2013: The Year of Shamelessness | National Review Online

2013: The Year of Shamelessness | National Review Online: "Cyrus made us yearn for the good taste and restraint of the era of Lady Gaga, not to mention the golden age of classic Britney Spears."

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The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "Let me provide an example from my own life. As I’ve related before, I arrived at Harvard Law School a rather idealistic young fellow (the semester after Barack Obama graduated, and the year before Ted Cruz enrolled), eager to do battle with the best and brightest on the left, the kinds of folks who’d never darken the door of my Christian college. I hoped (and prayed) that I was up to the challenge.

“The challenge,” it turns out, was not intellectual at all. In fact, I have a hard time remembering more than a few civil, interesting classroom exchanges. Instead, I remember the boos, the jeers, and the hastily scrawled hate messages left in my mailbox (“Why don’t you die, you f***ing fascist”). I remember the efforts made to get other conservatives fired from their future jobs through obscene and angry messages left on judges’ voice mails. "

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How to Be Happy - Bloomberg

How to Be Happy - Bloomberg: "Other patterns were surprising, at least to me. Women in the U.S. have long reported greater levels of happiness than men. Their advantage has, however, been shrinking, and for an unhappy reason: falling happiness among women. Scholars are unsure why that’s happening. Women also rebound more quickly than men from the death of a spouse -- perhaps, Brooks speculates, because they have more close friends."

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The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "Is someone really violating your right of “free speech” if they’re not using the power of the state to censor you? What if they’re “only” trying to get you fired, shamed out of public life, universally reviled, and left as a laughingstock — all without taking even a moment to address the conservative’s underlying argument? To some, that’s just a battle of free speech (conservative comment) versus free speech (lefty efforts to ruin your life), and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be reminded of the law, thank you very much.

The other side of the argument – the Mark Steyn, Sarah Palin, Charles C.W. Cooke (among others) side — knows and understands that the law is just one part of the mix in the battle over free speech, and sometimes the law matters much less than the culture."

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Camille & Co. | National Review Online

Camille & Co. | National Review Online: "No, no: I can’t abide the false accusations of racism. Show me a liberal who doesn’t tar his opponents with racism, and I’ll show you a rare bird indeed. The belief that conservatives are racists seems to be the Supreme Belief of the American Left. It is what they cling to (as we righties are supposed to cling to guns and religion)."

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Meaning of Term "Homophobic"

Pretty sure I've read all the stuff Phil Robertson said about homosexuality in that GQ article. I have yet to read anything I thought was homophobic.

Certainly a straight guy saying he finds women more attractive than men isn't homophobic--no matter how crudely said--because that's how all straight guys feel. Unless all straight guys are homophobic. But they aren't.

And certainly considering homosexual conduct immoral isn't homophobic. It doesn't show a person fears or feels contempt for gays--even if he finds their behavior immoral. 

I must be missing something. Of course I also think you can say racial group A is, on average, smarter than racial group B without being a racist. 

The Age of Intolerance | National Review Online

The Age of Intolerance | National Review Online: "As Christian bakers ordered to provide wedding cakes for gay nuptials and many others well understand, America’s much-vaunted “freedom of religion” is dwindling down to something you can exercise behind closed doors in the privacy of your own abode or at a specialist venue for those of such tastes for an hour or so on Sunday morning, but when you enter the public square you have to leave your faith back home hanging in the closet. Yet even this reductive consolation is not permitted to Robertson: GLAAD spokesgay Wilson Cruz declared that “Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil’s lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe.” Robertson was quoting the New Testament, but hey, what do those guys know? In today’s America, land of the Obamacare Pajama Boy, Jesus is basically Nightshirt Boy, a fey non-judgmental dweeb who’s cool with whatever. What GLAAD is attempting would be called, were it applied to any other identity group, “cultural appropriation.”"

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Facebook

Facebook: "One of the most valuable things my therapist has ever told me is this: Every feeling that you have is valid. Don't let anyone, including yourself, try to invalidate your own feelings, because you will always have a right to them."

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Could not disagree more!

TaxProf Blog: Bar Report: 'New Lawyers Are in a Financial and Emotional Depression'

TaxProf Blog: Bar Report: 'New Lawyers Are in a Financial and Emotional Depression': "Terrified. Disheartened. Disillusioned. These are some of the words new lawyers are using to describe their struggles in the legal profession, as revealed in a State Bar of Wisconsin report discussing the challenges facing new lawyers.

Attorney Arthur Harrington, co-chair of a task force created in 2012 to study the issue, recently stood before the State Bar’s 52-member Board of Governors and read anonymous comments from new lawyers who responded to a survey questionnaire.  ..."

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Ideas

Ideas: "The most interesting conclusion about the institutions was the evidence for parallel evolution, the fact that some were strikingly similar to institutions from unrelated Old World societies. But more interesting, to me, was looking at the sources of information."

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You have the Right . . .

Phil Robertson has the right to speak his mind on homosexuality. A&E (depending on its contact) has the right to suspend or fire Robinson. Duck Dynasty fans have the right to complain about A&E and stop watching it. A&E has the right to declare bankruptcy. Democrats have the right to complain about the Dynasty fans being anti-gay. Republicans have the right to complain about Democrats being anti-religion. Democrats have the right to complain about Republicans complaining about . . . etc.

Pajama Boy, An Insufferable Man-Child - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine

Pajama Boy, An Insufferable Man-Child - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine: "Never has the difference between what Chris Matthews memorably dubbed the Mommy party and the Daddy party been so stark. Pajama Boy’s mom probably still tucks him in at night, and when she isn’t there for him, Obamacare will be. A less nurturing reaction is, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put it in a counter tweet, “Get out of your pajamas.” There’s a reason President Obama is underwater by a 2-1 margin among men in the latest Quinnipiac poll."

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Matthews Likens Tea Party to Palestinians | National Review Online

Matthews Likens Tea Party to Palestinians | National Review Online: "The GOP is as difficult a negotiating partner as the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel, according to Chris Matthews.

“It’s like Israel,” he said of Democrats looking to put forward a more significant budget deal and tax reform. “It’s very hard to find a good negotiating partner across the border — in this case, across the aisle — who will stand up to a reasonable compromise.”

In recent weeks, Matthews has spanned the globe in the colorful analogies he’s used to describe the GOP, equating the party to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and arguing that apartheid-era South Africa was more willing to work with Nelson Mandela than Republicans have been with President Obama."

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I can see how Republicans, who are generally pro-Israel, would find this offensive. But democrats, who seem to side more readily with Palestinians, I think would object to the analogy.

Althouse: "I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes."

Althouse: "I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes.": "Of course, Robertson is getting criticism for these remarks, which are called "anti-gay," but he's rejecting all of what is traditionally understood in the Christian religion as sin, including adultery and fornication. In the process, he talks about his own natural sexual orientation and seems perhaps to concede that it's easy for him to avoid one sin that he knows other people feel drawn toward. But overall, his effort is to call people into traditional religion and to save them from what he believes is sin. Myself, I support gay rights, but I do not like the simple portrayal of traditional religionists as mean or bigoted (even though I do understand that it may be the most effective way to defeat them politically)."

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George W. Bush is a hipster icon now and Vanity Fair is angry about it. - Naked DC

George W. Bush is a hipster icon now and Vanity Fair is angry about it. - Naked DC: "Apparently, the kids these days just think George W. Bush is the bee’s knees. He paints, he loves cats, he’s awesome at the Internet, he writes consoling letters to football kickers who lose important match-ups for their teams and he takes selfies with Bono at major world leaders’ memorial services. And the hipsters are falling as hard for GWB as they did for PBR and Beats by Dre."

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Obama the Oblivious | National Review Online

Obama the Oblivious | National Review Online: "Hence the odd spectacle of a president expressing surprise and disappointment in the federal government — as if he’s not the one running it. Hence the repeated no-one-is-more-upset-than-me posture upon deploring the nonfunctioning website, the IRS outrage, the AP intrusions, and any number of scandals from which Obama tries to create safe distance by posing as an observer. He gives the impression of a man on a West Wing tour trying out the desk in the Oval Office, only to be told that he is president of the United States."

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Althouse: "Mandela Interpreter Says He Was Hallucinating/Says He Entered Altered State As He Took His Place on Stage."

Althouse: "Mandela Interpreter Says He Was Hallucinating/Says He Entered Altered State As He Took His Place on Stage.": "Without any training or experience, this guy applied for the job, got the job and fooled people for years by just putting on an elaborate show. The fact that he was standing on stage next to a lot of important people put him beyond question in the minds of most people.Those who really understood that what he was saying actually made no sense were ignored.

And now we have this South African interpreter doing the same thing."

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Tele Novella

A new band I like. A sample.



 I wish they had music available to purchase, but I can't seem to find any. Must be an anti-capitalism thing.

George Will: Obama’s tardy epiphany about government’s flaws - The Washington Post

George Will: Obama’s tardy epiphany about government’s flaws - The Washington Post: "The education of Barack Obama is a protracted process as he repeatedly alights upon the obvious with a sense of original discovery. In a recent MSNBC interview, he restocked his pantry of excuses for his disappointing results, announcing that “we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly”"

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The Left's Reality Problem - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine

The Left's Reality Problem - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine: "onsider the minimum wage. Rarely do liberals truly grapple with the possibility—supported by some, but not all research—that it suppresses employment. If they did, they would be more cautious about advocating a higher minimum wage in a soft job market and less scornful of opponents.

When Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the other day that extended unemployment benefits could keep people from searching for a job, he was denounced, literally, as a Scrooge. It doesn’t matter that there is plenty of evidence—some of it once mustered by Alan Krueger, the former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers—on Paul’s side. He is presumed guilty of a moral failing."

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The Left's Reality Problem - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine

The Left's Reality Problem - Rich Lowry - POLITICO Magazine: "Many liberals still don’t want to acknowledge the rather straightforward fact that if you mandate more insurance benefits in the so-called Affordable Care Act, insurance will cost more. QED. You might be able to cushion the cost increase for some people with subsidies, but not for everyone, and the underlying insurance is still more—not less—expensive."

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Race and the Priesthood

Race and the Priesthood: "During the first two decades of the Church’s existence, a few black men were ordained to the priesthood. One of these men, Elijah Abel, also participated in temple ceremonies in Kirtland, Ohio, and was later baptized as proxy for deceased relatives in Nauvoo, Illinois. There is no evidence that any black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime.

In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Following the death of Brigham Young, subsequent Church presidents restricted blacks from receiving the temple endowment or being married in the temple. Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions. None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church."

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Selfies at Funerals blog creator retires after Obama flub: 'Our work here is done' - Washington Times

Selfies at Funerals blog creator retires after Obama flub: 'Our work here is done' - Washington Times: "My Tumblr was once a collection of evidence, convincing the world that something very strange actually existed, but now everyone believes, and everyone has seen, and Thorning-Schmidt has the evidence on her phone. So it was time to do the only sensible thing: It was time to declare victory, to revel in drawing a line from the bottom to the top,” he continued.

“I won’t miss it. I’m not even tempted to post another image. That is, unless the pope takes a funeral selfie. Then I’ll return for one more. Your move, Your Holiness,” he said."

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Obamacare Exchanges Won't Hit Enrollment Targets - Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog - A Conservative Blog

Obamacare Exchanges Won't Hit Enrollment Targets - Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog - A Conservative Blog: "The federal exchanges fall about 44% short of the enrollment target and all exchanges fall about 43% short.  The only question is whether the shortfall will be distributed evenly among all age groups?  Probably not.  In states where we have information, such as Colorado, Kentucky, and California, enrollment of 18-34-year-olds are falling far short of 35% rate that the Obama Administration estimate it needs.

Death spiral, here we come."

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The Paranoid Style of Feminism | National Review Online

The Paranoid Style of Feminism | National Review Online: "If the House Republicans had their way, women would have to ask permission to leave their homes, speak out of turn, or take an aspirin.

(Sadly, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.)

Right now, the only thing that’s keeping the Republican Party out of your doctor’s office and out of your bedroom is the Democratic majority in the Senate."

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This is a sad commentary on the the author's grasp of reality.

Who Is the Constituency for the Budget Deal? | National Review Online

Who Is the Constituency for the Budget Deal? | National Review Online: "That being said, conservatives should not assume that $1 appropriated to national security is doing $1 worth of national-security work. There is a great deal of waste, redundancy, and superfluity in our security spending, and any long-term agenda for fiscal sanity must take that into account. As a matter of political expediency — which is not a trivial concern — it probably is the case that Republicans would cut a much better deal swapping military cuts for non-military reductions when negotiating from a position of power, such as when they are in possession of a Senate majority or the presidency or both."

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Military is a public good, and so as a matter of overarching principle, I think conservatives-republicans are right to support it. But whether to spend on the military is hardly a binary question. I don't know how the average person can come to any sort of understanding about whether our military spending is adequate, without knowing quite a lot about (1) current spending levels; (2) current capacity; (3) needed capacity (4) wasted spending, and probably a whole host of other factors not coming to mind.

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "Prof. Holzer might defend his claim by saying that the negative employment effects are real yet “small.”  But many of the studies reviewed by the authors of the paper clearly find large negative effects on the job prospects of the very workers meant to be helped by minimum-wage legislation – especially high-school dropouts, teenagers, and black youths.  When these findings are combined with recognition of other ways that employers can also respond to mandated minimum wages – ways such reducing fringe benefits and demanding greater hourly efforts from workers – suggestions that minimum-wage legislation is a boon to low-skilled workers become too incredible to believe."

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Greg Mankiw's Blog: The CEA Fact Checkers Miss One

Greg Mankiw's Blog: The CEA Fact Checkers Miss One: "'Some say it actually hurts low-wage workers -- businesses will be less likely to hire them. But there’s no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs jobs.'

From my perspective, the last sentence is just incorrect.  There is a lot of work by reputable economists that finds adverse employment effects of a higher minimum wage.  In a poll of top economists, as many say they believe that the adverse employment effect is noticeable as those that say the opposite."

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Why I No Longer Favor a Carbon Tax «

Why I No Longer Favor a Carbon Tax «: "Well, among the many reasons that I no longer favor it is that I’ve started to realize I live in big boy world, and not the fantasy world of good economics I thought about when I first became a professor:"

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Althouse: "Yes, Men Should Do More Housework."

Althouse: "Yes, Men Should Do More Housework.": "All couples are in some kind of an exchange — like the man in the earlier post who seems to have been buying a lady shoes as a way to earn his place in the relationship. We idealize relationships that are mostly or entirely love for love. And how lucky you are if you're in a 100% love-for-love relationship. It's highly rewarding to feel the love, and the feeling is much better if you're in a position to give it, and you never run out. And you get love too.

But there are all sorts of exchanges among couples, from the stark clarity of the money-for-sex exchange that is prostitution on up to the pure ideal of love-for-love.

Where are you on that continuum?"

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I've been thinking about the exchange aspect of marriage in the context of an old, wealthy guy marrying a young, pretty money-hungry bride. Is that arrangement really morally different from paying a prostitute? If so, in what regard?

The Damage of a Handshake | National Review Online

The Damage of a Handshake | National Review Online: "American presidents should avoid shaking the hand of dictators, especially those that have American blood on theirs. One example of many: Raul Castro was Minister of Defense in 1996 when Cuban Air Force Mig’s, cold-bloodedly and over international airspace destroyed two civilian U.S. airplanes with four American rescue workers on board. President Clinton rightly condemned the attack as cowardly, while Raul Castro decorated his pilots for bravery."

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Althouse: The desperation would be laughable, but it's not funny to write "How Adam Lanza Wrecked Obama's Second Term."

Althouse: The desperation would be laughable, but it's not funny to write "How Adam Lanza Wrecked Obama's Second Term.": "20 children were murdered, and 6 adults. Leave it alone. Conduct your pathetic search for someone or something to blame somewhere else, Alex Seitz-Wald. Have some decency. Find another grave upon which to dance the Dance of Obama Exculpation. "

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It was Obama who chose to use (or try to use) the event as a political cudgel against Republicans. Adam Lanza had little to do with the politics of it.

The PJ Tatler » After Wishing Someone Would Defecate in Sarah Palin’s Mouth, Martin Bashir Resigns from MSNBC

The PJ Tatler » After Wishing Someone Would Defecate in Sarah Palin’s Mouth, Martin Bashir Resigns from MSNBC: "MSNBC’s audience is a bit like Spinal Tap’s, in that has become more selective. It’s neither compassionate nor discerning, at least if one judges them by the product they watch every day."

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Mormon Scholars Testify » Blog Archive » Richard Lyman Bushman

Mormon Scholars Testify » Blog Archive » Richard Lyman Bushman: " Hundreds of books and articles have been written arguing one way or the other. Scores of scholars labor away on the question. The issue is hotly debated. Tons of evidence are brought to bear. As with so many historical questions, a definitive answer may never emerge, but the search is not merely a theoretical possibility. It fuels a scholarly industry. Mormons are in the anomalous position of saying that a spiritual testimony, not empirical proof, undergirds their faith, while all the while furiously working to dig up evidence in support of the Book of Mormon. This is practical empiricism as contrasted to the theoretical empiricism of the bones of Jesus argument. I do not anticipate a conclusive, open-and-shut case in favor of the Book of Mormon, but I like the willingness of Mormon scholars to pursue the question. They are actively putting their faith on the line. They take the risk of failing. I admire their courage, and furthermore their arguments must be taken seriously."

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In Which I am Becoming a Misanthrope «

In Which I am Becoming a Misanthrope «: "There is serious discussion of not only raising the minimum wage, but to do so significantly in several places, as high as $15 per hour. I don’t need to try to discuss the economics, research, ethics, etc. of the minimum wage. Why? Because no one cares on either side. Never has an argument about it, even on ethical grounds, persuaded people. So all I will do is illustrate what I’ve seen just in the past week"

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War on Contraception? No, an Attack on Religion - Bloomberg

War on Contraception? No, an Attack on Religion - Bloomberg: "From reading the New York Times, you might think that religious conservatives had started a culture war over whether company health-insurance plans should cover contraception. What’s at issue in two cases the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear, the Times editorializes, is “the assertion by private businesses and their owners of an unprecedented right to impose the owners’ religious views on workers who do not share them.”

That way of looking at the issue will be persuasive if your memory does not extend back two years. Up until 2012, no federal law or regulation required employers to cover contraception (or drugs that may cause abortion, which one of the cases involves). If 2011 was marked by a widespread crisis of employers’ imposing their views on contraception on employees, nobody talked about it."

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Ice Everywhere, But No Hockey Sticks | National Review Online

Ice Everywhere, But No Hockey Sticks | National Review Online: "Global warming hysterics at the BBC warned us in 2007 that by summer 2013, the Arctic would be ice-free. As with so many other doomsday predictions by warmists, the results turn out to be quite the opposite."

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Egyptology and the Book of Abraham: An Interview with Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein | FairMormon Blog

Egyptology and the Book of Abraham: An Interview with Egyptologist Kerry Muhlestein | FairMormon Blog: "Muhlestein: Starting at least by 200–150 BC there were many Egyptians who were interested in Abraham. In particular, we know that a group of priests were collecting stories from other religious traditions and using those stories in their own religious spells. We know that some of them had specifically collected stories about Abraham and Moses. At least some of those who were doing this were priests from Thebes. This is most interesting because Joseph Smith Papyrus I, X, and XI were owned by the priest Hor from Thebes from the same time period."

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Peter Higgs criticises Richard Dawkins over anti-religious 'fundamentalism' | Science | The Guardian

Peter Higgs criticises Richard Dawkins over anti-religious 'fundamentalism' | Science | The Guardian: "Higgs has chosen to cap his remarkable 2012 with another bang by criticising the "fundamentalist" approach taken by Dawkins in dealing with religious believers.

"What Dawkins does too often is to concentrate his attack on fundamentalists. But there are many believers who are just not fundamentalists," Higgs said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. "Fundamentalism is another problem. I mean, Dawkins in a way is almost a fundamentalist himself, of another kind.""

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