No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.
Abraham Lincoln
Publication Note
Because of a family emergency, my publication schedule and/or the nature and extent of my posts may vary over the next few days. My Internet access will be limited.
Tweet of the Day
@Pontifex, personal request for a prayer for my father whom is very ill; he's the finest man I've ever known.
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) August 12, 2014
Image of the Day
More Robin Williams: Standup On Politics
The comedic actor apparently took his own life. Just a warning: a little profanity, plus more of a left-wing take on politics. Just one bit here: Williams points out how "great" a baseball executive George W. Bush was, dealing away future superstar Sammy Sosa (whom, of course, got caught up in baseball's steroid scandal): who would have ever guess he wouldn't do so well as President? However, to be fair, Bush dealt Sosa to the Chisox, not the Cubs, and Sosa's numbers weren't so great until his second year with the Cubs.
On Democratic Talking Points on Border Security
I don't want to feed into fearmongering like a stunt donning a UBL mask/garb. I don't know the nature and extent of Border Patrol activities, e.g., the use of satellite technology, drone activities, motion detectors, etc. It would seem to me, for example, I could set up a series of towers (or leverage any existing ones) to automate monitoring of suspicious activity along the border alerting Border Patrol, local law enforcement, military bases, etc. Fence building in and of itself is no panacea; the motivated smuggler can compromise the fence itself, dig below it or scale over it (say, ladders, helicopters, balloons, whatever). Even doubling the Border Patrol wouldn't help if they were ineffectively deployed. My hint: vest the private sector in border security; more importantly, address the causes, not the symptoms, of unauthorized entry, including expanding legal work permits, declaring an end to our failed War on Drugs, and liberalizing our restrictive immigration policies, facilitating both merit-based and family reunification immigration.
The Common Core Kerfuffle
One side discussion that really stuck out in this clip was the discussion of public "investment" in two government-dominated sectors: education and healthcare. What's amusing is realizing that even adjusted for inflation, government spending on education has soared manyfold, with few commensurate benefits (the excuse is always "we stopped just short of what we needed"; the same political whores who argue how little other countries spend on their socialized healthcare don't do the same with respect to our socialized education system. What is incontrovertible is that the regulatory drag on both sectors has a negative impact of innovation, manageability, and costs; at minimum, we need consistent application of the principle of Subsidiarity.
Facebook Corner
(IPI). So many insiders to protect, so many regulations to protect them.
Not as free market as I like (I think he pays too much lip service to safety afforded by Statist regulation). I was just commenting the other day on a story involving CMS dropping the reporting of "never" events by hospitals--things like amputating the wrong limb, using the wrong blood type, leaving operating instruments in the patient, etc. I have studied enough human performance engineering to know that even experts make mistakes although at a low rate. A lot of service businesses operate on a model of repeat business and word of mouth. If I go to a barber and end up with blue hair or an uneven cut or flesh wounds, I'm probably not going back nor will anyone I know. An industry group could set a non-government independent authority to set standards, audits, etc., to provide consumers with some assurance. But bank on professional, incompetent government bureaucrats? I'm not depending on the government for anything.
Obviously the author has never worked as a barber or stylist.
You wouldn't be one of those self-serving "hair professionals" trying to repress the competition to manipulate prices, would you?
Marriage Proposals
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Eric Allie via IPI |
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| Courtesy of the original artist via Drudge Report |
Billy Joel, "Keeping the Faith"
