When does it get better?

Marco Rubio: Obama is a "left-wing strong man."

Volt vs Prius Plug-in

CNN says that the Chevy Volt is "obsolete" compared to Toyota Prius Plug-in. Well, It's definitely cheaper.

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers

Wal-Mart is offering a 10 cent-a-gallon discount on gas with their credit card or gift card.

Hold up a mirror

“Mr. President, pick up a mirror and look into it, because what you see will be exactly what you are so critical of—yourself—you are the problem.”

Mr. President, you need to admit you don’t know how to fix America, and what you thought would work, didn’t, isn’t working and won’t work.  You were wrong, and still are.  Mr. President, you need to stop going to fund raisers to reach $1 billion you can spend on your reelection campaign and do your job. You need to retire your golf clubs and roll up your sleeves and live up to some of that soaring rhetoric that got you into this job—you know, the one you have learned you were woefully underprepared to do.

The economy's the worry

Team Obama is very nervous. 

Bachmann vs Stephanopoulos

Michele Bachmann and George Stephanopoulos have an argument going over whether the Founding Fathers worked to end slavery. Guess who else made that argument? Abraham Lincoln in debates over the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

"We don't estimate speeches"

Krauthammer on Obama's speech in Iowa about American manufacturing:

Well, this is another speech from Obama in another state that’ll be important next year that he’s done entirely to boost himself politically. And the reason he’s making speeches is that he’s run out of ideas on what to do about unemployment. He’s had his trillion-dollar stimulus, he’s had the bailouts, he’s had the “cash for clunkers” program, he’s had two binges of the Fed printing a lot of money. It hasn’t worked.

A few weeks ago, Paul Ryan asked the head of the CBO to score – to give the numbers for, the debt numbers for – the Obama alternate [budget] framework, which he offered in the speech [on] April 13. And Elmendorf responded immortally, “We don’t estimate speeches.”

And that’ll be the epitaph of the Obama administration. “We don’t estimate speeches,” meaning, “We don’t put numbers on, [we don't] even try to score, we don’t take seriously — speeches that are all about effect, not about substance; [speeches that are] all about generalities with no reality, economic reality, underneath; speeches that are essentially done to attack the Republicans; and, in the end, speeches intended to get Obama reelected next year so he can make more speeches on the economy in his second term.”

Shovel-ready

Obamanomics is shovel-ready. That is, ready for burial.

Jerry Guess new PCSSD super

Jerry Guess, former school superintendent at Camden-Fairview, will be the new super at Pulaski County Special School District in a few days. The state has taken over this mismanaged and broke district and Guess has the job of pulling it together. According to this article he faced the same challenge at Camden-Fairview and in fact faced some of the same players.

Rex Nelson on catfish restaurants

Rex Nelson has a terrific article on where to get catfish in Arkansas.
You can read more here about Murry's Restaurant on Highway 70 near Hazen.

The lawyer surplus by state

TaxProf has lawyer surplus figures for every state using 2009 data. Across the country, we had twice as many people who passed the bar as there were openings for attorneys. The worst state with an over-supply of lawyers was New York with 7,687 lawyers too many. Arkansas has a surplus of 75. Only Nebraska and Wisconsin has a shortage. DC is listed as a shortage, but read the comments before you believe it.

Tax Prof does not show every state; if your state is missing see here.

Henry Clay: The Essential American

I've always been an admirer of Henry Clay. This new biography comes highly recommended: Henry Clay: The Essential American by David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler. Clay is little known today, but many parents at one time gave his name to their sons, showing how popular he was.

Social Security's bad news

Three things you can't say about Social Security. 

1. You can't say any more that it does not increase the deficit. The red ink in permanent.
2. You can't blame its problems on the boomers. Their kids are not having enough kids themselves.
3. You can't say that the recent 2 percentage point cut in SS taxes is temporary.

Anti-Mormon bias persists

Because of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, the questions of anti-Mormon bias has reappeared. Political bias against other groups has apparently fallen, but not for Mormons. To understand this, I believe, you have to look back at the history of the LDS in the 19th century.

Bias news coverage

Here's the kind of news we get: NBC goes ape over Michele Bachmann's John Wayne gaffe, but has yet to mention Obama's Medal of Honor error.

Florence Henderson's tell all

This must be the Florence Henderson memoir that has been in the news lately: Life Is Not a Stage: From Broadway Baby to a Lovely Lady and Beyond.

New Arkansas blog

Jason Tolbert, formerly of the Tolbert Report, and Michael Cook, who worked for Bill Halter, will start a new blog on Arkansas politics and culture, according to this announcement. The blog is not up and running yet, but it will be associated with Talk Business. I guess it's supposed to appeal to both sides of the political spectrum, but I wonder how this will work out. In my opinion most people read what they agree with and ignore the rest.

Blagojevich is guilty on 17 of 20 counts.

Medicare: the chain letter

Is Medicare a good deal? 

In terms of dollars in and dollars out, Medicare breaks down this way:

• A typical 85-year-old is going to get back $2.69 in benefits for every dollar paid into the system in the form of premiums and taxes—a good deal by any measure.
• People turning 65 today don’t do nearly as well — they get back $1.25 for every dollar they pay in.
• The average worker under age 50 loses under the system — with a 45-year-old getting back only 95 cents on the dollar.
• That’s better than the deal 25-year-olds get, however; they can expect to get back 75 cents for every dollar they contribute.

Why does Medicare favor the old and discriminate against the young? Because like Social Security, Medicare finances work like a chain letter. Although workers have been repeatedly told that their payroll taxes are being securely held in trust funds, they are actually being spent—the very minute, the very hour, the very day they arrive in the Treasury’s bank account.
No money has been saved. No investments have been made. No cash has been stashed away in bank vaults. Today’s payroll tax payments are being spent to pay medical bills for today’s retirees. And if any surplus materializes, it’s spent on other government programs. As a result, when today’s workers reach the eligibility age of 65, they will be able to get benefits only if future taxpayers pay (higher) taxes to support them.
Just as Bernie Madoff was able to offer early investors above-market returns, early retirees got a bonanza from Social Security and Medicare. That’s the way chain-letter finance works. But in the long run, there’s no free lunch. That’s why things look so dismal for young people entering the labor market today.

Modern debt slavery

Many people have rung up huge debts in pursuing college degrees. Now they are in low-wage jobs, and bankruptcy will not wipe out their student loans. But why would anyone go into debt for something like $140,000 to pursue a political science degree? You know you will never get that back.

Cop app?

Want a smartphone app that helps you keep tabs on the cops?

South Carolina gang attack

Headline: "Teenage gang charged under lynching law after 'savage attack on 18-year-old student."
This crime was horrible but I don't know about using the term "lynching" in the headline.

Are you a flake?

Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann, "Are you a flake?" Not a fair question considering how many real flakes we have around who don't get that question. Wallace apologized here.

Florence Henderson's crabs

Florence Henderson, aka Carol Brady of the Brady Bunch, has told a story that is a total surprise.

Then we will have fall and winter

Michael Barone: What past leader does Obama most resemble? Lincoln, FDR, Carter? What about  Chauncey Gardiner, a Peter Sellers character in the 1979 movie Being There? Well, I haven't seen that movie, but you may want to read the article.

Way behind its time

This morning the ADG has an article called "Way ahead of its time," paying homage to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union and the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza, Arkansas. Arkansas State University is the museum's sponsor. In fairness, I have not visited the museum, but I am thoroughly familiar with the subject. We should recall the agricultural history of Arkansas, which includes tenant farmers and sharecroppers in Delta cotton fields. But to me most current discussions lose a sense of perspective. Let's focus on what's really important.

While the Southern Tenant Farmers Union played a role in Depression Arkansas, we tend to exaggerate it today. I knew H.L. Mitchell, the co-founder of the union, and I personally heard him play stress how he was ahead of Martin Luther King in running an integrated union. He probably did not originally intend to integrate the union; it just made sense because the union was such a small group. But he did not see that as the key function of the union at the time.

The STFU was behind its time, however. First of all, socialism did not work and had never worked. More importantly, the union wanted the government to support small farms. By the 1930s, southern agriculture was on the cusp of a major revolution. We already had too many farmers farming too little land. Small farms were highly inefficient. That would have to change, not remain the same. After World War II, southern agriculture meant larger farms but fewer farms. Mechanization was coming to the South like it had come to the Midwest and other regions. Nobody wanted to to farm work anymore. We get nostalgic about it today as long as we don't have to do it.

In fact, the creation of the STFU was prompted by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration -- better known as the AAA -- a unsuccessful government attempt to control the price and production of cotton. The AAA was the created by people who favored large planters; they ignored the role of farm labor and sharecroppers. This shows what can happen when the government gets involved.

So what's really important here is not that the union was "bi-racial" but that it was part of an agricultural revolution. The role it played in that revolution was not positive. The solution to rural poverty was that people had to leave farming. And they did that themselves without government help. They joined the Great Migration and moved to California, Illinois, and Michigan, and other states that had jobs. 

I want to add that this topic was actually discovered during the 1960s, and many historians wrote about it. I think they covered the subject very well. Look for Don Grubb's Cry from the Cotton and David Eugene Conrad's The Forgotten Farmers.

Iowa polling

Romney and Bachmann are basically tied in Iowa polling.
But Romney's skipping Iowa anyway. 

McEnroe-Borg again

We are observing, and maybe celebrating, the 30th anniversary of the McEnroe-Borg rivalry with a new HBO program and two new books. This NYT article links to the books.

Why no hyperinflation?

Economist Robert Higgs has an article on why hyperinflation has not occurred.

Al Gore's failure

Instapundit has a post on Al Gore and his failed climate movement. Gore's own behavior shows that he was a hypocrite.

Women's gaydar

Women really do have gaydar. I knew that. Read the comments. It may not be anything mysterious.

Rohwer Relocation Center

The National Park Service has awarded a $250,000 grant to preserve two monuments at Rohwer, the Japanese-American internment camp in Desha County, Arkansas.
See here for more information. See my post for May 16, 2010.

The world's greatest orator

James Taranto on the world's greatest orator.

The Death of Retirement

Retirement as we have known it is dead. There are a lot of reasons to believe it is.

Spooky and creepy

A French woman marries her dead fiancé. He was killed two years ago in a car wreck. Well, I hope they're happy.

Minot, ND, flooding

Instapundit has an interesting story on the flooding in Minot, ND, with a political twist.

The only silver lining to this disaster has been the response of the community. I am not from this part of the country (I hail from the East Coast) and nowhere that I have lived has ever faced this kind of adversity. But I would be proud to call this town my home. I have not seen one person whine or complain. I have not heard one hopeless person ask when the government or FEMA would rescue them. The town mobilized itself days ahead of the impending disaster and began planning for the worst; secondary levees and sandbag walls went up with breathtaking speed, and thousands of homes were evacuated without incident. Think of it as the anti-Katrina. Once the townspeople saw that their worst fears were about to be realized, and their homes and livelihoods destroyed, instead of giving up, they have only redoubled their efforts to save what can be saved. Their stoic determination in the face of absolute catastrophe amazes me.
I think liberals view conservatives and libertarians as some sort of Randian caricature: every man for himself, all government is evil, etc. But this, to me, is closer to the truth. Not a community that shuns the government, but a community that is willing to fight for itself rather than wait for the federal government to show up with a checkbook. It will probably take years, but I have no doubt that this place will rebuild itself.

See this AP story. 

Columbo, RIP

Peter Falk, who played Columbo, has died at age 83. 

UPDATE: The complete first season of Columbo, 1971. Here's a sample:

Harry Potter and eBooks

J. K. Rowlings, author of the Harry Potter books, will put out her own eBooks. This will be devastating to brick and mortar bookstores, which sold a lot of books for her. She will use her own website here.

More Prius hybrids are on the way

75,000 Toyota Prius hybrids are headed to U.S. by the end of 2011.

Stop IT!

I came across this Bob Newhart skit.

Fire and Ice

I watched the HBO documentary called Fire and Ice, about the McEnroe-Borg rivalry of the early 1980s. See Wikipedia. I thought it was excellent. I hated the hair styles of that period, especially McEnroe's. McEnroe's behavior was absolutely outrageous. But today he's a great tennis commentator. Borg in later years said that when he thinks of those matches, it's somehow like he lived another life. I feel that way  too, when I look back over many years.

What to me was amusing was that after ten years of retirement Borg re-entered competition and did not do well at all. He persisted in using the old, style wooden racket that was popular earlier. In the meantime, the tennis world had switched to larger, graphite rackets. I've seen this pattern in other people who can't adapt to new technology, new computers, etc. Some of Borg's behavior is completely unexplainable.

Liberal nostalgia

Michael Barone: Liberals are nostalgic for World War II.

So the Obama Democrats, partially successful in expanding the size and scope of government, largely unsuccessful in reviving private-sector unions, are on the defensive politically. As Mr. Levison and other liberals recognize, most Americans don’t accept Keynesian economics and don’t favor expansion of government as they did during the Midcentury Moment. Thus the Democrats’ 2012 campaign strategy seems aimed more at discrediting Republican alternatives than seeking endorsement of their own policies.
But there is a more fundamental contradiction here, for the Midcentury Moment’s confidence in big institutions was inextricably connected with an acceptance of a cultural uniformity that almost all of today’s liberals, and probably most non-liberals, would find unacceptable.

Fake warning labels

It turns out that the new warning photos for cigarette packs are fake. Can't the government get anything right?

Krauthammer on Huntsman

Krauthammer on Jon Huntsman: "I think the rollout today — the speech — was simply remarkably unremarkable. There was not much in it. I found it fairly shallow — a stringing together of clichés. There wasn’t a memorable line or an idea."

Debt crisis looms

CBO: We will face a European-style debt crisis if we don't get the deficit under control. And the Biden committee is just diddling around the edges. Even worse Democrats just want to spend more.

Wow! 8 percent like Congress

Rasmussen: Only 8 percent of likely voters think that Congress is doing a good job. Just 8 percent! I'm surprised it is that high.

Americans Worse Now Than When Obama Inaugurated by 44%-34% Margin in Poll - Bloomberg

Americans Worse Now Than When Obama Inaugurated by 44%-34% Margin in Poll - Bloomberg

Benevolent migration

Ann Althouse has a post about a NYT story on the "reverse" migration of blacks from New York City back to the South. This is "news" for the Times, but it's been going on for years. Why? The South is more benevolent. The stereotypes are all wrong. Plus NYC's high taxes and high crime.

An old John Grisham book, The Last Juror, has a story line about a black family whose members are very successful and make a point of coming back home to Mississippi. They are of course not migrants.

The Great Recession: worse than it looks

Today, over 14 million people are unemployed. We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression.

Slip sliding away

Only 3 in 10 will vote to re-elect Obama.

Desegregation delay granted

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a stay in the Pulaski County desegregation case. So we go on and on. But of course they get to keep their extra desegregation money from the state.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has argued for a long time that the districts are not using these funds for desegregation purposes, but they are filling holes in their budgets with it. And they are most concerned about keeping the flow of money coming their way, so they don't want the desegregation case to end. See this recent statement.

The ADG this morning quoted him as saying, "The basis for the State’s current supplemental payments to the districts was as a remedy for alleged constitutional violations in student to school assignments.

“Rather than being necessary to remedy segregation, the court-ordered supplemental desegregation distributions had become an impediment, encouraging the districts to remain in litigation as long as possible in order to continue receiving funds.”

According to McDaniel, the districts have sufficient financial reserves to absorb the loss of desegregation funds. Their attorneys of course have denied McDaniel’s argument.

National security begins at home

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: Why do we have more troops on the Korean border than on the Arizona border? The numbers are 28,500 vs. 1,200.

What else is baked into Obamacare?

AP Report: Obamacare will allow millions of middle-class people to get "nearly free insurance meant for the poor..." For example, early retirees could have an annual income of $64,000 and still get Medicaid. But nobody seems to be worried about this "anomaly."

Romney and Huntsman

We now have two Mormons running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Althouse on government research

Ann Althouse: "By the way, I'm never astonished by research that yields the result that research ought to continue in a direction that government will fund because it tends to show that more government is needed."

"Smoking can kill you"

The FDA has released a series of graphic labels for cigarette packs. Good!

What good did the stimulus do?

Did the Obama administration prevent another Great Depression? They of course make that claim, but the evidence says NO.

The conclusion is that in claiming to have staved off a Depression, the White House and its supporters seem to be engaging in a bit of historical revisionism.
Economists weren't predicting a Depression.
White House economists forecast in January 2009 that, even without a stimulus, unemployment would top out at just 8.8% — well below the 10.8% peak during the 1981-82 recession, and nowhere near Depression-era unemployment levels.
The same month, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that, absent any stimulus, the recession would end in "the second half of 2009." The recession officially ended in June 2009, suggesting that the stimulus did not have anything to do with it.

PCSSD update

The Arkansas Times has a good summary of the PCSSD news.

No "under God" in Pledge

NBC has apologized for omitting the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance during its telecast of the U.S. Open yesterday.

PCSSD taken over by state

State education officials have announced their takeover of the Pulaski County Special School District. The district's finances are in a mess. The Arkansas Department of Education also removed the superintendent, Charles Hopson, and dissolved the school board. At the same time, the department took over the Helena-West Helena district. The PCSSD, as it's known, is one of the Little Rock area districts that is involved in a dispute over desegregation funding.

What did airport security do with it?

The Texas State Surplus Store will sell you the stuff that airport security defines as "willfully surrendered."

Too many wars

The Hill: A poll reports that 72 percent of Americans think we are involved in too many wars. That is certainly my view, and we can't afford it. We are borrowing most of the money to fight these wars, so it needs to stop.

Sex-bias at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart has won a victory in its sex-bias case.

Diet and exercise

10 Myths of Diet and Exercise. These ideas are very good. I've learn to watch both calories and carbs, but they are very different.

Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy is the new Tiger Woods.

U.S. Open golf

I was watching the U.S. Open, and it irritated me that Bob Costas kept breaking in with baseball news. Does that many any sense?

A hard call

The Kindle vs real books. Everyone seems to assume that ebooks will win out, and I guess that's right.

Losing our way

"We're raising young people who are, by and large historically illiterate." I can't argue with that. School are teaching kids the wrong things.

Can Obama save his presidency?

Walter Russell Mead: Can the Obama presidency be saved? "

Americans are realistic enough to understand that the breakdown of the blue social model is a messy process and that perhaps no president can deliver a pain free transition to the next stage.  But what they aren’t hearing from President Obama is a compelling description of what has gone wrong, how it can be fixed, and how the policies he proposes will take us to the next level.
What they hear from this administration are defensive responses: Hooveresque calls for patience mingled with strange-sounding attacks on ATMs and sharp, opportunistic jabs at former President Bush.

2012 Prius V

A rave review of the new 2012 Prius V.

Pettiness at the University of Montana

Rob Natelson, a retired law professor at the University of Montana Law School, has been denied Emeritus status. This is an honor for retirees that is automatic. It does not cost anybody anything. The reason is apparently that he is a well known conservative. He has been harassed for a number of years. See the local article here. More on him is here.

Cheap airline prices

Looking for good prices on airline tickets? This article has some advice.
1. Book early, 4-6 weeks in advance.
2. Book on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Avoid the weekends.
3. Use social media if possible.
4. Remember, there are no guarantees.

AARP Pivots on Social Security Benefit Cuts

AARP has reversed itself and now favors Social Security cuts.

IBM at 100 years

IBM, believe it or not, is 100 years old. They were the pioneer in so many fields: bar codes, computers, the Thinkpad. The company's founder, Thomas J. Watson, Sr, had a motto: Think!

An Illinois problem

Most Illinois specialists won't take Medicaid patients.

Ban iPhone gig filming.

Apple is planning to disable iPhone gig filming at concerts, etc., but read the comments on how to get around this fix. I was at a luncheon and filmed one of the speakers, so what?

See Glenn Reynolds' comments. Or get a Droid.

App Wanted

The Army uses the iPad as a weapon.

Weiner will resign over sexting scandal

My Way News - AP sources: Weiner to resign over sexting scandal. So sexting is a new word.

He resigned. I'm not wasting another post on him. 

Pre-paid debit cards

Pre-paid debit cards have become very popular because of high bank fees, but these cards have their drawbacks too. I saw an offer in Wal-Mart for one of these cards with the promise of 3 cents off per gallon at the Murphy station. The activation fee was, I think, $3. My advice: check with your credit union.

David Mamet on Obama

David Mamet: “The question is, can he run on his record in 2012, and the answer is no, because it’s abysmal, He took a trillion dollars and where it went, nobody knows. He dismantled healthcare, he weakened America around the world, he sold out the State of Israel. All he’s got to run on is being a Democrat and indicting the other fellow.”

For more on Mamet see here. And here.

Don't know much about history, biology...

U.S. students don't know much about American history. Well, I never thought they did.

iPhone unlocked

Apple has started selling unlocked iPhones in the U.S.

Breaking news from Wisconsin

Ann Althouse: The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Gov. Walker and against the unions. That's the word on the street.

Google strikes deal to add Admeld to arsenal

My Way News - Google strikes deal to add Admeld to arsenal. This article also says that Google already sells more advertising than anyone else on the Internet. Google's total advertising revenue may total $30 billion this year, which is more than the entire U.S. newspaper industry. I didn't realize that.

SS wastes billions of dollars

Social Security makes $8B in improper payments. Could this be part of the problem?

Working longer is not the answer to shortfalls

Working longer will not do enough to close retirement shortfalls.

weather and cholera

Weather records can be used to predict outbreaks of cholera.
In fact, weather and cholera have been connected for a long time. See here. 

Julia, the executive protection dog

Julia, a German shepherd, costs $230,000.

Medicare and cancer

Seniors with cancer are facing dramatic increases in the cost of cancer drugs.

Alternative Minimum Tax

If you had a brush with the Alternative Minimum Tax this year, you might be interested in this.

Time and the Tiger

Tiger Woods has withdrawn from the U.S. Open. Time has caught up with him.

No coronation for Mitt

Mitt Romney may think that he's going to wait around and win as a kind of coronation candidate. You know, politics as usual. That's a mistake in my view. See here.

Dogs know, they really know

This Discovery report shows that dogs can read our minds. I've believed in canine telepathy for a long time, because I've seen it in action. I've seen them communicate telepathically too.

Ya know

Ya know, in this Fox News Special Report, which I am fond of watching, it seems like everybody is saying "Ya know." Amusing.

Guess what

You may not be able to retire until your 80s.

PCSSD is crossways with the state

A legislative panel recommends the removal of the PCSSD board. The issue seems to be extravagant travel policies when the district is already in financial distress. The state could removed the superintendent and even parcel out the district to other school districts.

No tax and no spend

The Dems' tax and spend or what used to be called pump priming does not work. Nothing is clearer than that.

Dalai Lama, Marxist

'I'm a Marxist,' Dalai Lama tells Chinese students. Well, I don't know why he didn't explain that to the students at the University of Arkansas last month.

Gene Chizik's raise

Auburn coach Gene Chizik's salary will be $3.5 million. Good but still not in Saban territory.

Judge Miller does not relent

Judge Brian Miller has denied appeals to keep the desegregation money flowing to Pulaski County school districts.
Of course the districts will appeal his ruling to the next level, and so the case goes on and on. This is big money we're talking about here.

The Problem Was the Wife | The Weekly Standard

Fred Barnes explains what happened in the Gingrich campaign. The staff felt that Callista Gingrich had taken over.

Edison-Era Inventions

Popular Science: An interesting article about Edison-era inventions including early fuel cells. Don't miss the comments that revive the old war between Edison and Tesla.

HK416

Popular Mechanics: The HK416 is the gun that killed Bin Laden. HK stands for Heckler and Koch.

All for Newt

The entire senior circle of advisors around Newt Gingrich has resigned en mass. So that's it for him. But he claims he will go on.

UPDATE.

Who is Obama' real 2012 opponent?

Forget those Republicans for now, Obama's real 2012 opponent is The Economy

Our sex scandals

A short review of political sex scandals in American history.
I noticed that Martha Washington named one of the tomcats at Mount Vernon "Hamilton." LOL. That shows a sense of humor.

The D word

CNN has begun to use the word "Depression."  See this headline: "Obama approval rating drops as fears of depression rise." It's not just recession anymore. I take that as a bad sign.

Better late than never

96-year-old woman confesses to 1946 murder

Romney and Climate Change

The first law of holes is if you're in one, stop digging. Romney has violated this law with Obamacare and Climate change.

Cadaver Dogs Find No Evidence of Bodies at Texas Farmhouse After Mass Grave Scare - FoxNews.com

Reports of a mass grave near Liberty, Texas, may be false. Cadaver dogs failed to find any buried bodies. The police now say that the tip was from a psychic.

Another Weiner joke

Ann Althouse: "... and then this Weiner thing popped up..."

1 in 3 Employers Will Drop Health Benefits

1 in 3 Employers Will Drop Health Benefits After ObamaCare Kicks In, Survey Finds.

Trump comments on Weiner

Donald Trump dumps on Anthony Weiner.

Barbecues, fireworks banned through July 5

Because of the drought, backyard barbecues and fireworks have been banned in Texas.

2011 vs 1937

Amiy Shlaes looks at our economic situation today in light of that in 1937. It's similar.

Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

In one of the 1980 presidential debates with Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan posed the question, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The answer was of course No. The economy is not that different today. Somebody needs to use this question against Obama.

Freedom in the 50 States | Mercatus

In a study of freedom in the 50 states, Arkansas ranks 28th. When you compare nearby states, I'm not so happy with that ranking.

Pawlenty: Fewer tax brackets

Tim Pawlenty will call for a massive overhaul of the tax code in an upcoming address on economic policy.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs of Apple Computer still looks frail. No one knows how much longer he will remain in charge. Apple has put out many marvelous products. Where would the company be without Jobs?

Shameless lies

Check out this reaction to Weiner's shameless lies.

The gold rush is on

Traders are dumping stocks and buy gold and silver.

Civil unrest?

James Carville: If our unemployment problems continue, we could see civil unrest in this country.

Rep. Weiner Admits to Sending Lewd Twitter Photos

Anthony Weiner has admitted sending lewd photos to women over his Twitter account. He is "deeply ashamed" but he won't resign. He said he's had "inappropriate relationships" with six women online and has not met any of them.

D-Day anniversary

Today is the 67th anniversary of D-Day.

Enthusiasm!

Herman Cain in getting attention in New Hampshire.

Business in on a hiring strike

Michael Barone explains why all the economic indicators are down and will stay down.

The signal was clear. Obama had already ignored his own deficit reduction commission in preparing his annual budget, which was later rejected 97-0 in the Senate. Now he was signaling that the time for governing was over and that he was entering campaign mode 19 months before the November 2012 election. People took notice, especially those people who decide whether to hire or not. Goldman Sachs's Current Activity Indicator stood at 4.2 percent in March. In April -- in the middle of which came Obama's GW speech -- it was 1.6 percent. For May it is 1 percent.
"That is a major drop in no time at all," wrote Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal.
After April 13 Obama Democrats went into campaign mode. They staged a poll-driven Senate vote to increase taxes on oil companies.
They began a Mediscare campaign against Ryan's budget resolution that all but four House Republicans had voted for. That seemed to pay off with a special election victory in New York's 26th Congressional District.
The message to job creators was clear. Hire at your own risk. Higher taxes, more burdensome regulation and crony capitalism may be here for some time to come.
One possible upside is that economic bad news may no longer be "unexpected." Another is that voters may figure out what is going on.

This is so much like the Great Depression that it's not funny.

Wolf it down

President Obama wolfs down two chili dogs and fries, ignoring Michelle's new diet guidelines. See pictures.
Michelle is not a dietitian anyway. 

Old unions vs new

Glen Reynolds has an op ed on recent pubic employee unions.

Don't bind and gag my free speech

Angela Hildenbrand will be able to say a prayer at her Texas high school graduation tonight after all. As one of the litigants said, "No citizen has the right to ask the government to bind and gag the freedom of speech of another citizen." He judge had banned the words "join in prayer," "bow their heads," "amen," and "prayer."

Howard Dean comments on Palin's chances

Howard Dean: Sarah Palin could beat Obama in 2012.

Paul Ryan for president?

Michael Barone: "My guess is that Paul Ryan is giving serious consideration to running for president." The Paul Rahe post that Barone mentions is here.

Read Neil Cavuto's interview with Ryan. 

James Arness 1923-2011

James Arness died yesterday at age 88.
He was best known as Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, but he got his start in the science fiction movie The Thing from Another World.

9.1 percent out of work

The U.S. jobless rate is now 9.1 percent.

Good news

Megan McArdle: Rapes have dropped more than 80 percent since 1979. But no one knows why.

Killer App

WSJ: The Army is testing smartphones for combat. Is there anything they can't do?

Middle school yearbook prank?

A middle school in Russellville, Arkansas, published a yearbook that listed the "Top 5 worst people of all time": They were Adolf Hitler, Usama bin Laden, Charles Manson, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, in that order. School officials just don't have any idea how that happened. The publisher covered up the list with a piece of tape, but you can rip it off.

The news report is all over the Internet. See the Atlanta Journal Constitution here. And here.

UPDATE: Drudge has a link to the story this morning. 

From across the ocean

Obama's re-election prospects look very different depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are on. He looked better after the OBL thing, but the economy will be the most crucial factor. And it's in the tank right now.

Here we go, go, go...

We are on the edge of a great, great depression, and the Federal Reserve knows it. 
See also here. 

The great questions — Joanne Jacobs

I like this cartoon. If parents allow their children no privacy, they might not expect any in return.

Buy an electric vehicle?

Gallup poll reports that 57 percent of Americans won't buy an electric vehicle no matter how much a gallon of gas costs. Of course not. EVs are too expensive.