Merry Christmas

A politically incorrect Merry Christmas to all our COTTonLINE readers, both regular and irregular.

Brrrrr

Matt Drudge of DrudgeReport.com continues to report stories of record cold and snow all across the northern hemisphere, with particular emphasis on Europe and North America. Meanwhile normally arid Southern California is getting record amounts of cold rain.

It was even (relatively) cold in Cancun when the climate warmists gathered there to plot further strategy in their lonely battle against a supposedly warming planet. The more these folks cry "warming" the more we all shiver - something is wrong with this picture.

More Demographics

Earlier we've shared with you the information that states without income taxes are more rapidly growing than other states. Here is a new piece of intriguing demography concerning laws regarding unions:

As a result of geographic shifts in population uncovered by the 2010 Census, nine congressional seats will move to right-to-work states from forced unionization states. Some winners are Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and South Carolina, while losers include New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Forced unionization is a lot like forced health care, Americans are not fond of forced things. My source for the quote is an article by Diana Furchtgott-Roth from RealClearMarkets.

Spengler Rides Again

David P. Goldman, who writes as Spengler for The Asia Times of Hong Kong, looks at the year past and doesn't like what he sees. Mostly he sees President Obama being an unmitigated disaster in the foreign policy arena. He predicts a messier world as a consequence. See whether you concur.

Barone Relates Growth to Taxes

We've talked about the new census numbers just out and what they may mean for our nation's politics. Now Michael Barone, no mean demographer himself, has noted a relationship between states' tax rates and their population growth. See what he says in a column for Town Hall:

Growth tends to be stronger where taxes are lower. Seven of the nine states that do not levy an income tax grew faster than the national average. The other two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, had the fastest growth in their regions, the Midwest and New England. Altogether, 35 percent of the nation's total population growth occurred in these nine non-taxing states.

The two biggest gainers were Texas and Florida, both no-income-tax states. Correlation does not prove causation, but it certainly raises a strong suspicion these phenomena are related.

Christmas Card to Our Readers

We wish each and every COTTonLINE reader the most Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.

Sowell: Year-end Wisdom

Thomas Sowell, writing for RealClearPolitics, has some amazing wisdom to share:

The king of Saudi Arabia has a more realistic understanding of the enormous dangers of an Iranian nuclear bomb than does the President of the United States.

Maybe because he lives within easy bomb delivery distance from Iran. Or try this one:

One of the telling signs carried in a tea party demonstration said: "Spread my work ethic, not my wealth." It may be better to teach people how to fish, rather than giving them fish, but too many politicians give them fish, in order to get their votes.

Vote buying, anyone? The article has lots more to enjoy.

CA, Another View

We've posted a lot of negative stuff here at COTTonLINE about the state of the economy in California. Here is a much more positive view, one frankly I wish were true.

The Los Angeles Times posts an article by Bill Lockyer and Stephen Levy. Lockyer is state treasurer so maybe he knows something we don't. Anyway, for the sake of balance here is the other side of the story.

What I don't see them satisfactorily rebutting is the anti-business environment California is said to have. Make your own judgment.

Here Come the Brussel Sprouts

First FLOTUS has a hissy fit about obese children, and by inference, ourselves as well. Then we are told the government will require us to buy health insurance. This latter has caused all sorts of responses, including this very tongue-in-cheek shot from the left-wing web zine Slate.

Put together disapproval of what we're eating with government ability to tell us what we must do and you get, somewhere down the line, a mandate for eating Brussels sprouts. At that point I will have to consider my options, for I truly don't like Brussels spouts. Ditto turnips, parsnips, eggplant, and squash.

Oddly enough, asparagus - which is the yucky vegetable in the Slate article - I like, spinach too. But don't tell me I've got to eat Brussels sprouts.

Seriously, government does not need to tell us how to lead our lives. By the same token, it also does not need to bail us out when our behavior ends us up in a pickle.

We need freedom to make our choices and freedom to live with the good or bad consequences thereof. Government should mostly engage in protecting others from our behavior, not in protecting us from our own behavior.

We have gotten to where we are via natural selection, why interfere with its continued functioning?

Lying with Statistics

This Associated Press article strongly infers, but doesn't quite say, that most young Americans are either morons or cripples. Let's see what they don't say in order to make the story more alarmist.

First, the article says that nearly a quarter of young Americans haven't learned enough to pass the entrance test. What they should say is that nearly a quarter of the young Americans who attempt enlistment can't pass their test - a very different thing altogether.

Who attempts enlistment? Mostly youngsters who cannot or choose not to go to college. Common sense suggests they are, on average, the least academically qualified youngsters in any particular year's cohort. So, nearly a quarter of the least academically qualified cannot pass the armed services entrance test - no big surprise.

Second, the article says that the Pentagon claims that roughly three-quarters of young people of military enlistment age are ineligible because they are either physically unfit, didn't graduate from high school, or have a criminal record. What I want to know is whether it is three quarters of those trying to enlist or three quarters of all young people? These are very different groups of young folks.

The article does not lie, but selects statistics in misleading ways to make a more alarming picture of American youth. You can understand why this happens, a writer is trying to get an editor to accept a story. I fear the journo motto is "Dramatic is better, even if misleading."

Afghan Pedophilia

On the winter solstice I bring you something revolting. Imagine young Americans dying in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban while their Pashtun allies brag of sex with young boys.

This article from The Washington Examiner describes the sexual practices of the major Afghani tribe, the Pashtuns. It is not a pretty sight. For example, the article lists the following as a favorite Afghan aphorism:

Women are for children, boys are for pleasure.

A Strange Outcome

The nation's population continues to shift from the northeast to the southwest. Political analysts believe this will benefit Republicans and hurt Democrats, because the states gaining population are traditionally Republican and the states losing population are traditionally Democrat.

On the face of it, this appears to make no sense. You'd think what was happening was northeastern Democrats moving to red states and, in the process, making them more blue. In reality, it doesn't work out that way.

Every blue state has a fair number of Republicans in it, albeit something less than a majority. Every red state has a fair number of Democrats who again are less than a majority. What the demographers believe is happening is that the people leaving the northeast are predominantly Republicans. Their leaving will make these states even more blue, while it makes the southwest even more red.

Why, you might ask, is it Republicans leaving the northeast? In part it is people moving to places that are philosophically more compatible. In part it is because they are the people who can find jobs in the southwest and people with jobs are more likely to be Republicans.

Finally, in part it is a social class issue. Republicans are often of higher social class than the bulk of Democrats, and one characteristic of social class in America is people of higher class are more geographically mobile.

Therefore what would initially seem to be liberals moving to a conservative part of the country turns out to be something else, a continuation of the sorting-out process in which we as Americans are engaged. Go see this Associated Press article from Forbes for details.

P.S. An exception to this are the substantial number of New Yorkers and New Jerseyites who have moved to parts of Florida - many of these are liberal, and obnoxious.

The Vanishing Middle

On December 12 we wrote about education levels being associated with life outcomes. Here is someone else writing about this same research, looking at it from another, more gloomy angle.

Her take on it is that the lower middle class is disappearing as their behaviors become more like those of the folks at the bottom of the ladder. See Hymowitz' article from the New York Daily News, a paper whose target audience is exactly that group which she sees declining.

Korean War 2.0

The two Koreas, North and South, are growling at each other, acting like two boys on a playground trying to egg each other into a fight. Who knows? They may succeed in triggering a second Korean War, or more technically, a resumption of the first war which ended with a cease-fire but no peace treaty.

At this point the North has been more belligerent with the sinking of a South Korean naval ship and the shelling by the North of an island that is part of the South. Now the South plans to hold military maneuvers on that island and the North threatens even bigger retaliation for this. See this article in the Telegraph (U.K.) for details.

If warfare breaks out anew on the Korean peninsula, one wonders if China will send troops to bolster the North as they did 60+ years ago? The U.S. has thousands of troops in South Korea, so presumably we would be a combatant. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, war in Korea would be more-or-less symmetrical warfare between big units with major weapon systems.

There is always the question of whether the North would "go nuclear" and if the U.S. would respond in kind. This could be a very messy, deadly regional war, albeit one unlikely to go global.

Here is a fascinating question. If the U.S. found its troops fighting those of China in Korea, do you suppose we would announce summary default on the entire total of U.S. debt owned by China? This would, in a heartbeat, wipe out most of the liquid assets of the PRC, roughly three-quarters of a trillion dollars.

It would also make U.S. bonds substantially less attractive in the world markets, particularly among nations who believe they might eventually find themselves in a similar belligerent status with us. Think particularly of Islamic countries in this regard.

Bad News for the Hemisphere

We believed we had mostly gotten past this sad stage in the political development of the hemisphere. It turns out we were wrong. Latin America once again has a caudillo, a military dictator.

Col. Hugo Chavez, who has been the elected president of Venezuela for several years, was just granted dictatorial powers by the nation's parliament. Go here for a Reuters article about this unfortunate retrogression.

It would appear that Chavez is getting his wish, becoming the next Fidel Castro. One wonders if this is the beginning of a new wave of junta rule; Chavez is much admired and emulated by Ortega of Nicaragua, Morales of Bolivia, and to some extent by Correa of Ecuador.

Political Humor Alert

Thomas Lifson, writing in American Thinker, about Harry Reid's withdrawal of the gigantic, pork-laden omnibus spending bill. The title of his article is a great play on words:

McConnell throws Reid under the Omnibus

Bad News for Global Warmists

Europe is experiencing the coldest December in perhaps 100 years. Here is a link to a paper in Sweden with a story on their woes, and another link to a paper in the U.K. about how cold it is in the British Isles. Where is that global warming when we could use some heat?

Travel Blogging V

This entry is a postscript to the travel blogging I did while we sailed in the Caribbean a couple of weeks ago. If you would view some nice pictures of the places to which we traveled, go see the other DrC's blog at cruztalking.blogspot.com. Looking at her photos is even more pleasant than being there, although being there was pleasant enough.

She's right about Puerto Rico, I believe it would warrant spending a week there with a luxury hotel room and a rental car. I could easily spend a whole morning wandering around the 16th century fortification that looms over San Juan, we had less than an hour. It is now a historic unit in the National Parks system, and being maintained.

Hanson Sings the Central California Blues

Victor Davis Hanson, writing for the National Review, describes the current state of central California - a place which has become a giant barrio. Read it and weep for what was once the destination of Steinbeck's Okies and has historically been some of the richest farm land in the nation.

Free Fall Continues

Zogby International reports that President Obama's approval ratings continue to plummet, particularly among Democrats. Here is their lede:

President Barack Obama's job approval rating has fallen again to 39%, equaling a low since he took office. Also, 63% of likely voters say Obama is a weak leader, compared to 19% who label him strong.

Much of the slippage in Obama's approval rating from 42% on Dec. 1 was caused by a drop of nine percentage points among Democrats (82% to 73%). His approval also went down among independents, from 39% to 36%.

He really doesn't have anywhere to fall among Republicans, no surprise. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.