The International House of Bacon

All while dreaming of GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii…

* I’ve said all that needs to be aid about Wright at this point, I’m just glad the left is finally waking up on this. Kinda.

* Evidence that gas price predictions are completely useless.

* From the Club for Growth, the economics of panhandling.

* Barack Obama wants to raise capital gains taxes? Here’s a likely scenario if that occurs. And McCain is allegedly the one without economic knowledge?

* The Supreme Court upheld a voter ID requirement. I’m not against this, and I’m surprised that it was upheld, moreso that Stevens came on board with it. A voter ID is free in Indiana, which aids in the situation, but as long as the state doesn’t put any roadblocks up in terms of ability to get a voter ID (i.e., money or transportation issues), I see no reason why we shouldn’t require it.

* Unexpectedly funny shopping bags from Oddee, one of the more fun blogs out there.

* Free Tibet flags made in China. The jokes write themselves.

* I have to laugh at how organized the Ron Paul people are even at this stage of the game. This may be the bite in the rear end the GOP needs to rekindle its roots a bit.

* Child services removes kid from father’s custody after he mistakenly gives his son a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. I wish this was a joke, it’s completely pathetic.

* Harkening back to yesterday’s question, a Pennsylvania Wal-Mart cannot sell generic prescription drugs for less than $9 or it will violate anti-trust regulations. Who are they helping here, exactly?

* I’m not a fan of McCain’s health care plan. While it’s a step in the right direction, it’s not enough to really make a legitimate impact at this point. In situations where the health insurance is costing upwards of $1000/month combined employer/employee, a $5000 tax credit isn’t going to make a difference and isn’t going to change the employer/employee relationship. McCain’s been a pleasant surprise economically thus far, but he’s not quite there yet on health care.

* Is Jimmy Carter our worst ex-President? I’m starting to wonder.

* Finally, GraniteGrok on governmental disdain for citizen-approved budget votes. It’s a cool quirk of the New Hampshire system in some places that we get to vote on the budget - and thus make it easier to say “no!” to worthless increases. Naturally, town officials are appalled by the activity, and accuse the townspeople of not knowing what they’re doing. Classy.

1) My current annoyance, outside of the fact that all the rechargeable batteries I have for the Wii and XBox controllers seem to want to die around the same time, is that the Wii Bluetooth has got to be the most inconsistent technological advancement in the current generation of systems. Syncing controllers is consistently a pain in the rear end, never works the same way twice, and always makes for interesting startups. It might just be me, but it’s really, really annoying.

2) We picked up Mario Kart Wii today, because when you own a system that only has 5 great games, you make sure you pick them up as soon as possible. Honestly? The Wiimote controls are difficult and literally painful, the Wii Wheel is ridiculous and I don’t use it after trying once race (and I then sold it on Amazon for $10, which boggles my mind), the handling on even the most highly-rated carts is incredibly hard, and they’ve made turbo sliding very tough. With that said, it’s still Mario Kart, and that means it’s pretty much awesome. Playing it online is probably the best part, and once I can get my controllers to sync up again, I’ll post my friend code. So I like it - a lot more than Brawl, not as much as Galaxy.

3) I beat Blue Dragon a couple weeks ago, which was nice. I think it’s the first game (outside of You Have To Burn the Rope) that I’ve played and beated in quite a long time. The ending was decent, I suppose. What was interesting to me, however, is the relative impossibility of some of the achievements. Yes, I’m an achievement whore, but not nearly enough of one to, say, rent a game just to bump my score up or play through another 40 hours to make sure I kill every last enemy in a role playing game that doesn’t allow you to skip cinematics. I have to say, the game was a blast and achievements are fun, but there’s very little chance of me going back to get 1000 points on that one.

4) Speaking of very little chance of getting 1000 achievement points, I finally decided to try my hand at Eternal Sonata. What a disappointment this game is to me early on! It takes the more annoying parts of Tales of Symphonia, ties in a storyline that’s boring me to tears, and either makes the battles way too easy or way too difficult, with no significant ease of leveling up that I’ve found yet. For those of you who have played it - does it improve? Is there hope?

5) Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Honestly? After a few days with it, it’s not really all that amazing to me. If GameStop is still offering $35 for it + 20% for Grand Theft Auto IV, I might actually jump at that. The game isn’t bad per se as much as it ended up not being that interesting to me, and many of the levels make the characters so small that it’s hard to play, and the solo “Subspace Emissary” mission is really, really poor compared to the solo mission on Melee. Color me disappointed.

6) I admit it - Viva Pinata is strangely fun.

7) Rainbow Six Vegas is good, too. I only play it multiplayer when I can catch up with Rick or Mark, because the solo is too hard and I do too much Team Fortress-style “run in with guns blazing” stuff, but I never thought I’d like a game like that, and I do.

I think that’s it for now.

* A great interview with Antonin Scalia on 60 Minutes last night. I’m a big Scalia fan, even if I don’t agree 100% with his brand of originalism, but this interview gives a good idea as to how thoughtful he is as opposed to the public perception.

* The growing cigarette black market in Massachusetts. I’d say “what are they thinking,” but that implies there’s any serious thought going on at the state level of government in Massachusetts.

* Power Line covers another source of discomfort with me regarding McCain. It has nothing to do with him criticizing the President and everything to do with his apparent acceptance of how opponents of the right perceive the right - note to McCain: being like Teddy Roosevelt isn’t really something to embrace. In a way, it’s a decent campaign tool - use the names of revered Americans to try and counter the more insane quarters of the left when securing the center, but it’s obviously at the extent of the solid right, the ideological base that needs more solidification at this point. It’s especially infuriating when he can have that and this in the same campaign cycle.

* There’s only one word I can use to describe this post: Yes.

* Joystiq’s Mario Kart Retrospective. I haven’t played about half of these, actually.

* 10 reasons the superdelegates should pick Clinton.

* Finally, this must have been uncomfortable.

Still not finding the time to write everything I want to write, both personally and politically. Go figure.

* A fairly chilling (for me, anyway) column about the FLDS raid has been linked all over the place. It kind of brings into focus what’s being faced at this point - over 400 kids being removed from their homes based on an anonymous, and probably false, tip. The pregnant and married 16 year olds can technically exist under Texas law, and the immediate danger of the younger ones or the males of the group are completely without evidence at this point. This isn’t to say that there aren’t some legitimate dangers to the sort of fundamentalism that has occurred in some of these extreme sects, or that there may actually be some problems, but evidence matters, no? The problem is the cultish aspect/perception, I think, even if some in charge might not admit it. A good analogy is here.

* To steal a line from the 2004 election, Obama was for the gas tax holiday before he was against it. Apparently, we’re not yet at extraordinary circumstances, even though gas is three times as high as it was when he voted for it initially.

* Humans on the brink of extinction 70000 years ago? Interesting.

* Drew Carey on a subject near and dear to my heart: the right to sell bacon. Okay, in all seriousness (or should I say “frankly”), it’s more about basic economic rights (psst, paft), but you can take my bacon-wrapped hot dog from my cold, dead hands.

* EconLog on basic fiscal reality.

Yay Friday!

* It appears that Obama and Clinton are just as misguided on vaccines as McCain is. Great.

* I don’t know what was more puzzling about the ruling in Virginia v. Moore yesterday: the fact that it came out the way it did, or the fact that it was unanimous. Sigh.

* Citizen justice at its finest.

* It had to happen at some point: White Stuff People Like. For the record, mayonnaise is gross.

* Obama discusses how he’s not into the negative campaigning. He then changes his mind 30 minutes later. How lovely.

* You can also write a breakup letter to Hillary Clinton here.

* An awesome list for baseball junkies: retired numbers, who has them, and some information on why. Pretty cool.

* A fun gallery of World War I propaganda posters.

Gah!

So the “pick 7 songs you’re addicted to” thing is going around, and it’s been a while since I’ve done a music post, so why not:

1) What Made Milwaukee Famous - “Sultan” (video): I talked about this a bit last time, but I’m still pretty much completely obsessed with this song. Ultra-poppy, and it turns out the video is fun, too. The rest of the CD is pretty decent as well, but “Sultan” really does the trick.

2) Flight of the Conchords - “Rhymnocerous v. Hiphopapotamus”(mp3): I’m a big Flight of the Conchords fan back when I saw some HBO/Comedy Central special. The series is excellent as well, and they’re pretty great musically. The humor sticks around long after the novelty wears off (see: “Business Time”) and this song in particular still cracks me up.

3) R.E.M. - “Man-Sized Wreath” (video): If I had to choose one song off of Accelerate that I like more than the rest, it’s “Man-Sized Wreath.” Hugely addictive chorus, the song gets right to the point, it’s nearly flawless.

4) Los Campesinos - “You! Me! Dancing!” (mp3): I resisted this song for quite a while, and I’m not sure why, in retrospect. The intro is kind of weak, but the song itself is very fun and somewhat different than the other things I’ve been hearing lately.

5) Colin Meloy - “The Engine Driver (live) (stream): This was easily one of my favorite songs off of Picaresque, and that it comes from what may be the only live album in my collection that contains songs recorded at a show I was at is kind of cool for me, too. “The Engine Driver” was not one of them, but I remembered loving his solo version anyway. If you’re not into the Decemberists, I’m not sure this will convince you otherwise, but it’s still a great version.

6) She & Him - “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” (mp3): Another one of those songs I talked about a while back, but is still haunting me in mysterious ways. I don’t know what it is about this song that I love, exactly, but the point is that it’s absolutely infectious and I think it’s really awesome. So there.

7) The Motion Sick - “Satellite” (mp3): Excuse the mp3 intro on this one, it’s the only semi-legit mp3 I could find. Regardless, this song is just fun - a rare song that catches me lyrically and musically, and the rest of the disc is great, too. Gotta love it.

While dealing with wisdom tooth drama…

* Pennsylvania forces the Democratic primary to keep going another month, surprise surprise. Most telling stat from the exit polls? One in four Clinton voters would decline to vote for Obama if he’s the nominee, many switching to McCain. I’m sure that number will decline if Obama’s the nominee and the general campaign begins, but in a closely contested matchup, a 3% swing in either direction would make a huge difference.

* Someone’ll have to explain to the Truthers that Al Queda is working for the United States government. Or Mossad. Or something.

That’s all I’ve got today, actually. Slow day, I suppose, post-Pennsylvania…

If the videos are dead by the time this posts, all the candidates were on WWE Raw last night. Uh, yeah…

Thanks to Bull for this one.

…while being annoyed by the Bruins…

* Obama dropped out of the 27 April debate “couldn’t agree to terms” on a debate originally planned for the end of the month. Not that he necessarily has to debate anymore, or that it would actually do much for him if he did have to, but the timing is really classic, is it not? EDIT: Technically, saying Obama dropped out of the debate is incorrect, so I’ve fixed it for the sake of accuracy. I think we all know what the story is, though.

* McCain is taking public funding. Knock against him, for sure, but how else will he catch up?

* PowerLine on the problems with the McCain temperament issue. Putting aside this single-source/no-source reporting we’re getting from the press as of late, is there even any evidence that this is a continuing issue?

* A good read from Reason regarding the inevitable Supreme Court vacancies. I don’t agree with all of it, but it’s an interesting look at one of the more important issues coming up.

* A great column on the ethanol folly.

* It’s not a perfect op-ed y any stretch, but this post on ways the environmental movement has hurt people is still interesting enough for a look.

* The war on passive drinking. When will it end?

Back to the inevitable Bruins loss…

Submitted as further evidence that I can never, ever figure out what it is that will rile people up, the abortion issue reared its ugly head on Friday/over the weekend in an unexpected way - what I felt was an interesting battle between a believed-to-be-infalliable Pope and a great example of Western treatment of religion devolved into Just Another Abortion Debate.

I don’t typically discuss abortion for a number of reasons:

a) Everything that could possibly be said about abortion has been said anyway, and I’m highly unlikely to change anyone’s mind on it based on that fact alone.
b) My position on the matter inevitably pleases no one.
c) The issue is way too important to some people, and I don’t like wading in those waters.
d) It’s so hyper-politicized that it’s not worth diving into anyway.

A lot of the discussion ended up being over my statement of being “pro-abortion.” Regardless of what Webster might have to say about it, I feel there’s a precise difference between being “pro-abortion” and “pro-choice: - the former is a statement of being for a political issue, much like people are “pro-gun” or “pro-religion” or “pro-Israel,” while the latter is a statement of the act (in this case, of “choosing” to have an abortion).

I’m not a fan of abortion or abortion rights. I recognize the necessity of them not because of some reproductive rights motive, but rather because the alternative (illegal abortion) is more dangerous. In my mind, it’s better to do everything in our abilities to discourage that choice than to simply paint ourselves into a corner where suddenly we’re forced to say that a 14 year old can get an abortion without speaking to her parents, but not take an aspirin for a headache. It creates a ridiculous rhetorical situation which then bleeds over into public policy in ways that perhaps even most abortion rights supporters might not be entirely comfortable with (and not that it’s a problem in itself - I’m in support of legalizing heroin even though it makes me very uncomfortable).

The best reason (for me, at least) to stick with “pro-abortion” is that it’s simple - I’m in favor of political abortion. I then don’t get caught up in the rhetoric about choice, as it’s not a factor, and no one can pull the opposite on me like folks do regarding people who are “pro-life” and “pro-death penalty” - i.e., they’re only for life when it’s the unborn. After all, the “pro-choice” people - where does the line of choice end for you? If anyone can do anything they want to themselves, is there a line to draw? It’s kind of a weasely political point to make, so I try to avoid it, but most “pro-choice” people have their limits to what kind of “choice” is allowable, and it’s quite easier and more exact to avoid that altogether - especially since I’m generally for any choice that doesn’t unavoidably hurt another human being.

Plus, as a male, the situation gets dicier - although we account for 50% of the creation of the unborn, we’re delegated to the sidelines for 100% of the pregnancy duration, but cannot opt out once the child is born. It’s dangerous for me to even mention this - the typical response usually ranges from “you want control over a woman’s body” to “you just want to have all the sex with none of the responsibility,” neither of which is even close to the truth. However, it falls right back into the thought of choice for me but not for thee - one can choose to abort over the wishes of a father, but a father cannot “abort” once the child is born.

Essentially, where I’m going with this? It’s a huge, huge mess. Roe v. Wade, in my mind, only makes the situation worse, being a poor ruling that ends up dividing the nation in ways that go beyond abortion rights. I tend to avoid it, and I plan on continuing to avoid it once this post heads into the darkness. But the reasons why I am what I am on the issue should be made as clear as possible, given the apparent confusion.

I had more to go on about than just this issue, but this got plenty long enough.

* So the FLDS tipster? Apparently, just some woman from Colorado. This sort of thing really pisses me off. In retrospect so much didn’t add up and now look what’s happening. Are the one or two hits they might make on this enough to justify the situation in reality? I dunno. Interesting aside - the accused hoaxer? Pledged Obama delegate.

* This article at Reason was a little eye-opening to me, and might explain why Obama’s connections to Wright/Rezko/Ayers don’t seem to matter to Democrats. Makes sense in a way, even if I disagree.

* Damn Interesting on Operation Pastorius. Cool history story of the day.

* A couple interesting posts at Volokh about a recent overturn of a sex offender registry law that was based in post-New Deal jurisprudence on interstate commerce. The law, which required sex offenders to register when they crossed state lines, was overturned as it had nothing to do with interstate commerce. If there’s anything I’d love to see, it’d be that we go back to a basic concept of what interstate commerce actually means as opposed to the whole “if X crosses state lines, it’s commerce” concept we currently deal with.

* Obama taking nods from Jay-Z. I’ll give Obama credit - he is “with it.”

* The story of a Wisconsin town, an anonymous blogger, and the police attempting to harass him. Really crazy stuff.

* Global warming? Voters don’t care. Meanwhile, another huge oil field is discovered, this time in Brazil, and I paid $3.29/gallon yesterday.

* A great piece on the debate last week:

Debates are held not just to learn the details of the candidates’ health care plans — which given the complexity of the issue will probably be considerably altered if they are ever actually put on the table — but also to learn who the candidates are. And that includes learning about which guys who live in their neighborhood they chose to befriend.

* Jimmy Carter: “When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.” While I know what he was getting at here…

* I’m not a big Karl Rove fan, but he absolutely destroyed MSNBC and 60 Minutes over the weekend.

* Barack Obama’s costly Senate bill. It’d be nice for someone in power to stand up against this…

* It’s been 10 years since El Salvador moved to a private social security system, to excellent results. Why can’t we have that here?

Happy Patriots Day! Go Bruins!

Ignoring the fingergate controversy because someone like Obama could never stoop to that level…

* Not that I’m one for pimping my own work, but my ideology post from this morning (LJ link might help some newcomers understand where I’m coming from, generally speaking.

* So, Pelosi took communion at the Papal mass today, even though the Pope has essentially said that pro-abortion types shouldn’t take communion. I mean, yeah, there’s more than a little arrogance to defy the Pope when he’s standing right there, but this is also a great example of the American (and perhaps Western) mindset when it comes to religion. I suppose it’s annoying to no one but the religious and me, though.

* I can’t decide what’s better: A college masculinist group, or the fact that their charter has a detailed section regarding calling Shenanigans.

* Interesting story about the sinking of the Titanic, with new scholarship.

* The Wall Street Journal pretty much eviscerates Obama on the capital gains issue:

As the nearby chart shows, when the tax rate has risen over the past half century, capital gains realizations have fallen and along with them tax revenue. The most recent such episode was in the early 1990s, when Mr. Obama was old enough to be paying attention. That’s one reason Jack Kennedy proposed cutting the capital gains rate. And it’s one reason Bill Clinton went along with a rate cut to 20% from 28% in 1997.

Either the young Illinois Senator is ignorant of this revenue data, or he doesn’t really care because he’s a true income redistributionist who prefers high tax rates as a matter of ideological dogma regardless of the revenue consequences. Neither one is a recommendation for President.

It also covers how Obama is either outright lying or is generally unserious about his pledge to not raise taxes for people under a certain income threshold. One of the best pieces of mainstream opinion journalism I’ve seen about Obama yet.

* Elephant 6 band The Minders are no more. I never got to see them, either - a shame.

* FiveThirtyEight discusses the recent SurveyUSA numbers for Obama v. McCain. This is why Obama’s getting hurt by issues like Wright - even though they don’t show up in the Democratic numbers (which is really a scary concept in itself), they do head to head:

As you can see, Obama’s win percentage against John McCain has declined to its lowest ever number, 41.4%, which leaves him essentially tied with Hillary Clinton, who is presently at 40.2%. When we began this project, the polls indicated that Obama was at a hair over 60% to win an election against John McCain; that number has now fallen by more than 20 points.

That’s a 20 point swing in this indicator since the beginning of March - the Wright issue reared its ugly head midway through March. Also, this SurveyUSA poll was taken before the whole “bitter” controversy came about, and before the debate earlier this week. It’ll be interesting to see how this works out.

* An interesting study suggests that it’s cheaper to treat an illness than prevent it. I.E., one in four high cholesterol, overweight people will have a heart attack, but we treat them all the same preventatively. It’s an interesting study in the context of the health care debate, which focuses so much on preventative care.

Yay weekend!

I’ve had a pile of smaller posts that I can’t expand upon much further, so an omnibus might be better. Yeah.

1) If there’s anything that Adam’s rabble-rousing has positively done as of late, it’s gotten me to think a little more about ideology, and my personal positions on the matter. I’ve spent some time on my voting practices, but it doesn’t really address myself at all.

I’ve kind of fashioned myself a Goldwaterian conservative for lack of a better term - after all, he’s a pretty stand-up figure, people generally know who he is, and it’s a good contrast from neoconservatism or Bush-style big-government conservatism. The problem with that is that it’s a little vague and a little inaccurate. After all, the idea of Goldwater is one of small government conservatism, and has achieved a somewhat Obama-ish tone in where his words have gotten somewhat construed to mean whatever people want them to as opposed to what they’re actually saying. Goldwater was anti-religion in government! Goldwater was a warmonger! Etc etc.

As I’ve not been shy about, I spent some good time with the Libertarian Party shortly after becoming voting age until shortly after 11 September. A lot of those ideals I still connect with - strong preference for individual rights, weak centralized power, minimal regulatory influence. On the other hand, there’s a lot that I wasn’t in favor of, such as the full privatization across the boards (I’m generally in favor of public schooling, but on a local level, for an example), and the blowback-style excuses trotted out following the attacks and the bizarre notion that going after bin Laden was the wrong idea.

Either way, I think I may have found a term that better matches my ideological bent at this point: Neolibertarianism. Essentially, for me, it takes the best parts of libertarianism (localized control, a focus on liberty) while pushing for a more realistic foriegn policy (the thing that turned me off from the Libertarian Party to begin with). While neoconservatism has gotten a bad rap over the last few years (truly more due to the characters involved and a misunderstanding of the basic ideology rather than the actual things it stands for), I think this simply better fits my point of view, and, in its limited appeal, appears to allow for a wide range of beliefs and a better dialogue about appropriateness as compared to the more monolithic libertarian ideals. More on the concept here and here.

2) The whole FDLS raid thing has left me super-conflicted, and it’s interesting that it comes so close to the 15th anniversary of the Branch Davadian raids by the FBI. The whole FDLS situation is obviously more complicated than the David Koresh-thinks-he’s-Jesus one, but I can’t help but thinking back a bit when news of the FDLS raid came out.

While I consider the Clinton impeachment my first real political awakening, watching the Waco situation unfold on CNN live as it happened was probably my news-event awakening, as I didn’t really understand what was going on, but, hey, the Branch Davidians were a cult and the government’s here to help, right? Obviously, as time has worn on, the “facts,” as they were, have become much more clear, and I still think that the raid itself is one of the more shameful periods of this nation’s post-civil-rights-era history, especially considering how the government could of handled this.

So bringing this back around a bit, my natural skepticism is tempered by knowing how problematic the FDLS sect of Mormonism is, and the further fine line between a firm tolerance for religious freedom and an equally firm intolerance of child abuse and forced marriage - especially the apparent intersection thereof. I’m immensely thankful that there was no significant violence to speak of in this situation, but still…

I mean, there’s very good evidence to suggest the entire Branch Davidian thing could have been avoided, even if Koresh was an abusive madman, and the treatment of the FDLS situation seems to at least be inadvertantly cognizant of this. At the same time, the Mormons are arguably one of the most persecuted religious groups in American history, forcing much of this sort of thing underground. Decades of religious persecution causes distrust of the government, and then the government acts when they’re acting outside of what the government considers okay? I’m not entirely comfortable with that.

The facts are these - forced child marriage is wrong, wrong,wrong, but so is not giving broad allowance to religious groups. The FDLS crossed a significant line, but how much of that crossing has to do with a response to the type of issues they’ve faced from their fellow countrymen and government? I don’t know, and it’s a tough place to sit. Some other posts that kind of cover my problems with this are here and here.

3) Interestingly to no one, I’m sure, the common theme that’s been going through my head is a general distrust of government in general. It’s why I’m especially down on an Obama presidency, it’s why I generally like New Hampshire, it’s why I’m attracted to libertarian-style philosophy and uncomfortable with the FDLS raid. Cass Sunstein had an excellent post at The Volokh Conspiracy about this concept that’s worth highlighting a bit.

The concept that resonated the most with me is the idea of libertarian paternalism - that, in the existence of rules, the default should be the choice that does the most for what is called the “choice environment.” The examples Sunstein uses are things like allowing for malpractice insurance waivers to help lower costs and create a contract between patient and doctor - things that allow for individual choice and reasoning as opposed to the one-size-fits-all regulatory structure in place. It allows for more flexibility and specificity that the current structure simply cannot provide.

This conceptualization is ultimately what confuses me about liberalism in general - the idea that individuals will usually have a better idea as to what works best in their situations seems like a big heaping pile of common sense to me, and yet the answer from the left - and ultimately from the government in general, regardless of whether it’s the left or “the right” in power - ends up being exactly the opposite of that. Harken back to the malpractice waiver concept - if health care costs are so high right now, talk about an easy way to reduce costs by contractually creating the scenarios that would reduce the ways to encourage litigation. I mean, my wife spent 4 hours in the ER with a gallbladder attack and it never dawned on any of the doctors to perform an ultrasound, and we could theoretically waste everyone’s time with a lawsuit and perhaps even win - how is that really, truly, right?

Yesterday, a discussion ensued regarding my general distrust of law enforcement, and it’s the same deal here - what reason do I ultimately have to trust people who are not working for my best interests, but instead working for the interests of people who are arbitrarily deciding what is right for everyone regardless of the circumstances surrounding it? This same sort of nannying pervades law enforcement, smoking bans, and even the forms of religious persecution we see in the United States in the last 20 years. It seems so counterintuitive to promote these things, and yet the most popular Democratic candidate at this point seems hell bent on expanding that sort of state, and to what ends? I don’t get it, folks, I really don’t.

* John Adams: Ann & I have been plowing through these, and now it’s a hurry-up-and-wait for the final one, but this is really quite the achievement. I’d say Paul Giametti is the best part, except that Laura Linney is possibly better, and I’m not even sure either of them are quite as good as the guy playing Jefferson. Plus, they’re not holding back on presenting Adams as the flawed individual that he was (or how somewhat over-pure Jefferson tried to be, or how much of a dick Hamilton was, for that matter), which isn’t always easy to do on something that’s obviously a labor of love for all involved. A great achievement, in my mind - when this comes out on DVD in a few months, everyone should make it a point to block out 7 or 8 hours and watch this thing.

* Battlestar Galactica: So say we all. It’s been long enough without Battlestar, and the first two episodes haven’t disappointed me at all. The intensity has definitely been kicked up a notch, and even with the overall inevitabilities of how the show will likely end, the how is paramount in unexpected ways. God, I love this show.

* It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: I’ve been looking to watch this show for a while, and we finally set the DVR to tape these when they played. What a completely screwed up show, lacking any clear redeeming value yet still hysterical in so many ways. My current favorite is “Charlie Gets Cancer,” but they’ve all been great so far.

* Scrubs: Oh dear god they’re forcing the JD/Eliott thing again dear god make it stop.

McCain drives me up a wall. It’s official.

I want to like the guy. I desperately want to like him, I want to support his candidacy, I want to be able to ignore the whole Campaign Finance Reform Act and the Gang of 14 and just dive right in. And when he presents this, I want to stand up and cheer from the rooftops:

* A one-year freeze on the amount of money Congress allocates to discretionary programs.. Imagine if we got that any of the last 8 years. Or during either of the tax cuts.

* An alternative tax system that would consist of just two tax rates and a larger standard deduction than under the current code.. Yes, yes, YES. Further simplification helps everyone - the 2001 cuts did a great job of this, and if you don’t like it, you can stick to the old one!

* A suspension of the federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I’m in favor of scrapping the poor-crunching gas tax altogether, but bully for him for saying what needs to be said on the matter.

* A corporate tax cut. Also not quite far enough, but considering the alternative, again, we need this.

I mean, his plan is far from perfect - any bailout on mortgages is a bad idea - but it’s amazingly, incredibly good for someone who a) admitted to needing to learn about the economy, and b) brought on people who have apparently taught him very well.

But then we get stuff like this:

KUDLOW: Let me begin, in your speech today, and also in recent speeches, you’re really blasting corporate greed and reckless corporate conduct. It sounds a little bit like the business attacks by Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. Can you tell us, what do you mean by these criticisms? What are you driving at?

Sen. McCAIN: I’m driving at the people who get compensation which is not approved of by the stockholders, even a nonbinding fashion. I’m talking about people like Mr. Cayne, who the day–right around the time the government took over Bear Stearns–or bailed out, excuse me, bail–Bear Stearns–who went to the market and got $11 a share rather than $10 a share. I’m talking about people that when their corporation has losses, that they are rewarded with exorbitantly high pay packages. And it gives Wall Street a bad name, Larry. And that’s–and that’s pure and simple. I do not believe in government intervention, I do not believe in government control, I do not believe that. But I do believe we should take steps to increase transparency and also
shareholder input into the compensation of CEOs. After all, that’s who the CEOs work for. And I also think CEOs and chairmen should have–be different people.

…

KUDLOW: When you are criticizing these corporations, I mean, there’s 140 million Americans work for corporations, in rough numbers. Companies are the ones who create jobs in America, they’re the ones who really generate the family incomes, and of course companies need capital investment. Do you ever worry that you’re sending a very tough anti-business message to the firms, to the work force and to investors?

Sen. McCAIN: Larry, in all due respect, don’t you think that when corporate executives take exorbitant pay packages that are not justified by the–by the performance of the corporations that they have stewardship of and millions of–and 250,000 Americans in the last short period of time have lost their jobs, that that gives corporate America a bad name and then increases the
influence of those who are basically anti-business? Don’t you think that is also one of the–one of the spillovers here?

It goes on a bit, and kudos to Kudlow for holding McCain’s feet to the fire a little bit, but this sort of ignorant economic populism is dangerous. It’s inconsistent, it’s ill-thought out, and it’s yet another thing that gives me great, great pause when it comes to this man. I know I’m unlikely to find a candidate to fit my ideological mold perfectly, but I also don’t think that you have to pander to economic idiocy to get votes in this case. It doesn’t benefit his candidacy in any specific way against Obama, which leads me to believe that he actually buys into it, and that’s troublesome.

So I dunno. Consider me more conflicted today than I was on Monday. I don’t know, folks - help!

Two days worth in one bite-sized package!

* My favorite piece from the debate the other night? Obama conceding that the capital gains cut had a positive effect on revenues, but thinks the rate should rise anyway. How completely, utterly foolish. He’s your candidate, folks. I’m sure the promise to halve poverty in ten years will work out great when revenues start stalling. My second favorite part? Obama throwing Tom Coburn under the bus - one guy is a distinguished senator, the other blew things up in terroristic acts. Great comparison, that’ll go a long way toward unity, throwing out those “same old Washington politics.”

* The Supreme Court made a ruling yesterday about whether lethal injection was cruel and unusual, and 7 justices agreed it wasn’t. What was cruel, not at all unusual, and quite lovely to see, was Scalia eviscerating Stevens in his concurrance. Patterico highlighted one part, but the whole thing was a fun read, as was Thomas’s opinion.

* Who didn’t see this coming?

* When I talk about the alienation Obama has called, I’m not talking about dyed-in-the-wool liberals, but rather people like this guy, who sounds somewhat conservative, consistently votes Democrat, and is unlikely to shift to Obama if he’s the nominee when someone like McCain is the opponent. It’s why polls like this are telling - McCain is a better choice for some voters than the alternative Democratic candidate, regardless of how closely they may match policy-wise. When Obama has his spiritual mentors spewing hateful invective and views religion as a coping mechanism rather than a value, it’s going to turn off people who you might otherwise snag. Period. While Jonah Goldberg is an instant turnoff to a lot of you, he properly encapsulates the situation here. If you don’t get why the comment is a problem, read that.

* Jim McGovern (D-MA): Ethanol bill was probably a mistake.

* It’s not the United States media saying it: Iraqis feel safer once Iraqi troops flooded Basra. Kind of sounds different than the spin we heard from before?

* Obama also plans to further waste everyone’s time before his butt warms the chair in the Oval Office.

* Why should I trust law enforcement again?

Expect more later.

Things piling up, so I’ll try and plow through them over the course of the next few days. I have 5 unfinished drafts in WordPress right now. Argh.

The original “Charlie the Unicorn” was an old favorite flash video of mine, and I learned today (thanks Jason) that the sequel came out recently. Still funny as hell. I AM THE BANANA KING.

At some point yesterday morning, for no apparent reason, Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” got stuck in my head. Not being able to shake it, I went to YouTube to hear it once and possibly excise it from my head, and tripped up on this gem. I had seen the mime routine before, but never with Natalie Imbruglia singing along with it live. Pretty fun.

“They’re going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year, and they have the audacity to hope you don’t mind.” - John McCain, 15 April 2008

Quote of the campaign so far? I’d think so.

“At a personal level, it speaks to the alienation of the individual, stressing the need for caring and sharing and the politics of meaning. At a regulatory level, it seeks to identify specific sectors in which there is a market failure and then to subject them to various forms of government regulation.” - Richard Epstein on modern socialism.

* Not surprisingly, Obama’s “bitter” statement isn’t dying out. It’s quickly becoming a larger problem for him, and mostly due to his own statements on the matter, now attacking Clinton and McCain rather than admitting he was completely off base. Lance touched on the initial issues with the statement better than I could (short answer: focusing on the “bitter” aspect isn’t the problem), but it really continues to feed into a wider meme that Obama (and perhaps Democrats as a general group) are, at best, out of touch with who they’re trying to help, and at worst unable to comprehend anything that isn’t within their worldview. Obama didn’t see the problem with Wright, and he doesn’t see why people are upset when he says people value their rights or beliefs not due to thought or community, but rather due to a reaction to their lot in life. It’s a really negative view of people.

The worst part is that Obama’s not hurting in the polls with Democrats on this. He’s unlikely to hurt himself any worse in Pennsylvania against Clinton (a state he was unlikely to win anyway), and that says a lot about the Democratic electorate and about Obama in general - is it that these sorts of statements aren’t controversial to them because it’s the only reason they can comprehend some of these positions?

I’m generalizing here, I know, but as wrong as I believe many liberal positions to be, I know I don’t see it as some sort of position borne out of bitterness or resentment, and most mainstream conservatives don’t buy into that sort of rhetoric either (although it does exist on the more radical areas). Imagine if John McCain came out today and said that Democrats were in favor of national health care and abortion rights because they were bitter, clinging to these issues in response to their own life events? He’d be absolutely savaged by everyone involved. But, for whatever reason, it’s apparently okay and “in touch” to say that about religion and guns. Okay then.

I’ve not been more bullish on the ability of McCain to win the Presidency as I am this week. If McCain actually goes on the attack, Obama’s going to have to find a way to talk himself out of this, and he’s already whiffed big time once.

* Along the same notes, a piece at Politico notches a couple more instances of Obama being “in touch.” My favorite parts? That Obama feels he “understand[s] the world better…than John McCain” and that he feels that he’s “still almost normal.” If his appeal is that he’s like you or I, and he’s this completely out of touch right now, where is he going to be in a year?

* QandO on the progressive backlash on Obama.

* More great energy news, this time out of Japan.

* I’m not going to lie - it’s either McCain or Bob Barr for me.

* Most fascinating story of the day - Stalin’s body double.

* Radley Balko at Reason on the Jefferson Memorial arrests. The memorial is open 24 hours a day, so about 20 people decided to have a 10 minute dance party. Cops showed up, arrested one person, and dispersed the crowd. Why? Who knows.

* Judicial Watch is trying to get Hillary Clinton in trouble for the Elton John concert, which may be an FEC violation. Our campaign laws are insane.

* Finally, a great blog post compendium on the rich getting richer, poor getting poorer canard. Someday this information will become the common knowledge as opposed to what is currently out there.

* Reason talks about the airline shutdowns. Money quote:

Just in the last decade, the fatality rate has plunged by 82 percent. Last year there was not a single death stemming from accidents involving scheduled carriers. The decline has occurred even as the number of planes and people in the air has greatly increased.

It’s hard to believe this improvement stems from the stern vigilance of federal regulators. In the first place, Congress now tells us that, actually, regulation hasn’t been nearly vigilant enough.

In the second, it’s far-fetched to think that, in a business where there are nearly 27,000 flights per day, the FAA can prevent a reprobate carrier from cheating if it really wants to. The agency simply doesn’t have enough personnel to monitor everything that could go wrong.

* The big news over the weekend was Obama’s “bitter” comments, which Hillary Clinton duitfully harped on and blew out of proportion. Was the commentary unnecessary and a little out of touch? Yeah, I think most could agree with that - and he obviously did too, as he changed his tune shortly after. I just don’t think it’s surprising - Barack Obama hasn’t really had a very high view of people he doesn’t agree with from the start, and this is just another piece of that ever-expanding puzzle. If he thinks people are “clinging” to gun rights or religion or xenophobic tendencies because past administrations and government haven’t succeeded in “regenerating” these areas, he simply has no clue as to what people are ultimately concerned about. I’m sure it would be great if we could all buy into Obama’s liberal paradise that he wants to set up for us, but the fact remains that people have priorities beyond dropping an employment rate three points. Someone who spent so much time community building in Chicago should certainly know that. Also, a question of sorts - what kind of bitterness is Obama clinging to in order to justify his anti-trade sentiments, if that’s the logic?

* Hugo Chavez steals more private property. But hey, nothing to see here, move along everyone.

* Speaking of the complete uselessness of the United Nations, not only did they appoint someone who compared the Israel/Palestinian situation on par with the Nazi Holocaust to a group discussing the situation and the human rights issue, but he’s a 9/11 Truther to boot. I’m sure Israel will be getting a fair shake, as it always does on the international stage.

* Michael Yon is a reporter who’s been embedded with the troops in Iraq for over a year. The Wall Street Journal posted a must-read editorial from him. He’s seen the worst of it, and he’s thinking we’re in better shape now than we have been in years. Worth reading.

* Jimmy Carter to meet with Hamas. Idiotic.

* More inadvertent evidence of FDR and Bush’s similarity. It’s also a good example of why I’m afraid of McCain.

* I don’t know what’s sadder: that the biofuel lunacy is raising the price of beer, or that the rise in the price of beer could very well end up being the tipping point in reversing this whole “burn our food for fuel” trend.

* Cafe Hayek on our manufacturing realities.

That’s it for now.

I haven’t laughed this hard at a YouTube video in ages:

* R.E.M. - Accelerate: Short answer - imperfect, but probably the best R.E.M. album they’ve put out since New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Longer answer - “Houston” and “Until the Day is Done” are both downers on a more energetic, exciting album, and keep it from being a real true classic. They don’t fit in the lineup, they lack the subtlety we’re used to, and if the songs weren’t so short, it’d be easier to fast forward through them. Those downsides, however, really don’t hurt the total package that much: the first four songs (especially my current favorite, “Man-Sized Wreath”) are among the best that they’ve lined up on an album back-to-back-to-back-to-back since the IRS days, and I still catch myself singing songs like “Horse to Water” when I’m not playing the CD. I liked Around the Sun a lot, Up remains a favorite album, and Reveal is ultimately only crappy by R.E.M.’s standards, but this is quite the album. Definitely worth your time.

* She and Him - “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here”: Singling this song out doesn’t really do justice to the entire album, which is actually very enjoyable and is similar in tone and effort to Jenny Lewis’s solo album, but I haven’t quite loved a song the way I love this one in a little while. It’s perky, fun, a little goofy, but has great harmonies and gets right to the point. You can’t ask for much more from a single. The best part, for those who don’t know, is that She and Him is the project of indie rocker M. Ward and movie star Zooey Deschanel. If you’ve seen Elf, you know she can sing, but that she can write really great songs is a plus as well.

* What Made Milwaukee Famous - “Sultan”: Lost in the rise of Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, the Shins, etc, is good, happy power pop. I don’t know a thing about What Made Milwaukee Famous except that this song is the type of power pop that I feel has been missing the last few years.

* Death Cab for Cutie - “I Will Posess Your Heart”: Dumb title, stupid lyrics, pretentious intro. Why can’t I stop singing it in my head, then?

* Hot Chip - “Ready for the Floor”: I apparently missed the Hot Chip train the first time it rolled through town, and the first listen of this song did nothing for me, but I’ll be damned if this song isn’t strangely addictive. Goofy indie electronica-esque music FTW!

Still battling a head cold, still wondering why the Red Sox are so high on Jon Lester…

* High school seniors dumb on basic financial information. On one hand, I probably wouldn’t have known the answers to a lot of those questions ten years ago. On the other, why couldn’t I?

* McCain on pre-emptive war: “I don’t think you can make a blanket statement about preemptive war because obviously it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces.” On the face of it, it’s an obvious, “duh” statement. But then you think about how the “100 years in Iraq” comment has been completely twisted out of context, and I fear for how this comment will play, even though it’s the most realistic foriegn policy statement any current Presidential candidate has made. McCain doesn’t consistently deserve the straight talk moniker, but it’s statements like this that keep that concept alive - brutally honest, an answer even he probably doesn’t like, and one that’s certain to get twisted by his opponents, who are really only interested in straight talk when it fits the percieved narrative.

* Time on the shifting gender gap in colleges in favor of women.

* More corruption via red light cameras. It appears that one locality has seven of its ten red light cameras at intersections where the yellow light is quicker than mandated by law.

* Obama, “Constitutional scholar,” supports the Washington, DC gun ban.

* The Volokh Conspiracy had an interesting post about genocide and international law.

* Thomas Sowell nails it: “Nothing is more fraudulent than calls for a ‘dialogue on race.’ Those who issue such calls are usually quick to cry ‘racism’ at any frank criticism. They are almost invariably seeking a monologue on race, to which others are supposed to listen.”

* Also via Volokh, religious accomodations and business collide. A company is reprimanded by the government of New Mexico for refusing to photograph a same-sex union.

* Power Line reports on Pelosi having the rules changed to allow Congress to table the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. So many snarky comments I could make, but perhaps this playing of politics merely speaks for itself.

* Boy, does Michelle Obama sound familiar or what?

* Finally, a good move in a follow up from yesterday: The woman dismissed from Obama’s delegate camp for referring to children in trees as “monkeys” has been reinstated.

I must have partied so hard on my birthday, I’m sick now - what with the dirt cake and the John Adams miniseries…

* The folks at Improv Everywhere are awesome - they turned a little league baseball game into a spectacle that was pretty great to see.

* It’s Mathmeticious.

* One thing I’ve loved over the years are the attempts by “historians” to try and contextualize the unfinished Bush Presidency in terms of historical ranking. Yet another survey has come out ranking Bush dead last, which is ridiculous on two fronts: one, the Presidency isn’t over and the full effects of his policies and actions have yet to fully be determined, and two, ranking him last means that “historians” think that some light pushing of Constitutional boundaries and the Iraq war trump the Trail of Tears, the Sedition Acts, World War I, the late 1930s court packing attempts, Japanese internment, the Teapot Dome, Watergate, Vietnam, etc etc. In terms of my favorite Presidencies, I’d place Bush in the bottom quarter, but that’s recognizing that there’s a lot we simply do not know. After all, do we rank Bush I higher or lower based on how we had to deal with Iraq following the first Gulf War? Does it look like that much of a victory now? It’s all ridiculous, and people who call themselves historians should absolutely know better.

* Jacob Sullum at Reason on the bill to allow FDA approval of cigarettes. All kinds of ridiculous.

* Barack Obama’s campaign has requested a delegate step aside for telling some black children to “quit playing in the tree like monkeys,” because of the racial (but probably unintended) connotation. So let’s see - calling black children monkeys in a rather innocent way with unfortunate connotations, bad. Blaming “Hollywood Jews” for bringing Brokeback Mountain and expanding homosexuality, okay.

* It’s been noted numerous times that Obama isn’t really practicing what he preaches regarding a different type of campaign: Twisting McCain’s “100 years in Iraq” comment as Obama has certainly isn’t representative of new politics, not to mention completely dishonest.

* We’re facing the largest tax increase since the 1940s. Will your candidate step up to the plate?

* A wonderful link dump citing facts about the French nuclear program. The United States has got to embrace this technology, period.

More later.

Catching up while wondering who the mystery first pitch is for Red Sox opening day, and whether Obama’s promise to listen to the generals on the ground in Iraq applies to Gen. Petraeus this week.

* Bush fast-tracked the Colombian Free Trade Agreement yesterday. I said it before - for all the negatives of the Bush Presidency, his record on trade, on a whole, is not one of them. It’s especially refreshing when hearing the alternatives from the Democratic side.

* The rumor is that Condoleeza Rice is angling for the vice-presidential nomination on the McCain ticket. Unsolicited advice for McCain - we don’t know a thing about her, so don’t do it.

* Not everything is rainbows and unicorns financially on the left.

* Chances are that, if you have any interest in video games, you’ve already played You Have to Burn the Rope. If not, go and play it - you’re in for a treat.

* Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek on pessimistic bias regarding the economy. I’m generally more optimistic about these things myself, as he is.

* A question - it seems that every single time a politician or Presidential candidate attempts to use a person as an example for their own health care complaints, they’re lying about it. Why is that? We know that some people have it bad, why do they struggle so much to find them?

* Corn is now at $6/bushel. Thanks, ethanol! At least my gas prices are lower! Wait, what?

* In a “naw, really” moment, it appears that the health care requirement in Massachusetts has resulted in a - you guessed it - shortage in available doctors. Remember, this is the same kind of plan favored by Hillary Clinton.

* Obama’s positive ratings are due more to “how he makes voters feel than by specific characteristics they attributed to him.” But, again, I’m a jerk for pointing this out.

* Finally, more nationalization schemes from Hugo Chavez. I worry a lot for Venuzuela, and more because it’s another thing in a long list that the United Nations was designed for and that they’re essentially punting on. No, it’s not Darfur, it’s not Zimbabwe, it’s not Tibet, it’s not Taiwan. But it’s bad, and that no one is willing to step in through the allegedly essential international community is patently ridiculous.