Wheat & Weeds

The Orange Disks Are The Death Panels

2010-07-29T23:01:00.003-05:00

Behold our new health care system.

Thanks to ninme for reminding me to post. You can click it a bit larger at her place, but let me save you the trouble: every place you see a connecting line on the page, you will stand in line for a treatment. The pale peach shapes are entities which can tax you; the dark blue shapes are agencies tasked with denying you treatment unless you stop smoking/stop eating trans fats/stop your salt intake/give up bacon/change your light bulbs/abstain from sodas/ affirm the wholesomeness of homosexual marriage. Orange represents death panels.

Didn't WaPo just do a 3-part expose on how no bureaucracy this big could function?

The Mysterious Obama Administration

2010-07-29T22:11:00.002-05:00

I understand that Communism which is a protest, but not that which is a hope.

American Digest found Don Colacho's Aphorisms. Some of them are hilarious and some profound (and some wrong in the way that Europeans are wrong. He's big on resignation, apparently). Like this, though:

#1,400: To be a Marxist appears to consist in exempting Communist societies from the Marxist interpretation.

And:

#1,404: Nobody, nothing, in the end forgives.Except Christ.

No One's Going To Help You Bake That Cake

2010-07-29T19:05:00.000-05:00

It's the feast of St. Martha. And Alexis de Tocqueville's birthday.

What Do You Mean, "We"?

2010-07-29T07:59:00.001-05:00

Pat Caddell & Douglas Schoen, pollsters for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton respectively, rebuked the President yesterday for being divisive --and not in the positive, taking a stand way that I tend to champion.

Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship. Moreover, his cynical approach to governance has encouraged his allies to pursue a similar strategy of racially divisive politics on his behalf.

And there's a catalog of crimes: jumping to conclusions in the beergate case, holding border security hostage to comprehensive immigration reform, suing a state full of citizens, refusing to prosecute voter intimidation on the part of the New Black Panthers, etc.

It's nice they notice, although what they could have expected I'm not certain. Obama promised to be a radical and he is. Meanwhile, House of Eratosthenes nails the President's character:

Listen to Obama talk about something that doesn’t have to do with race: I, I, I, Me, Me, I, I, Me, I just think, seems to Me, Michelle & I, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me. The subject shifts to race, and all of a sudden it’s we, we, we, we, America, Ms. Sherrod, bloggers, talk shows, Cambridge police, we. He stops talking about Himself, because He’s cataloging sins…things that have been done wrong. When that happens, He isn’t part of us anymore. Suddenly, He can grind out entire paragraphs without mentioning Himself one single time. He’ll re-join us when the lecturing is done. Then He’ll be happy to tell us, once again, what He thinks about things.

He has a good insight, too, on Shirley Sherrod and her conversion --and why we can't get to the "there" of racial harmony from the "here" of Progressivism:

why did she reform? I’ve seen lots of leftists subjected to this spiritual awakening, and it isn’t permanent, one-way, or spiritual. In my case, they’ve gone back and forth, and with the wisdom of hindsight I’ve come to realize something: What they were trying to decide, was whether or not I was a “mark.” Was I desperate enough yet that, if they short-circuited some rules to “help” me, would I give them my soul. This is the true face of the progressive movement: Put the non-producers in charge of figuring out how the goods and services are allocated, and if enough people are in desperate circumstances & stand to benefit from your little modern Bolshevik revolution, they will help you do this and you will succeed. You cannot succeed without them. This is how Shirley Sherrod saw that white farmer. She changed her mind about him. As his plight became more and more desperate, she figured out how he would come in handy.

That last line is the official Left's commitment to the poor in one sentence.
Curtsy: Kaching!

Where's The Oil?

2010-07-28T11:26:00.001-05:00

When the BP leak first began, someone sent me the story of some vastly worse spill in the 70s that dispersed right away. Send it again, please, if it was you. I can't find it.

Meanwhile.

Update: Steve Hayward with more.

A Business-Free District

2010-07-27T16:45:00.000-05:00

Click here to see Paul Ryan offer a teaching moment to Chris Matthews and Cong. Joe Crowley. The whole thing's good, but the money moment begins about 3:57 when they're talking about eliminating tax cuts "for the wealthy."
Matthews asks:

Are you comfortable going to the voters, Congressman Crowley, with a proposal to eliminate the $250,000 and above tax cut?

To which Crowley, bright light proving the incandescent intelligence of the Congress that he is, responds that he doesn't have any such voters in his district.

I could tell you, Chris, in my district, there are very few people who make more than that money just a gross income of $250,000 or more. And I think, to live in the greatest country, as I said before, the world has ever known, it`s a small price to pay.

Really, Congressman? There are no S-corps in your district? Because, as Ryan patiently and smilingly explains:

You have to understand, Chris, 75 percent of those people who pay that tax rate are small businesses who file as individuals, not corporations. That`s the problem with this economic argument, Chris, is when you think you`re just taxing rich people like Bill Gates, what you`re end up doing is you`re hitting successful small businesses. When we tax our employers more than our foreign competitors tax theirs, they get our jobs and we lose in global competition.

No Comment

2010-07-27T16:25:00.001-05:00

Mad Men, Season 11

2010-07-27T14:49:00.000-05:00

Shamelessly pinched from lonelysandwich

I have never seen Mad Men, but asked my spy who worked v. successfully in advertising in NY in the 60s if it was accurate. Answer: very, at least in the previous seasons (not vouching for this point forward), including inside jokes and references that only people "There Then" would get.

Fun.

Relativism And Timidity

2010-07-27T14:07:00.006-05:00

If we fear error too much, and thus overvalue critical reason, we will develop a mind active and able in doubt but untrained to move toward belief, a mentality too quick to find reasons not to nurture convictions.

Ideally, we would like critical reason to minister to the more fundamental project of affirming truth. We picture ourselves scrupulously examining various truth-claims, weeding out the irrational ones, and then judiciously assenting to those that seem to have solid grounds.

R.R. Reno, writing at First Things, on the intellectual timidity of our age.

In my experience, although the modern university is full of trite, politically correct pieties, for the most part its educational culture is cautious to a fault. Students are trained—I was trained—to believe as little as possible so that the mind can be spared the ignominy of error. The consequences: an impoverished intellectual life. The contemporary mind very often lives on a starvation diet of small, inconsequential truths, because those are the only points on which we can be sure we’re avoiding error.

I have to ponder that observation, as it happens I've been thinking about this very thing recently, or rather, about intellectual phenomena which appear to me to be related. In some ways he's only re-stating the complaint that we have reduced reality to that which can be empirically observed, which flattens the imagination and obliterates practically everything that's actually interesting, important and delightful. Or it could be a re-statement of the criticism of Great Books programs: great at getting you to think about the right things, not so good at inculcating prudence. At some point you not only have to consider what's right, you have to decide and go do it.

I've been thinking about relativism on "the Right," even the Religious Right, prompted by comments left at another site in response to a proposal that divorce be taxed. Immediately a dozen people protested that this would hurt divorced people, and one person, obviously smarting personally, declared it was insensitive to divorcees even to raise the topic.

A divorce tax may or may not be a good idea, but what struck me was that the comments and arguments were precisely those used by homosexuals to advance the cause of same-sex marriage --namely, the "unfairness" to some, and the appeal to hurt feelings as a means of shutting down discussion. The common good and the role of marriage and family law in shaping it did not come into play.

Maybe they would have if the hurting bully hadn't whomped everyone into silence, but the conversation was disheartening. Hard cases make bad law, but hard cases are all we're allowed to talk about --and isn't that the same thing, really, as being so afraid of making a mistake --of being unfair to someone, somewhere-- that you can't make a decision --or offer a norm-- at all?

That was followed a few days later by a controversial post about whether it could ever be acceptable for a Christian to attend the reception celebrating a same-sex union (after having declined, with explanation, attending the ceremony). The discussion was blurred by an unfortunate analogy, but the actual moral teaching (possibly yes in limited circumstances) appears to me defensible, especially since, applying the reasoning given, most people in most situations would have to conclude they couldn't attend. But maybe the argument was not prudent, given that it could hardly but be misconstrued in precisely the way the comments reveal it is being, and might lead an uninformed person astray. Hard cases make bad law.

How do you talk about tricky cases without encouraging the overthrow of what remains of standards of morality --or disheartening the faithful? How do you not talk about tricky cases when there are more and more of them thanks to the tyranny of relativism and loss of faith? The true requirements of Prudence maybe can be least discussed where most needed? Or do we just have to be satisfied with, "he who has ears let him hear" a lot of the time?

It so happens that my book club just finished Lewis' space trilogy and I was very taken with the middle volume, Perelandra (the conceit of which is basically creation on Venus, and our hero has to prevent the Fall by intervening in Satan's temptation of the Venutian Eve), and Ransom's eventually having to give up on out-arguing the subtle and persuasive and almost-right devil and resort to physically fighting him. This seems related for some reason I can't articulate, though I'm sure Lewis has an essay somewhere that would make it obvious.

Maybe it just means sometimes I'd like to punch people in the comment box. (Not you, of course!)

Wicked Leaks

2010-07-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

Legal Insurrection asks:

How many of the Journolists who object to the release of their e-mails regarding the 2008 presidential campaign will spend the next several days gloating over the publication by WikiLeaks of over 90,000 classified military documents regarding the war in Afghanistan?

And meanwhile many of our soldiers and allies in covert positions have had their covers blown and will likely die as a result. A hanging is called for.

Stone Goes Gibson

2010-07-26T14:58:00.000-05:00

So I'm sure the agonized op-eds about it being a pity, but no one can ever work with him again after this are coming, right?

Director Oliver Stone belittled the Holocaust during a shocking interview (paywall)with the Sunday Times today, claiming that America's focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the "Jewish domination of the media."
The director also defended Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and railed against the "powerful lobby" of Jews in America.

Stone said that his upcoming Showtime documentary series "Secret History of America," seeks to put Hitler and Communist dictator Joseph Stalin "in context."

Ah, yes, if only Hitler could be seen in "context."

When Gibson rants, it's in out-of-control fury or drunkenness and he tries to hide it. Here is Stone, calm and in control and saying these things to a newspaper --and reinforcing them by supporting Chavez and Abombnjihad. Some days I wish the Joooos had a little more control over Hollywood than is alleged.

Keep Staring Like That And I'll Make More

2010-07-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

A perennial topic among moms of large families is what to say to the intrusive and lame comments people feel free to make about your troops. We have a mere four weedlets and have nevertheless heard it all.

I find I don't need snappy comebacks, as most people mean no harm (and are actually trying to be nice) and for those who do, I've always found it sufficient to know that I think they're as ignorant, knuckle-dragging and mouth-breathing as they think me, and I rather like being thought ill of by the uncivilized. Raises my cache in my own mind.

Nevertheless, for those who need that kind of thing, Simcha Fisher has compiled the definitive list, so we don't need to have that conversation any more.

The Gauzy Strip

2010-07-22T22:08:00.000-05:00

ninme provides my post this evening.

Milton Friedman Takes Someone to School

2010-07-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

It's being alleged the young man here is Michael Moore. I'm skeptical, but it doesn't matter --the clip is excellent, and everyone needs the lesson.

Curtsy: Big Hollywood

Monkeys In The Middle

2010-07-20T09:13:00.000-05:00

Literally: Man arrested with 18 monkeys stuffed in his girdle.

Is The Pope In Danger?

2010-07-19T21:53:00.002-05:00

"Always" is the answer (like the US President, people are always gunning for him), but Matthew Archbold is asking specifically about the upcoming trip to Britain and the possibility a Muslim paper there is inciting violence.

A member of British Parliament says he fears violence at an open air mass with Pope Benedict XVI after an Islamic publication called Muslims to attend the Mass to convert Catholics and “tell the Pope in no uncertain terms what Muslims think of his evil slanders against the last Prophet of God and his message.”

Hmm. It's true The Islamic Standard wrote this:

We at the Islamic Standard hope the Muslims of Birmingham take this duel opportunity to give Da’wah to these 80,000 travelling disbelievers, whilst at the same time telling the Pope in no uncertain terms what Muslims think of his evil slanders against the last Prophet of God and his message.

Heh. Probably they mean "dual," but one never knows....
But it seems to be a smallish blog. My mind runs more to the idea that plenty of MPs would like to see the Pope's visit canceled, and will do what they can to make it seem impossibly difficult.

Now there is protectthepope.com, and I note that a womyn's ordination group is likewise predicting "heightened tensions" around the pope's visit.

Muslim radicals and feminists, together again.

P.S. FWIW, the blogger at the Islamic Standard denies he's inciting anyone to violence.

Lazy, Crazy, Hazy Days

2010-07-19T21:17:00.006-05:00

Curtsy: The Corner

Signs From God

2010-07-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

Had this random thought this morning that it's been years since I had a piña colada and I was in the mood for one, preferably poolside, this afternoon. Put the thought out of my mind, drank coffee, rounded up kids, went to Mass.

Pastor's homily included the assurance he would keep it short, since he knew we needed to get home to our fruity drinks and pools.

Honestly, I was going to let it go, but since it's Your will, Lord....

Journalistic Neutrality

2010-07-16T06:27:00.000-05:00

Tweet from a (London) Times columnist:

The Catholic Church: they hate women and gays, and f*** kids. On a day-to-day level, that’s a tough sell.

Charming.

Don't Blame The Swiss

2010-07-16T06:07:00.001-05:00

Did Eric Holder Free Roman Polanski? The DoJ never turned the trial transcripts over to the Swiss, AP reports.

And You Thought Only The Government Was Unstable

2010-07-16T05:51:00.000-05:00

Earthquake in DC.

My Facebook Friends Amuse Me

2010-07-15T19:23:00.000-05:00

Two college chums of mine are having a virtual knock-down drag-out over economics on facebook. Right now they're on ethanol subsidies and clean energy. The liberal complains that "millions of people starving" is "hysterical BS" along the lines of the "DDT ban holocaust." To which the libertarian responds:

"Millions of people starving" is, I admit, shorthand for higher corn prices in Mexico but there are a lot of people down there who need tortillas worse than I need to buy gas that will destroy the motor in my weedwhacker.

Empire Has Its Perks

2010-07-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

The Official Cartoonist of Wheat & Weeds reports from Iraq that his base PX sells nothing but items made in China. And Turkey. To send home genuine Iraqi merchandise, he had to give some bills to the unit interpreter before he left for vacation, with the request to please return with something made in-country.

Is my conscience troubling me about my participation in this plunder of a host nation? Not remotely.

In Lieu Of Flowers

2010-07-14T22:49:00.001-05:00

ninme has a worthy candidate for "absolutely the funniest item of the day," but I submit this for your consideration. Poor Charlotte McCourt, 84, passed away this week outside Reno. She once worked for the Senate Majority Leader. From her obituary:

We believe that Mom would say she was mortified to have taken a large role in the election of Harry Reid to U.S. Congress. Let the record show Charlotte was displeased with his work. Please, in lieu of flowers, vote for another more worthy candidate.

Alas, notes Matthew Archbold:

the fact that she's a dead Democrat means she'll probably be voting for Reid no matter what this year.

Even if ninme still wins, surely this takes the bloom off "absolutely"?

NASA Litella: Nevermind

2010-07-13T06:22:00.000-05:00

Robert Gibbs says all that NASA Muslim outreach stuff was just a misstatement.

"That was not his task and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs said.

So his interview with Al Jazeera and speech in Cairo were just flukes. Ah.

Say, while we're on the topic of misuse of Science, a bunch of scientists are complaining about being pressured by the Administration to hide or alter conclusions for political purposes. Jonathan Adler comments.

Instacurtsy. I enjoyed his headline for scientists believing Obama: More rubes self-identify.

Meanwhile, another triumph for bad, politicized science of the Bush-era variety from which we're now liberated: adult stem cells restore sight to 75% of folks blinded by chemical burns.