Outside Money With Ideological Strings FINE, if it's lefty!

Southern Methodist University has decided that it will offer space for the ideological vision of a leftist donor. Here is the description of the program of bizarre indoctrination that students will receive as a poor substitute for an education.

Now, I do object to the fraudulent claim that this is a "major." It is an extended year round summer camp for kids who are too ideology-addled and lazy even to enroll in SMU's famously easy disciplinary majors. But, okay, caveat emptor. If you want to offer a crap major like that, and rich kids want to take it so they feel less guilty about their pointless trust-fund guided lives, fair enough.

What twists up my boxers into a slip-knot is the idea that all the media and other colleges are just fine with a "donor" buying a major at a university to serve that donor's own narrow ideological world-view. When the Kochs give money for legitimate courses, with legitimate instructors, it's time to cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of "Whore! You took money from the Kochs!"

But when lefties do it, it's all good. (Shakes head slowly, mystified).

Legalize it?

Quien anda lo mas despistado?

People, who is the most clueless, the NY Times or the WaPo?

Let's start with the Times, which has produced this gem:

Obama Budget Pivots From Stimulus to Deficit Cuts

WASHINGTON – President Obama, pivoting at midterm from costly economic stimulus measures to deficit reduction, on Monday released a fiscal year 2012 budget that projects an annual deficit of more than $1 trillion before government shortfalls decline to “sustainable” levels for the rest of the decade.

There is just not enough koolaid in the world to wash this kind of crap down. Obama is not pivoting from the stimulus; he's freezing spending at the stimulus levels. Plus his PLANNED deficit for 2011 is $1.65 Trillion and for 2012 it's $1.1 Trillion. After that, it's not clear he'll even BE IN OFFICE. It's incredibly brave of him to shrink the deficit in 2021!!

Not to be outdone, the WaPo fires back with this:

Obama administration studies recent revolutions for lessons applicable in Egypt

As the Obama administration works to shepherd the Egypt uprising toward a democratic government, it is drawing on the experiences of a half-dozen other nations whose revolutions have been the focus of internal White House study in recent weeks.

Oh yeah, I'm feeling all Psalmy up in here...

Obama is my shepherd, I am so screwed. He maketh me lie down with the Israelis, He leadeth me back to Camp David, He restoreth my subsidies. Yea though I walk through the valley of the Muslim Brotherhood, I shall fear no Islam, for Obama is with me.....

Journalists, please!

Proof that there is a God

Right here.

Here we go again

Why do so many people think that economic progress is some kind of zero sum game?

Here is a recent NY Times article about the size of the Japanese and Chinese economies.

The headline is "Chinese economic juggernaut is gaining on Japan" and the first sentence reads: "For years, Japan as been readying itself for the day that it is eclipsed economically by China."

Here is some more:

 ..many economists expect Japan to cede its rank as the world’s second-largest economy sometime next year, as much as five years earlier than previously forecast.

At stake are more than regional bragging rights: the reversal of fortune will bring an end to a global economic order that has prevailed for 40 years, with ramifications across arenas from trade and diplomacy to, potentially, military power.

China’s rise could accelerate Japan’s economic decline ...

From there it gets downright funny:

China has also surpassed Japan in having the biggest trade surplus and foreign currency reserves, as well as the highest steel production. And next year, China could overtake Japan as the largest automobile producer.

To be fair, there is a flash of sanity near the end of the piece:

Some economists say Japan does not need to fear its neighbor. China became Japan’s largest trading partner in 2006, and China-bound exports were among the first to show signs of recovery in the recent slump. As the global auto market stagnates, carmakers like Toyota and Nissan are making a renewed play for the Chinese market.

Indeed.

People, the UK, France and Germany all seem to have survived being "surpassed" by China.  They probably didn't even notice. 

Further, even if China doubled its current GDP, where would you rather live, in Japan or in China? For me that is a no-brainer. Japan would still be massively richer than a doubled GDP China, have better infrastructure, less pollution, and more freedom. 

China's rise is undeniable, but it is still a very poor country with a long way to go. And the mere fact that China is rising does not mean that others have to be falling.

Angus plays games

Wow! We just got the Wii motion plus thingie and EA sports Grand Slam Tennis. It is way cool. The EA game with motion plus completely destroys the tennis game that came in the original Wii sports package. I haven't figured out how to serve fast, but you can come to net, put spin on the ball and really place your shots on the court with a precision and realism that was lacking in the original Wii tennis game. 

I am hacked though because Chris F. Evert beat me in a tie-breaker on my maiden match with the EA game!

Just comparing original tennis to the new tennis with motion plus, it is an entirely different game and experience. Way way better. A huge upgrade.

Jaa-Jaa

People, I have been asleep at the switch, out of the loop, up the proverbial creek. Did you know that there has been an Ong Bak II out for a while now? 

Me neither.

It is going to be released in some theatres in the States on October 23rd according to Yahoo Movies.

Even better, Ong Bak III is supposedly in production now too.

Tony Jaa is an amazing martial artist. I loved the original Ong Bak, even though it made little to no sense.

There is an awesome sequence in the Ong Bak II trailer (viewable from the Yahoo Movie link above) where Jaa runs up the front of an elephant, does a back flip and kicks the bejesus out of a bad guy on his way down.

Sweet!

The best video I've seen this year

Holy Crap!

Fried Onion Lad

Lance seems to be having some issues about adjusting to the new kind of "change" our President is helping us out with.

And, for those of you who wonder what EBT cards are....you are going to be hearing a lot more about them.

Get ready for another serving of Hugo

From the informative blog Caracas Chronicles:

Sí wins : 54% to 45%

Quico says: With 80% of the votes tallied, reliable sources are confident, Sí will win by a wide margin.

Everybody hates Novak

We are down to the final 4 in both the men's and women's draw at the first tennis major of the year. Novak Djokovic is out, by his own hand, for the 4th time in a major. That's right people, he's retired 4 times in major championships and he's ONLY 21 YEARS OLD! And HE WAS THE DEFENDING CHAMPION!

Yikes.

Last year at the US Open, Andy Roddick ripped Djokovic for his imaginary injuries before playing him and Novak beat him down bad. This year Djokovic quit against Roddick and then Federer ripped him after he was out of the draw (proving that Federer is smarter than Roddick?).

Here's Fed on Novak:

“He’s not a guy who’s never given up before…it’s disappointing,”

“If Novak were up two sets to love I don’t think he would have retired 4-0 down in the fourth. Thanks to Andy that he retired in the end. Andy pushed him to the limits. Hats off to Andy.”

Let's see if Roddick can take advantage of Federer's man crush on him and maybe beat Roger in the semis? Actually it looks to me like the final will be Roger - Rafa, which is the best anyone could ask for in today's tennis.

Easy Answers to tough problems

1. Why didn't I think of that? White House "orders Banks to start loaning Money"! Such a simple and elegant solution. Thank you White House! Is it too late to change the constitution and give Shrub a third term?


2. If you're not home by midnight I'm dropping you off at the hospital: "State officials say a 15-year-old girl left at an Omaha hospital is the 21st child abandoned under Nebraska's unique safe-haven law." The government is planning to amend the law to put a on 3 day old age cap for drop offs. That is just so unfair.


3. I'm sure the IMF knows how to fix this: "IMF has '6 days to save Pakistan'" Sure, that'll work. If anyone knows how to rescue a developing country it's the good old IMF! That's a no-brainer (note that Iceland today raised their interest rate from 12% to 18% and explained the bizarre move as follows: "The central bank governor said the increase was part of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund, from which it borrowed $2bn (£1.3bn)."

Run Pakistan Run!!!!!!!!

Joe Biden promises an "international crisis" if Obama is elected

I am not sure exactly what Joe was going for here, but it sure came out weird to say the least.


ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions.

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. "And he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you - not financially to help him - we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

???????????????????

The NFC Least

When I lived in the DC area I was continually assaulted by the relentles pimping of the Washington Redskins by WAPO columnists. Now in this new era of communications, they are still doing it to me long distance via PTI.

The big trope this year has been that the NFC East is the toughest division in any sport since Ali and Frazier were mixing it up. "Three playoff teams", "Best division in football" and the like. It's not just Tony & Mike though, here are links to others banging that selfsame drum.

Thus it made me happy yesterday to scroll through Yahoo sports and see that the NY Giants had been thrashed by the lowly Cleveland Browns, the 'Skins gave the hapless St. Louis Rams their first W, and Dallas fell to the Arizona Cardinals.

I know, I know, "any given Sunday", but for one week at least mabye things will quiet down.

World's greatest sausage factory strikes again

It looks like the bailout is going through this time after Congress has ground up the Paulson plan and added their own secret herbs and spices. ummmmmmmmm, tasty. Here's some details from the AP wire story:

"A breakthrough came when Democrats agreed to incorporate a GOP demand — letting the government insure some bad home loans rather than buy them — designed to limit the amount of federal money used in the rescue.

Executives whose companies benefit from the rescue could not get "golden parachutes" and would see their pay packages limited.

The government would receive stock warrants in return for the bailout relief, giving taxpayers a chance to share in financial companies' future profits.

To help struggling homeowners, the plan requires the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers' monthly payments so they can keep their homes.

"Nobody got everything they wanted," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. He predicted it would pass, though not by a large majority."

Bad economics makes good editorials

Like in today's WSJ where we are told "Divided Government is Best for the Market" and treated to a lovely exercise in torturing the data. It turns out that, since 1948, the stock market has done better under Democratic presidents (15.6%) than Republican ones (11.1%). Now this number really means nothing. First, we'd like to know real, inflation adjusted returns, not nominal returns. Second, and most important, we need to control for other relevant factors. Despite the best efforts of the MSM, we do not live in a unicausal world; politics is not the unique cause of all outcomes.

However, the editorial writer has a unique approach to attacking the problem:

"But it's not so simple... First, not all Democrats act like Democrats, and not all Republicans act like Republicans. John F. Kennedy, for example, was an enthusiastic supply-side tax cutter, and George H.W. Bush raised taxes. Bill Clinton promoted free trade, and Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls.

If you assign those four presidents to the opposite party based on that -- make the two Democrats into Republicans and the two Republicans into Democrats -- the numbers completely reverse. Now stocks average 14.7% under Republicans and only 10.5% under Democrats.

In fact, it turns out that if you do just one single switch -- if you make Richard Nixon into a Democrat -- it's enough to reverse the numbers."

Awesome!! When all else fails, massage the data!

People, no matter how you slice them, these numbers can't at all be taken as evidence about what market performance would be in the future under different Presidents or about how the market would have faired if George McGovern would have beaten Nixon because they don't take into account any of the other massively important factors that affect market performance. Give a couple of examples, would there have been no oil shocks in the 70s if Nixon were not President? Would the tech boom not have happened if Clinton were not president?

Of course our beloved editorial writer is a sophisticated guy and does bring in another factor later in the article: Congress!!!

"If the electorate were really smart, it would elect a Democratic president and a Republican Congress. Under that deal, stocks have averaged a 20.2% total return"

Again, awesome. That combo in this sample is the last 6 years of Clinton. So the tech boom happened because of a Democratic prez and a Republican congress. Elect that combo again and presto, another boom. It's just that simple eh?

Why oh why oh why oh why does the WSJ publish trash like this? And why oh why oh why would anyone put a single penny into the hands of Trend Macrolytics LLC?

News Flash: Sarah Palin is not a woman!

At least according to Heather Malik:

Palin was not a sure choice, not even for the stolidly Republican ladies branch of Citizens for a Tackier America. No, she isn't even female really. She's a type, and she comes in male form too.

and Wendy Doniger agrees:

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman. The Republican party's cynical calculation that because she has a womb and makes lots and lots of babies (and drives them to school! wow!) she speaks for the women of America, and will capture their hearts and their votes, has driven thousands of real women to take to their computers in outrage. She does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.

Holy Crap people, is this a great country or what? McCain surges ahead in the polls based on his choice of a trans-gendered running mate?

It is just so awesome and fun for me to watch how our liberal chattering class has gone completely insane over Sarah Palin.

Hat tip to Betsy Newmark!

Change we can believe in!

APSA debates abolishing American Politics (and not a moment too soon):

"Spurred by discussion of how the discipline should respond to globalization, the APSA has been talking about whether the way the discipline organizes itself — with a prime position for American politics — makes sense any more.The precise number of subfields within political science is itself the subject of debate. Most people would include American politics, comparative politics, political theory and international relations. Some would add methodologies or area studies or various other topics, but American politics always makes the list. Should it? What would new organizations for the field look like? While the discussion of this issue Thursday at a panel of the political science association’s annual meeting didn’t find a consensus, there was agreement that the current structure has real flaws.

Scholars who called for the abolition of American politics as a subfield were not arguing that scholars shouldn’t study American politics, which may have been reassuring to audience members, most of whom identified by a show of hands as Americanists. But they said that using the United States as an organizational structure, in isolation from the rest of the world, is producing flawed ideas.

Mary Hawkesworth, a political scientist at Rutgers University, said that when the United States is studied in isolation, “certain things get masked.” The “notion of American exceptionalism,” she said, produces “a social amnesia.” For example, she said that that the violence and corruption of the American revolutionaries receives little emphasis, so when students are exposed to the violence of other revolutions, they see no connection to the American revolution and have little tolerance for those other revolutions. Similarly, she said that slavery is taught only as “an aberration in the United States rather than as part of a racist feudalism” imported from Europe.

American politics scholars, she said, largely embrace a view of their work as “non-ideological and moderate,” limiting the critique they may offer of American society. And the current organization of political science, she said, isn’t producing the kinds of understanding that the public needs. Where was political science in predicting the reunification of Germany or the rebound of Russia? she asked. A more global perspective might make the discipline more aware and useful, she said."

So Mary wants to do away with American politics because its practitioners don't emphasize enough how much America sucks? Is this a great country or what?

Ezra's Unabated Man Crush

Wow, first there was this and now (via Lebron James) there is this:

"What the GOP realized was that Obama did come across different than the average American, but not so much because he was black as because he was effortless. The very set of supercharged talents and qualities that allowed Obama to levitate past the boundaries of race and class make him different than those who haven't rocketed upward on the strength of their intelligence and charisma and charm."

Holy Crap!!

People like this make it so hard to like Barack. Yea, he's alright, but he's not all that and a bag of chips. He's a freakin' politician. Get over it and grow up.

Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

George Miller and his buds on the Education and Labor Committee should be commended for having read their Orwell. How else to explain that their bill outlawing secret ballots for votes on whether a shop becomes unionized is titled "The Employee Free Choice Act".

Even George F. McGovern understands that the bill actually reduces free choice (and surely that is the actual intent of its sponsors as well, no?). "Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal".

People, I have worked in a union shop as a union member and have even been a (minor) official in the union (the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW). While the Union was, in my judgment, a net plus for us workers, it was heavy handed in demanding that everyone toe the official line.

Bottom line: The secret ballot should be used MORE in union decision making, not less.