BRIAN FAUGHNAN: Why Is Barack Obama So Dead Set Against Gay Rights? “Barack Obama has disillusioned many of his liberal supporters by taking a stance in opposition to gay marriage, and by dragging his heels on repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But now it appears he’s such a committed opponent of gay rights, that his administration is even willing to ignore a court order on interpreting the law with regard to federal health benefits:”
COPENHAGEN? More Like Carbonhagen! I’ll believe it’s a crisis when they do these shindigs via videoconference.
Related: Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, flew 443,243 miles in a 19 month period while speaking against global warming. A fraud, a hypocrite, and probably a liar. Somebody tell this guy about Skype and iChat.
CLIVE CROOK ON CLIMATEGATE, over at The Atlantic:
In my previous post on Climategate I blithely said that nothing in the climate science email dump surprised me much. Having waded more deeply over the weekend I take that back.
The closed-mindedness of these supposed men of science, their willingness to go to any lengths to defend a preconceived message, is surprising even to me. The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering. And, as Christopher Booker argues, this scandal is not at the margins of the politicised IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] process. It is not tangential to the policy prescriptions emanating from what David Henderson called the environmental policy milieu. It goes to the core of that process.
Read the whole thing.
AT AMAZON, Cyber Monday markdowns on Jewelry.
REASON TV ANNOUNCES NOVEMBER’S NANNY OF THE MONTH:
SOME 21ST CENTURY Rules For Husbands.
RON BAILEY: ClimateGate and Scientific Journal Chicanery: “Eduardo Zorita, a researcher on past temperature trends at the Institute for Coastal Research in Germany, is calling for prominent Climategate reseachers, Phil Jones, Michael Mann, and Stefan Rahmstorf, to be banned from any future work on the Intergrovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s reports. But Zorita makes an even more interesting and very disturbing observation.”
THOUGHTS ON ClimateGate and Anonymity.
JOE HICKS: Congressional Black Caucus Cries Foul Over Ethics Probes. Who knew that Nancy Pelosi’s Congress was so racist?
TAXPROF: How The Tax Law Fuels The College Sports Arms Race.
FROM POPULAR MECHANICS, A full-on Chevy Volt test drive.
AMERICAN LEYLAND: Claire Berlinski: America should learn from Britain’s disastrous takeover of its biggest auto company. “British taxpayers invested 11 billion pounds—the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $22 billion today—in a company whose only sign of life was a willingness to spend that money. Though the British economy recovered, British Leyland did not. If this story sounds troublingly familiar to you, you appear to be nearly alone. Few of the policymakers currently nationalizing the American auto industry seem to remember the British experience, and fewer still seem to have learned anything from it.”
UNSURPRISINGLY, SARAH PALIN’S BOOK IS NOW #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
DAN MILLER: The Honduran Elections: Persistent Courage Trumps Attempted Tyranny.
YEARS AGO, the FDA shut down sales of a product called Jogging In A Jug. “By law, the product–a mixture of grape and apple juices and vinegar called Jogging in a Jug–was considered an unapproved new drug due to claims McWilliams, 64, made for it.”
But now we learn that vinegar can affect blood sugar levels, which makes me wonder about triglycerides, too. Maybe McWilliams was just too far ahead of the curve. . . .
UPDATE: Reader Jeffrey Jackson notes that my triglyceride intuition seems to be correct.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Christopher Brandt writes: “I’m curious to see how much vinegar was consumed by people 50-100 years ago, and our ancestors who used it as a primary food preservative. Pickles anyone?” I wonder if the switch to refrigeration led to lower levels of vinegar in the diet, and hence to the midcentury jump in heart disease? Purely speculative, of course, but interesting.
RASMUSSEN: 41% favor Congressional health care plan, 53% oppose… 22% Strongly Favor, 40% Strongly Oppose.
FROM PROF. JOHN KANG: Appeal to Heaven: On the Religious Origins of the Constitutional Right of Revolution.
TALKING ABOUT OBAMA AND AFGHANISTAN, over at The Hill.
WHO KNEW? You can be arrested in New York for having too many condoms.
CLIMATEGATE CENTRAL: A complete ClimateGate document database and more, at Pajamas Media.
IN THE MAIL: From Stephen Moore, How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting The U.S. Economy.
HOPE: Obama Rejects International Convention Banning Land Mines.
“HE TALKS TOO MUCH:” The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: HUD Must Cut Off ACORN.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Killing cancer with “nanodiscs.” “Laboratory tests found the so-called “nanodiscs”, around 60 billionths of a metre thick, could be used to disrupt the membranes of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct. The discs are made from an iron-nickel alloy, which move when subjected to a magnetic field, damaging the cancer cells, the report published in Nature Materials said.”
CREATING SCULPTURE from duct tape.
PROF. JACOBSON: 10,000 Unnecessary Cancer Deaths (In Britain). “Since Britain’s population is less than one-fifth that of the U.S., the equivalent number of unnecessary deaths in the U.S. would exceed 50,000. The U.S. has cancer survival rates which exceed even the better European countries, so that number may be higher. Keep that in mind the next time you hear Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and others throw around fictitious numbers about how many people die in the U.S. from lack of insurance.”
FIRST IT WAS MAMMOGRAMS, then it was pap smears, now flu shots for old people? I don’t ever remember so much concern with health-care rationing before . . . .
SHANNON LOVE: No One Peer-Reviews Scientific Software.
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST: Harvard Ignored Warnings About Investments. But don’t worry, now Larry Summers is playing with your money.
SO NOW THAT MOST PEOPLE HAVE HIGH-SPEED INTERNET AT HOME, is “Cyber Monday” really such a big deal? In the old days, you might have waited to shop online using your high-speed work connection rather than futz with dialup at home over the weekend, but that seems kinda 2002 to me. However, Amazon’s not taking any chances.
PROF. KENNETH ANDERSON: How Are the Copenhagen Talks Supposed to Overcome Collective Action Problems?
GALLUP: Gallup: Opposition to ObamaCare almost at majority … of adults. “Without leaners, the picture looks just as grim for ObamaCare advocates. Only 35% of adults — not registered or likely voters — support the bill, while 42% oppose it. Not only is the latter the highest level of opposition so far this year, it’s higher than support ever reached this year, too.”
HMM: Lawmakers Probe Science Czar Holdren’s Links to Climategate.
AT COMPUTATIONAL LEGAL STUDIES, Visualizing the East Anglia Climate Research Unit Leaked Email Network. (Via Andrew Revkin). Related item here.
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:
The return of coffeemaker blogging.
Dubai and Islamic Finance.
The continuing gender gap in unemployment.
Disillusionment in Britain.
A double standard on Tiger Woods?
A huge St. Louis Tea Party.
ClimateGate discouraging young scientists.
A bad Black Friday at Williams-Sonoma for the InstaDaughter.
PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Nicholas Kristof, Obamacare, and the Broken Window Fallacy.
Sure, it would be great if John had health care insurance. But at what cost to everybody else? Should women under 50 be denied mammograms so as to hold down health costs so that John can have government-subsidized insurance? How about men over 70 with slow acting prostate cancer? Should we deny them treatment on the assumption that something else will kill them first, so that the government can afford to insure John?
The point is that Kristof and his ilk are basically running a con. They want you to focus on the most sympathetic cases, while ignoring the large and amorphous mass of individuals who will be adversely affected.
Read the whole thing.
MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY: In Elections, Honduras Defeats Chavez.
NIALL FERGUSON ON FINANCIAL WEAKNESS:
The deficit for the fiscal year 2009 came in at more than $1.4 trillion—about 11.2 percent of GDP, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That’s a bigger deficit than any seen in the past 60 years—only slightly larger in relative terms than the deficit in 1942. We are, it seems, having the fiscal policy of a world war, without the war. Yes, I know, the United States is at war in Afghanistan and still has a significant contingent of troops in Iraq. But these are trivial conflicts compared with the world wars, and their contribution to the gathering fiscal storm has in fact been quite modest (little more than 1.8 percent of GDP, even if you accept the estimated cumulative cost of $3.2 trillion published by Columbia economist Joseph Stiglitz in February 2008).
Like World War II, only with ACORN instead of the Manhattan Project. What could go wrong? Plus, Paul Krugman re-spins the deficit. But where Ferguson worries about a decline in U.S. military power as a result, I think some people in the Administration regard that as a feature, not a bug.
NEW JERSEY BLOGGER was on FBI payroll. “He used his website to establish his credibility, often posting content to incite those same groups. The FBI is said to have had concerns over his content even as he was being paid.”
INTERACTIVE MAP: food stamp usage across the country.
ROGER KIMBALL on humor from Jacob Weisberg.
CLIMATEGATE: FROM JIM TREACHER, A friendly chat with the global warming evangelist who lives in my head.
Related: The worst scientific scandal of our generation?
Plus, the dog ate my climate change data! “SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.”
How convenient. Kinda like the “flood” that “destroyed” Michael Bellesiles’ probate records . . .
UPDATE: “Botch after botch after botch.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Investigations Beginning in the UK.
PAUL MIRENGOFF: The Obama-Holder Justice Department turns a blind eye to ACORN. “DOJ has initiated grand jury probes of major businesses, and government contractors, with far less in the way of evidence than is available in the public domain on ACORN right now. It’s also ironic that the DOJ has had in place for several years a Procurement Fraud Task Force that goes after contractors who receive federal funds through fraud or collusion, or bribery, or the like.” But not connected contractors . . . .
MICHAEL BARONE: Global Warming Consensus: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Women lead Swiss in vote to ban minarets. Why would women, in particular, be opposed to the visible spread of Islam in Europe?
UPDATE: Some thoughts from Roger Simon.
HOW TO HANG HDTVs using wall hangers.
UH OH: Black Friday weekend spending down 8 pct per person. “U.S. consumers spent significantly less per person at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010.” I hear that ammo sales were strong, though.
UH OH: Man sought in Washington police ambush was freed by Mike Huckabee.
UPDATE: More from Michelle Malkin.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Huckabee’s statement.
HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE DAMAGE? Rand Simberg on ClimateGate.
And “hockey stick” graph creator Michael Mann is being investigated by Penn State.
THE WEEK IN WINDOWS: PC vs. Mac for the Holidays. Windows 7 has already outpaced Mac OS in adoptions.
ANOTHER GITMO OFFICIAL RESIGNS: Who Is Accountable Now?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON XM/SIRIUS RADIO, the latest PJM Political is now online, with Alvin Toffler, Mark Hemingway, Michael Malone, and Jennifer Burns.
RON ROSENBAUM: When Global Warming Advocates Trivialize the Holocaust.
SURPRISE: Poll: Most respondents don’t believe stimulus has helped economy.
THE REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL of CCDs.
JENNIFER RUBIN: Will Obama Repair His Wimp Image? “Frankly, it might be a good time for the president to battle his left flank and demonstrate some moxie, if he has it. The world and a vast number of centrists in America, not to mention conservatives, think he’s a wimp. This is his time to prove them wrong.”
RADLEY BALKO interviewed by The Economist.
MICKEY KAUS: STOP STIGMATIZING STIGMA!
But a stigma placed on cash-like welfare (which food stamps are) remains a positive sign of a healthy work ethic. If you came across two societies–Society A, in which food stamps were stigmatized, with families reluctant to go on the dole even if they were eligible, and Society B, in which they weren’t, you would want to bet on (and live in) Society A. It’s one thing to relax the stigma on welfare in times of epic economic decline. It’s another if the stigma doesn’t return with the possibility of employment.
Indeed.
L.A. WEEKLY: L.A.’s Medical Weed Wars: How the Potheads Outwitted Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council. Okay, even for a bunch of potheads that’s not a huge challenge. But as Xeni Jardin has noted, it’s producing some real quality-of-life problems.
TIGERHAWK: Thoughts on the ClimateGate Video.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS created or saved.
Check out the list of Candidates. With this kind of PR, I’m starting to take my run for Tennessee’s 29th District more seriously! What do you think?
BUILDING A NATION OF CAMERAMEN. And women.
MODELING THE ECONOMY AS A PHYSICS PROBLEM. I’d prefer building lots of new nuclear plants to total economic collapse, please.
SO HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” THING WORKING OUT? Iran Plans Ten New Uranium Enrichment Plants.
POP SECRET: Microwaves at a nuclear warhead plant.
IN THE MAIL: From David Weber and Eric Flint, Torch Of Freedom. It’s an “Honorverse” book.
CLIMATEGATE AND AN ARMY OF DAVIDS: My Sunday Washington Examiner column is up.
SALENA ZITO: Bedford Falls, USA:
Main Street America has entered an era of populism that embraces neither party. People are tired of government bailouts, spending and unchecked corruption, as well as the media’s perceived lack of curiosity or investigation into all three.
They are really tired of being told their values and way of life are not politically correct.
Sounds kind of familiar. Read the whole thing.
DANIEL GROSS: China Is A Communist Country, But I Have Yet To Meet An Actual Communist.
Plus these words of wisdom: “If somebody just went out in the street and shouted, ‘I will divide the property of rich people into poor people,’ I think he would be elected. But it is useless, as parity will not solve the problem of economic development.”
WOMEN WHO WANT TO WANT: Desire follows arousal.
THE PAJAMA SHOPPING REVOLUTION? Black Friday store spending edges up; online soars.
Shoppers who endured long lines and sometimes-frigid temperatures spent only slightly more during their Black Friday shopping sprees than they did last year, according to data released Saturday by a research firm.
At the same time, their pajama-clad counterparts, a much smaller group that accounted for only a fraction of overall sales, shopped online from the warmth of their homes and dramatically boosted their spending.
And yet online advertising was down last quarter.
INSIDE THE TUBE: Incredible Wave Photography.
ROGER SIMON: ClimateGate: Time To Postpone Copenhagen.
MY EARLIER POST ON WILLIAMS-SONOMA led people to ask which coffeemaker I bought — a reasonable question in light of past coffeemaker blogging. It was this one from Cuisinart. A few years ago I rejected a similar model because it had a “ready” beep that couldn’t be shut off (such noisemaking by appliances is a pet peeve of mine). But this one has an easy-to-use silencing feature. So far it’s doing fine.
UPDATE: Reader Dan O’Brien writes: “I have this one. It’s my second. If this one dies, I’d buy another exactly like it.”
LISA FAIRFAX ON The Financial Literacy (or Lack Thereof) of Young Americans. Of course, the older Americans in Congress aren’t looking so hot either . . . .
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS — in Afghanistan.
STILL FIGHTING OVER TRAFFIC CAMERAS IN OAK RIDGE: “More than four months after special cameras to photograph traffic offenses were installed in four high-traffic locations, they remain as controversial as Oak Ridge City Council’s narrow vote to approve them. More than 5,000 violation notices a month are now being mailed out, mostly for speeding on Oak Ridge Turnpike, records show. Through September, the cameras generated $337,427 in revenue from the $50 citations.” Which is the point, no matter what else they say.
Plus this: “By far, out-of-city drivers receive the majority of traffic violations, O’Connor said. In October, he said, 4,015 nonresidents and 1,002 residents were mailed speeding notices, he said.”
DEFENDING A PROFESSION that no longer exists.
IS DUBAI A Financial China Syndrome? Beats me. On the one hand, if rich Arab sheikdoms can go broke, who’s safe? On the other hand, anyone can spend more than they should, and stupidly — and people with lots of money may even be at more risk for that. So does it tell us anything about the state of other sovereign debtors? Doubtful. Will it bring down the system itself? Also doubtful, but who knows?
UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails:
Dubai could be bailed out its by its Arab pals in the blink of an eye. This is about WILLINGNESS to pay, not ABILITY to pay.
The public list of Western bank exposures shows some institutions are wounded, but not mortally so.
The big financial enterprise at stake here is the recently created industry known as “Islamic Finance” which purports to create debt instruments consistent with arcane Moslem-friendly rules.
No one knows, or CAN know, how these spanking-new pieces of paper will be honored or valued. And only insiders know who holds the paper, and what process will be used to manage their first crisis.
Given the obvious conspiracy to spring this de facto default on markets before a lengthy Islamic holiday, it’s clear this will be very much an insiders’ game.
A worst case outcome, structurally, would be the collapse of the entire Islamic Finance complex, with unknowable consequences. At the very least we’d be looking at another drain on global liquidity/financing capability, at the margin dampening global growth further and pushing the US recovery further into the future.
Interesting. Well, stay tuned . . . .
A GADGET GIFT GUIDE, from Popular Mechanics.
THE EXAMINER: Growing Public Backlash Over Obamacare.
JONATHAN ADLER ON CLIMATEGATE: “‘We’re the Experts, Trust Us,’ Has Clearly Gone by the Wayside.”
A BUNCH OF INTERESTING FOOD LINKS. And a photo of a “bacontastic” Thanksgiving turkey.
OH, GOOD GRIEF: Polanski’s Release Secured by Sarkozy.
KING BANAIAN: Not an economist, just wrong.
DID F.D.R. actually die from cancer?
TV CALIBRATION: The Easy Route.
MANCESSION: The Jobless Gender Gap: Unemployment for men is growing at a much faster pace than for women. “Imagine the outcry if women amounted to roughly three in four lost jobs in this recession.”
This was not by accident, but a matter of Administration policy in response to interest-group pressure.
MARK STEYN: Major Nidal Hasan Had An Enabler.
CANADIAN BORDER GUARDS WANT TO BE SURE THAT foreign journalists don’t criticize the Vancouver Olympics.
Good thing I didn’t go, then. . . .
MARKDOWNS ON home and garden stuff.
GATEWAY PUNDIT: 4000 Patriots Join James O’Keefe At St. Louis Tea Party Protest.
WORLD WAR II VETS: This isn’t the Britain we fought for. “As a group, they feel furious at not being able to speak their minds. They see the lack of debate and the damning of dissenters as racists or Little Englanders as deeply upsetting affronts to freedom of speech.”
DANIEL DREZNER on the global governance of apocalypses.
FLIGHT TESTING A magnetic heat shield.
