Thursday, April 30, 2009

 

Best Health Plan Ever

Billionaire octogenarian Sumner Redstone attributes his good health to "antioxidants, exercise and a shot of vodka a day."

Monday, April 27, 2009

 

Map O' Doom

Google has a swine flu map.

 

What is going on?

We have a pandemic exploding in Mexico and it is spreading to the US. Why are we not closing the border? Tyler Cowen quotes a study that shows that cities that aggressively reacted to the Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 had death rates 30% to 50% blower then cities that didn't react aggressively.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano notes that those infected with swine flu may not show symptoms for a few days, so border closure is "a very difficult judgment to make." That is the problem. We can't be sure that the pandemic is spreading because of the delayed symptoms. If we don't close the borders before we are 100% sure the pandemic is spreading, it will be too late.

Her reasoning gets worse. She states that "You would close the border if you thought you could contain the spread of disease, but the disease is already in a number of U.S. states." Correct, and we have some idea of where it is and we can quarantine. By leaving the borders open, the government has no idea where the next break out will be.

Napolitano simply does not believe in closing the border for any purpose. However, this isn't about illegal immigration it is about protecting Americans from a flu pandemic. And she is obviously not approaching the problem from a risk management perspective. If this pandemic continues to spread from Mexico to the US and is anything like the Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919, history is going to place the responsibility for the deaths of thousands directly on Napolitano and President Obama. And history will be right to do so.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

 

Casual Lying

The reason why conservatives probably do not spend enough time attempting to refute arguments by Paul Krugman is his casual disregard for the truth. He is a respected Nobel Prize winning economist with a huge influence on the Left. However, as a pundit he says anything, true or not, that helps his political point. Why argue with someone like that? It is pointless.

I've written before about Harvard economist Robert Barro's comments on Krugman the pundit. When Krugman was quoted stating that World War II did not lift the US economy out of the depression, Barro said "He said elsewhere that it was good and that it was what got us out of the depression. He just says whatever is convenient for his political argument." And the Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus pointed out that Krugman wrote about the crisis in Social Security when the Democrats were trying to put it in a "lock box", and then wrote about the myth of any crisis when the Republicans tried to reform it.

Now on This Week Krugman states that "All the news says that the economy is getting worse...all the measures that you use about the health of the economy are continuing to deteriorate." Stephanopoulos points out that durable goods orders and housing sales are rising. Krugman calls these "bits and pieces." But they are not trivial, they are "measures about the health of the economy", and Krugman was lying when he said that "all" the measures were deteriorating.

This is at least part of the reason why he is mostly ignored by people who disagree with him, and lauded by those agree with him. Arguing with someone who will change positions without acknowledging the change and ignores facts is fruitless.

 

Luck?

Chris Matthews asks if the "luck" angle of the snipers saving an American citizen is going to be part of the story. We can stipulate that luck is a part of every scenario, without agreeing to the idea that trained snipers did their job excellently because of luck. Matthews is simply someone who never served in the military and does not know anything about military training. It would usually be an insult for someone to talk about luck when highly skilled operators in the US military save a life. However, it is really just pathetic that Matthews is simply so unaware of his own ignorance.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

 

Why game theory is evil.


This show
will eventually get someone killed.

 

rain

It is raining in D.C. For whatever reason I think of Robert Frost if it rains or snows.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

 

Oh yes


Just in case you forgot how awesome the 80s were
.

Monday, April 06, 2009

 

Terminology

There is a wonderful new terminology floating around the internet.  Obama is advocating a new ideology of Corporate Progressivism and the few who are against him are The Resistance.

George W. Bush saved GM and unified big business and the government. Obama continues the trend. Some of us remember. Some of us know that America was once a nation of free people. People whose money was not taken by bureaucrats who get to choose which companies win or lose. There was a better country once.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

 

Bama Humor

SNL makes fun of Obama. Oh not really. Sort of. At least it is something. However, notice that every skit on Obama manages to layout all of the administration's talking points.

 

Coordinate my ass

I have heard enough from Obama when it comes to the need for international coordination in the face of the financial collapse. He already signed into law the US stimulus without talking to any other nation's leader. We can't coordinate anything! We already did it! Coordination just means "do what we did". What an arrogant bastard.

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