They'd Wreck America to Win a Single Election

The Democrats proposal to US stagnation: more identity politics, more regulation of business, more ammunition to trial lawyers. (HT: Instapundit.)

In effect the so-called Paycheck Fairness Act requires employers to perform some preliminary pretrial discovery for disgruntled female employees.

Let's not forget that Bush's Republicans federalized the Terry Schiavo matter.

Science Fraud on the Increase

Glenn Reynolds posts.

Also the distinctions among fraud, misconduct, shoddy research practices, and pseudoscience are getting blurred.

The notion, which appealed to me in my youth, that science operates in a higher untainted realm is no longer credible. Once upon a time one could think that although the hours were long and the pay was not competitive with professions that required less cognitive skill, a scientific career was free of sleazy grubbing after money and status. That illusion has vanished.

Summary of the 2012 Election?

Kipling:

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire.

I hope not, but it's astonishing that Obama is not fifteen points behind and dropping. A bad indication of the country's common sense.

Addendum. Now I'm really worried: Peggy Noonan is optimistic. Remember her fawning over Obama and, into an open mike, over that political titan, Kay Bailey Hutchison?

Interview with Bear Attack Survivor

Slate reports.

The most appalling thing is that wildlife officials received death threats for euthanizing a bear that devoured a human and attacked another.

An eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth attitude crossing my mind wrt those who made the threats. Poetic justice: when someone makes threats that are credible beyond a reasonable doubt, punish them with the very threat they wielded.

Will Obamacrats Stop Bungling?

Maybe.

The Crony-Capital Crowd Finds Another Way to Rip Off Future Generations

Not just rip them off, eliminate them. (HT: Instapundit.)

Secondary Consequence of Intellectual "Property"

Equating IP to actual property is meretricious on its face, but Reason points out another problem: it diminishes the already-weakened standing of actual property.

Harry Reid is Slime

This. (HT: Instapundit.)

Jeff Goldstein nails it.

Romney: Signs of Sapience

1. In contrast to McCain, Romney may understand that the media are his enemies.

2. Romney said the election is about 'jobs not dogs'. The right tone: bringing the focus back on the economy without alienating the base. McCain would have excoriated his supporters for daring to ridicule Obama.

America's IP Hypocrisy Is Even More Egregious Than I Thought

Forbes reports. The USA: intellectual "property" rights are for me, but not for thee.

The More the US Declines, the More Arrogant the Government Becomes

Foreign banks are renouncing American accounts. Francisca N. Mordi at the American Bankers Association:

"They're going to drop Americans like hot potatoes," Mordi says. "The foreign banks are upset enough about the regulations that they're saying they just won't keep American customers, and it's giving (Americans living abroad) a lot of sleepless nights."

Expats are renouncing their citizenship.

...I asked myself, 'What am I gaining as an American?' And the cons outweighed the pros."

The danger I mentioned in 2007 (here too) is increasing.

On the IRS's "name and shame" policy: As the ship of state takes on water, the officers and crew blame the fleeing rats.

As Instapundit keeps saying, what can't go on forever, won't.

As we draw ever closer to the edge, all I hear is blah blah Sarah Palin blah blah social justice blah blah Christian nation blah blah marriage equality blah blah blah blah blah.

Dog Whistle Malfunction

Hilary Rosen said that Ann Romney "never worked a day in her life." Her apologists are claiming that of course Rosen meant work outside the home and only Dumb Conservatives would take her statement otherwise.

My suspicion is that Rosen did mean outside the home but deliberately chose language which smeared Romney.

Advice for the GOP

Race and gender cards fill the air everywhere. The Democrats and Romney may bring us the nastiest, most divisive campaign since 1968 or 1972.

Why are the Democrats doing this? To distract from the economy, maybe hoping that today's anemic conditions may come to be accepted as normal.

How to respond? Simply changing the subject is better than nothing, but it moves the discourse in the direction of the screaming match that the Democrats want.

IMO the way to go is, first, to link the Left's issues to the economy. If the country were prospering, old scars would be fading, old wounds would be healing, and new wounds would not be created. A rising tide lifts all boats, said President Kennedy. Then hit the Democrats on their own issues. The Left, having made a bad economy worse, seek to win the election by exploiting the very problems they created. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

That approach seems promising. It minimizes the high risk of an effort to unseat an incumbent President: if the economy recovers, Obama will win no matter what; if the economy does not recover, Republicans are refuting Democrat demagoguery by highlighting the Left's greatest weakness. Trying to profit from problems you cause. There you go again.

The Derbyshire Firing

He is undergoing cancer therapy which may affect cognition. That makes the case different from Coulter's. The decent thing to do would have been to suspend him and discuss his status when he is recovered.

But that would require a spine.

Cf. my comment at National Review.

Timor Belli Conturbat Me

I commented:

Gradually taking shape is a war that will make WW2 seem like a schoolyard tussle. Sooner or later, in five years or fifty.

For some time I've meant to post this but Terri said it before I did.

Coca-Cola and Leftist Boycotts

Bill Jacobson reports that KO is withdrawing support to an organization that supports voter ID laws. The numbered statements below will be submitted as a comment.

1. Newsbusters notes that Color of Change is Soros-funded. It’s worth remembering that Media Matters is as well.

Warren Buffett's company owns almost 9% of Coke and is the largest single shareholder.

2. Coca-Cola to the Alinsky Left: We're being good, Mr. Crocodile. Please eat us last.

Not just Coca-Cola. Big Business is not necessarily interested in preserving free markets. On the contrary.

3. The capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with.

Lenin was wrong. They're donating the rope.

End of Fiscal Year Spending Spree

Here, here, and here. Civil servants exhaust their budgets at the end of the fiscal year so they can say they need a bigger budget during the next FY. Is Obama really so stupid that he is surprised by this? Does he believe that only he and Michelle are entitled to squander government money?

When I worked for a government contractor, my boss had his end-of-FY proposals ready well in advance. He understood that the sponsor would spend the leftover money no matter what but preferred to spend it on its mission.