“One Little Hour”

NPR – wonders will never cease – delves into the motives of doctors who gave Hassan a pass.

What’s next!? A news story critical of Obama?

Andrew Curry wrote an excellent article on the boardgame Settlers of Catan for Wired Magazine. Really good stuff and not just because I am a Settlers afficianado; he uses an article about a boardgame to touch on trends in the gaming industry and to provide insights into German culture, psychology, and economics.

Justin Taylor posted an eight minute video that investigates the meaning of the prosperity gospel to West Africans. I like the cinematographic choices: long clips of services with sparse narration. I also appreciate the humble tone in the conclusion.

Check out this article. This paragraph is particularly interesting:

Peter Bjerregaard from Denmark’s National Institute of Public Health has noted that while Greenland’s suicide problem began in 1970, almost all the deaths involved people born after 1950—the same year that Greenland began its transformation from remote colony to welfare state, as the Danes resettled residents to give them modern services and tuberculosis inoculations. Hicks, the Canadian researcher, said the correlation is present in other Inuit societies as well.

This is what you get when you too-rapidly transform communal norms, traditions, and institutions. Conservatives rejoice!

George Will and Charles Krauthammer both took Obama’s foreign policy decisions to task this weekend in the Washington Post.

I’m surprised that Will didn’t insinuate that Obama has pushed off the Afghanistan decision because it will fracture his party at a time when he needs the Democrats unified around healthcare. If true, Obama may be sacrificing success in Afghanistan in order to screw with American healthcare policy.

Funny that we’re less than a year into Obama’s term and we’re already printing “Don’t blame me. I voted for McCain” bumperstickers. It took at least two years for Bush!

…I’m just going to have to change my stance towards Manuel Zelaya. After all, “his throat is sore from toxic gases and “Israeli mercenaries” are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.”

I rarely laugh out loud at work, but this article elicited some good humor.

Obviously Zelaya has an over-active imagination, but I find it interesting that he chose to blame “Israeli mercenaries.” He could’ve chosen Chavez’s favorite whipping boy, America. But instead he chose to blame the Jews.

This is a relatively insignificant example of widespread anti-semitic sentiment among various leftist movements in Latin and South America. It doesn’t get reported by the MSM, but some of these guys are good ol’ fashioned Protocols of the Elders of Zion-style racists. You know the type, all foaming at the mouth about Jewish financiers who purposefully destroyed the global economy.

[Add. 10/5/09] – Looks like I’m not the only one who noticed.

George Will just wrote a scathing blast against Obama’s tire tariff decision.

Wow. God, could I have a double portion of what he has please?

ACORN, an advocacy group for community organizers, has become a big news item recently. They are being investigated for financial fraud as well as filing fake voter registrations for Mickey Mouse and the roster of the Dallas Cowboys.

I actually encountered an ACORN registration worker during the last presidential campaign. A young, cheerful 20-something rang my door bell and asked if I had registered to vote. I had not since moving to Pennsylvania and so I filled out the form that he provided. While filling it out Jay, the ACORN guy, asked if I wanted to see change in American politics. Apparently my grunt signaled agreement so Jay asked who I was planning to vote for come November 2nd. I told him John McCain. He asked if I really wanted to support someone who wanted to leave American troops in Iraq for “a hundred years.” I noted that the immediate context of that quote changed McCain’s intended meaning significantly. Jay promptly shook my hand and said goodbye.

Fast forward two months to two weeks before November 2nd. I still have not received my registration card. So I register in person. A week later my card comes in the mail.

Perhaps my cynicism is misplaced, but I suspect that if I had said I was voting for Obama my registration might not have gotten lost. Just a suspicion.

The Obama administration has escalated US intervention in Hondura’s defense of their constitutional democracy. We have thrown in with the lot of Hugo Chavez to do our best to force Honduras to accept its deposed President despite new analysis which shows that the Honduras operated constitutionally in removing said President from power.

Apparently Obama’s low opinion of constitutional procedure isn’t limited by national borders…

[Addendum 9/23]: The WSJ deserves a prize. If violence worsens in Honduras, they called the blood on Obama’s hands well in advance.

[Addendum 10/14]: Go Jim DeMint!

Democrats like to think of themselves as advocates for the downtrodden. They look out for the proverbial little guy who is menaced by big business, an exploitative free market, and callous conservatives. Thus the folks-formerly-known-as-downtrodden have traditionally voted for the Democratic Party in exchange for promises of government largesse.

Obama stirred similar expectations among supporters during his campaign. The video of an Obama-ite, Peggy Joseph, announcing that Obama would pay for her gas and cover her mortgage was a big hit on youtube. Unfortunately, Obama has so far only managed to hurt the financial prospects for most poor Americans (myself included).

First, the Obama administration backed the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Whatever the environmental or macroeconomic effects of “Cash for Clunkers” (and I would argue that they are harmful), one clear consequence of the program is to raise the cost of purchasing and maintaining a used vehicle. Cars that once would have been resold in the used car market are now removed from supply. Used car parts which once were mailed all over country to make car repairs more affordable are also no longer in supply. The end result is higher prices for used cars and higher repair bills for used cars. Since used cars are owned in disproportion by poorer Americans, the Cash for Clunkers program is essentially a regressive tax on the poor.

Second, on Friday Obama drastically increased the import tariff on Chinese-made tires. We don’t yet know the full effect of the resulting trade war on American exports (though it will undoubtably be bad), but we do know the consequences for poor Americans. The tires that are imported from China have been sold under a number of American brands like Cooper and Goodyear. These Chinese made tires typically fill out the cheapest tier of tires which are marketed to budget conscious consumers. The increased tariff will make these cheap tires significantly more expensive. So not only are used cars more expensive, but the cheap tires that most poor Americans choose are more expensive as well. (It is worth noting as well, that since Obama approved this tariff increase in order to get labor union support for healthcare reform he has given the lie to his campaign promise to change the way Washington works.)

Third, I should mention proposed legislation that could hurt poor Americans. If the House-approved Cap and Trade bill passes the Senate energy prices will skyrocket. Since poor Americans spend a disproportionate amount of their income on utility bills, higher energy prices will act as a regressive tax.

With all this in mind, it is hard for me to believe that low income voters still overwhelmingly approve of Obama’s handling of the Presidency. If I were a Marxist I’d have some choice words about false consciousness!

[Add. 10/6/09] – The verdict on Cash for Clunkers is in. We are poorer as a result.