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» Health Care: Ryan Instructs Obama Fred: I'm making my own lunch to save money and pay off my credit card.
Mike: But, you buy lunch every day?
Fred: That is a separate issue.
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02/25/10 - Powerline
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin spoke to President Obama at the health care summit [edited excerpts].
We have a law that automatically cuts Medicare payments to doctors. The cut would be 21% next year. We have stopped those cuts every year for the last seven years, now called the "Doc Fix".
[ The Doc Fix is rated as costing money, by continuing to pay doctors enough so they can treat Medicare patients. The cost of Medicare continues to be accounted ("scored") as if these pay cuts will be implemented. After all, the cuts are in the law that is accounted by the Congressional Budget Office. ]
According to your numbers, the doc fix costs $371 billion. It was in the first legislation, but was removed and put into separate legislation because it increased the deficit and made the score look bad. This is the most cynical gimmick in this bill.
Ignoring these costs does not remove them from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending does not reduce spending. It just doesn't add up.
There really is a basic difference between us. We don't think the government should be in control of all of this. We want people to be in control. That is the big difference at the end of the day. Health Care, Health Summit

» Off Budget, Out of Mind Wife: I've been looking at our savings.
Husband: We have $80,000.
Wife: But, what is this note at the bottom "Aces Casino gambling debt: $105,000"? Do we owe that in addition?
Husband: Yes, but don't worry, that is off budget.
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Put Housing GSEs in the Budget and then Privatize
02/25/10 - Cato@Liberty by Tad DeHaven
[edited] The Congressional Budget Office accounts for the cost of subsidizing new loans and loan guarantees by Fannie and Freddie at $370 billion through 2020. The CBO concludes that these institutions are effectively government entities whose operations should be included in the federal budget.
Treasury Secretary Geithner dismissed this idea: “It is not necessary to consolidate the full obligations of those entities onto the balance sheet of the federal government at this stage.” [It is not counted into any deficit projections.]

+ Prosecuted For Being "Bad" Prosecutor: I don't like you, or what you do, or how you structure your life, or anything about you. You are going to jail, my friend.
Mike: What law have I broken, exactly?
Prosecutor: You must have disappointed someone at some time. That is enough, in my view.
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02/23/10 - Minding the Campus - Reforming Our Universities by Harvey A. Silverglate
[edited] "George Orwell wrote his critique 'Politics and the English Language' in 1946: 'One must let meaning choose the word, not the other way around.' Administrators and legislators ignore this truth. They have crafted imprecise regulations which give campus disciplinary staff and federal government prosecutors enormous and grotesquely unfair power."
"It did not matter that no particular law was transgressed. A federal prosecutor might feel in his gut and in his sole discretion, that a defendant had somehow deprived someone of 'honest services' that were due. The defendant could end up serving a decades-long prison sentence. It was rather like prosecuting a citizen for being 'a bad person', with the government defining badness." Law, Federal Regulations (v)Via Instapundit

» Validation by Sacrifice Mike: What is the Marxist/Elitist theory of value?
Jim: When it costs more, it's better.
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02/23/10 - Ed Driscoll
The New Criterion by Theodore Dalrymple [edited]:
These books give compelling evidence of the horrors of the Soviet Union in the 20's and 30's, all of them now accepted as true.
The Soviet Union was valued by contemporary intellectuals not for the omelette, but for the broken eggs. They thought that if nothing great could be built without sacrifice, then so great a sacrifice must be building something great.
The Soviets had the courage of their abstractions, which are often so much more important to intellectuals than living, breathing human beings. Soviet Union

» Free Trade Makes Us Richer Fred: I do most of my cooking from scratch.
Mike: Do you grind your own flour?
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02/18/10 - Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux
Free trade makes us better off, especially if the other country is underpricing its goods, either directly or through an undervalued currency.
They are selling us things for less than we would spend to make them ourselves. Free Trade

» Free Speech, No Heckling Fred: My voice will not be silenced!
Mike: Would you mind not standing on my coffee table?
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02/18/10 - Los Angeles Times by Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law
"Those who yelled to keep the ambassador from being heard were not engaged in constitutionally protected behavior. Freedom of speech, on campuses and elsewhere, is rendered meaningless if speakers can be shouted down by those who disagree."
"The law is well established that the government can act to prevent a heckler's veto -- to prevent the reaction of the audience from silencing the speaker. There is simply no 1st Amendment right to go into an auditorium and prevent a speaker from being heard, no matter who the speaker is or how strongly one disagrees with his or her message." Free Speech, Heckling (v)Via Advice Goddess by Amy Alkon

» Obama <---> Acorn: Distant and Close Fred: How can Obama completely contradict himself?
Mike: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of tiny Republican minds.
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02/20/10 - Stop the ACLU
Obama speaks calmly and firmly in two short videos. First, he reports only a distant contact with Acorn 13 years ago. Second, he tells an Acorn crowd that he wants their input, and will call them about his campaign if they fail to call him.
Article and embedded video 2 min. Obama, Acorn, Lies (v)Via Don Surber (M)The video at YouTube 2 min

» What Defensive Medicine? Fred: You must make money from all of that testing.
Doc: No, we get to keep our salary when we don't get sued.
Fred: What tests does the patient need?
Doc: Whatever tests that the lawyers say we could have done.
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02/19/10 - Throckmorton's Other Signs
"Did the doc order the tests to make money? No, we aren't paid by the test. Was the second CT scan ordered as defensive medicine? The patient was intubated, spent time in the ICU, and suffered a heart attack from the injected contrast medium of the more sensitive second scan." Defensive Medicine, Medical Testing

» Healthcare Review Fred: We need better medical care for everyone.
Mike: We'll sue the doctors, pay them less, regulate them more, and tell them how much we need them. No more nursing homes; adult day care will do.
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02/18/10 - White Coat's Call Room
A review of recent stories about medical care. Do you think the government is helping or hurting? Do you feel secure letting your politicians arrange and pay for your medical care? Are lawsuits maintaining the high quality of care?
"California county supervisors have reduced reimbursement from 27% to 18% of estimated fees at private hospitals, for care by emergency physicians and on-call specialists."
Who needs private hospitals, anyway? Medical Care, Lawsuits

» Failed Policies of Obama/Bush Fred: We can't have the same failed policies of the Bush years.
Mike: We have more of them, and bigger.
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02/16/10 - Bankrupting America
[edited] President Obama’s economic policies are strikingly the same as the failed policies under Bush.
AMG: Remarkable, given Obama's repeated rhetoric that we can't have more of the failed policies of the Bush years. Increased spending on defense and social programs, stimulus packages, bailouts, and much more regulation. Obama, Bush, Economic Policy

• Do Smart People Run The Market? Fred: Government is the best planner because it has the best, altruistic, educated people.
Mike: Yeah, the best people who will work for the government.
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02/16/10 - Econlog by Shikha Dalmia
Dalmia [edited]: The market rewards brilliant ideas, not brilliant people. Markets care only about the idea and its value to others, not its source. Markets are inherently anti-elitist.
Smart, educated, credentialed people may lose in market competition, even to someone or some product they consider inferior. They regard this as a symptom of market failure and demand corrective government regulations. Free Market, Market Failure, Success

» In pain? Too bad. Fred: Pain medications are dangerous. 435 people in severe pain died from acetominophen last year.
Mike: Well, 698 people drowned in swimming pools.
Fred: We'll keep the pools. We can't take all the fun out of life.
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02/16/10 - Advice Goddess
The US Government wants to remove valuable pain medications from the market. Their attitude is "grin and bear it", for your own good.
Instead, allow people the freedom to take the medications that improve their lives. Pain, Addiction

» Poetic Call to Battle Fred: Are they all parasitic, bloodsucking, heartless, liars?
Mike: No, that's an exaggeration, but funny.
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02/08/10 - Walt at Verse-Afire.com
The Vampires Of The Left [excerpt]:

They lay in darkness, waiting dusk
They cannot stand the light
They smell of rotting flesh and musk
They hate us of the Right Poem, Leftists

» World's Smallest Political Quiz Fred: I didn't know that I was Authoritarian until I took the quiz.
Mike: I knew.
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02/08/10 - Advocates for Self-Government
Answer 11 questions of political opinion. See where you are on a graph of Liberal vs Conservative, Authoritarian vs Libertarian, and Centrist. Political Survey, Liberal, Conservative, Authoritarian, Libertarian, Centrist (v)Via Classical Values

+ Canadians Wait for Treatment Fred: I have to wait four months for surgery.
Mike: Beggars can't be choosers.
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02/07/10 - 10/15/07 CBC News (Canada)
The average wait time for a Canadian awaiting surgery or other medical treatment is now 18.3 weeks, a new high, and an increase of 97% over 14 years, despite recent increases in spending.
AMG: There is no competition to the government, so the patients and population have no way to pressure the system to do better. No way other than ending the government monopoly on health care delivery in Canada. Canada, Universal Health Care, Waiting

» Self Reliance Under Socialism Fred: We all work for each other under Socialism.
Mike: I had a job once. Didn't like it much.
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02/05/10 - National Review by Victor Davis Hanson
Hanson [edited]: I knew a small hotelier at a seaside resort in Greece. He checked you in, cooked, did maintenance during the day, and landscaped at night. Why didn't he hire some help?
He replied about the cost and filling out forms to hire an unmotivated, permanent worker in Greece, and the difficulty of ever firing him if he proved worthless. Almost everyone was on pension, disability, or government benefit, and were unwilling to work, leaving only illegal immigrants or broke foreign students.
He blasted socialism and hated the government. He had to be an expert tax dodger and bartered whenever he could.
He lamented that the people in Greece spend their time trying to get government money or avoiding the tax collectors, or preferably both. Socialism, Greece (M)Victor Davis Hanson describes more about socialism, with a section (4) on the Greek version.
[edited] "The Greeks cheat in every way imaginable on their taxes. On an average day, a shopkeeper, repairman, or business person would offer a 30% discount for cash, off the books. Tax-dodging was a national pastime, practiced by dyed-in-the-wool socialists."

+ Medicare Admin Costs are Higher PP Fred: Order wine at a restaurant to save money.
Mike: How so?
Fred: The food cost drops from 90% to 66% of the bill.
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02/06/10 - Heritage by Robert A. Book, Ph.D.
Medicare's administrative costs per person are actually higher than those of private insurance. Higher, despite that private companies incur costs that do not apply to Medicare. Recent history predicts that switching 200 million Americans to a public plan will increase administrative costs by several billion dollars. Medicare, Administrative Cost

» Is Waterboarding Torture? CIA Operative: How are you feeling?
Reporter: (coughs, spits) Ghaaah! That was horrible. It took all of two minutes, and I would have told you anything. (pause) Can I try that again? I'm sure I could go longer the next time.
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02/03/10 - Pajamas TV (Video 16 min)
Marc Thiessen wrote speeches for George W. Bush, and a new book "Courting Disaster". He explains how the CIA has used enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, to gain information which has prevented 9/11 style attacks.
Obama now has tied the CIA's hands, and we are moving into dangerous waters.
Topics: How the CIA Kept America Safe; Enhanced Interrogation is Not Torture; Interrogation Debate; The Real Jack Bauers; Is Obama Inviting Attacks?; CIA vs Obama; Gitmo Back in Favor; Future Terror Threats. Waterboarding, Torture

+ Why is Recovery So Slow? Fred: In past recessions, we would be bouncing back by now.
Mike: We aren't bouncing. We are adapting to a new theory of government.
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02/03/10 - Cato at Liberty by David Boaz
Employers, investors, and entrepreneurs are discouraged by higher taxes, more regulation, uncertainty, a larger share of GDP shifted to government, and expected Fed monetization and inflation of the soaring debt. They don't know what Obama will do next. Economic Crisis, Obama

• Myth of the Clinton Surplus Fred: Honey, I paid down the credit card.
Jane: Did you get a raise?
Fred: Nah, I used the kids' college fund.
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02/01/10 - 10/2007 at CraigSteiner.us
It is a myth that President Bill Clinton created a surplus, which G.W.Bush promptly squandered. Clinton ran deficits, but Social Security receipts were even larger. Borrowing from Social Security covered the deficits, rather than borrowing directly from the public.
Bush ran deficits also, but he wasn't a sinner following a saint. Clinton, Surplus

» IPCC Shamed by Bogus Rainforest Claim
Fred: Climate Change. The rainforest could become drier, and would be more likely to burn, maybe all of it.
Mike: Let's shut down civilization to be safe.
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01/31/10 - Times Online UK by Jonathan Leake
[edited] IPCC in 2007 by Rowell and Moore: Up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically to even a slight reduction in rainfall. The tropical vegetation, hydrology, and climate system in South America could change rapidly to another steady state. They would probably be replaced by tropical savannas, which have more resistance to temperature increases, droughts, and fires.
Times: The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. WWF is the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental pressure group. The source for IPCC was a WWF report, based on a paper in the science journal Nature which assessed logging and burning, not rainfall. That paper reported that drier forests were more likely to catch fire.
Simon Lewis is a Royal Society research fellow specialist in tropical forest ecology: The IPCC report is a mess. The Nature paper is about the interactions of logging damage, fire, and periodic droughts, not the vulnerability of these forests to reductions in rainfall. Climate Change, Rainforests

» Tax on Clunkers You didn't know there was tax on that? There is always lots of tax on that.
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01/30/10 - 08/25/09 - Government and Car Dealers Hose You Again
[edited] You pay tax on the price of your new car above the trade-in you present to the dealer. This is an intentional favor to dealers over private sales. In private sales, the buyer pays sales tax, but you do not get the tax-offset on your next car purchase.
The $4,500 "cash for clunkers" is not a trade-in, but a check from the government. You pay sales tax on the full vehicle price including the $4,500, and the $4,500 is also taxed by your state as additional income.
Dealers made customers so giddy over the "free cash" that they often sold cars at the full sticker price. Sales Tax, Cash for Clunkers

+ Disgusted Patient Nurses Others Your care is provided free by the National Health Service of Britian. For the greatest satisfaction, we suggest caring for the patients around you, if you have the strength.
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01/30/10 - DailyMail.co.uk
Janet Halsall, 74, stayed three days for a liver scan. Staff ignored pleas for help and left fellow elderly patients to ‘fend for themselves’.
Halsall bathed, washed, and tucked in fellow frail, elderly patients. They were left without water and blankets. She washed one lady and took another pensioner to the toilet after staff repeatedly said they were ‘too busy’. National Health Care, Britian

» The Real State of the Union Show me the list. What is the next socio-economic faction to bring under rational, political management?
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01/28/10 - Chicago Boyz by David Foster
Michael Ledeen: This fear is not limited to social class or domestic or foreign policies. Banks are not lending and companies are not hiring because they are afraid of what Obama will do next.
Foster: Obama/Pelosi/Reid view America as a struggle of group against group. The winning and losing groups are determined by Progressive thought, by social prejudices, and by the political needs of the moment.
Obama/Pelosi/Reid are creating a society in which the attitude of the federal government determines the success of every individual and business. Politics

» Corporations Must Have Free Speech Fred: My friends and I support Jenkins for senator.
Mike: OK, as long as you guys aren't incorporated.
Fred: No way! We're union local 328.
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01/22/10 - Cato @ Liberty by Julian Sanchez
The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United is a clear and needed support for free speech. It strikes down restrictions on corporations, allowing them now to contribute money toward political speech. Many liberal voices denounce the influence that a corporation, a legal construct, can now have in politics. Their opposition ignores the reality of an organized society.
Sanchez [edited]: "What happens if politicians can limit freedoms because they are expressed through a corporation? Journalists would enjoy full freedom of the press as long as they don’t use the resources of the New York Times, Random House, or Comcast. Those corporations could be barred from using their property to circulate ideas."
"You are free to practice your religion without interference. But, if it’s an unpopular one, you could be hindered from sending your kids to a religious school or building a church, because those tend to involve incorporating." Free Speech, Corporations, Politics (M)Speech For Me, But Not for Thee
01/22/10 - Cato @ Liberty by Roger Pilon
[edited] "The Citizens United decision will probably alter politics for the good. Corporations, unions, and their officers will no longer fear criminal prosecution under prohibitions that even FEC commissioners don't understand. There will be more political speech and more perspectives on the issues of the day."
"The complex federal campaign finance system is only a way station to exclusive public campaign financing. At that end point, political speech in the form of campaign contributions would rest safely in incorruptible [hah] public hands. Except, of course, for contributions that take the form of editorials by such corporate giants as The New York Times, which the First Amendment would continue to protect.

• Political Distribution of Wheat Fred: What does wheat have to do with health care?
Mike: It is easier to understand.
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01/17/10 - The amount of wheat falls further. The politician explains that the wheat farmers are at fault for not growing enough and charging too much, that the warehouse operators are causing shortages by not stocking enough wheat, and the rich must be cheating by continuing to buy too much wheat.
More political control is clearly needed. Health Care, Analogy, Political Allocation

• Europeans Are Less Wealthy Johan: Our welfare state gives a wealthy life to us all.
Fred: But, not a comfortable car.
Johan: Please, have half of my lunch sandwich. I made it myself.
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01/17/10 - The chart shows US consumption at 152, Western Europe at 105, compared to a benchmark of 100 for the OECD. That is 44% more goods and services enjoyed in the US as compared to Western Europe. The biggest policy difference is the burden of government.
An office worker in New York may go to a deli for lunch. In Norway, the home sandwich is ubiquitous, from classroom to boardroom.
The most likely explanation for the larger volume of motorcycle traffic is that Parisians are less wealthy than Americans. Comparitave Wealth, Norway, OECD, Europe

» How a Community Organizer Became President Lesson 1: Rental housing complaints.
Lesson 2: Community Improvement Grants.
Lesson 3: Becoming President.
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01/14/10 - TCU Nation by dwood
L. David Alinsky is the son of the famous Chicago radical, the late Saul D. Alinsky. The Boston Globe published his letter on 08/31/08 boasting that Barack Obama had made enormously effective use of his training in Saul Alinsky's methods.
David Alinsky [edited]: "I am proud to see that my father's organizing model is being applied to affect the 2008 Democratic campaign. It is a fine tribute to my father as we approach his 100th birthday. My father produced a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen, when executed meticulously and thoughtfully. Obama learned his lesson well."
dwood: Obama's most significant education was not at Columbia or Harvard Law, but the years he spent training in the Saul Alinsky system for community organizing, and teaching workshops on Alinsky's methods. Obama, Saul Alinsky, Community Organizer (v) Via Amused Cynic

+ Why is Law School So Expensive? Mike: Many more people could be lawyers if becoming one was less expensive.
Jack: Well, I don't need the competition. Do you?
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01/15/10 - Easy Opinions -> IdeoBlog
The current system forces everybody who wants to practice any kind of law into three-year, high-priced law schools. Law School

» How to Predict Anything About Climate Change John: Northern Hemisphere temperatures have been rising rapidly for 4 months!
Mike: You need to get out more often. It's Summer.
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01/14/10 - WattsUpWithThat by Roy Spencer, PhD.
Spencer [edited]: We are uncertain about what is causing current warming, so researchers may tune their models to produce almost any amount of future global warming. It is difficult to prove them wrong, because there is no certain interpretation of the satellite data. When they assume that there are no natural causes of climate change, they conclude that our climate system is balanced on a knife edge.
AMG: An analogy. You are having dinner at a friend's home when you suddenly feel warm and uncomfortable. You are happy to find out that your friend's child has set the thermostat up by 5 degrees. You thought you were sick when you assumed that there was no external cause for your personal warming.
Warming data is uncertain and any cause is uncertain. Climate scientists should not be saying that "the science is settled" in the face of these uncertainties. That is not science, but only alarmist charting and extrapolation. We are not upset by the rapid warming during Summer because we know what causes Summer, and that Winter will follow. Global Warming, Climate Change, Models

» Vanishing Doctors I studied to be a doctor, not to be a slave to the government.
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01/14/10 - Vanishing Doctors
What do doctors think about government control of health care?
Doctors comment on what health care reform means to them. Many of them say they will quit, to do something more pleasant and less bureaucratic.
[edited] " 'Healthcare Reform' only makes the states, hospitals, and doctors responsible for your health care costs. The waste of defensive medicine will continue until there is Malpractice Reform. We have had 20 years of paying patients for anything that goes wrong in their lives."
[edited] "Physicians are beginning to leave Medicare in droves. We are no longer taking new Medicare patients. The Mayo clinic, the example of efficiency touted by the administration, is no longer participating in the Medicare program, citing low payments."

• The Good Side of Dictatorship I will just tell them what to do, for the good of us all. No wasteful objections. Just do it. Eventually, they will all agree with me. I will put my statue over there. My history will be glorious.
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01/13/10 - Easy Opinions
Totalitarian governments past and present are receiving some praise from liberal sources. This alarms me.
What possible purpose is there in understanding the good parts of a dictatorship? I don't care if a much stronger government can do some good things, because the risk of harm is greater also. It is fine if you can isolate a policy that had a good effect and doesn't need dictatorial power to be implemented. In that case, why mention the dictatorship at all, except as a curiosity? Dictatorship, Totalitarian, Oliver Stone, Progressives, Nazis

• Saying "Negro" Does Not Make Harry Reid a Racist He may be offensive, but his remarks weren't. Or, have it another way. His remarks were offensive, but he isn't. Is that better?
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01/11/10 - Easy Opinions -> Powerline Blog by Paul Mirengoff
Democratic Senator Harry Reid described candidate Barack Obama as "light skinned and speaking without a Negro dialect". That does not make him a racist. If you oppose the restrictions and illogic of political correctness, then don't use confused political correctness against Harry Reid. Offer sweet reason, not more politics as usual.

» Gatekeeping for the Climate Allowing questions would confuse the issues.
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12/22/09 - TWAWKI
[edited] Gatekeeping is the preferred practice of climate alarmists, who censor and manipulate the data that doesn’t suit their cause, to manipulate public opinion.
Liarpedia: William Connelly at Wikipedia has adjusted over 5000 articles on Global Warming, to write off inconvenient facts and opinions that expose his alarmist push as fraud. Wikipedia has done nothing in response.
Googlegate: Google adjusted auto-suggest to minimise references to Climategate.
Climategate: UNIPCC scientists manipulated temperature data and limited access to it. (v)Via Climate Audit

• Exchanging Gifts Cooperatively :) Jim: What do you want for Christmas?
Jane: I want to be surprised.
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12/21/09 - EasyOpinions
A couple gives each other the Christmas gift that each really wants. What can go wrong? With compliments to The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. O. Henry, Gifts, Christmas, Humor

» Who's Meaner - Corporate or Government Bureaucrats? John: We are heartless if we deny claims, and wasting public funds if we grant them.
Mike: That's why we have civil service job protection. And, we're the Government. Who will they complain to?
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12/20/09 - 12/20/09 - Powerline Blog
The American Medical Association has reported on national health insurers for 2008. Medicare denied medical claims at 1.77 times the rate of the average private insurer.
Claims denied: Medicare 6.85%, Aetna 6.8%, Anthem Blue Cross 3.44%, Average of private insurers 3.88% . (M) 08/06/09 - ObamaCare and the Doctor by Zane F. Pollard MD
Dr. Pollard describes the frightening current reality of Medicaid, and by extension the future of ObamaCare.
Medicaid pays for medical services to the poor, and in this case to poor children who face vision impairment or blindness. Regardless, Medicaid denies and delays their care. Medicare and Medicaid are intentionally underpaying for the medical care that they mandate.

» Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, and Image Mary: Oh no! They see us and know who you are.
John: Don't worry. It's only some reporters, and my guys will handle them.
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12/08/09 - American Thinker by Lisa Schiffren
[edited] Schiffren: "We liked Tiger personally for an image that we now see is a fraud. We liked his low-key demeanor, manners, sweet smile, magazine covers, political analogies, and product endorsements. We feel betrayed. Even more, we see how much sustained, deliberate deception goes into the construction of a public image, when there is profit to be made or power to be had."
AG: Surprise is discovering the real Tiger Woods. Shock is understanding that we were fooled by techniques used by both athletes and politicians. (v)Via Ed Driscoll
How On Earth Did We Miss It?
[edited] Howard Kurtz: This exposes the dark secret of the celebrity beat: It’s a shared illusion, perpetrated by the media-industrial complex. We don’t really know these people, who are cloaked in the mantle of fame, despite their ubiquity on our front pages, television screens, and laptops.

» Spending Hurts, Not Just Deficits John: You will love the $20,000 boat I bought.
Mary: You spent the college fund?
John: Relax, it's on the credit card.
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12/15/09 - Cato at Liberty by Daniel J. Mitchell (video 6 min)
Politicians fixate on the deficit to pull a bait and switch. They claim that they can raise taxes to solve the problem. That only replaces debt-financed spending with tax-financed spending. The likely result is that the required tax increases will weaken the economy and make us all poorer. (M)01/13/09 - EasyOpinions
The Real Tax Burden is everything that the government spends. It is your money, now or in the future. Borrowing delays taxes while paying interest, just like a credit card.

» Not Always Better to Have Health Insurance Yes, our care is only $15. Fill out these forms, mail us two referrals, and we can see you two weeks after that. Apply pressure in the meantime; maybe the bleeding will stop.
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12/14/09 - BigGovernment by Dr. Jane Orient
Insurance is good. But, the bureaucratic hoops of government supplied and managed health insurance stand in the way of timely care.
The saying is: Good, Fast, Low cost - You can have any two. Medicare is low cost to the recipient, partly by delaying or denying care. You can't always wait.
The current healthcare "reform" will make all medical care into Medicare.

• Healthcare Price Controls Exec: Your shift is 8+ continuous hours as needed, treating the critially ill and injured, and the chronic drug-seekers. Plus paperwork and bureaucratic smoothing. Many will die, but no mistakes or bad outcomes. Being sued is a challenging hobby in your off-hours. Follow all 130 rules. $170/hour.
Doc: I'm outta here.
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12/14/09 - EasyOpinions
911Doc practices Emergency Medicine. He writes about what happens to doctors and patients when a bureaucracy sets prices and rewards. Medical, Healthcare, EMTALA

» Motive for ClimateGate Terry (Marlon Brando) in "On the Waterfront": You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.
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12/12/09 - ChicagoBoyz comment by VeryRetired
For years, you’re just some guy who answers arcane questions about weather systems or historical climate trends. Nobody notices you at conventions, clamors for interviews, or gives you money or office space.
Suddenly, you are the chief interpreter of the unknown. You are the expert in complex interpretations of obscure data that are predicting imminent, global catastrophe.
Give all that up, just because some tree rings don’t fit, because some doubter somewhere might argue with your predictions? (M)Quotes from "On the Waterfront"

• Congressional Sports Team It is painful to think of Barney Frank coaching pro-basketball, or running U.S. business.
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12/10/09 - ChicagoBoys by David Foster
The politically connected will do well. This is not now the country for you if you want to build a better mousetrap. The American dream is dying. Congress, Business, Recession

• Not Just One Rotten Climate Apple Fred: I would like to check the latest paper from the CRU.
Mike: Just use the results. We have our own work to publish.
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12/07/09 - ChicagoBoyz by James R. Rummel
The work of most other climate centers is also suspect. They claimed to have reviewed and reproduced the CRU’s work, and they defended those results against scrutiny.
Link to a review of the emails and controversies.
How government politics and funding distorts science. Science, Global Warming, ClimateGate, Government Programs

» Chinchillas and Climate Science Joe: Frank died.
Jim: Bummer! He was the only one who understood the experiment results database.
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12/04/09 - ChicagoBoyz by Shannon Love
It is important to double-check scientific software. You might want to use the results for some important purpose.
For example, critical software for the chinchilla study was assigned to a grad student who worked without oversight. The researchers didn't realize that one minor error in that software would invalidate the whole experiment.
A year later, a completely independent team examined the code “with a fine-toothed comb” and caught the error. They reviewed more than the data the software generated.
This was not done for the CRU climate software until a whistle-blower exposed it to the world.
Commenter: When climate models are tested on “new” data, they have failed to predict temperature levels. "New" data is data not used to first build the model.

• Sarah Palin in Wasilla What's the story on her, anyway?
- -
11/29/09 - Op-ed at the Appeal-Democrat
Wasilla gave her vital experience and showed her independence. Sarah Palin

• Peer Review Is Not What You Think Jim: Congrats. I see your paper has been published.
Joe: Thanks. John and Mike told me they were the reviewers.
Jim: Weren't they your roommates in grad school?
- -
11/30/09 - ChicagoBoyz by Shannon Love
[edited]: "Peer Review" says nothing about conclusions. Most such scientific papers will be proven completely wrong.
Peer review protects a journal’s reputation. The journal hires experts to check for basic errors in math or methodology, along with grammar and spelling. This offloads responsibility for publishing bad papers onto anonymous scientists. It is a form of blame-passing that everyone would like to use. It does not confirm or refute experimental or theoretical conclusions.
It is insane to base policy on scientific studies, claiming merely that have been peer reviewed. Peer Review, Science, Global Warming, ClimateGate

» Pilgrim's Progress Jim: Gack! This soup is terrible. You must put more effort into it.
Joe: I didn't much study cooking in Slave School.
- -
11/26/09 - Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux
Plymouth Plantation in 1620 had communal property rights, holding food and supplies in common. Plantation officials distributed them based on equality and need. Residents received equal rations whether or not they produced food, and they were forbidden from producing their own food.
The Pilgrims were starving under their communal system, and changed it to survive.
This may remind you a bit of congress's healthcare plans. Let's learn from the Pilgrims and be thankful for their effort. (M) 11/27/09 - powerlineblog by Prof. Paul Rahe
America's First Socialist Republic
[edited] We can learn from the history of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation. They conducted an experiment in social engineering akin to what is now contemplated.
They cultivated the land in common, with dismal results. Their experience can instruct us today.

• Biased Reporting Jim: The senator replied "no comment" to my question.
Joe: Our headline is "Senator Does Not Deny Ethics Violation". Biases, Humor

• Anti-Capitalist Policies Are Anti-Job Jim: Come with me to protest Capitalism!
Joe: How much does that pay?
- -
11/25/09 - BigGovernment by Thomas Del Beccaro
The Left’s political policies destroy the economic process that encourages savings, rewards investment, and creates jobs. Taxes, Capitalism, Jobs

» Diplomas ≠ Human Capital Isn't the Renaissance like being Born Again? I once took a course on that.
- -
11/18/09 - Cato by Neal McCluskey
President Obama hopes to make the United States into a diploma mill, and public university leaders shamelessly demand more taxpayer money. But, more college degrees don't mean greater human capital.
"Passing a college course does not show more knowledge, just as going to a gym does not itself improve physical fitness."
"Many college students do not improve at reading, writing, math, and logic. The priority at many colleges is not educational excellence or even modest progress, but collecting tuition from as many students as possible."

» TriCare Military Medical Care The government thanks you for your service.
- -
11/11/09 - Throckmorton's Other Signs
Tricare is the medical coverage for military families. It pays 60% of Medicare, so low that they often travel out of state to find a hospital or doctor who will accept it. Tricare requires pre-approved appointments for all specialists and outpatient visits.
Those fighting for our country are the first ones to get government run, single payer healthcare.

» Fort Hood Parallel Universe It is shocking when a Christian commits violence.
- -
11/06/09 - DocsOnTheWeb by 911Doc
"Bobby Lee Smith, in a rage fueled by his fundamentalist Christian beliefs, went on a murder spree at Fort X today, killing 13 and wounding thirty. The FBI has arrested all known acquaintances of Mr. Smith, and has taken his family in for questioning." (satire) (M)Will The Truth Be Hasan's Last Victim?
11/09/09 - LegalInsurrection by William A. Jacobson
The facts about Nidal Hasan's killing spree at Fort Hood.

+ Democratic Trickle-Down 2 Mike: We were supposed to create jobs. Instead, we've enriched the bankers.
Ike: Well, let's be proud of that.
- -
11/06/09 - Megan McArdle
Democrats: "Our agenda has kick-started a recovery on Wall Street, even if it hasn't yet trickled down to the job market."

+ Illinois Wellfare Promises They will just have to eat less for a while. We aren't reducing staff here.
- -
The state is not a good social insurance company. It sets aside no investments to support its future promises. Instead, it spends whatever is available on whatever serves politicians at the moment. Illinois is out of money. (v)Via Don Surber

» CBO Rates Republican Health Plan Right: Let's do the obvious and uncomplicated things first.
Left: You have no regulatory vision.
- -
11/05/09 - Washington Examiner
The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Republican health care plan. It would reduce insurance premiums and cut the ten-year deficit by $68 billion.
It would create high-risk insurance pools, allow purchase of insurance policies from any state, and reform malpractice rules. It is not a government insurance plan. (v)Via Instapundit (M)We have millions of administrators in government, with more on the way
- -
July 09 - EasyOpinions
Medicare Myth: Low Administrative Cost
Medicare claims 3% administrative overhead, compared to 12% for private insurance. But, Medicare doesn't count all of its expenses, and private insurance is burdened with taxes that are part of its "overhead". Medicare overhead per patient is actually 25% more than for private insurance.

• We Can't Stop Government Growth Jim: We will rise up to limit the government and restore our freedom.
Joe: Yes comrade. May I ask, do you intend to finish your soup?
- -
11/02/09 - Independent.org by Robert Higgs
[edited] "Every genuine solution must be implemented by enough people and money, through ideological conversions on a substantial scale, if such conversions are possible at all."
"The troubling fact remains, that if any truly effective measures are approved to limit the government, the rulers would likely resort to whatever legal or illegal violence proved necessary to prevent those measures from taking effect." Taxes, Government (v)Via Cafe Hayek

• Top Ten Political Statements1 There is nothing strange about my policies. The incompetent former occupant of this office did many of the same things I have, but for selfish and stupid reasons. (satire)
- -
10 A short speech by President Obama that satirizes itself. Deficit, Obama, Politics, Satire

» Kids's Halloween Candy Economy I'll give you three skittles for a tootsie pop.
- -
10/31/09 - Mises.org by Jeffrey A. Tucker
Kids collect candy, making it their own through work. Afterwards, they happily exchange candy to get more of what they really want. They create their own trading organization and money as they go.

» Republican Health Care Plan It's too simple. If you can understand it, it can't be real. And, there are no cost control laws or government commissions.
- -
10/31/09 - YouTube video 3:32
Republican Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner's health care plan.
Let insurance companies sell in any state. Allow individuals and businesses to form insurance buying groups. Free the states from restrictive federal regulation. End the lawsuit lottery. (v)Via Don Surber

» Two Page Rebuttal of Global Warming Claims Jim: CO₂ isn't harming anything. It was 8,000 ppm for the dinosaurs, and only 380 ppm today.
Mike: Oh yeah? The dinosaurs are dead.
- -
10/29/09 - Mises.org: Howard C. Hayden Professor Emeritus of Physics at U.Connecticut
[edited] "Some say that the "science is settled" about CO₂ and climate. I ask, which one of the twenty or more models settled the science? Then we can discard the rest, along with the research funds that have kept those models alive."
"We are nowhere near a tipping point to catastrophic climate. The earth has seen CO₂ concentrations up to 8,000 ppm with no tipping point. After all, we are here talking about it. The CO₂ concentration during recent ice ages (200 ppm) and warm periods (300-400 ppm) is lower than it has been for the last 300 million years."
"Cause has to come before effect. The historical record shows that climate change preceded CO₂ changes. How can we conclude that CO₂ is responsible for the current warming?"

» Rules For Radicals They have money and principles; we have neither. Which do you want to take from them?
- -
08/04/2000 - OrangeJuiceBlog
A version of Saul Alinsky's political handbook "Rules For Radicals". Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" in 1505 as a guide to getting and maintaining power from the top down. Alinsky presents ruthless tactics for gaining power from the bottom up, aimed at the underbelly of the tolerant modern state.
This is a key to understanding current politics. (v)10/23/09 - Wall Street Journal by James Tarranto
Rules for Presidents (M)10/24/09 - Vancouver Community Network
A simpler version of Rules For Radicals. (M)"The Prince" by Nicolò Machiavelli, free online. (M)05/03/10 - RightWingNews - Best quotes from Rules For Radicals.

» Expensive German "Green Jobs" We are proud to raise taxes and electricity prices to employ all of the people in "green jobs".
- -
10/19/09 - PowerlineBlog
An economic report on German "green jobs".
Job growth in renewable energy seems impressive, but doesn't count associated costs (impacts). These include at least: jobs lost by not generating cheaper conventional energy; indirect costs on upstream industries; jobs lost in other industries from higher electric prices; loss of private purchasing power due to higher electric prices; and diverting funds from more productive investment.
Proponents of renewable energy like the requirement for more workers to produce a given amount of energy. But, this lowers the productivity of the economy. Initial employment benefits from renewable energy turn negative as additional costs are incurred.
Subsidies (extra costs) in solar-energy are as high as €175,000 (US $240,000) per worker.

» British Healthworkers Get Private Care These people are especially important to Britain, not like the rest.
- -
10/18/09 - Times On Line UK
The British National Health Service has spent $2.5 million over 3 years, to pay for 3,000 of its doctors, nurses, and other staff to have private health treatment.
The NHS said that early treatment of sickness enables staff to return more quickly to work. Their own waiting lists for medical care were too long.
(Link is stale.)

» Don't Reinflate the Housing Bubble If we stoppped pushing houses, the voters might suspect it was wrong to do it last time.
- -
10/17/09 - Washington Examiner by Michael Barone
[edited] "Our financial system broke down because government policies created a housing bubble of more construction and increasing prices. The bubble broke. Democratic policymakers are responding by trying to recreate the housing bubble. (v)Via Instapundit (M)10/16/09 - WSJ by Peter Walliston
"Barney Frank, Predatory Lender"
Mortgage brokers are supposed to be the villians. But, they could only produce what bigger lenders wanted to buy. They could only respond to demand, not create it themselves.
The principal buyers were government insured banks, government enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, federal housing agencies, and private companies forced to comply with government mandates about mortgage lending. (M)10/18/09 - Washington Post by Charles Lane
"Doubling Down On the Wrong Housing Policy"
The government encouraged a teacher to put her retirement savings into a new house.

» Advice on Afghanistan Prestige is not a fanfare at a diplomatic reception. It is what makes enemies think better than to attack.
- -
10/16/09 - Powerline by Paul Rahe
[edited quote] "Prestige" is the respect earned by world powers, that they will help their friends and harm their enemies, which keeps the wolf at bay.
We should follow the counter-insurgency strategy of General Stanley McChrystal. If pursued vigorously, it will renew our reputation and prestige in and beyond Afghanistan.
If we withdraw now, it will be as it was in Vietnam, with our tail between our legs. Our timidity will support audacity in our enemies and panic in our erstwhile friends, especially in the Islamic world. This could easily have disastrous consequences in Pakistan, a nuclear power teetering on the edge of civil war.

• Blunting Costs of Healthcare Reform Healthcare reform is going to be great and less expensive. That is why we senators are excluding ourselves, federal workers, unions, and the people and political players in our own states.
- -
10/09/09 - WSJ Opinion by Kimberley A. Strassel
Powerful senators want "reform" for the nation, so long as it doesn't disadvantage the people who support or vote for them. Healthcare, Spending, Politics (M)10/14/09 - PJTV: Medically Incorrect (video 3m)
Baucus Bill Bull: Hypocrite senators Want To Pass a Doozy

» Remembering What Didn't Happen Think about the wedding, the punchbowl, and spilling it all on your parents.
- -
10/06/09 - Advice Goddess (video clip 4m)
Elizabeth Loftus is Prof. of Psychology and Law at U.Cal Irvine. She explains how 1/4 of study participants were given false memories of their childhood. A good reason to believe the evidence, not the story. (M)Prof. Elizabeth Loftus: What's the Matter With Memory (video lecture 71m)

» Diplomacy, Game Theory, Tit-For-Tat I've been fooled 5 times so far, but soon he will see that I am sincere, and he will cooperate.
- -
10/05/09 - PJTV by Bill Whittle (9:30 Video)
Be nice, Retaliate, Forgive, and Don't begrudge them their success. These are the elements of a winning, long term strategy in an uncertain world. You will always lose if you always offer cooperation. Is that why nice guys finish last?

• Better Through Creative Statistics Rework those statistics; I have a speech tomorrow.
- -
Politicians redefine statistics to make themselves look good or to push an agenda. Unemployment, healthcare, and consumer prices are examples. Statistics, Unemployment, Consumer Price Index

• The Stimulus Resort Town It will be tough, but I'm ready to spend the stimulus money for the good of us all.
- -
People start in gridlock. A stimulus loan breaks the gridlock. They resume working and trading, and end up happy. The money involved is a true stimulus; it unlocks the local economy and is paid back.
This is a vivid and amazing example. But, it is contrived and unreal, like finding five dominoes ready to fall by pushing just the first one. Money, Inflation, Economics, Economic Crisis, Stimulus

• TV Commercial For Healthcare Reform Do they know they will be paying for this?
Nah, they think someone else will pay.
- -
Healthcare reform is available now for the very affordable price of an $81 billion reduction in the U.S. debt! No need to call in; We already have your credit card number. (Some restriction and fees may apply.) Satire. Senate, Healthcare, Satire

• More Healthcare Spending - More Taxes Reduced deficit. Yay! By increasing taxes. Boo! And $829 billion more spending. Bummer!
- -
The Senate healthcare bill promises to reduce the deficit by $81 billion while spending $829 billion more. How? By raising taxes and fees by $910 billion. Healthcare, Deficit, Spending, Tax

» What Is Defensive Medicine? I love that rush of fear when I don't test for something.
- -
Engineering motto: If the tolerance for error is zero, then the cost has to be infinite.
- -
09/29/09 - 09/08/09 - Happy Hospitalist
A four part chart shows why doctors order lots of tests, and patients like this. This is expensive. So what? (v)Via OverLawyered

» About Sociopaths I wonder. Does a fly feel pain when I tear off its legs?
- -
09/28/09 - NeoNeocon - Artfldgr comments
"Imagine 1 in 25 having no conscience at all, no guilt or remorse, no sense of concern for the well-being even of family members. Imagine no struggle with shame, no matter what kind of selfish or immoral action you take."

» Who Sets the Price? I love your house, but not $100,000 more than that other one.
- -
09/24/09 - EconLib by Russell Roberts
A readable explanation of how freely set prices work. Prices are the incentives that make goods of all types available. They are more complicated than having one person say "this is the price for everyone", and they work much better.

+ The Dog Ate My Global Warming Data Data? I lost the original data. I am subject to confidentiality agreements. I don't have to show you no stinkin' data.
- -
09/23/09 - National Review by Patrick J. Michaels
The data needed to verify forecasts of global warming have disappeared. Maybe they were lost or deleted from some discarded computer. A few people know what happened, they aren’t talking much, and what they say makes no sense.
The responsible scientist complained: Why should I give you the data? You will try to find something wrong with it.

+ Flawed Statistics Show "bad" U.S. Healthcare We give your superior healthcare a low rank for being expensive and not government run. Ironically, you now have a low rank despite spending more. Ha Ha, this is another failure of the free market. :)
- -
Three statistics seem to imply that U.S. healthcare is bad. Lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, and a low WHO rank for "quality".
These statistics are flawed. U.S. healthcare is first when you adjust for confusing factors. But, why adjust when you have a political goal?

» ~~Secretary~~ Nanny of Energy We need just a few small changes. The 800 page legislation expresses them nicely.
- -
09/22/09 - Cafe Hayek by Russ Roberts
U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu [edited]: "Average folks don't have the know-how or will to change their behavior to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. They are like teenagers, not acting as they should. They have to really understand how important this is."
Chu said the public would not throw the same political temper tantrum over climate legislation as in the healthcare debate. "We only need to make a few small changes."

• Memo - Health Plan Deficit Reduction We are going to rearrange it all, anyway. Just make it look good now.
- -
An internal memo about removing any deficit from the health plan. (satire) Healthcare, Deficit, Satire (M) 09/17/09 - OpenMarket by Hans Bader
Cap-and-Trade legislation would cost middle class taxpayers hundreds of billions. Household taxes could rise $1761 per year, a 15% increase. Jobs in steel, paper, aluminum, chemical, and cement manufacturing would migrate to countries with lower environmental costs than the U.S.
Taxes on business would be directly passed on to consumers.

» A Tale of Two Shortages: Coffee and Healthcare Our Dear Leader has given us these plantations for direct operation by the People's Cooperative. Comrades, who of you knows Excel?
- -
09/15/09 - Mises Daily by Doug French
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela benefitted peasant cooperatives by giving them the land of the coffee families. This redistribution produced uncertainty and reduced investment.
Coffee shortages raised the price to consumers. Chavez benefitted them by legally limiting the price.
Coffee became even more scarce. Chavez nationalized the coffee roasters to prevent speculating and hoarding. Chavez: "We will continue to nationalize monopolies and turn them into productive businesses in the hands of the workers, the people, and the revolution."
Future news: In 2009, Obama distributed healthcare to the people, capped its costs, and proceeded to root out abuse among the monopolist companies and physician groups."

» Obama's Speech On Healthcare We need quality healthcare, at low cost, with no restrictions, by friendly and unhurried doctors, and ... a chicken in every pot. That is my plan. Really. We should do it.
- -
09/09/09 - PowerLineBlog by John Hinderaker
A review of the main quotes and distortions.
Obama: "This insurance exchange will take effect in four years, which gives us time to do it right." But wait! Obama says this is an emergency, without a moment to lose. With four years to spare, he could stop cramming the bill down Americans' throats. (M) You will all be rich and happy
(When we get this darned bureaucracy working)
- -
09/09/09 - Cato by Michael F. Cannon
Quotes from Obama's speech translated to ordinary language. (v)Via Instapundit (M)09/12/09 - Ed Driscoll
Analysis from Mark Steyn, Thomas Sowell, and especially Shikha Dalmia:
[edited] Obama The Bipartisan embraced every bad, big-government idea from both sides. If he prevails, the American public won’t get 'choice and competition', but will get a one-size-fits-all, government-prescribed health care plan that it can't refuse or challenge.” (M)09/09/09 - The Atlantic by Arnold Kling
Obama: "Reducing waste and inefficiency in Medicare/Medicaid will pay for most of this plan."
Kling: "If we don't pass this plan, does Obama intend to keep the waste and inefficiency, out of spite?" (v) Arnold Kling blogs at Econlog.Econlib.org (M)07/26/09 - EasyOpinions by Andrew Garland
I have that analysis somewhere. Here it is. No, that's my grocery list.
- -
Where is the policy paper, Obama's careful plan and research on healthcare reform?

» Canada: Lower Malpractice Rates I gave my tearjearker pleas to the Canadian judge. He applauded my performance.
- -
Maybe the outcomes for Canadian medicine aren't expected to be very good.
- -
09/08/09 - OverLawyered
Neurosurgeons in Miami pay $237,000 for malpractice insurance. In Toronto, $29,200. Due to better laws and a cap on pain and suffering.

• Leading the People I love the well intentioned little people. They need a strong ruler to show them the way.
- -
Brad's Friends want to be elected, then use that power to make your life better, and you better, whether you agree or not. They want a grand experiment to make a better world. Eventually, they will make you agree with them.

» Why There Are No New Jobs Marx revealed that business owners are leeches on society, draining away the wealth that rightfully belongs to the workers. At least, the ones who have jobs.
- -
09/05/09 - Commentary Magazine by Jennifer Rubin
Obama has utterly ignored or rejected proposals to promote private-sector job growth. The threatening environment of higher taxes and deficits causes companies to make only critical investments and slow down job creation. Obama cannot have a recovery by attacking private businesses while expanding government.
It turns out we need those private-sector employers. (v)Via Instapundit

» Czars in America My Czars have my full support, but you can't hold me responsible for what they do. It is silly to think that I can watch every action of 31 people.
- -
09/05/09 - Hot Air by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama’s 31 czars are a dramatic executive overreach. This is far more imperial than any action by President Bush. (v)Via Instapundit

• Van Jones: What's New? Nasty conservatives have discovered bad things about my administration. Reluctantly, it seems that I must act to correct this.
- -
Van Jones is the Green Jobs Czar. What part of recent news about Jones is new information to Obama? Scandal, Obama, Opinion

• Obama's Green Jobs Snake Oil We're lucky that we have global warming. Fighting for our lives is going to make us rich.
- -
Consider this to see the fallacy: If Obama could snap his fingers and make global warming disappear, should he do it? By his logic, no, because then we'd lose all those wonderful green jobs that will help pull us out of the recession. Obama, Global Warming, Green, Jobs

» Find Something to Hospitalize the Patient Good news. Your heart surgery went well, and you are going home today. This instruction sheet tells how to change the bandages. Remove the drain in about a week.
- -
09/05/09 - Throckmorton's Other Signs
"We cure the acute illness, but there is a long recovery. The patient is too sick to go home, but Medicare won't pay for more hospital days or a nursing home. We must find a reason to keep the patient, so we run all the tests."
You see here the Medicare cat-and-mouse game. They pass rules to save money by shifting costs onto the hospital. Medicare plays a game to be "efficient" while going broke from the incentives of the program.

» JFK, Nixon, Khrushchev, Castro, Cuba Communist leaders have more guts and freedom to act.
- -
09/03/09 - American Thinker By Humberto Fontova
Castro was glad that JFK won. Nixon seriously supported the Bay of Pigs invasion. Nikita Khrushchev solidified Castro and got missiles removed from Turkey. JFK agreed to use US naval power to prevent further interference with Castro by Cuban freedom fighters. Khrushchev later wrote that war over Cuba was a bluff.

» Death Panels in Britain We don't kill them. They choose to die when we stop feeding them.
- -
09/02/09 - PowerLineBlog
Under NHS guidance, patients are diagnosed as close to death without allowing that the diagnosis could be wrong. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where food and fluids are denied until sedated patients die. Nationwide discontent is building up, as family and friends witness this denial of care. (M)Monty Python on Death Panels (humor, video 2:00)

• Obamacare Bails Out Medicare We will all be in the same boat. Some have signed on, and others will be "persuaded".
- -
The promises of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security cannot be paid. Democrats want to put everyone in the same plan so that seniors don't feel as strongly about denial of care, and the young can be made to pay much more. Medicaid, Healthcare, Medicare

• Google Analytics for the Last Few Days An HTML page which holds links to Google Analytics, for showing data from the last few days. JavaScript constructs the links. JavaScript, Blog Technical

» Prevention Costs 8x As Much This pill saves lives, 1/100th of the time.
- -
09/01/09 - Fox Business by John Stossel
Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute: Suppose we enact measures to control heart disease and diabetes with complete success. The cost would be $8.5 trillion over 30 years, but would save only $1 trillion treating those diseases. Prevention improves health, but doesn't save money. (M)Sally Pipes in the Washington Examiner

• US Healthcare is 1st and 37th We've subtracted another 10 points because you're not government run.
- -
The writer Mark Twain said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
- -
08/31/09 - WSJ Opinion by Drs. Groopman and Hartzband
The World Health Organization ranks U.S. healthcare as 1st in dignity, confidentiality, choice of care, choice of provider, prompt attention, access to social support during care, and basic amenities.
The U.S. ranks 37th overall from lack of universal coverage and higher cost.

» Interrogation Policy and Results C 'mon Khalid. Who did you work with? What were your plans and methods? Pretty please?
- -
08/27/09 - PowerLineBlog by Paul Mirengoff
Summary of a WSJ editorial about the CIA Inspector General's report on interrogations conducted on terrorists.
"Interrogations were carefully limited, briefed on Capitol Hill, and yielded information that saved innocent lives."

» British Health Care Scandal On the bright side, we have low administrative costs, and we cut staff.
- -
08/26/09 - Legal Insurrection by William A. Jacobson
The Patients Association in Britian reports hundreds of thousands in the past six years received nursing care that was often neglectful, demeaning, painful, and sometimes cruel.
Elderly people were left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffered from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses, and dismissive staff.

+ British Maternity Care We find do-it-yourself is much cheaper.
- -
08/25/09 - blogs.DailyMail by Don Surber
Almost 4,000 women gave birth outside maternity wards lacking midwives and hospital beds, instead in places like elevators, toilets, and mobile homes. Maternity units shut their doors to an additional 553 women in labor last year. (v)Via Don Surber

» Free To Choose The most important single fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
- -
Governments never learn. Only people learn.
- -
Videos of the 1980, 1990 TV series about economics and freedom by the late Nobel economist Milton Friedman.
A presentation about freedom, markets, capitalism, and prosperity. Friedman is clear and direct. It is a first course in free markets and free minds, and was a popular success on network television. (v)Via ChicagoBoyz

» MSNBC and The Great Liberal Narrative:
The Truth About Political Correctness A great story. We'll publish the parts that support our cause. Be sure to snip the video.
- -
08/24/09 - Pajamas TV by Bill Whittle (video 12:56)
A "politically correct narrative" is literally a story that supports your ideology, facts be damned. The spinning of these stories has been an intentional strategy for those who want a better world, or at least a world that they direct for the common good.
Search YouTube for "The History of Political Correctness" for more about The Frankfurt School. (The Institute for ~~Marxism~~ Social Research, founded 1924 in Frankfurt, Germany)

» What Work Means in Life You say you are happy doing that?
- -
08/18/09 - Mike Rowe of the TV series "Dirty Jobs" (Video 20:34)
What he has learned from surprising and dangerous jobs. He describes his personal anagnorisis, the point, especially in a tragedy, at which the hero recognizes his true identity or situation, and peripeteia, a sudden change in fortune from learning the truth.
15:55 The war on work. We have forgotten the benefits and satisfaction of doing a trade and learning from others the practical nature of what life demands. (v)Via Docs On The Web

» Canadian Healthcare Is Sick Canada needs change. Maybe private healthcare?
- -
08/15/09 - Google News by Jennifer Graham (CP)
Dr. Anne Doig is president of the Canadian Medical Association. We all agree, the system is imploding and more precarious than Canadians realize. We are all running flat out, trying to stay ahead of day-to-day demands. The current system is not sustainable. (v)Via Docs On the Web (M)National Post Editorial: Canadian health care is no model. (M)08/15/09 - Docs On the Web
The health care bill is the worst abomination since MTV stopped playing music videos.
Taking from specialty care to fund primary care will produce savings because more people will die. Here is the theory and the reality of preventive care.

• Legislative Language The law is a giant puzzle filled with goodies. We make the puzzle, then we solve the puzzle. Sarcasm, Law

» Electricity Situation in Britain Honey, no lights, no TV, no internet, and the food is warming up. Are we still environmentalists?
- -
08/12/09 - ChicagoBoyz by Carl from Chicago
Electricity has to be generated from somewhere, and traditional sources are Coal, Gas, Nuclear, Hydroelectric, and Insignificant.
Britain’s electricity demand peaked at 59 GW (billion watts) in 2009. 45% from North Sea gas, 35% coal, 15% nuclear, and 5% other. By 2015, modest growth will require 64 GW. From where? Our generation plants are aging, and there is nothing planned to replace them. (M)Problems with Green Energy

» Obamacare Cycle of Life Out with the old and in with the new.
- -
08/11/09 - InsureBlog by Henry Stern
"The doctor shall provide an ‘advance care planning consultation’ at least every five years." The welfare of everyone in the program depends on affordable choices.
- -
I comment that the carbon footprint should be part of the discussion. (sarcasm) Healthcare, Rationing

» Progressive Redistribution -> Low growth I gave up half my income for the good of .. something. That's what LBJ did in 1970.
- -
08/11/09 - ChicagoBoyz
President Lyndon Johnson publicly admitted that his “Great Society” was a redistributionist scheme. He gloated that future generations would just have to live with it. This policy choked off growth during the 1970’s by doubling the Capital Gains Tax.
So what have we lost? Long term U.S. economic growth was 4.5% from 1780 to 1970. Recessions were followed by high growth recoveries. The per capita growth rate was 3.5%. In 1970 that growth rate dropped to 1.5% and stayed there.
GDP would have increased by 4x from 1969 to 2009 at the 3.5% rate. GDP has actually increased by 1.8x at the 1.5% rate. Without LBJ and “Limits to Growth”, our per capita economy would now be 2.2x larger. (M)Stimulus Shrinks the Economy.
The money is nice; the taxes and inflation are a killer.

+ Vibrating Wind Farms Look at the twirling blades. Any nausea?
- -
08/10/09 - American Thinker by Thomas Lifson
Neighbors of wind farms have discovered that they are far from the benign, clean, efficient ways of harnessing energy to our needs. "Wind Turbine Syndrome".

» Government Medicaid Rx Don't look, government healthcare and sausages are being made here.
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08/10/09 - The Independence Institute (Video 1:30)
Oregon provides Medicaid through government rules drawn up by political lobbying each year.
Government raises costs; it requires that many services be covered by regulated healthcare insurance, the services that provide income for influential provider groups.
Emergency services don't have a lobby, so forget about them. Priorities: (High) Stop Smoking, (Low) Head Injury. (v)Via Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux (M)08/25/09 - Insureblog by Henry Stern
Mandates increase insurance costs for Shelley Roche in Maryland. (Video 2:21)

• Cuban Health and Economic News Which of these things is not like the other?
- -
Cuba must replace tractors with oxen.
Cuba is running out of toilet paper.
Cuba is a model for a US health plan. Healthcare, Cuba

» Advertising for Healthcare Dollars "We are the most open and honest administration in history." Gentlemen, how much advertising will it take to sell that to the American people?
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08/09/09 - PowerLine Blog by John Hinderaker
Lobbyists are thriving as never before during the Obama administration. Everyone wants to get their hands on your tax dollars (or your children's, since pretty much all the money in question will be borrowed).
The Obama administration claims that Americans who oppose socialized medicine must be in the pay of "moneyed interests." This is a sick joke to anyone who understands today's actual political dynamics

» Economic Reality for Ashley Let's redistribute other people's money.
They are all coupon-clippers.
- -
08/09/09 - Roger Kimball
Whether a real letter or a parable, it presents the realities of redistribution.
"I received your request for assistance. Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I’m sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own, The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan."

» Obama - A Face in the Crowd Promise them anything, but give them - whatever.
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08/09/09 - PowerLine by Scott Johnson
Scroll down to the video clip (6:07). General Haynesworth advises presidential candidate Fuller that he needs a slogan like "Time for a change", "The mess in Washington", or "More bang for a buck." Lonesome Rhodes advises Fuller to act as one of the people. A hilarious and timely scene.

» Testing National Healthcare Don't worry. You go first.
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08/07/09 - Insure Blog by Henry Stern - video 3:30
Nationalized healthcare is a big step. How do we know it will work? Shouldn't we test it first? The world is a complicated place. We would not want it to seem good, then find out it works badly.

• ObamaCare and the Doctor Maybe we should ask the doctors.
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08/06/09 - American Thinker By Zane F. Pollard, MD
I have practiced for 35 years in Atlanta, Georgia, in the only group there offering pediatric ophthalmology services to Medicaid patients.
The government has involved very few of us physicians in the healthcare debate. The American Medical Association favors Obama's plan, but remember the AMA represents just 17% of American physicians.

Also, Charles Krauthammer proposes two actions to eliminate current inefficiencies in the healthcare market before redesigning the whole thing. Healthcare, Medicare, Obama

» Spot the Astroturfers They're fanatics. They made their own signs.
- -
08/06/09 - Looking at the Left by El Marco
A picture essay with commentary about political demonstrators at a health clinic for-and-against healthcare reform. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi visited that clinic. Which are the concerned citizens, and which are the hired demonstrators?
El Marco: This is the first time in my life that I can recall a government in North America organizing protests of one group of citizens against another. This is standard operating procedure in countries with left-wing governments.
Pelosi said recently, about critics at town hall events: "I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care." (v)Via Ed Driscoll

» Is the Science Debate Over for Climate Change? We have our own consensus here in government. The debate is over.
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08/05/09 - OpenMarket by Marlo Lewis
There are three basic issues in the climate change debate: How much has the world warmed? How much from greenhouse gases? What will more greenhouse gases do? These issues are not settled, not even close, and here is why.
One of many points. The U.S. surface temperature record is supposed to be the best in the world. But, it is riddled with false warming biases. "We found stations located next to exhaust fans of air conditioning units, surrounded by asphalt parking lots, on blistering-hot rooftops, and near structures that absorb and radiate heat. We found 68 stations at wastewater plants, where waste digestion raises the air temperature."
Nice graphs with medium scientific detail. Readable, or watch the video. (M)Dispelling the Global Warming Myth

» Nomenklatura It isn't what you know, it's who you know.
The little people don't know anyone.
- -
08/05/09 - ChicagoBoyz by Carl from Chicago
Nomenklatura - A bureaucratic élite that enjoys special privileges. Example: Soviet Union.
These new government institutions will not be transparent or fair. A parallel system of privileges and favors will replace our current, largely cash based system. As the government controls more of society, the friendship and favor of the Nomenklatura will control access to opportunities and prestigious posts.

» Medicare Example For Higher Costs Government motto: We must spend money to save money.
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08/04/09 - PowerlineBlog by Scott Johnson
The government is already the largest health care insurer through Medicare. From 1968-2007 Medicare costs increased by a factor of 85.5, from $5.1 to $436 billion.
In 1965, the government projected that costs would be $10 billion in 25 years. Instead, 1990 costs were $107 billion, 10.7 times the estimate! Plus, about the same amount is spent by the states due to federal mandates, unreimbursed by federal payments.
We are now told ObamaCare will save money.

+ Obama on Single PayerOur unbiased opinion here in Government is that single payer is the way to go. A single option is more equal.
- -
A 2 minute video of President Obama's remarks past and present, about a goverment option for healthcare

» Chronic Pain and Health Insurance Rest assured that your care is free. We just don't have an approved protocol for treating your illness, if it is a real illness.
- -
[edited] My injuries propelled me online over ten years ago, to guide my decisions and to read about others who suffered similar problems. Patients in Canada and Britain deeply affected me. They didn't worry about insurance, but they were the most miserable of all the chronic pain patients.
They waited forever for tests. They often could not choose their doctors. Often, few specialists in-country knew anything about their injuries. Their medical systems generally saw their problems as unimportant and they were given low priority.
I was always horrified of not having medical choices. I paid extra for the freedom to go to other states and not be bound by the recommendations and restrictions of a primary care physician. This supported my nine year search.

» Ten Questions For Your Congressman Do you expect me to have answers for everything?
- -
08/03/09 - Washington Examiner by Hugh Hewitt
Ten questions and honest answers about current healthcare reform. Ask your Congressman or Senator. Question 4: "If seniors will be allowed the expensive, most effective treatments, how will costs be controlled?" (v)Instapundit

+ Minimum Wage Equals Minimum Jobs Fire them if you have to, but don't underpay.
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07/30/09 - Reason.com by John Stossel
Why not set the minimum wage at $100/hour? That would send funds to poor people while lifting the economy, right? (M)The ones who are still working will thank us for the raise.
- -
07/03/2009 - WSJ Opinion - The Young and the Jobless
Economist David Neumark wrote here that the $.70 /hour increase in the minimum wage would remove 300,000 jobs. Sure enough, it increased to $7.25 in July, and the August and September numbers show jobs disappearing for teenagers.

» Medicaid Not Sensitive to Waste It's just Graham again. Pick him up and send the bill to the Feds.
- -
Graham doesn't have a job, insurance, or car. He calls 911 to have an ambulance drive him to the hospital, 603 times in 3.5 years. Medicaid seemed more interested in how we found out, rather than how much it cost taxpayers. Fraud and abuse costs $60 billion per year.

• Plants Make Their Own Pesticides It seems that they don't want to be eaten.
But, their resistance is futile.
- -
Our plant foods contain carcinogens, natural pesticides that cause cancer in rats. These occur at enormously higher levels than the amounts of man-made pesticides remaining on the plants. The good news is that the risk of cancer is negligible, even at these levels. Organic, Food, Pesticides

+ Expensive German Wind Power We will pay 2.5 times more. Is that too much for a good cause?
- -
The wholesale price will be US 21¢ per KWH, plus retail markup to pay for distribution and billing costs. Compare this to the average US retail price of 11.28¢ (v)Via Instapundit

» Creative Job Creation We can create 1000's of new jobs. Fire everyone on Friday, and hire them back on Monday.
- -
07/27/09 - IHateTheMedia
In Oregon, Democrats claim that its $176 million stimulus has already created 3,256 jobs. Those jobs each lasted about a week.
By the state’s accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime. “Sometimes some work for an individual is better than no work,” said Oregon’s Senate president, Peter Courtney. (v)Via Don Surber

» Medical Malpractice Affects Access to Medical Care Doctor, help me! Be perfect or I'll sue you.
- -
The American Hospital Association reports 50% of hospitals have trouble recruiting physicians in medical liability crisis (MLC) states. 40% say MLC causes less physician coverage for their emergency departments.
MLC forced closing trauma centers in Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, at various times in recent years.
Specialties including neurosurgery, orthopaedics, and general surgery have incurred particularly high premium increases. Emergency patients most frequently require those services.

» Screening for Terrorists My shrimp catcher is 99% accurate. So, why are there so many snails?
- -
If your test is wrong 1/100, and you are looking for 1 in 10,000, then 99% of your detained people are going to be innocent. (v)Via Schneier on Security

• Not Just Words Words are powerful. Numbers are cold.
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Obama doesn't respect numbers. Obama, Opinion

• A Few Words About Policy It's good for the country. What else do you need to know?
- -
Obama should have already released a detailed "white paper" describing his summary and justification for his health care proposals. We need proposed results, methods, justifications, comparative studies, past successes, funding sources, the works.
The absence of these policy papers is appalling. Healthcare, Government, Law

» Health Care Reform Removes 5 Freedoms We are all in this together, so you will pay for us.
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07/24/09 - Fortune at Money.CNN by Shawn Tully
The fine print in the Congressional plans removes many freedoms of the current system: To choose your doctors, To keep your existing plan, To choose what's in your plan, To choose high-deductible coverage, To pay your real costs and be rewarded for healthy living. (v)Instapundit

» Hidden Victims of Health Reform Somebody is going to pay, but I don't think it will be me. Right?
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07/24/09 - WSJ by John Fund
Health reform will require some people to sacrifice. Democrats have kept that knowledge from those who would bear the brunt. They convinced healthcare industry groups not to run the “Harry and Louise” style ads that opposed HillaryCare in 1993.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.): "The pressure has bordered on extortion." Newt Gingrich: "Groups were told that they would give up their seat at the table if they ran ads. They weren’t told that they would be the lunch."
Losers: Young people, Small businesses, Health savings accounts, Medicare Advantage. (v)Via Instapundit

• Minimum Wage Prosperity Fire them if you have to, but don't underpay.
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Why not set the minimum wage at $50/hour. That would send funds to poor people while lifting the economy, right? Economics, Minimum Wage, Jobs

» Government Funds Distort Climate Science We don't fund studies critical of our policies.
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07/22/09 - Science and Technology News
The US Government has spent $79 billion since 1989 on research and support for climate change studies. Yet, scientific review and criticism is left to unpaid volunteers, who have repeatedly exposed major errors.
Dedicated, uncoordinated scientists around the globe test the integrity of global warming theory. They compete with a lavishly-funded, highly-organized, centralized purchaser of climate research.
The government pours money into a single, scientifically baseless agenda. It has created a self-fulfilling prophecy, not an unbiased investigation. Sound science cannot easily survive this grip of politics and finance.

» Congress Is the Health Care Problem We make laws. We don't repeal them.
- -
7/23/09 - Throckmorton's Other Signs
The President's news conference had more confabulation than I get from a gang banger explaining how he got shot minding his own business.
Congressmen say with a straight face that they are going to fix health care, without admitting that they caused all the problems!

» Health Bill 1000 Page Monstrosity 1000 pages of cost reduction. With more time, it could have been longer.
- -
7/23/09 Rep. Dr. Tom Price (R-GA) criticizes Obama's healthcare bill. (video 5:30). "You should be ashamed of what you want to do to healthcare and a free people".

» Why Doesn't Obama Get to Work? I was happy to be an inspiration to you all.
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3/11/09 - Small Dead Animals by Kate
Carol Platt Liebau was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review (from audio):
"Tom Pirelli is the one who did most of the day to day work. Barack Obama was nowhere to be seen. Occasionally he would drop in, talk to people, and then leave, as though his arrival had been a benediction in itself. But, not very much got done.
You see that and think, gosh, maybe that's the way the guy operates. He had his eye on bigger things. But, now he's President; there isn't a bigger or better thing." (v)Via Ed Driscoll

» Healthcare, Social Justice, and Thugs A strange buffet of crackers and peanut butter, with a 3 hour line for a roast beef sandwich or two shrimp.
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7/23/09 - American Thinker by John Dale Dunn MD JD
A doctor presents his long experience with medicine.
My experience with Medicaid was scary. It was intended as Medicare for the poor. I went to the Nebraska capital, desperate, and pleaded my case to Medicaid officials to hurry up their payments for my mostly Medicaid practice. I wasted my time.

» Will Doctors Just Say No? I majored in administration before becoming a doctor.
- -
7/23/09 - Open Market by Wayne Crews
What kind of doctors would Obama's system create? Who will go into medicine?

A fictional doctor from "Atlas Shrugged":
"I wonder at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, and to stifle my mind. What will they expect when they lie on an operating table under my hands?
Let them discover the doctors that their system will produce. It is not safe to entrust their lives to a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe if he is a man who resents it, and still less safe if he is the sort who doesn’t.

» Doctors On Strike The best men will not be made slaves.
- -
A serious site with great cartoons and jokes, mostly black humor as befits the current situation.
"It’s not a good idea to make the lives of medical professionals a living hell. Who do politicians think they are, really? I mean, honestly?" - Wayne Crews at OpenMarket

» 20 Questions for Obama I can restate my policy goals, but I'm not a detail man. (chuckle, smile)
- -
7/22/09 Economist Keith Hennessey
5. You proposed spending money from the TARP to prevent foreclosures, help small businesses, and to buy toxic assets from banks. In June, CBO found no evidence that any money has been spent for any of these programs. How many foreclosures have been prevented, how many small businesses have received loans, and how many toxic assets have been purchased? (M)11/3/08 National Review
All of Obama's promises have expiration Dates.

» The Good Intentions of Welfare I miss having responsibility for my life.
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Economist Walter Williams, 1983 (video 27 mins)
Influence and Access to Good Schools
Minimum Wage, Licensing, and Labor Laws
The Welfare System and Conclusions
The government offers help, but in a way that leads people to a life of dependence and broken families. (v)7/22/09 Cafe Hayek by economist Don Boudreaux

» Doctors Will Quit Obama-care He's an excellent doctor. Top of his class in data entry and billing codes.
- -
Many physicians will quit if Obama-care forces us to take orders about treatments, procedures, and medicines, by phone, from people hundreds of miles away.
They want a perfect record keeper. I would rather take care of patients. I am not a data entry operator who dresses in scrubs.

• Borrowing Costs Per Legislator We'll pay you to put away the national credit card. Financial Crisis, Government

» EMP Attack Honey, the TV is on the blink. And, everything else.
- -
Consider a nuclear explosion 200 miles up. It emits a powerful wave of radiation which causes a huge electrical wave. You won't feel much, but it will fry all the electrical systems and digital electronics that we depend on to run everything. How will we survive? (v)Via Instapundit

+ Public Option Taxes Employees 8 %We'll tell them that we are taxing the employer. They won't figure it out.
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The costs of employment come out of an employee's gross wages. Payments on behalf of employees reduce cash wages. The employee pays any 8% fine supposedly placed on the employer.

+ The Chavez Playbook Elections are less stressful when you know how they will turn out.
- -
Honduran authorities seized computers belonging to deposed president Mel Zelaya. They contain false referendum results favoring Zelaya, for the illegal referendum that was not held.

» States Give Themselves Phony Ed Grades Higher scores build confidence.
- -
The Illinois Standards Achievement Test was altered in 2006 to comply with No Child Left Behind. School officials knew that the new test was made easier and produced higher scores. This accounted for almost all of the "improvement" since then.

» Obama is Jimmy Carter Reborn Make no mistake, no one can fix our problems. Don't blame me.
- -
Six months as President, Barack Obama is driving south into the political speed trap known as Carter Country. It is a sad-sack landscape in which every major initiative meets with failure and scorn from political allies and foes alike. (v)Via AdviceGoddess

• Regulations are Too Complex and Dangerous Here are the 274 rules. We'll tell you what they mean as we go along.
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The financial crisis was caused by the complex, constantly growing web of regulations designed to constrain and redirect modern capitalism. As a practical matter, it was impossible to predict the disastrous outcome of these interacting regulations. Financial Crisis, Regulation

» Cloward-Piven Plan for Socialism Cloward: The ruling classes use welfare to weaken the poor. Poor people can advance only when the rest of society is afraid of them.
- -
Columbia University political scientists Richard Cloward and Frances Piven proposed to bankrupt the welfare system and produce radical change. This is called the "crisis strategy" or the "bankrupt-the-cities" strategy.
They proposed flooding the welfare rolls with new applicants, more than the system could bear. They hoped that the resulting economic collapse would lead to political turmoil and socialism.
The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) used the Cloward-Piven strategy to produce the welfare crisis that bankrupted New York City in 1975.
Veterans of NWRO went on to found the Living Wage Movement and the Voting Rights Movement. Both use Cloward-Piven and are spear-headed by ACORN. (M)Liberally Conservative: Cloward-Piven as it is being applied now to US politics.

» Hospital Sues Mass Medicaid When the state won't pay, we raise prices on the sick.
- -
Boston Medical Center is suing Massachusetts for not paying $100 million if its bills. That expense increased the cost of everyone else’s health care.
Elaine Ullian is CEO of Boston Medical: We believe in health care reform, but it was never, ever supposed to be financed on the backs of the poor, as has happened in Massachusetts. (M)More: Political Contributions required for Medicare Reimbursement in Illinois.

» Personal Tour of Canadian Health Care If you are tired of waiting, you can come back and wait tomorrow. Or pay at the private clinic.
- -
7/13/09 - PJTV (video 21m) by Steven Crowder
The wait times are cruel. A sick baby is sent home by one hospital after a quick look. Her parents try again at a 2nd one, and the baby needed a week of treatment.
That is what the world is like when you are a cost rather than a customer. When you want care under socialized medicine, you are a pure cost. (M)More: Begging for Medical Care

» Expensive Medical Screening I was tested for years, then died anyway.
- -
The absolute risk of a woman aged 60 dying from breast cancer by age 70 is 9/1000. Early detection by doing 10,000 yearly mammograms saves 3/1000 people over 10 years.
Health-care "systems" are supposedly critical to health. So, why is there so small a difference in outcomes? Life expectancy in the European Union is 78.7 years, in Libya, 76.88 years.
Universal health care may save lives, but it won't save money, and you will pay for it whether you want this testing or not.

» Global Warming Best Predictions May Be Wrong It is sad when you can't predict the past.
- -
Gerald Dickens is Professor of Earth science at Rice University. "There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way climate models link temperature and carbon. They do not explain what appears in the geological record." (v)Via Riehl World View (M)More: Dispelling the Global Warming Myth

• FDR Prolonged the Great Depression We didn't intend to cause the problem. Now we intend to fix the problem.
- -
"Why the Great Depression lasted so long had been a mystery. We worried about what conditions might produce another 10-15 year economic slump. We found that a relapse isn't likely, unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies."

» 'Cap And Tax' Dead EndEnergy will cost more. We will just do less.
- -
Sarah Palin 7/14/09: [edited] Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision for newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
American jobs are threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan.

» A Government Failure, Not of the Market Our policy: we can't go broke building more houses.
- -
We are told this was a systemic market failure, violating Capitalism's promise that self-correcting mechanisms would not allow this. So, we are told Capitalism is unworkable after all.
But, the housing bubble only burst after government subsidies pushed house prices up so fast that buyers could no longer afford to chase prices even higher. A bubble created by government rigged financial markets and a government-sponsored obsession with home ownership is not a result of market failure. It is a result of bad government policy.

» Federal Reserve Failures The government bankers will save us! They probably caused the problem in the first place.
- -
[edited] In about 1927, the Federal Reserve started buying large quantities of U.S. stocks on the open market. This produced an unprecedented stock bubble. The Fed only managed to reverse this in late 1929 by choking-off normal business credit.
The Fed stood by, pleading impotence during the following panic. The U.S. money stock lost one-third of its pre-crash value. This "great contraction" was the worst credit-crunch in U.S. history, producing the "national bank holiday" of March 6-12, 1933.
Regardless of this and later mismanagement, Congress rewards the Fed for its failures by giving it more powers. (v)Via Cafe Hayek

» Sotomayor Condones Discrimination Judge Andrew Napolitano: [edited] When you elect a liberal Democrat as President, you get Sonia Sotomayor, a judicial nominee with strange ideas.
Like, if you take a test, and you pass the test and you’re supposed to get promoted, well, you won't get promoted because not enough people from another race passed the test. A lot of Americans will reject that attitude which she embraced. (M)Sotomayor Snubs the Senate's Questions
07/28/09 - American Thinker by Rick Moran
She repeated her bizarrely brief opinion that the statue outlaws racially disparate voting qualifications: "A law disqualifying felons from voting constitutes a voting qualification."

» Despair Among Business Owners Let them drop their pretenses and join the workers.
- -
Business is down 10-20% or more. They have laid off staff or have 4-day weeks to keep staff. They see nothing that will benefit sales, cost reductions, or efficiency.

What is happening is an outrage. We will all be casualties of being controlled by bureaucrats and politicians who never, ever, ran a business or created a job. Job losses, cost increases, and inflation will get worse. (v)Via Riehl World View

• Why Doctors Refuse Medicare We in government are efficient. Why do you spend so much on administration?
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Medicare claims very low administrative expenses, but doesn't count the administrative burden imposed on doctors. Even fines should be included. Doctors must charge more to cover these expenses, refuse Medicare patients, or close their practices.

» Obama's Climate of Fear That's a nice small business you got there, buddy.
- -
Obama utters soothing words as he acts against business: He is not really trying to stifle small business, not really trying to take over the banks, the auto companies, or whatever. He is just reacting to the crisis, reluctantly doing what must be done. That’s what he says. Business people don't believe him.

• A Hidden Cost of National Health Care You have a great drug, but it doesn't fit our plans.
- -
A bureaucratized healthcare system will squash medical innovation. Healthcare, Government, Spending

• The Actual Role of Government Psst! The back room is more fun if you can pay.
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Everyone is greedy, it is how you organize things that matters. Government, Politics

» How a Bill Becomes Law - Health Care (1) How the sausage is made. Don't look.
- -
Here is my tactical analysis of the legislative action. I was in the health care legislative fights 1995-2008. I'm a retired player, now serving as a color commentator.

• Government Healthcare by Experts We're smart. We all went to school. We can do it better than those capitalists, doctors, HMO's, and insurance companies.
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The bills in Congress contain very little that reflects payment for value. Government bureaucrats claim they will do things they’ve never once demonstrated an ability to do. Healthcare, Obama

» John Holdren is Obama's Science Czar.
Be afraid. You have to break some eggs to make a world omelette.
- -
In 1977 he proposed forced abortions, sterilizations through drinking water, babies seized from teen/single mothers, sterilization of undesirables, and a global government through an international police force. In writing. No kidding. (v)Via Ed Driscoll (M)More at OpenMarket

• Overselling Science I'm a Phrenologist. I will diagnose you by feeling the bumps on your head. Then, we'll try some leeches.
- -
The problem with polling “scientists” is that there is a wide range in the predictive power of the studies that we lump together as “science”. Some science does not predict well at all.

» Health Care Bill - Truth in Labeling Yeah, a medical golf course, next to the medical Farmers' Market
- -
The bill provides billions for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and farmers' markets, characterized as improving the nation's health infrastructure.
Advocates include Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (MA). They say this spending is needed to promote healthier lives and cut medical costs in the long run. "These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants".

• Obama Can Win The Chicago Way We strongly recommend that you play ball with Mr. Capone.
- -
Soros, Axelrod, and Obama intend to win the next election, despite 15-20% unemployment and inflation in 18 months. They intend to do it the Chicago way, to buy it with your money. Election, Obama, Politics

» Competition for Cheaper Healthcare Doc, I can get it for less.
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I told the office manager that my wife got an MRI for $575, not $1,500. Within 30 seconds, I was scheduled to have an MRI at my Doctor for $575.

» I Still Hate You, Sarah Palin Advice to Republicans: Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
- -
And so the word went out: Eviscerate Sarah Palin like one of her field-dressed moose. Turn her life upside down. Attack her politics, her background, her educational history, her husband, and her family.
You know what? It worked!

» When Politicians Go Bad -- The Government We Don't Deserve Hey, it's only money.
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California has spent all its money, and it is spending more. It's politicians think criticism is terrorism. Obama thinks CA is a model for us all. Bill Whittle at Pajamas Media. Video 5:30. (v)Via Instapundit

• Newspaper Influence Peddling Come on over for a nice talk, and bring a gift.
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Newspapers influence public opinion, and that influence is quite valuable. It seems that some newspapers are selling that influence. Do you still trust your newspaper? Politics, Media

» The Price of Shrimp Hold it right there. Is that a shrimp? Now then, you weren't thinking of selling that shrimp, were you?

» CAFE is killing GM Small cars are just cuter!
- -
General Motors specializes profitably in big vehicles, the best in the category. But CAFE penalizes them for not selling enough small cars to tip the averages. This statistical insanity is killing US manufacturing jobs.

» Obama: A Man of Principle See the picture of Obama beside a US Flag. Other people have placed their hands over their hearts, it seems for the Pledge Of Allegiance. Obama supports his own principles by not participating.

» A GM Bustout By Government I am shocked, shocked to see politicized decisions at a government owned company. We have subsidies. No profit needed.

» A hack-door bust-out Howie Carr: The public-sector unions are busting out the commonwealth of Massachusetts. You don’t have to be a gangster to bust out a joint, just crooked and greedy. Shady parties worm their way into a legitimate enterprise and then slowly strip it of all assets, reducing it to a hollow shell, driving it into bankruptcy, busting it out." (v)Via Instapundit

» Smallest Political Quiz Are you Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, or Statist? (v)Via Econlog: Personality Profile of a Free-Marketeer

• Obama Explains Millionaire Grants The government will make everyone rich. Next year. Or maybe a bit after that. Obama, Sarcasm, Future News

» Washington State - Liquor Shortage Last call at 9PM?
- -
They aren't out of booze, they just can't deliver it. They fouled up something that makes them money. How will they treat health care, which loses them money?

• Gaining Power Through Public Policy Why regulate? Because we make money at it. Economics, Politics

» Saddam Lied About Nuclear Weapons Saddam convinced everyone that Iraq had the Bomb. He was bluffing Iran. Bush didn't lie, he acted on available information.

» Massachusetts Limits Health Services Commonwealth Care is three years old. Estimated at $245 million, it will cost taxpayers $1,300 million this year and require rationing of benefits.

» Brace yourself for higher taxes Catch me, I'm slipping.

» Waiting for the jobs Obama is building a new society. I'll wait until he is done.
- -
Small business owners are standing by the fence and watching, paralyzed by regulatory uncertainty. They aren’t hiring precisely because of government intervention in the economy. So-called stimulus won't change that.

• Racist EyesHe was black, or white, or something. I'm not saying which.
- -
When you are identifying someone, it is not racist to describe what he looks like, even the color of his skin. Racist

• Medicare Myth: Low Administrative Cost We have millions of administrators in government, with more on the way
- -
Medicare claims 3% administrative overhead, compared to 12% for private insurance. But, Medicare doesn't count all of its expenses, and private insurance is burdened with taxes that are part of its "overhead". Medicare overhead per patient is actually 25% more than for private insurance. Insurance, Healthcare, Medicare, Efficiency (M)Government employment is community service, not overhead.
- -
09/30/09 - OpenMarket by Hans Bader
Federal government employment may grow between 200,000 to 600,000 over the course of the Obama administration.

• Healthcare Reform Myths #1 The government will be more efficient Healthcare, Single Payer, Health Insurance, Public Option

• Who's the Materialist? You are a materialist. Give me some of your money.
- -
All the great champions of economic freedom ultimately justify capitalism because only it affords true dignity to individuals. Capitalism, Freedom

• Be Skeptical About Scientists and Polls Let's quote a poll. That will convince them. Use the parts that support us.
- -
The poll interviewed "scientists", but they were selected as members of the AAAS, excluding grade school and high school teachers, and including administrators. Science, Global Warming, Polls

• The Present Tells Us About the Depression Take the money. We'll spend it more wisely than the little people Carbon, Economic Crisis, Tariffs

• The Department of Work and Production Government management will make you efficient :-). It has a long track record and new principles. Government, Economic Crisis, Stimulus, Satire, Jobs

• They Are Profiting From My Needs I hate it when they sell me things Business, Profit, Free Market

» Health Care - Do Procedures in the Courtroom Plaintiff's counsel will make the opening incision.

• Obama: Honduras Should Accept Tyranny One man - One vote - Once Coup, Democracy

• Introduction to Medical Billing Doctor, how are my billing codes doing? Medicare

• Predicting No Climate Change The crystal ball is cloudy. Give me $1 trillion. Global Warming

• Better Bank Robbery I didn't mind. It was for a good cause. AG Opinion, Global Warming, Sarcasm

• EPA Supresses Climate Study That Gallileo fellow wouldn't toe the line either. Global Warming

• "Do The Right Thing" Bill Why read legislation? It is complicated, and we will do what we want to, anyway. Congress, Sarcasm

• Windmill jobs are expensive We're creating jobs here. Don't look over there. Energy, Jobs

• The Medicare Tomato Market We used to buy great tomatoes when you were little. Healthcare, Medicare

• Military Healthcare is Not a Shining Example We're looking at the big picture. We'll fix the failures later. Healthcare, Military

• No progress on nuclear energy The lights are on. What energy problem? Nuclear, Energy

• Medicaid and Its Children You can have all the care you want. We'll find the money later. Medicaid, Healthcare

• Lack of Competition in Health Care Insurance You are a caring doctor. Treat the poor for free.
- -
06/11/09 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch by David C. Rose
Medicare is a good deal partly because the government drives a hard bargain with health care providers. Medicare offers artificially low payments. No one insurer could do this in a competitive market of many insurers.
Medicare payments don't cover the cost of procedures, so providers shift costs to everyone else. In other words, the lack of competition in today's market leads to higher insurance costs for people who aren't old enough to qualify for Medicare. Extending Medicare-like insurance to everyone won't work, because no one will remain to pay the shifted costs. Insurance, Healthcare, Obama

• Changing Oil Prices Are Not a Conspiracy We can't eat it, or save it, so we sell it. Supply Demand, Prices, Oil

• Universal Health Care in Italy A delay? But, I have already paid. Healthcare

• Phony Jobs Claims I'm not lowering your salary, so that is a raise. Economic Crisis, Stimulus, Jobs

• Economists Surprised That People Read the Paper Don't read that! Do you want to ruin the economy? Financial Crisis, Economics, Stimulus

• The Climate Change That Isn't How dare you criticise our consensus of government researchers? Global Warming

• A Liberal Judge My personal history tells me what the law means. Supreme Court, Sotomayor, Liberal, Law

• My Fantasy Beats Your Reality Follow me, my plan is on this cocktail napkin. Energy, Economic Crisis, Politics, Solutions

• Efficiency Breakthrough:
Small Cars With Small Engines Better yet, just stay home CAFE, Autos

• A Budget to Infinity - and Beyond We'll have fun, fun, fun 'til daddy takes the T-Bird away Deficit, Obama, Debt

• 2006 Tax Comparisons What is that rich or poor guy paying? Tax

• Stimulus Shrinks Economy Look at the pretty money. Ignore the taxes and inflation. Economic Crisis, Stimulus

• Access vs Honest Reporting If we tell the truth, we can't report at all. Reporting, Media

• Obama and Sotomayor Are Anti-Gun The Constitution protects your gun rights, just not in any State. Huh? Supreme Court, Guns, Obama

• First, Let's Pay All the Lawyers Sue the wealthy person who is responsible. Law

• Homeopathic Waterboarding Talk to us Hamid, or we will do Homeopathy upon you. Torture, Funny

• Medical Rationing Details Take two aspirin and don't call back. Healthcare

• Did You Love "Life After People"? If only we didn't litter so much. Environment

• The Will to Have Efficient Cars I say do it, and it shall be done. Obama, Autos, Economics

• Good Guns Don't Make News Prevented deaths are hard to count. Guns, Biases

• Treasury Recalls All Dollars :) We'll take the money now. You can earn it back later. Economic Crisis, Humor

• Freedom Supports Our Humanity Freedom is more than money. Free Market

• Bombing Japan Was Not a War Crime War is life vs life. Killing some saved more. War Criminals

• Personal Experience of Terrorism Life is wonderful and fragile. It must be defended. Terrorism

• We Must Spend or We Are Going to DIE! We are taking action. Who are you to criticize us? Economic Crisis, Stimulus, Satire

• Contact Congressmen, Senators, and the President Who are you going to contact when you are a concerned citizen? Government

• Richard Epstein Discusses Barack Obama Obama is in complete control of himself, and believes wealth is manna from heaven. Obama

• A Trillion Dollars On Display A massive amount. Want to pay it back? Economic Crisis

• Together, We All Pay More For Healthcare Waiter, bring me two of everything. Healthcare

• Fact Check on Obama Obama's facts don't hold up. Obama

• Why Test? You Are Already in the Hospital Sorry, no CT Scan. We already know you are sick. Healthcare

• A Quick Explanation for the Recession Will you believe it, if it is not complicated? Economic Crisis, Recession

• We Can't Stop Carbon Emissions Only the rich dream about reducing carbon output. Global Warming

• The Fake History of the Depression The government faked the numbers. World War II spending didn't end the Great Depression. Depression, Economic Crisis

• An Artwork Thought to Have Merit You never know what will please the critics. Art, Funny

• Organic Pesticides Fail Safety Review That organic carrot doesn't look as good any more.
- -
03/30/09 - OpenMarket by Greg Conko
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has rejected 13 of 27 commonly used "organic" pesticides. Organic foods are thought to be "grown without pesticides." But, organic farmers use a variety of chemicals, including potentially dangerous substances such as copper sulfate, rotenone, and pyrethrum. Organic, Pesticides

• Is There a Future for Business Schools? It took only one month to convert a doctor into a business consultant Business, Economics

• Dispelling the Global Warming Myth The atmosphere warms and cools because of solar output, not carbon dioxide Global Warming

• Cause of the Financial Crisis: Left vs Right A discussion about the financial crisis, choose your side Economic Crisis

• Cargo Cult Economics The government sees spending and prosperity, and decides wrongly that spending causes prosperity
I get it. People use umbrellas when it rains, so using umbrellas causes it to rain. Obama, Government, Economic Crisis, Stimulus, Best

• Obama and God Obama has an ongoing conversation with God Obama

• The Revolutionaries Ayers, Dohrn, and Rudd Together, they set bombs for a better world. Bill Ayers

• Energy Can't Get Here From There No coal or nuclear plants, no transmission lines, just turn down your thermostat. Energy

• Begging for Socialized Medical Care Does your socialized hospital have enough budget to care for you? Canada, Healthcare

• The Policies of Bush -- I mean Obama Does not a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? Obama, Sarcasm

• ~~Obama Thanks Himself Reading Teleprompter~~ Retraction: Obama made a sophisticated joke, not a gaffe. Obama, Politics, Funny

• The Godfather's White House Is Obama basing his administration on 'The Godfather'? Obama

• Regulatory Costs 4,000 new regulations each year cost $trillions. Government, Regulation

• A Close Look at the Business Bailouts John Stossel of 20/20 examines the bailouts (video). Financial Crisis, Stimulus

• The Bank's Mistake was Trusting the Government Banks trusted the work of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Thus, the financial crisis. Financial Crisis

• Using Inflation to Fool People Ha ha. Keynesian economists hope that inflation will fool people into working harder. Economics, Keynes

• Publicly Challenge Politicians Talk to politicians publicly, not one-on-one. Global Warming, Politics

• Obama Team: No Nuclear Energy Current waste storage sites are cancelled. Obama, Energy

• The Government Bailout IS the Problem The government is scaring the market into a freeze. Business won't invest in an unknown regulatory environment. Economics, Stimulus

• Housing Crisis in a Nutshell Easy loans and old analysis fueled the market. Financial Crisis, Stimulus

• Obama is a Gifted Talker Obama's words impress people. Reality is not persuaded. Obama

• Government vs The Market Government intervention is causing the pain, not the market. Government, Free Market

• Tolerance, Muslim-Style The Islamic republic of Chechnya, Russia, encourages honor killings. Islam, Russia

• A Revolutionary States the Essence of Law Thomas Jefferson proposes the limits to written law Government, Law

• The Department of GDP The government spends your money so that you don't have to GDP, Stimulus, Satire, Best

• No Need For Earmarks Congress doesn't need to include earmarks when they can make phone calls Earmarks, Stimulus

• SEC Workers Explain Failure They say that they don't have the resources to find fraud Scam, Government, Regulation

• They're Throwing a Party What financial crisis? Congress is throwing a party Stimulus

• Political Truth in Labelling Three Democrats call themselves Republicans Politics, Stimulus

• A Tested Stimulus Plan The financial crisis is the result of the last stimulus plan Obama, Stimulus

• Rewarding Bank Management for Failure They are corrupt, self-serving, and incompetent. Rather than firing them, we are cutting their salaries to $500K plus stock options Economic Crisis, Stimulus

• Selling Burned-Out Lightbulbs The market finds a way to distribute light bulbs in Russia Free Market

• Let's Counterfeit Our Way to Wealth If you believe the Obama team, then counterfeiting would make us rich Obama, Economics, Stimulus, Best

• Keynes Likes Totalitarians Econimist John Keynes said his economic theory would work best under totalitarian government. Economics, Keynes

• Why Should I Believe You? Trust seems to be tribal, not intellectual. Belief, Psychology

• The Hamas - Israel War What each side does when fighting. Middle East, Israel, Hamas

• You will pay, along with the Rich You will pay for big government with unemployment and high prices. Taxes, Stimulus

• I Won't Do the Paying The Rich have options. They won't work hard to pay high taxes. Taxes, Stimulus

• Politicians Like Thoreau They like his quiet observations and ignore his tax protests. Obama, Government

• Obama Challenges Us He challenges us to follow his plans and requirements. Obama, Government

• Iran Might Stop Killing Brits We'll stop killing you if you let us develop nuclear weapons. Diplomacy, Iran

• The Solution Is Simple Many people think they could solve all the problems if they were in charge. Obama, Government, Solutions

• Where Did Barbers Go? They were regulated and trained out of business. Regulation

• Nurse Practitioners They are inexpensive, friendly, and can't help you much. Healthcare

• Elevator Lawsuit Safety We don't unlock the escape door because you might sue us. Law, Funny

• Medicare Witch Hunt They will eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse by eliminating doctors. Healthcare

• Delayed Medical Tests Your doctor isn't allowed to do his own lab tests. Will three days be OK? Healthcare

• AGW Scientists Can't Predict When you understand, you can predict. Global Warming scientists can't predict. Science, Global Warming

• No Sports Economic Multiplier Government subsidy of commercial sports teams does not benefit their towns. Stimulus, Economic Multiplier

• Teleprompter President Obama is a fine orator, with a teleprompter and an ear bug. Obama

• Stimulus and Terpentine Stimulus spending will make us rich. If we are becoming poorer, we are obviously not spending enough. Stimulus

• No Effect On Unemployment Spending during the Great Depression did not produce lasting employment. Stimulus

• Obama Praises Lincoln He thanks Lincoln for making Obama possible. Obama

• Charming the Barbarians They won't want to harm us when they know how friendly we are. Diplomacy, Obama, Freedom

• Trusted Public Bicycles Paris supplied bicycles on the honor system. Transportation, Utopia, Government Programs

• Audacity to Do Nothing Who built the economy? Not politicians. They should get out of the way. Government, Economics, Stimulus

• Non-Union Businesses Grow Faster Union activities slow the growth of businesses and jobs. Unions, Jobs

• Survive "Obama Care" How to survive medical problems under socialized health care. Healthcare, Obama, Stimulus

• Failure of the New Deal A planner of the New Deal testified that it didn't work. New Deal, Stimulus

• Friedman On Greed Government is less greedy than business. Really? Milton Friedman, Capitalism

• Obama's Feet of Clay We are quickly finding out about his feet. Obama, Spending

• Spending Did Not Help Japan They spent a huge amount. It didn't help. Instead, it hurt. Economics, Stimulus

• Will You Bet On Your Opinion? If you want to direct the economy, why won't you bet on it? Economics, Stimulus

• We Don't Have Free Markets Government is and has been directing many things. Then, they blame the bad results on weak regulation. Financial Crisis, Regulation, Free Market

• Leftist Arguments: A or B It depends on who they are talking to. Taxes, Politics

• Democratic Trickle-Down Economics Democrats help the little guy by giving money to their connected friends. Obama, Stimulus

• Che Guevara's Message He wanted youth to conform and individualism to disappear. Che Guevara

• Benefits of Health Savings Accounts They benefit everyone, not just the rich.

• Macroeconomics is Astrology, Not Science Frank J. Tipler is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University.
[edited excerpt] "Our leaders are being advised by macroeconomists who haven’t got a clue where they are leading us. Their actions may lead us out of the current recession, or they may lead us into a depression as bad as the Great Depression."
"Science is about prediction and precise explanation. It is not enough to construct a different explanation about each past event. Science must produce a consistent, precise explanation for all of the relevant past events."
AMG: The economists advising our government can't predict anything. They might as well be plumbers. Macro Economics, Stimulus, Recession, Depression

• Interrogation, Torture, and Rendition The possibility of torture saves lives in war. Interrogation, Rendition, Torture

• Embarrassing Claims About Global Warming James Hansen has embarrassed NASA with his unsupported claims. Global Warming

• Man Made Global Warming Science Fraud Global Warming 'scientists' do not meet scientific standards for being open, careful, and honest. Global Warming

• Global Warming in 1000 Years Scientist: Global temperature has risen. It won't fall for 1000 years. Or go up. Global Warming

• Too Many Federal Laws Five years and a $5000 fine for everything. Law

• UV Radiation from Compact Fluorescent Lights 01/23/09 - EasyOpinions CFL

• Modern Law Makes Us Powerless If it is new, it is probably illegal. Law

• An Hystoricle Day Government will help us through the recession by making it longer. That is hysterical, not historical. Government, Stimulus

• Fake Cashier's Checks They are just like a bad personal check. You will have to give back the money two weeks later. Scam

• Child care loopholes for easy money I'll watch your kids and you'll watch mine. The state will pay us. Scam

• Safe, But Also Sorry Children should not fear adults in an emergency. Security

• Interrogation Rules Interrogation is limited to the techniques allowed to the footsoldier. "Pretty please will you tell us where the bomb is?" Interrogation, Obama

• Obama: Responsible Talk, Irresponsible Walk The era of responsibility starts with making it up as he goes along. Obama, Stimulus

• Good/Bad News on Parenting Children grow up to be themselves, no matter what you do. Parenting

• Geithner and SE Tax He was informed in writing to pay his tax, but didn't. Government, Stimulus

• Predicting Doom is Illegal Being too negative in S.Korea is a crime. Speech

• We Don't Raise Our Hands With Obama Obama doesn't like the wrong questions from the press. Obama

• The Economy is Not a Machine Want to fix the economy? It isn't in any one place. Stimulus

• Pelosi-Obama-Reid Economy Productive people will not work for corrupt politicians. Stimulus

• War Between the Sexes I want to be liked for my personality. Sexes, Humor

• Stimulus Boondoggle Enjoy the view of the new roads and bridges. And, that is the good part. Stimulus

• Job Creation - Elevators We could have 500,000 new elevator operators. Stimulus

• People Versus Politicians Loopholes for sale. Politics

• Islamic Cultural Identity Firing rockets is in their blood. Terrorism

• Civil Disobedience via CFL Bring compact fluorescent lights to your legislator. They are otherwise hard to get rid of. CFL

• Pelosi to Silence the Republicans They can't stop her legislation, so why should she listen to them? Politics

• Carbon Dioxide Does Not Drive Climate Even if there is more, it can't absorb much more heat. Global Warming

• Crisis Hysteria Markets will adapt, but they need some time. Free Market

• Stop the Death from Quilts and Food Thousands of small businesses that sell children's items are now regulated out of business. If this is good, then we should regulate home kitchens as causing even more death and disease Government, Regulation, Satire

• Musical Chairs - Stimulus Style When the economic music of the stimulus stops, all the chairs will be removed at once Stimulus

• Global Warming Caused by Humans is a Scam The proponents of Global Warming don't mind lying for the good of us all Scam, Science, Global Warming

• Have Wages Been Flat? Wages have gone up, but mostly in untaxed fringe benefits Healthcare, Economics, Salary

• Jefferson Warns about Debt: Discussion Debt can ruin the country: a discussion Debt, Discussion

• Thomas Jefferson Warns Us About Debt Thomas Jefferson warned that debt can ruin a country Debt, Tax

• The Real Tax Burden The real tax burden is what government spends, not just the deficit Deficit, Obama, Spending, Tax

• USA Healthcare is First - Infant Mortality is Low US healthcare is best in the world. The bad statistics are carefully chosen to contradict this for political reasons Infant Mortality, Healthcare

• Scam: Telemarketers with No Number or Location How to fight the robot-call scam artists Scam

• Write the Rating Agencies Out of Our Law The financial ratings agencies misled investors. They should not be supported and promoted by government Economic Crisis

• Ponzi Schemes Like Social Security Social security is a Ponzi scheme. Current withdrawals are funded by current contributions. There are no investments to pay off the current investors Social Security, Ponzi

• They pretend to pay - We pretend to treat The government is cutting the cost of healthcare by refusing to pay hospitals. Healthcare

• I Pledge to Obama Obama inspires celebrities to work for a better world (satire). Obama, Funny

• Censored medical records The law protects your privacy. Your doctor can't see all of your medical history. Healthcare

• No one can make a pencil It is the result of 100 years of practical research and cooperation. Free Market

• Tennessee Sludge Spill, Government Disaster Government ignored safety to save money. Government

• Self defense and security Her parents died because she couldn't carry her gun into the restaurant. Guns

• Dirty Secrets of College Admissions Admissions are arbitrary at top schools. There are so many applicants. College

• Diplomacy and Terrorism Talk doesn't work. Either they win or we win. Terrorism

» The Deadweight Loss of Taxes Politician: Let's have higher taxes.
Worker: I hope it's for something important.
- -
12/29/08 - EasyOpinions
Raising taxes on anyone, especially the rich, lowers production in the U.S., and so lowers the number and pay levels of jobs. It is ironic that taxing the rich has the same effect as taxing the middle class. It makes everyone poorer, a lot poorer. TheBest, Tax

» The Bernie Madoff I Knew Bernie was called "the Jewish T-bill" because he always returned 10%, rain or shine.
- -
12/26/08 - EasyOpinions
"Bernie was very charming and low key. He grudgingly admitted using a split conversion strategy of put and call options. I was puzzled by his opacity, and uncomfortable when he said that I was lucky he allowed me to invest with him." It was all a scam. Scam, Bernie Madoff

• The Law is Going from Bad to Worse Defense: The law is on my side.
Prosecution: No, the law is on my side.
Judge: Actually, the law is on my side.
- -
12/26/08 - EasyOpinions -> Econlog.Econlib by Bryan Caplan
Caplan: The law is a shockingly phony discipline. Virtually everyone imagines that the law agrees with what they favor on non-legal grounds. Almost no one admits that many or most laws are so vague that there is no "fact of the matter" about what they mean. Law

• Obama's Secretary of Earmarks 12/26/08 - EasyOpinions Earmarks, Government, Obama

• The UAW Reneges 12/26/08 - EasyOpinions Autos, Bailout

• What Caused Unemployment in the Great Depression? 12/25/08 - EasyOpinions Economic Crisis, Great Depression, Jobs, Stimulus

» Government Efficiency - Subway We'll make it work, somehow.
- -
12/24/08 - Failblog
The Japanese make efficient use of transportation resources in this video clip. Efficiency, Humor, Video

• Why College Is A Waste Of Money 12/24/08 - EasyOpinions College, Education

• NYT Won't Run Op-Ed Criticising Bill Ayers 12/23/08 - EasyOpinions Bill Ayers, Obama, Politics

» Don't Believe Pundits When you step on an ant hill, the ants aren't better off because they have been put to work.
- -
12/22/08 - EasyOpinions
People propose policies without thought of the consequences or any examination of likely causes. When the government applies some policy that interferes with people's lives and businesses, officials point proudly at all of the increased activity. They ignore the damage that this activity is aimed at correcting. Economics, Jobs

» The Brains of TSA Executive: I was always a big picture guy, better at management than field work.
- -
12/21/08 - EasyOpinions
A story about a barbeque event, responding to customers, and a panicked request by a high-level manager at a logistics firm. That manager went on to run the Transportation Security Administration for the US Government. Funny, Government

» Bailing Out Auto Makers Without Conditions Govt: Just a little something to tide you over?
GM: Uh, yeah. We have union employees. They contribute and vote.
Govt: OK. Here's $15 billion. Tell us if you need more.
- -
12/20/08 - EasyOpinions
President Bush is lending the last $15 billion of the $350 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) [the first one] to keep GM and Chrysler afloat through Obama's inauguration. Bailing out nonfinancial companies is a bad precedent. Democrats will use it to give the next $350 billion to mortgage holders, states, cities, and anyone with political clout. [it happened] Autos, Bailout

» Five Holiday Health Myths Debunked The holidays are great, if you survive.
- -
12/19/08 - EasyOpinions
The British Medical Journal cites five fears that can officially be crossed off the holiday worry list.
- Sugar makes kids hyperactive.
- Suicides increase over the holidays.
- Poinsettias are toxic.
- You lose most of your body heat through your head.
- Eating at night makes you fat. Health Myths

• The Psychology of Investment Bubbles Jim: I bought XZyme because you recommended it.
John: I bought some too, because I thought you recommended it.
- -
12/18/08 - EasyOpinions -> The Atlantic by Virginia Postrel
A rise in price above a reasonable value (a price bubble), followed by a fall back to that value (a crash), seems to be a part of psychology rather than bad mathematics. Maybe you can avoid losing in the next bubble. Economics, Psychology

» Expanding Posts in Blogger CSS for Blogger
- -
12/16/08 - EasyOpinions
This is how I have implemented Expanding Posts. These are posts which have an introduction on the mainpage of the blog, linked to the entire presentation at an individual post page.
My approach allows for individual preferences. You can have anything on the mainpage, followed by anything on the postpage. Blog Technical

• Low Productivity Sinks Detroit Auto Makers The work rules don't say that I actually have to work.
- -
12/16/08 - EasyOpinions -> PajamasMedia by Rand Simberg
Simberg [edited]: Work rules are the biggest reason that General Motors is uncompetitive, more so than high wages. These agreements determine employee classification, how many breaks, how much time off, who can do which jobs, enforcement of discipline, etc. The goal is not more productivity or quality, but to increase the number of (overpaid) jobs for union workers, and to minimize actual work.
It is possible that the industry could make money even at current wages, if it had production flexibility.
Lori Roman [edited]: To put it bluntly, the UAW takes the hard-earned money of the best workers and spends it defending the very worst workers. It ties up the industry with thousands of pages of work rules that make it impossible to be competitive. Spineless management often makes short-sighted decisions to satisfy the union and maximize immediate benefits, instead of long-term sustainability. Autos

» Bad Statistics From the UK Jim: I need some statistics for my presentation. John: I'll find something that supports you, somewhere.
- -
12/14/08 - EasyOpinions
Britain released “premature, irregular, and selective” statistics on knife crime. Questions to ask of a government defending its actions and expenditures. Do the statistics mean anything? Government, Statistics

• Political Contributions for Medicare Reimbursement... 12/14/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare, Politics

• Investing with Bernie Madoff I can't tell you what we're doing. Frankly, it is just a bit illegal. I promise you will make a lot of money from your investment.
- -
12/12/08 - EasyOpinions
How Madoff fooled his sophisticated investors.
People see that their associate is hiding information and telling each group something different. They assume that the associate is crooked in some way, but not toward themselves. They don't worry about consistency or transparency, because they accept that the crooked part requires secrecy. They assume that the crook is smarter than everyone else because he hasn't been caught, and so they trust him even more, and admire him for his willingness to take risks.
This crazy thinking is widespread in business and politics. Regulation, Scam

• More Text Entry Than Medical Care 12/12/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• Support the Big Three and Lose Something Else 12/09/08 - EasyOpinions Autos, Bailout, Economics

» Canada's Healthcare Has Hidden Costs If you can last long enough, healthcare is free. Next, we will work on lowering taxes.
- -
12/07/08 - EasyOpinions
1993: Canadians waited 9.3 weeks for treatment by a specialist. 2006: 17.8 weeks, almost twice what is clinically reasonable.
Canada's Supreme Court wrote in 2005: "Access to a waiting list is not the same thing as access to health care", striking down single-payer healthcare in one Canadian province. Healthcare

• Politicians Are Not Business Experts 12/06/08 - EasyOpinions Bailout, Economics, Politics

• Government Does Not Create Jobs Small Business: I can't get a loan to expand.
Government: That's strange. I just borrowed $100 billion.
- -
12/05/08 - EasyOpinions -> Cato Institute by Daniel J. Mitchell
Stimulus spending only seems to create jobs, until you consider the jobs that are destroyed by collecting the tax or borrowing the resources that private businesses could have used. Plus, great comments. (M) Create a million jobs? Ban automatic elevators. :) Economics, Government

• Government Sets Up the Next Bust It is such a cute giant bank, it's paw is hurt, and it needs our help.
- -
12/03/08 - EasyOpinions -> TownHall by John Stossel
Why are we bailing out Citibank? Why are 300 million Americans paying for Citibank's mistakes?
Consider how the the system is supposed to work. People fail, competent people take over assets from the failed people, and then they start again with a new stronger base. Economics, Government

• Freedom or Required Community Service "Other people are free when they can do things that you don't approve of, and you are free only when you can do things that others don't approve of."
- -
12/02/08 - EasyOpinions -> HumanEvents by Thomas Sowell
"One of the most innocent-sounding visions of the Left is that students do "community service". You cannot graduate from some high schools or be accepted at some colleges, unless you have done activities arbitrarily defined as "community service."
Schools arrogantly commandeer young people, not leaving them and their parents free to best use their time. They see your notions as arrogant, as to what is or is not a service to the community. Community Service, Politics

• Less Free than 40 Years Ago Government: We are increasing regulation and taxes only on businesses. You remain free and untaxed.
Citizen: And, without a job.
- -
12/02/08 - EasyOpinions -> ChicagoBoyz by Shannon Love
Restricting the freedom of economically creative people ultimately restricts the freedoms of everyone. If the State controls your access to food, shelter, medical care, transportation, and information, then the State controls you. All modern tyrannies began with economic control, then used that power to suppress other freedoms. Economics, Government

• One Eye Fixed and Dilated 12/02/08 - EasyOpinions Funny, Medical

• State Pensions are Way Underfunded 12/02/08 - EasyOpinions Government, Pensions

• The AIG Junket Fable When the government owns the operation, they will blame you for winning sales awards Bailout

• Keynes, Digger of Holes Government loves the economic theories of John Manard Keynes. He recommended becoming rich by digging and filling holes Obama, Economic Crisis, Stimulus, Keynes

• H.L.Mencken on politicians He didn't give them compliments. Government

• Effect of torture on morale It decreases US effectiveness. Terrorism

• Page Tracking a Blog Using Google Analytics 11/30/08 - EasyOpinions Blog Technical

• Politicians and CEO Pay 11/29/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Politics

• Reject Medicare and Lose Social Security 11/29/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• Men with Flu Get Five Minutes of Sympathy 11/27/08 - EasyOpinions Marriage, Psychology

» A Car Wreck Made in Washington This is a union shop. Employment, not profit.
- -
11/26/08 - EasyOpinions
Ford and GM run profitable auto businesses all over the world, but not in the U.S., because the United Auto Workers union (UAW) is present only here.
Congress's CAFE fuel-economy rules, not labor law, have been the biggest factor in preserving the UAW's power. CAFE effectively requires the Big Three automakers to lose tens of billions making small cars in UAW organized factories. CAFE prevents the Big Three from importing small cars or saving money by moving some production overseas. Autos, Government, Unions

• A Short Argument Against Stimulus 11/23/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Stimulus

» Brussels, The Cucumber, and Deregulation We in government use our regulatory power wisely for the benefit of the people.
- -
11/22/08 - EasyOpinions
Mariann Fischer Boel is the European Union Commissioner for agriculture and rural development. She says "It's a new dawn" in Brussels. Next July, the EU will lift regulations dictating the size and shape of 26 fruits and vegetables. Curvy cucumbers will become legal. Bureaucracy, Funny

• The U.S. Needs Modern Nuclear Weapons 11/21/08 - EasyOpinions Military

• Stock Market Rules Do the Unexpected 11/20/08 - EasyOpinions Bureaucracy, Government

» Economics in One Lesson: The Lesson Economic planning should consider the effects of policy on all groups, not just some groups, and what those effects will be in the long run, not just the short run. That's it. That's the lesson.
- -
11/19/08 - EasyOpinions
So, you don't know anything about economics? That is why you let politicians ruin the economy and steal from your future. No excuse -- Henry Hazlitt's plain, short, and important book is free online. Short chapters cover all the details. Economics

• Priorities in Healthcare per Healthcare CEOs 11/19/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• We Can Learn From The Savings And Loan Crisis 11/19/08 - EasyOpinions Bailout, Economics

• Woohoo! Free Hamburgers! With Bacteria 11/18/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• Franken Sues Again For Votes Of course I'm registered. I do that at each polling place before I vote.
- -
11/17/08 - EasyOpinions -> PowerLineBlog by John Hinderaker
"The real problem in our elections is not the tiny handful of ballots that might be incorrectly rejected, it is the much larger number that are cast illegally. This year, around 25 percent of all the ballots cast in Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, were by voters who registered at the polls." Politics

• The Sperm-Supply Problem 11/17/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Funny

• How dare they limit their ~~patients~~ clients! Doctor: I saw 50 patients today.
Admin: You met your quota. The really sick ones will probably come back again tomorrow, if they can get an appointment.
- -
11/16/08 - EasyOpinions -> OhioSurgery by Jeffrey Parks MD
Public defenders are suing to limit the number of cases they take on. The quality of their legal representation is compromised by the current, overwhelming workload. They provide a necessary and free service to the community. They want to deliver that service on their own terms.
Does that remind you of doctors? If public defenders and primary care doctors were better paid, the quality of work they provide might be better and overall cheaper. Healthcare

• Health Insurance is Not Health Care Fred: Why is healthcare so expensive?
Insurance: I'm glad you asked ...
Government: Remember, we regulate you.
Insurance: Uh, we don't know. We just pay for it.
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11/15/08 - EasyOpinions -> InsureBlog by Mike Feehan
The cost of health insurance is rising to cover the rising costs of health care that is the deeper problem. Government increases healthcare costs by including the services of politically influential providers like accupuncture and chiropracty, and by shifting the costs of its promises onto the insured as a hidden tax. Healthcare, Insurance

• Why Spending Stimulus Plans Fail 11/14/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Stimulus

• The Historical Lessons of Lower Tax Rates Gov't: We'll raise taxes on The Rich until it hurts.
Common Man: Ouch! What was that?
- -
11/13/08 - EasyOpinions -> Heritage Foundation by Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.
Lower taxes increase economic growth, living standards, tax revenues, and the portion of taxes paid by the rich.
Higher taxes accompany lower economic growth and stagnant tax revenues.
Class-warfare politicians pragmatically should support lower tax rates. When politicians “soak the rich,” the rest of us take a bath. Economics, Tax

• Sponsoring Recklessness at Fannie Mae 11/13/08 - EasyOpinions Bailout, Government

» Cameron's UK Tax Con Jim: A tax break for those who vote for me.
Mike: At least that is direct and efficient.
- -
11/11/08 - EasyOpinions
Politicians want credit for creating jobs, and will waste resources to claim that credit, especially when the waste is hidden. It doesn't matter if jobs are actually created.
The Tories (British conservatives) propose a tax credit for hiring a worker who has been unemployed for three months. They claim this will create 350,000 new jobs, and will pay for itself by saving unemployment benefits.
This ignores the enormous deadweight costs. Hundred-thousands of jobs are created every year even in declining industries or in recessions. The tax breaks would mostly go for hiring that would be done anyway. Tax

• Warren Buffett and the Estate Tax 11/11/08 - EasyOpinions Tax

» Children's Volunteer Community Service So, volunteering is now a requirement?
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11/10/08 - EasyOpinions
Parents are working two jobs to put food on the table, and don't even have time to help with homework, but now they will be required to transport their kids to additional commitments.
Community service is integral to our society. Go ahead and enourage community service, provide information about opportunities, but don't require it. Community Service, Education

» Disaster Resistant Energy Pundit: I envision a world of clean, cheap wind power supplying most of our needs.
Citizen: What if the wind doesn't blow?
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11/10/08 - EasyOpinions
The Texas wind stopped blowing on 02/26/08. The loss of wind generated electricity forced operators to cut off power to businesses who had their own generators. Private, diesel powered backup generators started all across the state to take up the slack.
In the future, will even small businesses and households need fossil fuel backup generators to handle such outages? If 10% or more of electric generation is from wind, will such backup even be possible? Energy

• Specially Built Autos 11/10/08 - EasyOpinions Autos, Bailout

• Monty Python: Mr. Creosote 11/09/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Humor, Video

• Nonprofit Eatery Doesn't Bring Home Bacon 11/09/08 - EasyOpinions Business

• The Radiology of Competitive Speed Eating 11/09/08 - EasyOpinions Life, Medicine

• Stimulus Does Not Cure a Recession 11/08/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Recession, Stimulus

• Universal Care Run Amok 11/08/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

» UK Applies Anti-Terror Law Government is serious and moderate. It can be trusted with power. :-)
- -
11/07/08 - Schneier on Security
Half of town halls in Britain use anti-terror laws to spy on families. They put surveilance cameras in tin cans, on lamp posts, and in the homes of 'friendly' residents, to catch households who put their rubbish out a day early. Funny, Bureaucracy, Security

• The Political Dictionary 11/07/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Humor, Political Dictionary, Politics

• Three Good Things About the 2008 Election 11/05/08 - EasyOpinions Politics

• Why McCain Lost 11/05/08 - EasyOpinions McCain, Politics

• Technology Reduces College Costs, But Tuition Goes... 11/01/08 - EasyOpinions College

• What Do Obama's Statements Mean? 11/01/08 - EasyOpinions Obama

• A British Political Arrest The British government bends the law to arrest a critic. Speech

» Don't Just Do Something. Stand There If we don't do something big, the public might think that we are useless.
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10/31/08 - EasyOpinions -> WSJ.com by Russell Roberts
The current financial crisis is similar to the government panic of 1932. The economy was weakening, and Herbert Hoover was doing everything and anything to change the situation, with disastrous results. What should the government do today? Economic Crisis

» Don't want higher taxes? Obama thinks you're selfish. We in government are professionals.
Leave the spending to us.
- -
10/31/08 - Jim Treacher
Treacher: Seriously. Obama is saying that you should be ashamed of yourself if you want to spend your own money. (M)10/31/08 - Hot Air by Ed Morrissey
Morrissey (summary): The Left believes that charity is only possible through the government, by redirecting private funds. People who don’t want higher taxes are somehow selfish.
Obama gives his economic and social philosophy in one paragraph (summary): When everyone can afford college, has decent health care, and more money at the end of the month, then they can buy products, and everybody is better off. All boats rise. We need to restore what happened in the 1990's. That’s what I’m gonna do as President.
AMG: The flaw? Obama will take that money from others, who don't get to spend or invest it. Obama, Tax

• Otto the octopus wreaks havoc 10/31/08 - EasyOpinions Humor, Life

• Government Action Delays Recovery Business: We don't know what you are going to do.
Government: Don't worry. We'll tell you as soon as we know ourselves.
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10/30/08 - EasyOpinions -> WSJ Opinion
The power of government delays recovery. Enacting one arbitrary policy after another, moving this way and that, "solving" problems by directives, keeps private investment and productivity from making things better. Economics, Government

• McCain's Health Proposal is Misunderstood 10/30/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare, Politics

» Credit Rating Agencies Misled Investors Fred: How should we rate these risky mortgage bonds, that Fannie Mae is buying?
Politician: Fannie Mae buys only the best. Rate them AAA.
- -
10/29/08 - EasyOpinions
Banks bought AAA rated (rock-solid) mortgage securities. The ratings were given by government-approved agencies. The actual risk was possibly 10 times higher.
A part of EasyOpinions: We Guarantee It Economic Crisis

• What Caused The Mortgage Crisis 10/29/08 - EasyOpinions Economic Crisis, Economics

• The Tax Cut You May Have to Send Back 10/28/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Tax

• GMIP Regulation of Fannie and Freddie Make sure we print "Brought to you by Democrats" at the bottom of the loan documents.
- -
10/26/08 - EasyOpinions
Great Moments in Politics. Creation of the policy that produced the housing crisis. Fictional but true. Politics

• Pennsylvania Is Driving Its Doctors Away 10/25/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• More medical "never event" absurdity 10/24/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• My Book List 10/24/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Knowledge

• Obama and the Tax Tipping Point 10/22/08 - EasyOpinions Obama, Tax

» The Best Promises Win Contractor: You are going to be very happy with everything, a better job for half the cost. If you are unhappy for any reason, I'll come back and make it right.
Politician: Don't kid a kidder. I'm in that sort of business myself.
- -
10/16/08 - EasyOpinions
I learned my lesson about contractors. Ask for evaluations and find out why the bids are different. I wouldn't go for the low bid, or any bid, until I understood how they came to their number. Just talking to them helps a lot. If they won't talk, I won't buy -- low bid, high bid, or whatever.
I want the same from politicians about their promises. Obama, Politics, Tax, Promises

• Never Talk to the Police 10/15/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Law, Police, Video

• The Supply Side Robin Hood 10/15/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Tax

• Obama's 95% Depends On the Meaning of Tax Cut 10/13/08 - EasyOpinions Obama, Tax

• Tell Me About The Past 10/10/08 - EasyOpinions Politics

• We Guarantee It 10/08/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Economic Crisis, Economics, Politics

» Does no insurance cause trauma? The dear departed drank, smoked, drove fast, gambled, and thoroughly enjoyed life. Sadly, he died from lack of insurance.
- -
10/06/08 - EasyOpinions
A statistical review of medical records shows uninsured patients are more likely than insured patients to die in the hospital from trauma. That is interesting, but doesn't tell us what is going on. Two things may be related, but which causes which? Healthcare, Insurance

• Poll - Politician IQ 10/04/08 - EasyOpinions Humor, Politics, Poll

• Never Events 10/02/08 - EasyOpinions Healthcare

• Strong Preferences 09/27/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Psychology

• More Jokes in Politics 09/25/08 - EasyOpinions Politics

• Public Tax Meeting 09/19/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Economics, Humor, Obama, Politics

• Zero or Less Tax 09/19/08 - EasyOpinions Tax

» ER Medicine and Bureaucracy "Fill out yet another form; 'accredit' yourself to wipe shit on a card and see if it changes color; answer to clipboard carrying nurses if you don't fulfill your core measures; and on and on."
- -
09/11/08 - EasyOpinions -> M.D.O.D by 911Doc
"EMTALA has killed the best medical system in the world, and why? Because some douchebag legislators thought that it would buy them votes (and they were right). I also know how to fix our mess, but, since I major in plain-talk, I will never be elected, nor will anyone who says this, and here it is." Healthcare, Obama

• Politics of the Day 09/10/08 - EasyOpinions Politics

• Gov. Palin: Top Ten Negative Stories Phone call to Wassila library interrupted operations. "Palin talked for half an hour", says librarian.
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09/08/08 - EasyOpinions
Every negative about Sarah Palin's life is exposed, however humorous. Humor, Sarah Palin

• I Heard the Rumor Jane: I believe the TV. If they were lying, someone would sue them.
Jill: You haven't sued your ex. Should I believe him?
- -
09/07/08 - EasyOpinions
Where you found your "facts" is much more important than your opinion derived from the facts. Laugh at anyone who reports a juicy story without telling you where it came from.
Only believe a fact that is "common knowledge" if you personally know it to be true. Ask yourself where you learned it. What is the citation for your own knowledge and belief? Politics, Sarah Palin

» 1 President + 1 Vice President = 1 President John Nance Garner IV ("Cactus Jack") was Speaker of the US House of Representatives (1931-33). He famously said the Vice President's job was "not worth a bucket of warm piss."
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08/25/08 - EasyOpinions
The VP seems to matter because the public likes the idea of a "team" running the country. Two people in agreement are thought to be more stable than one person. In fact, the President jealously runs the show and makes all decisions. McCain, Obama, Politics, Vice President

» Econ 201: The Myth of the Economic Multiplier I paid $10 to have my lawn mowed. Thus, I created $40 in multiplied wealth. I just don't know where.
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08/02/08 - EasyOpinions
Politicians and business owners often want to develop businesses using taxpayer money. The politicians may subsidize loans, give tax breaks, sell public land cheaply, buy private land for the project, build utility services and roads, and provide subsidies.
They need justification for the public expense. A claimed economic multiplier helps them get the money.
But, there is no multiplier. Their mistake: "When I give you $10, and you receive $10, that is $20 right there". I wish I were kidding. TheBest, Economics, Politics, Stimulus

• College Is An Expensive IQ Test College has a monopoly on testing for intelligence. There is no proof that it efficiently trains for success.

• Seduction and Politics 07/08/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Humor, Politics

• No Price Gouging Here 07/04/08 - EasyOpinions Economics, Prices

• Magic Power Mike: We will run our cars on french fry oil.
Fred: OK. I'll have 500 orders of french fries please, and the fry oil on the side.
- -
07/01/08 - EasyOpinions
It is amazing that people trust the announcements of politicians more than the system of free investigation and discovery that has produced our technological world. Political strategies written on cocktail napkins are supposed to replace practical scientific knowledge and careful investment in productive energy technology.
It all seems easy after it is done, but our technology and energy is the result of continuing effort by millions of people serving hundreds of millions of people. It has taken a long time and immense investment to create and combine all of the pieces to get the current results. TheBest, Green Energy

• Teaching the Math Analogy 06/14/08 - EasyOpinions Education

• Should the U.S. Be Talking to Iran, Syria, Hamas 06/10/08 - EasyOpinions Foreign Policy, Politics

• Raising Grades 05/30/08 - EasyOpinions Education

• How To Predict the Future Without Knowing Anything 05/27/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Scam, Stocks

• A New Kind of Politics 05/19/08 - EasyOpinions Politics

• A Political Speech: Troubling Times 05/05/08 - EasyOpinions Humor, Political Speeches, Politics

» Confused Liability Produces Bad Policy We are all glad that you aren't hurt. Our lawyers advise us to fire you.
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04/26/08 - EasyOpinions
A pizza delivery man for Pizza Hut recently used his own gun to defend himself. He was not charged. The police confirmed that he was defending himself. He was later fired by Pizza Hut for carrying a gun against company policy. Pizza Hut was not heartless and stupid, just following incentives created by the courts. Law

• Is Obama Guilty by Association? I'm not a crook because I associate with crooks. I'm a politician.
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04/26/08 - EasyOpinions
Mr. Obama presents himself as a man of ideas and belief. Shall we understand that he cares nothing about the history, ideas, and beliefs of his close associates? I do not think that he, Pastor Wright, self proclaimed bomber Bill Ayers, and terrorist fund-raiser Dr. Hatem El-Hady form a personal debating society where Mr. Obama argues one position and they argue the other side. Obama, Politics

• Undocumented Employee Benefit 04/22/08 - EasyOpinions Tax

» The CFL Advertising Account Mike: Buy 10 CFL's and save $750. Get rich!
Techno: Yeah, if you don't turn them off.
- -
04/19/08 - EasyOpinions
The good and bad about compact fluorescent lights. Why the ads are both true and false. How to save and waste money on CFL's TheBest, CFL, Energy

• Why Doesn't Obama Renounce His Bigoted Church? 03/29/08 - EasyOpinions Obama, Politics

• A Political Speech: Coming Together 03/28/08 - EasyOpinions Humor, Political Speeches, Politics

• A Political Speech: My Policies 03/28/08 - EasyOpinions Humor, Political Speeches, Politics

• TPM: Secret Political Manual Discovered 03/01/08 - EasyOpinions TheBest, Political Manual, Politics

• TPM: Adequate Compensation 03/01/08 - EasyOpinions Political Manual, Politics

• TPM: Introduction 03/01/08 - EasyOpinions Political Manual, Politics

• TPM: Taking Positions 03/01/08 - EasyOpinions Political Manual, Politics

• TPM: Talk At Your Own Risk 03/01/08 - EasyOpinions Political Manual, Politics

• Terms of Use and Disclaimer 02/28/08 - EasyOpinions Terms of Use

• Post List Details 02/28/02 - EasyOpinions Blog Post List Details

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Sep 1, 2008

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Sep 1, 2008

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