Arnold Kling draws an historical parallel.

My guess is that in 1916, anyone who doubted his own ability to direct an enormous offensive involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers would never have made it to general. Similarly, today, anyone who doubts the ability of a handful of technocrats to sensibly allocate $800 billion would never make it into government or the mainstream media.

I sure hope he’s wrong.

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Well, that didn’t take long. Democrats are planning to kick off the legislative portion of the 111th Congress as early as today with two big donations to one of their most loyal retainers: the plaintiffs bar. Higher labor costs will result from a pair of bills designed to create new lawsuit possibilities in cases of alleged wage discrimination.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is an effort to overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber. Lilly Ledbetter had worked for Goodyear for almost 20 years before retiring. Only in 1998, after she took her pension, did she sue and allege wage discrimination stretching back to the early 1980s. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against her, noting the statute clearly said claims must be filed within 180 days, or sometimes 300 days, of the discrimination.

Hey, you dance with the one that brung you.

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It’s all my parents’ fault that I’m fat. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Lileks does demographics.

There’s something about the acidulous attitudes toward the ‘burbs that smacks of protracted adolescence. The universities are full of kids from comfy ‘burbs who revel in the excitement of living in ancient buildings held together only by termite excrement and accreted nicotine, because it’s so real.

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The horror.

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Heh.

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Heh.

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Much the most interesting thing I’ve seen in the New York Times in years.

An introduction to the most delightfully thought-provoking blog I know.

The basic premise of UR is that all the competing 20th-century systems of government, including the Western democracies which came out on top and which rule us to this day, are best classified as Orwellian. They maintain their legitimacy by shaping public opinion. They shape public opinion by sculpting the information presented to the public. As part of that public, you peruse the world through a lens poured by your government. Ie: you are pwned.

Except for a few unimportant institutions of non-mainstream religious affiliation, we simply do not see multiple, divergent, competing schools of thought within the American university system. The whole vast archipelago, though evenly speckled with a salting of contrarians, displays no factional structure whatsoever. It seems almost perfectly synchronized.

Whatever you make of the left-right axis, you have to admit that there exists some force which has been pulling the Anglo-American political system leftward for at least the last three centuries. Whatever this unfathomable stellar emanation may be, it has gotten us from the Stuarts to Barack Obama. Personally, I would like a refund. But that’s just me.

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Question: Who ought to have the authority to “approve” a genetically engineered animal? Note that the FDA is here approving, not the animal, but the drug the animal is allegedly engineered to produce. So if you’re not producing a drug, do you have to get anybody’s “approval”?

Joel Kotkin isn’t afraid to say what we’re all thinking.

The most obvious recent equivalent, Richard Nixon, did cause harm to the conservative cause, but that damage was short-lived. It reflected his deviousness more than his policies. Similarly, Bill Clinton’s many personality flaws weakened the Democrats’ hold on the White House, but inflicted no permanent harm to liberalism.

In contrast, the Katrina-scale disaster that has been the Bush presidency may leave his ideological backers in the wilderness for years to come. Over the past eight years, Bush has done more to undermine conservatism than all of the country’s college faculties, elite media and Hollywood studios put together.

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Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, no culture is superior to any other! Diversity is a good thing! Who are we to criticize!

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

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So much for “peak oil”. And, of course, in Saudi Arabia there aren’t any Democrats to stand in the way of drilling for that oil.

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

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

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Oh, yeah, China is a Commie dictatorship. Almost forgot.

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Funny how the favorite pastimes of the Frosting depend on the economic surplus generated by the efforts of the Cake. Must burn their buns real bad.

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I thought that these wierdos only lived in America.

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The course of true love doth ne’er run smooth.

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Better watch your step in Ohio.

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In case you were wondering. I know I was.

Of course, they don’t mention “drowning in left-wing bullshit”, since that would be giving the game away….

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Question: What makes this group a “church”, other than the fact that it calls itself one? Is it a “church” only in the same sense that Bill Clinton was “the first black President”?

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Government action is urgently needed to address this monstrous injustice!

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Send some pizza to Israeli soldiers, who are on the front lines defending civilization against Islam.

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This illustrates quite well the general Democrat approach to law: Laws only apply if the Democrat in question agrees with it.

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But Sea Salt is like Trader Joes, Banksy, or The Shins-entry level to their respective field.  Therefore, it is important that you learn about other more expensive salts so that you can complain about not having them.  To a white person, this shows that you know and love expensive things but feel sad that you can’t yet afford them.

I have never known a White Person who was not a food snob. Preference for sea salt is an essential component thereof.

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No one is safe where Muslims live. No one.

No one.

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Wouldn’t mind having one of these — and I haven’t ridden a bike since, oh, 1968.

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Other than the war and some tax cuts, I don’t see much difference between George Bush’s administration and your typical Democrat’s – Bill Clinton, say. He certainly hasn’t done much to lessen government interference in our daily lives.

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What’s sauce for Harry Reid….

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Think about that one for a while.

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And why is that? Could it be high malpractice insurance coupled with low insurance reimbursement rates and semi-slave labor conditions for residents?

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My question is, where was “my friend Natalie” while all this was going on?

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Gotta love Australians.

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Waitress Maria Murray, 41, had warned her children that was unlikely to be able to buy them Christmas presents before winning £1million on a £5 Merry Millions scratchcard.

And there it is.

The father of her children, mechanic Tim Hunt, 48, has reportedly told friends he would like a share of the jackpot.

I’m sure he would.

But lawyers are said to have advised Miss Murray that she owes him nothing since they split up over a year ago.

Ha!

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Or don’t. Your choice. I haven’t watched television since they took FIREFLY off, and I can’t say that I’ve missed it.

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

But hey, that’s what the world is like outside of the bright shining very small bubble we call Western Civilization. And, if Chicago is any evidence, it’s gnawing at the door, trying to get in.

Just sayin’.

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Quite frankly, I don’t blame him.