I like my congressman ...

KLINE: A TRILLION-DOLLAR BORROW-AND-SPEND BILL WILL NOT BRING US BACK TO PROSPERITY 

 

Double post

Two articles from NYT health writer Lisa Belkin:

Breastfeeding octuplets .

Germ-phobic mommies.  (via Instapundit)

Shocking failure of British gun control

"40 percent increase in gun crime since guns were banned."

from this report  (on youtube)

As it's turned out criminals didn't actually turn in their guns. So now only criminals have guns.

Huh. Who could have predicted THAT.

Opacity in the 'transparent' whitehouse.gov

The decision to withhold transcripts is not a departure from the Obama Team's online posture during the campaign, and signals that's exactly the posture they intend to take for the next four years. Team Obama got a lot of credit for being an active online presence, which indeed it was, but that presence was built for message control, not openness.

Shocking. 

"holistic and integrated approach toward dealing with the issue of terrorism and extremism"

I wish I knew what that meant ...

Snafus ...

This piece  makes an interesting argument about how the press is treating the new administration versus how the previous administration was treated for similar issues.

My only comment is that it amuses me to see snafu used in mainstream articles since whenever I see the word I internally break it down into it's original acronym components.

It doesn't take much to amuse me, I guess.

It actually crossed my mind

as I listened to the music  that it must be really hard to keep the instruments in tune in that weather.Guess they didn't want to take a chance on a sour note. Still seems like they could have found another way to handle it....

Aljazeera advertising on Slashdot

Not really sure how to interpret this, but it makes me a little uncomfortable.

--

We'll see I guess.

As Obama begins to govern and as the public sees that he simply borrowed Bush's foreign policy rhetoric, jazzed it up with his cadences and pauses, and then took either Bushites or Democratic centrists and called them hope and change, and as he glued new rhetorical veneers on the Patriot Act and FISA, and as he alienates many by making decisions other than voting present, and as the gaffes begin (Biden and Michelle can't be put under wraps forever), and the Chicago fumes linger (Blago ain't through yet), the fawning media will begin to look embarrassed, then ridiculous, and finally completely bankrupt. They offered no audit of Obama, no tough treatment, no honest examination of his flips, no balance in their treatment of Bush, and they will soon pay a terrible price for that derelection and worse, as the public sees them as the state megaphones that they have so sadly become.  

from Victor Davis Hanson vial Instapundit . (again)

I don't imagine the media or the left in general ever admitting to any embarrassment or wrong-thinking. They'll find a way to become victims.

Where's the outrage and anger

from the GOP ? (via Instapundit )

This had crossed my mind, but I hadn't really checked into it. Talk radio has certainly been fairly bombastic, but that's what they do. In particular I haven't heard of any Republican politicians or activists bemoaning the election results or our new president. Arguably, conservatives are less activist and more likely to support their candidates quietly when it's appropriate - during elections - but to accept and respect the results of the election. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, there hasn't seemed to be the same reaction from conservatives this year as there was from liberals after the last two elections.

An inauspicious start?

Obama and Roberts, take two.
And seriously, chief Whitehouse counsel is named Greg Craig? I think his parents didn't like him much.

The new president

He also imposed a pay freeze on senior staff earning more than $100,000, saying that given the economic crisis, "It's what's required of you at this moment." 

Sounds promising.

Men's Health names Worst Foods

Good stuff - and so far amusing to me since I haven't seen anything I've ever eaten. This likely has more to do with my cheap side rather than any healthful inclinations I have.

irony to come

This  seems to me destined to become ironical - 

With masterful insight, Bunch exposes this dangerous effort to reshape America's future by rewriting its past. As the Obama administration charts its course, he argues, it should do so unencumbered by the dead weight of misplaced and unearned reverence.

From: Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future

 

nanotech treatment of cancer

Cool stuff. 

Still about 3 to 5 years away from clinical trials, but very cool.

Anti-semitism

The elephant in the room .... This saddens and frankly amazes me. Somehow Americans are painted as intolerant, while Europe gets a pass for it's anti-semitism. How does that work?

Senator Franken

One of my co-workers observed that the only logical explanation for the incredible swing of votes - assuming there was no dirty dealing - is that there were more Franken voters who had trouble figuring out how to fill out the paper ballots. Hmmm.

Free the Sudafed!!

Instapundit mentions that he'd like to sue the people who make it so hard to buy sudafed. I'm on board with that one, though I didn't know this was such a widespread phenomenon. I assumed it was a Minnesota 'solution' and didn't think it would reach to more conservative Tennessee. 

Guess I shouldn't be too surprised since I remember stopping at a gas station in Tennessee a few years ago and seeing that power/energy drinks were controlled substances like cigarettes and alcohol. Not the case in Minnesota - which I agree with.