Choice

NBC10.com

Author Linda Hirshman is calling stay-at-home mothers a "brain drain." She is even calling for a reproductive strike until men agree to take on more work at home. Hirshman said she believes it is time for a revolution.

"It is time. After 25 years of hearing from nothing but the stay-at-home moms and why it's so wonderful to stay at home, it is time for another message," Hirshman said.

Hirshman said women could only lead flourishing lives if they have a career outside the home.

"My most important message is that women are bearing the full burden of housekeeping as well as childbearing, and that combination makes it very difficult for them to work in the public or larger world," Hirshman said.

...

Hirshman said she thinks women who stay at home, especially highly educated ones, are not using their capacities fully. She said they should stay on the job and push for change in society.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Linda Hershman is pro-choice. Except when it comes to raising kids.

For the record, my wife is one of those "highly educated" stay at home moms. She wouldn't have it any other way.

More GITMO Abuse

Sickening.

The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.

Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.

They've been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small "bean holes" used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.

Oh wait, it's Americans. Where do I check my outrage? At the door?

Alien Life Forms

Two points of micro-agreement between me and Jonathan Chait: good for leftists who try to reach out and understand that peculiar breed of American who doesn't vote for progressives. And, no, it's not working.

Chait's LAT columns are reprinted in TNR Online, presumably so they can annoy more people. Today he discusses a new TV show to sympathetically portray Calista Flockhart as a conservative television pundit.

Indeed, the point of the show seems to be casting conservatives in a sympathetic and understanding light. As Jon Robin Baitz, a writer for the show, explained: "It's very, very interesting and compelling to us to try and understand this, to leave behind some of the smug presuppositions of the two coasts ... to look at evolving patriotism and evolving traditionalism."

Patronize much? "It's interesting to try to understand these inferior people and a real testament to our writing skill that we can do it." I'm sure they would have hired a real conservative but they don't know any.

Chait and I both think this will end badly, but for different reasons. He doesn't think they need to reach out and he wonders "[W]here are the right's efforts at outreach? You don't hear conservatives mourning their lack of common ground with the English department at Columbia University. In fact, it's incredibly rare to find a conservative who understands liberalism as anything other than hatred for the rich and a desire to hand over our foreign policy to the United Nations."

I think it will fail because the writers see it as an outreach project. The show's producer "assured the public 'She's not Ann Coulter. She's not insane.'" Whew. Because, y'know, hiring a thin blonde actress ...

I don't spend a lot of time defending Ms. Coulter around here, but if you think she is insane, you are not qualified to write about a conservative. Ms. Coulter is bombastic and frequently offensive, but she is quite rational and cogent.

Our "outreach," Mr. Chait? We read the New York Times, watch CNN at the airport, listen to NPR, watch Hollywood movies and TV shows like "The West Wing." We know you're there.

If you want a flicker of hope, I heard from many conservatives that Alan Alda's character on "The West Wing" expressed conservative views more eloquently and clearly than do any of our politicians.

No Surprise

Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine takes his teenaged son o see the New Woody Allen movie and notes:

The entire audience was geriatric. There wasn’t a person in the theater — in a decent crowd, by the way — who was under 50 and most won’t see 60 again. Not one hair follicle — those left — carried its natural color of youth. My son personally lowered the mean age in the place by 30 years.

Insty linked to it, but I can't say that I am surprised at all. I was playing a party game a few years ago with people slightly younger. I forget the game. But the card would say "kinds of cheeses" and your team would shout out answers as one member furiously typed them into a computer.

Every topic was a race of furious typing with the buzzer cutting off answers. Until our team got "Woody Allen movies." I got "Sleeper" and "Bananas," somebody got "Annie Hall," then we sat in stone silence waiting for the buzzer.

These folks were all younger, hipper, and more liberal than me, yet his movies meant nothing to them. I've seen "Sweet and Low" since then. The jazz was nice, but Woody's dour view of life pervades it, and Sean Penn is not one of my personal faves either.

Anybody going to defend the great director around here? I'm guessing not, but, you ever know.

"Genius"

That's my new nickname for the hapless prime minister of Lebanon, who recently declared: "We will not negotiate until the Israeli war stops shedding the blood of innocent people." He was also quoted on Fox News this morning as having said, "We will not negotiate until there is an immediate, unconditional cease-fire" and something to the effect of, "This deliberate killing of innocent civilians is unacceptable."

The PM seems to be echoing the attitude of one Khalil Shalhoub who, on the scene of the demolished building full of people screamed, "Why are they killing us? What have we done?"

Well, for one thing, an IAF spokesman claimed that Hezbollah was intentionally packing civilians into buildings and firing missles from them. "OK" I thought, "that's entirely plausible. Now show us all pictures to prove it!" Within moments, FNC announced EXCLUSIVE VIDEO. ("Free" Video, after a short cimmercial message, of course.)

As many government leaders throughout the western world rush to condemn Israel for defending itself against calculated, deliberate, and ongoing aggression from Islamist fanatics they should ask themselves one question: How will these diplomats feel about tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by an Iranian nuke if their diplomatic efforts on behalf of Hezbollah, in the name of "innocent" Lebanese civilians, are successful?

BB'see' No Evil

JK's Saturday post on the Seattle "hate crime" shooting largely ignored by the MSM is an apt lead-in to reprint a post by WSJ Opinion Journal's James Taranto. I lifted the whole thing verbatim, though with attribution (first item.)

The BBC reports on one of the "prisoners" that "Hezbollah wants most" in its ill fated bid to arrange a swap by murdering and kidnapping Israeli border guards. BBC writes, "Israel will not exchange them for the prisoner Hezbollah wants most, Samir Qantar, who attacked a block of flats in Nahariha in 1979, killing a father and his daughter (the latter by smashing her head in)." The parenthetical gives barely a glimmer of the true inhumanity of his crimes.

Click continue reading to get the whole story...

Taranto writes:

"When Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers two weeks ago, provoking the current conflagration, the Shiite terrorist outfit apparently intended to use them as bargaining chips to demand the release of prisoners. Press reports often discuss this as if there were an equivalence between the Israeli soldiers, who committed no crimes but were simply defending their own country within its borders, and Arab terrorists. So it's worth pointing out just who the "prisoners" in Israeli hands are.

According to the BBC "the prisoner Hezbollah wants most" is Samir Qantar. On April 22, 1979, Qantar murdered 28-year-old Danny Haran and his 4-year-old daughter and caused the death of another Haran daughter, age 2. Haran's widow, Smadar Haran Kaiser, describes the crime (she transliterates the murderer's name as "Kuntar"):

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border.

Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer.

As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat.

They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

The BBC gives a rather more sanitized account of the crime: "Qantar . . . attacked a block of flats in Nahariha in 1979, killing a father and his daughter."

It's good to be da mayor

It's certainly good to be "America's Mayor..."
Page Six

"America's Mayor" had a Gotham rib steak, which he washed down with three 12-year-old Macallan scotches. Giuliani left a 22 percent tip and was last seen outside the place exchanging pleasantries with Lindsay Lohan, who was walking toward Soho House.

Hat-tip: Sixers, with the Taranto-ready headline "Crist says civil unions 'fine'"

Amazon Recommends...

As someone who has purchased books by Paul Johnson, you might like to know that Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic: The World of the Lascelles, 1648-1834 (Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series) is now available . You can order your copy by following the link below.

Hmm, I don't recall purchasing books by Paul Johnson. (Perhaps that came with my Neil Young order). The book in question is $99 (free shipping with Amazon Prime), 396 pages, and published by the Cambridge University Press.

What the mail should have said was:

As someone who has purchased dull books that nobody else ever buys, you might like to know that Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic: The World of the Lascelles, 1648-1834 (Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series) is now available . You can order your copy by following the link below. This book is ranked 116,267 and will look good on the table even if you never make it past the Introduction.

If You Get Your News From Time...

Credit Time Magazine. They have found and promoted the two worst bloggers of all time. First, Andrew Sullivan moved his Daily Dish over there. Andrew was once my favorite blogger and it pains me to call him one of two worst. But he left the rational plane many moons ago, and seems to have only spiraled down. I visited his blog to get the link and the headline is: A New GOP Low.

Playing the anti-gay card against a promising Democratic candidate in Ohio ... because he and his wife have no children. What do you expect from the party of Rove?

I'm guessing he finds a new low everyday. But at least he is blogging and everybody knows who he is and what he does.

Insty reports "The end of days is near" when he links to 'Wonkette' named Time.com Washington editor

"You can only write three-sentence posts for so long before you start to crave the comparatively literary world of newsmagazines," she wrote in an e-mail message.

Cox posted sarcastic and frequently foul-mouthed gossip and political commentary on Washington's elite and their underlings on the Internet under the pseudonym "Wonkette," from 2004 until earlier this year.

"I thought it'd be nice to work somewhere where my mom would not be embarrassed to tell her bridge club about," she wrote of her move to a prominent role in mainstream media.

I gave up on Time before I ever saw a blog, but have these people lost any concern for reputation?

When I saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on the cover, I thought "People who get their news from Time probably consider this news." To give Ms. Cox this important -- and one might think serious -- position is more than I can believe.

Glad it works for Mom.

Seattle Shooting

A Pakistani man goes into a Jewish center in Seattle, shoots six women, kills one, and says "I'm a Muslim-American. I'm angry at Israel." To the MSM, he is a lone wacko, his ethnicity is not important.

Can I be the social conservative today? The public's right to know includes secret government plans to monitor terrorist finances overseas, but we can't handle knowing that the War on Terror has had a skirmish in Seattle, Washington?

Gerard at American Digest reports: it was, like Sept 11, a normal day:

I SIT BEHIND a shaded window in a small bungalow on top of Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. It's a smooth summer day. It began chill but warmed. In front of my porch, the lawn sprinkler makes slow sweeps. Across the street, the school playground plays host to a pick-up game of half-court basketball and a passel of kids on bikes and skateboards, all protected by the helmets and pads modern American parents feel compelled to encumber their children with; that no fall should result in a bruise or a scrape or a moment's discomfort to otherwise mar their standard "perfect" childhood in our standard broken home. It is as if we knew that, not being able to protect our children from our own selfish self-absorption, we have compensated by protecting them from falls.

Hat-tip Roger L. Simon, who reminds us of a Trotsky quote. "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."

Top 25 of the Last 25

How about another blast from the past?

eWeek picks the top 25 products of the last 25 years.

See the list here.

Stop Discussing, You're Confusing People

If you include frequent commenters, we have a pretty broad spectrum of views on climate change, though we certainly lean skeptic.

I'm all for continued research, just don't let the 535 Atmospheric Physicists in the District of Columbia decide. Here's TCS with a report on two Congressional hearings.

Only Wegman [Edward J. of George Mason University] and his colleagues found -- as did a National Academy of Science's panel previously -- that Mann's statistics were fundamentally flawed. They were prone -- as two Canadians, Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre, found in an ad hoc statistical investigation -- to create hockey stick shaped graphs.

Rather than accept that result, Democrats on the committee went on the offensive, pummeling Wegman -- who voted for Al Gore in 2000 -- as a stooge of the big business and calling the hearing itself a sham. "We don't debate gravity any more," Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington argued, ignorant of string theory, "and we should not debate whether there is a human contribution to climate change." He went on to suggest that the press not report alternative views. "The press is creating doubt where there isn't any," he argued.

Shhhh! Stop discussing the issues, you're confusing people...

Three out of Nineteen

Club for Growth has created a scorecard for every congressional representative, based on his/her votes on Rep. Flake's 19 contra-porcine amendments.

Thanks to Congressman Jeff Flake's 19 anti-pork amendments, we now have every House member on record regarding their positions on earmarks.

And if you expected Colorado's Second District (Boulder and environs) to be inclined more towards statism than taxpayer freedom -- well, give yourself a gold star. Democratic Scion and former Boulder mayor, Mark Udall, scores a big 3-for-19 on opposing pork.

Axis of GOPeasement

I keep thinking I could support Senator McCain if I had to. What a great Commander-in-Chief. Other days I think, nah, I'd like to have a Republican.

Hugh Hewitt posts an excerpt of an interview with the other Senator from Arizona. He confirms that Sens. Graham and McCain are holding up judicial nominations. Who needs Pat Leahy?

Hugh

I very much appreciate the senator's candor on the Boyle and Haynes nominations.

I suspect Senators Graham and McCain do not fully appreciate the incredible damage they are doing to their standing in the GOP by acting in concert to deny these nominees an up-or-down vote. I wouldn't object to "no" votes, but the abuse of power by the two to block the 98 from having their say is simply unacceptable to constitutional majoritarians. John McCain's decision to deny Mr. Haynes a vote on the floor will be raised again and again in the 2008 Campaign.

The good news is that Senator Kyl is pushing Mr. Keisler hard, and the Majority Leader understands the importance to the base of the D.C. Circuit. I simply can't imagine a September recess happening without a floor vote on the Keisler nomination. The inability to deliver such a vote would be an anchor around the Frist Campaign almost as heavy as the Haynes obstruction will be for Senator McCain's campaign.

Reading Poll Results

The Wall Street Journal (news page) is confident that they can accurately asess their latest poll:

WASHINGTON -- Republicans haven't persuaded a dissatisfied American public that their stewardship is succeeding. But the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests how they might survive midterm elections anyway: attack Democratic foes and separate themselves from President Bush's struggles.

That's the CW and it is being practiced by many candidates. This article names Maryland Senate Candidate Michael Steele by name in his disappointing "anonymous" swipes at the President. Yet I cannot see why Congressional Republicans are so eager to dump the 39% President and throw their lot in with the 25% Congress.

Hugh Hewitt laid out a good strategy for all Republicans to come together in his recent book "Painting the Map Red." He created "12 words" that all Republicans could rally around. Win the War, Confirm the Judges, Cut the Spending, Lower the taxes. Sadly, Hewitt himself compromised it as soon as the books shipped. He added "secure the border" and made it 15 words. I suppose next week, he'll add "Queers Cain't marry" and we'll have a real talk-radio manifesto in the works.

Individual candidates who want to win by running against their own party are making a mistake. Juntos Podemos, amigos.

Amazon Cap Loss

Insty links to this BusinessWeek article on Amazon's stock tu8mble.

The online retail giant reported net income of $22 million, compared with $52 million in the second quarter of 2005, even as net sales rose 22%, to $2.14 billion for the period. Both the net income and revenue figures fell slightly short of analysts' cautious second-quarter estimates, which had taken into account heavy R&D expenditures

I suppose if Amazon tanks right after Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" comes out, I will have to admit my detractors were right.

Long Tail Imbroglio

Or maybe it's a full contretemps. Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal questions the data and the premise of the book.

It would be wonderful if the world as Mr. Anderson describes it were true: one where "healthy niche products" and even "outright misses" collectively could stand their ground with the culture's increasingly soulless "hits."

But while every singer-songwriter dreams from his bedroom of making a living off iTunes, few actually do, mostly because so many others have the very same idea. And to the extent that Apple is making money off iTunes, thanks go to Nelly Furtado and other hitmakers. Indeed, you can make the case that the Internet is amplifying the role of hits, even in relation to misses, not diminishing them.

So maybe Mr. Anderson really has unlocked the sort of new business rules the cover promises. I say we wait before ripping up any business plans. Let's see how the tail shakes out.

Chris Anderson defends himself on his blog. (The Anderson link is free, the WSJ link is paid).

I'll take it as a compliment that I now warrant a proper Wall Street Journal takedown for crimes of...well, I'm not quite sure what the crimes are. But Lee Gomes has tried mightily to find flaws with the Long Tail theory and deserves a response of some sort. I have no doubt that there are many parts of my analysis and data that could be improved. Unfortunately, Gomes, in his haste to find them, stumbles over statistics and more, and in the end simply makes a muddle of what might have been an interesting debate over the magnitude of the Long Tail effect.

As an impartial observer with an admitted emotional attachment to The Long Tail, I'll have to give it to Anderson on points.

Might he have over-enthusiastically extrapolated data into a trend? That's possible, although I think we have seen countless anecdotal examples of the long tail in action.

Gomes, in my opinion, disproves claims that Anderson did not make. Anderson, for one, does not predict that you're going to make it big with a niche selection on iTunes. But he does describe the changes that enable a small, unsigned player to offer and sell music -- and be found -- on iTunes.

That is a valid trend and Anderson has developed it for years, from his magazine article in Wired, through his blog, and the book. I counsel skepticism in everything, but would dismiss those who are overly dismissive of the long tail.

Be Prepared

Glenn Reynolds links to this Target®/American Red Cross First Aid Emergency Preparedness Starter Kit on Amazon. It's $29.99 (AlexC will get a shiny penny back on his $30) and is probably a decent idea.

If disaster hits Lafayette, Colorado, I don't want to wait for the National Guard to pull up. But at the same time, I don't know what I'll need four ponchos for. I've got flashlights and batteries, bottled water, dog food, and enough ammunition to defend my AA cells.

Professor Reynolds worries more about bird flu than I do but there’s not much around here that could close things down for more than a couple of days. I'm going to chance it.

The Customers who bought the emergency kit, Amazon informs me, also bought: Pop Bottle Science, Crisis Prevention Handbook, Fundamentals Medical Kit, a 1GB Memory stick and "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home." You guys laughed when I bought the hand coffee grinder for Y2K! Italian home cooking? One GB memory?

Advantage: Democrats

Larry Kudlow continues a theme that he discussed on his TV show yesterday. Think what you will about the details and policy behind Senator Clinton's "American Dream Initiative" unveiled in Denver (sorry I missed it, I had to work) it's good politics. Everyone on the panel agreed it is miles ahead of Nancy Pelosi's "thin gruel" and that it has some resonance. Even Larry likes the personal savings accounts.

Larry wonders where the GOP response is.

Right now it strikes me that the GOP is snoozing. Democrats are guzzling highly caffeinated Starbucks coffee, while the Republicans sip their decaf. Democrats are working 24/7, while the Republicans are taking mid-afternoon siestas. It reminds me a lot of 1994, but obviously in reverse.

You can argue the policy wonk merits of Clinton’s speech, and even the Pelosi fiscal plan, but their political message is strong. “Clinton hits president on middle class” and “Not taking care of America” are the headlines in today’s lead NY Sun article. There is a good GOP response out there, both on the economy and national security, but I’m not hearing it.

The president is working hard, defending Israel, beefing up our troop structure to sweep Baghdad, and arguing the economic merits of his supply side tax cut plan, yet I don’t hear a peep from GOP congressional leadership.

Where are the responses to Clinton et al that might back up Bush? This concerns me. The GOP contents itself by squabbling over immigration. Well, I got news for you, that ain’t much of an election year plan.

I hear Clinton's plan as:

1. More taxes
2. More taxes
3. Roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.
4. More taxes

But I am a partisan and my vote is not up for grabs. Many others will hear "Investment." (We're not taking your money, we're investing it!)

The panel agreed it was not so much a Presidential step forward for Senator Clinton as it was a more serious plan for Democrats in the midterms. "They don't have a plan" will be stricken from the GOP playbook -- well, on domestic policy.

On the same topic, ThreeSources friend Everyday Economist got an Instalanche for his stunning exegesis post on Kos vs. the Clintons and is the fastest growing WordPrress blog today. Don't everybody click over there at once -- I don't want to crash his servers.

How Can You Not Love the Market?

The Wall Street Journal reports that even slackers have marketable skills.

When David Estalote wanted to learn to play the piano, the 27-year-old New Yorker sought out a teacher at a local music college. To learn to play golf, he took lessons from a pro at his grandfather's country club. When he recently decided he needed coaching to play a videogame better, he turned to a teenager who lives 1,200 miles away in Florida.

One afternoon recently, his 18-year-old tutor, Tom Taylor, slouched in front of a television set connected to a Microsoft Corp. Xbox machine running "Halo 2," a popular combat videogame. Mr. Taylor, through an Internet phone strapped over his head, snapped commands at Mr. Estalote back in New York. Mr. Estalote, a computer programmer, pays Mr. Taylor $45 an hour for help improving his "Halo 2" skills.

A man wants to buy, a man wants to sell, the Internet allows them to trade. Adam Smith would be proud.

When Is a Wedge Not a Wedge

I subscribe to TNR just to disagree with it, but Noam Scheiber has a piece online today on political effects of the stem-cell debate, and I am still pondering his premise.

It starts with good news for me. The subhead reads STEM-CELL RESEARCH ISN'T A WEDGE ISSUE. And I am quite concerned that the Democrats have found a good one. The thesis of Scheiber's article is that a successful wedge issue plays into its own sub-text.

For example, how is it that Bush used the Iraq war to his advantage in 2004 even though more than half the country had serious reservations about it? The answer is that the debate wasn't about the Iraq war per se. It was about Bush's toughness and resolve on the one hand, and Kerry's weakness and indecisiveness on the other. By running on the war's metaphorical meaning rather than the war itself, Bush managed to unite his own side and split Democrats--a textbook wedge maneuver.

Alas, Democrats could be waiting a long time if they think stem cells are going to do for them what gay marriage has done for Republicans. It's not that voters disagree with the Democratic position. Polls consistently show anywhere from 55 to 75 percent of the public favors research using stem cells from discarded embryos. Were referendums on the issue to come before voters in all 50 states, the vast majority would pass, most by large margins.

Remember, we're reading TNR here. Yes, I assert that the GOP was demonstrably tougher. But he questions whether the ESC debate divides the same way.

The flaw is to assume that the Republicans who disagree with Bush on the stem-cell issue represent a potentially large source of Democratic gains. Mellman, among others, flirts with this fallacy when he notes that "stem-cell research emerged as an important 'sleeper' issue in the last campaign." He's right about one thing: All the attacks on Bush's opposition to stem-cell research--who could forget Ron Reagan's speech at the Democratic convention?--probably did persuade voters that Bush's position was wrong. Unfortunately, many of these voters ended up supporting Bush anyway. According to a poll released by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation not long after the 2004 election, roughly half of all Bush voters favor "research using stem cells obtained from human embryos" that would otherwise have been discarded. It turns out most voters don't punish politicians who disagree with them on the stem-cell issue.

So far, so good. This time I'd like to agree with TNR, but the debate might well split the libertarian-Republicans from the evangelical. I would think that any way the Democrats can exploit that will be to their advantage (consider Ryan Segar's Atlantic story -- this could help them in the West).

What concerns me the most is the reason Scheiber gives for this issue not working. He claims a strong undercurrent of concern with bioethics.

On one side of this debate are those who believe biotechnology is mostly a force for good, and that reining it in is basically reactionary. On the other side are those more troubled by the moral and ethical questions raised by advances in biotechnology. The problem for Democrats is that the American public splits a lot more evenly on these questions than it does on the narrower question of whether to extract stem cells from discarded embryos.

The easiest way to see this is to consult an annual survey by the Life Sciences center at Virginia Commonwealth University, arguably the most authoritative source on public attitudes toward science. What the VCU survey reveals is deep ambivalence. According to the most recent installment, Americans believe by a 56-37 margin that scientific research "doesn't pay enough attention to the moral values of society," and by a 52-41 margin that this research has "created as many problems for society as it has solutions."

No, Silence, not all the forces of anti-modernity are on the left. These numbers concern me more deeply than a good issue for the other side. Beyond ESC research, I have a hard time naming items that are ethically questionable. Cloning and designer genes seem outside the mainstream enough to be ignored. A majority think that science needs more control? I hope he is right about the effect but wrong about the reasons. Now, who's cherry-picking?

Not Crazy About It, But I'd Sign

So, what does everybody think of the Pence-Hutchison compromise? If it will bridge ThreeSourcers, it might keep the GOP together for a couple more years.

Speaking for myself, I'd pretty anxious for compromise and am willing to not get everything I want. Most any compromise would be an improvement over the status quo.

The WaPo reports that "White House officials, including presidential adviser Karl Rove, have been told of the framework but not the details. A Republican close to the White House said President Bush 'won't be crazy about it, but I think he would sign it.'"

The best thing about it is a chance to get conference committees talking again. I'm not calling for more talk in the MidEast, but I think the Senate and the House might do better by talking.

Life Imitates "Night Court"

(Apologies to James Taranto for the headline...)

There was a great line in the old TV show "Night Court." Ambitious lawyer Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), hears discussion of the Nobel Peace Prize. He says "I'd kill for one of those."

Fast forward a couple decades, and life has caught up:

Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush

Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

"I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

Hat-tip Everyday Economist

Goldstein Green-Lighted

Jeff at protein wisdom relates an unusual story:

I don’t what to make of this, but I was out picking up lunch from a small middle eastern restaurant near the university when three men, their faces partially obscured by green and yellow bandanas, launched an orchestrated strike on me using heavy falafel balls and what I think must have been shanklish.

I wasn’t seriously injured—one of the falafel balls grazed my shoulder, while the shanklish overshot me and landed on a table to my flank, causing a bit of shawarma to lodge in a toddler’s ear and some tabbouleh juice to blind his mother momentarily—but unfortunately, in the ensuing chaos the three attackers were able to flee the scene on a pair of old, dirt-crusted Vespas.

But the really strange part of all this was that I hadn’t even begun to wipe the fried chick pea detritus off my Fubu madras before a nattily dressed gentleman claiming to be from the State Department slipped me his card and told me that, should I wish to respond to the attack, I’d have roughly ten days to do so.

After that, he said, I would either have to go back to being a Zionist oppressor hated by the vast majority of the world, or else “come up with some of that really funny Jew stuff like Larry David does.”

I've been there. I think it's the first MidEastern restaurant in the Denver area. More importantly, I salute Jeff's right to self-defense. If there's a march or a scotch tasting on his behalf, I'm there.

Review Corner

Three not-really-political books from three authors with very different politics have coalesced into a trilogy for me.

Last year, I enjoyed James Surowecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds." I was prepared for a big Hayekfest, and the New Yorker author wasn't quite ready to go that far. Still it is a good book, and many people who don't think or vote like me quote it favorably. They just call it "community" instead of "the market."

A few months back, I added Glenn Reynolds's "An Army of Davids." He quotes Surowecki, and the themes of these books reinforce each other nicely.

This weekend was a book I have anticipated for a long time: Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail." I grabbed onto the long tail early, boring everybody at my last company with constant insistence that "this is what we do!" A quick search shows 23 references to "long tail" on ThreeSources and 16 on my old Berkeley Square Blog.

The book did not disappoint. I would recommend it to anybody who has a passing interest in culture, music, economics, or business. It is a great book in its own right, and I'll be shipping a few copies to folks I have been boring with its premise. But I'm struck at its capacity to bind the Reynolds and Surowecki books into a common view, and how well that view supports my deep belief in individual empowerment. Workers control the means of production without statism. The invisible hand steers and controls the throttle.

The opposition to the book has all centered around the shared cultural loss of our not watching "I Love Lucy" every week. Our parents could discuss little Rickey's antics over the water cooler. By contrast, I get to watch whatever I want and I can discuss it on the blog (Firefly/Serenity 20 mentions); I frequently trade emails with blogger and Buffy fans all over the world.

A friend emailed this review weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I had read the book. It’s a good example of the genre. Fortune magazine Senior author Marc Gunther has his knickers in a twist over "The extinction of mass culture."

I'll credit Gunther with trying to see the advantages of the new rules. Equal parts nostalgia and job security keep him from embracing the economics of abundance. Neither I nor my friend miss the days of limited selection at the local record store (though you could buy some papers, man...) Both our tastes live pretty far down the tail.

Definitely five stars for this book: check it out!

Comments Broken

Not sure what happened friends, but the "comments approval" feature has been turned on. If you submit a comment, it will not show until one of us "approves" it. What's more, the page it returns has an odd stylesheet and looks, umm, bad.

If you submit one, I'll approve it and I will switch it back as soon as I figure out what the hell is going on.

No, we’re not crushing dissent.

UPDATE: Unless the power goes to my head... It seems to have fixed itself as mysteriously as it busted. email jk [at] threesources [dot] com if you have trouble.

Back in tha Day

I got on the internets in the fall of 1995, as a young and dumb freshman at Drexel University.

One of these days, my 3 year old daughter will come across this page, and say, "Daddy, in 1996, the internet was LAME!"

... and with a tear in my eye, I'll say to my grown up daughter, "Yes, Veronica. The internet was lame back in the day."

"All I had was a 9600 baud modem and we were glad to have it!"

.... and perhaps some thirty years down the road beyond that day, my grandson will come across that page and say "Grampa, how could use use the interweb back in 1996? It was so ugly!"

"Yes, grandson, it was, but the porn was way easier to find."

But until that day, all I can say, like my parents and their gold / avocado colored 70's era kitchen.... "We didn't know any better."

Internet '96

How I learned to love the market.

One of my favorite radio talk show hosts, Michael Medved, is a thief.

But he's changed his ways. Thanks to market based innovations.

After a lifetime of taking hotel soaps and shampoos, a bath product dispenser has changed his life.

Meanwhile, I’m so struck by the sensible, ingenious nature of the bottle-on-the-wall scheme that I think I’m finally ready to give up my embarrassingly extensive soap and shampoo collection. If anyone wants to buy it in return for a worthy contribution to an institution promoting free-market economics (Heritage Foundation, say, or American Enterprise Institute, or even Cato Institute), I’m ready to sell (on the free market) and to provide you with an exotic, aging, and occasionally elegant collection of personally-sized bathroom supplies. Any takers?

Mail Bag

Some interesting email over the weekend relating to ThreeSources discussions:

GASOLINE / ETHANOL
I asked Josh at Everyday Economist about his assertion that gasoline takes more energy to produce than it contains. He mailed me a link to his post, which links back to this WSJ article. There's certainly no shortage of controversy, but it is one of the best defenses of Ethanol I have read from a reliable source.

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS
Somebody else emails a link to a Washington Times piece on Adult Stem Cells (ASC) vs. Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC). I really don't have a dog in this fight, except that it will hurt the Republican Party. There is much that they deserve to be hurt from, but this is not a valid example.

Senator (then VP candidate) John Edwards said at a rally in Newton, Iowa: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." Sixty thousand Ohioans voted for President Bush. Christopher Reeve died. I'll leave it to the other side to draw causality.

ThreeSources own JohnGalt said "when I take it upon myself to dismantle the present practice of Federal funding of research I will not start with the branch of human biotechnology that holds the greatest promise for the future of humanity since penicillin." I'll give jg factual and style points over Senator Edwards, but both are putting quite a bit into promise.

For the record, I do not object to ESC research, or even its funding with my taxes. Yet, the fact that adult stem cells and umbilical blood are more developed in actual therapies makes restrictions on Federal funding even more acceptable to me. That the Edwardses of the world are telling people that mama won't be cured because of this President's allegiance to the religious right is more than I can bear.

The President has an allegiance. To his word. He said, plainly in 2001, what he would and would not do. This stunt to discredit him shows him to stand by his principles. Even though I do not share this particular one, I'll stand by him.

MARRIED 68 YEARS
Hat-tip to SugarChuck for sending along this link I'd missed.to a Tunku Varadarajan interview with Milton and Rose Friedman.

Carbonized Cash

Redstate points to a ludicrous idea from "do-gooders."

Here's the premise: Britain and other countries are thinking about mandating emissions-trading programs for business. But, says Miliband, individuals -- not business -- account for almost half of all of Britain's emissions through their use of planes, trains, automobiles, electricity, various heating fuels -- and, presumably, belching and exhaling. "Imagine a country," says Miliband, "Where carbon becomes a new currency."

All I can imagine is an economy where the government gives people these credits. Controlling "capital" as it were.

Sounds like a recipe for a disaster.

Free To Choose

Josh at Everyday Economist graces ThreeSources with a link today (he chooses the demonstrably evil WSJ/AlexC position on the penny over mine). More importantly, he posts Part Three of Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose."

These are incredible. Block out an hour over the weekend and catch at least one. He has been posting them weekly.

UPDATE: Never enough of Dr. Friedman -- Sugarchuck sends this link along to a Tunku Varadarajan interview with Milton and Rose (who've been married 68 years).

25,000?

ALa at Blonde Sagacity brings up something I wondered about, but was too bashful to post. I was pretty surprised there were 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, and I rolled my eyes at their Katrina-sized complaints that they were not rescued more swiftly and in more style.

ALa makes me look like Rep. Pelosi by comparison:

Can someone PLEASE explain to me the whining and complaining and finger pointing about Americans not being able to get out of Lebanon?! Why the hell would you be in Lebanon to begin with?! And why is it the government's problem when despite State department travel warnings and advisories you decided to go to a country in the Middle East that sit next to Israel and Syria and elected Hezbollah to its Parliament?!

I’m glad we protect our citizens, and after the Cedar revolution hope for good relations with a stable, modern, pluralistic Lebanon. But I saw a guy on TV complain that he spent 16 hours on a four hour boat trip. With all due respect, Sir, “Waaaaah!”

UPDATE: We've been topped by the Motherland. Samizdata reports that "Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Islamic preacher thrown out of Britain for inciting Muslims to violence and calling for the Islamisation of the UK (quote: 'The life of an unbeliever has no value, it has no sanctity'), wants the Royal Navy to evacuate him from the fighting in Lebanon.

Perry de Havilland rightly calls this "chutzpah."

What's At Stake

I'm more optimistic about the GOP's chances of keeping the House in 2006. It seems even Kos is pessimistic.

Lest complacency overtake you, Hugh Hewitt reminds us who would be empowered in a Democratic 110th:

Eight voted against the resolution [supporting Israel] and four voted "present. All but one, the libertarian leaning Ron Paul, were Democrats, and not just backbenchers. Conyers, Dingell, Rahall, Stark and Abercrombie are ranking members --and presumptive chairs if Democrats regain a majority in November-- of Judiciary, Energy and Commerce, Resources, the Health Subcommittee of Ways and Means, and the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee of Armed Services, respectively.

If Democrats win in November, all these gavels fall into hands of Members who voted against Israel even as she was under a massive and continuing barrage of terrorist rocket attacks.

Aside from Rep. Paul providing yet another reminder why I don't join the capital-L Libertarians, this should not be forgotten. Many think that losing the 2006 elections would teach Republicans a lesson. Their hearts are perhaps in the right place, but the price is too steep.

Subsiding the Rich(er)

Does the PA government really need to be involved in this business?

The state will give $500 to Pennsylvania residents who buy a hybrid electric vehicle.
State Sen. Jake Corman said it's the second round of funding through the Hybrid Electric Vehicle program.

The initial rebate program issued $1.5 million in rebates in fewer than 10 months.

Let's call it what it is, a handout to the rich.

Hybrid owners make on average $100,000 per year.

An average family's income? $70,700

I'm Miserable

I can't really help it. I am living in the United States of America, which is ranked 150th in the new economics foundation "Happy Planet Index." The UK, by comparison, ranks 108th, just below Libya and just above Laos. "Blimey! At least we're not stuck in Laos, old chap!"

Tim Worstall :at TCS links to this story but doesn't seem too convinced.

The actual listing of countries according to the "Happy Planet Index" has Cuba in 6th place, Vietnam 12th, Bhutan 13th and Sri Lanka 15th. You might notice a pattern. All the countries are absolutely dirt stinking poor. The index was, I have to assume, deliberately set up to produce such a result for our friends at the nef (as Madsen Pirie, my part-time boss at the Adam Smith Institute calls them, the non economics foundation) are proud followers of the environmental ideas first laid out in Blueprint for Survival. That is, that we'd all be much happier leaving this capitalism stuff alone and living as happy peasants. Tending our own fields, craftsmen working with local resources to make the few tools we need and rarely, if ever, straying from walking distance of our hut.

I am unhappy because of my carbon footprint. My iPod and air-conditioning and cappuccinos are cool and all that, and access to modern medical care is allright in a way. But how can I be happy? The happy people are all on Vanuatu. Worstall finds this Wikipedia reference:

"Some of the villages are known as kastom villages, where modern inventions are restricted, the inhabitants wear penis sheaths (Bislama: namba) and grass skirts, and the children do not go to public schools. According to anthropologist Joël Bonnemaison, who has studied the Tannese extensively, their resistance to change is due to their traditional worldview and how they "perceive, internalise, and account for the dual concepts of space and time."

With a good fitting and well styled penis sheath, I'd be very happy. Worstall is worried about his (108th ranked) homeland:

I'm sure that this Index will make it across the pond at some point and be hailed as a new and excitingly meaningful way of proving that the Industrial Revolution was all a bad idea. When it does, you'll now be forewarned for the exercise was constructed to prove exactly that. Machines bad, wealth bad, progress bad. The authors are really not sure that we should ever have left the Stone Age.

Me, I'm worried that this will make it into the public school curricula.

jk Breaks with the WSJ Ed Page

Well, they like the drug war more than me. Other than that, it is pretty unusual for me to differ with Paul Gigot and the folks on the Ed Page.

But I will boldly assert independence and give two cents worth of punditry in favor of ditching the penny. WSJ Ed folk think that it sends a bad sign about our willingness to defend our currency.

A Penny Unsaved

The decline of the penny as a storehouse of value is a depressing lesson of the corrosive impact of the thief of inflation over time. (See the editorial above.) A penny now has one-eighth the purchasing power it did in 1950 -- and then the coin was 95% copper, versus 3% today. The penny's devaluation may explain why the slogan on the face of the penny reads "In God We Trust," not "In Government We Trust."

I don't remember much of Bretton-Woods when I was a lad, but it seems that some epochal inflation is normal. The Brits don't use the hay'penny anymore and the editorial cherry-picks an inflationary time period.

The US also stopped minting $10,000 bills -- was that an admission of deflation? The penny is a waste of government resources to mint and is a drag on retailers to process and manage. Boot it.

Though I am for stopping production, it will never happen in my life. Demagoguery will keep it around.

Ms. Postrel, Call Your Office

The Front Page of the WSJ offers an interesting aggregate today, validating Schumpeter and Virginia Postrel.

Deleting a couple of stories on the Mideast and the Fed, here's the business news:

• FORD SWUNG to a net loss due to costs of shedding personnel and as high gasoline prices sapped demand for its trucks and sport-utility vehicles.


• The Dow industrials turned lower as traders took profits a day after Bernanke's comments sparked a broad rally. Disappointing results from Intel also weighed on stocks. Apple's shares surged 12%.


• Apple's profit jumped 48%, boosted by continued strong demand for iPods and higher sales of Macs.


• Intel's profit shrank 56% as the chip giant took a hit for stock-options expensing and coped with stiff competition from AMD.


• Intel Reshuffles Senior Management


• H-P Gains on Dell for Primacy in PCs


• Pfizer's net income fell 30% in the second quarter as higher product sales failed to compensate for revenue lost to patent expirations. Wyeth's earnings rose 9%, driven by arthritis treatment Enbrel.


• Yahoo shares tumbled 22%, their biggest-ever percentage drop, after the company said it would delay search-ad improvements. EBay's profit fell 14% as revenue per listing declined, but the firm forecast higher full-year profit.


• Nokia's net rose 43%, driven by strong sales of high-end cellphones that include cameras, music players and offer Internet access. Revenue rose 22%


• Continental Airlines said its quarterly net profit nearly doubled as rising travel demand and fare increases helped offset higher fuel costs.


• Motorola's Profit Lifted by Razr Sales

Whose winning? Apple led by its cool iPod and Motorola with its cool Razr. New features are lifting Nokia sales.

In the tech commodity arena, Intel and Dell are adjusting to the new terrain. H-P has new leadership and is succeeding against Dell, Intel is looking, even though its new duo-core chip is coming out to great reviews, the mega-cap tech player cannot woo Wall Street. Yahoo takes a digger of astronomical proportion by announcing a key new feature is late. Pharmaceutical firms must innovate or die.

In short, capital is finding best uses in the free market and innovation is making our lives better. Just another day living in freedom.

Odd Military Installation

You gotta see this.

Hard to Please

Robert Clayton Dean at Samizdata tells An old joke

Three white collar prisoners are hanging around the yard comparing notes:

Former Exxon executive: They say I charged too much for oil. I'm in for price gouging.

Former Microsoft executive: They say I charged too little for software. I'm in for unfair competition.

Former Samsung executive: They say I charged the same price as everyone else for computer chips. I'm in for price fixing.

Naked Man, Stolen Pigeon

SUFFOLK [Virginia] — A naked man clutching a pigeon was arrested over the weekend after beating the bird against a car.

Attila at Pillage Idiot notes a story with all the key elements: "a naked man, a stolen bird, flailing, and the police."

Sometimes you have to come to terms with what you accomplish in life. Some people devote their lives to changing the world for the better. Some people start businesses to create products that alter the way in which people live. And then, some people post idiotic stories about naked people.

The Birth of Modern Conservatism

You can argue about the birth, but the announcement was Ronald Reagan's speech at the 1964 GOP Convention. (Imagine the world if Goldwater had won!)

Larry Kudlow gives us a taste.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals."

Stem Cells

Glenn Reynolds said it best. The good news is that we finally have a presidential veto. The bad news is that it is on stem-cell research.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will use his first veto on Wednesday to stop legislation to expand embryonic stem cell research championed by top scientists and desired by most Americans.

"The president has had a clear principled stand on this issue since August of 2001 and he has made clear from the beginning that if this bill came to him he would veto it and so this is what he's going to do today," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The U.S. Senate approved the legislation, which has also been passed by the House of Representatives, on Tuesday. But neither chamber expects to have the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto. It would be Bush's first veto since taking office more than five years ago.

JohnGalt was biting his tongue in a comment below, as we both praised President Bush for his muscular reaction to terrorism and his refusal to ask Israel for a cease fire.

Unclench your jaw my friend. This issue is complex. I am guessing that we are on the same side in a way. Using a pro-life argument to block scientific research rubs me the wrong way, and I'm guessing that is what disturbs you.

On the other hand, kimosabe, we are talking about Federal funding of research. Private companies can do what they want. Applying limits to Federal Funding seems very legitimate even if don't happen to agree with the reason. I'll allow you to make the case for Federal funding.

As a pragmatist, I just want to crawl back into bed. I work at home now and the temptation is always there. The GOP leadership was both foolish and myopic to allow this to transpire. This puts the President in a very bad light and will hurt Republicans.

The Glenn Reynolds argument will seize the issue. Every bill that he did not veto is now suitable for highlight. The farm bill, porcine appropriations: every bill is now subject to the question why X was okay but Y was worth a veto.

The Senate did not have time to pass a resolution supporting Israel, but we can embarrass the President with a little political gamesmanship. A bad, bad day to be a Republican.

Your turn.

103" Plasma Screen

Must. Find. Spare. $50,000.

Matsushita, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, has said it aims to sell 5,000 units of the 103-inch plasma panels per year worldwide, with TV demand counting for a little less than 20 percent of that figure.

Measuring 2.4 metres by 1.4 metres and weighing 215 kg, the 103-inch panel is bigger than a double-sized mattress and almost as heavy as an upright piano.

It would probably through the floor into my basement, but it would be awesome.