My arrogant opinions about politics, culture, science fiction, and whatever else I feel like talking about.

Good Report on the Future of Central Asia

        It's from Stratfor, and can be found here.

        With the Iraq and Iran situations, we're already involved in the 'Stans, so pay attention.

Posted by: saintonge at 01:31 | link | comments
iraq, the future, iran, foreign affairs

We Interrupt This Program To Inform You

        Saddam is dead, by hanging.

          Good.

Posted by: saintonge at 01:11 | link | comments
iraq

Some People Have "Interesting" Taste in Wallpaper

        See here or here for a truly putrid idea.

Posted by: saintonge at 20:59 | link | comments

Unbelievable

        Mike Nifong dropped the rape charges against the Duke University students.  Why?  The accuser has changed her story again, now that the DNA evidence has destroyed her first two stories.

        As for Nifong, he continues to ignore his legal and moral obligation to seek the truth.  All charges should be dropped, and he should be permanently disbarred, removed from office, and prosecuted for violating the defendents' civil rights.

Posted by: saintonge at 19:31 | link | comments
insanity, incompetence, dishonesty, blacks, race, stupidity springs eternal, i am not making this up, the courts, the duke non rape non case

Old Think From Old Non-Thinkers

        Richard Minter diagnoses a problem.

Posted by: saintonge at 19:07 | link | comments
leftists

Another One in the X-Ring

        Glenn comments on some of the critics of the Iraq Campaign:

          And I can't help but observe that if Starship Troopers is fascist, then so is the "chickenhawk" argument favored by the antiwar left -- with the added proviso that Heinlein was writing fiction, and the antiwar lefties are actually propounding a political position, of sorts.

      "Of sorts" describes the 'argument' quite well.

Posted by: saintonge at 18:33 | link | comments

James Brown is Dead

        He died yesterday morning.

        I was never much of a fan of soul, but I recognized major talent when I heard it, and James Brown had it.  "He's the King of them all, y'all."

        Rest in Peace, Mr. Brown, you will be remembered.

Posted by: saintonge at 18:08 | link | comments

OUCH!

        Glenn sums up Jimminy Peanut's book in two sentences:

        I think Carter hoped that this book would cement his reputation for history.  And I think it has.

       I'll add that the cementing is in the nature of cement boots for swimming.

Posted by: saintonge at 17:26 | link | comments
stupidity springs eternal, good shot sir, the georgia giant

Today's MSM Idiocy

        Well, it's actually last week's idiocy.  But age will not wither, nor custom stale its grotesque stupidity.

        You know, if I subscribed to the WSJ Online, I might cancel over this spit-in-the-face.  As it is, I'll just sneer at the loser, who couldn't be bothered to correct his institution's faults, and lacks the balls to take his punishment without flinching.

Posted by: saintonge at 17:01 | link | comments
msm, hypocrisy, blowhards, stupidity springs eternal, whiners

Jamil Hussein Search

        He's still missing, and the Associated Press is still coy.

Posted by: saintonge at 16:17 | link | comments
iraq, politics, liberals, msm, hypocrisy, incompetence, dishonesty, reality, sedition, i am not making this up

Half the Heart of the Matter

        There's a surprisingly good Op-Ed from the Los Angeles Dog Trainer, concerning the current controversy concerning drug prices and drug company profits (hat tip: Instapundit ).  In it, Richard A. Epstein points out one of the central facts of drug pricing:

        It costs, on average, more than a billion dollars to get the first pill to market.  All subsequent pills, however, can be made and marketed for only a few additional dollars or cents.  Of course, no user ever wants to pay the big bill for that first pill.  Instead, each fervently hopes to pay as close to marginal cost for the subsequent pills.

        That's one half of the problem in a nutshell.  But there is another pieces to the problem.

        Human beings believe in magic, and want it exercised on their behalf.  Show people pictures of the thalidomide babies, or weeping relatives of someone who died of an unexpected side-effect from a new drug, and people want "something done" to prevent this.  The possibility that the development of new drugs is inherently risky is something they don't want to hear.  So the politicians and bureaucrats "do something," enacting new regulations that force longer, more extensive testing before drugs are approved for release.  This testing discourages the entry of new firms into the market, and drives up the cost of developing new drugs.  Regulation is the cause of the cost structure Epstein mentions in his Dog Trainer editorial.

        And when people see the price they pay for new drugs, they don't like it.  They magically believe there's some way of lowering drug costs that doesn't involve changing the regulations that drove up prices in the first place.

        But magic doesn't work.  So our health is worse than it could be.  And Congress, wanting to "do something," will probably make it worse yet.  Is there anything that can be done about this?

        Yes: replace the present population of voters with a new population of non-humans that doesn't believe in magic.  I'd suggest you hold your breath waiting for that, but I have too few people reading this blog as it is.

Posted by: saintonge at 16:05 | link | comments
idiots, human nature, reality, government policy, stupidity springs eternal, wishful thinking

Modern Liberal Religion

        In reference to my last post: there's a saying attributed to G. K. Chesterton, though apparently without an original source: "People who don't believe in Something will believe, not in Nothing, but in Anything."

        Modern liberals gave up believing in Something a while back, for reasons that are obscure (pulled that way by atheist Marxists, perhaps?  I confess I don't know).  So, looking for an Anything to believe in, they picked sex.  Thus was founded the Church of the Holy Orgasm.  As gay males are the most ardent disciples of said Church, they had to embraced and defended by other Church members, and the movement for celebrating homosexuality by straights was born.

        None of this bothers me (I meant it when I said in my last post that I don't get involved in other religions' doctrinal issues), I'm perfectly willing to let the Orgasmics practice their faith and accept whatever consequences befall them.  But I don't see any excuse for them attempting to bully other religions into accepting the Orgasmic doctrine.  But the modern liberal/left-wing movement, as exemplified by the story in The New Republic that was the subject of my last post, does indeed think they have the right to force their doctrine on others.

        This phenomenon cheers me.  Really.  Modern Liberalism and Leftism is nothing by an excuse for shoving people around.  I'm happy to see the illusion melting.

Posted by: saintonge at 18:44 | link | comments
religion, liberals, leftists

HUH?

        Update: See final paragraph, PLEASE.

        Should you be a non-religious member of a religion?  Should anyone?  If so what would the point be?

        I would answer these questions "No," "None," and "I can't see what the point would be," but apparently The New Republic thinks otherwise.  On it's current-issue front page, it describes the story I linked above with the phrase "Rebellious Episcopalians should just move to Nigeria," which would seem to imply that there are non-religious Episcopalians, and that is sees some point in being one.  I wish someone would explain that to me.

        "Religious" Episcopalians, by the way, are apparently equated to unspecified groups of U.S. leftists:

        A group of true believers pronounces itself dissatisfied with an American institution.  Scanning the globe, it happens across a distant people whose views are more to its liking.  It opts to renounce the American way of doing things and instead links arms with its foreign brethren.  Along the way, naturally, its spokesmen are quoted saying sundry incendiary things about how its decadent homeland pales in comparison with the tradition-laden goodness of its newfound Third-World allies.  It's a familiar story.  Only, this month, it's not about dyed-in-the-wool lefties; it's about conservatives in the American Episcopal Church angry about its stands on gay marriage and gay clergy...

        Familiar to author Michael Currie Schaffer perhaps, but I can't think of what he means.  Anyone who subscribes to The New Republic who would care to enlighten me, please do so.

        As for the idea that Episcopalians who are "religious" should just stop complaining about what the apparently non-religious Episcopalians are doing to their Church, I recommend my own policy to The New Republic: keep out of doctrinal fights issues in churches you don't belong to.  So, since I am not now and never have been Episcopalian, I make no comment on that Church's stand on gay marriage or gay clergy.

        Update: OOPS!  My bad!  I somehow readoed "religious" when it was "rebellious."  So, it's all much clearer.  The New Republic thinks that those Episcopalians who don't believe what the majority of their church has pulled with respect to homosexual issues should just shut up and go elsewhere.  Without commenting on the religious disputes, it looks like the majority of the Anglican community world-wide is against the Episcopal and British Anglican church on this.  Logical consistency would thus suggest that the Episcopal Church and the British Anglican Church formally break with the world-wide Anglican community.  Don't hold your breath waiting for the TNR to let itself be hemmed in by logical consistency, though.

Posted by: saintonge at 16:33 | link | comments
religion, liberals, i just dont understand it, i goofed

The Environmental Movement's Real Goal

        Tim Blair points us at the peer reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives Online, which contains a very interesting article on coal fires.

        It seems that coal fires in China, India, and Indonesia are emitting tens of millions of tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere, plus God alone knows what other pollutants.  China's coal fires alone produce more CO₂ than all the cars and trucks in the U.S.!

        Naturally, the anti-global warming movement is very concerned, and is moving Heaven and Earth to see that these fires get put out . . . OOPS!  My bad!  The environmental movement only cares about CO₂ emissions in the U.S.  Ours are Evil and Harmful®, and MUST BE STOPPED.  Theirs are OK.  Never Mind!

Posted by: saintonge at 18:14 | link | comments
satire, hypocrisy, leftists, dishonesty

Jew Hatred in Britain

        It's alive and well, especially among British Muslims.

        I must say, though, that I really admire Mr. Bari's attempt to drum up pity for British Muslims by saying:

        We know what happened in Nazi Germany and we have to be on guard against entire communities being demonised due to the actions of a minority.

        Stop and think about that.  The comparison of anti-terrorism measures to genocide is so outrageously false, you're apt to miss the second lie.  But the bit about 'the actions of a minority' implies that the reason Jews were hated in Germany was because of something a minority of them did.  In fact, they were hated for nothing, Germany having gone mad as a nation due to the stress of social change.  But in the midst of whining about being suspected of terrorism, because almost all terrorists are Muslims, Bari managed to slander innocent dead Jews.  I truly admire that ability to lie, and I'd like to tell him so to his face.  I'd also like to watch some British Jews stuff pork offal down his throat, choking him to death, but alas, I'm not likely to get either wish. (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin ).

Posted by: saintonge at 17:45 | link | comments
terrorism, inaccuracy, jew hatred, reality, whiners, britain

Endless Cowardice

        If there's one thing that really disgusts me, it's the near universal cowardice that prevails in today's public discourse.  It seems that almost everyone is afraid to state the obvious.

        Here's a simple fact that almost everyone in the world is afraid to mention in public: almost all economic progress, and thus improvements in the standard of living, results from improving the productivity of those making existing products, growing existing crops, or performing existing services.  "Creative destruction," economist Joseph Schumpeter called it.  The destruction part is as important as the creation part: old ways of doing things, and thus old businesses, are killed by economic progress, and many people must change their occupations.

        Here's a second such simple fact: the world today is full of unproductive farmers and businesses, unproductive meaning that the farmers and businesses can't sell at the world market price and still cover their costs.

        Here's a third simple fact: there's only two ways of dealing with the situation of .  One is 'protection': the state distorts the market in such a way as to keep the unproductive in business, at the expenses of those businesses and farms that are productive.  The other is to allow the market to put the unproductive out of business, Schumpeter's creative destruction, while possibly using the state to ameliorate the transition of the unproductive to some kind of employment where they are productive.

          Here's a fourth simple fact: the protectionist solution is never described honestly by its advocates.  And by never, I mean not once, at all, in the entire history of the world so far as I can discover.  An honest description of protection would be something along the lines of 'These people are being kept in business or on the farm, but not because what they produce is needed.  We could get what they produce cheaper elsewhere.  They're being kept in business and on the farm as a form of charity to the economically useless, because they have the political power to force the productive to subsidize them.  We are keeping them employed at higher wages than their customers are willing to pay them.  This screws over the productive, some of whom make more than the subsidized, and many of whom make less, often far less, and in the long run leaves even the subsidized worse off, but we don't care.  The rise in the standard of living we enjoyed over the past two centuries took place because we moved the unproductive out of their unproductive occupations, and into jobs where they were productive, and we'd be far poorer if we hadn't done that, but we don't care about that either.  All we care about is the political short run.'  Honest descriptions aren't desired, because it isn't enough to keep the unproductive in the style to which they wish to be accustomed.  They must also be allowed to fool themselves that they are doing something useful, instead of wasting resources better used elsewhere.

        Europe is the worst of this, but the U.S. is still pretty bad.  We have steel and auto industry whose idiot managers bought 'labor peace' by making pension and health care promises with no concern about the long run, and who now found the long run arrived before they were dead.  Both we and Europe have far more farmers than we need.  Neither the U.S. nor Europe is willing to bite the bullet, and commit to ending unproductive business and farming.

        But since they don't have the courage to describe their 'welfare for the middle class and well-to-do' honestly, the governments of the U.S. and Europe periodically go through a pretense of trade negotiations in which they pretend to be trying to extend free trade, while actually attempting to push the costs of their subsidies off on other countries.  The 'Doha Round' of trade talks broke down when no one could con foreigners into subsidizing them.  But dishonesty springs eternal, as does stupidity, so the Bush Administration is trying to 'revive' the talks.  But in order to resuscitate this corpse, they have to be willing to ruin unproductive businesses and farms, and persuade other countries to go along with ruining some of their unproductive.  Fat chance, in my arrogant opinion.

        Hat tip: Instapundit.

Posted by: saintonge at 17:22 | link | comments
dishonesty, reality, stupidity springs eternal, annoyance

Kofi Annan Leaves the UN

        And many people seem to think he's important and interesting enough to comment on.  Why?

Posted by: saintonge at 16:04 | link | comments
crime, idiots, incompetence, dishonesty, stupidity springs eternal, i am not making this up, i just dont understand it

The Greatest Fool Alive?

        I refer of course to Jimmy Carter.  Even The Washington Post disrespects him and his latest Jew hating idiocy concerning Israel.

Posted by: saintonge at 14:59 | link | comments
idiots, blowhards, jew hatred, dishonesty, whiners

James Baker, Jew Hater

        Read Mark Steyn's evisceration of the old fool here

Posted by: saintonge at 14:25 | link | comments
iraq, europe, israel, islam, terrorism, iran, bush administration, jew hatred, dishonesty, egypt, stupidity springs eternal

In This Irrereligious Age, It's Good to See Someone Appeal to Sheer Faith

        The someone in question being the Associated Press's Kathleen Carroll, who says in effect 'Trust us, we don't need to show you no stinkin' evidence.'

Posted by: saintonge at 14:08 | link | comments
iraq, msm, dishonesty

Give Them What They Want to Read, and They'll Buy the Paper

        A new study suggests that the MSM's bias is a marketing tool.  The more Democratic/Republican a circulation area, the more the paper will be biased in its news columns in the same direction.

        Hat tip: Instapundit.

Posted by: saintonge at 13:08 | link | comments
msm, hypocrisy, dishonesty

20-20 Hindsight

        In retrospect, one of the biggest problems with Iraq, and with the whole 'War on Terror' is the incompetence of our foreign policy establishment and knowledge of foreigners.  Boy, did we fuck up royally in evaluating our foes — and I explicitly include myself in this criticism.

        The majority of people in Iraq are amoral familyists, as Edward C. Banfield termed the type.  The amoral familist will do anything to advance the immediate material interests of himself and hiss family/clan/tribe, and screw over anyone else, violating any moral precepts he may pretend to have.  It is impossible for a modern society to exist in such circumstances.  Instead, you get Hobbes's war of "every man against every man," organized on a group basis, and as a consequence:

        In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

        And if you think Hobbes is exaggerating much, see War Before Civilization, or The Origins of War: Violence in Prehistory , or How War Began or, Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage or, The Archaeology of War: Human Conflict Since the Dawn of Civilization .

        The Arabs have to solve the problems of the Arabs.  What we need to do is be honest about it: 'You're almost all thieves, contrary to your own alleged religion, and as long as you spend all your time stealing from each other, your countries will never be anything but impoverished.  When you acquire the courage and honesty to change your lives, let us know, we'll see if we can help.  No promises, though.'

        In retrospect, when Bush started talking about everyone wants to be free, I should have known we were headed for fantasyland.

        What is needed here is honest realism.  We can't stop foreigners from living the way they wish to live.  We therefore shouldn't try.  We should concentrate on making sure they are not a threat to us, and pointing out their shortcomings, rudely, at every opportunity.

        (Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, and posts linked therein).

Posted by: saintonge at 11:18 | link | comments
iraq, insanity, foreign affairs, inaccuracy, al-qaida, george w bush, incompetence, ignorance, human nature, reality, intelligence, war with jihadism, arabs, competence, incomprehension, wishful thinking

My Jaw Drops

        I've heard of bad legal decisions, but Didden vs. Port Chester ranks down there with Dred Scott and Plessey vs. Ferguson.

        A developer told two landowners that he would persuade a local board to use eminent domain to take their property, UNLESS THE GAVE HIM 50% OF THE BUSINESS THEY WERE STARTING, OR THE OWNERS PAID HIM $8OO,OOO.OO (EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) CASH!  The owners refused, and eminent domain was exercised.  Instead of sending the developer and the village officials to jail for extortion, the District Court threw out the owners' case, and the Second Circuit Court upheld this crime!

        If this stands, it means we've lost all rights to property, contrary to the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment as usually interpreted.  If the Supremes let this nonsense stand, we'd better have a Constitutional Amendment banning this quickly.  Or armed action against these would be dictators.

Posted by: saintonge at 09:59 | link | comments (1)
crime, constitution, insanity, dishonesty, reality, government policy, i am not making this up, the courts

GOP Presidential Candidate Straw Poll

        From www.GOPBloggers.org, a poll on possible presidential candidates.  Vote early, I'm not sure if you can vote often.

        The results show my guy Rudi doing fairly well.  Newt is a surprisingly strong contender, and so is Romney.

Posted by: saintonge at 19:28 | link | comments

I'm Shocked, Shocked

        It turns out that the MSM is biased against Bush.

Posted by: saintonge at 05:20 | link | comments
msm, bias, hypocrisy, inaccuracy, george w bush, war with jihadism

Video of How to Walk On Water

        Mix it thoroughly with cornstarch, first.

        And to be honest, you'd better run.

Posted by: saintonge at 04:45 | link | comments

Hypocrisy

        There are three good examples in last Tuesday's "Best of the Web Today".  One is the lead post on affirmative racism, the second former Senator Max Cleland's highly selective indignation, the third the "Zero-Tolerance Watch" feature.

        Go read.

Posted by: saintonge at 03:35 | link | comments

Truly Stupid

        Palestinians and the liberal morons at The Boston Globe demonstrate they will never miss a chance to miss a chance.  It also demonstrates that the only chance for peace in the Middle East is for the Israelis to kill Arabs till the Arabs apologize.

Posted by: saintonge at 01:33 | link | comments
israel, terrorism, idiots, bias, evil, reality, arabs, stupidity springs eternal

Signs Wall Street Reform is Working

        That's not what The Wall Street Journal or Instapundit think of it, but it's how I believe it should be read.

        After the Enron fraud, rules were put in place via the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act" to prevent the public from being as easily defrauded again.  As a result, New York brokerage firms and investment banks are crying because IPOs are shifting overseas.

        And what's an IPO?  Wall Street speak for 'Initial Public Offering,' the first time a stock is sold to the general public.  But financial realists say the acronym actually means 'It's Positively Overpriced.'  Initial Public Offerings are mostly made when the stock market is 'hot,' when people will buy anything, and when fools and their money are being parted.  If you doubt this, look up some IPO history.  Most of the IPOs of 1996 - 2000 were the big losers in the bear market of 2000 - 2002.

        And the Journal article linked above says "Managers are increasingly losing their appetite for risk and innovation."  Good.  It was 'risk and innovation', in the accounting department, that brought us the Enron fraud, the conglomerate movement of the sixties ('Don't sell a product to a customer, sell a fraudulent earnings statement to a stock market sucker' -- see National Student Marketing, LTV and Penn Central), and a host of other corporate wastes.

        What you need to remember on this subject is the old Wall Street joke from the early 20th Century:

        A visitor to New York was being shown around the harbor, and his guide said "Over there are the investment bankers Yachts, and next to them are the stockbrokers yachts."

        "Where are the customers' yachts?", asked the naive visitor.

        The brokers and bankers get theirs when these things go public, and they don't care if you lose.  That's why they push them so hard, and that's why they're squalling at the thought of foreign brokers and bankers getting the loot.  The fact that it also means foreigners getting ripped off, and U.S. citizens not being legally robbed, is immaterial.

        I approve of little the Congress does, but this is an exception. Long may Oxley-Sarbanes screw our domestic brokers and bankers. And if you're stupid enough to jump into the IPO market, the foreigners will be just as happy to steal from you as Wall Street always has been.  Don't say you weren't warned.

Posted by: saintonge at 22:09 | link | comments

Oh My Lord!

        You think you've seen pictures of big machines before?  Get a load of this.  Make sure to scroll down to the pictures of the bulldozer next to it, so you get a real idea of the scale.

Posted by: saintonge at 20:11 | link | comments