Posted by
The Hermit Crab on Sunday, May 30, 2010 6:53:55 PM
I may have a problem. I made the mistake of telling my church-and Knights of Columbus friend Dominic about this blog, and now he wants to read it. I told him I couldn't remember the address (actually true - that's what Favorites lists are for). I warned him that he may find my tone a little harsh. Dominic is one of the most maddeningly pleasant people I've ever known. It's like hanging with
Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online, only without even the tiny flashes of irritation that Genial Jay gives us. Anyway, if Dominic doesn't understand why I call this site The Hermit Crab, he's about to.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times has won an odd sort of following among conservatives, and honest people in general. He has become Exhibit A of the Blinded by Ideology branch of insanity. In almost every column, what you read from the ex-Enron advisor (hat tip to James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal) is a sort of funhouse mirror view of reality. We often find ourselves hoping that he's lying to us. If he thinks things really are as he describes, he needs help. Some columnist's columns have titles, for example Thomas Franks weekly drivel in the Wall Street Journal is called "The Tilting Yard". I recommend that the Times title Krugman's fantasies "Through the Looking Glass".
To anyone who read the above item and said "But didn't Krugman win the Nobel Prize for economics?", I would respond that this tells us more about the Nobel Prize Committee and O'Sullivan's First Law ("All organizations not expressly right-wing become left-wing over time.") than it does about economics.
There was a dust-up in New York State recently concerning His Accidency Governor David Patterson's proposal to furlough all state workers one day a week as a deficit-cutting measure. Here in the Empire State, the average government worker makes almost precisely twice as much per year as the average private sector employee. That's without counting the very generous benefit packages our tax leeches receive. If they're to be furloughed one day per week, that means that they would "only" be making 80% more per year than the private sector workers paying their salaries and benefits. You'll pardon me if I'm unsympathetic...
Beware of Media Statistics Lesson One:
A few years ago, loony leftist Senator Barbara Mikulski publicly complained that "only" 13% of the government's health research spending was devoted to researching women-specific diseases. Babbling Babs neglected to mention that only 6% of the spending went to researching men-specific diseases. The remaining 81% went to research diseases that afflict both sexes.
Looks a little different when you add that in, doesn't it?
Beware of Media Statistics Lesson Two:
Recently the media carried reports that claimed that it was scandalous that over half of the vendors at gun shows did not have federal firearm dealer licenses. Horrifying? Actually, no. What the media consistantly "forgot" to mention is that over half of the vendors at gun shows were not selling firearms. They were selling t-shirts, holsters, trigger locks, gun safes, etc.
Still terrified?
After the failed bombing in Time Square in New York City, the Poisoned Apple of the Nightly News, Katie Couric, interviewed Nanny Michael Bloomberg, the megalomaniacal mayor of NYC, and Bloomberg speculated on the identity of the bomber (who had not yet been captured):
"Homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something."
I'm glad he added that last bit. I thought he was confessing!
I was reading about the furor over the Arizona Illegal Immigration Law (which I support whole-heartedly), and I read that one writer was not optimistic about the prospects that the law would face before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (known to many as the 9th Circus Court for its rampant, delusional leftism). Call me a radical, but I don't see how the 9th Circus has authority in this case. Since illegal immigrants don't have constitutional rights (not to be confused with legal rights), and since nothing in the Constitution forbids a state government from making an act already a violation of federal law also an offense under state law, I think this is a job for the 10th Amendment. Contrary to leftist opinion, the Bill of Rights was never repealed. If the 9th Circus rules the law unconstitutional, I would support the great state of Arizona in standing its ground and keeping its law, and I hope you would, too.