Ban or Tax?

The funny thing about tobacco products is that everyone is addicted to them. Everyone. Even non-users. State governments tax the hell out of them to pay for stuff, so it's not in any state government's interest to outlaw them. Oh, sure cigarettes are linked to all sorts of ills, but the worst one is the government's addiction, which makes protests like this one meaningless and idiotic, highlighting the protestors' lack of education about the subject they're against.

But the odd thing is that they're trying to tune down what they estimate is 20,000 yearly deaths from tobacco use. That's tiny and insignificant in a population of more than 12 million, so, really, they're trying to figure out how to hassle a lot of people over personal grievances.

Powerless, Rudderless, Adrift

You know, despite the popularity of the leftysphere, it has no genuine force behind it. All bluster and ego masquerading as critical thought. And, when it comes to the actual marketplace of ideas, nobody's buying:

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of "blogs" and political power, DAILY KOS 'CRASHING THE GATE,' has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN's BOOKSCAN.

I'll bet Markos Moulitsas didn't expect that, given the number of hits his idiotic blog gets. Then, there's the non-stop plunge of Air America:

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot, down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

But the left can never admit defeat:

A network source says the radio ratings released today do not reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

Now, let me get this straight: when your audience shrinks in size -- becomes smaller - that does not reflect the overall growth?

UPDATE: Okay, so while the Kos numbers look puny, they're actually average for a non-fiction book.

How to Win a Pulizter

Now, I've never for one moment believed there were secret, "black prisons" run by the US in foreign countries, and if I weren't so lazy I'd find the post where I said just that. And here's why. And there's this, too.

Amnesty International & The Death Penalty

Roger L. Simon makes a notation of A.I.'s self-interest:

But ... oddly for a website with writers of socialist background... he overlooks the greatest motivation of all. I will put it in block letters with an exclamation point: MONEY! Amnesty International exists by donation. Do you think they get one penny from opponents of the death penalty in China, Saudi Arabia and Iran?

Guess which nation is fourth on the list?

The High Cost of Gas

It ain't "record" yet:

With some headlines blaring about "record oil prices," a bit of perspective is in order. It is true that in nominal dollars, the price of crude oil has never been higher. However, in inflation-adjusted terms, the picture looks somewhat different. It turns out that the price for a barrel of oil peaked at about $98 in December 1979.

Try convincing a newspaper or local TV reporter of this. Just try.

"Sense" in the Gunless World

I'm not sure what drives this idiocy, but, apparently, once you disarm the public, you prosecute victims for self-defense.

The resident has been charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and will face Blacktown Local Court today.

Now, I'd like a decent explanation for why you're not allowed to beat the snot out of someone trying to break into your home, but I know one thing aforehand: there isn't a decent explanation.

Who?

Will Bunch asks an idiotic question on his "blog" for the Philadelphia Daily News:

"Wankgers": Why are Michelle Malkin and the rest of the right silent on the arrest of their "hero," Wenyi Wang?

Uhh, because almost nobody knows what the hell you're talking about, Will. And, nobody cares. Now, go try and score "lefty points" with some other obscure issue. This is why I almost never read Bunch.

The Spy Who Went Into the Cold

Wretchard at the Belmont Club has this pretty well covered, though I'm sure the entire blogosphere is spinning this furiously in an attempt to get the ball moving in particular directions. This episode expemplifies why the CIA sucks: spooks are willing to sell out their own country merely because the president of the US is not of the same political party/agenda. That's it, no money required. Just doesn't like the boss.

You'd think you could get people to do the job for the country. The boss changes every four or eight years, but the country, well, somehow it survives partisan changes in leadership. Though, how it does so with increasingly partisan federal employees working actively to unseat bosses they dislike is a mystery.

Speaking Truth to Power

Victor Davis Hanson notes some historical non-precedents:

Imagine that, as we crossed the Rhine, retired World War II officers were still harping, in March, 1945, about who was responsible months during Operation Cobra for the accidental B-17 bombing, killing, and wounding of hundreds of American soldiers and the death of Lt. Gen. Leslie McNair; or, in the midst of Matthew Ridgeway's Korean counteroffensives, we were still bickering over MacArthur's disastrous intelligence lapses about Chinese intervention that caused thousands of casualties. Did the opponents of daylight bombing over Europe in 1943 still damn the theories of old Billy Mitchell, or press on to find a way to hit Nazi Germany hard by late 1944?

But they're generals! And they disagree with Shrimpy W. Bushitlerburton! And they think Rumsfeld is a mean old man! It just can't be partisan political bickering reinforcing the years-long knee-jerk reflexive hatred of Rumsfeld, can it?

America the Sucktacular

Bill Quick notes yet another bunch of idiots clownishly predicting the demise of the US as the predominant economic superpower of our times.

The visit of President Hu to Washington underlines the inevitable loss of America's economic supremacy to China

Wait, wait, I thought it was the Japanese who were coming for our scalps...

Abandon Ship!

My god, the place is coming apart at the seams:

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation this morning and President's Bush's longtime adviser Karl Rove is scaling back his responsibilities.

It was the third major change at the White House in the past few weeks and perhaps the most visible to the public, as McClellan is the most televised face of the administration through his often-combative daily briefings.

What's next, changes in the cabinet? The firing of Rumsfeld? The resignation of Cheney? The mindless mid-article switch in topic from Administration staff changes to the political situation in Iraq?

I mean, couldn't they have just written another news brief if they wanted to touch on this?

Douchebag Says "What?"

Parody or honesty? Sadly, I think this feller is honestly lying about the state of affairs he writes about. Honestly lying? Yeah: he knows he's lying, but he believes the lies.

Perspective

Now, what if this were the case:

“I believe that it’s time for them to step down,” said one unnamed retired three-star general. “The editors of The New York Times and Washington Post and the news producers at CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC should resign effective immediately.”

Because, you know, it is the case.

Banning Legal Activity on Private Property

I read triumphant articles about the banning of cigarette smoking on private property and I write email to the authors. Because they just don't get it:

Hello Keith,

Just wondering how long till you write an article about how banning smoking in bars and restaurants essentially makes illegal a legal activity on private property? It's not "public property" that is affected. It's private. Smoking is also legal. And second-hand smoke has been proven to be harmless.

Just curious as to how you'll reconcile these facts with the notion that, in the marketplace, there is no "demand" for a "supply" of non-smoking bars. If there were such a demand, you'd have a supply. Since you have no supply, no abundance of non-smoking bars, there must be no demand.

So, how about it?

Sincerely,

William Young

PS: I'll just assume your silence and non-response to this email means you admit I'm
right, but that you have a political axe to grind concerning cigarette smoking.

Because they realize they're wrong, but aren't going to change their minds. Weird how that works. And when I call them on it, they never respond. Never.

Those Up For Doing Nothing Raise Your Hands

Well, I suppose doing absolutely nothing but wait for the UN Security Council to draft another resolution and vote on it is a scary enough response to this:

Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.

On the other hand, if it were up to me, I'd send six carrier groups into the region and start bombing. And I'm not kidding.

Why They Fight

Austin Bay provides some useful analysis of the infighting going on in Baghdad and why it's taking so long for the Iraqis to form a government. Key bit:

Outsiders -- including U.S. government officials -- can bewail the Iraqi parliament's lack of progress in forming a government, but since the middle of March I strongly suspect the hidden story has been the Interior Ministry and the Iraqi nationalists' war on Sadr. It's a quiet police and political war waged with the blessing of Ayatollah Sistani. Creating a strong and stable Iraqi government (the so-called "national rescue front") is the goal. Sistani has advised Shia leaders to make concessions to Sunnis in order to establish a "unity government." That's an action anathema to Sadr.

Of course, this information will be of no use to the folks who think we shouldn't be there and that Arabs of Muslim faith can't creat democratic nations because it isn't in their culture.

It's Not a Black Problem

Here we have evidence of the racism in the news room:

A multitude of factors limit black American access to the growing crisis in Sudan, where the death toll is estimated to be as high as 400,000 and more than 2.5 million people are in refugee camps following the destruction of their villages.

Get that? Because it's black people being killed in Africa, black Americans are supposed to care inordinately about the issue, because, err, ahem, they're "African Americans." And note this interesting aside:

Among the barriers, say scholars and social activists, are a lack of news media attention, black leaders' focus on surviving critical domestic problems, the black community's lack of focus on international issues and the perception that the Darfur campaign is largely the province of the Jewish community.

Now, this is odd since the violence in the region is largely perpetrated by Muslim death squads against ethnically different Muslims and non-Muslims, if I recall correctly. How the Jews are involved is a mystery. Or, rather, how "the perception" that the Jews are involved is a greater mystery unsolved by the writer of this piece.

Funny, though, is the caption with the picture accompanying the article:

A refugee -- one of more than 2.5 million to flee the political violence of Sudan's Darfur region -- weeps after reaching Bahai on the Chad border in July 2004.

Why should black Americans care about Darfur if newspapers don't really care?

Another Strike Against Rendell

Okay, so Gov. Ed Rendell was clearly angling for the union vote when he came up with the bone-headed decision to force every municipality in the state to pay more for the cost of road crew labor:

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday suspended a 2-week-old state policy requiring prevailing union wages for municipal and state road repair projects.

The new policy, instituted by the state Department of Labor and Industry, caused a storm of protest from local elected officials and Republican legislators, complaints that Mr. Rendell heard firsthand during the annual convention of the Allegheny County League of Municipalities on Saturday at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Somerset County.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in a front-page story Saturday, broke the news that road repair costs were expected to increase by hundreds of millions of dollars statewide as a result of the policy ("Wage ruling may raise road costs").

Clowns like Rendell just don't understand how the economy works, and they think that by requiring people to be paid more by their employeers nothing is going to happen to the bottom line of the employers. This is why raising the minimum wage is also a bad idea (not that many people get paid so little in the private sector). I swear, the more I learn about Rendell, the less likable and intelligent the fellow is. He comes across more and more as your old-timey machine politician looking to grease the various and sundry wheels necessary to deliver the vote to him on election day, and to hell with what's best for the most.

Ahem: "Immigration Justice"

I've come to the conclusion that the only way to solve the immigration problem is to deliver some sort of citizenship pathway to all the illegals already here, throw open the doors to any and all Westerners [or, more broadly, any educated skilled worker from anywhere] who want to come from wherever, and build a 40-foot high fence the length of the southern border, patrolled by armed guards and fierce dogs. But this headline is ludicrous:

Noon rally at Love Park calls for immigration justice

What the hell is immigration justice?

Why Public Eduction Sucks

Reason #1 why public schools don't deliver what we pay for:

Dismissing a teacher with tenure takes 18 months, during which the school's administration must conduct five classroom observations and the regional superintendent must do two. Within that time, the school must provide the teacher with 20 hours of training - on the teacher's time - to help him or her improve.

Teachers' unions are to blame for this, of course, because you can't replace the entire work force in one broad sweep if you want, so there's no fear of being fired. So, the unions make it difficult to fire anyone, even requiring the school district to try to rehabilitate bad teachers.

But the more interesting observation about this Phinqy article is the way the writer hems and haws over the nature of firing bad teachers. Witness the first few grafs:

Few teachers get fired in the Philadelphia School District, but this year the number has more than doubled as the district, under federal pressure to raise student achievement, has encouraged principals to observe and evaluate teachers more aggressively.

The district has dismissed 19 teachers this school year, including eight for poor job performance. Only six were let go in 2003-04 and eight in 2004-05. Each year, two were dismissed for performance.

But some district educators say that despite the uptick, which is minuscule in a district of 11,200 teachers, terminating a teacher for poor performance - particularly one with tenure - remains time-consuming.

You get the sense that the writers sympathizes with the teachers, as if publicly financed teachers are owed some sort of extra consideration. If this reporter were writing about the difficulties in firing Enron employees at the heigh of its corruption problem, well, I'd guess she'd be in high dudgeon denouncing the incompetency of the system at identifying and terminating weak, corrupt and inefficient employees.

You know, we pay the salaries of public school teachers, so it should be way, way easier to fire them. Though, of course, we have to acknowledge the head-hunting that would go on if it were as simple as complaining by parents. But, still, if we're paying for it, we ought to have a say.

The Messenger Effect

Jeff Goldstein has a good post up about the problems with Bush's PR ability re: The Iraq War. And, really, about everything else. While I'm no Bush fanboy, I agree with Goldstein that the press/media are already certain what "the story" is and look for issues that reinforce their beliefs rather than merely observing and reporting what is actually happening.

Which means that if you aren't aggressive in your "news reading," you don't really know what's going on.

Blame the messenger.

By the Numbers

I've often said that things are better off in Iraq than the news media will let on to, and here's a little proof:

81, 76, 50, 49, 43, 25

What are these numbers? This week’s Powerball winners? A safe deposit combo? New numbers to torment those poor b*stards stranded on the island in Lost?

No, they’re the number of troops that have died in hostile actions in Iraq for each of the past six months. That last number represents the lowest level of troop deaths in a year, and second-lowest in two years.

Click over for some additional statistics that show the real trends in the occupation of Iraq. You'll be surprised.

Katie Who?

I haven't watched any network news broadcast since the late 1980s/early 1990s, so I couldn't care less about the news that Katie Couric will be reading the news for CBS come the fall. And I don't watch any of the network morning shows, either, so I couldn't care less that Couric is leaving The Today Show.

People who care about this kind of crap need a new hobby.

Bread & Circus ... And Mandatory Health Care

Say what you will about the single-payer health care systems of the world, but they all suck. They all ration health care. They all have sub-standard (by US standards) medical care, equipment and treatement. They all cost too much. So, the state of Massachusettes figures if the US won't lead the way down the toilet, it will:

BOSTON - Lawmakers have approved a sweeping health care reform package that dramatically expands coverage for the state's uninsured, a bill that backers hope will become a model for the rest of the nation.

Well, I guess we see how long it takes for the system to go bankrupt, taxes to increase, and residents to flee. Those are the only results of government-controlled health care that can be guaranteed.

The French Way

The French continue with their flat spin -- death spiral -- oblivious to the facts of life:

PARIS - Demonstrators blocked roads, rail lines and mail delivery trucks Wednesday in a second straight day of protests to demand the repeal of a divisive jobs law, while unions vowed they would not compromise in talks with President Jacques Chirac's ruling party on the issue.

Translation: French unions won't compromise until all their demands are met, first. Then, they'll talk. Now, that's nuance.

Now, That's Production

You know, this woman could've been married to anyone with stats like this:

Holt, 34, a homeroom and science teacher at Claymont Elementary School in Claymont, Del., was arrested yesterday for having sex with a 13-year-old student 28 times over eight days in March, New Castle County police said.

But with a 13-year-old? So, like, she had sex for 14 minutes over eight days?

I know, I know, it's statutory rape and all that, but, still, 28 freakin' times? In eight days? There are married men out there who'd settle for 28 times a year.

Saddam's Evil Plan

Everyone has an evil plan. Saddam Hussein's evil plan is listed over on Tim Blair's site:

what the Iraq Survey Group did find, is plans to use the in place dual-use manufacturing facilities once sanctions were lifted to put chemical and biological agents in aerosol cans and perfume sprayers to be shipped to the United States and Europe. That was the plan for terrorist activity that we have confirmed was in place under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

You know, this is exactly the kind of thing that the US mainstream media won't report on because it has the bad habit of proving Bushitler right.

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Stephen Green has a post up about how the current fight against Islamofascism resembles the fight against Global Communism (i.e., The Cold War). And the difference:

In the Cold War, the threat of losing an American city or three was quite small. On the other hand, the “small” wars we had to fight cost us nearly 100,000 soldiers. The Soviets knew that to strike even one American city meant total nuclear annihilation for the USS of R. But the Soviets could push us is places like Korea and Vietnam, and force us to commit hundreds of thousands of troops – tens of thousands of whom would die.

As before, The Left is on the other side, and this time around, the side the lefties are rooting for doesn't even pretend to believe in any of the same things the lefties believe in. Equal rights? Women's rights? Gay rights? Those things are gone if the Islamofascists win. You want your women clothed in burkhas, forbidden to drive or work while gays are stoned to death and anyone who looks askance at the regime is jailed, tortured and used as slit-trench filler in the middle of the night? That's what The Other Side offers in this decades-long struggle that began more than a decade ago, or, if you need a formal declaration of war, began on Feb. 23, 1998.

The other side is coming for you, your children, your friends, and your way of life. Just like before.

The difference is going to be that there aren't going to be a lot of "little wars" for lefties to protest against, claiming we are needlessly ruining lives and countries in the pursuit of some quixotic fantasy of democracy-building. The difference is going to be the random bombing of a train or bus or night club somewhere in the world and a website explaining afterwards why the site was chosen. The difference is going to be the electing of Muslim extremists to French and German and Belgian governments, who then Islamify the countries. The difference is going to be the deafening silence of moderate Muslims in America to the radicalization of Europe. The difference is going to be the not-knowing-where-our-enemies are and therefore forgetting they are there, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

The difference is going to be in the nature of the attack. It will not necessarily be physical. The Islamofascists have no army capable of defeating any Western army, certainly not the US Army. Neither, perhaps, did the USSR. But, as before, the enemy had a sympathetic conspirator in the form of the West's mainstream media.

This war is different because the enemy is different. But that doesn't mean there isn't a war being fought. And it surely doesn't mean it's a make-believe war dreamt up by neo-con warmongers eager for oil profits and world domination.

But that's the home front.

Kidnapping Journalists

Well, first off, kidnapping a journalist is sure to get you headlines as the other journalists all have a stake in the story. This bit from The Officer's Club is interesting:

Jill Carroll will not be the last Westerner to be kidnapped in Iraq, but she may be the last one released. Kidnapping is the only real way the insurgents can get airtime these days, which is why Jihadi propaganda comes with kneeling captives at their feet. Releasing Carroll was an experiment, one that failed from the insurgency's point of view.

Of course, refusing to report on this will stop it from happening. Whether you can convince journalists as to the efficacy of this is doubtful: hey, it's them that's being kidnapped! Of course, if you could get journalists to call the insurgents "terrorists," there might be less bombing and murdering going on in Iraq, but, well, who knows why they won't call a spade a spade?

The Other Side of the Story

Strategy Page:

You can't kill enough Americans to scare them into leaving ... After three years, the Iraqi Sunni Arabs have discovered that the Americans can certainly fight, and the Yankees have also found ways to do it that involve extraordinarily low American casualties.

It's a good analysis piece on the state of the unreported effects of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As I've noted time and again, things are much, much better than you read or hear about. Click over and read the whole thing.

The Reason Why

Well, we need dairy subsidies and peanut subsidies and corporate welfare and free medical care for certain-income-level-people is why:

Why public work doesn't pay

It's hard out there for a public attorney.

With the city's largest law firms starting graduates at $125,000 to $135,000 a year, joining the public sector as a young lawyer takes a herculean commitment and a strong constitution.

The city Solicitor's Office, where lawyers start around $46,000, and the District Attorney's Office, which hires young lawyers at $45,000 a year, have sought increases from the city to make their work more attractive.

More than 100 lawyers in the office of City Solicitor Romulo Diaz Jr. got a bump of about $5,772 this year after he made a plea to Mayor Street. At a budget hearing last week, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham asked for $500,000 for merit increases for her prosecutors while testifying about the difficulty of keeping lawyers past three years.

Abraham pointed out that working in her department, which has multiple homicide defendants to prosecute after 380 murders last year, entails pain beyond the pocketbook.

"While our homicide D.A.s are second to none, burnout and emotional and physical exhaustion is a reality," she said.

You can't have everything. So, figure out what you want. Do you want vanity dairy farmers or do you want a full-time, well-paid District Attorney's office? Right: you want vanity dairy farmers. That's why we have them. That's why milk is $3 a gallon instead of fifty cents: the government is involved.

19 Dead, 300,000 Without Power

And not in Baghdad. Perspective? Probably not to the average anti-war type. But, you know, Mother Nature is capable of the same headlines the death squads of Iraq are. Err, sorry, "death squads" are run by the Iraqi government. I mean the insurgents and their bombing campaign against civilians.

Dept. of You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Wow:

You knew it was coming. Ace certainly did.

(U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney) alleges, through her lawyer, that her real crime was "being in Congress while black."

Whatever. I'd post a copy of the picture of McKinney from her press conference in which she looks like a totally delusional alien abductee victim, but Blogger has disabled the upload photo button for some reason.