Monday, November 30, 2009

Oh yeah

Why GM is screwed:

Monday, November 23, 2009

The murder of common sense, continued

"A statement from the American Family Association explained, "Tampa Police arrested Robert Johnson in February 2008 for hanging out in the locker room–restroom area at Lifestyle Fitness and watching women in an undressed state. The City of Tampa's 'gender identity' ordinance could provide a legal defense to future cases like this if the accused claims that his gender is female."


Ahem. "...claims that his gender is female". The english language is the most expressive in the world, and yet it is incapable of capturing the doublethink inherent in that statement.

"This ordinance will give lawful protection to cross-dressing males to patronize women's restrooms," the Florida Family Association said in a statement. "And men dressed as women or women who perceive themselves as men can also use men's restrooms."

More here

What the hell is it with the radical left? This is the flip side of the hate crime coin. These are what normally would be crimes, but that are OK in this instance because of the mental state of the perpetrator. Utopian fantasies aside, can anyone think of a real-world environment where this will not cause problems?

Friday, November 06, 2009

Why so serious?

I've been reading some of the output of Mises.org, a school of economics that adheres to the 'Austrian School', which makes a lot more intuitive sense to me than some competing models. Anyway, a recent article had this to say:

To solve a problem caused by malinvestments resulting from easy credit at 1 percent interest rates, the Fed is supplying even more easy money at 0.25 percent. None of the malinvestments have been allowed to be liquidated.

Housing prices have been propped up, banks and auto companies have been bailed out, regulations have been increased, debt covenants have been violated, unemployment insurance has been extended. In addition, there's the cap-and-trade bill, the healthcare bill, and a "czar" around every corner.

All of these increase the already-humongous burden on wealth creators. In short, the problems that caused the Great Recession have been compounded. Real output must then necessarily decline. How can anyone logically assert that we are in the beginning of a recovery?

I am less than sanguine regarding the immediate future. And that quote summarizes why pretty nicely.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Well, if you put it that way

COST OF HEALTHCARE

“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”
- Thomas Sowell