I Wish I Had This Option Back in 2008

Mickey Kaus advocates for a real "none of the above" option on the ballot, as suggested by Dylan Ratigan, with some tweaks.  Interesting discussion, and since I generally favor anything that would create massive levels of chaos, I see some serious pluses in this approach.  Of course, I think Kaus and Ratigan should acknowledge that they stole the idea from Brewster's Millions.

Tax Dollars Being Wasted

One more note on the NPR-Juan Williams debacle -- Mike Huckabee was one of the folks who yesterday called upon the federal government to defund NPR.  I don't know if defunding it would actually have any impact on NPR, but the whole thing brings to mind a question: why does NPR get public funding anyway?

I understand why public television gets money, even if I don't agree with it.  People are probably reluctant to defund the guys who bring Sesame Street to their kids.  But NPR?  Look, I know there are plenty of people who enjoy their programs, but there's plenty of people who enjoy UFC and MMA, and no one's pushing for them to get federal funding.  Perhaps the argument can be made that NPR performs a valuable public service, but (a) if it's so valuable, presumably it will be supported by the free market, and (b) is the problem in America really that we don't have enough media sources of information?

Yeah, I have no real interest in listening to NPR, but I still don't understand why it gets a dime of taxpayer money.

The Williams Mess

I'll let other people discuss the firing of Juan Williams in great detail; let's just say that NPR's decision is ridiculous for any number of reasons, including that Williams is anything but a bigot. Let's also note that like most conservatives, I disagree with a lot of Williams says, but I respect the way he makes his arguments, his sincerity, and his intellectual honesty.

But I want to address two arguments in particular.  One is a false analogy -- Will Saletan seems to think this is the equivalent of the Shirley Sherrod controversy.   The analogy may work if you want to say NPR is the equivalent of the Department of Agriculture.  But there are a couple key differences -- Breitbart didn't edit the tape of Sherrod, he got an edited tape, and the point of Breitbart's tape was not to excoriate Sherrod so much as to attack the hypocricy of the NAACP accusing the Tea Party of racism while its members were nodding along and agreeing with Sherrod's initial comments.  At the end of the day, there's actual malice here from the lefties toward Williams; there doesn't appear to be actual malice from Breitbart towad Sherrod so much as the NAACP as a whole.

But the best point about the whole affair comes from Matt Welch at Reason...

Williams' firing is a clarifying moment in media mores. You can be Islamophobic, in the form of refusing to run the most innocuous imaginable political cartoons out of a broad-brush fear of Muslims, but you can't admit it, even when the fear is expressed as a personal feeling and not a group description, winnowed down to the very specific and nightmare-exhuming act of riding on an airplane, and uttered in a context of otherwise repudiating collective guilt and overbroad fearmongering.

In other words, it's okay to allow your preconceived notions of some Muslims as violent to censor your own work, so long as you pretend that's not the reason (the best option being hiding behind sensitivity to other cultures, although these folks would gladly support the right of an artist to dip a crucifix in urine).  And God forbid you actually articulate that fear, or you may be fired... although Williams now got a $2 million contract from Fox.  So he's probably not complaining as much now, seeing as how he'll be able to console himself with all that extra cash.

If This Story Was About W, We'd Never Hear The End Of It

Dude, it's not like misplacing your car keys.  It's the nuclear launch codes.  Yikes.

What Annoying Song Is Stuck In My Head Today?

If I need to suffer with a song stuck in my head, why shouldn't you have to do the same? Sometimes they're good, most times they're bad... but no matter what, they make you suffer. So I like to share the suffering whenever it happens.

I love this song too much to consider it annoying, but the Disco era would have annoyed me if I had been older at the time.  Instead, I'm able to enjoy one of the more catchy songs of all time, without having the corresponding bad memory of having worn those clothes. By the way, has anyone ever figure dout what they meant by the "New York Times effect on man?"



You're welcome.

Won't Somebody Please Think of The Children?

I've never seen this quote in the signs at a Tea Party in the news coverage, but it just became my new favorite slogan:  "My kid isn't your ATM."

Love it.  Yes, the headline is a jokey takeoff from the Simpsons, but the sign has it dead right why so many people are involved in the Tea Party movement -- they think our out-of-control spending is a moral issue, in that we're leaving the burden to our kids.

Sing Fair Harvard! Sing It!

Professor Bainbridge is right -- it is appalling that any institution of higher learning would invite Eliot Spitzer to give a speech on ethics.  Perhaps he's worth listening to as an object lesson in what not to do, but I tend to think that the point could be made without inviting a guy whose scandal manage to inspire a CBS television show.

Oh, and the institution of higher learning in question?  Harvard.  Yeah, there's no reason why the populace should think less of the Ivy League elites -- they're getting lectures on ethics from Eliot Spitzer, so clearly they know best.

Ich Bin Ein Tea Party

David Harsanyi's column on why people like him (and me) like Tea Party candidates is spot on.  More to the point, the desire to vote for someone like us is pretty powerful; it's why elitist Beltway snobs love the idea of voting for Barack Obama.

Random Things That Annoy Me

Because life is full of annoying crap, and this is my place to complain about it.

I get to fly a lot.  On the rare occasion when the in-flight movie or entertainment are any good, I'm constantly frustrated by the fact that the pilot's announcements seem to interrupt just as we're getting to a key point in the movie... which is made even worse by the fact that the friggin' movie can't be paused.  Any chance you can fix this, guys?

Desperate Times Call For... Dirty Games

Well, it's a creative scheme, I'll grant the Democrats that...

Workers at Bucks County's voter registration office fielded 70 calls on Tuesday and dozens more this past week from residents worried they wouldn't be able to vote on Election Day.


The reason: a series of Democratic Party absentee ballot letters -- under the letterhead of the fictitious Pennsylvania Voter Assistance Office -- warning recipients that their ability to vote in November could be threatened.


"They are concerned because, number one they think it is from us, and number two they don't understand why they are receiving it," said Deena Dean, director of Bucks County's election office. "They don't understand why their participation in the upcoming election might be in jeopardy."


Republicans blasted the letters, with a spokesman calling them "deeply troubling."


Concerned about an "enthusiasm gap" with Republicans, Democrats are going to great lengths to urge their voters to cast ballots in the midterm election. In Bucks County, Democrats have a voter registration edge, but recent polls suggest 8th District Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy is trailing Republican Mike Fitzpatrick.


The Voter Assistance Office letters, spearheaded by the Bucks County Democratic Party, are part of the turnout effort.


The last of the three mailings warns the recipient that it is the "THIRD and FINAL notice.""By failing to return the enclosed documents, you may be placing your ability to participate in this year's general election at risk," the letter reads.

(hat tip: Jim Geraghty) Next up, the Democrats will have the New Black Panthers show up to "assist" voters in filling out ballots. Or they'll be sending us a scheme on how we can retrieve money from overseas, if only we fill out our absentee ballots for Democrats and send them in.

Law School Is Not For Everyone... No, Seriously, It's Not

As a lawyer, all I can say is that this should be required viewing for all prospective law students (hat tip: Megan McArdle).



Remind me to show this to my daughter when she considers law school in approximately 18 years or so.

When Kinda Sucking Is A Good Thing

I can't deny the logic of this column -- the GOP will win back control of Congress because they suck... less than the Democrats do.  Spectacular closing note...

People do remember how much the Republicans suck, and they know where it tops out … and that is nowhere near as bad as the Democrats are today. Like with the barking dog, it’s annoying, but you know it’s not going to cause the collapse of civilization as we know it. Not so with the zombie apocalypse; who knows how bad that could get if left to continue? Same with the Democrats and Obama; people have never dealt with anything this horrible their entire lives, and they aren’t that curious to see how much worse it can be.


So the Republicans kinda suck, and that’s why they’re going to win huge this November. Because in the land of epic, mega, ultra, apocalyptic levels of sucking, those who kinda suck are king. Or at least are going to win in a landslide.


Because once the zombie apocalypse is over, the annoying neighbor dog is going to be music to your ears.


For a little while, at least.

(hat tip: Instapundit) Tip to the GOP: Try not to suck as much this time, or there will be a third party before you know it.

The Seperation of Church and State

Professor Bainbridge does a pretty good job of defending Christine O'Donnell.  The fact that Coons could not name four of the five freedoms guranteed by the First Amendment strikes me as more relevant, but I don't think anyone should be worried about this issue when voting in Delaware.

If The Simpsons Are Catholic, I'm Upset That Villanova Didn't Have A Class About It

With all due respect to the Vatican, I have trouble seeing Homer as a Catholic.  Particularly since Reverend Lovejoy is married -- last I checked, the Church doesn't go for that.  Besides, Homer clearly prefers beer to wine.

Dumbest Breach of Diplomatic Protocol Ever

As an Indian-American, I'm offended.  Okay, not really, because I could care less, particularly since I'm not a Sikh.  But how come Indians need to suck it up and deal with the President's domestic problem?  I thought Obama was supposed to be able to build bridges rather than create walls between us and other countries...

The Golden Temple, a sprawling and serene complex of gleaming gold and polished marble that is the spiritual center of the Sikh religion, is one of India’s most popular tourist attractions. Revered by Indians of all faiths, it is a cherished emblem of India’s religious diversity. So it was no surprise when the gold-plated marvel was promoted as the likely third stop on President Obama’s visit to India, scheduled for early November.


But the United States has ruled out a Golden Temple visit, according to an American official involved in planning. Temple officials said that American advance teams had gone to Amritsar, the holy city that is the site of the temple, to discuss a possible visit. But the plan appears to have foundered on the thorny question of how Mr. Obama would cover his head, as Sikh tradition requires, while visiting the temple.


“To come to golden temple he needs to cover his head,” said Dalmegh Singh, secretary of the committee that runs the temple. “That is our tradition.”


Mr. Obama, a Christian, has struggled to fend off persistent rumors that he is a Muslim, and Sikhs in the United States have often been mistaken for Muslims. Sikhism, which arose in the Punjab region in the 15th century, includes elements of Hinduism and Islam but forms a wholly distinct faith. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Sikhs in the United States have been occasional targets of anti-Muslim discrimination and violence — a Sikh was killed in Arizona a few days after the attack on the World Trade Center by a man who mistook him for a Muslim.

You know, it's a shame the President's Teleprompter can't explain the difference between Sikhs and Muslims to America, so he could wear the turban.

Better yet, let me be the first to guess that this will lead to the conspiracy theory that Obama won't do this because he is a Muslim. The fact that the White House doesn't see that possibility makes me think they're not that smart.

Object Lesson: Don't Threaten Our Cultural Landmarks

If you threaten South Park, we will put you in jail, and then we'll go after your family.  Sweet, and well-deserved.  Hopefully, we can also go about bankrupting his brother-in-law's tractor dealership.

They're So Used to Revising History, They Don't Remember It

Can someone teach the left-wing and mainstream media (I know, redundant) some American history?  I know they're eager to pounce on and mock Sarah Palin for just about anything, but when you end up making yourself look stupid, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate the Palin obsession.

The Health Care Lawsuits Continue

Tom Maguire makes a good point in discussing the Virginia lawsuit against Obamacare and the federal government's stance that the individual mandate is permissible under the auspices of the Commerce Clause...

Obviously Congress can force people to save for their retirement by way of the Social Security tax, regardless of their own sense of an optimal lifetime saving strategy. And if health care were a new universal entitlement funded by a new tax, there would not be any traction with the argument that people might want to opt out of both the insurance and the tax.


But if pigs had wings, jihadists would fly them into buildings. The new insurance is not a tax and it is not being defended under Congress' taxing power. And if the Constitution really grants Congress the power to regulate any activity or inactivity under the Commerce clause, well, what limits are left to their power?


...people in the US fret about the demographics of Social Security and Medicare and wonder where we can get the influx of young workers to pay for the elderly.


Since the decision to not have a baby clearly impacts both national defense and the health of our economy, it is obvious that under the Commerce Clause Congress can regulate abortion, and ban it. Right?


And don't even get me started on sexual practices. Comnsidering what this country spends on HIV and AIDS research, surely the Commerce Clause grants Congress vast power to regulate sexual habits. Or it ought to, right? A decision to not use a condom impacts all of us, and clearly could be criminalized, or at least taxed.

Obviously, Maguire is positing a parade of horribles... except that it's unclear how or why we should draw the line on actions Congress can take pursuant to the commerce power. Tom Coburn's question to Elena Kagan on whether Congress can mandate that people eat three helpings of vegetables a day looks more and more prescient in this regard.

I know most people were betting that the Supreme Court was unlikely to rein in the Commerce Clause, and I'd still guess against it. Clearly, the Obama Administration's politically motivated decision to position the new health care entitlement as something other than a tax might be its downfall, but it's possible the Court might choose to justify the mandate as possible pursuant to the taxing power and ignore the inconsistency with regard to the stated rationale for the act. But it's a lot closer as a question than most legal scholars thought.