Hollywood conservatives get a taste of the new blacklist | Human Events

Hollywood conservatives get a taste of the new blacklist | Human Events: "Whatever the specifics of the charges against D’Souza, and his legal defense, turn out to be, it’s hard to deny that campaign finance laws are hideously complicated.  They’re not enforced with equal vigor in all respects, against all alleged violators.  That’s the problem with incredibly complex bodies of law in general: many things become hypothetically illegal, but those in power decide what is actionable.  There is a great deal of room for such discretion to be abused.  The abuses seem to swing heavily in one political direction these days."



'via Blog this'

Hollywood conservatives get a taste of the new blacklist | Human Events

Hollywood conservatives get a taste of the new blacklist | Human Events: "That kind of seditious talk was too much for the Internal Revenue Service, which stands eternally vigilant to ensure everyone goes through hell to get a tax-exempt status, because they might just abuse that benefit for unacceptable partisan activity.  Well, unless they’re a group that used to be called “Obama for America,” or maybe a shadowy group run by one of President Obama’s relatives.  That kind of group gets waved through the express lane, because there’s absolutely no reason to suspect they might ever do anything partisan.  Look, wingnuts, fully a dozen – okay, maybe more like ten – progressive groups had trouble getting past the IRS watchdogs, along with the four hundred conservative groups they held in limbo until the 2012 election was safely concluded, so there’s no scandal here."



'via Blog this'

AutoMaidan leader Bulatov found alive after eight days of disappearance

AutoMaidan leader Bulatov found alive after eight days of disappearance: "Missing and presumed dead, Dmytro Bulatov, the leader of AutoMaidan has been found alive more than a week after going missing without a trace. 

Batkivshchyna lawmaker Yuri Stets first posted on his Facebook page at 8:30 p.m. that the 35-year-old activist was found, but provided few details, including whether he was alive. Then 1+1 TV journalist Olha Kosholenko at 10 p.m. posted a picture of Bulatov on her Facebook page, showing his face scarred and badly beaten, and clothed in blood-soiled attire."



'via Blog this'

AutoMaidan leader Bulatov found alive after eight days of disappearance

AutoMaidan leader Bulatov found alive after eight days of disappearance: "Missing and presumed dead, Dmytro Bulatov, the leader of AutoMaidan has been found alive more than a week after going missing without a trace. 

Batkivshchyna lawmaker Yuri Stets first posted on his Facebook page at 8:30 p.m. that the 35-year-old activist was found, but provided few details, including whether he was alive. Then 1+1 TV journalist Olha Kosholenko at 10 p.m. posted a picture of Bulatov on her Facebook page, showing his face scarred and badly beaten, and clothed in blood-soiled attire."



'via Blog this'

Larry King: CNN's 'Got Problems,' Should Play Spongebob Instead | National Review Online

Larry King: CNN's 'Got Problems,' Should Play Spongebob Instead | National Review Online: "King offered CNN some programming advice: put on cartoons. “Put Spongebob on CNN — 24 hours — until a big story breaks. Then we break into Spongebob, and go to the hurricane, and then back to Spongebob,” he said, referring to the hit cartoon Spongebob Squarepants."



'via Blog this'



There is no way to return CNN to its former glory as a cable news monopoly. People have come to view the news (I think mostly correctly) through an ideological prism.CNN has no way to differentiate its brand from the sea of other left-leaning news outlets.  FOX has the right flank. CNN and all other news programming except MSNBC hold the left-pretending-to-be unbiased position.

MSNBC has basically made itself the FOX of the left. Except it isn't currently working for them. One reason is because a Democrat is in the White House, and partisan outfits tend to do better when they can rail against "the powers that be."  However, I think the bigger reason is that all news outlets (except FOX and talk radio) are liberal, so while MSNBC is more overtly liberal, it can't differentiate it from the pack. Plus, I think that liberals really enjoy listening to Brian Williams or NPR and pretending like the news only happens to confirm all their priors because facts have a liberal bias.

One way CNN could improve its rating is by taking an overtly conservative approach to grab some of the conservative news market, which FOX currently has cornered. However, it might be difficult to do a 180 degree turn from its left-leaning brand. And more importantly, I'm sure Ted Turner would rather lose millions of dollars than make money with conservative programming.

Russian Man Stabbed to Death in Poetry-Over-Prose Dispute | Crime | RIA Novosti

Russian Man Stabbed to Death in Poetry-Over-Prose Dispute | Crime | RIA Novosti: "The 67-year-old victim insisted that “the only real literature is prose,” the Sverdlovsk Region’s branch of the Investigative Committee said.
The victim’s assertion outraged the 53-year-old suspect, who favored poetry, and the dispute ended with the ex-teacher stabbing his friend to death, investigators said."



'via Blog this'

Russian Man Stabbed to Death in Poetry-Over-Prose Dispute | Crime | RIA Novosti

Russian Man Stabbed to Death in Poetry-Over-Prose Dispute | Crime | RIA Novosti: "The 67-year-old victim insisted that “the only real literature is prose,” the Sverdlovsk Region’s branch of the Investigative Committee said.
The victim’s assertion outraged the 53-year-old suspect, who favored poetry, and the dispute ended with the ex-teacher stabbing his friend to death, investigators said."



'via Blog this'

Facebook

Facebook: ""What's your biggest remaining goal in life?"
"Honestly, I just want to keep on. I've got a job with The City, and it's hard to do much better than that. I've got a pension. I've got benefits. And there's no better job security. You've got to fire yourself if you work for The City. You have to do wrong. If I work at that store across the street, they can tell me they don't need my services anymore. The City can't do that.""



'via Blog this'

The Worst Republican Senator | The American Spectator

The Worst Republican Senator | The American Spectator: "uth Carolina's Lindsey Graham is a flop. He pretends to be a conservative, but sells out conservatives and insults them while doing so. He pretends to be effective at reaching across party lines, but the only thing he effectively does is help the other party. He inhabits the Senate seat of Strom Thurmond, legendary for great attention to his South Carolina constituents, but Graham spends most of his time trailing behind John McCain like a valet as McCain criss-crosses the country in pursuit of the presidency. He called Ted Kennedy "one of the most principled men I've ever met." In sum, in the words of conservative movement stalwart Richard Viguerie, "Lindsey Graham is part of the problem.""



'via Blog this'

A Sorry State | National Review Online

A Sorry State | National Review Online: "For me, the defining moment of the speech was this pronouncement:    




So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now.



 An across-the-board reform to make sure training programs train, and Vice President Biden is in charge of it. That pretty much sums up the Obama administration, and the American Left, at this moment in time. That is what exhaustion looks like. "



'via Blog this'

Petty and Small Minded

That's what I thought of the speech. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to 3 more lame-duck years.

7 things you didn’t know you didn’t know about the State of the Union – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

7 things you didn’t know you didn’t know about the State of the Union – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs: "Justice Stephen Breyer has the longest uninterrupted streak of State of the Union/“annual message” attendance of any current justice. He has attended every speech since 2001. If he attends on Tuesday night, he will have attended an impressive 19 out of 20 annual addresses since joining the Court in 1994."



'via Blog this'



There has to be a senator who has been in office and attending longer than that, right?

Mitt Romney: Putin a Better President Than Obama

Mitt Romney: Putin a Better President Than Obama: "Mitt Romney appears to be a sore loser.



 The failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate told NBC News that he thinks Russian leader Vladmir Putin has outperformed Obama  “time and time again on the world stage.”"



'via Blog this'



This headline bears no relationship to what Romney actually said. At most, you could summarize Romney as saying Putin is better at foreign policy than Obama. But even that isn't quite accurate. The word "better" seems to imply both that Putin is more capable than Obama, and that he works for ends that are at least worthy of achieving. While Romney is saying the former, I'm sure he doesn't agree with the latter.

Update: Just heard Romney say President Obama is a better president than Putin, but is being outmaneuvered.

The Source of Our Values

Eugene Volokh has argued, quite convincingly to my mind, that even a nonreligious person's morality rests on some moral axiom that cannot be proved, but requires belief.

It seems kind of pedestrian, but it occurred to me recently that the issue of abortion illustrates this quite clearly. There really is no definitive argument that can win the abortion debate. A person can draw a moral line at conception, viability, ability to feel pain, birth or sentience. But that just begs the question, why that line? The answer is really just an affirmation of belief in some moral axiom. Some common axioms include: 

1. A human life deserves to be protected from conception.
2.  Until viability, the mother's decision about her body trump the rights of any fetus.
3. Until the fetus can feel pain, you do no harm by aborting it.
4. Until birth, the fetus is still part of the mother, and she should have the right to do it.
5. Being human is about higher brain function, and until sentience is manifest, the fetus does not manifest the defining human trait.

Each of these is really just a statement of an axiom or article of faith. And even if I haven't quite captured the axiom in my statement, there is an axiom underlying the statement, which cannot be proved. (In drafting this post, I discovered Eugene Volokh already had this thought and wrote about it more eloquently than me here and here.)

Some tentative conclusions that follow from this insight:

1. There may be some policy debates that turn on efficiency or effectiveness of policy, but underlying most debates is a difference between axioms or values.
2. Since there is no logical argument or empirical test that can prove any moral axiom or value, the axiom must be based on feelings of right and wrong.
3. It's a little disconcerting that reason, logic, and evidence have much less to do with policy preferences than our emotions.
4. Except that it's not disconcerting if you have a theory of obtaining truth through feelings. Like religious people, who believe they can learn truth through the Holy Ghost.
5. Nonreligious people are a distinct disadvantage for explaining their moral beliefs.
6. Discussing or debating these theories is unlikely to change a person's opinion because it is unlikely to change the person's underlying values.
7. While religious and nonreligious people can believe in the same values, the above makes me think that one of the fundamental divides in politics is belief in religion.
8. The debate over same sex marriage is nothing more than a disagreement between two groups who have different feeling about the morality of homosexuality.
9. While I deplore racism, it frankly makes me much more understanding of racism, since racists presumably follow their gut feelings.
10. Christians have a distinct advantage for explaining why racism is wrong, since Christ's teaching that he is no respecter of persons, which I think precludes racist attitudes--another advantage for religion.
11. Moral values derived from gut feelings can be changed by surrounding culture and upbringing, just as attitudes about race have changed over time.

Understanding Euromaidan - Business Insider

Understanding Euromaidan - Business Insider: "During the presidential elections in 2010, according to the testimony of international observers, Viktor Yanukovych legitimately beat his main opponent — the world-famous woman and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Then, during his rule, authorities condemned her for a disadvantageous gas contract with Russia and sentenced her to seven years in prison! Afterwards Yanukovych and his crew did not dare to go against the Russians and review the contract or resolve the issue in court. "



'via Blog this'

Gutting Democracy in Ukraine | National Review Online

Gutting Democracy in Ukraine | National Review Online: "A few skulls cracked may get some off the EuroMaidans. But the long-term strategy of the New Authoritarians, in Ukraine as in Russia, is to strangle nascent civil societies in their cradles, using draconian regulations supported by prosecutorial power, all of it masquerading as the rule of law and the defense of national sovereignty against “foreign agents.”"



'via Blog this'

"s a general foodie matter or even a paternalistic matter, people are too lazy or irrational to seek and eat healthy foods. Yet at the same time, supermarkets are taking advantage of customers by placing a healthy food item that we all need and want and make great efforts to secure, by placing it at the back of the store – and lure us past all of the sugary, unhealthy, high profit-margin pre-packaged items along the way. That’s a bit awkward, no?"

'via Blog this'

"s a general foodie matter or even a paternalistic matter, people are too lazy or irrational to seek and eat healthy foods. Yet at the same time, supermarkets are taking advantage of customers by placing a healthy food item that we all need and want and make great efforts to secure, by placing it at the back of the store – and lure us past all of the sugary, unhealthy, high profit-margin pre-packaged items along the way. That’s a bit awkward, no?"

'via Blog this'

Ideas: The Reality Based Community

Ideas: The Reality Based Community: "Bush was worse on foreign policy, since he actually started substantial wars while Obama has only started a small one (Libya) and continued a sizable one (Afghanistan). But Obama managed to run an even bigger deficit, and expand spending more, than Bush, and I think the ACA is doing more damage than any of Bush's domestic policies I can think of. On issues such as transparency Obama has, I think, been worse than Bush, going to quite a lot of trouble to try to punish whistle blowers and reneging on various of his campaign promises about openness. And on the NSA question, I think Republican politicians have been mildly better than Democratic politicians, although both parties have people on either side of the issue.

I'm not sure how much weight to give to deliberate dishonesty, but it's at least possible that Bush really believed Iraq was working on weapons of mass destruction. It is not possible that Obama believed his many times repeated promise that if you like your health plan you can keep it."

'via Blog this'

Exemptions from the ‘contraception mandate’ threaten religious liberty - The Washington Post

Exemptions from the ‘contraception mandate’ threaten religious liberty - The Washington Post: "If the court agrees and grants these businesses the religious exemption they seek, it essentially will be directing the women who work for these businesses to bear the cost of the owners’ anti-contraception religion. After all, but for the business’s religious objection, the cost of contraception would be fully covered by insurance. And the burden on the employees is significant. Some of the most reliable and cost-effective contraceptives have up-front costs approaching $1,000, and many branded contraceptives cost this much or more annually; even generic birth-control pills, which are not appropriate for many women, may cost hundreds of dollars a year. These costs, moreover, would be spread widely throughout the labor force. Consider Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts chain controlled by a religious family, which has brought one of the lawsuits pending before the Supreme Court. If the court rules in the company’s favor, Hobby Lobby’s 13,000 employees would underwrite the religious beliefs of a single family."

'via Blog this'

First, if Hobby Lobby's employees don't like the fact their benefits package excludes contraceptives, they can work elsewhere. Thus, if the court grants an exception under the RFRA, no one will be forced to do anything for Hobby Lobby, as this article implies.

Second, where is the economic analysis? Supply and demand dictate compensation, not the employer's whim. If Hobby Lobby offers $1,000 less in benefits, assuming those benefits are actually of that value to the employees, it is going to have to compensate its employees $1,000 more in some other way, otherwise it will not be able to attract the same caliber of employees.  Hobby Lobby is not getting out of paying anything.

Third, in what way is this underwriting religious beliefs? Underwriting is agreeing to accept liability for another's loss. What liability are employees accepting here from Hobby Lobby? The liability of paying for their own birth control? This argument only makes sense if your premise is that an employee has a right to birth control paid for by her employer. But that right only exists if it does not infringe on the employer's right to freely exercise religion, as contained in the RFRA. Thus, the underwriting argument is circular. It presumes legality of the very the law Hobby Lobby is challenging.

The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "If the commanders of our culture — in the news media, in Hollywood, and in academia — did not feel so tenderly toward the Cuban dictatorship, González Leiva would be famous. As the heroes in apartheid South Africa were.

Last week, the Castros’ police beat the hell out of González Leiva and his wife, Tania Maceda Guerra. This is perfectly routine in that island paradise — the place where Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife honeymooned, the place where Jay-Z and Beyoncé celebrated their most recent wedding anniversary. (This was a few months after Beyoncé sang — lip-synched — at President Obama’s inauguration.) The police pummeled a blind man with their fists, as his hands were tied behind his back. "

'via Blog this'

'The Wolf of Wall Street' Slammed for Being Offensive to People With Disabilities - US News and World Report

'The Wolf of Wall Street' Slammed for Being Offensive to People With Disabilities - US News and World Report: ""Among moviegoers who have paid to see 'The Wolf of Wall Street' in recent weeks are people with disabilities, their parents, siblings, and friends. It's time for Hollywood to wake up and see that their customers deserve better," Berns also said."
. . .

"While we understand that the film's content is deliberately distasteful and excessive, it does not excuse it. It is astonishing that the film's producers, director and actors deemed this kind of language and portrayal to be acceptable – they can do better, and we urge them to," Bennett said.

'via Blog this'

If the principle is, no making movies with any distasteful behavior, even if the movie is designed to condemn the distasteful behavior (which I understand the Wolf of Wall Street does), a director could never make a movie condemning the holocaust, racism or slavery.

Social Attitude Test

Social Attitude Test: "
Your test scores indicate that you are a tender-minded cultural centrist; this is the political profile one might associate with a protective parent. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a compassionate and sympathetic attitude towards humanity in general.

Your attitudes towards economics appear capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as an anarchist.

To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, a sensible principled centrist with few strong convictions.

This concludes our analysis; we hope you found your results accurate, useful, and interesting."

'via Blog this'

I'm a principled, centrist anarchist, without strong convictions. Not sure I put much stock in this test.

The Corner | National Review Online

The Corner | National Review Online: "The Huffington Post ran a reasonably typical headline yesterday that read, “Supremes Set to Bless GOP Obstructionism?” Again, if you see every question of principle through the lens of partisan advantage and you don’t believe in objective legal standards then I suppose you’d come to that conclusion. But you shouldn’t. "

'via Blog this'

Higher education, lower standards: Column

Higher education, lower standards: Column: "Of course, as the old joke has it, education is the only product where most consumers are out to get as little as possible for their money. But what about the people, like employers, who rely on a college degree as an indicator that its holder has actually received a college education?"

'via Blog this'

I'm convinced by Brian Caplan that the money isn't for the education, but for the degree. So, unless the athletes like class, they're getting a great deal.

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "… if by “poor” you mean a corporate behemoth such as Land’O'Lakes, and if by “helps” you mean forcing up the price that families, including poor families, pay for milk in order to enrich politically powerful producers.  Here’s the account in today’s Wall Street Journal.  A slice:

The feds already buy one of every five gallons, and agriculture laws already make it illegal for processors to sell milk below a regionally dictated price. Then there’s a quota on dairy imports and prohibitive tariffs. In 2005 the OECD estimated that consumers pay a 26% “milk tax” as a result of all this central planning."

'via Blog this'

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge

Cafe Hayek — where orders emerge: "It’s well and good that “diversity experts” are paid to raise employees’ awareness of their unrecognized biases against people of color, against young people, against old people, against obese people, and against people who graduated from different colleges.  But why not expand “unconscious-bias training” so that “Progressives” themselves can personally benefit from the exercise?

How about “unconscious-bias training” to raise “Progressives’” awareness of their own bigotries – such as their biases against successful entrepreneurs and investors, against consensual capitalist acts, against people who oppose social engineering, and against those of us who sense that programs such as ”unconscious-bias training” smack less of useful worker training and more of “Progressive” indoctrination?

As the first line of your report reads, “Everyone has hidden biases.”"

'via Blog this'

House Conservatives Make Populist Case against Immigration Reform | National Review Online

House Conservatives Make Populist Case against Immigration Reform | National Review Online: "The letter, which makes no mention of the must publicized aspect of comprehensive reform (a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants), strikes a populist tone in light of the president’s focus on income inequality. It questions the wisdom of White House-backed reforms that would dramatically increase the number of low-skilled legal immigrants admitted to the country over the next decade, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, decrease the average wages of American workers."

'via Blog this'

And interesting point. Of course, I don't think that income inequality is a problem. But if inequality is a problem immigration reform almost invariably exacerbates the problem by allowing more poor into the country.

Instapundit

Instapundit: "GROWING UP UNVACCINATED: I had the healthiest childhood imaginable. And yet I was sick all the time. A couple of centuries ago, every kid was breastfed and ate organic food. Most of ‘em died."

'via Blog this'

Defending the Faith: 'Is the universe friendly?' | Deseret News

Defending the Faith: 'Is the universe friendly?' | Deseret News: "“As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit,” said physicist Freeman Dyson, of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, “it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.”"

'via Blog this'

Defending the Faith: 'Is the universe friendly?' | Deseret News

Defending the Faith: 'Is the universe friendly?' | Deseret News: "It strikes me as significant, too, that Genesis and the book of Revelation form the bookends of the Christian Bible: Just as the former declares that God superintended the beginning of our world, John’s Revelation — another often perplexing book about which much has been written and argued — testifies that he will supervise its end. Above and beyond all the obscure and controversial details, Revelation assures us that, no matter how bad things become, God is in charge."

'via Blog this'

EMS responses delayed by GWB lane closures in Fort Lee - NorthJersey.com

EMS responses delayed by GWB lane closures in Fort Lee - NorthJersey.com: "FORT LEE – Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department.

The woman later died, borough records show.

In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained.

On Sept. 9, the first day of the traffic paralysis, EMS crews took seven to nine minutes to arrive at the scene of a vehicle accident where four people were injured, when the response time should have been less than four minutes, he wrote."

'via Blog this'

If this was ordered by Christie, I support impeachment.

Opinion: Can de Blasio keep promise to end inequality? - CNN.com

Opinion: Can de Blasio keep promise to end inequality? - CNN.com: "The Rev. Fred Lucas, one of the clergymen who delivered the opening invocation, asked God to turn "the plantation called New York City" into a better place. Actor Harry Belafonte used his turn at the podium to call for an end to what he called the city's "deeply Dickensian justice system." And the newly elected public advocate, Letitia James, ticked off a litany of criticisms of Bloomberg's police, education and economic policies.

The attacks, which dominated an inauguration ceremony that is normally a celebration of municipal unity, jarred many observers. "As outside observer, hard to understand the bitter partisanship at De Blasio ceremony," noted an Israeli journalist on Twitter. "There's a time for everything, and this isn't it.""

'via Blog this'