Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009.

The "Lion of the Senate" passes from the scene, and with his passing so closes a volume on one of the most significant political families in our country's history. A man fully invested with admirable qualities, and otherwise. The New York Times features a fine, unhagiographic obituary. R.I.P.

Elvis!

If you don't get up and jump around to this one, yer dead mate!

Ah, such a fabulous outfit...

Not Enough Lipstick...

A few facts that may go a long way to explain why Obamacare is foundering:

1. An overwhelming majority of Americans find their medical care and health plans to be satisfactory, yet they are asked to support a titanic kitchen-sink program that would produce dramatic changes in the health care system.
2. The plan of HR3200 appeared out of thin air, with no prior engagement nor participation of the citizenry, and nobody seems to have an understanding of all the provisions in the 1000+ page document.
3. In the not-so-distant past the President has been a vocal advocate for a "single-payer" health care system, and has gone as far as suggesting that such a system will be implemented in a series of (imperceptible?) steps. And most people are aware of this.

There is no amount of lipstick that can beautify this pig, and there is no number of town halls, websites, speeches, or "spontaneous" rallies of support that can dissuade most Americans of their suspicions as to what they are being asked to buy.

Nuclear Ready.

Duke Energy's CEO Jim Rogers writes in the WSJ that unlike other "green" energy industries, the strong suit in America's hand in clean electricity generation is nuclear technologies.

If We Can't Get the Post Office Right...

A report on how the USPS' flood of red ink will require more cuts in services and offices.

Is Our Government Breaking Down?



(Painting: Neptune Offers the Wealth of the Sea to Venice, by Giovan Battista Tiepolo)


In the last several months we have witnessed historic events: legislation has been introduced and passed (The Bailout Bill, The Stimulus Bill, The Carbon Cap and Trade Bill, and the House Health Care Reform Bill) that possess cosmological scales in size, scope, and cost. This government intervention is so reaching and complex that our legislators now concede that they are unable to analyze and deliberate on their provisions. Yet the Administration has aggressively pushed for a fast-track process for these acts through Congress. A torrential storm of unforseen consequences from this legislation hangs like ominous black laden clouds of an approaching squall.

The process and function of our government is seizing up because of the immensity of this legislation. There is a very real danger that we will destroy republican democracy by the powerful majorities continuing to ram these behemoth bills through Congress without some thought to what they will have wrought. We cannot continue to do the business of the people in this manner.

A thousand-page bill cannot be adequately considered in a fortnight. We are reaching a natural limit to the scale and scope of how the Federal Government can intervene in our lives. It is time to back off.

Beernost.

We do not all of the facts about the incident at Professor Gates' home, so we will not comment on it. We only hope that the President does not make Bud Lite a habit. Author William Least Heat Moon refer to such swill as "liquid air". Now Arbor Brewing's "Old Number 22" is a beer men can share and cure the world's ills.

How to Wreck Health Care Reform.

Peggy Noonan writes today in the WSJ on how the President's insistence on a thousand-page, kitchen-sink "comprehensive" approach to health care reform has likely doomed it. Why can't we simply address the most pressing problems in health care coverage, such as assisting the truly needy and providing for insurance portability, where agreement can be found and does not require radical changes?

The Fundamental Principles of "Health Care Reform".

FreeOurHealthCareNow has articulated the major elements that health care reform plans must include: (i) the right to choose care providers and plans, (ii) timely, unrestricted, patient-centered care, (iii) fairness between individual insurance programs and tax-subsidized employer programs, (iv) the focus of government assistance on the truly needy, (v) portable health plans, and (vi) maximum freedom for patient decisions on care.

TARP Tsunami.

The Inspector General overseeing the TARP program will report to Congers today that the total potential exposure (i.e., the amount for which we taxpayers could be on the hook) of federal programs and departments that are "supporting" U.S. financial institutions totals $23.7T. We'll pause to let this fact sink in...

We can only respond with: this insanity must stop. The people of the United States cannot have the futures of their families held hostage by cosigning to such an apocalyptic sum.

Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009.

We were more of an NBC than CBS man, but when it came to manned spaceflight coverage, Cronkite was our choice. R.I.P.

Aesthetic Living.

Remembering Joseph Eichler's simple, elegant, and beautiful home designs of the late '50s.

Perro Caliente!

Cigar Aficionado appreciates the Noble Frankfurter.
(shown here in its most sublime instantiation, the Chicago Dog).

Independence Day, 2009.

The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right.

- Thomas Jefferson to Francis Gilmer, 1816.

Back to the Moon.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is returning its first images of our planetary companion. Also, the June 2009 issue of IEEE's Spectrum is devoted to a manned voyage to Mars.

The Polish Opening.

The Wall Street Journal supports our point of view on Iran.

Just Go, Please.

Rich Lowry of National Review has it right: it's not about adultery, it's about dereliction of duty. Governor Sanford, it's time to go.

It's Worse...

The Huron River is running at 1400 CFS at the Ann Arbor gauging station. A true river blow-out. We'll see how things are in a few weeks...

The Circus is in Town!

We Americans can only handle serious issues for brief periods of time. The stretch from February through June was as a geologic timescale for us, filled with Pork Bills, Pirates, North Korea, Iran, Gitmo, Carbon Taxes, Obama Motors, and National(ized) Health Care. So do we now hear calliope music in the air? Yes, indeed, the Circus is back in town, courtesy of the sad passing of Mr. Jackson. The Meatpackers will be consumed by the grisly details of the inquest, rumors, rumors about rumors, indictments, legal fistfighting over the estate, 24-hour televigils, and the massteria of the funeral, burial, tributes, riots, and the associated merchandising. A great time for a backcountry vacation or getting some of that summer reading done. A siren will signal the all clear.

Some Carbon Math.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an heavily amended version of the Waxman-Markey "Cap and Trade" Bill, which beginning in 2012 levies a tax to emit carbon dioxide at a rate of $13 per ton. This rate will increase steadily over the years, with the goal of forcing reductions of CO2 to less than 17% of current emissions by 2050 (83% by 2020).

The CBO claims that such a tax will cost the average household only $175 in energy costs by 2020. Shall we check the numbers?

The current total US emission of CO2 is about 6400 million US tons per year. The 2012 tax on this CO2 emission will total $83B. If we assume that all of this tax ultimately will be assessed on the 185 million taxpayers in the country (all costs to utilities, manufacturing, transportation, etc. are passed on to the total taxpayer base), the total 2012 tax increase on average per taxpayer is about $450. About one third of the taxpayers actually pay no tax; if we assume that this will also be the case for the CO2 tax (the bill provides for a CO2 tax credit for each lower income household), then the total burden in 2012 per net paying taxpayer will be more like $650. So, a household of two taxpayers will get walloped with an effective $1300 CO2 bill.

To account for the huge disparity with the CBO estimate, either the government will force some entities upstream in the cost flow to eat these costs - with accompanying adverse consequences to the economy, or only a fraction of CO2 emissions will be taxed, which defeats the purpose of the legislation. Something doesn't quite make sense here, and we will post clarifications or revisions to our estimates if the need should become evident.

Intellectual honesty requires us to disclose that we do detect some faint strains of free-market environmentalism in this approach, which has appeal. Free-market environmentalism applied to fair-value pricing of federally owned timber or mineral resources makes sense, since such environmental effects are nearly wholly confined to the land mass of the United States. We could in principle tax ourselves to oblivion for CO2 and do nothing about the increasing emissions from industrialized China and India. Perhaps we could send them the bill?

P.S. - Intellectual honesty, too, would require Democrats to concede that nuclear power must play a prominent role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation. We will not hold our breath for such a proclamation.

Addendum: The Heritage Foundation has produced a bar graph showing the increased household energy costs caused by Waxman-Markey through 2035.