Rising star?

Via Ace.

'My heart, my choice,'

A healthcare quote goldmine.

The Canadian Press: 'My heart, my choice,' Williams says, defending decision for U.S. heart surgery

Sauce for the goose?

Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House; tension mounts - TheHill.com

Burn

Obviously Nevada ought to reelect the guy, just out of concern for the well-being and safety of Mrs. Reid.


Via Ace.

Fightin' words

White House: If GOP Filibusters, We’ll Pass Health Reform Via Reconciliation

How much do they spend per student in DC public schools?

Guess. Go ahead, guess. Annually per student... Yeah, you already know you're wrong, dontcha:

Correction on DC School Spending « John Stossel

Great ideas in Government

Too Non-Existent to Fail - Mark Steyn

Science and shopping

Why (most) women like to shop - msnbc.com

In a new study, researchers propose that our mall-visiting behaviors harken back to the days when men hunted and women foraged.

Modern men, for example, generally want to get into a store and get right back out — just like their hunting forefathers wanted to find and bring meat home as quickly as possible. On the other hand, women get back to their foraging roots by sorting through racks of sweaters on sale — as if scanning plants for signs of ripeness.

No comment.

White House Hints of New Health Bill

White House Hints of New Health Bill -  NYTimes.com

With the House and the Senate still at loggerheads over their health care bills, the White House hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning for Blair House next week.

Hrmm...

It's not me - it's you

WSJ: Failure of Liberal Governance:

The political retirement of Evan Bayh, at age 54, is being portrayed by various sages as a result of too much partisanship, or the Senate's dysfunction, or even the systemic breakdown of American governance. Most of this is rationalization. The real story, of which Mr. Bayh's frustration is merely the latest sign, is the failure once again of liberal governance.

H/T: The Corner

Stossel: Education is too Important for a Government Monopoly

Education: Too Important for a Government Monopoly

Since 1980, government spending on education, adjusted for inflation, has nearly doubled. But test scores have been flat for decades.

Today we spend a stunning $11,000 a year per student...

Warning signs

"I AM DR. AMY BISHOP!"

Texas to challenge US greenhouse gas rules

Texas to challenge US greenhouse gas rules

This will be a popular move in Texas. Will it put Rick Perry over the top?

Nuclear power aids White House climate push

So Drudge has this story up: Nuclear power aids White House climate push. Good for Obama, I hope that he follows through. This NYT article has a bit more information if you can handle the typical editorializing...

Update: The Heritage Foundation is not impressed:

Expansive loan guarantee programs are wrought with problems. At a minimum, they create taxpayer liabilities, give recipients preferential treatment, and distort capital markets. Further, depending on how they are structured, they can remove incentives to decrease costs, stifle innovation, suppress private-sector financing solutions, perpetuate regulatory inefficiency, and encourage government dependence.

Still, this might be the best we can hope for from this administration. Shouldn't we take what we can get?

Texas Governor primary polls

Perry Opens Wide Lead and Medina Surges In Governor's Race, Poll Finds


More here.

A story to watch

Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them

Amen.

Greenpeace wants Indian people to starve

So I'm reading this story from Drudge about how people are freaking out in India over a GM (Genetically Modified) eggplant. As I'm reading the massive difficulties India is having feeding such a huge population (~1.2 bn) I start thinking to myself, "I bet Greenpeace is quoted in this article about how GM food is bad and yada yada..." Sure enough:

Expanding India's food supply is crucial in a country of one billion people, with predictions the population might reach 1.4 billion by 2025.

The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation has said food production will need to double by mid-century to meet demand from a growing world population, prompting calls for a second Green Revolution.

But Greenpeace maintains GM crops are a costly distraction from tackling hunger through fighting poverty and helping small holders in developing countries sell their products.

This is the major reason that I can't support groups like Greenpeace. Greenpeace seems to be for these great things such as helping the poor and saving the environment but they oppose simple policies that would actually help accomplish their supposed goals such as GM food, free trade, and nuclear power. It happens so consistently on many such issues that I wonder if their publicly stated mission is truly what they are about. Their positions seem to align more closely with an anti-capitalism ethos. Trees are a great example. You know who plants most of the new trees? Logging companies. Of course if you ask your local Greenpeace-ian about this curious point you'll usually get a blank stare or a denial of this easily verifiable fact. The smarter ones will transition to a supposed lack of "biodiversity" in the newly planted forests. I'm sorry, did you want to save trees or promote biodiversity? Maybe "Save the biodiversity" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Update: The Foundry is on the same page today. Must be something in the water...

Ask the Media: What should I panic about today?

Dangerous teen trend: Snorting candy not just harmless fun.

Monkeys in your hair...

...and the meaning of.

H/T: Powerline.

The Other Side

Every so often I like to go over and see what's what on the Left's side of the universe. I find that it can be clarifying to see how the other side thinks... err, as it were.

For your viewing pleasure, today's example comes from The Nation, a bastion of liberal tolerance and understanding. Post-racial, post-gender, post-partisanship, post-conflict really. The Nation embodies the idea of what America could be if only we could all agree to just be Americans. The editors of The Nation have this to say about the Tea Party:

While the energy and outrage may be genuine and organic, we should not fool ourselves into seeing this as anything but a right-wing reactionary movement, one whose themes (jingoism, militarism and a cult of victimhood at the hands of sundry nefarious betrayers) are as old as the John Birch Society.

Err, well, ok so they're a little edgy but it's just for dramatic effect, really. The John Birch Society is one of those things leftists like to laugh about at parties to show how "in tune" they are with their peers. It's a cultural thing. Like Red Sox fans bitching about the Yankees or when people who... deal with lawyers, joke about killing all the lawyers or maybe like when Mullahs preach about wiping Israel off the map. They don't mean it literally - they are just, you know, socializing. In truth, the editors of The Nation, in that long liberal tradition of multiculturalism and acceptance want America to know that even though we don't always agree - we all truly want what's best for the country. Bring it home The Nation!

It is useful for branding purposes that the right-wing organizers and activists draping themselves in nostalgia for the founding fathers not find themselves tied in the public mind to the Republican Party, loathed by a significant minority of the electorate and distrusted by an overwhelming majority. The reason is not hard to divine: over the last decade, the GOP ran the country into the ground. While the party's rhetorical fidelity is to small government and a big military, it has for decades been operationally committed to no philosophy other than perpetual war, upward redistribution of wealth, the defense of corporate power and white Christian identity politics. But despite the tea party's arm's-length stance toward the GOP, these are precisely the values for which it stands.

Ok, really, what a bunch of f*ckhead posers. I'm probably as supportive of a "Tea Party" like movement as you'll find - and I have no idea what they are even talking about. This is Grade A+ Bullshit right here. People pay for this magazine. I think. Perpetual war? Seriously? Upward redistribution of wealth? What is that? No, really, what is that? Is that like generally advocating against the regular redistribution of wealth? I guess you got me there then. Defense of corporate power? Corporate power? Like uh, in the governmental sense of the word? The we-will-throw-you-in-jail-if-you-don't-do-what-we-say kinda power? Er, no? Something else then... Sometimes I think liberals use "Corporate" as a prefixal curse word. Throw it in front of some other word, no matter how innocuous, for a phrase that shows you're on the right side in the battle for society's soul. Non-secular, of course - you know, a metaphoric soul. And finally we have "white Christian identity politics". Boy that's somethin' ain't it. Damn those white Christians... all identifying and shit. I presume black Christian identity politics are just peachy though, eh? Wouldn't wanna be racist...