Medary.com

SECTION ONE: The Word:
I don't hate Democrats, leftists, collectivists, progressives, totalitarians (OK, I might easily be persuaded to hate the last one). I just think they fundamentally misunderstand the universe--and human nature. Leftists believe that it is possible to competently "plan" anything as large as a national economy.

But the fact is that human assumptions are always faulty. Mine are. Yours are. Everybody's assumptions are flawed--incomplete, at best--to a greater or lesser extent. The difference is, There are among us those who possess the arrogance of thinking that their assumptions should guide anything bigger than their own lives. This invites failure--in fact, it guarantees it. Reality is always bigger, more complex, more diverse, more chaotic than any human intellectual structure can totally interpret and model. Error is part of the human condition.

Leftists generally consider this a bug in the universe, and design elaborate social and governmental structures to eliminate error. Those on the "right" considers it a feature, and design simple social and governmental structures to accommodate the inevitable errors that occur.

Complex governmental and social solutions fail. Sooner or later, they fail. Simple governmental and social solutions are resistant to failure. That's how the universe works--in spite of how earnestly well-meaning people want the universe to work differently. This is why socialism always--ALWAYS fails, sooner or later. But this is why socialism always comes back, with a different name (progressivism, communism, fascism, "liberalism," communitarianism, "compassionate conservatism," etc.), with a slightly changed argument, throughout human history. Socialism, total or partial, by whatever name, is a seductive, attractive, beguiling idea that is based on a flawed assumption. It just won't work, no matter how good, reasonable, and good the people are who try to implement it.

It just won't work. SECTION TWO: Things That Amuse Me:
Simians and other aminals*:
Not so much, not today.
*Yes, I know it's "animals," it's just that I always found the childhood mispronunciation really, really cute . . .

Travel:
A Whale of a Tail: Holland America Tour Operator Assists in Rescue

Sports:
Possible SDSU stadium: 22,700 seats
No. 22 Vanderbilt routs No. 12 Tennessee 90-71
Kansas edges closer to perfect history
Circling the Summit
Athletics discusses Coughlin upgrade: A new stadium, Frost expansion and indoor practice facility are all part of the athletic master plan.
Stadium feedback

Science Fiction and Writing:
How I Write When There is No Time
You Got ta Have -- Enemies

Science, technology, and space:
Mapping the Interstellar Medium -- Featuring a discussion of the "Local Cavity." There's a joke there, somewhere.
Ancient Greenland gene map has a surprise
I generally miss not having my Big Ugly satellite Dishes. I mean, DirecTV is OK, I guess, but there was something cool about pulling in all kinds of wild feeds with my BUDs (I had two--one ten-footer and a 7.5 footer.) But this here's something I don't miss doing after a big snow fall:


Miscellany (amusing things not fitting above, or below):
Earthquake Hits Near Chicago
KC Chef Competing on National TV for Title of 'Top Chef'

SECTION THREE: Politics: The neverending battle against blithering idiocy:
People doing potentially good things (including sightings of politicians doing something less than totally idiotic):
Misunderstanding the tea party
Getting Sarah Palin's Paradigm -- A liberal almost gets Sarah Palin and the Tea Partiers. It's not "the party of no." It's the party of "What the hell do you blithering overeducated idiots think you're doing to our country?" (I have two master's degrees, by the way.)
Revealed: Who’s responsible for the Bush “Miss Me Yet?” billboard
A better “Miss Me Yet?” billboard -- "We, The People . . ."
Poll: Republicans gain on Obama, public welcomes GOP power to block
NY Assembly Special Election Results Bode Ill for Paterson and for Dems in State Senate
Republicans Surge in New ABC News/Washington Post Poll
A New Tea Party Resource – The Ensuring Liberty PAC
Palin, Perry a New Breed of Western-style Conservatism -- "Government stimulus spending ends up doing more harm than good, because it removes money from the private sector through taxation, and when government debt reaches dizzying Obama heights, it makes corporate management nervous about the future."
We Can Do Much More to Reduce the Federal Deficit
Jake Tapper to Host ABC’s This Week? -- This would be--probably--a good idea, and hence in Washington will never happen . . .
If You Go Carrying Pictures of Dachau, You Ain't Gonna Make It With Anyone Anyhow -- Cautionary note (a continuing series) . . .
Word of Gov. Palin’s Tea Party Speech Reaches The Bunker

The cure for blithering idiocy: freedom and individual liberty (yeah, I know--ooh, ick, philosophy!):
Multiplier Effect Defect -- Government spending does not create one single job. Not one. There's a little thing called "opportunity cost" which most people (those who studied economics learn in about lesson #3 of Economics for People Who Couldn't Care Less About Economics. Government economists and their apologists are obviously totally unaware of the concept or of its easily predictable ramifications in the real world of real people. Government does not "increase the velocity of money." It decreases it by diverting money out of the private economy into the government, where it sits until some bureaucrat decides to spend it. The decline in the "velocity of money" due to government intervention is exacerbated when people in government start throwing around trillion-dollar spending proposals like peanut M&M's at a particularly boring frat party. That terrifies businesses. Terrified businesses STOP SPENDING MONEY. Solution: Stop making businesses nervous. If the Obama administration had anybody in it who knew what it was like to run a business, they this country might have a chance. Unfortunately . . .
A Rand Revival
Unplanned Planning
Just Say No to Democracy: We should be looking for more checks on government power, not fewer. -- The tyranny of the majority is just as dangerous as any other tyranny . . .
Property Rights Are Civil Rights
Economics In Four Dimensions

The reality of President Obama as a blithering idiot (and he's the President, so he gets credit, if that's the word, for the entire Executive Branch):
Obama Radical Big Labor Nominee Loses Vote – Sen. Brown Votes No
Douglas Wilder to Obama: It’s time to clean house and start firing people
Drillgate -- Who's working for "special interests" again? And who's working for the people--ALL of the people?
An Obamageddon Snow Job -- It reads like a satire. Sadly, it's not . . .
Supreme Arrogance
Five Decades of Failure Are Enough -- Obama is (we can hope) simply the last, feeble expression of the progressive/New Deal dalliance with irresponsible collectivism in democratic drag . . .
WaPo/ABC poll shows Obama losing command of the issues
With absolute power, Team Obama grows stupid
Newest Dog-Whistle Racial-Code-Word Racist Attack on Obama? Calling Him "The Professor" -- We're laughing at you blithering idiots out here in Flyoverland, you know that, right?
FCC’s Genachowski Promises He’s Not Out to Regulate Net, New Media -- Promises of government bureaucrats to leave things alone ring a bit hollow, don't they?
Out With The Sad, In With The Mad
White House Moves Swiftly To Stem Fallout Of Obama Interview
Obama Budget Rigs Healthcare Numbers
Obama Knows Obamacare Increases Government Control, Right? -- Better question: Does he care?
Funny how dainty and refined the clodhopper always looks on the other foot
Obama’s “jobs bill” has a slight defect -- I wouldn't be quite so worried if Obama and his Administration showed the least little hint that they understood basic economics . . .

The reality of Washington Democrats (and Independents, and Socialists) as blithering idiots:
Back to the Drawing Board: Democratic fantasies face the bracing slap of reality.
Porkulus II: Return of the Phony Jobs Boondoggle
Dingy Harry: Hey, Let's Put the Budget-Busting Payoff the "DocFix" in the Jobs Bill So No One Notices The Additional $260 Billion Cost of our Health Care "Reform" -- "The Democratic Hamsters will gnaw holes in the budget forever." Truth.
The Constitutional Option returns -- Unless, of course, the Democrats have no intention of every being in the "minority" ever again--something that an increasing number of people are beginning to suspect . . .

The reality of Washington Republicans as blithering idiots:
On Bush Nostalgia
CBS: Obama’s bipartisanship call is really demand for GOP surrender -- You know it's blatant when CBS, for crying out loud sees what's really going on . . . I think it's time for Admiral Akbar again . . .

Rep. Eric Cantor Says GOP Leaders Will Definitely Attend White House Meeting On Health Care (Video) -- It's a freakin' trap, you freakin' morons!
The Bipartisan Corporate State
Compromise, Obama style -- IT'S A TRAP!
The Spirit of Bipartisanship -- Yup. Still a trap. Now, maybe the Republicans are smart enough to come in, slap down their proposals, state their requirements, say "call us when you're really serious about negotiating and doing the work you were elected to do, instead of playing silly media manipulation games, Mr. President," then walk out. But I doubt it.
Pelosi Aide Admits Bipartisan Health Care Summit Is a Trick -- See. SEE! It IS a trap!

Other blithering idiots at large making life difficult for regular folks:
Frances Fox Piven: ACORN-style Mass Movement May Deepen Foreclosure Crisis, Forcing Government & Banks to Address Homeownership Rights -- Property rights? Nonsense! Contracts? Crazy talk! Obligations? The Hell you say! . . .
Gallup Poll: Most Democrats Like Socialism -- See The Word above . . .
St. Louis Alderman Demonstrates Why Tea Partiers are Mad -- Oh. My. God. Trees. Planted in the street. Because the roots break up the sidewalks. Anybody see a problem here?
Regarding Roger: Ebert Doubles Down Twitter-Trashing His ‘Teabagging’ Fans

Opposition Research: because blithering idiocy can be dangerous, especially when organized into idiotic groups with idiotic ideologies:
Heart of Redness -- An expedition into the wilds of the Great American Flyover-Outback-Bush (no pun intended--actually, yeah, go with it) . . .
The campus intifada, cont'd
Liberal Academic determinism? -- "Which is why the proper response to Dr Surber would be to approach him outside the faculty lounge and say something like, “Tell me, philosophy boy… what is the sound of one hand clapping?”
- Then, when he hesitates, slap him across his face."
Anti-Tea Party Web Site Part of Scheme to Funnel Funds -- "Varoga and Rakis keep a central mailing address in Washington, pulling in soft money contributions from unions and other well-padded sources to engage in what amounts to a legal laundering system."
A Tragic Use of Language -- A signal trait of progressive collectivists is that words mean whatever they choose to have them mean, no more and no less. Welcome to Alice in Wonderland, everyone.
Paranoia Strikes Deep in Obama's America
Misdirecting charity by perpetuating the myth of widespread hunger in America
Government Is Political -- The dirty little secret of the Left: ANY proposal to use government to solve a problem is "politicizing the issue." It is the Left who has politicized every single issue. Not the Right. The Left. The socialist, collectivist, neo-totalitarian Left. (And there is no other kind of Left--the Left is thuggery. The Right is freedom. Get it straight.)
What Bi-Partisanship Really Means -- "Bi-partisan" is Democrat-speak for "do it our way."
Mortal Enemies
Fox Uncovers Anti-Tea-Party Slush-Fund Scam -- "It seems that the Tea Party movement, once defamed and derided, now poses a threat to the liberal establishment, so much so that they are collecting millions to undermine it."
Hurtling Down the Road to Serfdom -- In case you were wondering why I've been pulling excerpts out of Hayek's Road to Serfdom for the past few months here . . . it's because that's where we are--again--sixty-five years later . . .
Obama’s Big Plans for Justice Department Nominee Johnsen -- When President Palin comes to the Oval Office in 2013, her first act will have to be firing every single person currently employed by the Federal Government, I'm afraid . . . at least, every single person hired after Obama took office . . .
Sarah Palin’s Politics Of Resentment
When The Government Doesn't Like Its People It Can't Elect A New One. Or Can It?
Tea Party Convention Exposes Progressive Left’s Age Discrimination Problem -- Among the many, many things that the Left is more bigoted than the Right about . . .

The Keith Olbermann Memorial "Special Comment" on blithering idiots in the Media:
Monica Crowley: Palin Wrote “Hi Mom” On Her Hand But What She Really Was Saying Was “Bite Me” (Video)
Jon Stewart lifts shoplifting joke from comedian to mock Palin
Hey Crooks and Liars, It Appears that Josef Jarod Lied to You -- We dip our toe into the "netroots" fever swamp. Well, we let "Conservatives4Palin" do it, but you know . . .
NY Times Swings, Misses At IPCC Story: Readers Still In Dark
An Evil Partnership -- Wherein a journalist confesses his sins . . .
Columbia Journalism Review to Salon and Max Blumenthal: You Can’t Just Make Stuff Up
Video: Olby talks about “federal budget debt”, gets everything wrong -- Yes, The Olbish One himself!
Video: MS-NBC’s Brewer claims heavy snowfall proves global warming
When Will the Mainstream Media Report That Alan Grayson Is Nuts?
If You Don’t Like Avatar and Anderson Cooper, You’re a Kook

SECTION FOUR: Case Studies in Blithering Idiocy
"Global warming" aka "Climate change" -- or should that be "Climate Reform?":
Global Warming In One State -- "What's killing Minnesota's moose?" And why are moose populations expanding almost everywhere else?
The end of the IPCC
Brace for the tipping point -- My guess is that most people who bleat loudly about "tipping points" have little or no rigorous academic grounding in catastrophe theory in large complex chaotic systems--mainly because such rigorous grounding is exceedingly, exceedingly rare among the scientific community. . .
Climategate: MoveOn’s Triple Whopper
Pielke responds to Romm and Time
Climate “Twilight of the Gods”
Breitbart TV looks back on Byrd, Boxer, Klobuchar blaming lack of snow on AGW

Health care "reform" aka health insurance "reform" -- or should that be health care "change?" Perhaps "Global healthing?:
Unless Congress acts, COBRA subsidy will expire May 31-- "The average monthly COBRA premium for family coverage in Missouri — with the subsidy — was $365. Without the subsidy, the average family premium cost $1,044. But the average monthly premium paid in the nongroup, private market for family health insurance was $283.
In Kansas, the average monthly COBRA premium for subsidized family coverage was $369. Unsubsidized, the COBRA average was $1,054. In nongroup family health insurance plans, the average premium was $311."
So, explain to me again why we should pay insurance companies subsidies, so that they can charge families MORE via COBRA than they do on the open market in Missouri and in Kansas? Who's the "special interest" here? Hmmm???
Bend It Like Obama: Can the government control health care inflation through subsidies? -- No. Next question?
The Roadmap to Real Health Care Reform
Is Uncompensated Care a Problem?

The Economy (Can the blithering idiots bring down the most productive economy the world has ever seen? Yes, They Can! Will they?):
Where Is the Inflation? -- Hiding for the moment, because everybody with any sense is afraid to spend money . . . "The alternatives are simple — greatly reduce the growth in government spending or suffer a huge rise in inflation and/or economic stagnation."
The Depression is Not Over -- Raining on the parade that, come to think of it, hasn't really started yet. I don't go out shopping very often, but I did yesterday afternoon. The lack of cars in the parking lots was pretty disturbing to me--and I thought I knew how bad it was in Real People Land. It's worse, and Obama and the Democrats have no clue what's going on or how to fix it--assuming that they even want to fix it--which at this point is subject to some degree of credible debate, I'm afraid.
New Wind Farms in the U.S. Do Not Bring Jobs

Foreign affairs and National Security (Will blithering idiots get us all killed, or make us all speak Spanish--or Chinese--or Arabic--or all three?):
America Rides off Into the Sunset
Our view on war on terror: National security team fails to inspire confidence
Greek unions strike against austerity plan -- Take a good look, America. This is us, in the near future, unless we suck it up and turn away from big government.
Will Allowing Gays in the Military Really Impair Unit Cohesion? The Relevance of Allies’ Experience
Why China’s Economic and Military Growth Does Not Mean World Leadership
Menace in mad march of the thought police
Iranian Punch


The Morning Whip is a (mostly) daily review of what's out there that caught my attention, sometimes but not always posted before 11 am Central time in the U. S. of A., unless I just don't feel like it that day, am out doing something more important or more fun, or I've been abducted, detained, arrested, or otherwise flummoxed by the agents of blithering idiotry.

I surf the Web, so you don't have to! (which would be a trademark, but come on, who am I kidding?)