While nothing fascinating has been going on here at The Manse, there appears to be plenty going on elsewhere in the world. Let's take a look, shall we?
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I have to start with this bit of 'wisdom' from that fount of Leftist philosphy, wit, and revisionist history, Noam Chomsky. Only in his twisted mind can the support of Israel by American conservative Christians mean that they want the Jews to be exterminated.To borrow a phrase from many of my schoolboy friends, “What a putz!”
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Although Instapundit linked this a couple of days ago, I had to do so here along with my own brief comments.Big Brother has decided to apply CAFE standards to big rigs (meaning tractor trailers) as if they were just like cars and light trucks. The only problem? Big rigs are nothing like cars and light trucks. The proposed standard as stated my be totally meaningless.
While cars and light trucks can have standards set as straightforward Miles Per Gallon, how does one rate the big rigs? After all, the big rigs haul cargo and the amount of weight they haul can change from trip to trip. Should it be stated as how many tons of weight can be moved a mile using a gallon of fuel, or some other measure? Do they base it on total vehicular weight, with the weight of the tractor and fully loaded trailer being factored in? Or is it by the weight of the tractor alone?
One of the arguments brought up in the comments is that the freight hauling companies, large and small, are always looking for ways to reduce the amount of fuel used to run their trucks. After all, fuel is probably their biggest expenditure and any way they can reduce fuel consumption reduces their costs (and ours). Big rigs have a different use and they can be made only so light before they can no longer do their jobs (meaning they can't haul as much cargo and more trucks will be needed to haul the same amount of cargo) or the maintenance costs start skyrocketing because they aren't as durable.
Even if a manufacturer can figure out a way drastically reduce fuel consumption, will the costs for the new more fuel-efficient tractors price them right out of the market? Who will spend $500,000 for such a tractor when it will be cheaper to buy and maintain a $100,000 tractor and pay for the extra fuel it will use?
No one.
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Ann Althouse was attacked by a protester in Madison, Wisconsin. Fortunately the attack was caught by two different cameras, including Ann's.As one commenter put it, “The left loves political violence when they’re the ones committing it.” Yeah, I've noticed that. And yet they'll complain when someone they've attacked has the audacity to defend themselves.
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Ann's experiences also make this more illustrative of the problems of the Leftists, where the Democrats spent tens of millions of dollars on the first round of recall elections in Wisconsin and got nothing in return.Sure, they picked up two state senate seats, but that wasn't enough to give them a majority. With a second recall election coming up, this time for the so-called “Fleebagger” Democrat senators who, rather than staying to vote on Governor Walker's budget reform bill, fled the state to deny the Senate a quorum, they could easily lose the two seats they gained, and more.
On the national level things like Obamacare handed the US House to the Republicans.
All in all, it looks like the Leftists are running out of places to push their agenda of envy and class warfare.
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Glenn Reynolds links to a Jerry Pournelle post about how Republicans can be the ones to fix the problems created in Washington, and adds a couple ideas of his own, including repealing Sarbanes-Oxley.But what's interesting are some of the e-mail Glenn received about the out-migration from California, and the problems that might come to Texas and Nevada because of it. As one reader e-mailed:
We saw a similar problem here in New Hampshire when Massachusetts tax-exiles started moving here back in the 80's and 90's. They thought the low taxes (no state income or sales tax) were great, but they disliked the lack of services they were used to seeing back in Massachusetts. When they managed to get some of those services in their new home towns, they then complained their property taxes went up. They couldn't seem to make the connection between services provided and the cost of providing them. It was then that many of those same people started calling for a statewide income or sales tax to pay for it all, recreating exactly the same conditions from which they'd fled. Fortunately for the rest of us they were ignored and eventually they accepted (for the most part) the fact that if they wanted those services, then they would have to pay for them themselves.
I moved to Nevada 23 years ago, not from California, and we’ve seen a massive influx of former Golden State residents during that time. Californians are infamous for exporting their problems with them.
Far too many California refugees make no connection between the conditions that caused them to leave and the policies that created those conditions. They complain about the high cost of living in their former state then demand the same level of regulatory controls, government “services” and tax burden in their new home.
Nevada has gone from a relative bastion of libertarianism to a state with an increasingly stifling regulatory morass, a glacial bureaucracy and an ever-intrusive nanny state.
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Dan Riehl believes Sarah Palin should run for president.I like Sarah Palin. I really do. But I wasn't sure she should throw her hat into the ring. After reading Dan's piece, I've changed my mind. In fact, I think a Palin-Bachmann or Bachmann-Palin ticket might be unbeatable, particularly if President Planless continues along being a leader incapable of doing anything more than holding pressers and blaming everybody but himself for his failures.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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David Starr has a simple explanation of what the Tea Party is for those out there who still think we're a bunch of right wing bible-thumping terrorists.Now if we can only get John Kerry to read and understand the US Constitution, particularly the First Amendment.