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Monday, February 28, 2005

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Don't Blame Wal-Mart

Recognizing those characteristics that make liberals "limosine liberals" or "gated community liberals" is refreshing.

The solution is government regulation of behavior:

"The only way for the workers or citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and regulations that make our purchases a social choice..."

So the government will force us to think differently via regulation that make us act differently.


WSJ.com - In Bush's 'Ownership Society,' Citizens Would Take More Risk

Money line:

"In the Bush vision, the nation's social safety nets would still exist, but on a smaller scale, targeting the most needy."

The implication is there is a large, and growing, number of "less needy" who are consuming the safety net like a swarm of locust in a cornfield.

Bush is right on this recognition. No ifs, ands or butts. When the Democrats realize this and use it to drive the eventual birth of any new idea, they will begin to climb back from the sinkhole demographics has driven them into.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Bye-Bye, Housing Boom (washingtonpost.com)

Dead on.

In a few years time it will be evident, but we do not have the ability to adjust now whent here could be another year or two of wild appreciation and justification for that appreciation.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

GOP Seeking a Deal on Accounts (washingtonpost.com)

The analogy to Hillary-care is false.

Hillarycare failed in the first two years of Clinton's 1st term. Bush has already had a successful first term with history making events like Afghanistan and Despot Disposal.

Democracy in the Middle East will outwiegh any short-term defeats on SS privitization. Nevermind, that history will right that Bush had always been concenred about the fiscal stability of the program and inevitably come-up when taxes must go up to cover the shortfall in payroll tax collection.

The New York Times > Washington > For Bush, a Long Embrace of Social Security Plan

A fair summary of Bush's position on social secuirty privatization.

I would have included the fact that there was a SS panic in the late 70's/early 80s immediately after this:

"One Tuesday in the summer of 1978... Mr. Bush went to Midland Country Club to give a campaign speech to local real estate agents and discussed the issue in terms not much different from those he uses now.

Social Security "will be bust in 10 years unless there are some changes..."

It was included later but would have made the story tighter with it placed there.

Maybe the NYT couldn't get themsleves to give the impression Bush was right too soon in the article.

But there is nothing that comes from this except that Bush did not poll test the SS issue .

The Left will clong to the quote from Edward H Crane that his "sense was that he was predisposed to go in that direction" to say Bush disregards other POVs.

A generally good article.

Friday, February 25, 2005

The New York Times > National > Kansas Prosecutor Demands Files on Late-Term Abortion Patients

First off, the idea of subpoena-ing medical records under the guise of rooting out statutory rape raises suspiscions of a fishing expedition. No doubt this very real feeling will be expoited by the pro-abortion groups.

Second, are "late term abortions" the same as partial-birth abortions? If so, then a doctor performing hundreds of them a year would make the procedure fairly common (one per day if the doc doesn't work weekends and "hundreds" is defined as at least 200.) This refutes the lies of the pro-abortions lobbies when they claimed it was a rare procedure, an urban legend.

I tend to believe the NYT is equating later-term abortions and partial birth abortion from two points. The first being this:

"...the federal Justice Department has unsuccessfully sought similar records in its defense of a ban on a procedure sometimes used to end pregnancies after the first trimester that doctors call intact dilation and extraction and that critics call partial-birth abortion."

I see no reason to mention this so early in the article if it is not relevant to what follows.

And the second is this:

"Despite that law passed in 1998, Kansas has become a national magnet for late-term abortions because of a doctor in Wichita who performs hundreds of them each year...."

Why would Kansas be a national magnet for one particular doctor if that doctor is not doing something so common as a plain ol' abortion?

Having read the NYT for years now, I do know they are heavily pro-abortion and would have to couch this type of article is the most benign and euphemistically opaque terms as possible. This would also support my interpretation of late-term aborton and partial-birth abortion being the same.





Thursday, February 24, 2005

Competing Visions For Social Security (washingtonpost.com)

Any increase in taxes, whether it be a straight-forward hike in the payroll tax or a more stealthy increase in the cap, must be cordoned off from a direct rise, by the amount of excess taxes collected, in the federal budget.

This is a condition I would be open to supporting.

I do not see any politican being able to resist their crack addiction to spending every tax dollar collected though.

And if this condition cannot be met, any tax increase should come as needed and not in advance.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Reuters piece on the Pope

I looked on the NYT for a story on this and found nothing. Of course, it was in the NYPost.

The Pope's belief that "It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man" seems to be directly tied into my previous post on Diversity.

Diversity Book review by JD

An excellent review of a very important book if only for intellectual dissonance.

A taste from the reveiw:

"Diversity is a cult for the ignorant, unimaginative, and incurious. The idea that it is beneficial to either individual persons or to society at large is supported by not a single shred of evidence. "

The New York Times > Washington > American Accused in a Plot to Assassinate Bush

If this doesn't have the makings of a cause celebre for the Left, nothing does.


Appeal to Young on Pension Plan Gets the Attention of Their Elders

From today's NYT:

An anecdotal account fo a meeting conservative Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum hosted on Social Security reform. As recounted, it was negative because the fire came from the pro-status quo. I wonder if any of them were plants?

Anyhow, I am convinced the is only one solution. Benefits must be cut, and they must be cut for the Baby Boomers. Not for the children of the Baby Boomers who will be retiring in 2042.

Stop the wage indexing 5 to ten years prior to the retirment age. Solved.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Schumer derides Bush plan for Social Security

Flatout demagoguery from the senior NY Senator.

Bush has never said he wanted to dismantle Social Security.

Would positive experience with private accounts lead to a more broadly-based cry from the public to expand them? Maybe.

Is this dismantling in the viscious connotations used by Senator Schumer? No.

As I am one of those who would be retiring in 2042, it is I who must accept the 30% cut in my projected benefits.


Monday, February 21, 2005

The New York Times > Washington > A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets

The AARP is not sacrosanct and deserves to be attacked/discredited/debated for its flat-out irresponsible political behavior.

And to add to the prior post, aren't the same people who could be affected by the AMT the same ones the Left wants to raise the payroll taxe on?

The New York Times > Business > Case of Vanishing Deductions: Alternative Tax Called Culprit

Blue states like to raise taxes and now complain that they are paying more?

Was the mob mentality that led the projected 19 million people today to pay the price of 100 or so rich people in the late 60s worth it?

Who sparked it?

Do Blue Staters even realize that their state taxes are subsidized by the federal governement or shall we say the Red Staters without state income taxes?

I'm pleased as punch to see the NYT complain about Blue Staters paying taxes.


Thursday, February 17, 2005

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan

The MSM is reacting negatively to bloggers because it has so internalized the credentialization that journalism degrees confer that it cannot see that credentializing, while certainly providing some basic tenets of a profession, is also an effective way to limit the supply of potential journalists.

This internalization leads to the mistaken assumption that only those who become accreditted can be a journalist. Nothing is further from the truth. Only those who actively seek out journalism positions take what the profession has determined to be the "best" path towards employment.

What is forgotten (or maybe never learned in the first place and therefore cannot be forgotten) is that the overwhelming majority of people do not take that path.

This does not mean they cannot do the job though, and here is the fundamental error is made. If only a small percentage of people chose to be journalists, I am comfortable when I say that there are as many who didn't who would be just as good at it as the currently-employed journalists.

The fact these take the form of "bloggers", an entirely new word and one with an onomatopoetic character makes it too difficult to break through that internalized veiw of the profession.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

TCS: Tech Central Station - AARP Invests in Hypocrisy

Remember, the AARP is not anyone's friend or dispassionate advocate.

Too bad, the willfully sow the seeds of intergenerational warfare.

The New York Times > Health > Gays Debate Radical Steps to Curb Unsafe Sex

As long as this remains, effectively, a homosexual remedy, and by that i mean, homosexuals dealing with the solution, it could work.

Once the I-told-you-sos begin from the Religious Right, the homosexual community will close ranks and scream about concentration camps and effectively allow the re-epidemic of AIDS within the homsoexual community.

As the the MSM cannot resist statements by the RR about the morality of homosexuality, the burden of responsibility falls upon the moderate pundits of the Left and Right.

Are there any moderate voices on the Left anymore?


Pataki Will Appeal $23 Billion Court Order on Schools - February 15, 2005 - The New York Sun

There is so much that disgusts me about the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE).

The Orwellian name of the group, the socialist implications of "fiscal equity", the chutzpah of the lawyers to ask the court to make law, the utter lack of respect for the taxpayers, whether it is by judicial fiat to make the state spend billions and billions of additional tax dollars on the largest education budget per student or, and this amkes me apoplectic, asking the judge to fine the state for each day the state does not spend those billions. Where the f-ing fuck does the state get its "revenue"? From taxes! The rotten motherfucking, mother-fucker fuckers!

There is so much disdain for taxpayers on the elite levels of governement it makes me want to puke! (Or use the f-word in as many different ways as I can.)

Monday, February 14, 2005

WSJ.com - In Climate Debate, The 'Hockey Stick' Leads to a Face-Off

Statistics lie or are unreliable in exactitude?

Using tree rings is the foundation on which to build analysis of past temperatures? What is the margin of error?

Correlating that data with other data has already introduced uncertianty.

I'm going to say that global warming is bunk and only serves the basic human need to believe in something. Most believe in a diety. The Left believes in global warming.

This is my Copernican moment! (I do see the irony that the previously held belief is the one that goes agianst CW.)


The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: I Love Them, I Love Him Not

Do we live in a culture that puts the children first?

If we do, where did the ultimate justification arise?

Which groups use it?

Why?

Saturday, February 12, 2005

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005�

I hope the US government is feeding this information to whomever fed it to WaPo.

Otherwise, I do not see why WaPo should run this if it would jepordize US strategy.

Friday, February 11, 2005

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion

As Lynne Stewart defended some of the lionized figures of the 60s Left, the only discussion is how much of the Democratic Party ascribes to this and how much it is willing to disassociate from.

Clearly the Fidel adulators won't, but will those who embraced the SDS and Weathermen?

Stewart Is Guilty of Aiding Terror in Landmark Case - February 11, 2005 - The New York Sun

What the 9/11 terrorists did by using our own civil rights laws against us (anti-discrimination and respect for minorities), now-disbarred attorney Lynne Stewart did using attorney-client privilege.

By using it as an aegis to abet comminications of terrorist plots between convicted 1993 WTC planner, Omar Abdel Rahman, and his cohorts, she willingly put the lives of her fellow Americans in peril.

Minimally, she finds her treason rewarded with life in prison (and likely martyrdom from the anti-West thugocracies and their minions.)

Thursday, February 10, 2005

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > North Korea Says It Has Nuclear Weapons and Rejects Talks

Will the Left choose to believe the propagand of a tyrnat and blame Bush for North Korea's preening?

Will the Left weigh Japan's assessment of N. Korea's capabilities?

Is the world better off with NKorea launching a missile on Japan so we can wipe out another dictatroship?


Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Budget would cost state money

NYS spends about $44 billion per year. Over next ten years, that is $4.4 trillion.

A $7.6 billion less over that time amounts to 1.7%.

Does anyone, anyone, claim that there isn't 1.7% worth of inefficiencies to be eliminated??

(Note I use no growth in the NYS portion.)

The New York Times > Health > Mental Health & Behavior > For the Worst of Us, the Diagnosis May Be 'Evil'

Just like porn, we know it when we see it.

The general problem is trying to pin down a definitive defintion. This is diificult but the article's gist is this lack of concreteness shouldn't preclude using it.

And to prove the diffiuclty, and in a way only an elite Left newspaper can, it includes Abu Ghraib right next to beheadings.

This is by far, the weakest part of the article, and the article would have been better served if the editors had exercised the opportunity to use their red pen and struck the sentence from the piece.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Study may hold key to Indian Point fate

How, exactly, are the taxpayers responsible for the 1300 jobs that would be lost if Indian Point were shutdown?

Wouldn't the enviro-wacko NIMBYs be responsible?

Sunday, February 06, 2005

The New York Times > Washington > News Analysis: Figuring a Social Security Benefit Under President Bush's Plan

How about the results of one in which a person earns 10 or 20 or 30 bps more than expected?

And using ones in which the mgt fees exceed 30 bps is fool-hardy. While the Adminstration uses this, it is certainly the one area that the Democrats to stand and win. I'd expect bps to be betwen 5 and 20 bps. Can I see this scenario's results?

Friday, February 04, 2005

The New York Times > New York Region > Judge Rejects New York Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

This is the funniest part of the article.

"In her ruling, Justice Ling-Cohan declared that "the words 'husband,' 'wife,' 'groom' and 'bride,' as they appear in the relevant sections of the Domestic Relations Law, are and shall be construed to mean 'spouse,' and all personal pronouns, as they appear in the relevant sections of the Domestic Relations Law, are and shall be construed to apply equally to either men or women."

How anyone cannot find this one of the most hilarious statements ever is beyond me.

Ona sadder note, the state of NY will let her define "he" or "She" to mean either "he" or "she".

Victor Davis Hanson on the Left on National Review Online

A searing indictment of the wisdom of the Left's foreign policies. Actually, quite scary.

Is it unrealistic to believe this inability to correctly espouse foreign policy also inflicts itself upon domestic ones?

The New York Times > Washington > The Middle Aged: Under Benefit Plan, Early 50's Is Age Group Caught in Middle

Excellent job, Kirk Johnson! You disclosed the fundamental error in the NYT man-on-the-street pieces - You said, "Most of the people interviewed in a day's snapshot of middle-aged opinion - one morning, one city and the chance encounters of a reporter and photographer"

And it didn't seem unduly rigid of the NYT line either.

Geez, Mr Johnson's byline will lead me to read the next MOTS, which I had stopped doing quite awhile ago.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Gambling With Your Retirement

OLS would be better off shedding the anti-Bush vitriol and just sticking to the basics. His argument, if true, would be stronger.

Unfortunately, his rabidity clouds everything else.

As in his expansion of transition "costs" from a ten-year frame ($2 Trillion!) to a 20 year one ($4.5 Trillion!). Can this be anything else other than the influence of such irrational hate?

Nevermind that $2 trillion over ten years is $200 billion a year which is about 10% of the current budget?

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Aging Population Poses Global Challenges (washingtonpost.com)

Seems the case that Democrats need something other than just raising taxes as the burden will increase too much to be effectively cured by such a cowardly action.

The overridng question is how long the wealth transfer from young to old will continue without contention as everyday government services like road maintenance, education and the such are sacrificed.

Already in New Rochelle, NY, the library is a separate tax in the budget, as it was crowded out by other expenses.

The New York Times > International > Middle East > Iraqis Who Died While Daring to Vote Are Mourned as Martyrs

Truly inspiring. These are the types of stories that need to be told more often.

And it is these stories that make the actions and opinions of the Left so despicable. Senator Kennedy, if he is capable of such, should be ashamed!

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

GOP nudges Pirro to seek higher office

She should have lost her last election as a result of being married to a convict, but seems as if NY is forgiving of the criminality that should preempt any run for higher office.

AG? The wife of a convict being the head of law enforcement????????

United Hospital Closing, Port Chester NY

Part I is a a local newspapaer piece - soft and full of those-were-the-good-old-days remembrances. The economics of medical care are breifly touched upon - insurance payments, but nothing about the state of NY's massive medical budget or the demands of a large illegal immigrant population that uses the ER as a free pharmacy.

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