Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Heidi Montag Shows Off Her Big Guns!
Well, not those big guns.
She's got some real firearms, at London's Daily Mail, "We need protection! Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt show off guns at home admitting they feel unsafe from crazed fans."
Also at New York Daily News, "Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag pose with firearms during ‘Spedi: Scandal, Secrets and Surgery’ UK documentary."
She's got some real firearms, at London's Daily Mail, "We need protection! Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt show off guns at home admitting they feel unsafe from crazed fans."
Also at New York Daily News, "Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag pose with firearms during ‘Spedi: Scandal, Secrets and Surgery’ UK documentary."
Labels:
Babe Blogging,
Entertainment,
Popular Culture,
Second Amendment,
Women
Here's That Video of Megyn Kelly Covering the 'Vomit All Over Your Rapist' Story
Twitchy has the background, "While most of the media stay silent, Megyn Kelly addresses Salazar, UCCS rape remarks."
And the video is here, "Controversy Over a Woman's Right to Defend Herself With a Firearm."
Also, I cribbed the title of this post from Katie Pavlich:
PREVIOUSLY: "Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar: Women Don't Need Guns If They 'Feel Like They’re Going to Be Raped'."
And the video is here, "Controversy Over a Woman's Right to Defend Herself With a Firearm."
Also, I cribbed the title of this post from Katie Pavlich:
. @megynkelly covering the "vomit all over your rapist" story
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) February 19, 2013
PREVIOUSLY: "Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar: Women Don't Need Guns If They 'Feel Like They’re Going to Be Raped'."
Labels:
Leftist Hypocrisy,
News,
Radical Left
Samsung Challenges Apple's Cool
This is something I've been thinking about more often since getting an iPhone. It's an amazing piece of technology, but what's the competition? Who makes a better device? Remember, I mentioned the iPad had a huge glitch with the browser crashing, so that experience really tarnished the user vibe for Apple products. Their stuff is still the most invulnerable from malware --- or, that's what they say. But criminal programmers will get to them sooner or later.
In any case, at the New York Times, "Samsung Emerges as a Potent Rival to Apple’s Cool":
And see Steve Kovach, at CNN, "How Samsung Is Out-Innovating Apple."
In any case, at the New York Times, "Samsung Emerges as a Potent Rival to Apple’s Cool":
Apple, for the first time in years, is hearing footsteps.Continue reading.
The maker of iPhones, iPads and iPods has never faced a challenger able to make a truly popular and profitable smartphone or tablet — not Dell, not Hewlett-Packard, not Nokia, not BlackBerry — until Samsung Electronics.
The South Korean manufacturer’s Galaxy S III smartphone is the first device to run neck and neck with Apple’s iPhone in sales. Armed with other Galaxy phones and tablets, Samsung has emerged as a potent challenger to Apple, the top consumer electronics maker. The two companies are the only ones turning profits in the highly competitive mobile phone industry, with Apple taking 72 percent of the earnings and Samsung the rest.
Yet these two rivals, who have battled in the marketplace and in the courts worldwide, could not be more different. Samsung Electronics, a major part of South Korea’s expansive Samsung Group, makes computer chips and flat-panel displays as well as a wide range of consumer products including refrigerators, washers and dryers, cameras, vacuum cleaners, PCs, printers and TVs.
Where Apple stakes its success on creating new markets and dominating them, as it did with the iPhone and iPad, Samsung invests heavily in studying existing markets and innovating inside them.
“We get most of our ideas from the market,” said Kim Hyun-suk, an executive vice president at Samsung, in a conversation about the future of mobile devices and television. “The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction,” he said.
That’s in stark contrast to the philosophy of Apple’s founder Steven P. Jobs, who rejected the notion of relying on market research. He memorably said that consumers don’t know what they want.
Nearly everything at Samsung, from the way it does research to its manufacturing, is unlike Apple. It taunts Apple in its cheeky advertisements while Apple stays above the fray.
And the Korean manufacturer may even be putting some pressure on Apple’s world-class designers. Before Apple released the iPhone 5, which had a larger screen than earlier models, Samsung had already been selling phones with even bigger displays, like the 5.3-inch screen Galaxy Note, a smartphone so wide that gadget blogs call it a phablet.
Samsung outspends Apple on research and development: $10.5 billion, or 5.7 percent of revenue, compared with $3.4 billion, or 2.2 percent. (Samsung Electronics is slightly bigger than Apple in terms of revenue — $183.5 billion compared with $156.5 billion — but Apple is larger in terms of stock market value.)
Samsung has 60,000 staff members working in 34 research centers across the globe, including, Russia, Britain, India, Japan, Israel, China and Silicon Valley. It polls consumers and buys third-party research reports, but it also embeds employees in countries to study trends or merely to find inspiration for ideas.
Designers of the Galaxy S III say they drew inspiration from trips to Cambodia and Helsinki, a Salvador DalĂ art exhibit and even a balloon ride in an African forest. (It employs 1,000 designers with different backgrounds like psychology, sociology, economy management and engineering.)
“The research process is unimaginable,” said Donghoon Chang, an executive vice president of Samsung who leads the company’s design efforts. “We go through all avenues to make sure we read the trends correctly.” He says that when the company researches markets for any particular product, it is also looking at trends in fashion, automobiles and interior design.
And see Steve Kovach, at CNN, "How Samsung Is Out-Innovating Apple."
Labels:
Apple,
Business,
Economics,
Electronics,
Social Media,
Social Networking,
South Korea,
Technology
Jimmie Bise Blasts Epic Manifesto of Youth Empowerment and Independence on Twitter
I mentioned that someone needed to curate this, and I don't see that anyone's done it, so here goes:
I caught Jimmie posting this manifesto midstream, but if that top tweet is any clue, it's William Jacobson who got him going: "Upworthy — or, How we are losing the internet to lowest of low information young liberals."
Jimmie's manifesto is a thing of beauty, and since I had the time to curate it, I thought, "Why in the heck not?"
I have been talking, pleading, coaxing, begging about this for a long while. Conservative have nothing like it. At all. legalinsurrection.com/2013/02/upwort…
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
"GReen" politics isn't anti-capitalism. It's anti-you. "Green" zealots want you to live in cold, dark places, eating cold, horrible food.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You see someone who wants you to give up light bulbs and warm houses? Laugh at them, then make sure they never touch political power. Ever.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You know those people who want to raise the minimum wage? They don't want young people in the job market. They want them dependent.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Why on Earth do you think the same "raise the minimum wage" people also want to keep people locked into their parents' health insurance?
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
It's not because they're being *kind*. It's because they get a few more years of control. They are control-freaks. Power-hungry tools.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Take a good look some time at what the minimum wage has done to employment rates of young people. It's brutal.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
But once those entry-level, "learn as you earn" jobs get priced out of the market, what's left? College. Specifically, college loan debt.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
And who just spent a couple years putting college loans in the hands of the same government that jacked up the minimum wage? *DING DING*
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
So, the very same people who ran young people out of entry-level jobs and pushed them into college also took control of college loans.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
And those *very same* people are locking young people into their parents health insurance plans until they're 26. Well, hmmm...
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
What might a reasonably intelligent person say about someone who did all three of those things in the past four years? Come on. Think.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
For goodness' sake, think like a politician who just shunted young people into *at least* a decade of debt for which they hold the note.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Think like the political who holds paper on how many college graduates who also depend on that politician's lackeys for health insurance.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
For Pete's sake, THINK!!
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
But wait, you say! I can open a small business, you say. Maybe do some grunt work to pay off that debt, you say. Haul junk. Landscaping.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
*BUZZ!!* No dice, dude. you don't get to do *any* of that without at least two permits from, guess who, MOAR BUREAUCRATS!
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
So now they control your debt, your health care, your job prospects, and your ability to work for yourself to pay off the debt.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Now here's the funny part, really. Okay, not so much funny as heart-breakingly sad. Ready? Listen closely. Bend in so you hear it.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
YOU VOTED FOR THESE PEOPLE!!
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Do you feel like a sap? No? Well, you will, in just a couple years when the bills come due. Oh, wait. Did I mention bills? Hang on.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I have one more thing about those bills. See, it's about that health care. You know, the police you're on with your parents? Yeah.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
The second you get off that policy, you're going to have a choice. You can buy a policy of your own, approved by the bureaucrats, or...
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
...you can pay a fine. Umm...I mean a tax. See, the government says you *have* to pay them even if you don't want. Even if you don't need.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You can't just set money aside in case something bad happens, and pay the bill with your savings. Oh, no. You have to pay every year.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
And you're not paying for you. You won't use as much health care as you pay for. You'll pay for the health care of -- TA DA -- your parents.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
So that policy you rode on until you were 26? Congrats. You'll be paying for it once you get off it. More than you want or need.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
But this isn't about your need. It's about control, and you are not your own person any more. You're not in control any more. You're a cog.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You're a little cog in a huge machine and you have a job. Work. Work every day. For someone else. Not for you. Never for you.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
This is your life now. You belong to THE MAN. Youtake THE MAN's wage, go to THE MAN's doctor, retire when THE MAN says.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You buy what THE MAN allows you to buy, drive the car THE MAN wants you to drive, watch movies THE MAN says get made.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Sucks, huh? Sucks hard. Well, you did choose it. You liked it on Facebook and RTed it on Twitter, and up-voted it on Reddit.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You sucked down the happy juice and shared it with all your friends and now...what? What's it look like for you?
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Look, I'll be honest. This new world THE MAN has put together, it's pretty good for folks like me. I'm heading into the sweet spot.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I'm about in my mid-40s now. I should be starting businesses and hiring you guys and setting you up for your own businesses and success.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I should have loads of disposable income on which I can shower you. Buy your stuff. I'm tech-savvy. I want your apps and tunes and movies.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
But that tax bite is tearing me down, setting me up for when I'm in my 60s and you're paying my freight. I hate that.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Let me say that again. I hate that. With a passion you can't even begin to imagine. I want it to be different. I want to help you succeed.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I want to teach you every single trick I know and I want you to rock the whole freaking planet. I want you to invent and cure and live.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I want to kick this world in its ass and get it moving then hand you the torch so you can light the fuse and make it really take off.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I can't do it without you, though. I need your help. I need your enthusiasm, energy, humor, and savvy. I have lots of my own. I need more.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Seriously, we can fix this. We can make things right. We can put the country back in your hands and in mine. We can. WE CAN!
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Listen to me. WE CAN DO THIS.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You have to stop buying the hype. You have to push your friends and family to stop buying the hype. I promise I'll do the same. Promise.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I will not leave you hanging. I will not abandon you. Get right beside me and let's do this. Let's throw those control freaks out. Every one
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I don't give a rat's ass what their party is. Democrat, Republican, don't matter. If they want to control your life or mine, they're done
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Washington can not make the calls anymore. They're blown it. Wrecked the whole thing. Look around. See the #Fail.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
They blew it and they don't get a second chance. End their careers. Throw them out and all their puling little bureaucrat buddies.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Get on my shoulder. We will handle our business. We got this. You know we do.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Really, the only question today is: ARE YOU READY TO DO THIS? I think you are. Let's go.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
BY the way, I'm not telling you to follow me. I'm not even asking. CRap, the last thing I want is for you to follow me. Stop following.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Following is what got us into this godawful mess. We follow too much. We get in line too often. Don't follow me. Do. Not.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Get beside me. Cover my flank. Get my back. Get your friends' backs. Cover each other. Everyone moves forward. Lead. Go. Do.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
Don't ask permission from anyone. Not me. Not a politician. Not a so-called leader.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You like what I'm doing? Share it. Make stuff like it. Share that. Build your own groups. You do it. Yes, you.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
You're not a leader? Cool. Neither am I. I don't know what I am. I'm just a guy. I blog. I write. I do a podcast. I tweet.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
But I figure if there are enough of us who look at the control-freaks right in their beady, greedy eyes and shout "NO!!!!!", we'll win.
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
So, there. That's all. :)
— Jimmie (@jimmiebjr) February 17, 2013
I caught Jimmie posting this manifesto midstream, but if that top tweet is any clue, it's William Jacobson who got him going: "Upworthy — or, How we are losing the internet to lowest of low information young liberals."
Jimmie's manifesto is a thing of beauty, and since I had the time to curate it, I thought, "Why in the heck not?"
About the Uses and Abuses of Paternalism
Folks might find this interesting, for while government imposes decisions on the individual "because it's good for them" all the time, there's something extra freakish (totalitarian) to this.
From Cass Sunstein, Obama's former Czar of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, at the New York Review, "It’s For Your Own Good!":
From Cass Sunstein, Obama's former Czar of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, at the New York Review, "It’s For Your Own Good!":
In the United States, as in many other countries, obesity is a serious problem. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to do something about it. Influenced by many experts, he believes that soda is a contributing factor to increasing obesity rates and that large portion sizes are making the problem worse. In 2012, he proposed to ban the sale of sweetened drinks in containers larger than sixteen ounces at restaurants, delis, theaters, stadiums, and food courts. The New York City Board of Health approved the ban.RTWT.
Many people were outraged by what they saw as an egregious illustration of the nanny state in action. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to choose a large bottle of Coca-Cola? The American Beverage Association responded with a vivid advertisement, depicting Mayor Bloomberg in a (scary) nanny outfit.
But self-interested industries were not the only source of ridicule. Jon Stewart is a comedian, but he was hardly amused. A representative remark from one of his commentaries: “No!…I love this idea you have of banning sodas larger than 16 ounces. It combines the draconian government overreach people love with the probable lack of results they expect.”
Many Americans abhor paternalism. They think that people should be able to go their own way, even if they end up in a ditch. When they run risks, even foolish ones, it isn’t anybody’s business that they do. In this respect, a significant strand in American culture appears to endorse the central argument of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. In his great essay, Mill insisted that as a general rule, government cannot legitimately coerce people if its only goal is to protect people from themselves. Mill contended that
the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or mental, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right.A lot of Americans agree. In recent decades, intense controversies have erupted over apparently sensible (and lifesaving) laws requiring people to buckle their seatbelts. When states require motorcyclists to wear helmets, numerous people object. The United States is facing a series of serious disputes about the boundaries of paternalism. The most obvious example is the “individual mandate” in the Affordable Care Act, upheld by the Supreme Court by a 5–4 vote, but still opposed by many critics, who seek to portray it as a form of unacceptable paternalism. There are related controversies over anti-smoking initiatives and the “food police,” allegedly responsible for recent efforts to reduce the risks associated with obesity and unhealthy eating, including nutrition guidelines for school lunches.
Mill offered a number of independent justifications for his famous harm principle, but one of his most important claims is that individuals are in the best position to know what is good for them. In Mill’s view, the problem with outsiders, including government officials, is that they lack the necessary information. Mill insists that the individual “is the person most interested in his own well-being,” and the “ordinary man or woman has means of knowledge immeasurably surpassing those that can be possessed by any one else.”
When society seeks to overrule the individual’s judgment, Mill wrote, it does so on the basis of “general presumptions,” and these “may be altogether wrong, and even if right, are as likely as not to be misapplied to individual cases.” If the goal is to ensure that people’s lives go well, Mill contends that the best solution is for public officials to allow people to find their own path. Here, then, is an enduring argument, instrumental in character, on behalf of free markets and free choice in countless situations, including those in which human beings choose to run risks that may not turn out so well.
Mill’s claim has a great deal of intuitive appeal. But is it right? That is largely an empirical question, and it cannot be adequately answered by introspection and intuition. In recent decades, some of the most important research in social science, coming from psychologists and behavioral economists, has been trying to answer it. That research is having a significant influence on public officials throughout the world. Many believe that behavioral findings are cutting away at some of the foundations of Mill’s harm principle, because they show that people make a lot of mistakes, and that those mistakes can prove extremely damaging.
For example, many of us show “present bias”: we tend to focus on today and neglect tomorrow. For some people, the future is a foreign country, populated by strangers. Many of us procrastinate and fail to take steps that would impose small short-term costs but produce large long-term gains. People may, for example, delay enrolling in a retirement plan, starting to diet or exercise, ceasing to smoke, going to the doctor, or using some valuable, cost-saving technology. Present bias can ensure serious long-term harm, including not merely economic losses but illness and premature death as well.
People also have a lot of trouble dealing with probability. In some of the most influential work in the last half-century of social science, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that in assessing probabilities, human beings tend to use mental shortcuts, or “heuristics,” that generally work well, but that can also get us into trouble. An example is the “availability heuristic.” When people use it, their judgments about probability—of a terrorist attack, an environmental disaster, a hurricane, a crime—are affected by whether a recent event comes readily to mind. If an event is cognitively “available”—for example, if people have recently suffered damage from a hurricane—they might well overestimate the risk. If they can recall few or no examples of harm, they might well underestimate the risk.
A great deal of research finds that most people are unrealistically optimistic, in the sense that their own predictions about their behavior and their prospects are skewed in the optimistic direction.6 In one study, over 80 percent of drivers were found to believe that they were safer and more skillful than the median driver. Many smokers have an accurate sense of the statistical risks, but some smokers have been found to believe that they personally are less likely to face lung cancer and heart disease than the average nonsmoker. Optimism is far from the worst of human characteristics, but if people are unrealistically optimistic, they may decline to take sensible precautions against real risks. Contrary to Mill, outsiders may be in a much better position to know the probabilities than people who are making choices for themselves.
Emphasizing these and related behavioral findings, many people have been arguing for a new form of paternalism, one that preserves freedom of choice, but that also steers citizens in directions that will make their lives go better by their own lights. (Full disclosure: the behavioral economist Richard Thaler and I have argued on behalf of what we call libertarian paternalism, known less formally as “nudges.") For example, cell phones, computers, privacy agreements, mortgages, and rental car contracts come with default rules that specify what happens if people do nothing at all to protect themselves. Default rules are a classic nudge, and they matter because doing nothing is exactly what people will often do. Many employees have not signed up for 401(k) plans, even when it seems clearly in their interest to do so. A promising response, successfully increasing participation and strongly promoted by President Obama, is to establish a default rule in favor of enrollment, so that employees will benefit from retirement plans unless they opt out. In many situations, default rates have large effects on outcomes, indeed larger than significant economic incentives.
Default rules are merely one kind of “choice architecture,” a phrase that may refer to the design of grocery stores, for example, so that the fresh vegetables are prominent; the order in which items are listed on a restaurant menu; visible official warnings; public education campaigns; the layout of websites; and a range of other influences on people’s choices. Such examples suggest that mildly paternalistic approaches can use choice architecture in order to improve outcomes for large numbers of people without forcing anyone to do anything.
In the United States, behavioral findings have played an unmistakable part in recent regulations involving retirement savings, fuel economy, energy efficiency, environmental protection, health care, and obesity. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron has created a Behavioural Insights Team, sometimes known as the Nudge Unit, with the specific goal of incorporating an understanding of human behavior into policy initiatives. In short, behavioral economics is having a large impact all over the world, and the emphasis on human error is raising legitimate questions about the uses and limits of paternalism.
Professor John Keane Interviews Julian Assange
I don't like Assange, although this is definitely out of the ordinary, at RealClearTechnology, "Julian Assange in Prison."
Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar: Women Don't Need Guns If They 'Feel Like They’re Going to Be Raped'
From Dana Loesch, at Red State (via Instapundit):
This is the real “war on women” I’ve talked about: the progressive insistence that women disarm. Women, according to Rep. Salazar, are hysterical things which shoot indiscriminately at any and everything.
Labels:
Democrats,
Feminism,
Mass Media,
Moral Bankruptcy,
Progressives,
Radical Left
Take it From Calvin Coolidge on Taxes and Spending
Following up on yesterday's post, "The Calvin Coolidge Comeback."
Here's Amity Shlaes, at WSJ, "The Coolidge Lesson on Taxes and Spending":
Here's Amity Shlaes, at WSJ, "The Coolidge Lesson on Taxes and Spending":
Only Reagan could fix this.Continue reading.
That's the intuitive reaction to the surge of spending and budgetary challenges in Washington today. It's hard to think of another Republican with the fortitude to push back against the outlays, to make government smaller, to lower taxes. And to show that such moves can yield prosperity.
The "only Reagan" assumption is too narrow—especially when it comes to the fiscal challenge. For while Reagan inspired and cut taxes, he did not reduce the deficit. He did not even cut the budget. But if you look back, past Dwight Eisenhower and around the curve of history, you can find a Republican who did all those things: Calvin Coolidge.
A New Englander and former Massachusetts governor, Coolidge came to Washington as vice president and moved into the White House only in 1923 after the sudden death of President Warren Harding. He later won the office himself and served until 1929. The 30th president cut the top income-tax rate to 25% (lower than the 28% of the historic Reagan cut of 1986). Coolidge reduced the national debt and balanced the budget. When he departed the White House for his home in Northampton, Mass., he left a federal budget smaller than the one he found.
Three factors gave Silent Cal the ability to cut as he did, each suggesting a governing approach that would be useful today...
Labels:
American History,
Economics,
Fiscal Policy,
Holidays,
Spending,
Taxes
Monday, February 18, 2013
Abraham Lincoln Was Gay?
When school started a couple of weeks back, I mentioned to my classes that research shows that college students have little historical grounding in our founding institutions. I also mentioned that a lot of young people don't keep up with the news, that they're not informed about current events and how politics affects them. But then in one of my classes a young man piped up about how he really loves politics, and that he'd won awards in high school for the debate team, or some such thing. In any case, I was reminded of the Ron Paul libertarians and perhaps even the more whacked Paulbots. I was talking about the Gettysburg Address last week, which is cited in my textbook's discussion about the different definitions of democracy, and the student got going about how Lincoln was a gay atheist who ran concentration camps for some group or another. I ignored the atheist part, since almost all of Lincoln's most famous addresses are deeply grounded in God and divine provenance. But that gay bit was funny and some of the other students were practically gasping. And interestingly enough, Joan Rivers mouthed the gay smear on late-night TV a couple of days ago. See NewsBusters, "Joan Rivers: 'Abe Lincoln Was Gay'."
Anyway, I looked it up the other day and found this at USA Today, "200 years later, a more complex view of Lincoln":
(And I need to check back with the student on the concentration camp part. I was overwhelmed with the homosexual allegations and attacks on Lincoln the tyrant are pretty common already. But camps? More on that later...)
Anyway, I looked it up the other day and found this at USA Today, "200 years later, a more complex view of Lincoln":
* Lincoln the homosexual: A gay man in the White House?I have Donald's, Lincoln, and reading the USA Today piece reminded me about him sharing a bed at one point. But I can see how libertarians might attack Lincoln as a homosexual, since the paleocons deride him as a tyrant already, and they might want to smear him. But progressives might think a homosexual Lincoln is flaming cool. Barack Hussein likens himself to Lincoln and has sworn in twice on the Lincoln inaugural Bible. So if Lincoln was switch hitting, leftists can argue that Obama's not the first homosexual president after all.
Some writers, such as the late sex researcher and gay rights activist C. A. Tripp (The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, 2004) have argued that Lincoln was sexually attracted to men.
Lincoln's long friendship with Joshua Speed, a young store owner in Springfield, Ill., when Lincoln arrived there at age 28 in 1837, has attracted the most attention. Lincoln, whose worldly possessions at the time fit in two saddlebags, accepted Speed's invitation to save money by sharing the double bed in the room he was renting, according to many of the biographies, including David Herbert Donald's Lincoln.
Most historians don't think they were lovers. As Donald points out, bed-sharing was not unusual at the time because of financial necessity. Many boys grew up sharing a bed with one or more brothers.
Burlingame says speculation persists about a Speed diary and letters in which he wrote explicitly about a relationship with Lincoln. Burlingame doesn't buy it; nor does Berry, who says Lincoln wasn't homosexual, but homosocial.
"He cried too much to be a man's man, but he was a guy's guy," Berry says. "He liked nothing more than to sit around the stove, telling jokes and stories."
(And I need to check back with the student on the concentration camp part. I was overwhelmed with the homosexual allegations and attacks on Lincoln the tyrant are pretty common already. But camps? More on that later...)
Al Jazeera Criticized for Lack of Independence After Arab Spring
Al Jazeera's been in the news big time since Al Gore sold his failed Current TV to the network. But also important is the proposed expansion of Al Jazeera's programming in the U.S. It's controversial, although I don't care that much because I doubt the network will do very well. More interesting is the epic hypocrisy in the news of radical feminist Naomi Wolf negotiating a deal with Al Jazeera. James Taranto has some choice words on that:
And there's a full report on the network at Der Spiegel, "After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera Losing Battle for Independence":
"Naomi Wolf, the author and activist, is in early-stage talks with the global news network Al Jazeera," reports Politico. In a way this makes sense: Wolf is a hysterical critic of America's antiterrorism efforts. In 2007 she published a book called "The End of America," in which she claimed that the Bush administration was taking us down the road to fascism.Continue at the link.
Still, the first thing one thinks of upon hearing this news is the irony of a leading "third wave" (i.e., hypernarcissistic) feminist joining a pro-Islamist news network. Is she going to wear a veil? Probably not, but it turns out she doesn't mind if Muslim women do. She spelled it out in a 2008 Sydney Morning Herald article...
And there's a full report on the network at Der Spiegel, "After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera Losing Battle for Independence":
For over a decade, the Arab television broadcaster Al-Jazeera was widely respected for providing an independent voice from the Middle East. Recently, however, several top journalists have left, saying the station has developed a clear political agenda.Continue reading.
Aktham Suliman's wristwatch was always ahead. Although he lived in Berlin, it always showed him the time in Doha, the capital of the emirate of Qatar -- which is also the home of Al-Jazeera, the television news network that had been employing Suliman, born in Damascus, as a correspondent for Germany since 2002.
"Doha time was Jazeera time," he says. "It was an honor to work for this broadcaster."
One and a half years ago, Suliman, 42, re-set his watch to German time, having become disenchanted with Al-Jazeera. And it wasn't just because the broadcaster seemed less interested in reports from Europe. Rather, Suliman had the feeling that he was no longer being allowed to work as an independent journalist.
Last August, he quit his job. "Before the beginning of the Arab Spring, we were a voice for change," he says, "a platform for critics and political activists throughout the region. Now, Al-Jazeera has become a propaganda broadcaster."
Suliman is not the only one who feels bitterly disappointed. The Arab TV network has recently suffered an exodus of prominent staff members. Reporters and anchors in cities like Paris, London, Moscow, Beirut and Cairo have left Al-Jazeera, despite what are seen as luxurious working conditions in centrally located offices. And despite the fact that the network is investing an estimated $500 million (€375 million) in the US, so as to reach even more viewers on the world's largest television market -- one in which its biggest competitor, CNN, is at home.
Al-Jazeera has over 3,000 staff members and 65 correspondent offices worldwide -- and viewers in some 50 million households throughout the Arab world. But it also has a problem: More than ever before, critics contend that the broadcaster is following a clear political agenda, and not adhering to the principles of journalistic independence.
Such accusations have been leveled against Western broadcasters as well, of course. But the charge would place Al-Jazeera on a par with Fox News -- which pursues the agenda of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch in the US -- rather than CNN.
Daisy Watts for ZOO Magazine
She's on Twitter:
And the video's here, "Daisy Watts' Peachy, Booby and Sexy Lingerie Video For ZOO Magazine in HD."
Last chance to buy @zoo this week with me on the cover ;) twitter.com/daisywatts/sta…
— Daisy Watts (@daisywatts) February 18, 2013
And the video's here, "Daisy Watts' Peachy, Booby and Sexy Lingerie Video For ZOO Magazine in HD."
Labels:
Babe Blogging,
Breast Blogging,
Britain,
News,
Women
Conservatives Not Forgiving Mark Sanford
At Twitchy, "Mark Sanford: ‘None of us go through life without mistakes’; Many conservatives not in forgiving mood."
Video at that link and at Legal Insurrection, "Just Say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Video at that link and at Legal Insurrection, "Just Say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Labels:
Congress,
Election 2014,
Moral Bankruptcy,
Politics,
Republican Party,
Scandal
Executive Accused of Slapping Toddler is Fired
At ABC News, "Executive Charged With Slapping Toddler on Plane Gets Slapped With Pink Slip."
The boy's adopted and he's a beauty. The executive called him the "n-word." Are you kidding me? Ask to sit somewhere else. I would have changed seats. Sheesh.
The boy's adopted and he's a beauty. The executive called him the "n-word." Are you kidding me? Ask to sit somewhere else. I would have changed seats. Sheesh.
Bulgaria Seeks Sanctions Against Hamas
At the Times of Israel, "Bulgarian FM to EU colleagues: Sanction Hezbollah":
Presenting evidence from Burgas bombing probe in Brussels, Nikolay Mladenov urges Europe to finally blacklist the Shiite group as a terror organization.
A senior Bulgarian official on Monday called on the European Union to adopt harsher measures against Hezbollah in light of his country’s finding that the Lebanese Shiite group was responsible for a terror attack that killed five Israelis and a local bus driver in the coastal town of Burgas last summer.More at the link.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov implicitly but unmistakably urged the union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.
Asked whether the EU should blacklist Hezbollah, he responded: ”Given the fact that we’ve already made quite firm statements about where we believe the responsibility for that attack lies, I think the answer is quite obvious.”
Mladenov was scheduled to present to the union’s Foreign Affairs Council a detailed report on the Bulgarian police investigation into the July 18 attack in the Black Sea resort town.
On February 5, Bulgaria announced that Hezbollah bombed the bus, with its investigators describing a sophisticated attack carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens. Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said one of the suspects entered the country with a Canadian passport, and another with one from Australia. “We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said.
In an op-ed in the New York Times on Monday, the US National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon urged the EU to act against Hezbollah. “Now that Bulgarian authorities have exposed Hezbollah’s global terrorist agenda, European governments must respond swiftly,” he wrote. “They must disrupt its operational networks, stop flows of financial assistance to the group, crack down on Hezbollah-linked criminal enterprises and condemn the organization’s leaders for their continued pursuit of terrorism.”
Israeli Soldier Mor Ostrovski, 20, Posts Crosshairs Photo of Palestinian Child to Instagram
Oh, great.
You know? Let's not give Mondoweiss and the rest of the left's Israel-hating anti-Semites any more, er, ammunition.
At Guardian UK, "Israeli soldier posts Instagram image of Palestinian child in crosshairs of rifle":
More stupid examples at that top link.
You know? Let's not give Mondoweiss and the rest of the left's Israel-hating anti-Semites any more, er, ammunition.
At Guardian UK, "Israeli soldier posts Instagram image of Palestinian child in crosshairs of rifle":
An Israeli soldier has sparked outrage by posting a photograph appearing to show the back of a Palestinian boy's head in the crosshairs of his sniper rifle on a social networking site.These soldiers need to understand that the war over the information battlespace is right up there with the ground war against Hamas and its progressive allies. Don't be stupid. Don't give ammunition to our enemies on the left.
The context of the picture, posted on the personal Instagram site of Mor Ostrovski, 20, could not be verified but the aggressive message is clear. The minarets and Arabic architecture of the village captured in the background suggest the boy and the town are Palestinian. Ostrovski is an Israeli soldier in a sniper unit.
The Israeli military said the soldier's commanders were investigating the incident. His actions "are not in accordance with the spirit of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] or its values", a spokesperson said.
Ostrovski, who has closed his Instagram account, told the army he did not take the picture but found it on the internet.
Breaking the Silence, an organisation of veteran Israeli combat soldiers campaigning to raise awareness about life in the West Bank, condemned the image. "This is what occupation looks like. This is what military control over a civilian population looks like," one member wrote on the group's Facebook page.
The image has been heavily criticised online. Electronic Intifada, a news site focused on Palestinian issues, described the photograph as "tasteless and dehumanising". The site published several other images from Ostrovski's Instagram page, including snaps of the soldier posing with heavy-duty guns.
More stupid examples at that top link.
Burger King Twitter Account Hacked
Whoa, this is nasty.
At Twitchy, "Oh dear: Burger King’s Twitter account hacked; Updated."
And Sarah Rumpf comments:
At Twitchy, "Oh dear: Burger King’s Twitter account hacked; Updated."
And Sarah Rumpf comments:
I'm honestly surprised it has lasted this long this morning (over an hour so far). But hey, if companies and politicians want to keep delegating social media to 17 year old interns, then the rest of us will continue to be entertained by stories like this.No doubt. Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Burger King's Twitter account hacked, made to look like McDonald's."
#Benghazi Cover-Up: No, Progressives Couldn't Care Less That Four Americans Died
Leftists don't care about the truth, but we already knew that. I'm just reminded of how reality is distorted into a cartoon by this post on "John McCrankypants" at the loser-blog His Vorpal Sword.
And here's the clip:
Also at Reuters, "McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi" (via Memeorandum).
And here's the clip:
Also at Reuters, "McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi" (via Memeorandum).
Shovel Ready
Flashback to 2009, "Shovel Ready":
And BCF links to my previous entry, "Shocker: L.A. Times Front-Page Story Slams Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare." Thanks!
More, the Rhetorican links as well, "Bucking the narrative: Prof. Douglas catches the L.A. Times Slamming Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare…on its front page!" Thanks!
And BCF links to my previous entry, "Shocker: L.A. Times Front-Page Story Slams Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare." Thanks!
More, the Rhetorican links as well, "Bucking the narrative: Prof. Douglas catches the L.A. Times Slamming Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare…on its front page!" Thanks!
Shocker: L.A. Times Front-Page Story Slams Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare
There's really no way to sugarcoat this, although the editors tried at the front page of the hard-copy newspaper this morning ("costly at first...").
But there's no getting around things at the website, "States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law":
But there's no getting around things at the website, "States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law":
WASHINGTON — Less than a year before Americans will be required to have insurance under President Obama's healthcare law, many of its backers are growing increasingly anxious that premiums could jump, driven up by the legislation itself.No it won't. Younger people are just getting reamed. And the predicted savings aren't going to materialize, because the law mandates lower premiums on those who use health services most: the elderly. Here's the key bit:
Higher premiums could undermine a core promise of the Affordable Care Act: to make basic health protections available to all Americans for the first time. Major rate increases also threaten to cause a backlash just as the law is supposed to deliver many key benefits Obama promised when he signed it in 2010.
"The single biggest issue we face now is affordability," said Jill Zorn, senior program officer at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, a consumer advocacy group that championed the new law.
Administration officials have consistently downplayed the specter of rate increases and other disruptions as millions of Americans move into overhauled insurance markets in 2014. They cite provisions in the law that they say will hold down premiums, including new competitive markets they believe will make insurers offer competitive rates.
Exactly how high the premiums may go won't be known until later this year. But already, officials in states that support the law have sounded warnings that some people — mostly those who are young and do not receive coverage through their work — may see considerably higher prices than expected.
That is because of new requirements in the law aimed at making insurance more comprehensive and more affordable for older, sicker consumers.
Insurance regulators in California, which has enthusiastically embraced the law, cautioned the Obama administration in a recent letter about "rate and market disruption."
Oregon's insurance commissioner, another supporter of the law, said new regulations could push up premiums for young customers by as much as 30% next year. He urged administration officials to slow enactment of the new rules.
A leading advocate for consumers in their 20s, Young Invincibles, sounded a similar caution, suggesting in a letter to administration officials that additional steps may be needed to protect young people from rising premiums. Young Invincibles mobilized in 2010 to help pass the healthcare law.
And regulators in Massachusetts, which was the model for Obama's law, recently warned that although many residents and small businesses in the state "will see premium decreases next year, a significant number will see extreme premium increases."
The law does include many new protections for consumers. Even those now sounding alarms emphasize the importance of those provisions, including guaranteed coverage for Americans with preexisting medical conditions.
"For most people, this will be a dramatic improvement," Zorn said.
The healthcare law also includes a new tax and new fees on insurance companies that the industry says it will pass on to consumers.It sucks. People are waking up, even if it's just a little. The push for greater "equality" is destroying not only liberty, but the quality of life for millions of Americans. That's the price for voting for this f-king amateur politician soaking in communist ideology. Gawd, what a disaster for this nation.
The provision that will prevent insurance companies from charging older consumers more than three times what they charge young consumers has generated particular concern among regulators. In many states, insurers now can charge five times as much or more to people in their 50s and 60s.
The requirement was a top priority of the influential AARP. It is designed to make insurance more affordable to a group that often most needs insurance. But as rates come down for older people, they may increase for consumers in their 20s, regulators worry.
If that happens, young, healthy people could elect not to get health insurance and pay the small penalty in the law for not having coverage. That, in turn, would leave an older, sicker population in the insurance pool, a phenomenon that typically inflates premiums.
The Calvin Coolidge Comeback
It's a review of Amity Shlaes' Coolidge biography, from David Resler, at Forbes, "Amity Shlaes Tells The Story of Calvin Coolidge, Another 'Forgotten Man'":
And at Amazon, Coolidge.
BONUS: On Twitter, Melissa Clouthier's asking "Who's your favorite president"?
PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.
In her award winning book, “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Shlaes offered a refreshing alternative to conventional wisdom about the Great Depression. Her forgotten man was not Roosevelt’s man at the “bottom of the economic pyramid” but William Graham Sumner’s forgotten man whose toils toward self improvement form the foundation of economic progress. He is the quiet innovator and adventurer who ultimately foots the bill for the Progressive social agenda. We now also recognize him as the man who President Obama famously discredited during last year’s re-election campaign.Continue reading.
In one sense, Shlaes new book “Coolidge” represents a prequel to “The Forgotten Man.” More importantly, however, we rediscover a man who throughout his career championed the cause of Sumner’s forgotten man but whose reward for doing so was to become himself a president whom history books have also largely “forgotten.” Shlaes sees Coolidge as “a rare kind of hero: a minimalist president, an economic general of budgeting and tax cuts.” She then thoroughly and persuasively documents that judgment.
In both books, Shlaes’ captivating portrayals of her forgotten men resonate. We come to identify with Coolidge because he embodied the timeless virtues of honesty and personal responsibility to which we all aspire. We also see Coolidge as wholly a product of his time. At the time of his birth –on Independence Day 1872 in a rural Vermont town — the Industrial Revolution had not yet transformed the U.S. economy from its agrarian roots. Some three fourths of the U.S. population in 1870 lived in a rural area and the 1880 Census showed that more than 60% of the rural population lived on farms. The experiences and life lessons that would form Coolidge’s character were those shared by most other Americans of the day. My own grandparents, born that same decade on farms in Ohio, embraced those same values and not surprisingly became Coolidge Republicans. While such voters could readily identify with Coolidge, they also admired and rewarded the leadership skills that conventional historians seem to have overlooked.
Life on America’s farms and in rural villages during the final three decades of the nineteenth century demanded self-discipline, sacrifice and perseverance. Shlaes notes that Coolidge himself saw “perseverance as the key” to success. Just as perseverance defined Coolidge’s work ethic, “parsimony” in both word and deed seems to have defined his life’s mission.
And at Amazon, Coolidge.
BONUS: On Twitter, Melissa Clouthier's asking "Who's your favorite president"?
PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.
Labels:
American History,
Holidays
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)