Alan Funt Lives

What do youse tink is up dere?  Only way ta know is ta look!




Alan Funt would have loved this.  I'm willing to bet that somewhere there is video of him using it on his show...in black and white!!

I Could See Stars

Like most kids, I grew up looking up.  At the stars.  One of the hobbies that I never really got around to trying was astronomy.  Or astrology.  One of the two.  There were stars involved.

And telescopes.  But the telescopes that were available to me were pretty minimal.  Which is probably why I stopped reading the paper.

Had it been possible to buy a telescope that was closer to the one Daryl Hannah's character in Roxanne, I might have been more interested.

Now I can buy...time....on some pretty big telescopes and really see the stars! Sometimes, technology produces some pretty neat stuff.

Barney Frank - Then And Now

When....ahem....Republican.....President George W. Bush wanted to overhaul the mortgage lending industry, Mr. Frank stood solidly opposed.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

 Now that the damage has been done, he sings a different tune.

“Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.

Emphasis added.

Tar and feathers are too good for him.  Links to the respective stories may be found here.

What Is That You Have In Your Pocket?

After driving this BMW, one can never be too sure.

Corruption In The Eye Of The Beholder...

Mr. Obama is apparently trying to score some points with his base over political campaign financing.  He is attempting to say that the US Chamber of Commerce is funneling foreign funds into domestic campaigns. 

He's wrong on that count, which isn't surprising.

However, if he really was interested in preventing foreign contributions in US campaigns, perhaps in 2008 he should have directed that his campaign not remove the standard name-address-account number verification used for most credit card payments.  By removing that safety feature from his campaign's online fund-raising feature, Mr. Obama created a wide open hole through which foreign funds were free to flow.

Into his campaign coffers.

I guess that makes all the difference.

Kent State - More Modern Analysis

There is a report that an audio recording made during the National Guard shootings at Kent State back in 1970 may actually lend credence to the National Guardsmen's story that they were shooting in response to gunfire.

Forensic audio expert Stuart Allen conducted an extensive review of the recording at the request of Cleveland's Plain Dealer newspaper, and he detected four shots matching the acoustic signature of a .38-caliber revolver firing.

Terry Norman, a Kent State student photographing protesters that day for the FBI, was carrying a loaded .38-caliber revolver under his coat, the newspaper said.

 Of course, this analysis isn't conclusive, but it should be added to the after action investigation so that future generations have a more complete understanding.

When Faced With Questions Most Serious, What Does One Do?

If you are an old school scientist, one who has swam in the deep waters of rigorous science, and one who sees those same waters being polluted with influences that undermine the cause of science?  You pen a letter that will carry the weight of a battleship anchor with those similarly focused on the rigors of science and the weight of a feather for those who are willing to compromise their profession for wealth and relative fame.

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence---it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists.


....


So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind---simply to bring the subject into the open.


To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members' interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.


As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.


APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?


....


I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

I hope they remain friends, too.  For apparently the APS is no longer concerned with being scientists.

What Media Bias? - New Jersey/NYTimes Edition

Regular readers will know about NJ Governator Chris Christie and his battles with the NJEA along with the NJ Democrats over general budgetary priorities.

How do those battles get reported?

Well it seems that New Jersey missed out on collecting federal "Race To The Top" education dollars.  They came in at 11th place.  Only the top ten got any money.  New Jersey missed by 3 points.  A paperwork error cost them 4.8 points.

However, they could have gotten 14 points if the NJEA had endorsed the NJ state application.  Why the imprimatur of the NJEA should be required is beyond me.  It seems that such a requirement grants too much power to a private special interest group.

How is the story reported in the NYTimes?  Is the headline about how an intransigent union put its ego ahead of the educational needs of the state's students?

Oh hell no.

Christie Helped Lose Grant for Schools, Ex-Official Says

The guy that made the paperwork error got canned so now he's singing as loudly as he can that Chris Christie caused the problem by irritating the NJEA.

No bias to be seen here.  Move along quietly while the NYTimes hopes that you haven't an independent thought left in your head.  Sheesh!

Slaying The Beast, Pen In Hand!

This Peggy Noonan article speaks to me and it speaks to the motivations of the Tea Party movement.  I have no idea how long the link will last as the article is supposed to be behind their firewall.  Here's another that might work.

If you write a column, you get a lot of email. Sometimes, especially in a political season, it's possible to discern from it certain emerging themes; the comeback of old convictions, for instance, or the rise of new concerns. Let me tell you something I'm hearing, in different ways and different words. The coming rebellion in the voting booth is not only about the economic impact of spending, debt and deficits on America's future. It's also to some degree about the feared impact of all those things on the character of the American people. There is a real fear that government, with all its layers, its growth, its size, its imperviousness, is changing, or has changed, who we are. And that if we lose who we are, as Americans, we lose everything.


...


And what I get from my mail is a kind of soft echo of this. America is not Greece and knows it's not Greece, but there is a growing sense,I should say fear, that the weighty, mighty, imposing American government itself, whether it meant to or not, has for years been contributing to American behaviors that are neither culturally helpful nor, as we now all say, sustainable: a growing sense of entitlement, of dependency, of resentment and distrust, and an increasing suspicion that everyone else is gaming the system. "I got mine, you get yours."


...


Because Americans weren't born to be accountants. It's not our DNA! We're supposed to be building the Empire State Building. We were meant, to be romantic about it, and why not, to be a pioneer people, to push on, invent electricity, shoot the bear, bootleg the beer, write the novel, create, reform and modernize great industries. We weren't meant to be neat and tidy record keepers. We weren't meant to wear green eye shades. We looked better in a coonskin cap!


There is I think a powerful rebellion against all this. It isn't a new rebellion - it was part of Goldwaterism, and Reaganism - but it's rising again.

Default On Your Mortgage? Why Not!

If it is good enough for the Mortgage Bankers Association, then it must be good enough for you!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mortgage Bankers Association Strategic Default
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

A Flip, A Double Twist, And A Reverse

Today must be "make Dann chuckle" day.

It appears that some artiste has prepared a work of "art" that depicts Jesus fellatiating upon someone.  That of course has certain knickers in a decidedly twisted position.

There were the inevitable question of "why not try that sort of thing with Muhammed?" 

Surprise! Kudos to the artist for his ecumenicalism.

Then things really get going.  Bud Shark...the guy that the original exhibit is about....was advertising prints of the "art" in question on his website.  Until someone pointed out that Muhammed was in the same piece of "art".  Then he scrubbed it from his site.

The work in question was made by one Enrique Chagoya.  Bud Shark just makes the prints.  Enrique is a talentless hack who would have remained unknown but for his propensity at pissing off the right kind of people.

I would certainly be less disturbed by "challenging art" if the first challenge wasn't always the artist's lack of artistic ability and/or vision. 

Why I Do Not Listen.....

....to Rush Limbaugh anymore.  Or at least this is a good reminder.

Calling the President a "jackass" is unacceptable.  Period.

A Better Bird

For flying...

Boeing’s 737 is the best-selling jet airliner in history: Today, it carries 29 percent of all U.S. domestic air traffic and is responsible for 25 percent of the industry’s fuel use. A reinvention of this commercial workhorse, called the D series, could burn 70 percent less fuel, emit 75 percent less nitrogen oxide and dampen noise from takeoffs and landings. In short, it could transform air travel into a more environmentally benign practice.

Faster please?

A Mere Sip Of Fuel....

....required to motor along at 75 mpg.  That's 'g' folks...as in gallons.

I wonder where we might be if our American automakers were to take greater interest in fuel efficient cars that normal people would want to drive?

More please...faster please.

"Health Care Reform Will Not Affect Your Coverage Or Your Choice Of Doctor"

Heh.

No surprise to those of us opposed to this monstrosity all along.

Technology Leads The Way

In this case, the technology involves the nano-scale construction of solar voltaic cells that boost energy conversion to ten times greater than was previously thought to be the limit.

Neat!

Now somebody needs to refine it and someone else needs to deploy it.  'Cause cheap power is invaluable to sustaining a growing economy and our standard of living.

Reductio Ad Somalia

The divine Mrs. Megan McArdle.....Suderman has a very pleasant read on the recent trend among some on the left to deride those of us that believe in a little less government by saying "try Somalia".  Asking for a modest reduction in government spending is not exactly the same thing as saying let's not have any government at all.

Likewise, asking for a little more government spending is not exactly the same thing as endorsing the transformative power of communist North Korea.  A little more spending is a step in the wrong direction, but that is a different story.

In any case, the fsking she offers to one Michael O'Hare is delightful to read.

Sharing The Sacrifice

Ezra Klein brings us the news that the director of the CBO is projecting that extending the Bush era tax cuts will result in lower revenue and thus higher deficits.

Elmendorf doesn't deny that tax cuts stimulate the economy. But they don't stimulate it that much, he says, and over the long run, the net economic growth from the tax cuts will be quite small. The net deficit impact won't be. "Lower tax revenues increase budget deficits and thereby government borrowing," Elmendorf said, "which crowds out investment, while lower tax rates increase people’s saving and work effort; the net effect on economic activity depends on the balance of those forces." True to form, he brought a graph:

The graph and the rest of Ezra's pontification are at the link.

One supposes based on the selective quoting involved that Ezra may not have heard of the other solution for deficit problems.  The director of the CBO has.

It is called "cutting spending".  You can get burned at the stake for uttering such word in Washington D.C.

Unfortunately, the GOP likes to talk about tax cuts while offering vague and ill defined spending cuts that take place in the future.  Equally unfortunate is the Democrats' penchant for raising taxes at the drop of a hat while exhibiting behavior that suggests that they have never met a government program that was not worth funding.

We are quickly approaching dire straights.  The best course out of that situation will require a little sacrifice by everyone.

Until someone begins to seriously discuss across the board spending cuts, there is no reason to increase taxes.  Shared sacrifice means that those on the receiving end will have to pony  up as well.

Government Is Force

Kevin Williamson has a nifty little essay on government as force.  It is sort of a redux of a P.J. O'Rourke idea about deciding which government programs get funded by putting a gun to grandma's head and asking "do we give away day care or do we kill Grandma?"  That is not a direct quote, but the intent is there.

The resort to violence is what makes the question of what kind of things it is legitimate for states to do an important moral concern. It seems to me perfectly reasonable to shove a gun in somebody’s face to stop him murdering, raping, or robbing. It seems to me entirely unreasonable to shove a gun in somebody’s face to extort from him money to fund a project to get monkeys high on cocaine. Those seem to me fairly reasonable distinctions. It is illegitimate for government to use force or the threat of force for projects that are not inherently public in character.

The question of how much illegitimacy a state may perpetrate before becoming generally illegitimate itself is of real interest and has been, of late, the subject of some spirited discussion between some of my colleagues here and me. (You probably can guess on which side of the fault line I stand.)

But I would like to make it clear that I am not indulging in a figure of speech: I think it’s a pretty useful heuristic: If you’re not willing to have somebody hauled off at gunpoint over the project, then it’s probably not a legitimate concern of the state.

Government is force.  At some point there will be government agents with guns knocking on doors with the intent of putting people in prison for "non-compliance".  As Mr. Williamson suggests, using force to stop bad people from abusing other people is a reasonable use of force.  The same cannot be said for other government functions.

Disappointing Our Leading Political Observer

A newsflash from CNN....Jon Stewart is 'saddened' by Barack Obama's performance as President.

"I think people feel a disappointment in that there was a sense that Jesus will walk on water and no you are looking at it like, 'Oh look at that, he's just treading water' … I thought he'd do a better job," said Stewart.

....

"I thought we were in such a place [in 2008], much like the Tea Party feels now, that the country … needed a more drastic reconstruction – I have been saddened to see that someone who ran on the idea that you can't expect to get different results with the same people and the same system has kept in place so much of the same system and same people," he said.

Why is he disappointed?  What else did he expect from someone with a brief stint as a state legislator prior to an even briefer stint as the part-time.....because he was already running for the Presidency....junior senator from Illinois?  What else did he expect from someone that lacks any executive experience?

There is more to governing than the ability to give a good speech.