So I was reading this morning about how “Violence on the border endangers Americans,” and it got me to thinking about what Nishi and happy have been obliquely arguing of late — namely, that should conservatives / classical liberals become vocal over forthcoming high-profile immigration “reform” proposals, their subsequent depiction by both the media and lawmakers (of both parties, potentially) as ravaging nativists and xenophobes will go a long way
April 2010
April 7, 2010
Legal Science Fictions
Ronald Bailey, “Red Ink and Green Jobs,” Reason: In 2006, when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a mandate for dramatic reduction of greenhouse gasses into law, the state’s economy was in a very different place. Unemployment was 4.5 percent and residents felt rich thanks to inflated home values. Today, 12.5 percent of Californians are out of work, the state is in budgetary meltdown, and Californians are re-evaluating their priorities. Economic
April 7, 2010
“Five things we learned about Obamacare after it passed”
[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.” — Nancy Pelosi Yes, she actually said that — right before she shot a man just to see if he would die. Good freakin’ lord.
April 7, 2010
The Rape of “The Rape of Liberty”
Via David Thompson, Elle Gray in The Guardian: Then, I saw a cartoon, the “creative” work of a conservative blogger, that depicted the aftermath of the rape of the Statue of Liberty by President Obama. My first thought was, oh, hello, yet another idea reinforced during reconstruction and redemption – the myth of the sexually violent black man. This “brute” was a particular danger to white women and this myth
April 6, 2010
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, abridged, 35
When you find yourself heading into a spill, the proper thing to do is relax and trust your leather. At worst, you experience a surrender of the ego; at best, you move to a new realm of consciousness, becoming one with the road — or, if things don’t go exactly as planned, with about a half-dozen giant tires on a trailing semi. Which is almost as liberating.*
April 6, 2010
“What ObamaCare Will Cost Doctors”
Chris Link, MD., The American Thinker: Anesthesiologists bill for most surgical cases with a combination of base units depending on the particular surgery (e.g. cardiac bypass has a higher base value than a hernia repair), plus one time unit for every 15 minutes. The average anesthesiologist bills 10,198 units in a year. Medicare pays, on average, $20.925 per unit. Now $213,393 a year sounds like a pretty decent living for
April 6, 2010
“What ObamaCare Will Cost Doctors”
Chris Link, MD., The American Thinker: Anesthesiologists bill for most surgical cases with a combination of base units depending on the particular surgery (e.g. cardiac bypass has a higher base value than a hernia repair), plus one time unit for every 15 minutes. The average anesthesiologist bills 10,198 units in a year. Medicare pays, on average, $20.925 per unit. Now $213,393 a year sounds like a pretty decent living for
April 6, 2010
In an ever-growing bureaucratic state…
…just who will oversee the overseers? Still, TARP’s avowed purpose was to help healthy banks resume lending following the economic meltdown of 2008; it was never meant to become a congressional slush fund. Or was it? It’s time for Treasury to disclose all records about all contacts it has received from congressmen concerning the distribution of TARP funds. Anything less than full disclosure will fuel more public worries about possible
April 6, 2010
Some interesting follow-up notes on JD Salinger
New letters surface from Salinger to a war buddy. Most interestingly, a confirmation that Salinger had a room full of unpublished manuscripts. Then there’s this, about the book that almost was. (h/t TSI)
April 5, 2010
Losing More Slowly, redux [bh]
Readers here will easily recognize the issues covered in this short piece by Theodore Dalyrymple: In his essay on the liberty of the press, the great philosopher David Hume wrote what has been many times quoted, but has never achieved the status of a cliché: It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom that