "Nighttime kayaker clinging to Christmas tree rescued from Nashawannuck Pond in Easthampton."

It's like a typing exercise.

Another victim of Obamacare

Bloomberg: "Republicans Block Reappointment of CBO Chief Doug Elmendorf."  "Republican lawmakers who have questioned the office’s analysis were unmoved. They agreed with calls from incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price for a new director who might introduce so-called dynamic scoring to CBO analysis."

I agree with Keith Hennessey that Elmendorf has been been a fair trader at the CBO, particularly with his many warning about the unsustainability of entitlement spending.

Nork computers go down. Both of them.

Fox News: "North Korea experiencing widespread Internet outages."  This may affect last-minute Amazon orders.

The city will suffer first

Roger Kimball: "Will Bill de Blasio be forced to resign?"  No, but what will happen is that the NYPD will forget about all the broken windows and instead respond to every call with overwhelming force to prevent the very kind of ambush that took the lives of Ramos and Liu.  All the "petty" crimes like burglary will be ignored while resources are diverted to routine traffic stops.

Extra - City Journal: "A city on the brink." "The city’s progressive elites, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, have accommodated the protestors—offering them aid and comfort in the media, entertaining their wilder claims, and standing silent as they defamed the NYPD as racist killers."

Two cops down in NYC

Hot Air: "The time is past for Bill DeBlasio to resign."  I think he means "past due."

There's a video of DeBlasio visiting the hospital where the slain policemen were taken and virtually all the NYPD officers turned their backs to him.  It was cold.

I laughed at this

Social Security endgame

Hit and Run: "Social Security On Track to Go Broke, Says CBO."  "It's no surprise, given the long years of discussion we've had over the financial illogic of the United States' entitlement programs, but Social Security is on track to pay out a lot less than people expect as its costs soar. The latest analysis comes from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which points out that Social Security outlays started to exceed tax revenues for the program in 2010."

That free speech thing

Good post from Jim Treacher: "Patton Oswalt: A tale of two tweets."

Fellow travelers

Washington Post editorial: "Obama gives the Castro regime in Cuba an undeserved bailout."  "Mr. Obama may claim that he has dismantled a 50-year-old failed policy; what he has really done is give a 50-year-old failed regime a new lease on life."

Running out of other people's money

Politico: "Vermont bails on single-payer health care."

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday dropped his plan to enact a single-payer health care system in his state — a plan that had won praise from liberals but never really got much past the framework stage.
“This is not the right time” for enacting single payer, Shumlin said in a statement, citing the big tax increases that would be required to pay for it.

Imagine that.  If there was one incubator where single-payer might have worked it is in the politically and demographically homogeneous state of Vermont.  But the governor decided the "economic disruption" of large tax hikes would hurt everybody.

Cuba libre

Noted foreign policy expert decides - gosh darn it - America has had it all wrong for 50 years: "US, Cuba seek to normalize relations after Alan Gross released."

America's enemies will take a lesson: "Rubio on Cuba deal: ‘It puts a price on every American abroad."

“I’m not in favor of the process by which the release was acquired because I think it does set a very dangerous precedent,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News. “It puts a price on every American abroad. Governments now know that if they take an American hostage they can get very significant concessions from the United States.”

In today's speech, Obama all but admitted that the return of Alan Gross was the linchpin to open up relations with the Communist regime.  Of course, lifting the embargo requires Congressional approval and surely the White House was in close discussions with the Foreign Relations committees, right?

Yeah, right:

Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is slamming President Obama over his prisoner swap to release an American held in Cuba.
“President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government," Menendez, known for his tough stance on Cuba, said in a statement.

Like I said: he's the expert.

How about "no"?

Hit and Run: "No Exam Delay for Oberlin Students 'Traumatized' By Grand Jury Decisions."  A student wrote a long and strident email to her professor asking for a test delay and he responded simply "no."  The brevity of his response (and the time stamp) indicates he didn't think this precious snowflake deserved anything more.

They told me if I voted Republican, class inequality would deepen

And they were right!

A judge too far

Although I agree with the arguments put forth by Judge Schwab on executive powers, I don't think he was within his rights to make them:

Conservatives should remain principled in their opposition to President Obama’s misuse of executive power, but they should also remain true in their resistance to the siren song of judicial activism. They should not invite judges to carry out the heavy work of opposing the president, which here is the duty of Congress.

This was a decision based on a narrow case and this judge appointed himself the Constitutional arbiter of the Land.  The lefty blogs are noting that this judge was appointed by Dubya, so beware and (sigh) they may be correct here.

When does the "Captain Phillips" rule apply?

Regarding the terrorist attack in Sydney, there's Ace:

Now we enter the most important phase of a terrorist outrage: Being lectured for a month that Islam is Peace.

And Iowahawk:

.@jimgeraghty While we shouldn't rush to judgment, we should probably suspend a few Australian college fraternities just to be safe.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 15, 2014

I don't know, man, but once the police identified this through-and-through nutcase, I don't see how they would think the situation would end well.  I couldn't stop thinking of this.

Hillary Clinton is Martha Coakley

This thought came to me reading Legal Insurrection: "Hillary will crumble if Elizabeth Warren just says yes."

I've always felt that Hillary's support is a mile wide and an inch deep.  The effort to recruit the Left's Barry Goldwater is an acknowledgement that Democrats just aren't that into Hillary.  Are Democrats really going to nominate a first-term Senator from academia who has no experience running a lemonade stand?

Oh, right.  That guy.

Update - I just realized I should explain: Martha Coakley is the Attorney General in deep-blue Massachusetts but she lost a Senate bid to Scott Brown then a governor's race to Charlie Baker.  Why?  As I explained over at Althouse, Coakley just can't connect with voters.  And that's Hillary.

Take this job and shove it

Maybe once the kids move out and your financial situation improves, you can take the step of just up-and-quitting.  But taking two-thirds of your office with you?  That's something else: "Inside the collapse of the New Republic."

Disk drive crash in 3...2...1...

Hit and Run: "House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Obamacare Work and Contract Details."

Related - Powerline: "Grubered again."

Stand back, I'm a journalist

Federalist: "Why The Media’s Fact Problems Are Way Bigger Than Rolling Stone."

While we're on the topic: the cheerleaders on the Left and in the media (but I repeat myself) are starting to notice some trouble with Obamacare:

Everything we on the right said about ♡bamaCare!!! has come to pass, and yet the Wankblog goes right on as before as each new “revelation” (predicted by the right well in advance) comes true.
Heads should roll, but instead “explanatory journalism” will go on.

But Ezra told me it was all going so swimmingly.

Extra - The media's darling:

One of the most disgusting details is how the media is praising Elizabeth Warren for attempting to shut down the government. As George Will put it on Bret Baier: When Republicans flirted with a shutdown, they were depicted as hostage-takers and suicide bombers; when ultra-liberal Elizabeth Warren does it, she's hailed as the second coming of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Yup.

Rockin' that hoisted petard

I forget where I saw it but somebody asked: "Why are the conservative blogs obsessed with this Rolling Stone article?"  Well, there are two explanations for me:

1) I dislike the mainstream media
2) I loathe Rolling Stone

This was a magazine that I used to subscribe to for - get this - music.  At some point they decided to be a political magazine and every freakin' week there was a jeremiad against one political party, sometimes offset by an ass-kissing defense of Obama.  Am I loving this carpet-bombing of their credibility?  Oh yes.  Take a look at this minor detail from the WashPost:

The Rolling Stone article also said that Randall declined to be interviewed, “citing his loyalty to his own frat.” He told The Post that he never was contacted by Rolling Stone and would have agreed to an interview. The article’s writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, did not respond to requests for comment this week.

We're now reached the tipping point where the default position is that "Jackie" made up this entire story.  Heads will roll at Rolling Stone.

It's gonna be biblical.

Everybody was roller-skating in the 80s

Elizabeth Warren's victimology

You're always a loser with Fauxcohontas: "Elizabeth Warren goes full Orwell."  If you're denied a home loan: victim.  If you can't pay back that loan that you shouldn't have gotten: victim.

This is an argument we can’t win with the left. If the sub prime loans are not made, then we are denying mortgages to low income families (Never mind that the interest rate is higher because of the increased risk to the lending institution). Since they were made, the left argues that they were predatory. And if you suggest that the interest rates should be higher to higher risk borrowers, now you are being discriminatory.

I can't believe this dim bulb is a national figure.  Every speech she gives is to absolve her audience of any kind of personal responsibility and instead insist you're being "hammered" by invisible forces.  Some of these oppressors even gave you a home loan!  Bastards.

A "memoir" that was fiction

Powerline: "Lena Dunham walks back fabricated rape claim."  For the win: "The prospect of a libel suit tends to concentrate the mind."

Fooled by a graph

Althouse: "Credulous journalist ponders why journalists are so credulous."

Trouble in Magazine-land

Politico: "TNR cancels December issue after mass staff resignation."

Let's all pay our fair share

Via Greg Mankiw: "Who pays for government?"

Lies to support "truthiness"

Matthew Continetti: "Liberalism is a hoax."

And disregards the rest

WashPost: "Rolling Stone’s disastrous U-Va. story: A case of real media bias".  "Under the scenario cited by Erdely, the Phi Kappa Psi members are not just criminal sexual-assault offenders, they’re criminal sexual-assault conspiracists, planners, long-range schemers. If this allegation alone hadn’t triggered an all-out scramble at Rolling Stone for more corroboration, nothing would have. Anyone who touched this story — save newsstand personnel — should lose their job. The “grooming” anecdote indicates not only that Erdely believed whatever diabolical things about these frat guys told to her, she wanted to believe them. And then Rolling Stone published them."  Emphasis in original.

Extra - From Instapundit.

Illinois is the worst

The other day I mentioned that Illinois has pension obligations that will choke the state.  Now it's official:

Illinois is the worst-run state in the nation. Like many other low-ranked states, more people left Illinois than moved there. Illinois lost more than 137,000 residents due to migration between the middle of 2010 and July 2013. A poor housing market may partly explain the exodus. Median home values fell 16.2% between 2009 and 2013, the second largest drop nationwide. Illinois has extremely poor finances by many measures. Just 39.3% of Illinois’ pension liabilities were funded as of 2013, worse than any other state. Further, the state’s reserves are estimated at just 0.5% of its general fund expenditure, the second lowest reserves rate nationwide. Both Moody’s and S&P gave Illinois the worst credit ratings of any state, at A3 and A- respectively. According to Moody’s, the state’s rating reflects its low fund balances and high pension obligations, as well as its “chronic use of payment deferrals to manage operating fund cash.”

Down down down.

Dunham says "rape" and Breitbart says "nope"

Big Hollywood: "Investigation: Lena Dunham 'raped by a Republican' story in bestseller collapses under scrutiny."

After a month-long investigation that included more than a dozen interviews, a trip to the Oberlin campus, and hours spent poring through the Oberlin College archives, her description of the campus remains the only detail Breitbart News was able to verify in Dunham's story of being raped by a campus Republican named Barry.

Whether intentional or not, this opening echoes a line from "Shattered Glass" about discredited New Republic writer Stephen Glass:

[after completely debunking Stephen Glass's New Republic article]
Adam Penenberg: But there is one thing in this story that checks out.
Kambiz Foroohar: What's that?
Adam Penenberg: There does appear to be a state in the union named Nevada.

This falls in line with the unraveling of the Rolling Stone article about rape at the University of Virginia.  In both cases, I believe, a tipping point was reached where the truthiness of the rape story was more important to move some books and magazines.  Who are you going to believe?  Lena Dunham and Jann Wenner or some good ole boy Southern Republicans?

Extra - Speaking of the New Republic and unraveling.

Out of control

WashPost editorial: "President Obama’s unilateral action on immigration has no precedent."  "The White House has defended President Obama’s unilateral decision to legalize the presence of nearly 4 million undocumented immigrants as consistent, even in scope, with the executive actions of previous presidents. In fact, it is increasingly clear that the sweeping magnitude of Mr. Obama’s order is unprecedented."

Almost like they're hopelessly biased

Federalist: "Dear Media: this Elizabeth Lauten Nonsense Is Why Everybody Hates You."

The fuse is burning on the debt bomb

First up, here's Zero Hedge with "5 complete lies about America's new $18 trillion debt level."

FACT: For the last several years, the US government has been spending roughly 90% of its ENTIRE tax revenue just to pay for mandatory entitlement programs and interest on the debt.
This leaves almost nothing for practically everything else we think of as government.

This is almost verbatim something I've been saying on this blog forever with regard to America's intractable entitlement spending.  Well, we don't need to wait to see the effects of mandatory spending crowding out all other government spending.  The future of bankruptcy is in the Prairie State:

Now, to pay off its retirement debt, Illinois needs more than $6 billion a year from taxpayers to make up for the skipped contributions to the pension system, along with more than $1 billion more to pay off its pension bonds. That represents more than one-fifth of the state’s general-fund budget. By contrast, states typically spend no more than 4 percent to 5 percent of their budgets on pensions. The consequences have already been felt by Illinois taxpayers—and workers. Government employment is down by nearly 30,000 workers since its 2009 peak. Local governments, those that deliver the most basic services to taxpayers, have done the most trimming, slicing 20,000 jobs. Meanwhile, rising benefits costs are squeezing out other spending, including pay increases. School districts have been hit the hardest; their budgets are largely made up of personnel costs.

Tough nuts, kids.  Your school budget will be cut now but there will be plenty of missing jobs in Illinois due to the terrible business climate to pay off all the accumulated state and federal debt.  Nice.

Noose reporting

I got a chuckle out of this.  My9NJ: "Only 19 Paterson students ready for college"

“These kids who are now seniors have gone through seven superintendents in their tenor at Paterson public schools and with every administration change, there's a reworking of what the schools are supposed to be doing,” she said.

"Tenure."  But wait...there's more!

However, the Paterson school district said that they no longer use SAT scores to gauge students' success.

Yeah, I'll bet.

Solar eclipse

Hit and Run: "Government-Backed Green Energy Goes Bust"

The recent Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation filing of the Toledo, Ohio-based solar-panel manufacturer Xunlight Corp. has attracted barely any national attention.
Maybe it’s gotten to the point—after Solyndra, Evergreen, Abound, and Satcon—that the failure of another government-backed alternative energy company is a dog-bites man story. It’d be newsworthy if any of them actually ever succeeded.

Ho-hum.  Good intentions and all that.

Irresponsible and unpatriotic

Zero Hedge: "US Debt In Public Hands Doubles Under Barack Obama."

Fading retirement

Today's Boston Globe has a profile/story about Alicia Munnell, the top economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston: "Top economist says many face an old age of less money."

Munnell, who has run BC’s retirement research for 15 years, has studied pensions and Social Security since the 1960s. At that time, these benefits provided the foundation for retirement, contributing to a steady decline in the age people stopped working.
Demographic and economic changes weakened the old supports. Birth rates have declined, meaning there are fewer new workers to pay the costs of Social Security. Without changes, actuaries estimate that by 2033 the program won’t have enough money to cover promised benefits, requiring the government to cut payments to recipients or raise taxes.

The Social Security Trust Fund is really just an accounting trick and I suspect that in 2033 the Federal government will just keep borrowing from itself to pay full benefits.  We can always print more money.

Ray Rice smacks down his suspension

Fox News: "Ray Rice wins appeal 'suspension vacated'."

You know maybe Rice got a raw deal, maybe he got caught on tape doing something common for professional athletes, and was a handy scapegoat.  But the NFL has been running these insufferable commercials with football players telling us "NO MORE."

Yeah, you can stop showing those, NFL.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mental Floss: "8 Thanksgiving flowcharts."  Everything you need to know in flowchart form.

The Serial podcast

I stumbled across the Serial podcast phenomenon after reading a Mental Floss post on not-so-crazy Serial theories.  I'm all caught up with the episodes and I have to say I'm underwhelmed.  Frankly, I think Occam's Razor indicates - as this Redditor has noted - that Adnan is guilty.

The podcast is focusing on minutiae about the case and searching for alternative explanations.  (Oh, there wasn't a payphone near the Best Buy?  Wow!)  Jay is believable and Adnan is not.  In Adnan, I've never seen a wrongly-accused prisoner so content with his incarceration.

Hold on, I gotta call Nisha.

PBGC going the way of CBGBs

That is: bankrupt.  Vodkapundit: "Return to bailout nation."

We gather together

Hot Air: "Ohio could host both political conventions in 2016."

I like Kevin Williamson's suggestion that the Democrats should pick a city to match their politics:

The Democrats, if they had any remaining intellectual honesty, would hold their convention in Detroit. Democratic leadership, Democratic unions and the Democratic policies that empower them, Democrat-dominated school bureaucracies, Democrat-style law enforcement, Democratic levels of taxation and spending, the politics of protest and grievance in the classical Democratic mode — all of these have made Detroit what it is today: an unwholesome slop-pail of woe and degradation that does not seem to belong in North America, a craptastical crater groaning with misery, a city-shaped void in what once was the industrial soul of the nation. If you want to see the end point of Barack Obama’s shining path, visit Detroit.

The GOP can take Texas.

When the Emperor goes off-teleprompter

Weekly Standard: "Obama Admits: 'I Just Took an Action to Change the Law'"

The White House has argued that President Obama's executive amnesty order last week was made well within the existing law. But in remarks in Chicago tonight, President Obama went off script and admitted that in fact he unilaterally made changes to the law.

His words: "I took an action to change the law."  Because that's what Presidents do: change laws.

They don't?!?  Oh man, I gotta re-read that Constitution.

A compelling legal argument

It's the child's argument of "just because."  The Corner: "Obama: ‘Absolutely Not’ Legitimate for Future Presidents to Apply My Logic on Executive Actions."

Extra - Kim Strassel: "The Next Prez and the Obama Way."  Anything goes, baby!

The leaks from Ferguson

At first I thought there would be no indictment but then I thought, well, if that were true, they would never announce it late at night when the darkness would make it more difficult for police to maintain control.

But the Gateway Pundit is splashing that Darren Wilson will not be indicted.  But I'm not sure if that's right: the tweet he refers to says that Wilson has not been notified to turn himself in.  What does that mean?  Probably nothing at all.

I suspect there will be some lesser charge like reckless endangerment but not the big M.

Update - No indictment from the grand jury.

More - Mediaite: "Announcing Grand Jury Decision at Night a Needlessly Reckless One."  Yeah, like I said.

Obama decides at least one Republican in Washington should lose his job

Those midterms were brutal so time to cut Chuck Hagel loose.

SNL does Schoolhouse Rock

Hail Caesar

Jonah Goldberg: "Obama to Congress: It’s My Way or My Way - Congress’ placating the president on immigration would establish a precedent for lawless executive action."  "This guy is supposed to be a lawyer. The question of his authority to do X is independent of what Congress does. The executive branch may not write laws. You could look it up."

Extra - Mark Steyn: "Elections matter?"  "But it turns out they don't. Not to him."

The hits just keep on comin'

Hit and Run: "If You Like Your Obamacare Health Plan, You Can Keep It, If HHS Doesn't Pick a New One For You."  "Basically, if you like your plan, but don't go out of your way to intentionally re-enroll, the kind and wise folks at HHS or state health exchanges might just pick a new plan—perhaps with different doctors, clinics, cost structures, and benefit options—for you. And if you want to switch back? Good luck once open enrollment is closed. There's always next year."

If it's Friday night, it's time for another "executive discretion" change to a law.

Truthiness

Washington Examiner: "Purdue: Just 50%, not media-hyped 97%, of scientists blame humans for climate change."

Buffalo thanks you for the update.

All hail the Emperor

Charles C.W. Cooke: "Obama's imperial transformation is now complete - The president has become everything he ran against."

Noting in 2008 that he “taught constitutional law for ten years,” and in consequence took “the Constitution very seriously,” Obama determined that “the biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all.” “That,” the candidate assured his audience, is “what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States of America.”

Every Obama statement has an expiration date.

Setting sun

Coyote Blog: "Thoughts on the Japanese economy."  What has government intervention and deep deficit spending wrought?  "And the result of all this has been... 25 years of stagnation."

Extra - Zero Hedge: "Japanese Trade Deficit Streak Hits Record 44 Months, Yen & Stocks Decoupling."

Super executive powers activate!

The Washington Post editorial page warns Obama against opening up Pandora's box: "In Mr. Obama’s own words, acting alone is ‘not how our democracy functions’"

It is 2017. Newly elected President Ted Cruz (R) insists he has won a mandate to repeal Obamacare. The Senate, narrowly back in Democratic hands, disagrees. Mr. Cruz instructs the Internal Revenue Service not to collect a fine from anyone who opts out of the individual mandate to buy health insurance, thereby neutering a key element of the program. It is a matter of prosecutorial discretion, Mr. Cruz explains; tax cheats are defrauding the government of billions, and he wants the IRS to concentrate on them. Of course, he is willing to modify his order as soon as Congress agrees to fix what he considers a “broken” health system.

As the editorial notes, just a couple months ago Obama was telling a crowd (correctly) that he didn't have the power to just ignore the law.  Suddenly, he can.  His buddy Eugene Robinson gives him cover by writing that since Boehner won't call a vote, all that stuff you learned on "Schoolhouse Rock" goes out the window.

What changed?  Well I have a theory and it involves stringing along the Hispanic community for six years.  Obama promised immigration reform in his first year, back when he had filibuster-proof majorities in Congress:

Obama failed to deliver on a promise, and he blamed Republicans instead of acknowledging any real responsibility for that failure.

Imagine that.  I don't think Obama ever wanted to fix immigration, I think he wanted an issue.  He wanted a cudgel to use against the Republicans in 2012 and secure his re-election.  Then he dangled the issue out in front of reform proponents insisting in speech after speech that, since he didn't have authorization, the only way to fix immigration was to elect Democrats.

When the 2014 midterms didn't turn out the way he hoped, it was clear to Obama that he had squeezed out all the political usefulness from the issue.  Time to forget everything that guy said in the past.

Race huckster turns tax dodger

Hot Air: "Uh oh: New York Times creates big trouble for tax-dodging Obama ally Al Sharpton."

I grew up in New Jersey right around that time that asswipe Sharpton was stirring up the obvious lie of Tawana Brawley.  Apparently we need Lois Lerner to get a tax audit of this clown.

The inequality two-step

Hit and Run: "The Latest Liberal Nonsense About Economic Inequality."  "The weakness of Rattner’s data is a clue to what he and many of the other anti-inequality campaigners are up to: using the issue as a cudgel to advance the same old tax-and-spend policies that the left was in favor of long before inequality was rediscovered as a trendy cause."