in Salon:

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment's thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject appeared in my last column.) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.

Emphasis added.

Rasmussen reports:

Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress, but 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.

Snookums won't like this:

The Palm OS is a dead duck. Palm's CEO Ed Colligan has signed its death sentence today. But while there will be no more new Palm OS products, their Windows Mobile smarty-panty-phones will survive (!):

Talking to investors today, Colligan said there was no point in keeping on with its development.

• No more Palm OS devices to be released by Palm. Only third-parties will do them.
• From now on, it's only webOS (the operating system in the Pre, pronounced "huevos" in Spanish, which means "eggs" or "cojones") and Windows Mobile devices.

Of course, she was mightily peeved when Graffiti went away.

The Cato Institute's William Niskanen:

This is the fifth time in my adult life that the president has asked for or asserted unprecedented authority on an expedited basis with little or no congressional review. Each of the prior occasions turned out to be a disaster.

The five crises?

August, 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident,
August 15, 1971, Nixon imposes wage and price controls,
October, 2002, Congress approves the Iraq War,
October, 2008, Congress approves TARP (aka Bailout 1.0),
And now, February, 2009, Congress approves the Spendulus

They appear to be coming quicker and quicker now, don't they?

Hail the Fuehrer! Bow Down to the One! OBEY.

An ongoing series . . .

Among the things that annoy me are blogs that decide to go video (as a full vlog, or producing "shows" of greater or lesser lameness using easily available cameras and microphones and stuff), apparently on the theory that people have nothing better to do than spend hours and hours sitting and watching whatever silly-a$$ interview or commentary that they're all hot-to-trot to post.

A hint to those sites: provide a text transcript, or don't bother. I don't watch video via the Internet as a rule unless I have a really, really good reason to do so. Otherwise, I have better things to do with my time--like going to some other site that I can read, scan, browse.

I learned to read for a reason, people. I like reading information on the Internet. Watching it? Not so much. Maybe I'm just a stick-in-the-mud, reactionary fuddy-duddy, but give me readable text articles, or give me death!

Another Congressional Budget Office report states that the economy, left alone, would recover by the second half of this year.

The CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II.
. . .
In preparing its economic forecast, CBO assumes that current laws and policies governing federal spending and taxes do not change.

Of course, after Congress passes Obama's trillion-dollar panic attack, the recovery may be delayed by a few months, but you can be sure that the triumphalists will be shouting "Success! Success!" of the big-government plan no matter what the objective facts on the ground might be.

That's what the Non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says about Obama's 'Stimulus' porkfest:

President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

Economists Harold L. Cole from the University of Pennsylvania and Lee E. Ohanian of UCLA write in today's Wall Street Journal:

The most damaging policies were those at the heart of the recovery plan, including The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which tossed aside the nation's antitrust acts and permitted industries to collusively raise prices provided that they shared their newfound monopoly rents with workers by substantially raising wages well above underlying productivity growth. The NIRA covered over 500 industries, ranging from autos and steel, to ladies hosiery and poultry production. Each industry created a code of "fair competition" which spelled out what producers could and could not do, and which were designed to eliminate "excessive competition" that FDR believed to be the source of the Depression.

The success of the New Deal is a myth. I'd feel better about our future if the Democrats showed any sign of understanding that.

Seen in a tree in Broadland, SD, January 30, 2009.

This guy is on board the Regent Seven Seas Mariner. He likes it.

Nearly all of the food served on Regent is fresh, not frozen, says Mark Mulder, chef de cuisine on Regent Seven Seas Mariner. He adds that Mariner has 4,000 recipes in its database, and menus run on a 21-day cycle before being repeated. Regent employs “destination cuisine,” using local ingredients and flavors whenever possible.