Once again Unbroken Window would have me laughing if it were funny, examining the new bureaucracies envisioned as part of Pelosicare. He picks a list of all-stars from a much longer list (go to his post and follow the link); my favorites are:
71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433) (wintercow: cool, a program to develop more … programs)
95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717) (wintercow: we have these already – they’re called economics classes)
What we have here is at least partly a jobs program, with the jobs designed to be beholden to the creator of the largesse.
I am developing a haunting feeling that the US is soon going to have the most ridiculous health insurance system in the world.
A parade of low-cost carriers have at times driven air fares below cost, Wytkind said. That causes economic chaos for mainline carriers until finally the new entrants go bankrupt in a process that hurts the entire industry, he said.
Bald-faced and clear. The incumbents, in bed with the regulators, don't want competition. It is inconvenient, makes their lives hard, and makes it harder for them to extract the rents that they and their union pals so clearly deserve. And I fear Obama's mentality is that they do, in fact, deserve the rents. As for whether the claims about driving fares below cost are true, this could of course depend on the airline, and also simply be window-dressing.
h/t Unbroken Window, where there is a lovely skewering of the premisses of the whole discussion.
Turns out, the deceased was actually Thatcher, Transport Minister John Baird's beloved, 16-year-old grey tabby named in honour of the Iron Lady of British politics.
Baird, at home in his Ottawa-area riding in Nepean, Ont., had sent a message about the cat's death to someone at the dinner in Toronto.
But in the meanwhile, Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas was in contact with Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street.
Both were baffled by his inquiries.
We are not asking Obama to rush to judgment before the facts are in (e.g., in the manner of the Professor Gates mess, in which he, in Pavlovian fashion, immediately condemned the Cambridge police as acting “stupidly” through stereotyped racial profiling)—only that he express some sort of visceral outrage at this serial killing of innocent Americans.
...
Instead, what if the President had told his staff, “I disagree with much of what airs on Fox News, but no one in this administration is going to strong-arm anyone from appearing on it. We believe in freedom of expression and are not about to start blacklisting those who associate with a news organization.”
My favorite bit though is his final look at the feeble Tribal Nations Conference speech:
At about the time of the Fort Hood terrorist attack, the President was hosting a “Tribal Nations Conference.” At one point in his remarks, he confessed, “I know what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, and what it means to struggle. So you will not be forgotten as long as I’m in this White House.”
What does “ignored” and “forgotten” actually mean in this particular context (I do not think it is a reference to his father’s absence or his grandparents careful custodianship)? President Obama went to prep school, the elite and pricey private Occidental College, the Ivy League Columbia University, and Harvard Law School—no doubt thanks either to grants and scholarships or government-subsidized loans. Forgotten and ignored at prep school or Harvard Law Review? If so, what does that make the working classes at Cal State Bakersfield, or those who went into the Marines at 18, or those who began driving a semi at 19? In comparison to the wretched lonely ordeal at Harvard and Columbia, not forgotten and not ignored by American society?
He is not just lacking grace, he is at times offensive.
The whole thing is good, including a reminder to the very forgetful Robert Gibbs, and a "do as I say" observation, on Obama, the king of the "present" vote, applying moral suasion to other legislators. Hypocrites all.
CNN has been chanting "backlash against Muslims" so repetitively that it turns my stomach. (I'd feel differently if such a thing had ever happened other than in the imaginations of our media elite.)
But this means I may not bother ever turning to that channel again. Twisting words is one thing, but this takes it to new heights.
And again a total lack of grace; unable to mention Reagan, and somehow worms himself into a story he likely opposed at the time.
"Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it." Unbelievable. What the hell has he to do with this profound story? Merkel, yes.
Listen to the hollownness of this windbaggery.
An antidote is needed. Clarity, that is, especially in hindsight, quite moving.
In his speech he made no mention of Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, or the Soviet Union, and he was tellingly silent about Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. The only American he quoted was John Kennedy, the President who acquiesced in and privately favored the building of the wall.
Even more to the point, Obama proved unable to refrain from injecting his own autobiography into the event. You see, walls fell down when he was elected President.
It was perfectly appropriate that someone sound this theme at the time of Obama's inauguration. It was, indeed, an important event when the first American of African decent was elected to the presidency.
But Barack Obama seems to think his presidency as important a milestone as the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the world of the narcissist, everything that happens is always about him.
We have expressed to the Cuban government our deep concern with the assaults, and we are following up with inquiries to Yoani Sanchez, Orlando Luis Pardo, and Claudia Cadelo regarding their personal well-being and access to medical care.
The dismantling of the Berlin Wall is the great symbol of the events that brought about the well-deserved and long-overdue collapse of the exceptionally stupid idea called Communism. I did not post yesterday, hoping to outsource commentary on the topic. I'll outsource this one to Ross Douthat, who adds an interesting twist.
The eliminations seemed very weird to me.
Two yearsweeks ago Mika would not perform the completely simple task of sliding down a water-slide - I can understand the fear at some level, but not when roughly twenty people had just gone ahead and done it.
It makes me wonder how the show hires couples. I know both SillyWife and I would have been willing to do that slide for the prospect of a million dollars. Did Mika get signed on because they knew of her fear? If so, I think she needs a lawyer.
And then last weekend broke my heart; I actually liked the poker players, despite their natural trend to duplicity. The poker players were both cute. But faced with two tasks that required one to develop a swing, neither could find it over several repeated attempts. This was in utter contrast to Meaghan, who started the 'golf' with no idea what to do, and figured it out after about a half dozen swipes.
One wonders what the producers want and contrive to exclude.
Who recruited these incompetents?
Still, it is a show that plays on skill, and I love that.
It is time to blog on it. In the initial weeks I just do not know what to make of the teams and so it is hardly worth commenting.
Now they are down to five and it is really entertaining.
I am SO pleased that last week's leg was not an elimination. The final task was SO arbitrary and random that it would have been brutally unfair to eliminate the midwestern farmers. Especially as they are my favorite team.
The funny thing this year is I actually like all the finally five teams.
There are the "token gay" brothers. They mix cynicism and a strange willingness to form alliances - I think I hated their giving a clue away to the poker-playing girls, and was satisfied that led nowhere.
I clearly like the Midwestern dad and son. Say no more - they are so mutually supportive and from a part of America that deserves approval. (Especially with the current witless president.)
Cheyne and Meaghan? They are both physically competent, but it is Meaghan who impresses me. She keeps finding herself in situations where she does not have control, and it drives her nuts, but she learns her way out, largely through physical skills. The silly golf thing a week ago was fascinating - when she started, she was hopeless, but within a few whacks at the balls, she was engaged and competent. For all the chipping that couple do at one another, I have some faith in them.
The Globetrotters. Hell, I just like them. They did such great dancing in Holland, and enjoyed it so much, and made the side cast so happy! They are clearly very competent physically, but they have a great sense of humor. They got stuck on the briefcase combinations, so have a major vulnerability, but they are engaging.
Brian and Ericka! They are just so much fun to watch as Ericka constantly criticizes Brian. But I must give her credit, even as she fucks up, she does not give up, and they seem mutually devoted. In the last show it was interesting to hear her say, am I right?, that her mother felt she was screwed up by an interracial marriage? Not a great start, despite how great they at times seem tomgether. (And interestingly, if this is the case, she is like Obama, a child of a black-white marriage, who has decided to project as black.)
I will be tuned in Friday!
This American Life produces interesting shows, some of which can be considered documentaries.
Recently, they produced this one, with the subject title, which encouraged me no end, that included a fascinating and delightful discussion of how the US health care system came to be what it is. In the podcast, start at about 19:30. You need to translate one phrase, "Go to war", with "Invite the government to help out".
The analogy to groceries starting around 29:10 is superb, and describes the dynamic that has now produced the Pelosicare, which layers more stupid government regulation on top of the original idiocies, and has zero chance of "cost control", barring some draconian behavior that has never been a skill of Congress.
The show also includes a comparison to pet care. And Tim Harford appears and finds the pet insurance system extant is vastly better than even today's system in the US for humans.
In the end, no existing health care system really does a great job of balancing cost control and availability. People always have some apparently reasonable compaint about whatever system they live under.
Following up on the post below, John Hinderaker makes the above observation.
Evidence really does not matter to these clowns,. on issues like this so rife with political correctness. As Mark Steyn observed at the Corner:
The soi-disant "moderate Muslim" has far more to fear from a coreligionist boarding the subway train yelling "Allahu akbar!" than he does from the allegedly "Islamophobic" Americans forever on the brink of "backlash." That our media cannot see what the commenter above sees is, even in a relativist age, a very advanced stage of decadence.
And it's that decadence that should cause giggles abroad.
Cassandra, the wife of a marine, is less than impressed with the recent performance of her Commander in Chief, and for good reason.
Faced with largely imaginary ills, the Obamas are all sympathy. During the campaign, they were more than willing to promote a whiny culture of entitlement that undercuts everything the military stands for - just to win a few more votes on Election day.
...
Tell me something: in a moment of national tragedy is it really too much to expect the President of the United States to forego the "shout outs"? Is it too much ask that he learn the difference between the Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Medal of Honor? What we require from our leaders at times like this is not much, really. No one expects them to actually care. What we want is precisely the kind of thing that comes so effortlessly to Barack Obama: honeyed words and a reassuring show of compassion from a man who thinks that quality is the most important attribute a Supreme Court judge can possess. A public acknowledgment that something grave has happened. But for some reason, asking the Commander in Chief of our armed forces to give even the appearance of empathy was a bridge too far.
It's that perpetual lack of grace again. Read her whole piece. One can see military morale heading back to that in Carter days.
Of course it is not just Obama. The whole media establishment have been bloviating since Thursday, and have managed now to get Army top brass falling into the same stupid narrative, about imaginary backlash against Muslim soldiers, of which there is no evidence. I suspect this has to do with the college kids influenced by their sixtiesish professors and leaders picturing soldiers as rednecks. The sad fact is there are numerous recent instances of Muslims shooting up soldiers, even fellow soldiers, and no backlash to date. And this is because people are not so stupid as to think it is ALL Muslims; they know the difference between a Hasan and the many fellow Muslim soldiers who have served loyally with them (and there is sorry evidence that this difference was known before the shooting). Perhaps it is more a problem of the media folk and the higher authorities unable to make the same distinction so easily, and projecting their own sorry problems on more sensible people.
After all, they have such a benign government. Beloved, after all, of the political philosopher Sean Penn, and also by our great Pierre Elliot Trudeau in his time. Yoani Sanchez and blogging colleagues in Cuba are beaten and threatened. Why am I not surprised? Thugs, after all, behave thuggishly.
How am I going to tell him that we live in a country where this can happen, how will I look at him and tell him that his mother, for writing a blog and putting her opinions in kilobytes, has been beaten up on a public street. How to describe the despotic faces of those who forced us into that car, their enjoyment that I could see as they beat us, their lifting my skirt as they dragged me half naked to the car.
I managed to see, however, the degree of fright of our assailants, the fear of the new, of what they cannot destroy because they don’t understand, the blustering terror of he who knows that his days are numbered.
