Joel Kotkin is always worth reading.

Despite promises that the $8 billion invested in rail lines over the past two decades would lessen L.A.’s traffic congestion and reshape how Angelenos get to work, the sad reality is that there has been no increase in MTA transit ridership since before the rail expansion began in 1985.

Much of the problem, notes Tom Rubin, a former chief financial officers for the MTA’s predecessor agency, stems from the shift of funding priorities to trains from the city’s more affordable and flexible bus network. Meanwhile, traffic has gotten worse, with delay hours growing from 44 hours a year in 1982 to 70 hours in 2007.

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The notion that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars the government from adhering to the traditional understanding of what is and is not marriage strikes me as ludicrous. That understanding was nearly universal in this country when the Amendment was enacted and remained so for at least one hundred years. It still prevails today. Should the time come when it no longer prevails, it can and will be overturned democratically.

If an argument that adherence to the traditional understanding of marriage is unconstitutional can be cobbled together from existing Supreme Court jurisprudence, that tells me this jurisprudence is hopelessly misguided, not that there is a constitutional right to gay marriage. In other words, Judge Walker’s decision represents the reductio ad absurdum of left-wing “living Constitution” jurisprudence. If the Supreme Court reaches the same result, its opinion will probably replace Roe v. Wade as the symbol of judicial activism intolerably run amok.

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Read it.

At last I understand why Brad dumped her.

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More than three-quarters of the states and a majority of the people in each of those states have prohibited gay marriage. But one judge in California has, through his own “fact finding” decided gender no longer, after 5000 years, plays any role in marriage.

There is a great and growing divide between those who govern and those who are governed. But those who govern are forgetting that they only govern by the consent of those who are governed. That consent is being revoked.

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It isn’t?

When I was a kid, I heard the term ‘butterscotch’ and thought that it would probably taste like butter. Then I tried some and found out that it tasted like crap. But I guess ‘crapscotch’ would be inappropriate.

The Other McCain examines a cultural phenomenon.

Including $346,000 a year for Morris Dees. Can’t help noticing that even though Heidi Beirich has a Ph.D., she isn’t on the list.

“Heck, the SPLC is whiter than a bunch of MSNBC hosts at a Broadview Security commercial burglars’ convention.”

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California has long been a destination for those seeking a better place to live. For most of its history, the state enacted sensible policies that created one of the wealthiest and most innovative economies in human history. California realized the American dream but better, fostering a huge middle class that, for the most part, owned their homes, sent their kids to public schools, and found meaningful work connected to the state’s amazingly diverse, innovative economy.

What went so wrong? The answer lies in a change in the nature of progressive politics in California. During the second half of the twentieth century, the state shifted from an older progressivism, which emphasized infrastructure investment and business growth, to a newer version, which views the private sector much the way the Huns viewed a city—as something to be sacked and plundered. The result is two separate California realities: a lucrative one for the wealthy and for government workers, who are largely insulated from economic decline; and a grim one for the private-sector middle and working classes, who are fleeing the state.

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Whatever it is, they’re against it.

A child who was perfectly content with a video stream, an MP3, and a chat flowing past him is suddenly ordered to sit still, shut up, and listen while a grown-up scrawls on a blackboard and delivers a monologue. And school is even worse for the older girls down the hall. The center of their universe is on social networking and chat sites, so spending six hours a day marooned in a building with no WiFi is akin to water torture. The same pre-teen who will happily while away hours playing Scrabble with her friends on Facebook dreads each Thursday afternoon, when she will be forced to laboriously write out a list of spelling words in silence alongside two dozen peers.

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Earlier tonight I noted with some derision the “two Americas” of John Edwards’ myth. However, as we have noted before, there are indeed two Americas: the fault line just doesn’t lie where Edwards and other liberals place it. Rather, the key dividing line in American politics is between a strapped private sector and a flush, overflowing-with-cash public sector. Intuitively, it is odd: one might have assumed that those who pay the bills would look out for their own needs over the interests of those whom they employ. But this hasn’t happened. A large majority of voters have been asleep at the switch, and public employees have been awarding themselves constantly-increasing salaries and pension benefits. Those benefits have now swelled to the point where there is no possibility that taxpayers can fund them.

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The Politico story  at issue is about how members of the Black Congressional Caucus are playing the race card against fellow Democrats over the ethics prosecutions of Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters (emphasis mine):

Democrats have been playing the race card for so long and so hard against Republicans and conservatives and Tea Party supporters that … well … go for it.

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Note that, except for India (which has a HUGE Muslim minority and worse exposure to Islamic terrorism than we do), they’re all Muslim countries.

Perhaps they know something that we don’t.

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The Montgomery Advertiser has a 60-photo lifestyle spread on “The home of Morris Dees and Susan Starr in Montgomery, Ala.” Mr. Dees is, of course, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and poverty has been very, very good to him, judging by the staggering amount of expensive bric-a-brac he and Ms. Starr have accumulated.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, of course, specializes in finding things to scare White People into donating to … the Southern Poverty Law Center. It apparently pays really well.

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Not really news, but a useful reminder.

‘He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always be sure of the support of Paul.’

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The Obama administration’s relentless attempt to  manufacture and  take undue credit  for good news has spilled (sorry) over into the Gulf of Mexico, where climate and energy “czar” Carol Browner claims that “more than three-quarters of the oil is gone.” As  David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post does a nice job showing, that claim is unsubstantiated and almost certainly false.

Not really news, but a useful reminder.

Steve Sailer is not afraid the ask the hard questions.

It’s never too early to discuss what should be done if evidence of white racism emerges in this investigation. Should the dead white racists be dug up and shot again? Or perhaps the grieving relatives of the late Mr. Thornton should get to shoot some of the relatives of the dead white racists who weren’t nice to Mr. Thornton?

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But Chastity (oops, ‘Chaz’) and god are perfectly safe. Is there a general principle at work here. Oh, yeah, ‘money talks’.

The court said that Heath Campbell, 37, has never held a job because of medical and psychological disabilities, and cannot read. Deborah Campbell, 27, also had mental and physical problems.

I have not enough fingers and toes to count the number of government programs for which these people qualify. For lo! In this great country of ours, it is possible to reach the age of 37, marry, and produce three children, all without every having held a job. Is this a great country, or what?

Bet you they vote Democrat, if they bother. Got to keep that old gravy train comin’.

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No good deed goes unpunished.

The cab company complained loud enough that the Quincy City Council changed its taxi and limousine ordinance to remove the words “for hire” from its definitions and thus eliminate the loophole Schoenakase was operating under. Following the change, Jonathan applied for a license and the Chief of Police was supposedly about to approve it, but withdrew and said Schoenakase needed to clear up some legal issues.

Money talks.

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I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.

Megan McArdle is on the case.

If you want to know why us libertarian types are skeptical of the government’s ability to prevent housing market bubbles, well, I give you Exhibit 9,824:  the government’s new $1000 down housing program.

I guess the government wasn’t satisfied with one housing bubble to destroy the economy; they are determined to have another.

It’s true that this particular program is small–I don’t think the economy is going to be brought to its knees by several hundred houses.  The important thing, however, is that this is how the government thinks about housing.  The private bankers have at least reacted to their little scare by getting somewhat more conservative about the loans they offer–probably not conservative enough, but still, more conservative.  The FHA, on the other hand, is still out there offering 3.5% mortgages to anyone who can meet some fairly basic guidelines; those mortgages now account for almost 20% of all home purchases.  Yet so far, the FHA’s has cracked down in only one area:  it now requires a 10% downpayment from buyers with very bad credit.  On the other hand, it’s also expanded into pricier homes, so I’m not sure you can say the loan criteria have tightened overall.

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The pool of people who are at home today – because they’re unemployed, retired, have telecommuting jobs or are stay-at-home parents or caregivers – keeps getting larger. That’s been welcome news for those who leave their neighborhoods to go to work. They consider stay-at-homers to be easy marks for carpooling, errand-running, church-volunteering, school-committee-leading, and being the go-to neighbor for every UPS delivery.

A lot of at-homers who commiserate online are torn between their willingness to help and their resentment about the way their help is sought. As one poster wrote: “I get calls from my daughter’s school to pick up sick kids. Many parents put me on the emergency contact card at school without telling me… Yes, a lot of it is my fault because I feel sorry for the kids and can’t say no. But I have quit going to play groups since this is how most of the parents zone in on me.”

Oh, say it ain’t so…. See, this is where being a grumpy fellow with few friends really pays off.

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The FSA , the food industry watchdog, said two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow had been slaughtered, one of which “will have been eaten”, while the other was stopped from entering the food chain.

Because, God help us, we can’t have the offspring of a cow THAT IS THE EXACT GENETIC COPY OF ANOTHER COW polluting our Precious Bodily Fluids.

1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in Vermont; they’re serious about cows up there.

Read it.

A man in West Sussex has suffered injuries to both legs after being shot at through the front door of his own home.

But that can’t have happened, of course, because gun ownership is illegal in Britain — even their Olympic marksmanship teams have to practice in France.

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A pensioner who has terrorised his neighbours for 15 years faces prison after breaching an Asbo by singing ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning’ outside their homes.

Yeah, that sure fits my definition of terrorism.

The sheep farmer admitted breaching an ASBO banning him from causing his neighbours fear or distress on three occasions between August 14 and December 29, 2008.

In Britain, if they think you’re acting like a jerk, they hit you with an ASBO, which stands for ‘Anti-Social Behavior Order’, which is basically a court telling you to Play Nice With Others. In America, of course, somebody would show you his Glock and tell you to mind your own business, but they Do Things Differently Over There.

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How many pieces of information are needed to identify an individual? In the field of re-identification science, it’s 33 “bits,” specifically “33 bits of entropy.” (Information-science researchers refer to random pieces of information as “entropy.”)

Why 33? Because a “bit” is computer lingo for an on-off switch that can have only two values, 0 or 1. And 2 multiplied by itself 33 times is a bit more than the number of people on earth — 6.6 billion. Two to the 32nd power is lower than the world’s population. So, in theory, it takes at least 33 “bits” of information to uniquely identify someone.

Each piece of information you add reduces the pool of possible individuals. But not every data point is worth the same number of “bits.”

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As Eric Goldman notes, this particular attack appears to have failed miserably, in large part due to the fact that Ripoff Report secretly recorded all of its phone calls. AEI fought against revealing the content of the phone calls, noting that it did not know its staff were being recorded — and, in the end, the judge actually does deem the evidence inadmissible. But just the fact that Ripoff Reports presented the recordings made the two principles from AEI suddenly have their memories jogged, and admit that they might have been “confused” about what was actually said in the calls. From there, the judge found little evidence that the CAP program actually represented any kind of extortion.

What is more common that calling a company and hearing ‘This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.’? And yet, if you say that you are recording the call, they won’t even speak to you — I’ve tried it, and it works every time. One-way? Absolutely.

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Elite colleges justify the light teaching loads of their professors—Yale requires only three courses a year, with a semester off every third year—by claiming that the members of their faculty spend their time producing important research. A glance at scholarly journals or university-press catalogs might make one wonder how much of this “research” is advancing knowledge and how much is part of a guild’s need to credentialize its members. In any case, time spent for research is time taken away from students. The remoteness of professors may help explain why about 30% of enrolling students drop out of college only a few months after arriving.

At the same time, the administrator-to-student ratio is growing. In fact, it has doubled since 1976. The administrative field has diversified into exotic specialties such as Credential Specialist, Coordinator of Learning Immersion Experiences and Dietetic Internship Director.

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Waters, however, has a lengthy history of engaging in unethical conduct beyond that which seems to have attracted focus this particular time. She has repeatedly been cited by, among others, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, for various ethical breaches that, like this one, involve her apparently using her station to benefit members of her family.

Ultimately, if we accept that paying-off-Waters-relatives-for-promotion-to-voters stinks of corruption, then we must wonder who has been aiding and abetting this particular brand of corruption. And then our attention turns to, among others, another embattled California Democrat up for re-election this year: Sen. Barbara Boxer.

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The year is off to a good start for K Street, with eight of the 10 most successful lobbying shops bringing in more revenue during the first half of 2010 than during the same period last year.

The financial services overhaul, health-care legislation and the proposed climate change bill helped generate more than $128 million in lobbying revenue for these firms since the beginning of the year, with half posting double-digit gains.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Democrats talk a good fight but it’s all just sabre-rattling to scare businesses into greasing their palms. Whenever a Democrat complains about ‘special interests’, what he (or she) is really saying that the anticipated payoff wasn’t as big as desired.

Capitol Hill heavyweight Patton Boggs again topped the charts, bringing in $20.6 million during the first two quarters of the year, according to Capital Business estimates based on Lobbying Disclosure Act forms filed with the Senate. That figure does not include more than $6 million in revenue reported by mid-sized firm Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, which was acquired by Patton Boggs on July 1. The addition will likely cement Patton Boggs’s top rank in upcoming quarters.’

That’s former Senator Breaux (D) and former Senator Lott (R). The ‘Boggs’ is Tommy Boggs, son of former Congresscritters Hale Boggs (D) and Lindy Boggs (D), and brother of Voice of the Crust Cokie Roberts (DD).

‘Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.’

Power Line is on the case.

After he graduated from Yale, Dayton taught ninth grade general science for two years in a New York City public school. He says  it was the toughest job he ever had; he even adds an exclamation point to the statement. I believe him, but the exclamation point is unnecessary. His other jobs have involved appointive or elective office where no heavy lifting is required.

Incidentally, Dayton also says of his teaching experience that “my conscience was seared by the terrible injustice that my students had so little, while I had been given so much; and I decided that I would devote my life to improving social equality and economic opportunity for all Americans.” Not by any creative philanthropy of his own, mind you, but rather by using his inherited millions to run for higher office where he could help take from some and give to others. It’s the Democratic way.

A poster child member of the Crust.

Read it.

During the year long ObamaCare debate, there was a spirited debate of the proposition that ObamaCare would cause rationing by the federal government of services and drugs.  Government rationed health care services and drugs have evolved from rhetoric to reality.

On July 28th, Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) raised drug rationing concerns, because of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pending decision to take the cancer drug Avastin off the list of approved drugs for breast cancer.   This example of rationing by the FDA of a drug to aid those with cancer is exactly what we should expect under an ObamaCare drug rationing regime.

Ruh-roh.

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As usual, our race-obsessed media has decided that the larger story to be derived from the recent slew of ethics charges against Democrats is that the members of Congress who have featured most prominently in the scandals, Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), were unfairly targeted because they are black. No one has produced any evidence to back up this accusation, nor have those making it stepped up to defend Rangel or Waters. Instead, they’ve insinuated that the ethical violations of white members are being ignored.

But there is a larger story to be derived from this story, and specifically from the case against Waters, that illustrates how such morbid racialism corrupts politics and politicians.

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Brings ‘tone-deaf’ to a whole new level.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with “wealthy clients in tony locations,” but isn’t it ironic that Waters — who militates constantly in the name of social justice to the poor — should get entangled in ethics charges over a bank that seems mainly to have been interested in helping the rich?

The Crust take care of their own, no matter the color.

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If Mike Castle becomes the next United States Senator from Delaware he is going to get sworn in, serve a bit, then become a Democrat, resign, and let Beau Biden get an appointment.

It’s a done deal. The deal has been made already. I’m hearing this not just from Christine O’Donnell people, but party regulars in Delaware, some of whom support Castle. It is insane.

And here’s another dirty little secret Mike Castle would prefer you not know. This election? It’s a special election. Whoever wins it gets sworn in immediately. Immediately as in prior to any lame duck session of Congress.

The Horror.

Read it.

For reasons I have never understood, some people think it would be a good idea to put the government in charge of their families’ health care. Most who favor government health care would admit that socialism, whenever and wherever it has been tried, has been not just a failure but a debacle. Still, they seem willing to give socialism a try where it matters the most.

It’s really quite simple. They want to get a service that somebody else ‘pays for’.

Steve Sailer connects the dots.

The population of the U.S. in 1980 was 227 million. In 2050, the Census Bureau forecasts it will be 439 million, with most of that growth due to immigration. By 2050, immigration will have made the U.S. about 150 million people more populous, or about 55% more. Thus, to reduce U.S. carbon emissions to any particular level, per capita emissions will have to be reduced about 35% more than if there had been no immigration.

And it’s not as if global emissions would be the same. People move to the U.S. from the Third World so they can afford a car, air conditioning, and the like. One plausible estimate is that Mexican immigrants emit four times as much carbon in the U.S. than if they had stayed home.

One of the most amusing aspects of Progressivism is that it includes a bizarre amalgam of special-interest groups whose positions are incompatible; the double-think required to get them all marching in the same direction toward the New World Order is one of the most amazing achievements of the Crust.

Moe Lane turns over a Really Big Rock.

DEMOCRATS DO NOT DRAIN SWAMPS.  That’s because swamps are wetlands, and thus must be protected by the full power of the federal government.

The Crust take care of their own.

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My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

The Crust take care of their own.

Read it.

Women are attracted to macho men and see modesty as a sign of evolutionary weakness, a study has shown.

Oh, as if anybody cares what they think….

Read it.

OK, this one is going to require a bit of background.  Short version: Ohio courts have just indicted a bunch of Democrats – some of whom have links to both Governor Strickland (D-OH) and Lt Governor Fisher (D-OH) – in a complicated real estate corruption case.  The word ‘tendrils’ comes to mind: stick around and you’ll see why.

Well, there’s that old Culture of Corruption that Nancy Pelosi is always on about. Of course, she’s talking about the Republicans, but, funny thing, the people getting indicted somehow all turn out to be Democrats. I guess it’s the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy that Hillary’s always on about. Knew the Republicans had to be in there somewhere.

Read it.

A woman was arrested and hauled to court for swearing at a group of youths after a brick was thrown through her window.

1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in California.

Read it.

Second, if BP was solely bowing to political pressure by assisting people it’s harmed, that would be one thing. But what it’s doing here is assisting people the Democrats have harmed, by a moratorium on offshore drilling by companies other than BP. In other words, the Democrats have used the leverage of fear of government to get BP to pay to cover up the damage caused by their own policies.

Third, consider this dynamic in the context of the vastness of BP (the company’s size is the only reason it hasn’t been run out of business by the spill). Other oil companies are big, too, but not everyone in the industry is on the same scale as BP, and equally able to buy off an angry government or weather the storm of the moratorium. This entire process of shaking down companies for political favor is designed with large corporations in mind – if you’re a smaller business, you’re not worth shaking down (or can’t afford the extra burdens of unionized workforces and heavy regulatory obligations on top of paying off politicians) and can be left to whither on the vine as collateral damage of insane economic policy.

That’s the way the Crust works, boys and girls.

Read it.

A useful reminder of what Communism is like on the ground.

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The Army investigated the incident and concluded that the soldiers had acted properly. Nevertheless, twice in the last seven years, Spain’s Supreme Court has overruled the National Court’s decision to drop the matter, and has ordered the National Court to pursue Sgt. Thomas Gibson, the tank sergeant who fired the shell, Captain Philip Wolford, who ordered the attack, and commanding officer Colonel Philip deCamp. What does Spain have to do with the 2003 incident? Absolutely nothing, but that country has assumed authority to pursue politically-motivated persecutions of anyone, anywhere in the world.

And Spain is considered an ally. Did we have a Real Government, it would put the hurts on Spain until it quit this horseshit. Unfortunately, all we have is a bunch of tax-and-spend kleptocrats. Sheesh.

Read it.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Whatever else he may be, Julian Assange is an enemy of the United States, and ought to be treated accordingly. If he had insulted Mohammed, he’d be dead already; unfortunately, the CIA is incompetent and the President is an arrested adolescent.

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That’s not really the question. The question is, why do beautiful women marry butt-ugly men? They can’t all be rich. Nothing is more common than seeing some really hot college-age babe walking around with a guy who doesn’t appear to have either showered or done laundry lately, much less combed his hair, and who doesn’t look as if he could pick his nose and scratch his butt at the same time but would be more than willing to try.

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I’ll be curious to know what the grounds of her suit might be, unless publishing a video of her talking racism is somehow actionable.

Funny how she’s not suing the Secretary of Agriculture, who panicked and fired her. Funny how she’s not suing the NAACP, who panicked and threw her under the bus even though they had all the information.

Read it.

Convenience for the Crust, the little people can go pound sand.

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Motorists face a £200 fine if they stray into specially designated “Games lanes reserved for competitors, officials and the media during the 2012 Olympics.

They could just do what they do over in the U.S. — call them ‘H.O.V.’ or ‘carpool’ lanes, and everybody would be good with it.