The International House of Bacon

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.

* Radly Balko has started a series on the effect of Zero Tolerance regulations in our schools, and the one that got me today was the 8 year old who was suspended for sniffing a Sharpie. Why was he sniffing the Sharpie? “It smelled good.” Sigh.

* A new study suggests a link between drunk driving and smoking bans. Who knows how this will pan out under scrutiny remains to be seen, but it’s still pretty interesting. I have a feeling we won’t see MADD dive on this one.

* For all the crap I take from some of the blogs I read, Matthew Yglesias is one of the few liberal bloggers I can handle, but he’s being a bit of a dick here. The boiling down of Confederate pride to racism is a bit disingenuous to say the least, regardless of your positions on the Civil War. For all the discussion in this election about race and divisiveness, it’s interesting to see this sort of antiquated ignorance coming from the left.

* Is Obama being honest about the Iraq plans? If his own advisors don’t support a rapid withdrawal, and he still goes through with it, will the left criticize him for “ignoring experts?”

* The 9th Circuit Court does it again. How ridiculous is this?

* Here’s something interesting I didn’t know - John McCain has kids in the military, a 19 year old son who just got back from Iraq and a 21 year old son who could very well see service there following his graduation from the Naval Academy.

* Barack Obama is “not in favor of concealed weapons.” 39 states have laws allowing for it in various degrees. Will this disconnect hurt him if it gets publicized? I currently live in an open-carry state, I know I don’t feel less safe.

* Barack Obama is a smoker, but so what? I’m actually surprised more people haven’t pounded on that one. I’m more concerned about bills like this.

* A neat story about a Make-A-Wish child’s dream to join the military, and the Army helping make that happen. Really great story.

Today is slipping away from me…

* Interesting possibilities out of the Dakotas, where a possibly massive oil field has been discovered. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out - the high end estimation is at 500 billion barrels, and even if we place it at 200 billion (a little higher than the low end), if we were able to pump out our daily usage as of 2004 and keep it domestically, it would cover us for over 20 years.

This is ultimately why I get annoyed by the whole alternative energy/ANWR drilling issue - do we need to develop alternative fuels at some point? Absolutely. Not even the oil companies would doubt that, as they will invariably pioneer any fuel advances we see that make logical financial sense (the most major hold up in alternative fuels as is). Instead, the peak oil myth is allowed to take hold, we haven’t built a new refinery in my lifetime, and the drivel we get from Congress and the Democratic candidates for President is that we need to tax the oil companies that hold very little of the world’s oil more to, I dunno, teach them a lesson?

The truth of the matter is that the government - both on state and local levels - doesn’t really care one bit about the energy situation in the United States. They’re screwing the poor and middle class by artificially keeping prices high with a gas tax that, minimum, eats up $2.00 per tank of gas you fill right off the bat, they’re screwing us by not pushing for more refineries, for blocking drilling in places we can get oil easily, by blocking alternative energies that do work like nuclear power. Instead, we see charades like this. A complete waste of time, and ultimately deals with nothing.

Biofuels aren’t the answer, people - smart drilling, smart use of the resources available to us, and realistic policy rooted in what’s actually happening in the world rather than pessimistic predictions lacking strong evidence is is more helpful.

* I liked this TownHall column by Mary Katherine Ham profiling Bobby Jindal, the young governor of Louisiana. Hey, Bridget, any LA-based insight you can offer?

* Jane Fonda endorses Barack Obama. This is interesting more because of, again, the Wright issue. For one, Obama’s supporters have largely had to play the “but…” card - with Hagee, with Parsley, and other people who have endorsed McCain and have somewhat unsavory views. If these people are, in reality, worth talking about, the fact that Obama has a number of high-profile endorsements of people with various hatred for America - whether it be rhetorical like Wright or actual like Fonda - is not going to help Obama, whether the issue is fair or not. How exactly can Obama respond to the fact that he attracts people who aided in propaganda to an enemy that was holding his Presidential opponent hostage, exactly? God, this is gonna get messy.

* On the other hand, elections + the internet = awesome. Hillary Clinton decided to revisit the 3am phone call, this time going after McCain and the economy. Never mind the rhetorical…oddity that the President would be recieving phone calls at 3am about economic issues, but we’ll run with it. Apparently, only six hours later, McCain’s team had a response out. Absolutely incredible. Whether it will work is another thing - I much prefer McCain’s approach to the economic situation right now than Clinton or Obama’s, as I’ve read too many histories of the Great Depression over the years and fear any wide-scale tinkering during a downturn at this point - but you have to give the McCain people credit for a job well done on this one. If McCain loses this election, it won’t be due to lack of trying.

* Columbia isn’t pleased with Obama’s trade rhetoric. What was that about other countries under Bush again? At least he waited until he was in office to allegedly alienate them.

* A little late, but hey - top 100 April Fools Day hoaxes of all time.

* Will Obama’s position on abortion hurt him in November? An interesting read from Michael Gerson at the Washington Post.

* Posing as a professional football player for fun and profit. The odd story of Ed McCabe, who was not a member of the 1980 Raiders.

* Of all the legacies of the Clinton Presidency, it’s sad that free trade is the one the Democrats are most willing to abandon. Furthermore, of all the legacies of the JFK Presidency, it’s equally sad that the Democrats can’t seem to grasp his basics, either.

* Ilya Somin on what the Presidential candidates can do to protect property rights. In a post-Kelo government, this is a really important issue that’s not getting enough play.

* I’m still new enough to New Hampshire that I cannot be held responsible for the rank stupidity of this specific legislator. The sooner we can oust Shea-Porter, the better.

* The big story in some circles earlier this week was the breathless story from the UK about the amount of people in the United States on food stamps. Apparently, that’s supposed to mean something. Even if it did, there’s a good reason why that number is up - the 2002 Farm Bill greatly expanded those who can be covered by food stamps. That Farm Bill looks worse and worse every time I look at it.

* This story literally made me sick to my stomach. Wow.

* More evidence that this economic situation may be regional in nature.

* Congressional Quarterly’s Ground Game blog lays out a) a great example why the Richardson endorsement irked me, and b) why Clinton is just foolish at this point about it.

Whew.

I’m so behind. Or something.

* Budget situation in New Hampshire worse than feared. The worst part is that there’s no way in hell we’ll be able to vote Lynch out this year. Absolutely pathetic stuff here.

* Some crazy video from North Korea. Rarely do you get to see such first-hand images from there, really crazy stuff.

* Peter Bagge’s cartoons in Reason are always fun, but his illustrated log of his time during the New Hampshire primary is fun. Mostly non-political, it’s worth a read.

* Will Obama get in trouble for misstating charitable contributions on his tax returns? He apparently filed an amended return, but what does that one say? It’ll be interesting to see if there’s much follow up on this.

* Also via Reason, a question posed by the Christian Science Monitor regarding the Constitutionality of mandated health insurance. I think it’s a little cowardly that they consider single-payer capable of passing muster, but as for the topic at hand, it’s a neat argument I hadn’t thought of.

* Speaking of single-payer, more horror stories. At what point do these stop becoming the exception?

* The United States’s corporate tax rate just got more uncompetitive, as New Zealand drops its rate a bit. John McCain’s the only person even considering a corporate tax rate cut, one of the few things we really need from the government currently. Barack Obama wants to essentially charge corporations more. Does this make sense to you?

* Hillary Clinton - willing to force you to buy health insurance while ignoring the bills for the health insurance her campaign is responsible for. Class act.

* GraniteGrok offers a great statement on why conservatives should vote for McCain. It’s similar to other statements on the matter, but this one really resonated with me a bit.

* The top ten most unreasonable parking tickets.

* And the final tally on “Earth Hour?” No significant fall in power use.

* I’m interested in seeing how Obama rectifies the differences between his Illinois Senate position survey and today. Not that changing one’s mind is a bad thing, but an explanation of how one gets there would be nice.

* Speaking of, here’s more detail on a dishonest Obama ad. Populism kills.

* I’ve said it before that Rev. Wright is different than Rev. Hagee because Wright was involved by invitation with Obama’s political career and Hagee was not. Well, Barack Obama has his Hagee now, and it’ll be interesting to see how Obama’s supporters spin this one.

* Civil disobedience at its finest. Hell, it’s hardly disobedience as much as a protest of ridiculousness from a local high school who punished some students for having pictures with plastic cups on their Facebook pages, implying underage drinking. So some students get together, rent a root beer keg, and have a party. Cops show up, everyone blows 0.0s, and it gets on YouTube. Lovin’ it.

* FactCheck appears to side with me regarding Obama and lobbyist money. FactCheck is hardly a extreme right-wing source, for the record. The FactCheck.org piece is here.

* Christopher Hitchens savages Hillary Clinton. It’s sometimes hard to remember that Clinton is only marginally better than Obama in the grand scheme of things.

* Best hockey fight of recent memory. I grew up hating Patrick Roy, I’m glad his son is a tough guy.

* What every American should know about the Middle East. I didn’t know two of these things.

* Finally, a note about how corporations helped in the Katrina aftermath. An interesting thing to recall in a year of populist claptrap about corporate America during an election year.

You know you read too many blogs when you’re without internet access from Friday afternoon -> Sunday afternoon, and you have 580 unread posts in your Google Reader. Let’s see if we can’t knock some of them off.

* Did I post this last week? Maybe I did, but it’s worth posting again: this is awesome. A cell phone that doesn’t work via voice.

* Do ankles really exist? Doctors in Texas can’t agree. Ah, licensing squabbles…

* If Jonah Goldberg wrote as intelligently as he did in Liberal Fascism, I’d read him more often. His piece this week on the stark realities of the New Deal is one of those good pieces that will likely get overlooked. There’s no rational reason why it took me until an upper-level college history class to learn that there was even a rational alternative view on the New Deal, let alone the economic facts behind it. If we taught that sort of information in high school, it would do wonders.

* Deval Patrick made a pretty big deal about the casino legislation - one of the few things he’s been up to that I’ve thought was a good idea up to this point. Too bad he was working on his book deal in New York when the bill was being voted on. Way to push those votes, Deval. Good job.

* I learned something new today: Most United States citizens get their water from public works/governments, most United Kingdom citizens get it from private companies. Pretty backwards if you think about it - I never knew it was that widespread here, or that private there.

* Forget those White Sox frauds, read up on how the Red Sox are built for the long haul. Happy opening week!

* I love the “Al Gore riding in on a white stallion and rescuing the Democratic Party during the convention” fantasies. The reality is that he’s not going to run, and the perception is that Gore is even further left than Obama’s is.

* More about where the two Democratic candidates stand v. McCain. It’s still early when we don’t know who the Democrat is, but this is where Obama’s hurting the most following the Wright debacle - he may be able to recover the hard left (if he ever lost them to begin with), but the center is where his bread and butter was supposed to be in terms of viability, and that’s no longer a given. Regardless, a LOT can change in 6 months.

* I don’t watch Fox News. I don’t have any standard feeling as to what they stand for, whether they’re actually conservative or just further right than their cable competition. I did see Outfoxed and found it to be ridiculous. With that said, MoveOn demonstrating against Fox News? Really? Apparently, they think the mainstream media is getting its talking points from Fox, and that’s apparently bad. Isn’t the left also in favor of reinstating the fairness doctrine? How do these two things compute? I’m glad MoveOn’s relevance is continuing to disappear.

* Coming soon: WiiGuyver, where you use your Wiimote to diffuse bombs. This is actually for real - the US military is using rigged Wiimotes to help diffuse land mines. How funny is that?

* This past weekend was “Earth Hour,” where some people, groups, businesses, and even governments turned the lights out for an hour for yet another statement about climate change that only echoed amongst those who care. Google took part, turning their homepage black. The irony? It uses more energy for a monitor to display black than it does to display white. Yeah yeah, “awareness” and all that jazz, but come on.

* Barack Obama says his foriegn policy is a “return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan…” So let me get this straight - Bush 41 made it so we had to spend 12 extra years bombing Iraq while we bent over backwards for the UN, Reagan spent a great deal of time funding contras and other undesirables in an attempt to disrupt various events, and JFK botched the Bay of Pigs so badly that it lead to a missile crisis that left the USSR in better condition defensively than it was when it started two weeks earlier. This is the type of foriegn policy he’s considering “realistic” and wants to return to, while deriding the alleged “naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world?” Barack Obama has said some ridiculous things on the campaign trail so far, but this takes the cake.

That’s enough for today. More tomorrow.

* Chrono Trigger a better investment than Apple. I was amused. And rightfully so, actually - Chrono Trigger is much better than anything Apple put out.

* I thought you couldn’t disown a crazy uncle?:

White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama’s campaign, not stepped down. “Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church.”

So after two weeks, the story doesn’t fade (and why should it when more comments such as the “bombs were built to kill blacks” and “garlic noses” come out), and Obama has to change his tune again. His numbers have gone to hell against McCain, the only polls he’s showing no harm on the Democratic side is a barely-reliable Gallup and a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll that has, for some points, a +/-7% margin of error in the oversampled groups that favor him the most. This is getting craaaazy.

* New Hampshire has its cake and eats it, too. Congrats to being one of the few states that refused to comply with Real ID and still got an “extension” from the Department of Homeland Security.

* What is with the Los Angeles Times? For those not aware, the Times published a story about Sean Combs (Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, etc) being linked to the Tupac Shakur murder. The problem? It was based entirely on fabricated documents. You’d think the media would learn after the Rather debacle in 2004.

* Obviously, they’re an advocacy group, but a study published at NORML notes that 70% of people who are getting treated for marijuana addiction do so through court-mandated programs. This means that we’re seeing people take treatment as opposed to prison time, and seeing the anti-legalization forces point to the treatment number as if it means something. Sigh. I made a prediction in 2000 that marijuana would be legal by 2010 - that ain’t happening.

* Also, The New York Times sorta gets RickRolled. Hoaxes are fun. Radly Balko linked both of these earlier, always worth a look.

* An interesting situation might be cropping up in Pennsylvania, where gun control may become an issue in the upcoming primary. Especially with the Supreme Court opinion on the Washington, DC gun ban coming up, this could cause some further pain to the eventual Democratic candidate against McCain if it comes up.

* Barack Obama’s doing some more detailing of his economic plan, and you know it’s rough when a guy who says he needs to learn more about economics has a much more sustainable plan than a guy who’s at least acting as if he has a clue. A capital gains tax hike (which would negatively impact investment, which is already hurting in the current climate), more regulation in banking (not that, you know, regulation isn’t part of what’s causing the credit crunch right now), and handouts for those who signed bad mortgages they can’t pay are all things that won’t address a single issue we’re facing, and could very well make things worse long term. This isn’t to say that Clinton or McCain are adequately addressing the problems in the economy right now (our uncompetitive corporate tax rates, the straight costs of doing business, etc), but Obama’s looking at sending us down a potentially hazardous path.

The speech in full is here, and the almost immediate praise of Alexander Hamilton should set off huge, huge warning flags to anyone with knowledge of Hamilton’s role in the formation of this country pre-Federalist papers. Economic populism like Obama’s spouting ends up benefiting no one except the person spouting it, and the worst economic situations that we’ve ended up in have, in part, stemmed from policies that grow from those areas. Obama should know better, but he, of course, does not. Example? “If we can extend a hand to banks on Wall Street, we can extend a hand to Americans who are struggling through no fault of their own,” was a line Obama put out there. Is he really taking the position that those who signed and initialed the 40-odd pages on their mortgages that they now can’t pay aren’t at fault? Really? Besides that, he’s on the opposite side of public opinion when it comes to the Dodd-style bailout program that Obama’s endorses, and that’s not even covering the fact that the rough draft we’re seeing probably won’t work. Mistake after mistake after mistake.

As a humorous aside, Obama went to a fundraising event, $1000 a plate, following the speech. Where was it held? Credit Suisse’s building, one of the top ten subprime lenders in the United States. Disconnect much?

* Children of Men as a television show? On one hand, the movie (which I thought was phenomenal) worked because it was a crazy ride through a bizarre setting, and didn’t let up. I’m not sure a serial television show will work quite the same way. On the other hand, one of the co-creators of the Battlestar Galactica reboot is behind it, so it’s likely worth a shot.

* More stupidity from Obama. The National Review notes the problems inherent in the IRS doing your taxes for you. I’ve probably had a more visceral negative reaction to this proposal than much else on Obama’s platform.

* Linked everywhere, a horrible b-movie waiting to happen comes to life in Mexico, as vigilantes storm cities and towns looking for emo kids to kill.

* The US media doesn’t have a huge presence in Iraq. Then we wonder why the negative stories are the ones that gain traction.

* What’s the proper response when people are leaving your state in part because of taxes and regulations? If the answer is “spend more money, and then propose to fill the gap via tax hikes and regulation,” your name must be Massachusetts. And Hillary Clinton wants to expand MassCare-style health planning nationwide?

* Finally, my new favorite blog? Photoshop Disasters, which is exactly what the name implies. My personal favorite examples? Lady Guenivere’s mutant hand and Imagine Watermarks.

Have a good weekend.

* Not shockingly, BarackObama’s tax returns are being pored over, and plenty of unfair attacks are cropping up. One I heard a few times already (and is detailed somewhat at the link provided) is a criticism of Obama’s charitable contributions. Yes, I’m consistently annoyed that richer-than-myself politicians don’t give much money yet push for more taxes that will only end up hurting me. Yes, I know full well that Obama’s charitable contributions seem to trend much higher when he becomes a national name. He also published two very successful books in that time, and had a lot more money, so I’d expect someone who can afford to give $25k to his church to be able to ramp up other giving at the same time. The more important question is whether Obama violated the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act. If this is generally true, well, that’s just another fraudulent slash on his record - can’t change the tone if you can’t follow the rules yourself, Obama. Of course, the problem is the rule, but Obama struggles to understand that simple point, so perhaps beating him over the head with it a bit might help. Same Old Washington Politics.

* Does Clear Channel not want you to know about the XM/Sirius merger? Wouldn’t shock me.

* Rick Astley on RickRolling. Believe it or not, I wasn’t a huge fan of the whole RickRolling phenomenon, I just find the more recent examples and attention interesting.

* Iran isn’t a threat, right? Why are we trusting the United States intelligence community at all right now? I really need to know the answer to this - they missed 9/11 by a mile, they screwed up on WMD, they can’t get Iran straight, and that’s just the damage we know about. I’m not saying we need to bomb Iran here, but exactly what is it going to take to clean up the homeland intelligence community? Having a President and three candidates to succeed him who trust government implicitly certainly aren’t going to clean house over there, that’s for damn sure.

* QandO covers a lot of information on the Antarctic ice situation. Climate is weird.

* Reason’s editors haven’t exactly been kind to John McCain, and for good reason. But they do have a point - if earmarks are your problem, McCain provides a refreshing solution. A bright spot in his spotty candidacy.

* For now, I’ll end on QandO’s compilation of Obama’s positions on oil companies and where he gets it completely wrong. It’s very well-sourced, and it’s a good example of how completely out of it Obama is. Obama thinks the answer to oil prices is stricter regulation and windfall taxes on oil companies, even though the big oil companies (your Chevrons, Exxons, etc) only control roughly 10% of the current known supply, the rest being in the hands of nationalized companies or governments themselves. When the Saudi Arabians own 20% of the oil reserves on their own, trying to lower prices by going after the companies that own roughly 6% is not a logical place to go. Even today, consumers pay more to the government in direct taxes than they do to actual profits for oil companies, and that doesn’t begin the discussion of how much the absurdly high taxes on these companies pass along on the consumer end. But will we ever see Obama (or anyone else, for that matter) call for the abolition of gas taxes? Of course not.

* Finally, the Club for Growth makes a great statement on Bush’s legacy. For all the moronic protectionist things Bush has done over his term, his overall record has shown a definite expansion in free trade. Credit where it’s due.

More soonish.

OMG SO BUSY ALL TEH TIME.

* A new show on HBO with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross? Yes, please.

* I have no idea why Governor Lynch’s approval rating is so high in New Hampshire. He’s killed the budget (and plans to bury it completely after he gets re-elected), he’s actively working to restrict the rights of New Hampshire citizens, and yet 55% of people polled support him. Plus, with his likely challenger not running, it’s impossible to be able to tell at this point if we could oust him in November. If anything, my little time in New Hampshire has shown me that, even in areas where the government is better, you still get morons involved, whether they’re the governor or just a representative from your home city who never intended to serve in the first place and, thus, never showed up. Sigh.

* Thomas Sowell on Barack Obama. I’d call this a must read, but every Thomas Sowell piece is must read.

* Also, a telling story on Obama’s actions when it counts. Barack Obama is often very fraudulent, this is just another story to add to the list. Is this what we can expect?

* Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek parses the recent story about benefit costs and how they’re allegedly hurting workers. I agree with his analysis, to be frank.

* Fox deserves a massive amount of respect for refusing to pay an FCC fine for indecency. The sooner the FCC gets knocked down a peg, the better off we all are.

* The other big news I’m two days behind on is the Supreme Court ruling in Medellin v. Texas. A pretty complicated case, I think I’m happy with the outcome, but the most interesting wrinkle that will probably be looked over? Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas all ruled against President Bush, and Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer with the President. Go figure. More here, if this is as confusing as you think.

* Hugo Chavez says anyone but McCain. Sounds like a reason to vote for McCain to me…

More later…

Cuh-razy busy. I’m glad I spent an hour writing last night.

* Finally. The fact that it took the Justice Department 13 months to approve the XM/Sirius merger is completely ridiculous on all counts. It now requires FCC approval, hardly a given, but my goodness it should have NEVER taken this long to do.

* The best marriages are those where women marry men who are less attractive than themselves, research has found. Another reason to be glad I married up.

* Again, your campaign music video sucks. Stop making them.

* A Washington Post piece on how both candidates have been artificially inflating their roles. I’m glad the Post and paint this the way they do instead of, you know, calling them out on their crap. Alas, there’s a Republican to beat, so…

* Speaking of embellishment, it’s not hard to forget that Hillary Clinton is a master. This is why having the internet is so great - people generally don’t get away with stuff anymore. Permutations of this video, which show Hillary Clinton completely making up a story about her trip to Bosnia as First Lady, forced her to somewhat retract the story, but in her typical Clinton way. But hey, those of us on the right have known this to be a Clinton MO for a decade plus now - we’re glad to have the left on board, plenty of room on the bandwagon.

* It’s too bad we could never see this on American television. A debate between a black magic shaman and an Indian rationalist turned ugly when the rationalist challenged the shaman to kill him live on television using black magic. Two hours later, the shaman failed, the television station stayed with it the whole time, and the rationalist lives to tell the story. Very bizarre.

* After finally having an empty enough stomach to read more about the Richardson endorsement, it makes me wonder why I even entertained the idea of supporting him:

“I am very loyal to the Clintons. I served under President Clinton. But I served well. And I served the country well. And he gave me that opportunity,” Richardson told “Fox News Sunday.”

“But you know … it shouldn’t just be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton,” he said.

You tell ‘em, Bill.

* Real-life Rickrolling. I love it.

* Why shouldn’t I be worried about that California ruling on homeschools again?

* The Washington Post also offered an op-ed on a perspective on Jeremiah Wright from a black minister. Sure, he doesn’t speak for everyone, but the broader point is that neither does Wright. Also, a rightfully vicious piece by Christopher Hitchens on the Wright speech. The money shot?:

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed, which is why I am slightly surprised that Obama got away with it so easily. (Yet why do I say I am surprised? He still gets away with absolutely everything.)”

Hitchens points out that Obama’s grandmother is alive, although not entirely well, at 85 years old. I’m wondering how she feels under that bus…

* National Review’s Campaign Spot breaks down the raw vote totals in the Democratic race.

* Finally, a pessimistic look at New Hampshire prospects coming this fall. I’ll try not to light myself on fire.

Happy opening day!

Gah!

* Michael Barone breaks down the superdelegate issue. I think it’s going to be impossible for the Democrats to finish up things before the convention - either they’re going to go with a known commodity in Clinton or an unknown in Obama, and if they’re leaning toward the unknown, they’re going to wait until he’s as fully vetted as possible - the Democrats can’t afford for Obama to have another Wright skeleton in his closet, and I’d imagine that fear is palpable, if not unspoken. That’s what the superdelegates are for, right? Don’t buy the Politico hype - the superdelegates have a role, and never underestimate the ability of the Democratic Party to shoot itself in the foot.

* QandO on why Glen Greenwald is a hack.

* Patterico had two excellent posts this weekend: First, a little straight talk on McCain and the whole Saddam/Al Queda thing that the Los Angeles Times decided to hammer home. Even I didn’t know of many of the quotes coming directly from the 9/11 Commission. Secondly, a great takedown of an Obama endorsement from a so-called Republican. Makes me wish I didn’t have such a visceral reaction to John McCain.

* Massachusetts schools aren’t failing, they’re simply “Commonwealth priorities.” I hate self-esteem sugarcoating.

* Many of you were right: Albany’s screwed. Spitzer’s replacement may have to step down for his own corruption issues, and the next guy in line is close to being indicted as well? Yikes.

* The Washington Post on a possible reality of an Obama presidency. I must say - calling your allies “so-called” won’t help matters, he’s right.

* My favorite story in ages: red light cameras are being shut down in some places because they’re too effective and end up being a drain on revenues as a result. Again: why do people wonder why I don’t trust law enforcement?

* Heavy but cool if you can parse it: a look at a possible fall in oil prices. Lots of stuff on petrodollars and investment and peak oil and on and on.

* Hugo Chavez moves to shut down the last remaining critical news outlet. That’s what you get when you try to stand up to a coked-up dictator.

* Bill Richardson endorsed Obama last week. I’m disappointed, but not shocked.

* A great story from inside the organ donation market. An interesting note from the piece - if every cadaver had its organs harvested and handed out, we still wouldn’t have enough. As creepy as it sounds, selling organs still seems like a better idea all around.

* GraniteGrok on how John Sununu’s challenger is completely stupid when it comes to oil prices. Shaheen is typical of the current Democratic/liberal mindset on economic issues right now - no forward thinking, and no clear progress on ideas that can solve the problems we’re facing.

* A pretty great story about how one of my favorite films, His Girl Friday, only found an audience after it slipped into the public domain. It’s somewhat presented as anti-copyright extension limits, and while I appreciate the public domain and the benefits it gives people on a whole, I’m also very pro-getting-people-compensated for what they do. It’s a very hard line to draw, especially in a situation that is inherently arbitrary, but I’m not convinced Disney should have to worry about losing Mickey Mouse while it’s still around, nor am I necessarily convinced that, say, Mark Twain’s great-great-grandkids are entitled to money for copies sold of Huckleberry Finn (note: I know Twain’s work is in the public domain).

* Are burglaries declining because of cheap imports?

Whew. That should do it for now.

* The Wright story doesn’t want to seem to go away, even though I’d kind of wish it would at this point. The downside of the rapid-fire news cycle we’re in is that if a story persists for a week, it feels like an eternity. First, Jonah Goldberg had some good words that I liked regarding a comparison between Obama’s speech Tuesday and Romney’s speech. Michael Goodwin at thr New York Daily News had a great piece on the issues of doubt the Wright flap creates around Obama. Finally, I’ve been trying to cut back on my cursing on this blog, but there’s really no better way to put it: Andrew Sullivan is an asshole.

* Greatest. Case. Name. Ever.

* I’m hearing nothing but good news regarding the Supreme Court case about the Washington, DC gun ban. Some good coverage: Reason on some highlights, and, for those inclined, the oral arguments. I feel like the only non-lawyer utterly fascinated by these, but hey.

* A pretty bad gaffe by Obama: his grandmother as a “typical white person.” You’ll recall that his white grandmother was portrayed in his speech on Tuesday as someone who had some racially insensitive thoughts. Yeah, I’ll give Obama the benefit of the doubt here, but if he’s trying to convince people that he doesn’t agree with Wright, this isn’t going to help.

* I voted for Frank Guinta for mayor, and enthusiastically at that, but this is a bit ridiculous. The anti-drug sentiment in this country has got to end, and this is the type of ridiculousness that causes problems.

* On the bright side, I live in the safest state in the United States (no thanks to our current leadership), and I’m proud of our northern neighbors for fighting the good fight.

* Price-gouging laws are stupid. This is stupid - if you don’t want to spend the extra cash on gas, drive down the street.

* Apparently, your state is safer if your government does the majority of parenting for you. I love surveys like this.

* Hidden costs in our ethanol push. My father-in-law sent along a message in the theme of “we’re the only nation that burns its food away.” I’m not sure how significantly true that is, but the fact that we do it at all is kind of pathetic.

* Another roadblock in the establishment of an .xxx domain. This seems like such a no-brainer to me…

* Finally, I’m not one for “omg that band sold out” stuff, but the redoing of the Black Kids song “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You” is kind of crappy. The original version had a lot of messy charm to it, but this sounds almost overly polished. The song is, thankfully, still awesome, but there’s something to be said about a little less polish.

* A pretty decent overview of the Obama speech from Michael Medved (thanks Melvin). After not thinking about it for a while, I still think the Obama speech was better than the general consensus on the right appears to believe, but that general consensus might be that turning point to uniting behind McCain the way they would against Clinton. Still, there is room for discussion as to what the speech said and accomplished, and Medved does raise a few interesting questions. Other interesting things I read in response to the piece: Caroline Glick’s powerful personal story which speaks to how many of us would have liked to see Obama respond, John Derbyshire at National Review picking apart some of Obama’s statements.

* Ron Paul is angry that the GOP hasn’t looked to his base of supporters. Well, duh, what did you expect?

* Today’s the 5 year anniversary of the Iraq invasion. I’ve read more than my share of opinions on it at this point that I won’t bother rehashing them all here - although my position as to what “good” foriegn policy is has changed since the war began in 2003, I still think Iraq was a good move to make, and still think we’re in a better position to finish it properly now than we were back in May and June of 2003. I still wonder how things would have worked out differently had we partitioned the country off, but at this point I’m more concerned with finishing right and getting out than bailing and having to fix it again later.

* Marijuana decriminalization of an ounce or less was passed in the New Hampshire house this week. Another reason to love this state. Unfortunately, Gov. Lynch plans to veto it - another great reason to vote him out in November.

* Jonah Goldberg notes the hypocrisy between Obama’s position on Wright and on Don Imus. Don Imus makes an insensitive comment with humorous intent and Obama things he should be fired. Wright makes years and years of comments that are as ugly - if not uglier - and we’re supposed to let that slide. Yeah, I think there’s a bit of a problem there. Obama did say that ” there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group.” I suppose simply being an advisor absolves all that.

* Scientology doesn’t get a restraining order against Anonymous. I’m more amused by the Anonymous/Scientology feud than anything else (I’m not virulently against Scientology, and 4chan runs a good TF2 server, so…), but seeing this back and forth is great.

* Drew Carey at Reason.TV on the human organ market. The fact that we’re so backwards in regards to organ transplants as a society is something that depresses me a lot.

* Finally, mp3 audiobooks at libraries are coming sooner than I would have anticipated. I hope this trend continues.

* The arrogance of Barack Obama. I’m not as bothered by this as Fournier is, or as many bloggers appear to be. What does throw me is that Obama is arrogant and it doesn’t bother his supporters - wasn’t the arrogance of George W. Bush a big problem? Is it just that you like what Obama’s arrogant about that it’s okay?

* Barack Obama is a politician. Congressional Quarterly’s election blog, Ground Game, covers what is obvious, but misses the fact that Obama presents himself as not-a-politician. That’s where the problem sits.

* I expect this to be the political meme of the summer: “What’s wrong with the beer we got?!” Must be heard to be believed, skip ahead to a little after 5:30 to get the juicy stuff. Short story? Alabama debates allowing an increase in the alcohol content of beer, which would expand the beer market and provide some more options, and one politician takes some offense to it.

* Have i mentioned lately how glad I am to not live in Massachusetts anymore? The Mass legislature is going to consider a bill to make it illegal to sell M/AO rated games to minors. Glad you got that budget situation worked out there.

* McCain is not only against Universal Health Care, but makes a fairly reasoned approach about the issue:

“Well, I think that’s one of the big differences we have about the role of government. If you think that the government should mandate anything to the American people than besides a safety net, and I don’t view it as a safety net. I view Medicare and Medicaid as a safety net,” McCain said. “But to mandate that all Americans are required to do something then that’s just not within the fundamental philosophy that I have about the role of government in America.”

While I’m not generally a fan of the “safety net,” that’s probably the best argument anyone could put out there in the current climate. Cheers to you, Sen. McCain.

* A lot of the spin on this one has been about how ridiculous Comcast is, but I happen to think they have a point in their lawsuit against the FCC challenging the “30% rule” which disallows the cable carrier from having more than 30% of the market. Not only does such a rule not appear to apply to groups like AT&T, but all it’s going to do is screw the current Comcast customers - without allowing Comcast to grow, it means that 100% of any future improvements to the system or cost increases are stuck on current customers rather than Comcast being able to grow their way out of it. While the FCC could care less about exclusive cable carrier contracts with municipalities, this is a very bizarre position to take.

* I have a severe problem with the use of minors in any politicking, especially very young ones. So as if this video wasn’t creepy enough, the addition of a bunch of kids parroting talking points their parents fed to them is really disturbing and disgusting to me. Can we make an agreement to, you know, NOT do this?

* Zogby noting that Nader’s making some progress. Good thing Zogby’s typically pretty far off these days, eh?

* A question from National Review: if it was so important for Senate Democrats to push a resolution condemning Presidential candidates speaking at Bob Jones University, why the reluctance on Obama/Wright now?

* China’s been especially brutal with Tibet over the last week. It’s a damn good thing that the US State Department removed them from the Human Rights Violators list days earlier, eh?. Moronic.

* Walter Williams had a scathing op-ed regarding ethanol over the weekend. The money shot: “If Congress and President Bush say we need less reliance on oil and greater use of renewable fuels, then why would Congress impose a stiff tariff, 54 cents a gallon, on ethanol from Brazil?”

* A few reactions to the Obama speech I found interesting. I don’t endorse them, but they’re a different reaction from my own: National Review, Reason.

* One word for Jim Cramer: Ouch. I have no real input on the Bear Sterns issue - whatever is going to happen is going to happen, we’re much better set up and diversified as a nation to handle it, though.

* Today, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the Washington, DC gun ban. I’m using the newly adopted Elmore Rule on this one - if you want something good to come of something that might work out very well, pretend it’s not happening. So instead, let’s get excited about The Supremes taking on an FCC case!

* Michael Stipe is gay. I highlight this not because it’s news, but more to laugh at the fact that it’s being treated as news even though we’ve all known it since the early 1990s.

* Thomas Sowell on Obama. This was posted pre-speech, but it’s still resonant.

* Fred Thompson to debate John Edwards. I so hope this gets televised or ends up on the web. Thompson would have made a great candidate for President, IMO.

* An interesting set of musings on why the “peace movement” has failed.

* Finally, humorous link of the day: Ludacris’s Rap Map, showing where his women at according to his song “Area Codes.”

I think that’s enough.

* An interesting report from the Washington Timesabout some minor backlash NPR recieved for its “Conversations With Conservatives” series at the end of February.

* Not shockingly, Obama’s talking point that some CEOs make more in 10 minutes than the average worker does in a year is, with one to three exceptions depending on which metric you use, completely false. This is why populism is dangerous - it makes the mistake of either assuming anecdote as the clear reality (see: every John Edwards speech ever, Michelle Obama) or having to purposefully distort reality to make what may have otherwise been a valid, debatable point about a specific issue.

* Obama on the war. In a way, it does a good job explaining why Obama’s current Iraq strategy is so schizophrenic.

* Someone needs to reeducate the Associated Press regarding fair use principles. I think my favorite part is the probable concurrent contradiction by the organization.

* Kos blogger “on strike” because Daily Kos is apparently in the tank for Obama or something. It’s funny - the Republicans had a more diverse slate of candidates, more concern about the future of their party and ideology, and yet largely avoided this sort of infighting.

* Howie Carr’s yearly check-in with politicians in Massachusetts who call for higher taxes was published this week. One of the quirks in Massachusetts’s tax system is that the standard income tax rate is 5.3%. It should be 5% per a citizen vote, but Massachusetts politicians don’t care about Massachusetts residents. ANYWAY, at some point, an optional 5.8% rate was instituted - if you would like to pay the higher rate, the opportunity is there. Not surprisingly, very few people do pay the higher optional rate, including those who say that the state’s finances are in disarray and that higher taxes are needed. I love it.

* A minor follow-up to the Obama/Wright thing - while this was meant to apply to the Rezko situation (hardly finished, by the way), it applies here, too: Obama says that, “In a dangerous world, it’s judgment that matters.” If his “judgment” is to not only stick with this preacher for as long as he did, but also a) talk about possibly having to distance himself from Wright, only b) waiting until the mainstream press gets ahold of it, what does this say about Obama’s judgment? This is his standard, after all.

* More LiveJournal nonsense: censoring interests. Good times, SUP, really.

TGIF indeed.

* From Southern Appeal, McCain has his own preacher problem - John Hagee is a bigoted, offensive mess of a human being, but since his ire is toward the Catholic Church, no one seems to care much - surprise surprise. Still, McCain shows the right way to distance yourself from an offensive minister you’re close to: “I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it. And we can’t have that in this campaign. We’re trying to unite the country. We’re uniting the country, not dividing it.” Compare that statement with Obama’s campaign statements on Rev. Wright - “Sen. Obama has said before that he profoundly disagrees with some of the statements and positions of Rev. Wright… Sen. Obama deplores divisive statements, whether they come from his supporters, the supporters of his opponent, talk radio or anywhere else.’’ This isn’t even Obama coming out and saying it, but having one of his campaign people make the statement for him. When Obama has the opportunity to repudiate the statements, he passes it off as a guy “on the brink of retirement” and can’t write him off completely. This is not good for Obama, and not good in a general election race the longer this simmers. Melvin Udall said it best in the comments earlier today:

Obama is an inhumanly charismatic man who is preaching a message of hope and change. Yet the two people closest to him in the world by his own admission, his wife and pastor, are angry, bitter, divisive, resentful, America hating, and certainly the latter, racist. If the two people closest to this man, who preaches hope and change, spread the message they’re spreading, this man shouldn’t be made leader of anything. He either can’t influence those closest to him with his message of optimism, or his message is entirely a fabrication.

* The Volohk Conspiracy on whether Article V makes it too hard to amend the Constitution. Uh, wasn’t that the point?

* An interesting story on the BBC’s blasphemy guidelines.

* An ahead-of-its-time astronomical calendar. Built between 150-100 B.C., the technology was better than anything that would be developed for more than a thousand years, including some parts that weren’t developed in the Western world until the 1700s. Absolutely incredible stuff.

* From Reason, random drug testing for high school athletes shot down due to a stronger-than-the-federal-government privacy law. Nice.

* The top 10 most edible Pokemon.

* More problematic earmarks for Obama. Remember, the problem isn’t the earmarking, it’s that Obama claims to be above all of this, not be influenced by lobbyists, and be different from the Same Old Washington Politics. The more we learn, the more it becomes evident that Obama is one of the firmest examples we have of being more of the same.

* This also ties into comments from this morning: Tom Coburn (writing in National Review) on the Founding Fathers and earmarks:

* The Democrats: for strengthening the middle class except when it’s time to act. Also, thanks for that tax increase, guys. There’s still time to reverse it, thankfully.

* Thi