Laws Are for Little People - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Laws Are for Little People - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "Anything involving guns is even less amenable to “obviousness.” A few years ago, Daniel Brown was detained at LAX while connecting to a Minneapolis flight because traces of gunpowder were found on his footwear. His footwear was combat boots. As the name suggests, the combat boots were returning from combat — eight months of it, in Iraq’s bloody and violent al-Anbar province. Above the boots he was wearing the uniform of a staff sergeant in the USMC Reserve Military Police and was accompanied by all 26 members of his unit, also in uniform. Staff Sergeant Brown doesn’t sound like an “obvious” terrorist. But the TSA put him on the no-fly list anyway. If it’s not “obvious” to the government that a serving member of the military has any legitimate reason for being around ammunition, why should it be “obvious” that a TV host has?"

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Laws Are for Little People - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Laws Are for Little People - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: " Not far away from David Gregory, across the Virginia border, eleven-year-old Skylar Capo made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days. For her pains, a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter accompanied by state troopers descended on her house, charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species, issued her a $535 fine, and made her cry. Why is it so “obvious” that David Gregory deserves to be treated more leniently than a sixth grader? Because he’s got a TV show and she hasn’t?"

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John Lott's Website

John Lott's Website: "This is from John Fund's op-ed piece in the Hartford Courant:
•Mass shootings are no more common than they have been in past decades, despite the impression given by the media.
•In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
•Incidents of mass murder in the U.S. declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of this century.

•The chances of being killed in a mass shooting are about what they are for being struck by lightning.
•Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "I just read the e-book by Jonathan Martin and Glenn Thrush about the end of the presidential election campaign. As someone who hasn’t fully recovered from the loss, I was appreciative of these two facts included:

1. After the 47-percent video aired: “Romney knew it was a disaster. He felt so bad about his remarks that he sent an email to some of his senior aides taking responsibility for the damage he had caused and apologizing.”

2. After Chris Christie appeared with the president after Sandy Romney said to advisers, according to aide recollections cited in the book: Guys, he’s the governor of the state — he’s got to do what’s best for his state.”

It’s not a strategy point or breaking news, but: He’s a good man, that Mitt Romney. And I’ll always be grateful for good men who are still willing to bother with politics. "

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Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge — Page 2

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge — Page 2: "My conclusion: Nate Silver is a man who deeply believes in experts, even when the evidence is not good that they have aligned incentives with the public.

Distrust the experts

Call me “asinine,” but I have less faith in the experts than Nate Silver: I don’t want to trust the very people who got us into this mess, while benefitting from it, to also be in charge of cleaning it up. And, being part of the Occupy movement, I obviously think that this is the time for mass movements."

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The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "Once upon a time, TV viewers from distant states descending on a Connecticut town to attend multiple funerals of children they don’t know might have struck some of us as, at best, unseemly and, at worst, deeply creepy — a Feast of the Holy Innocents, so to speak."

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The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: " For a parent to bury a child offends against the natural order — at least in an age that has conquered childhood mortality. For a parent to bury a child at Christmas taints the day forever, and mocks its meaning."

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The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Massacre of the Innocents - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "‘Lullay, Thou little tiny Child, by by, lully, lullay . . . ”

The 16th-century Coventry Carol, a mother’s lament for her lost son, is the only song of the season about the other children of Christmas — the first-born of Bethlehem, slaughtered on Herod’s orders after the Magi brought him the not-so-glad tidings that an infant of that city would grow up to be King of the Jews. As Matthew tells it, even in a story of miraculous birth, in the midst of life is death. "

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Did anyone else catch this comment from Obama’s presser the other day?

It is a deal that can get done. But it is not going to be — it cannot be done if every side wants 100 percent.  And part of what voters were looking for is some compromise up here.  That’s what folks want.  They understand that they’re not going to get 100 percent of what they want.  And for some reason, that message has not yet taken up on Capitol Hill.  And when you think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple of months — a devastating hurricane, and now one of the worst tragedies in our memory — the country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good, and not tangle themselves up in a whole bunch of ideological positions that don’t make much sense."

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Translation: "After Sandy Hook, Republicans need to stop being so small minded and give in on raising taxes." Disgusting.

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "If decent economics textbooks teach their students that “cutting government spending causes the economy’s overall output to fall, tax revenues to decrease, and spending on benefits to increase,” and “the end result is slower growth (or a recession) and high budget deficits” then we should be using the indecent ones. Because there’s no conclusive evidence or natural experiment to support that view."

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Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "hich brings me to John Cassidy’s recent New Yorker piece, It’s Official: Austerity Economics Doesn’t Work. HT: JoshDoody) It’s been recommended by 17K people on Facebook. Over 2000 people have tweeted on it. The New Yorker is a fine magazine. I’m sure those 19,000 people and the other thousands who found the article believe that if something is in the New Yorker, it is probably true, especially if it confirms your other views. They will join the millions of people who know that reducing government spending is a bad idea when you’re running large deficits.

But just in case some of those people find their way here, I thought it might be worthwhile to examine Cassidy’s analysis. Is it official? Is austerity economics a failure?"

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Amitai Etzioni: Gun-Free Homes and Communities

Amitai Etzioni: Gun-Free Homes and Communities: "We should not wait for our elected officials, in President Obama's good words, "to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." We should do our share. One way to proceed is to mark our homes, apartments and condos, with a "gun free" sign. Parents should notify their friends that they would be reluctant to send their child over for a play date unless the home was safe from guns. Residential communities should pass rules that ban bringing guns onto their premises, clearly marking them as gun free.

Anyone who puts up such signs will become an ambassador for gun control, because they are sure to be challenged by gun advocates to explain their anti-gun positions. Here are some pointers they may wish to use against the typical pro-gun talking points."

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Funny how This is the exact argument John Lott uses against gun control.

Pale Amitai

Pale Amitai: "This short piece by Amitai Etzioni captures the difference between economists and non-economists. He says that rather than wait for gun control laws, we should just ban them in our own homes and post signs outside announcing that our homes are gun-free thereby becoming “ambassadors for gun control.”

I am reminded of the Hillaire Belloc poem:

Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight.
But Roaring Bill who killed him thought it right."

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Piers Morgan's Argument for Gun Control: 'You're an Unbelievably Stupid Man, Aren't You?' - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Piers Morgan's Argument for Gun Control: 'You're an Unbelievably Stupid Man, Aren't You?' - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "You are talking complete and utter nonsense....

What you just said, Mr. Pratt, was an absolute lie....

You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?...

What a ridiculous argument. You have absolutely no coherent argument whatsoever. You don’t give a damn, do you, about the gun murder rate in America. You don’t actually care....

It’s complete nonsense....

I know why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days. It’s down to idiots like you....

You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense, and you shame your country."

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Scandal Alert: Congress Is Quietly Abandoning the 5th Amendment - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

Scandal Alert: Congress Is Quietly Abandoning the 5th Amendment - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic: "What everyone must understand is that American politics doesn't work the way you'd think it would. Most people presume that government officials would never willfully withhold penicillin from men with syphilis just to see what would happen if the disease went untreated. It seems unlikely that officers would coerce enlisted men into exposing themselves to debilitating nerve gas. Few expected that President Obama would preside over the persecution of an NSA whistle-blower, or presume the guilt of all military-aged males killed by U.S. drone strikes. But it all happened.
"

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The New York Times Spills the Beans on the Casey Greenfield / Jeffrey Toobin Affair « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts

The New York Times Spills the Beans on the Casey Greenfield / Jeffrey Toobin Affair « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts: "When Ms. Greenfield first informed him of her pregnancy, she said, Mr. Toobin questioned the paternity, balked at submitting to a test and vowed to take no responsibility for a baby he wasn’t sure was his. Both hired lawyers. Inevitably, the tabloids and gossip sites took notice of the scandal, dropping increasingly detailed hints about the behind-the-scenes drama."

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A Behind-the-Scenes Glimpse of the Iran-Contra Case - Los Angeles Times

A Behind-the-Scenes Glimpse of the Iran-Contra Case - Los Angeles Times: "More important, there are hard personal feelings between Walsh and his former employee. The chief prosecutor has declined to be interviewed, citing pending Iran-Contra cases. But a spokesman for the independent counsel says Walsh feels betrayed and is particularly irked that Toobin announced his decision to write a book only after resigning his staff position in May, 1989."

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Time For Gun Owners To Be Good Sports About Gun Restrictions : NPR

Time For Gun Owners To Be Good Sports About Gun Restrictions : NPR: "I've never had any interest in hunting. Among other things, I'm a terrible shot, but I have friends who hunt, and it appears to me to be a perfectly reasonable sports hobby — certainly every bit as honorable as fantasy football. Moreover, shooting a deer or a duck with a bullet seems to me no more inhuman than catching a trout or a marlin with a hook."

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Althouse

Althouse: "Straightforward, almost boring health care policy story about a government taking sensible, cost-effective measures to curb a public health problem. But the story isn't really about health care policy — the underlying narrative here is that the French are yet again making American politicians look like a bunch of out of touch prudes....

Needless to say, the measure sailed through the French legislature without any kind of political battle..."

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That's one view of government.

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com: "Because in my non-expert opinion, you don't hate yourself because you have low self-esteem, or because other people were mean to you. You hate yourself because you don't do anything. Not even you can just "love you for you" -- that's why you're miserable and sending me private messages asking me what I think you should do with your life."

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6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person | Cracked.com: ""But I'm a great listener!" Are you? Because you're willing to sit quietly in exchange for the chance to be in the proximity of a pretty girl (and spend every second imagining how soft her skin must be)? Well guess what, there's another guy in her life who also knows how to do that, and he can play the guitar. Saying that you're a nice guy is like a restaurant whose only selling point is that the food doesn't make you sick. You're like a new movie whose title is This Movie Is in English, and its tagline is "The actors are clearly visible.""

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Unusual Agreement Means Settlement May Be Near in 'Lott v. Levitt' - News - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Unusual Agreement Means Settlement May Be Near in 'Lott v. Levitt' - News - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "The letter of clarification, which was included in today’s filing, offers a doozy of a concession. In his 2005 message, Mr. Levitt told Mr. McCall that “it was not a peer-refereed edition of the Journal.” But in his letter of clarification, Mr. Levitt writes: “I acknowledge that the articles that were published in the conference issue were reviewed by referees engaged by the editors of the JLE. In fact, I was one of the peer referees.”"

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Austin Noodle House Owner in Hot Water Over Racially Charged Comments About Sandy Hook Shooting

Austin Noodle House Owner in Hot Water Over Racially Charged Comments About Sandy Hook Shooting: ""I don't care if a bunch of white kids got killed," the Thailand-born Eddie Nimibutr wrote in the update he posted on Friday, shortly after the incident took place. "Fuck Post-Racial bullshit. When kids from minority groups get shot, nobody cares. When Israel launched missiles at the school on Gaza, everybody was too busy jerking off. Why should i care about people who dont give a damn about me?""

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The Volokh Conspiracy » Robert Bork Remembered

The Volokh Conspiracy » Robert Bork Remembered: "As John just noted, author Robert Bork, a former-Yale law professor, who also served as Solicitor General of the United States and a as a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, died today at the age of 84.  He had been in ill-health for some time.  Bork flirted with libertarianism before becoming perhaps the leading advocate of judicial conservatism. Among his lasting achievements was the support he gave to some Yale law students seeking to found an organization called the Federalist Society."

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I definitely see some aspects of constitutional law differently from how he did. Still, Bork is probably the public intellectual most responsible for my interest in the constitution and my eventual career path. Rest in peace.

Time Magazine Names Mitt Romney Man of the Year 1912 : The New Yorker

Time Magazine Names Mitt Romney Man of the Year 1912 : The New Yorker: "In a press release explaining its decision, Time’s editorial board wrote, “Even though his quest for the Presidency was unsuccessful, Mr. Romney’s ideas about foreign policy, taxation, wealth inequality, and women’s rights typified the year 1912 as no one else has.”"

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You stay classy, New Yorker! I guess this is what qualifies as high-brow satire.

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Why should excellent schools incubate mass murderers? Because the more exalted the reputation of a school, the worse it is for a student who feels trapped in such a school. Trapped? Yes, students in excellent schools are learning what they need to know to get in to selective colleges and, ultimately, to land well-paid jobs in our information-oriented society. But still they can feel miserable for what adults may consider trivial reasons. . . .

A more practical approach to preventing some mass murders at school would be to give children who are miserable at school for whatever reason more options. For those old enough to drop out and go to work, make it legitimate to stop school for a while and try a job in the real world. (The Swedes speak of kids being “school-tired” and do not stigmatize those who leave for a time-out; most eventually return a year or two later.) In the torrent of words commenting on the murders at Columbine in Littleton, Colorado, an obvious question was not raised: Why, if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were so miserable at school, didn’t they simply drop out and try a job in a nearby ski resort? [Emphasis mine.]"

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Instapundit

Instapundit: "A man is going to come home with the real bacon. Anything I did was just like extra credit.

I didn’t realize I unconsciously thought these things until I was a 28-year-old woman.

“You haven’t played your career out to its full potential because you didn’t have the stress of making as much money as possible,” my friend told me.

I rolled my eyes, but I realized he was right. First of all, it’s true that being a man who feels wholly responsible for providing for a family is as stressful as it is liberating. My father was fortunate, yet not. I’m sure he fought for raises twice as hard as I have because he really fucking had to. But I don’t have a wife and daughter, so all these years, when I have gone into work it has been with the understanding that I am so grateful to have a job at all, so excited to be in a workplace. I am less concerned with where my career is going or what my paycheck is.

The need to support a family focuses the mind wonderfully."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Yesterday in this space, I pointed out that Adam Lanza’s Bushmaster .223 is banned for deer hunting in many states on the grounds that it’s too weak. I thought the relevance of this fact was pretty clear: It wouldn’t make sense from an anti-crime standpoint to ban this gun without also banning guns that are more powerful, and thus more dangerous to humans — but you can’t ban more powerful guns without banning many deer rifles, something most in the anti-gun crowd swear they don’t want to do."

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Rob Parker on RGIII’s blackness | DC Sports Bog

Rob Parker on RGIII’s blackness | DC Sports Bog: "“Well, because I want to find out about him,” Parker said. “I don’t know, because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiancée. There was all this talk about he’s a Republican, which, there’s no information [about that] at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper as to why he has an issue. Because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like I’ve got black skin but don’t call me black. So people got to wondering about Tiger Woods early on.”"

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Opinion: When thuggery is OK - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com

Opinion: When thuggery is OK - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com: "Civility is one of the most absurdly abused of our political values. It is always centrally important to our functioning as a democracy — right up until the time someone proposes crossing the unions. Then, it goes from “can’t we all get along?” to “nothing to see here.” Then, out come the Hitler signs, the accusations of dictatorship, the huge inflatable rats, the sit-ins, the threats and even the fists, and all anyone can think to say is, “Isn’t it a shame someone had to go and get the unions angry?”"

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Do We Really Have to Condemn the Union Protestor Who Punched Fox News Comedian Steven Crowder?

Do We Really Have to Condemn the Union Protestor Who Punched Fox News Comedian Steven Crowder?: "I have a third solution: Steven, stop whining, take your licks, and accept that getting hit in the face is a hazard of inserting yourself in the middle of an argument between billionaire-funded know-nothing ideologues and people whose livelihoods and stability are being threatened by the insatiable greed of the super-rich and the blind extremism of their wooden-headed political allies. In exchange, liberals will buy you a band-aid for the cut on your forehead and re-iterate that Punching Is Bad. Sound good? Send your answer on Twitter."

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The Rotten Spouse Theorem, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

The Rotten Spouse Theorem, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty: "Even after a bitter divorce, people often pay their ex a compliment: "He was a bad husband, but he's always been a good father" or "She was a bad wife, but she's always been a good mother."  Gracious, yes.  But accurate?  Hard to see how.

A family isn't a set of independent relationships.  They're all connected.  Damaging one foreseeably damages the other.  This is particularly obvious when parents fight in front of their children.  When your children hear you yell at your wife, you don't just hurt her feelings.  You hurt their feelings.
"

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Althouse

Althouse: "Only 7. And it's not really about being atheist. It's about talking about it. This is the old freedom of speech issue, and we still have a problem with that in the United States. Last I noticed, that man who made the "Innocence of Muslims" video was in prison, right here in the U.S."

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Dem Senators Ask Delay in Medical Device Tax - By Wesley J. Smith - The Corner - National Review Online

Dem Senators Ask Delay in Medical Device Tax - By Wesley J. Smith - The Corner - National Review Online: "The irony could choke a horse. The invaluable Byron York Tweets that 18 Democrat U.S. Senators have asked to delay the Obamacare medical device tax because raising taxes on manufacturers will cost jobs. Knock! Knock! Knock! Hello? Is anybody home? "

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110 Predictions For the Next 110 Years - Popular Mechanics

110 Predictions For the Next 110 Years - Popular Mechanics: "· Vaccines will wipe out drug addiction. The human immune system is supremely adept at detecting and neutralizing foreign substances. Why not train it to target illicit ones? That's the idea behind addiction vaccines: Persuade the body to produce antibodies that shut down drug molecules before they get to the brain. The concept works in mice. Human trials are under way. "

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If this happens will using drugs no longer be considered immoral?

I remember reading an article about how someone had developer a kind of pot that has therapeutic effects, but doesn't get the user high.

Is getting high what's wrong with pot? Not the adverse health effects?

Greg Mankiw's Blog: The Poverty Trap in France

Greg Mankiw's Blog: The Poverty Trap in France: "For this mother of two, working again will bring her family an additional income of only $170. Moreover, this $170 is likely to be lost in the cost of transportation to work, since the cost of gas in France is $7 per gallon. In any case, such a small amount of money is not an incentive to go back to work. Between staying home and working, the choice is simple: welfare is a better deal."

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What Guns Do, and What they Don't - The Daily Beast

What Guns Do, and What they Don't - The Daily Beast: "Could that particular conflict have gone worse with a gun?  It's hard to see how.  It might have gone better; if one person had waved a gun, the fighting might have stopped.  "

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Jurassic rockers the Rolling Stones deliver satisfaction with Barclays Center concert - NYPOST.com

Jurassic rockers the Rolling Stones deliver satisfaction with Barclays Center concert - NYPOST.com: "The group may have looked older than a meeting of the Supreme Court — but they were able to summon the ghosts of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll past.

There were a few, creaky, Metamucil moments at the start, such as when Jagger tried his hand at comedy."

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EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty: "I saw a woman on Stossel tonight who works for McDonald's. She said she was paid $8 an hour, but felt she deserved $15. I thought: Wait a minute, McDonald's isn't the only company not paying you $15 an hour: neither you nor I are aware of anyone willing to pay you that much. So why is your problem with McDonald's?"

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "I’ve long wondered whether it is possible to create an anti-spending pledge as effective as the famous anti-tax pledge. Jonathan Bydlak writes about an effort to do that on the home page today. I’m with him in spirit, but I don’t think the pledge would work very well. It generally requires an affirmative vote of Congress for taxes to rise, making accountability easy. (The fact that this condition doesn’t apply right now, of course, is causing anti-taxers all sorts of problems.) Yet spending rises automatically all the time with no affirmative vote, because of entitlements–and the anti-spending pledge does not account for this fact.

Also, refusing to raise taxes generally does not keep the government from sending out Social Security checks, maintaining the military, and doing other things the vast majority of people want it to do. Holding the line on appropriations bills, as the pledge demands, can lead to partial government shutdowns; so can refusing to raise the debt limit, as the pledge also demands.

So while I wish it could be done, I don’t think it’s possible to pledge our way to lower spending."

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Where Masturbation and Homosexuality Do Not Exist - Alice Dreger - The Atlantic

Where Masturbation and Homosexuality Do Not Exist - Alice Dreger - The Atlantic: "Given all this, the Hewletts conclude, "Homosexuality and masturbation are rare or nonexistent [in these two cultures], not because they are frowned upon or punished, but because they are not part of the cultural models of sexuality in either ethnic group."

The finding with regard to homosexuality is perhaps not that surprising. As the Hewletts note, other researchers have documented cultures where homosexuality appears not to exist. If homosexual orientation has a genetic component to it -- and there is increasing evidence that it does, in many cases -- then it would not be surprising that this complex human trait (one that involves non-procreative efforts) would be found in some populations but not others."

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I basically agree with Ross Douthat here

I basically agree with Ross Douthat here: "The retreat from child rearing is, at some level, a symptom of late-modern exhaustion — a decadence that first arose in the West but now haunts rich societies around the globe. It’s a spirit that privileges the present over the future, chooses stagnation over innovation, prefers what already exists over what might be. It embraces the comforts and pleasures of modernity, while shrugging off the basic sacrifices that built our civilization in the first place."

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The Volokh Conspiracy

The Volokh Conspiracy: "I should say at the outset that I approach this delicate subject sheepishly, but this development bears noting. In a rare example of a Western country taking steps to restrict previously recognized sexual liberties, Germany is seeking to ban bestiality. (Its supporters call it zoophilia – are opponents zoophobes?) This will presumably put out to pasture Germany’s erotic zoos, where visitors go beyond heavy petting."

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Kindly Note the Impending Bankruptcy - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Kindly Note the Impending Bankruptcy - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "I suppose it’s possible to take this recurring melodrama seriously, but there’s no reason to. The problem facing the United States government is that it spends over a trillion dollars a year that it doesn’t have. If you want to make that number go away, you need either to reduce spending or to increase revenue. With the best will in the world, you can’t interpret the election result as a spectacular victory for less spending. Indeed, if nothing else, the unfortunate events of November 6 should have performed the useful task of disabusing us poor conservatives that America is any kind of “center-right nation.” A few months ago, I dined with a (pardon my English) French intellectual who, apropos Mitt Romney’s stump-speech warnings that we were on a one-way ticket to Continental-sized dependency, chortled to me, “Americans love Big Government as much as Europeans. The only difference is that Americans refuse to admit it.”"

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Deal or No Deal - By Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner - National Review Online

Deal or No Deal - By Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner - National Review Online: "NR’s editors have a pretty pessimistic take on the fiscal-cliff talks. If no deal emerges, then Republicans have two options. The high-risk one is to pass an extension of all the tax cuts, watch Senate Democrats block it, watch tax rates rise for everyone, and try to blame Obama and the Democrats for this result. The low-risk one is to pass an extension of the middle-class tax cuts, which presumably the Democrats would have to pass, and watch taxes for high earners rise. That way at least Republicans wouldn’t get blamed for middle-class tax increases.

That second option isn’t great. But it’s better than some of the possible deals I’ve been reading and hearing about."

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It's crazy to me Republicans could be credibly blamed if we going over the fiscal cliff under option one. Because Democrats would be basically saying: "either you agree to raise taxes on the top 1%, or we let taxes go up on everyone."

How is it that Democrats don't get blamed under scenario one?

Benghazi Talking Points Timeline: Curiouser and Curiouser - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online

Benghazi Talking Points Timeline: Curiouser and Curiouser - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online: "For those of you keeping score at home, here’s the problem with the latest explanation:

On November 16, Petraeus told members of congress that the CIA had left the reference to al Qaeda and terrorism in the talking points. He doesn’t know who removed it.
On November 16, Acting CIA Director Morrell told members of Congress he doesn’t know who deleted the reference.
On November 16, DNI James Clapper told members of congress he doesn’t know who deleted the reference.
On November 20, Office of DNI spokesman Shawn Turner says the Office of the DNI deleted the reference (no mention of whether Clapper was involved).
On November 26 at 10:00 a.m., Acting CIA Director Morrell tells McCain et al. the FBI deleted the reference.
On November 26 at 4:00 p.m., “CIA officials” tell McCain et al. the CIA deleted it, but are unable to say who, precisely, did so.
Confused?"

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "But unless this country has completely gone to the dogs, it’s inconceivable to me that a majority can stomach the notion that four Americans were murdered on sovereign American territory while the president of the United States took note, then rolled over and went to bed before flying to Las Vegas on a campaign swing, secure in the knowledge that the truth would never come out because it didn’t fit his media protectors’ beloved “narrative” that GM was alive and Osama bin Laden was dead."

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Who changed the Benghazi talking points? - CBS News

Who changed the Benghazi talking points? - CBS News: "On Fri. Nov. 16, Petraeus told members of Congress that it wasn't the CIA that changed the talking points.

The White House and the State Department said it wasn't them.

The CIA then told CBS News that the edits were made at a "senior level in the interagency process." Intelligence officials said the references were dropped so as not to tip off al Qaeda as to what the U.S. knew, and to protect sources and methods.

Soon thereafter, another reason was given. A source from the Office of the Director for National Intelligence (ODNI) told CBS News' Margaret Brennan that ODNI made the edits as part of the interagency process because the links to al Qaeda were deemed too "tenuous" to make public.


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Susan Rice speaking out on Libya attack
On Tuesday, Acting CIA Director Mike Morell provided yet another account. In a meeting with Republican Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Morell stated that he believed it was the FBI that removed the references. He said the FBI did so "to prevent compromising an ongoing criminal investigation.""

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: " We also do not know how the Mohammed movie cover-up was orchestrated, although the evidence and common sense point to the White House. With four Americans killed and the nation appallingly misled in the stretch-run of a presidential campaign, this is a far more consequential matter than those that led to the Watergate and Lewinsky investigations. A commander-in-chief’s dereliction of duty and his administration’s intentional lying to the American people — to say nothing of its overbearing prosecution of the filmmaker in a transparent effort to shift responsibility to him — would be impeachable offenses if they are proved."

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Notes on Benghazi and Susan Rice - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online

Notes on Benghazi and Susan Rice - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online: "I find the effort to claim that criticism of Susan Rice is racist or sexist to be offensive, ridiculous and damn near lunatic. According to this theory, Republican racists waited in the tall grass until Rice had a shot to be the fifth non-white-male Secretary of State in a row and then decided to pounce."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "In today’s press briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that “there are no unanswered questions” about Susan Rice’s appearances Sunday shows or about the talking points she used in those appearances. “Those questions have been answered,” he said. Carney went on to allege that reporters, in asking about Rice’s Sunday show appearances, are more interested in playing politics that in “what happened in Benghazi.”"

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Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "I agree with Mr. Krugman that

We are, morally, a much better nation than we were. Oh, and the food has improved a lot, too.

But the fact that he singles out genuine improvement in our morals (such as our greater acceptance of gays and lesbians) and in our food gives (to me, at any rate) the powerful impression – fueled by the entire essay – that middle-class Americans are clearly enduring today unnecessary hardships on the larger economic front."

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Discuss.

Rice: We didn't intend to mislead on Benghazi - POLITICO.com

Rice: We didn't intend to mislead on Benghazi - POLITICO.com: ""In the course of the meeting, we explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi," Rice said.

"While, we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved," she said."

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Rice: We didn't intend to mislead on Benghazi - POLITICO.com

Rice: We didn't intend to mislead on Benghazi - POLITICO.com: "Under fire from congressional critics, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice stressed in a Tuesday statement that she did not intend to mislead the public about the September 11th attacks on the Benghazi consulate."

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Works and Days » Learning from the Election

Works and Days » Learning from the Election: "The Republicans have only won the popular vote since Ronald Reagan’s presidency on two occasions: 1988 and 2004. In both instances, even the patrician Bushes were able to paint their liberal opponents as out-of-touch Massachusetts magnificoes. Lee Atwater turned Michael Dukakis, the helmeted tank driver, into a bumbling Harvard Square naïf.  Karl Rove reminded the country that John Kerry, the wind surfer, was a spandex-wearing, wetsuit-outfitted yuppie who lived in several of his rich wife’s mansions, as he jetted around in her plane and sailed on her boat."

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Obama’s Senior Adviser Echoes Romney - By Jillian Kay Melchior - The Corner - National Review Online

Obama’s Senior Adviser Echoes Romney - By Jillian Kay Melchior - The Corner - National Review Online: "Speaking at the University of Delaware this month, Obama’s senior adviser David Plouffe pitched a plan we’ve all heard before . . . from the mouth of Mitt Romney.

With the fiscal cliff inching closer and closer, negotiations are “going to get hairy,” Plouffe said. Predictably, he called for Republicans to raise taxes. But here’s Plouffe’s surprising idea for what Dems need to do to reach a deal:"

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Chris Matthews: GOP A ‘Ruling Class’ Committed To Rights Of ‘White Men Of Property’ | Mediaite

Chris Matthews: GOP A ‘Ruling Class’ Committed To Rights Of ‘White Men Of Property’ | Mediaite: "MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ final thought on Monday centered on his belief that the Republican party is composed of individuals committed to the rights of “white men of property” over the freedoms of minority and female voters. He said that Republicans believe they are a “ruling class,” and that this is “their country to rule.”"

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Failures of Intelligence - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Failures of Intelligence - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "The FBI was initially reported to have printed out 20,000–30,000 pages of e-mails and other communications between General Allen, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Jill Kelley of Tampa, one-half of a pair of identical twins dressed like understudies for the CentCom mess-hall production of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Thirty thousand pages! The complete works of Shakespeare come to about three and a half thousand pages, but American officials can’t even have a sex scandal without getting bogged down in the paperwork."

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Failures of Intelligence - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Failures of Intelligence - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "As America’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, assured the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Mubarak’s fall, the Muslim Brotherhood is a “largely secular” organization. The name’s just for show, same as the Episcopal Church."

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Oh What a Tangled Web - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

Oh What a Tangled Web - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online: "More important, Petraeus himself had supposedly gone on record shortly after the 9/11 attacks as saying that the violence grew out of a spontaneous demonstration gone awry, rather than being a preplanned terrorist hit using mortars and machine guns. If Petraeus did say that, it was somewhat surprising — given that his own CIA personnel on the ground in Libya had informed him otherwise. Petraeus’s purported initial analysis likewise was not supported by live-feed videos that showed gunmen, not demonstrators, attacking Americans, and it was also at odds with the monitoring of jihadist websites that were already boasting of a successful hit on Americans — but it was entirely consistent with what administration officials like Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, James Clapper, and Barack Obama were insisting upon."

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Benghazi: Obama Emerges from the Fog of War - Bing West - National Review Online

Benghazi: Obama Emerges from the Fog of War - Bing West - National Review Online: "An hour after the attack has begun, the president orders the CIA and the military to do “whatever we need to do.” Yet the CIA and the military do nothing, except send drones overhead to watch the seven-hour battle. A CIA employee and former Navy SEAL, Tyrone Woods, twice calls for military help. He has a laser rangefinder and is pinpointing enemy targets, radioing the coordinates. The military send no aircraft to attack the designated targets. Special Operations forces standing by, 480 miles away — less than a two-hour plane ride — are not deployed."

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Moscow bans protest against political repressions 'due to lack of political repressions' — RT

Moscow bans protest against political repressions 'due to lack of political repressions' — RT: "The Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a rally against “political repressions” and “violations of human rights,” saying that state law does not recognize such a phenomenon in the country.

The application to hold the event was rejected by the authorities on the grounds that the “current law does not provide any measures used by the state for repression based on political motives,” the official refusal letter reads. "

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Enter The Hollywood Reporter’s apology for “Hollywood’s Holocaust.” Apparently, The Hollywood Reporter didn’t toe the progressive line during the Red scare and it is now apologizing for it. Howard Kurtz celebrates THR’s better-late-than-never apology for this  ”odious” and an “appalling chapter of the publication’s history.”

Well, okay. But “Hollywood’s Holocaust”? Really? That’s a moral and logical perversion. It’s hard enough to get liberals to admit that the Soviet genocide in the Ukraine was a holocaust or to get them to do more than shrug at China’s murder of 65 million people. But when Hollywood studios refrained from hiring people whose political views are out of fashion (they’d never do that today, would they?) that’s a “Holocaust”? Good lord, what is wrong with these people?

Hat tip and attaboy to J. P. Freire, who has a lot more to offer on the subject here."

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Althouse: "I am somewhat surprised and frustrated to read reports that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was responsible..."

Althouse: "I am somewhat surprised and frustrated to read reports that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was responsible...": ""... for removing references to Al-Qaeda from the unclassified talking points about the Benghazi attack that Ambassador Susan Rice and other officials used in the early days after September 11, 2012," says Senator John McCain.

"I participated in hours of hearings in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week regarding the events in Benghazi, where senior intelligence officials were asked this very question, and all of them – including the Director of National Intelligence himself – told us that they did not know who made the changes. Now we have to read the answers to our questions in the media. There are many other questions that remain unanswered. But this latest episode is another reason why many of us are so frustrated with, and suspicious of, the actions of this Administration when it comes to the Benghazi attack.""

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Do you get the feeling that we're being lied to? Actually, it's more meta than that. We're being lied to about the origination of the lie.

Althouse: "It's not Watergate. It's a political witch hunt, designed to embarrass and discredit the newly re-elected Obama."

Althouse: "It's not Watergate. It's a political witch hunt, designed to embarrass and discredit the newly re-elected Obama.": ""It's a lot of Republican claptrap, another one of those conspiracy theories created out of thin air."
Whoops. That's exactly what Republicans were saying when the FBI and newspaper investigators were closing in on President Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon for covering up the Watergate break-in by his operatives. Republican defenders of Nixon described it as merely a third-rate burglary and said investigating it would be a waste of time because nothing illegal or untoward happened."

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Petraeus And The Infidelity Risk Curve « Chateau Heartiste

Petraeus And The Infidelity Risk Curve « Chateau Heartiste: "How in tarnation is Petraeus’s potato sack poster wife for Puritan living supposed to compete with this fuel-injected sex machine? There isn’t a man alive who would pass up a chance at tapping that harlot if his only alternative was Miss Massachusetts 1687. You may as well dangle a chunk of raw meat in front of a starving lion’s maw and expect it to sit still for twenty years."

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Althouse

Althouse: "It's one thing to chose not to specify which terrorist organization it was, quite another to spread a phony story about protesting over a video. Now, there seems to be an attempt to glue the true story to the phony story with the word "extremists," having it cover both organized terrorists making a military attack and a bunch of hotheads suddenly demonstrating because they're enraged by some YouTube video. Those are obviously 2 very different things! And Susan Rice took the lead in a very serious deceit. Right before the election.

So I don't get the "however" in the indented quote above. Maybe it relates only to the suggestion that there was a political motivation for omitting the part about terrorists. But it doesn't undermine the accusation that Rice's statements were misleading (indeed false)."

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Sources: DNI cut "al Qaeda" reference from Benghazi talking points, and CIA, FBI signed off - CBS News

Sources: DNI cut "al Qaeda" reference from Benghazi talking points, and CIA, FBI signed off - CBS News: "An intelligence source says the talking points were passed from the CIA to the DNI, where the substantive edits were made, and then to FBI, which made more edits as part of "standard procedure."

Timeline: How Benghazi attack, probe unfolded

The head of the DNI is James Clapper, an Obama appointee. He ultimately did review the points, before they were given to Ambassador Rice and members of the House intelligence committee on Sept. 14. They were compiled the day before."

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Car Bleg

Looking for data about repair costs for somewhat older cars, including frequency of repairs, and expected cost. Something like what is available at Edmunds, however, I need it to cover early 2000s, and its database doesn't go back far enough.

Ben Stein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ben Stein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In 2005, Stein said in the American Spectator:

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POWs, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad? Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded. That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying, conniving seducer like Clinton—a lying, conniving peacemaker.[14]"

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Intel officials unable to say who changed CIA talking points on Libya, lawmaker says | Fox News

Intel officials unable to say who changed CIA talking points on Libya, lawmaker says | Fox News: "King said a CIA analyst specifically told lawmakers that the Al Qaeda affiliates line "was taken out."

A congressional source familiar with this week's testimony also told Fox News that the language in the CIA talking points about Benghazi was changed from "Al Qaeda-affiliated individuals to extremist organizations" -- which had the effect of minimizing the role of terrorists in the attack.

"It really changed the whole tone of it," King told Fox News. "

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David Petraeus: CIA believed Benghazi was a terrorist attack - Seung Min Kim - POLITICO.com

David Petraeus: CIA believed Benghazi was a terrorist attack - Seung Min Kim - POLITICO.com: "Former CIA Director David Petraeus testified Friday morning that the CIA knew that the Benghazi attacks were a terrorist attack and not a spontaneous demonstration, and he denied that his sensational extramarital affair had any impact on his testimony."

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Another Obama Victory: Smithfield to Shut Virginia Plant | Jammie Wearing Fools

Another Obama Victory: Smithfield to Shut Virginia Plant | Jammie Wearing Fools: "nyone paying attention to all the jobs being cut in those swing states Obama won? Not only is unemployment surging and the market plummeting, major companies are announcing layoffs seemingly by the hour. But none of this has anything to do, of course, with Obama’s re-election. And now the folks in Virginia are also falling victim. I’d pity them but they cast their lot with an economic catastrophe, and now they shall suffer."

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Surprise! Jobless Claims Up 78,000 Week After Election; PA, OH Worst Hit

Surprise! Jobless Claims Up 78,000 Week After Election; PA, OH Worst Hit: "he Department of Labor has announced that new jobless claims rose by a staggering 78,000 in the first week after the election, reaching a seasonally-adjusted total of 439,000. Over the past year, and in the weeks leading up to the election, jobless claims were said to be declining, dipping as low as 339,000, with the media proclaiming that they had reached the "lowest level in more than four years.""

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O’Reilly to Newsmax: Romney ‘Deserved to Lose’

O’Reilly to Newsmax: Romney ‘Deserved to Lose’: "“It’s almost self-inflicted wounds, and that’s why people are so disappointed, because their expectations for Mitt Romney were so high. If the election were held before Hurricane Sandy, Romney would have won."

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So, the loss was a self inflicted wound, but it was also caused by a hurricane  I thought it was Obama, not Romney, who controlled the weather.

O’Reilly to Newsmax: Romney ‘Deserved to Lose’

O’Reilly to Newsmax: Romney ‘Deserved to Lose’: "In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, O’Reilly expresses his feelings about Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign.

“I was very disappointed in the governor, very disappointed,” O’Reilly says.

“He ran and he hid for the last two weeks of the campaign. He actually hid. He wouldn’t come on [our show]. He wouldn’t come on other high-profile programs on television and tell people what he believed. He wouldn’t do it. He deserved to lose.
"

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This is stupid. He was campaigning non-stop. He did three 1.5 hour debates in the month leading up to the election.

I really hate analysis that always assumes that whatever the American people do reflects some great wisdom. O'Reilly's one of those guys. I'm sure stroking people's egos makes for better ratings, but it's not accurate.

Brennan's Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Brennan's Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty: "As the philosopher David Schmidtz says, if your main goal is to show that your heart is in the right place, then your heart is not in the right place."

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Study: People Who Live Close To Bars Drink More Heavily « CBS Atlanta

Study: People Who Live Close To Bars Drink More Heavily « CBS Atlanta: "A new study finds that people who live close to a bar tend to drink more."

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I always take studies with a grain of salt. Studies are conducted by people who want to find statistically significant relationships and publish. With that in mind, it does not surprise me when they find a cause-and-effect relationship. I fully expect many studies find a relationship that cannot be reproduced.

But the other thing I like to do when I hear of some cause-and-effect relationship in a news article is: (1) identify the implied cause-and-effect of the article, and (2) think of alternative explanations for the relationship.

Of course one cause-and-effect relationship implied here is that when people live close to bars, they drink more heavily. That's probably true. If you don't have to drive home, you're probably more likely to drink heavily.

But another explanation is that people who like to drink heavily, live close to bars. Now, they seem to control for that here by tracking drinking of the same people as they move to and away from bars, but it appears the result is less pronounced:

“Moving place of residence close to, or far from, a bar appears to be associated with a small corresponding increase or decrease in risky alcohol behavior,” 

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "how do you explain the testimony that Petraeus gave, when it contradicted the testimony that the CIA station chief in Libya had told them, when it contradicted what Panetta had briefed, and what everybody at the time was saying. Now, the Broadwell disclosure that we just saw is important not because people are now getting all upset about it, because it might have disclosed secret information, but because it might tell us what might have been a motive for the CIA to disguise, to lie about, or to cover up what was happening in Benghazi."

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I agree. I think that the CIA has every incentive not to let us know if this really was an attack to free prisoners.

While I hope the CIA does detain these people, it certainly would be damaging to its operations and relations in the region if it gets out that's what is happening. It also would be damaging to the president's political capital--and until last Thursday, his reelection chances.

It would also confirm that we mismanaged the entire situation, and confirm that the attack could and should have been anticipated.

The GOP’s Cold Comfort - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

The GOP’s Cold Comfort - Rich Lowry - National Review Online: "Obama didn’t run on anything. To be sure, the president’s second-term agenda was amorphous at best, except for rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the rich. Still, the direction was clear. He chose not to take an obvious opening to become more moderate after the 2010 elections. Instead, he moved left. He ran on an unabashed social liberalism seeking to impose an unprecedented contraception mandate on employers — including religious employers — and he successfully sold it as a natural extension of the rights of women. He ran on a scorching economic populism that worked in the Midwest. He made his overall vision of government aggrandizement clear enough, and still prevailed."

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The GOP’s Cold Comfort - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

The GOP’s Cold Comfort - Rich Lowry - National Review Online: "Mitt Romney was a weak candidate. Sure, Romney was flawed. He was never a natural politician, and his private-equity background amplified negative perceptions of Republicans. But Romney was clearly the strongest of the candidates in the primary field in the run-up to a winnable general election. What does that say about the party? The Washington Post points out that in almost every important Senate race, the Republican candidate actually underperformed Romney."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "Fresh off her smash-hit performances on five different talk shows in which she adamantly blamed an obscure video for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, CBS News reports that President Obama is likely to name U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state."

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In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions, Mitt Romney got zero votes

In 59 Philadelphia voting divisions, Mitt Romney got zero votes: "Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia who has studied African American precincts, said he had occasionally seen 100 percent of the vote go for the Democratic candidate. Chicago and Atlanta each had precincts that registered no votes for Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008.

"I'd be surprised if there weren't a handful of precincts that didn't cast a vote for Romney," he said. But the number of zero precincts in Philadelphia deserves examination, Sabato added.

"Not a single vote for Romney or even an error? That's worth looking into," he said."

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Petraeus vs. Clinton - John Fund - National Review Online

Petraeus vs. Clinton - John Fund - National Review Online: "When she left the White House, Lewinsky got a cushy Pentagon job, complete with a security clearance. Later, after Lewinsky threatened to expose the relationship, Clinton accepted her demand for a well-paying job in Manhattan and then asked a friend, Vernon Jordan, to make the contacts. Lewinsky told her then-confidante Linda Tripp that the president owed her something special: “I don’t want to have to work for this position. I just want it to be given to me.” But none of this brought down Clinton, who was acquitted by the Senate in a impeachment trial for having committed perjury before a federal judge."

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Petraeus vs. Clinton - John Fund - National Review Online

Petraeus vs. Clinton - John Fund - National Review Online: "Greta van Susteren of Fox News says his jobs as a general and CIA director made him “very vulnerable to blackmail from those with very bad intentions against the United States.”

Fair enough, but many commentators took an entirely different line 15 years ago when President Bill Clinton, who had access to all of our nation’s secrets, was caught having an affair with an intern named Monica Lewinsky. The Starr Report, released in September 1998, revealed that Clinton told Lewinsky that “he suspected that a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, and he proposed cover stories” if they were ever questioned about their relationship."

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Jean-Paul Sartre's Blog : The New Yorker

Jean-Paul Sartre's Blog : The New Yorker: "This morning over breakfast S. asked me why I looked so glum.

“Because,” I said, “everything that exists is born for no reason, carries on living through weakness, and dies by accident.”

“Jesus,” S. said. “Aren’t you ever off the clock?”"

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "In New Hampshire we didn’t have any senate races, but the same phenomenon was observable downticket, including for both GOP House seats. Statewide, Charlie Bass, who’s a classic RINO squish, and Frank Guinta, who isn’t, drew about six per cent fewer votes than Mitt, and both lost. Regardless of what kind of Republican you are, the electorate was antipathetic to you.

In other words, whatever the weaknesses of a supposedly weak candidate, the party was weaker. With hindsight, that first debate performance appears to have made Mitt sufficiently likeable for a narrow slice of voters to overlook the R after his name. The candidate was less of a problem than the Republican brand."

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Petraeus’s Sudden Resignation | The Weekly Standard

Petraeus’s Sudden Resignation | The Weekly Standard: "Petraeus pointed to a protest over an anti-Islam YouTube video as a primary reason for the attacks on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, despite an abundance intelligence pointing to a preplanned terrorist assault on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex there. Other members of Congress were particularly interested in questioning Petraeus about why crucial details about those attacks were left out of “talking points” the CIA prepared for lawmakers and executive branch officials. Among those details: the existence of a communications intercept between two al Qaeda-linked terrorists discussing the attacks. The level of frustration with the CIA and Petraeus had led several top Republican lawmakers to consider calling for his resignation in late October."

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Eff you, it's my blog: Time to realize what you voted for

Eff you, it's my blog: Time to realize what you voted for: "Liberal contract attorneys might want to consider what "live with it" means. Under Obamacare, companies with 50 or more full-time employees either have to provide them with government-approved health insurance policies, or pay a per-employee fine. Further, the fine kicks in at the 31st employee, not the 51st, and it starts at $2,000 per year per employee. It goes up later. Companies, therefore, are discouraged from having full-time employees, or at least 50 or more of them. Hello, part-time employment. Think I'm fucking with you? Think again."

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The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "The turnout-model obsession is an implicit acknowledgment of an awkward truth — that, outside the voting booth, the default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist."

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The Campaign Spot - National Review Online

The Campaign Spot - National Review Online: "Ross Douthat offered this grim assessment: “Lesson of this election is always bail out, never touch entitlements.”"

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The Campaign Spot - National Review Online

The Campaign Spot - National Review Online: "In 2010, we saw epic Republican gains in that smaller turnout traditional to a midterm election, and we persuaded ourselves — I certainly persuaded myself — that 2008 was a historical anomaly, a confluence of factors that created a perfect storm for Obama and the Democrats. Things would be set right.

In 2008, Obama had been elected on the promise of things to come. In 2012, he would be judged on his record.

The American people looked at that record and said, “Eh, looks pretty good, four more years of that.”

After Fast and Furious. And Benghazi. And the stimulus. And Solyndra. And Obamacare.

There will be a lot of finger-pointing at Mitt Romney, but I’m not so sure that he ran that bad a campaign. Certainly, not many folks were making that argument after the first debate. I suspect we’ll hear a lot of “Romney was a terrible candidate” talk in the coming days and weeks, but if you’re saying that, get specific. He focused on the preeminent issue on voters’ minds, and was winning on that issue. He won independents, according to the exit polls (more on this below)."

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The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "f you add up the total debt — state, local, the works — every man, woman, and child in this country owes 200 grand (which is rather more than the average Greek does). Every American family owes about three-quarters of a million bucks, or about the budget deficit of Liechtenstein, which has the highest GDP per capita in the world. "

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Althouse

Althouse: "In politics, self-correction doesn't save the self-corrector a dime.  Voters who self-correct live under the exactly same policies as voters who don't self-correct.  The result is a dire shortage of self-correction - and reliably ridiculous policies no matter who wins."

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The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

The Edge of the Abyss - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "The central question of Wednesday — I mean, After America — is whether the Brokest Nation in History is capable of meaningful course correction. On Tuesday, the American people answered that question. The rest of the world will make its dispositions accordingly."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "CBS’ Mark Knoller tweets that “Senate Intelligence Committee says Petraeus will not testify at next week’s closed hearing on the events in Benghazi.”

Perhaps there is some protocol I’m unaware of, but I don’t see why resigning should affect whether Petraeus testifies or not. He was in charge of the CIA when the Benghazi attack occurred, and the CIA has been under plenty of fire for how the attack was handled. "

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Uhhhhhh, what?! This is really bizarre.

A Brief Note on the Elections - By Ed Whelan - Bench Memos - National Review Online

A Brief Note on the Elections - By Ed Whelan - Bench Memos - National Review Online: "Great nations rise and fall. Anyone who takes for granted our country’s continued vitality is a fool.

As I see it, last night’s elections confirm my fear that the great American experiment in constitutional republicanism is in grave peril, if not doomed. I very much hope that I’m wrong, and I will continue to work to prevent my fear’s ever being realized, or at least to defer as long as possible the date of the grand and awful collapse, but the fundamentals look terrible."

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A Disquieting Thought | Power Line

A Disquieting Thought | Power Line: "The white vote, it turns out, was tepid.  If the white vote had turned out to its potential, Romney wins and we wouldn’t need to go through the current hand-wringing about whether the GOP needs to seek amnesty from Latinos.  What’s going on here?  Keep two factoids in mind.  First, according to exit polls Romney won white evangelicals by a four-to-one margin—as high or higher than George W. Bush in 2004.  But second, recall Karl Rove’s theory after the 2000 election that Bush’s missing majority in that train-wreck election was the 3 million or so evangelicals who stayed home and didn’t vote, possibly because they were put off by the late DUI news about Bush.  Finding and (successfully) turning out those voters became the key to Bush’s increased margin of victory in 2004."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "If you had told me the day before the election that Mitt Romney would win independents by five, convincingly win among all voters making more than $50,000 per year, and that evangelicals would vote for Mitt by wider margins than they did for even George W. Bush, I would have assumed he’d be on the path to victory. He wasn’t.  As the messaging and tactical second-guessing begins (and it began even before Fox made its Ohio call Tuesday night), we have to be clear-eyed about our challenge:  To tens of millions of American voters, a conservative message of self-reliance and individual economic freedom is, quite frankly, terrifying."

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That's what I'm afraid off.

Bitterfest 2012 - Jay Nordlinger - National Review Online

Bitterfest 2012 - Jay Nordlinger - National Review Online: "Some of my colleagues are almost comically incapable of blaming the people — of holding them responsible for their votes. This is charming, in a way, in addition to comical. Some political version of “The customer is always right.”

I don’t have this problem, thank heaven. I think the people are in fact responsible. And often wrong.

As might doesn’t make right, neither does a majority."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "If Republicans want to change their stance on immigration, they should do so on the merits, not out of a belief that only immigration policy stands between them and a Republican Hispanic majority. It is not immigration policy that creates the strong bond between Hispanics and the Democratic party, but the core Democratic principles of a more generous safety net, strong government intervention in the economy, and progressive taxation. Hispanics will prove to be even more decisive in the victory of Governor Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30, which raised upper-income taxes and the sales tax, than in the Obama election. "

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Yep. Republicans aren't getting the Hispanic vote any time soon. And I would add another reason they won't be voting Republican: racial identity. For better or worse, (worse) Democrats are the party of non-whites.

The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "A reader writes,

I have a very good friend who is a hard lefty. While discussing politics with him once, I tried to establish some common ground. I asked if we could agree that any taxation that demonstrably reduced revenue was too high. He thought for a minute and then answered that, no, removing money from the hands of the rich was a good in itself, regardless of the revenue raised. He believes that making the wealthy less wealthy is a sufficient reason for taxation.

One reason I reproduce the above note is that I have met many, many such people in my life."

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And we know Obama's one of them.

A comeback for limited government conservatism | WashingtonExaminer.com

A comeback for limited government conservatism | WashingtonExaminer.com: "According to exit polls as described by Politico, "53 percent of those surveyed said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals -- a figure that's risen 10 points since the 2008 election. Comparatively, 41 percent of voters said they believe government should be doing more.""

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This poll result must be wrong. I do not understand how Obama was reelected if this is the case.

A comeback for limited government conservatism | WashingtonExaminer.com

A comeback for limited government conservatism | WashingtonExaminer.com: "There's no reason for conservatives to be Pollyannaish about Tuesday's results. President Obama's re-election, coupled with Democratic gains in the Senate, mean that his national health care law will be implemented as planned, taxes will rise, and there will be no hope of genuinely reforming of our nation's broken entitlement system in the near future."

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A bigger tent - Right Turn - The Washington Post

A bigger tent - Right Turn - The Washington Post: "But it might well be that in 2012, at least for now, the country is culturally liberal, socially chaotic and economically more devoted to government than free market conservatives thought possible. In the short term, the country may indeed have shifted left. That does not, however, mean we are on the road to France. Unlike Europeans, Americans tend to be intensely practical, and if something better comes along in the post- Obama years, there’s every reason to think they’ll jump ship to another party."

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Three Ways of Explaining Defeat - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online

Three Ways of Explaining Defeat - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online: "In Michigan in September I had a talk with a retired auto worker who did not care that the bailout cost $25 billion, was not sustainable, shorted the legal first-in-line creditors, shorted politically incorrect managerial pensioners, or ensured the Volt debacle. He simply said to me, “Obama saved my son’s job and I don’t care about much else.” That’s the rub in the short-term that seems to the norm in at least the past and future few years. It means that the Republicans, without a once-in-a-lifetime, Reagan-like perfect candidate — or some sort of national crisis in the manner that Iran once derailed Jimmy Carter, or Ross Perot once caused incumbent George H. W. Bush to implode — can’t quite get that extra 2 to 3 percentage points they need on the national scene to succeed."

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Report: Woman Wearing 'MIT' Shirt Barred from Voting in Florida | The Weekly Standard

Report: Woman Wearing 'MIT' Shirt Barred from Voting in Florida | The Weekly Standard: ""BocaNewsNow.com has heard from multiple sources that an election supervisor at the polling place ultimately realized that MIT stands for “Massachusetts Institute of Technology” — a school where students tend to know how to spell — and was not a campaign shirt for the Republican candidate, who spells his name MITT. Campaigning is not permitted within several yards of a polling place.""

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Instapundit

Instapundit: "“The Daily Princetonian reports that 157 members of Princeton University’s faculty or staff have donated to the two presidential candidates. One hundred fifty-five donated to Obama; two donated to Romney. The two who donated to Romney were a visiting lecturer in engineering and a janitor.”"

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Bill Clinton on Stump

Bill Clinton on stump: 'Who wants a president who will knowingly, repeatedly tell you something he knows is not true?' He really said that.
— Byron York (@ByronYork) November 5, 2012

Crony Capitalist Endorses Barack Obama - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Crony Capitalist Endorses Barack Obama - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "As the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney observed yesterday on Twitter, President Barack Obama has secured the endorsement of a well-known crony capitalist: the rap star Jay Z. As a part-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, Jay Z profited at taxpayer expense when the state of New York abused its eminent domain powers to seize privately-owned homes and business and then handed that land over to fellow Nets owner and real estate tycoon Bruce Ratner, who built a new arena for the Nets to call home in Brooklyn."

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David Feith: If Obama Loses . . . - WSJ.com

David Feith: If Obama Loses . . . - WSJ.com: "But being a prophet of pathology requires creative analytical skills. How else could MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell know, as he said in August, that when Republicans criticize the president's golf outings they're actually using code to tie him to the sexual improprieties of Tiger Woods?"

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Instapundit » Blog Archive » IF OBAMA LOSES . . . . WE’RE ALL A BUNCH OF RACISTS: A frightening but probably accurate piece by …

Instapundit » Blog Archive » IF OBAMA LOSES . . . . WE’RE ALL A BUNCH OF RACISTS:  A frightening but probably accurate piece by …: "If President Obama loses re-election, it won’t be because of the weak economy, the unpopularity of ObamaCare, the fallout from Benghazi or any other policy-related matter. At least that isn’t how many Obama supporters on the left are likely to explain it. Instead, we’ll hear that he went down to defeat at the hands of America the Pathological—a country where bigotry, corruption and political dysfunction reign."

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That's a tough sell considering the bigots elected him to office once.

Joe Lieberman on Endorsements and Senate Road Trips - NYTimes.com

Joe Lieberman on Endorsements and Senate Road Trips - NYTimes.com: "Is there anything that I did not ask you that you’d want to touch on?
There are many things you did ask me that I shouldn’t have touched on. Here is a parting gift. There’s an older guy on the park bench, crying — tell me if you’ve heard this one. Finally a jogger stops, sees the guy sobbing. ‘‘What’s wrong?’’ ‘‘My wife of 48 years died, and I was very lonely. I went on JDate and met a younger Russian woman. We liked each other. So she’s moved in with me, and she’s wonderful. She’s attractive, she cooks well, she takes care of me and almost every night we have fabulous sex.’’ So the jogger says: ‘‘Well that’s a wonderful story. Why are you crying?’’ The old guy says, ‘‘I’m crying because I can’t remember where I live.’’"

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Romney campaign internal polling puts Republican nominee one point ahead in Ohio | Mail Online

Romney campaign internal polling puts Republican nominee one point ahead in Ohio | Mail Online: "Mitt Romney is ahead by a single percentage point in Ohio, according to internal polling data provided to MailOnline by a Republican party source.

Internal campaign polling completed last night by campaign pollster Neil Newhouse has Romney three points up in New Hampshire, two points up in Iowa and dead level in Wisconsin and - most startlingly - Pennsylvania."

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Conspiracy Theory Tested

Most of the state-by-state polls show Obama with a few percentage points edge in the critical battle ground states, like Ohio. Romney and Obama, however, are very close in the national polls. Last I checked, the Real Clear Politics poll average had Obama with a .4% lead.

However, many of these polls have the Democrat turnout advantage around +8. That's about what the advantage was in 2008 when Democrats had a very likeable candidate with no record to defend, Democrats were very motivated to vote against Bush, the economy was tanking under a Republican administration, and the Republican nominee was John McCain, who die-hard Republicans disliked from his time as a senator.

So how do you explain the same turn out? Either (1) the polls are way off, perhaps due to pollster bias, in which case Romney should walk away with the election or (2) these factors just don't mean as much as we conservative types would like to think, and this really is a nail-bitter.

I guess we will get some evidence tomorrow.

The Volokh Conspiracy

The Volokh Conspiracy: "Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker."

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The Corner - National Review Online

The Corner - National Review Online: "UPDATE: CBS reports that, as the attack on the U.S. mission unfolded over the course of hours, the president “did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG).” A source, a “high-ranking government official,” explained to the network that “the CSG is the one group that’s supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies . . . They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon.”"

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TV Comics Made Over Twice as Many Romney Jokes as Obama Jokes - By Katrina Trinko - The Corner - National Review Online

TV Comics Made Over Twice as Many Romney Jokes as Obama Jokes - By Katrina Trinko - The Corner - National Review Online: "CMPA looked at jokes Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Craig Ferguson made from late August to early October, and found that Romney was joked about 148 times, while Obama was only the subject of 62 jokes. And it’s not just because of some quirk like Romney being funnier than Obama: there were 290 jokes about Republicans compared to 138 jokes about Democrats.

You can bombard the airwaves with Romney ads, but it’s this sort of cultural influence that makes it difficult for conservatives to win in the current environment."

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