Jason Tolbert: We are gearing up to redistrict the state representative districts based on the 2010 census. This will be exciting given the fact that growth rates for various sections of the state are markedly different.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Pat Moynihan
Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted the future of public unions and the demise of the welfare state.
Arkansas earthquakes
The Texarkana Gazette has a report on recent earthquakes in Greenbrier, Arkansas. As far as I know, experts do not think that recent earthquake activity is related to the New Madrid fault.
High-speed rail projects
Obama thinks we need to build high-speed trains. George Will explains why this is a bad idea. In fact it makes no sense at all. It's a boondoggle. Think: Amtrak does not make a profit, and cars move people more cheaply.
Frank Buckles
Frank Buckles, the last WWI veteran, has died at age 110. His story is here. George Will also tells Buckles' story.
Oscars
I watched the Oscars last night until I fell asleep. Kirk Douglas flirted, Melissa Leo dropped the F-word, Christian Bale forget his wife's name, King's Speech won, etc. Oh, well.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Duke Snider, RIP
Duke Snider, one of the Boys of Summer, is dead at 84. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series in 1955. I hope I got all of that right.
Voting for the national interest, not self-interest
Michael Barone: As usual he nails his topic. Why are so many modest-income white voters rejecting the Obama Democrats' policies of economic redistribution and embracing the small-government policies of the Tea Party movement?
The recoil in 2010 against the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government seems to have a cultural or a moral dimension as well. It was a vote, as my Washington Examiner colleague Timothy P. Carney wrote last week, expressing "anger at those unfairly getting rich -- at the taxpayer's expense."Exactly the way I feel. The old New Deal politics of sharing the wealth won't work any more, if they ever did.
Those include well-connected Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs that got bailed out and giant corporations like General Electric that shape legislation so they can profit. They include the public employee unions who have bribed politicians to grant them pensions and benefits unavailable to most Americans.
A government intertwined with the private sector inevitably picks winners and losers. It allows well-positioned insiders to game the system for private gain. It bails out the improvident and sticks those who made prudent decisions with the bill.
Modest-income Americans think this is wrong. They want it fixed more than they want a few more bucks in their paychecks.
Losing the Alamo
A Texas demographer, Steve Murdock, says "it's basically over for Anglos." Texas, he says, is made up of two groups, an old and aging Anglo population and young and minority Hispanics. Thirty years from now Texas will be far different than it is today.
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