William A Jacobson makes an interesting observation: There is something strange about the Obama administration's diplomacy. We speak softly to our enemies, but use a big stick against our friends.  

read the whole thing here:http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/06/heads-they-win-tails-we-lose-diplomacy.html

and don't skip the comments!

Way back in 1988, Michael Dukakis blew a question about the death penalty when asked about whether he’d want it if his wife Kitty had been raped and murdered.  Dukakis said no, but addressed it clinical legalese rather than absorbing the opportunity to address the emotional impact of violent crime, and his candidacy cratered.

Obama recently went the other way with what SHOULD be just as bad a result.  Dring the ABC infomercial for Obamacare last week Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it’s not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.

Not hearing about it until now?  Wonder why?

From Glen Reynolds: Caligula sent a horse to the Senate. Minnesota is just sending part of the horse.

that applies to so MANY things, most of them being undertaken by Obama and the Democrat Congress:

"When was the last time human beings modernized our energy sources by making older power sources more expensive?" he asks the interns. "And, of course, by now you probably know that the answer is never."

Personal computers didn't take off because there was a tax on typewriters, he says. And the Internet didn't sprout up because the government made telegraphs more expensive.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105834436

Not really.  Simply commiting them again.

Robert Samuelson has a good article here.

in part he writes: 

The U.S. welfare state is weakening; insecurity is rising. The sensible thing would be to decide which forms of public welfare are needed to protect the vulnerable and to begin paring others. Our inaction poses another dreary parallel with GM. It was obvious a quarter-century ago that GM the auto company could not support GM the welfare state. But the union wouldn’t surrender benefits, and the company acquiesced. Inertia prevailed, and the reckoning came.

The same cycle, repeated on a national scale with sums many multiples higher, would be correspondingly more fearsome.

A lot of Friedrich Hayek’s work is really about whether or not a society consumes or misallocates or squanders its capital and suffers a consequent lose of general welfare, or whether a society instead  invests and innovates and coordinates it capital utilizing relative prices, sound money, and a competitive system and thereby enjoys the consequent bounty of an ever expanding general welfare.

Hayek fought the Keynesians, the socialists, and the unions because each of these groups represented in effect a conspiracy against the expansion and coordination of capital production — both though a complex of false scientific ideas, and through their massive influence on legislation and the administrative state.  The Keynesians were the enemy of sound thinking about increasing output through the lengthening of capital production, and also the enemies of sound thinking about the effect of monetary expansion on the capital structure across time.  The socialist were the enemy of sound thinking about the role of relative prices in the coordination of production and the role of competition in the advance of innovation and productivity and consumer satisfaction.  The unions were the enemy of sound thinking about the rule of law and the effects of price controls and government mandates on income, output, productivity and personal choice , and they used their muscle to legally priviledge themselves in the political process and in the economy, to the detriment of everyone else — most especially the next generation.

Hayek warned about all this and more — and now Obama and the American government seem dead set on putting the pedal to the metal as America goes blasting off headed straight for a brick wall.

originally from Pam Geller:

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Obama's silence in the face of the violent and brutal Islamic crackdown on the Iranian people peacefully demonstrating for freedom is in keeping with Obama's previous silences: 1.  Silent on the Black Muslim Riverdale bombers. 2.  Silent on the release of the Black Panthers voter intimidation case. His department of justice ordered the case dropped. 3.  Silent on the murder of Private William Long by a Black Muslim -  Issued a very weak statement, though he loudly condemned the Tiller murder. 4.  Silent on the French plane that crashed in the ocean, possibly blown up by the two Muslim terrorists on board. 5.  Silent on Iran - Issued a weakly worded statement. added by RWK: Silence on Hondura except for siding with Castro and Chavez against the Honduran people, Constitution and rule of law On the other side of the coin we have: 1.  Obama's bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia. 2.  Obama's pro Islam speech in Cairo, with many fabricated platitudes about the history of Islam. 3.  Obama instructing Eric Holder to issue a memo stating that Muslims were not to be discriminated against. 4.  Releases Muslim terrorists from Gitmo to Bermuda, so that they can go into the restaurant business and hang on the beaches there. 5.  Eliminating the phrase "war on terrorism" and replacing it with "overseas contingency operation" and "terorists" with "man made disasters". There is a definite pattern in the behavior by Barack Hussein Obama toward the worldwide ummah (in keeping with being raised a Muslim in Indonesia). hat tip Jonathan Galt

 

about "health care",remember all the promises about "The Stimulus"

Began the move last night. One bed. A TV. Some clothes and personal items. TIVO!! Slept lousy. First night in a new house/strange place. Lots of creaking. I figure it was a combination of temperature change (cooling) and joists/floorboards relaxing since they're no longer under the weight of any furniture.

That changes tonight. Three vehicle loads. Lots of lamps. Quite a few random boxes of odds and ends. And most of one room: master bed, living or dining. Thursday will see another room and more random boxes. Friday may be off. Then Saturday is the balance. Big stuff will go in the room “she” has designated. Boxes? Most will go in the proper room. Many will simply go to the garage. To be stacked. And sorted. Upon “her” return. Wonder how much stuff we've moved that will never make it in the door. 10? Easy.

But the space will be nice. Kitchen is a tad smaller but functional and open to the LR – a plus. LR is bigger. DR is smaller but will do. Master BR is about the same but has the only deck entrance so will need to be maintained. Tough. Two bathrooms. Each is bigger than the last two combined! And a finished basement. One LR, D's sewing/quilting area, and Remy's/Guest room. D has more space. Remy has a little less but doesn't need it. And the “LR area” will be nice for card games and get-away time.

I need a routine. Haven't had one for about a month and a half. I don't mind BREAKING a routine but I need one to break. I've been as jumpy as a ring tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Having a house to myself over independence Day weekend was VERY helpful. Now I need to get through this w/e of moving. July 13-21 will be steady. She comes home 22^nd but start the fair shortly thereafter and will be staying with her folks and fellow artists. She she won't really be in until mid-August. And it'll take the rest of that month for her to get settled. So no real good solid reliable routine until September. Which is nice. Football season. And a LOT of old “sub-routines” kick in. Like comfortable shoes, I hope.

A new beginning? Hope so. But now that I'm over 50 I'm a little tired of new beginnings. Especially big major ones.

seems to be a key element in spiraling health care costs as this chart from the Goldwater Institure seems to illustrate pretty well.  It's the tragedy of the commons run amok!