Mickey Kaus has an interesting take on the media and the housing crisis: When prices go up, that’s a bad thing, because it’s a “bubble” (Oh, no!) and housing is less “affordable” (Oh, no!). Yet when prices go down, that’s a bad thing too, because the economy is “suffering” (Oh, no!) and a lot of people can’t cash out the way they wanted to (Oh, no!). What’s a mother to do?

Read it. Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

Read it.

Read it.

Read it. Not a bad trick.

Steve Sailer takes a look at cultural anthropology, which appears to have fallen out of fashion.

Read it. Don’t remember being abducted by aliens? Well, then, you must have repressed it.

The researchers then offered a $1,000 reward—posted in three languages on more than 30 Internet websites and discussion groups—to the first person to identify a case of dissociative amnesia in any work of fiction or nonfiction prior to 1800. They received more than 100 responses, but none met the “repressed memory” criteria. Although many early texts describe ordinary forgetfulness caused by natural biological processes, as well as instances of individuals forgetting happy memories and even their own identities, there were no accounts of an inability to recall a traumatic experience at one point and the subsequent recovery of that memory.

In other words, it’s pseudo-scientific bullshit. And yet there are people in jail even as we speak because of it.

Yaacov ben Moshe looks at the left through the eyes of Basil Fawlty. It is not a pretty sight.

It is sad because it causes so much harm. The Basil Fawlty governments of the west who simply can’t force themselves to bring up the subjects of Palestinian bad faith, mis-management and terror as thy keep pouring aid into Palestinian Authority in spite of the proven correlation between that aid and terrorism aimed at innocent Israelis is a perfect example.

Oh, say it ain’t so….

It should come as no surprise that members of the honor-shame culture of Caliphate Islam are subject to this kind of tantrum. This is what honor-shame is all about. They will win the upper hand by any means that they think will work. They are, emotionally labile and see honor as a mere matter of having the upper hand. They are, by definition, The People of the Tantrum.

Read it. And go have that double cheeseburger you’ve been thinking about. It’s for the children.

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

Read it. The Washington Post, criticizing corruption in a government, even a foreign government, not run by Republicans? Mark your calendars.

Could Cuba be next? (Hint: Naw.)

Read it. And Pat Buchanan is loving it.

Read it.

Before we let Uncle Sam into our kitchens, at school or at home, these questions deserve some exploration.

Indeed. Bet you don’t find any Democrats asking those questions.

Read it. Well, if civilians are stupid enough to go into a war zone — no: If civilians are stupid enough to hang around areas controlled by Hezbollah, then I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them. Think of it as evolution in action.

Read it. Richard Cohen is perhaps a stereotypical Brahmin “journalist” — good at feeling your pain and that of the other “little guys” out there, but not good for much else; certainly not good at drawing the obvious conclusion, that the corruption of D.C. and other large behavioral-sink cities is a direct outgrowth of their being controlled by the modern Democratic Party, whose approach to politics differs from that of the late Soviet Union in no discernable particular.

Read it. China’s traditional culture eventually swallows everything. It worked with the Mongols, it worked with the Manchus, and it’s working with Communism.

Read it. The really puzzling thing about terrorists is that they target their friends as often as their enemies.

Read it. Imagine what American politics would be like if we had tribes.

Imagine what Iraqi politics would be like if they didn’t.

That’s basically the difference between the First World and the Third World.

Read it. “You can make a mainframe/from the things you find at home….”

Read it. Then go look up “pander” in the dictionary. Also “dissimulation”, “hypocrisy”, and “meretricious”. Take whatever action you think is appropriate.

Read it. A year of Democrat control of Congress and no tax increase? I call that a win for the American people.

Read it. That’s so John Edwards can sue somebody when it all goes wrong. Note the picture. These guys are all in it together.

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

Read it. Yet another attempt by “progressives” to sweep an issue under the rug by making it a ThoughtCrime.

Steve Sailer ponders why people don’t want to live in the most pleasant place in the country.

Steve Sailer draws an interesting parallel.

Read it. The times, they are a-changin’.

George Will points out that Congress is possibly the most worthless institution in the country.

Read it. The unasked question, of course, is: Who cares? Who, outside the pigs at the federal tax money trough, give a shit about the FEC? Has it ever done anything about illegal campaign practices, other than “fine” campaigns after the fact and after the damage (if damage there be) is done? If there were ever a poster child for expensive but ineffectual government action, the FEC is it.

Read it. And how successful will they be, with terrorists blowing themselves up IN MOSQUES, eh?

Of course, it would not be necessary to “ignore and forget war” if they would step up to the plate and expel the warmongers from among themselves. But apparently that’s too much like work.

And, of course, you would find the slightest glimmer of such a sentiment in an article in the Washington Post, oh no.

Know your enemy.

Read it. Ross Douthat comments on the New Orleans public housing protests.

Read it. A review of the new Nicholas Cage “National Treasure” movie.

A long, long way from “Valley Girl”, eh?

Read it. That would take balls; has Bush got ’em? The historical evidence is mixed.

Read it. Hint: It’s probably not you.

Thus in a generous accounting the rich get 26% of the benefits of federal spending and pay 68.7% of the costs.  In percentage terms the rich get about 37 cents on the dollar.

Read it.

Read it. Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

Andrew Ferguson is an excellent writer. Even if you don’t care about National Review or William F Buckley Jr, and many don’t, this review is worth reading just for the reading of it.

Read it. Let me get this straight: Our teacher-education system is crappy, so the answer is to pay people to go through more of it? I don’t see how this solves the problem.

“What we’re really trying to do is to dignify the teaching profession and give it status,” Levine said.

Which is, please note, a different thing than getting people involved in the profession who will dignify teaching and give it status. This is, in short, just putting lipstick on the pig.

The performance of high school students taught by the fellows will be tracked to gauge whether the program makes a difference.

And you can believe as much or as little of that as you care to. Prediction: Either the tracking will show that it doesn’t, in fact, help, but more money will be thrown at it anyway on the grounds that the fact that it doesn’t work proves that it’s underfunded; OR they’ll massage the numbers to show that it does work even though it doesn’t.

“It clearly calls attention to teaching as a profession in a way that accords it some prestige,” Pianta said. “What this gives us is another way to attract the best and brightest.”

Let’s face it, “the best and the brightest” don’t want to work in “high-needs schools”; no amount of money is worth your life.

Oh, and good luck trying to persuade people who are barely literate and numerate, and whose goal in life is to be the next bling-bedecked rapper, to study math and science. Yeah, that’s really going to work.

Read it. The problem with that is, that most people who read the Washington Post on a regular basis think that any person who wants to own a firearm is ipso facto mentally ill, so it’s difficult to see in what way this isn’t just another end-run around the Second Amendment.

Read it. So tell me: What does the U.S. gain from having Arabs study in this country? Hm?

Does it create more Arab friends for America abroad? Doesn’t seem to.

Does it give us lower prices for oil? Doesn’t seem to, even though half of the Saudi royal family went to USC.

Let them go blow up Australians for a change. Only the Washington Post would weep.

Read it. Well, I guess that’ll stop now that they’re officially foreigners.

Read it. Marvelous news.
Although not in Takoma Park, Maryland, which has officially declared itself a “nuclear free zone” — as if anybody cared. (Since TP is a suburb of DC, though, it would be amusing were some jihadis to ring the uranium bell there on the day. Just putting everything in perspective, like.)

Read it. It’s not waterboarding, but it’s about as close as a civilian can get.

Read it.

Read it. Good luck to ’em, I say. Of course, we used to call those “sails”.

Read it. I guess we’d better watch out.

Read it.

Read it. This could be very weird.

Read it. Devolution — with a vengeance.