We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
March Madness is Here:
Senate Dems Are Working on a Budget....
And I'm working on my weight. I am much more likely to cut my portions and eliminate certain foods from my diet than Democrats will actually give back a significant portion of the trillion dollars they've added to the budget since taking control of the Senate in 2007.
Remember how the Democrats finger-pointed Mitt Romney for turning down up to a $10 cuts / $1 new taxes? (This was a FNC debate involving GOP Presidential hopefuls in the context that both Reagan and Bush 41 had agreed to what The Spendthrift One calls a "balanced approach" and the Dems never delivered on promised spending cuts. So the debate question was more a variation of the age-old question: at what price are you willing to sell your virtue?)
Some Disturbing Signs in the Rising Stock/Housing Market
Some teenage actress, Rachel Fox, made 30% last year in the stock market, averaging almost one trade daily. (Better than I did; it's like watching a child golfer sink a 50-foot putt.) Mila Kunis, who once played Ashton Kutcher's love interest in a 70's oriented sitcom, has also gone public with her stock-picking prowess. Both are following in the footsteps of that stock-picking guru, Barbra Streisand, whom successfully made money during the Nasdaq stock bubble.
There's a line between investing and speculation. I don't fault actresses for dabbling in the stock market: after all, they add liquidity to the system. I'm more concerned about ZIRP; artificially low interest rates result in malinvestments and defer the day of reckoning for failing business models.
The other thing that got my attention on a financial website recently was an ad promoting property flipping; I don't think I've seen those since around around the housing bubble peak around 8 years ago. This is NOT a typical economy; we have a large percentage of home sales in cash, not for residence but as investments; in a low-growth, high-unemployment economy where incomes are barely treading water and many existing homeowners are underwater. In many cases, you had pent-up demand because nobody wanted to catch a falling knife, so prospective owners wanted to see prices stabilizing, and record-low mortgage rates essentially subsidize home prices. Whereas improvements in housing and manufacturing are virtuous, many of our trading partners are also struggling. We cannot afford a global trade war of currency debasement and protectionist policies.
A Jay Leno Joke
Normally I might include this recent joke in my Political Humor segment:
The island nation of Cyprus is now considering a 10 percent tax on every individual savings account in that country. They'll take 10 percent of your money right out of the bank. To which President Obama said: "You can do that?" - Jay Leno
To which "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke says, "Amateur! I get people to deposit their dollars for next to no interest, that interest is taxable, the inflation rate, not including fast-climbing food and gas prices, is some 1.6%. Who says a crony banker can't tax lower-income people?"
The Manipulator-in-Chief
Notice that the Demagogue-in-Chief never appears backed by a lineup with the bureaucrat whom warned a New Mexico couple because of the Clean Water Act they need a permit to clean their own property, the TSA supervisor in charge of groping passengers, thuggish prosecutors whom go after Internet activists to the point of committing suicide, politically correct "sensitivity trainers" of federal employees billing millions in fees for inflammatory rhetoric about alleged nineteenth-century American government sins, or the White House chefs whom keep Mr. Obama satiated with creamy desserts and in charge of ensuring crony businessmen guests are well-fed with multi-course meals.
Sequestration: Reality Check
Obesity: Science vs. Hype
Let's hope that His Nanny Michael Bloomberg doesn't hear about the latest "study" allegedly linking soda pop consumption to 180,000 deaths a year (of course, over 10 times that results from drinking bad water--I'm waiting to see if he bans water fountains....) Consumer Freedom notes that one of the study's authors was also involved in a prior controversial study on obesity:
Mokdad was the lead author of a 2004 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study that precipitated some of the first hysterias of an “obesity epidemic.” In it, Mokdad and his co-authors claimed that 400,000 Americans died of being obese or overweight each year and that obesity would become a greater cause of death than smoking. It was a shoddy document: Just correcting the team’s errors in mathematics caused a reduction in estimated deaths of 20 percent. More reliable research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested Mokdad et al. had overestimated the combined toll from overweight and obesity by over 90 percent.
The data is often limited in research on so-called “actual causes of death,” like Mokdad’s two studies and this AHA conference abstract. Consider a CDC review panel’s assessment of Mokdad’s U.S. research (emphasis added):
The paper published by Mokdad, et al., Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000, has provoked significant controversy both inside and outside the agency. […] the fundamental scientific problem centers around the limitations in both the data and the methodology in this area.
Rand Paul's Speech on Immigration: Thumbs UP!
Rand Paul pointedly argues for granting legal residency for unauthorized aliens, the rule of law through immigration reform, and against a verification mechanism making employers de facto INS agents. I think he needs to flesh out more details, but I can fully back what he said in his speech. Here is a Cato commentary:
Political Cartoon
IBD's Ramirez once again shows why he's the best cartoonist in the business.
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez and Townhall |
Backstreet Boys, "I'll Never Break Your Heart"
