Sunday morning reading - September 13, 2009

’Round and ’round the money goes.

A computer analysis by the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that fully three-quarters of the [members of John Murtha’s House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee] have been involved in similar patterns of behavior — in circles of relationships fraught with potential conflicts of interest, involving former congressional staffers-turned lobbyists, earmarks, and campaign cash.  In these circles, former staffers became lobbyists for defense contractors; the contractors received earmarks from the representatives; and the representatives received campaign contributions from the lobbyists or the contractors.

Data mining in the public interest. RTWT, and Spot YOUR Earmarker!  (I see Indiana’s Pete Visclosky made the list.  Oh boy!)  Makes up for its length by raising your blood pressure.  4000 words (via: IP)

Drawing some boundaries.  Ric Locke has 15 ideas for restoring the intent of the Founders and reclaiming our liberty.  One favorite:

6.  Every declaration, order, rule, or proclamation, however styled or construed, for violation or nonperformance of which any Person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property in any degree, is a Law, and every Law of the United States shall be placed before, and debated and passed by, the Congress; Regulations drawn up by unelected functionaries, and having the force of Law upon their face, are null and void in every respect.

Good ideas, I think.  How about you?  1400 words (HT: CGH)

Magical thinking falling flat.

They’ll yammer on and on about how the right are delusional, but they’ve yet to come to grips with the fact that The One is full of fail, and that the blame lies with himself and his administration.  The Spendulus fiasco, TARP auto bailout, Cash for Clunkers’ unforeseen side effects—all of these were Obama initiatives that sank, because they were forged out of magical thinking. People who live in the world somewhat attached to material realities know that symbolism can be good, but that it hardly amounts in and of itself to policies that will operate in their interests.  Dialectical materialism is the opiate of the intelligentsia.

Dan Collins on the leftosphere in denial.  Lots of links/examples.  650 words

Cookery corner.  Rachel on doing Tex-Mex in England:

...We’ve learned the hard way that when the UK label says (as it does on this “Mexican” cheese at Tesco) that it is “HOT! SPICY! AUTHENTIC MEXICAN! BURNS YOUR FACE OFF!” – it is never anything even remotely at all in any way like those things.

It’s usually like the regular thing – for example, plain mild cheddar cheese – with a timid dash of…pepper.  The “super-hot ass-kickin’ salsa!” is essentially a liter of ketchup with a tablespoon of onion gently blended in.  Gently!  So as not to overwhelm you.

I may be from Texas but this should tell you how shocking the spiciness-calibration differences are between the US and the UK:  Stone cold truth, my face gets sweaty and I have to fan myself when I eat Taco Bell mild sauce at home.  That’s not a joke people.  When I say I want some spice, I mean just a little.  But I have tried jars of things over here that are labeled “Super Fire Hot!” – and they are about as super fire hot as a spoonful of honeydew melon.

Also, the difference between English and American “pie,” and the joy of chopping up fresh produce.  2500 words, 11 photos

Oh, and I’ve added a few links to the September 11 post.

Happy Sunday.

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Sometimes, revisions are necessary

Chris Muir has to make a slight correction:

Joanna is supposed to be there.  I’ll expect a complete report!

LATER (090913 16:17):  JorgXMcKie has a more reasonable estimate (“excess of 500,000”), and explains his numbers. Still impressive.

MORE (090914 14:40):  240,000-500,000 at Rand Simberg’s (via IP).   Assoiciated snark:

This is the kind of analysis that it would be nice to get from journalists, but most of them went into the profession because (among other reasons) they were told there would be no math.

STILL MORE (090917 15:30):  Charlie Martin:  Lower bound = 500,000

Elsewhere:

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Latest federal WTF?

And here I’d thought that urban densification was the great new concept for saving energy, time, and the environment.  So how’s that supposed to square with the Federal Housing Administration’s upcoming lending rules for condominium properties?

All development not considered primarily residential are out. For instance, a development with more than 25% of the total floor area dedicated to commercial business use is out.

Meaning:  So much for most “new urbanist” mixed-use properties?

Noise issues is a new concern, so any development within 1,000 feet of a highway, freeway, or heavily travelled road, 3,000 feet of a railroad, 1 mile of an airport, or 5 miles of a military airfield will become ineligible for approval.

3,000 feet, eh?  Well, you can always drive to that new light rail line.

If the property has an “unobstructed view, or is located within 2000 feet of any facility handling or storing explosive or fire prone materials,” it is not insurable - we’re not talking just fireworks factories here.  A gas station 2 blocks away can disqualify this development.

So the gasoline station that’s on the other side of the soccer field will put me out?  Lovely!

As Chris Bradford notes, “these new regulations seem purposely designed to push new homeowners out of dense, urban areas to the suburbs.”  I guess at the FHA the word is now “new suburbanism.”

Via:  Chris Bradford, via Charles G. Hill

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Eight years on...

[The Empire State Building] sits on the space that used to be the Waldorf, at the time one of the most famous hotels in the entire world...  But [in just over 400 days] they knocked it down, cleared the space, ...and built the icon of America... with less technology, with men who threw hot steel and hot rivets at each other.

We changed the space of a small island that we bought for beads forever.  And yet, [eight years later], the space of the World Trade Center sits empty.  Why?  Are we less of a people than our grandparents were?  Do we have less ability?  Do we have less drive?  Do we have less imagination?

Do you know what they used to call the Empire State building?...  They used to call it the “Empty” State Building...  For years during the Great Depression it was a symbol of hope.  Many tried to tear it down and say, “[This] is the real message of America: It’s empty.”

But the owners of the Empire State building... turned on the lights so it looked like there were people inside.  They built it anyway.  They built it as an icon.  They built it for the future.  They built it for the wonderment of man in America.

We keep hearing that nobody wants to buy into the new World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower.  In fact, it’s no longer called the “Freedom Tower.”  It’s going to be “World Trade.” ...  Let me add the other offensive word: “One World Trade.”  “One World Trade.”  That’s fantastic!  Why have a “Freedom Tower” when we can have “one-world trade?”
...
Why did we change it?  Well, because of occupancy.  We needed to get some occupancy.  A “Freedom Tower” might be a little offensive.  It might make it a little more of a target.  The Freedom Center and Chinese investors also were a little ruffled at the idea of freedom.

I contend that today we need to remember, not just 9/11 but remember who we are.  Are we mice or are we men?  Are we Europeans or are we Americans?  Are we one-worlders, or are we free men?  Are we people who will sit around, and look and see this scar on this island, and accept it because of political correctness, because of special interests, because of labor unions, because of big corporations, because of big government?  Is that who we are?  Who, who’s stopping us?
...
I contend that [since] the day that rubble was cleared, ...the only things stopping us [have been] special interests, political correctness and politicians.  Because if it was up to me ([and] I believe [if] it was up to you), we would have built it, we would have built it at twice the speed, we would have built it 25 stories taller and we would have built it with our own damn hands if we had to.

Sending a message to the world:  “We are America!  Anything you destroy will only make us stronger.  We will only make it better.  We will only make it bigger.

“Not to gloat.  But because we can.”

Where is our American spirit?  Where is our ingenuity?  It’s still alive. Listen. You can hear it. It’s no longer calling for help.  It’s digging itself out from beneath the rubble and the wreckage.  It has laid dormant for a while.  It lay confused and dazed, but it’s about to come out of the smoke, dust itself off, and declare itself free again. - Glenn Beck*

Elsewhere (added 09/12):

-----
* with a little rhetorical tightening by O.G.

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Powerful waters

Boston.com has a portfolio of pictures taken following the August 17th accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant and dam in south central Russia which killed at least 74 workers (one remains missing). The exact sequence of events is still under investigation, but preliminary indications are that the plant’s #2 turbine failed, blocking its water flow. Safety systems which should have closed the corresponding upstream intake gate also failed. The water, under tremendous pressure (head is about 800 feet), flooded into the plant’s generator hall, ripping the front and roof off 1/3 of the building and destroying 3 of the plant’s 10 turbines.

Above, before and after images.

Americans shouldn’t start feeling too superior until after they check out what happened at Niagara Falls in 1956.

Elsewhere:

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“A lengthy and remarkable correction”

The Los Angeles Times corrects a story on the 9th Circuit’s Ashcroft ruling.  Patterico has the story.

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The “Two Out Of Three” rule

Emperor Misha makes an important point about healthcare “reform.”

Via: Daily Pundit

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I swear, kids these days...

Don’t even know the difference between Mimeograph and Ditto.

(Parent post.)

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Hey, if it’s a “religion,” does that mean we can ban it from government?

The Guardian:

Senior executive Tim Nicholson claimed he was unfairly dismissed by a property investment company because his views on the environment conflicted with other managers’ “contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions”.

In the first case of its kind, an employment tribunal decided that Nicholson, 41, had views amounting to a “philosophical belief in climate change”, allowing him the same legal protection against discrimination as religious beliefs.
...
The decision, which is being challenged by the company, comes two years after the law on religious discrimination was changed so that beliefs no longer had to be “similar” to religious faith to receive protection in the workplace.

Under the new law “philosophical belief” is protected by the law alongside religious belief if it passes a legal test requiring it to be cogent, serious and “worthy of respect in a democratic society”.

I was just asking...


Via:  Steyn via DP

Elsewhere:  DrewM. has some thoughts.

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Lapdogs acted like lapdogs

And Camille Pagila is upset:

As an Obama supporter and contributor, I am outraged at the slowness with which the standing army of Democratic consultants and commentators publicly expressed discontent with the administration’s strategic missteps this year.  ...The media warhorses failed to speak out when they should have -- from week one after the inauguration, when Obama went flat as a rug in letting Congress pass that obscenely bloated stimulus package.  Had more Democrats protested, the administration would have felt less arrogantly emboldened to jam through a cap-and-trade bill whose costs have made it virtually impossible for an alarmed public to accept the gargantuan expenses of national healthcare reform...

What do you expect from people whose only goals are to accumulate and preserve power, and protecting the One?  What do you expect when the party apparat emphasizes public unity and penalizes deviation from The Agenda?  Better not criticize; might give those eeevil righties ammuntion.  Better not examine too closely; might find a fatal flaw.  Better to argue using disparagement and shouting; might lose on facts.  Better not stand up and yell “Wait a minute;” might be shunned at the next cocktail party or (even worse) left off the short list for that next government sinecure.

(And as to the “media warhorses” doing anything but blindly promoting the Current Wisdom, well, we’ll just have to wait until the next Republican administration.)

In this discussion (about conservatives battling in public), “Og” lamented

It’s a bad lesson to us [conservatives] that we can’t come together to get a job done and then do the in-fighting in private.

True, but remember that slipping from “settling our differences in private” to “papering over the flaws in public” to “ignoring the bad news” is an easy process.  The Democrats’ situation constitutes a prime example.

Via:  Daily Pundit

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