Saturday, May 02, 2009

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Cold, Cold Health Care

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation


Cartoon predicted the future: YouTube
Scalia schools his critics: Surber
Obama's Supreme Choice: Gird Your Loins: Malkin
Obama wants court pick to have 'empathy': Times
Andrew McCarthy declines Obama's invitation: NRI
Ethics probe demanded by bi-partisan groups: Times
Whittling Stewart down to the studio: PJM (Whittle)
Ad o' the day: Black & Right
Graphing the Supreme Court: TigerHawk

World


Capture AQ leader had ties to Saddam: GP
Mookie Al'Sadr is back: GP
How Obama's America Might Threaten Israel: Podhoretz
The Morality of War and the Anti-War Movement: Sultan
On being a gun nut: Hitchens

Health Care


Schakowsky (D-IL) admits ObamaCare will destroy private health care industry: Breitbart
President of the Banana Republic: Wizbang
Cold, Cold Health Care: AT (Peracchio)

Economy


Dow below 1,000: Seriously?: Elliott Wave
Cap and Trade a ‘Declaration of War': CNS
UAW at Chrysler will still strike against itself: Greenroom (Patrick)
Maybe Stephon Marbury Could Teach Michelle Obama Something: Maguire

Livin' the Dream


And now for a Fashion Intelligence Test...: Fausta
Susan Boyle: The Way She Was: Prairie
Amazing Eyes: Izismile

Friday, May 01, 2009

Pinch Sulzberger: between a rock and bankruptcy


The Post (the real Post, that is) has up-to-the-minute data on The New Bankrupt Times. Its owner:

Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger faces the uncomfortable task of having to shut down the Boston Globe today if holdout employees refuse to fork over $20 million in savings to his family...

If the Sulzberger family carries out its threatened shutdown by today's deadline, it would be an admission that they wasted $1.1 billion in buying the paper in the first place.

But if they back down, it would show a weakness of will that Wall Street investors who hold big stakes -- particularly hard-nosed billionaire Carlos Slim -- might turn against the family to wrest away its control of the enterprise.

...The Globe was on track to lose $85 million this year unless changes are made, The Times said. That follows losses of $50 million last year.

The Times itself is struggling against a $1.1 billion debt load, which coincidentally is what the Times paid for the Globe's assets in 1993, then a record price. The Globe was profitable for more than a decade before it hit bottom last year.

And how did Sulzberger get his black eye? Your guess is as good as mine, but I personally suspect a shareholder.


Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards vs. a Bestseller


A new book by Elizabeth Edwards -- wife of disgraced putz John Edwards -- currently has 488 mentions in the media, according to Google News.

While a new book by Mark Levin, which has sold over a million copies in five weeks -- and has dominated the New York Times bestseller list with successive #1 rankings -- can't get the attention of a single major media outlet.

There's a reason for the disparity.

Levin's book lays out the history of the Republic, from men who inspired the Framers -- like Cicero and John Locke -- to the turmoil of the founding itself. His argument advocates defending the Constitution against Statism; that is, the central planners who relentlessly press forward with visions of an unattainable Utopia.

Buy it now. Along with about ten copies for any drones you know.


AP's chief whining about Google instead of innovating


AP CEO Tom Curley doesn't grok the web. That much is apparent from his threat to stop feeding Google its news articles. Curley's threat was plain: should both parties not arrive at a deal soon, "They [Google] will not get our copy going forward."

The AP is a cooperative news-gathering and reporting organization, founded 163 years ago by a consortium of publishers. The Internet has obviously compressed its traditional business lines and it only grudgingly has accepted Google's role as the chief navigator of the web.

And rather than transforming his organization through innovative ideas, it seems to me that Curley seeks to stop time or, perhaps, even reverse it. Off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen projects that the AP could explore to adapt to the era of social media:

• Crowd-sourcing articles, photos and video clips to improve quantity

• Crowd-editing articles and videos to improve quality

• Marshaling top bloggers as paid contributors (reporters, op-ed authors, etc.) at a fraction of the cost of the Dowds and Cohens -- with higher quality to boot

• Leveraging real-time news feeds like Twitter to report on noteworthy trends, news, places and people of interest

Curley: Improvise, adapt, overcome. Quit whining about Google and create your own platform that complements it or competes with it. Anything less consigns your troubled company to the dustbin of history.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: India in peril

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation


Ninth Circuit's Second Amendment Ruling: Crickets: Volokh
Waterboarding is 'torture': Gateway
Who launched the flyover?: Spectator
Quotes o' the day: Surber
Air Force One attacks Wall Street: Cube

Politics


Specter May Hurt Dems on Souter Replacement: LegalIns
All of this has happened before: NRO
GOP donors demand cash back from Specter: RedState
The Righteous Brothers: AmerDig
Nation Magazine still spreading Pandemic (fables): LegalIns
Polling in California reveals trouble is brewing: Hewitt
Interrogation blame spread to Congress: Times

World


India in peril: Obama making it worse: Spectator (UK)
The unbearable lightness of wishful thinking: Rubin
Blueprint for Survival: Winter Soldier
Family of slain man leaves Paris trial: AP
Busily appeasing Jihadists: Human Events

Economy


If bankruptcy is success, what is failure?: MoneyRunner
Global warming skeptic takes center stage: PJM (Poole)
The missing sunspots: Is this the big chill?: Independent (UK)

Media


Shales soils himself: P&P
Top Five Western Themes: Big Hollywood

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Obama: Euthanasia of the elderly may be necessary


Gee, socialized medicine sounds great -- don't you think so, grandma and grandpa?

THE PRESIDENT: ...I actually think that the tougher issue around medical care — it’s a related one — is what you do around things like end-of-life care —

Yes, where it’s $20,000 for an extra week of life.

THE PRESIDENT: Exactly. And I just recently went through this. I mean, I’ve told this story, maybe not publicly, but when my grandmother got very ill during the campaign, she got cancer; it was determined to be terminal. And about two or three weeks after her diagnosis she fell, broke her hip. It was determined that she might have had a mild stroke, which is what had precipitated the fall.

So now she’s in the hospital, and the doctor says, Look, you’ve got about — maybe you have three months, maybe you have six months, maybe you have nine months to live. Because of the weakness of your heart, if you have an operation on your hip there are certain risks that — you know, your heart can’t take it. On the other hand, if you just sit there with your hip like this, you’re just going to waste away and your quality of life will be terrible.

And she elected to get the hip replacement and was fine for about two weeks after the hip replacement, and then suddenly just — you know, things fell apart.

I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. If somebody told me that my grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of her life — that would be pretty upsetting.

And it’s going to be hard for people who don’t have the option of paying for it.

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?

I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: ...you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

In other words, faceless bureaucrats in Washington -- not your family -- will decide whether your grandparents live or die.

While our health care system is certainly imperfect -- because all humans are imperfect, including doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies -- they are more perfect, more competent, more informed, more capable than all of the bureaucrats to whom they'll be forced to report: a bureaucracy that will make all decisions about your health care.

Obama and the Statist Democrats promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it.

And we know this, because this is what occurs in Canada and Britain and other centralized bureaucracies, where you simply can not have access to advanced health care, period.

And where will Barack Obama be in ten years, when the rest of us are struggling with a massive, out-of-control, federalized medical system that doesn't give a damn about individuals and is busy rationing care, denying care to the elderly?

He will be retired as a very young man; a very wealthy young man, who will have imposed his Marxist ideology upon this society and then walked away from it.

Because the politicians don't last. But their policies live forever.

So much power for a faceless set of bureaucrats who can't possibly have the best interests of your family in mind. And yet they're going to take those decisions away from you and your doctor. And they've been lying every day to justify what they're doing.

They've been lying about the number of people without health care. They've been lying about whether the public is satisfied with health care. They've been lying about every aspect of health care.

They unleashed the slip-and-fall lawyers on the medical system, causing untold higher costs for medical practitioners. They've attacked the health care system relentlessly, driving up costs just like they've attacked the energy industry and the automakers.

And even when they have complete monopolistic control of a system, like the educational system in America, they want more control. It's never enough. They want more money, more regulations. More. They need to "invest". They need to raise taxes. They need to repress. They need to compel.

Because the Statist cannot make the imperfect perfect, even though he says he can. The Statist is more imperfect than anyone else.

I ask you to consider something: what kind of people can Obama and the Democrat leadership be, to think they can do these things when history tells them they can not?

The answer is simple. They are power-hungry Statists.


Hat tips: The New Bankrupt Times and SavannahWinslow.

What's the weather in Shanghai?


AutoSpies has the key shots from the Shanghai Auto Show. But what caught my eye was an overhead shot of the smog downtown.

Consider: Obama and the no-growth, eco-Statist Democrats are willing to cap-and-trade American taxpayers into economic oblivion. But China -- with 16 of the 20 most polluted cities on the planet -- and India are both off the hook.

That's economic suicide, of course, but not unexpected for the Party of Change.

Ack!


Score that on Hot or Not


Via: New York Daily News.

Joe Biden's Pandemic Threat Level Advisory is now Magenta




Hat tip: Allahpundit. Linked by: Fausta. Thanks!

Cracked: 'If everything was made by Microsoft'


Cracked Magazine outsourced humor production to its readers...

The magazine honored 18 of the best reader submissions. The top submitter collected a grand prize of well over $25.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "What has enchanted you?"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Nation


Greeting Obama: Gateway
Priceless: Fausta
100 days, 100 mistakes: Obama
Ich Bin Ein Beginner: Malkin
100 days, almost as many broken promises: NRO
Relax, the Democrats will screw up: LegalIns
Hasta: Crittenden
100 days of double talk: Aces
Dems unhappy with Reid’s deal to get Specter: Morrissey
Tea Party Coalition Accepts Obama's Invitation: PJTV
Joyous event of 100 days celebrated by cheering workers: Crittenden

World


While Obama slept: Greenroom (Coldwarrior)
He is even greater than we realize: JOM
Nothing new under the sun: PJM (Hanson)
Norks celebrate 100 days of change: JWF
Obama: president of just another country: PJM (Pope)

Health Care


Electronic Medical Records... no Panacea: P&P
Barack the Rationer: Greenroom (Kid)
Swine Flue and Predictive Markets: CatallaxyFiles
The Amazing Wii Fit: YouTube

Economy


Obama disowns deficit he helped shape: AP
UK Court: Environmentalism is a religion: STACLU
Squeezing all the cash out of inventory: TigerHawk
The True Cause of the Housing Crisis: Politico

Media


The Road From Laughingstock to Bankruptcy: Hot Air
Blowhard Alan Colmes Calls Me A Blowhard: LegalIns
Live-blogging the Obama presser: Rick
Waterboarding for Charity: Surber

Quote of the Day

"You can do business with Iran's $250 billion economy or our $13 trillion economy, but not both." --U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), lead sponsor of legislation that would sanction companies that provide gasoline or other petroleum products to Iran.

Grandma's birth control


Sue sent this one in.

The doctor that had been seeing an 80-year-old woman for most of her life, finally retired.

At her next checkup, the new doctor told her to bring alist of all the medicines that had been prescribed for her.As the young doctor was looking through these, his eyes grew wide as he realized she had a prescription for birth control pills.

"Mrs. Stone, do you realize these are birth control pills?"

"Yes, they help me sleep at night."

"Mrs. Stone, I assure you there is absolutely nothing in these that could possibly help you sleep!"

She reached out and patted the young Doctor's knee.

"Yes, dear, I know that. But every morning, I grind one up and mix it in the glass of orange juice that my 16-year-old- granddaughter drinks. And, believe me, it helps me sleep at night."

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The current BHO phase of infatuation pandemic is 4





Democrats Chilling U.S. Counterterror Efforts


Stratfor's Fred Burton and Scott Stewart:

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been carefully watching the fallout from the Obama administration’s decision to release four classified memos from former President George W. Bush’s administration that authorized “enhanced interrogation techniques.” In a visit to CIA headquarters last week, President Barack Obama promised not to prosecute agency personnel who carried out such interrogations, since they were following lawful orders. Critics of the techniques, such as Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., have called for the formation of a “truth commission” to investigate the matter, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to launch a criminal inquiry into the matter.

Realistically, those most likely to face investigation and prosecution are those who wrote the memos, rather than the low-level field personnel who acted in good faith based upon the guidance the memos provided. Despite this fact and Obama’s reassurances, our contacts in the intelligence community report that the release of the memos has had a discernible “chilling effect” on those in the clandestine service who work on counterterrorism issues...

...Politics and moral arguments aside, the end effect of the memos’ release is that people who have put their lives on the line in U.S. counterterrorism efforts are now uncertain of whether they should be making that sacrifice. Many of these people are now questioning whether the administration that happens to be in power at any given time will recognize the fact that they were carrying out lawful orders under a previous administration. It is hard to retain officers and attract quality recruits in this kind of environment. It has become safer to work in programs other than counterterrorism...

...when the release of the memos is examined in a wider context, and combined with a few other dynamics, it appears that the U.S. counterterrorism community is quietly slipping back into an atmosphere of risk-aversion and malaise — an atmosphere not dissimilar to that described by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission) as a contributing factor to the intelligence failures that led to the 9/11 attacks...

...Services like the Jordanian General Intelligence Department, the Saudi Mabahith or the Yemeni National Security Agency not only can recruit sources, but also are far more successful in using young Muslim officers to penetrate terrorist groups. In addition to their source networks and penetration operations, many of these liaison services are not at all squeamish about using extremely enhanced interrogation techniques — this is the reason many of the terrorism suspects who were the subject of rendition operations ended up in such locations. Obviously, whenever the CIA is dealing with a liaison service, the political interests and objectives of the service must be considered — as should the possibility that the liaison service is fabricating the intelligence in question for whatever reason. Still, in the end, the CIA historically has received a significant amount of important intelligence (perhaps even most of its intelligence) via liaison channels...

...Another concern that arises from the call for a truth commission is the impact a commission investigation could have on the liaison services that have helped the United States in its counterterrorism efforts since 9/11. Countries that hosted CIA detention facilities or were involved in the rendition or interrogation of terrorist suspects may find themselves exposed publicly or even held up for some sort of sanction by the U.S. Congress. Such activities could have a real impact on the amount of cooperation and information the CIA receives from these intelligence services...

...As we’ve previously noted, it was a lack of intelligence that helped fuel the fear that led the Bush administration to authorize enhanced interrogation techniques. Ironically, the current investigation into those techniques and other practices (such as renditions) may very well lead to significant gaps in terrorism-related intelligence from both internal and liaison sources — again, not primarily because of the prohibition of torture, but because of larger implications...

Perhaps that's why they call him Borat Obama.


You little bastard





Thieved from: Primordial Slack, who ripped it from Curmudgeonly + Skeptical.

The Secret Garden (and Mansion) of Christopher Dodd


In 1993, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) appeared in federal court to testify on behalf of his long-time friend and business associate Edward Downe, Jr.   Downe, convicted of violating tax and securities laws, reportedly received reduced penalties because of Dodd's appearance in court.

Shortly thereafter, Dodd obtained a one-third interest in a large tract of property and a mansion in the luxurious seaside neighborhood of Roundstone, in County Galway, Ireland. The remainder of the property was held by Downe's close friend, William Kessinger.

The entire purchase price of the property in1994 was $160,000, so the value of Dodd's share at that time was roughly $53,000. The tract -- on about ten acres of land in a prime neighborhood -- included a newly renovated mansion.

According to The Hartford Courant, the records in the private Irish land registry show that Downe actually witnessed the transaction for his friends Dodd and Kessinger.

In 1998, Dodd petitioned the Galway County Council to subdivide his lot and develop an additional home, presumably for a tidy resale. Tellingly, the application's signature block lists only Dodd as the owner. The request was denied, in part, because the land is considered highly scenic and desirable.

In 2001, "avoiding normal pardon vetting procedures", Dodd helped secure a full presidential pardon for Downe on President Clinton's very last day in office.

In 2002, Dodd purchased the remaining two-thirds stake in the Irish mansion and property tract for an amazingly low price: $122,351.

Since that time, in every Senate Financial Disclosure Report that Dodd filed, he reported the value of the real estate at between $100K and $250K. This appears to be a flat-out fabrication.

A report by the Telegraph (U.K.) puts the value of the property at between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000.

And in 2002, the property was estimated to have been worth around $500,000. But Dodd bought his remaining two-thirds share for a quarter of that price: $122K.

Judicial Watch puts the transaction succinctly: "Disguising this gift would provide a motive for Senator Dodd to fail to report the property's true value on his [disclosure] since 2002."

"By all appearances, ...Dodd used his position and influence... to intervene of behalf of his friend and convicted felon, Edward Downe Jr., and in received in turn a significant discount in the purchase of property in 2002."

"Further, it appears... Dodd failed to report this gift on his annual [disclosure], as required by law, and may have falsified his reports in the years following the full acquisition..."

"Certain details concerning Dodd's co-ownership of a Washington, DC condominium with Edward Downe Jr. in the 1980s are just now surfacing. In light of the potential improprieties of Dodd's Irish land purchase, we believe [his] disclosure reports filed... during that time period may also be worth examining."

"As chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Senator Christopher Dodd has a lead role in the oversight of the banking and finance industries involving trillions of dollars... Judicial Watch requests a full investigation of Senator Dodd's financial disclosure filings..."

Given the ongoing ethical "challenges" encountered by Democrats Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Charley Rangel, Allan Mollohan, John Murtha, Diane Feinstein, and Harry Reid (to name but a few), I won't hold my breath.

* * * * * * * * *

Epilogue: Just days ago, it was reported that Christopher Dodd raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from financial services companies like Citi, Fidelity, Vanguard, and the like. Since some of these firms accepted TARP funds, it may be fair to say that when Dodd voted for TARP, he was voting to put money in his own pockets.

Somehow, that seems fitting.

Based upon:

Judicial Watch Files Senate Ethics Complaint against Senator Christopher Dodd: Judicial Watch


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Survival Optional

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

National Security


Survival Optional: Sowell
George Soros has a mole in the Pentagon: IBD
Our Sword and Our Shield: Dr. Sanity
Close the missile defense gap now: PJM (Greenfield)
Obama Declines Iran Offer of al-Qaida Members: Max
Lost boys of Minneapolis on no fly list: Lord
'Torture': 9 Questions the Left Must Answer: Prager
Meet the neighbors: terrorists from Gitmo: PJM (Rusin)

Economy


UAW to control Chrysler: AT (Nadler)
Letting Lehman Fail: Dinocrat
North Pole: ice 100% thicker than expected: RefFrame
An eBay for Jobs?: Edgelings
Warming Skeptic Banned from Gore Hearing: Depot
Kitco recants: Langbert

Politics


Barack's in the basement: Times
Flyover was 'Felony Stupidity': Corner
Specter's leap a victory for conservatives: PJM (Moran)
Democrats go on Bachmann Watch: Politico
GOP's hopes bloom outside DC: WSJ
Dems urge torture probe: Breitbart

World


Obama silent on real torture in UAE: STACLU
Israel's Arab cheerleaders: Glick
A trace of memory: PJM (Fernandez)
Around the Middle East: PJTV

Media


Evening newscasts have covered Obama more than Bush, Clinton combined: MediaBistro
Total Domination: FNC Beats CNN and MSNBC Combined For Entire Month of April: MediaBistro
Junior Mayoral Aid Reprimanded For Air Force One Photo-op: STACLU

Academia


UCSB Professor attacks 'Nazi' students: Mere Rhetoric
Terrorists On Tour: Bill Ayers And Mark Rudd Speak: Kincaid

SciTech


1:10 scale Saturn V launch: Steve Eves
Understanding Swine Flu: WSJ

Heh


Obama: swine flu started on Bush's ranch: Idle Worship
Somali Pirate Hat: Denny

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Finally: a realistic home security ad!


  *Creak!*

  Did you hear that?

  It's our first night in the new house... do you want me to check?

  Are you f*****g kidding me? Hell yes, I want you to check, you lazy SOB!

  What the...?

  KA-BLAM!! KA-BLAM!! ............ *** Thump! ***

  Problem solved, babe!

  Nice double-tap, dear! I'm so happy we invested in a Glockk Home Security System™!


'Any reasonable scientific analysis' must conclude AGW bogus


Climate Depot reports that more scientists are disclaiming Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming:

Dr. Leonard Weinstein worked 35 years at the NASA Langley Research Center, finishing his career there as a Senior Research Scientist. Dr. Weinstein is presently a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace.

..."The final question that arises is what prediction has the AGW made that has been demonstrated, and that strongly supports the theory. It appears that there is NO real supporting evidence and much disagreeing evidence for the AGW theory as proposed. That is not to say there is no effect from Human activity. Clearly human pollution (not greenhouse gases) is a problem. There is also almost surely some contribution to the present temperature from the increase in CO2 and CH4, but it seems to be small and not a driver of future climate..."

"Preparing for the possibility of an impending ice age along with the possible consequences of a reduction in Earth's magnetic field are real concerns. Concern with relatively small effects of possible anthropogenic caused global warming is a misplaced distraction, and will probably lead to the public losing confidence in scientists, and could weaken the support needed when real problems occur..."

"Decreasing availability of oil and anthropogenic pollution (not greenhouse gasses) are real issues. Acid rain, smog, and dirty water sources do need to be fixed. The problems associated with high fuel prices, and dependence on sources of energy from possibly less than friendly foreign countries are critical. While we can't solve the problems with a single magic bullet, more nuclear power plants, along with wind and Solar power, could fill much of the gap. There are solutions, but first we have to identify the correct problems..."

Al Gore's methane could not be reached for comment.


Photo Op


Will it take a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get the flight manifest?

Who was on that plane?