Infinite Monkey Theorems 20100701
July 1, 2010
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
More bad news for Obama & the Democrats for 2010 elections. Via The Atlantic here:
Chris Cillizza’s Morning Fix reports new data from Gallup showing that independents now favor a generic Republican candidate for Congress over a generic Democrat by 12 points….
& as is continually the case with this congress, more bad news for freedom. Via The Hill here:
The 30-second campaign ad could become a thing of the past for third-party groups if the Democrats’ campaign finance legislation becomes law.
Media strategists argue the new disclosure requirements would eat into the majority of their ad time….
& while we’re talking about lack of freedom…. what might Kagan do about this “disclose” act? Via Reason.com here:
As solicitor general of the United States, Elena Kagan argued in front of the Supreme Court that the federal government had the constitutional authority to ban certain political pamphlets. She also strongly implied that some political books, if they were partisan enough, could also be censored…..
Does is matter that she’s against free political speech? Unlikely…. via Yahoo News here:
…Kagan’s performance in the Judiciary Committee drew praise from Democrats and compliments even from some critics, putting her on a path to confirmation by the full Senate sometime in July.
“She will be confirmed. I believe she will be confirmed,” said Republican Orrin Hatch, a member of the Judiciary Committee, predicting there would be at least some Republican support…..
& least we forgot, there’s still an oil spill…. which is being screwed up by the same government that is promising to “fix” healthcare…. Via The Heritage Foundation here, all kinds of people are offering help, but we’re still considering it:
In total, there have been 27 countries and 5 international organizations offering boom, dispersants, skimmers, vessels, bird rehabilitation equipment as well expertise. Along with the other important action items for the administration to undertake, accepting international assistance must be a more urgent priority. The Department of State has a chart that lists the equipment and expertise sitting on the sidelines with most of the status orders “under consideration.” Owners of the equipment have been rapid in their response to government queries but the equipment remains idle. It simply needs to be better….
Not to mention the economic killing impact the asinine moratorium is having:
Meanwhile, the Gulf continues to suffer. It’s not just government incompetence when it comes to the environmental cleanup; the administration’s policy decisions are making the economic harm much worse – especially the offshore drilling moratorium. Although the ban was only meant to affect those rigs operating in water 500 feet or deeper, it has led to a de facto ban on shallow water drilling….
Butler said that only one of his four drill rigs are operating; all four were drilling before the spill. Spartan has six contracts that would put his entire fleet back to work, but he can’t get going until the permits come through, he added. The week before last, Butler said he had to lay off 72 employees. Come Tuesday he’ll have to let another 140 go. “That’s 140 families, is how I look at it,” Butler said….
Not only incompetence in the clean-up, idiocy in quickly implemented, but poorly thought out regulations (DA post here), The Atlantic takes all this and poses an interesting moral question here:
In this video from Climate Desk partner Need to Know, Atlantic correspondent and oil expert Lisa Margonelli talks to Jon Meacham about halting drilling in the Gulf. She explains her view that Americans don’t have a right to drive cars and use gasoline unless we’re willing to drill for it in our own backyard….
For good news – research conducted on parents and children in reference to video games demonstrates that most parents actually don’t need government help. Via The Technology Liberation Front (here):
- 93% of the time parents are present at the time games are purchased or rented
- 64% of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives
- 86% of the time children receive their parents’ permission before purchasing or renting a game
- 48% of parents play computer and video games with their children at least weekly
- 97% of parents report always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play
- 76% of parents believe that the parental controls available in all new video game consoles are useful
It might be scary to those in government who are continuing to try to push more laws concerning how parents raise their children as it discounts the need for those laws, but for us normal folk – it gives us what we see everyday:
Once again, these findings illustrate that parents are parenting!
Categories: Business, Culture, free market, Legislation, NGOs, Political Philosophy, Politics, Regulation/Deregulation, SCOTUS
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Tags: BP, Business, Culture, Democrats, Elena Kagan, Free Market, Freedom, Legislation, morality, Nomination Process, Obama Administration, Oil Spill, Politics, Polling, Reason.com, SCOTUS, The Atlantic, The Heritage Foundation, The Technology Liberation Front
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You’re one of the few people I’ve read that also think the moratorium is asinine. Two spills in thirty years while hundreds of wellheads operate properly is not a good reason to shut down the South’s economy…but it’s a good optic if you want to appear to be “doing” something.
Even though I’m now gaining comfort with the idea that I’m almost always going to disagree with whatever prevailing wisdom exists, it’s still frustrating to easily see why such policies are wrong, while others… the vast majority anyways, think it’s a good thing.
To me…. the moratorium policy is nothing more than baby with the bath water…. Or even better for those class/race people among us, it’s discriminating against an entire group for the actions of a few…
But you’re right…. as long as we’re doing “something”