"There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters." Daniel Webster

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Korean Fever

It's not what you think, Ron.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Basic Religion Test Stumps Americans

Athiests know more about religions that those who believe them.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Doing the Jobs Americans Won't Do

The Associated Press reports:

The UFW in June launched the "Take Our Jobs Campaign," inviting people to go online and apply. About 8,600 people filled out an application form, but only seven have been placed in farm jobs, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Black Swan Dude: Obama Made the Recession Worse

And he says Canada is now a better bet for international investors.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Recessions Then and Now

Here's a column from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from George Selgin, who was one of my professors in graduate school.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Harlan Ellison

Dying?

One of the highlights of my career was when Ellison called me to tell me how much he liked a review I did of one of his books, a call made even more memorable because I was a little critical of the book.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Mexicans in New York (And the Rest of the Country)

They are more likely to hold a job than native borns or even other immigrant groups.

Why?

They tend to be more willing to move in pursuit of jobs and to take any job they can find, especially if they lack access to unemployment benefits.

Get Real

Nick Gillespie isn't expecting much from the Republicans' latest Contract with America.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Andrew Breitbart vs. Glenn Beck

Someone on the right notices what Beck is trying to do to the Tea Party.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Immigration Restrictions

Economist Bryan Caplan calls them a solution in search of a problem.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Heh

It has been 48 hours and still no mention of this in the Republican echo chamber. Wonder why?

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Friday, September 17, 2010

With Friends Like These

Which "friendly" foreign intelligence service does the CIA regard as the least friendly? Yeah.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Life, Liberty and Breaking the Rules

Bill James on Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds and jaywalkers.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Needless Apology of the Day

What a slap in the face not only to the subjects of the story but to everyone in the newsroom involved in putting it together.

HT: Jesse Walker

Monday, September 13, 2010

More on Japanese Life Spans

Now that the government has started taking a closer look, it finds that there are some 77,000 people 120 years old or older in its records and 884 who would be 150 or older.

To put that in perspective, the longgest-lived human for whom there is substantial documentation is Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122. The longest-lived man was Christian Mortensen, who died in 1998 at 115.

It's becmoing increasingly clear that a large number of Japanese people have hid the deaths of elderly realtives to continue receiving their pensions.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Neocon Welshes on Bet

David Henderson posts about how back in 2003, after the United States invaded Iraq, someone bet him that by September 2008 three Middle Eastern countries that were not then democracies would become Democratic by September 2008 because of the ripple effects of the U.S. "democratizing" Iraq.

It didn't work out that way, and when Henderson tried to collect, the woman not only denied having made the bet, she said no one could have foolish enough to make such a bet.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Japan Has Misplaced a Quarter Million Centennarians

I joked a few weeks ago that maybe Japan really doesn't have such a long life expectancy. But give the scale of fraud we are talking about here, I wonder if it is enough to skew the numbers.

Friday, September 10, 2010

I Thought He Was Just Reprising His Role of Lonesome Rhodes

Andy Griffith's popularity has plummeted in North Carolina thanks to his commercial for Obamacare.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Endless War

Don Vandergriff looks at the new book by Andrew Bacevich.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Channel 9 Is at It Again

Bill Anderson looks at the coverage of another child molestation allegation.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Monday, September 6, 2010

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Friday, September 3, 2010

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Christopher Hitchens on Glenn Beck

He wasn't very impressed with Beck's big meeting.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The Guys We Put in Charge

More bad news from Iraq.