Political Humor Alert

Chris Muir, a cartoonist whose Day by Day strip is wonderful, today has his lead character say:

Daily killings, vote fraud, crumbling infrastructure, corruption - yet Obama and family jet to Copenhagen.

To all of this her husband replies:

Are you talking about Afghanistan or Chicago?

The punchline is the wife answering:

Hon, obviously I'm talking about...about... (this followed by a puzzled look).

Current news out of Chicago suggests perhaps the two are not so dissimilar.

Travel Blogging II

The Wall Street Journal has run a recent article about economic hardship in Bend, OR. I'm sure there is some truth to it but the town sure looks busy and happy to these eyes. I saw a couple of businesses closed down, but most of the parking lots looked full. It is a good looking city, if you are willing to put up with somewhat long and cold winters.

Today we drove south from Bend, OR, to northern CA along US 97. Again, several hours of driving through country that is mostly unpopulated. We'd see a small town every 30-40 miles but we passed a lot of empty forest.

Interestingly, Oregon calls this forest "High Desert" because, I suppose, it doesn't get all the rain that the coastal and Willamette Valley parts of Oregon get. To a native Californian who regularly drives across Nevada, it doesn't look like desert at all. Different strokes....

Gender Imbalance on Campus

You see articles like this one from The Greenville News about the gender imbalance on college and university campuses. What is reported is that more women than men are enrolled in higher education.

What isn't much reported is that a lot of the imbalance occurs because campuses are pressured to recruit minority students and find that the minority students they are able to recruit and retain are women. In this article which runs four pages, here is all that is said about the impact of ethnic and racial designation on this imbalance, quoting Jacqueline King, an American Council on Education policy analyst:

In particular, black, Hispanic and low-income white males “are far outpaced by their female peers,” King said. (snip) In South Carolina, males make up 43 percent of enrollment at public four-year colleges, 40 percent of enrollment at technical colleges and 39 percent at private institutions, according to the state Commission on Higher Education. Males make up 31 percent of black enrollment at the state’s public four-year colleges, 29 percent of black enrollment at technical colleges and 36 percent of black enrollment at private colleges, according to commission data.

In four pages, that is all that is said about a major cause of the imbalance, perhaps the major cause of the imbalance. It is wonderful how political correctness causes folks to tiptoe around sensitive issues.

Travel Blogging I

Yesterday and the day before we drove across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Southern Idaho is relatively empty. Eastern Oregon is very empty - mile after mile of sage brush and the occasional juniper tree.

Southern Idaho is relatively flat, with the canyons carved by the Snake River winding here here and there. Eastern Oregon isn't flat at all, but rolling, quite dry, and mostly unpopulated.

If you have the impression that the U.S. is densely populated, crowded, and overrun, go visit eastern Oregon along US 20 - a classic blue line highway - and it will change your mind. Large parts of this great land have almost no population and substantial acreage is either lightly used pasture or unused at all.

You owe it to yourself to go see North America. The other DrC and I have visited 70+ countries and none contains as much spectacular scenery as the U.S.

Public Against Health Reform

The Rasmussen Reports polling organization finds that only 41% of those polled favor the Obama health care reform plan, whereas 56% oppose it. Rasmussen notes:

That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured.

I believe it is time for the President to change the subject; he isn't looking good in the health care arena.

No Apology Needed

Our President goes to the United Nations and apologizes for U.S. foreign policy. I believe he doesn't speak for many COTTonLINE readers.

On the other hand, in the last nine months there has been much for which he should apologize. Mostly this consists of extending the hand of friendship to hostile dictators while turning his back on our allies.

I find myself asking whether our President likes or dislikes the United States. It is a question I haven't asked since the Carter administration. I didn't much like Bill Clinton but I am sure that he loves our country.

Quote of the Day

Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis, quoting a Turkish general as saying:

The problem with having the Americans as your allies is that you never know when they'll turn around and stab themselves in the back.

The source for this quote is a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal. Recently the Hondurans, the Israelis, the Poles and the Czechs have learned the truth of this aphorism.

California's Woes

From time to time COTTonLINE has given attention to the problems besetting state government in California. Troy Senik has written a long, thorough article for National Affairs on this very topic. If the topic interests you, and you have the time, go read it. For example, speaking of the untoward power of the California Teachers Association union, Senik says:

Despite having some of America's lowest-performing schools, California's teachers are the highest paid in the nation.

Do you suppose this is true?

Carter Calls Obama "Black Boy"

Go here on YouTube to see former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, being interviewed by Jim Lehr of PBS The News Hour, call Barack Obama "this black boy." We understand this usage is particularly offensive to African-Americans.

Hat tip to Jeffrey Lord writing for The American Spectator for the link.

You can't make this stuff up.

Political Humor Alert

This photo is from The Los Angeles Times, and shows anti-ACORN graffiti that has been appearing around downtown Los Angeles. The graffiti includes the ACORN logo and the words "Funded Prostitution Zone."
Droll.

McChrystal Takes a Stand

In a confidential report leaked to The Washington Post, Afghanistan commander Army General Stanley McChrystal has requested more troops for the Afghanistan effort. He has also warned that we have perhaps 12-18 months to turn the losing situation there around.

This McClatchy article concerns the apparent stand expected of General McChrystal. What is new in the McClatchy article is the expectation that if he isn't given the troops he believes he needs, he will resign rather than preside over a losing effort.

McChrystal is not quoted to this effect, other officers are quoted as believing it is what he might do. McChrystal has plausible deniability. In other words, it may be a bluff or it may be an accurate assessment of his intentions. Generals have been fired for less, think MacArthur in Korea.

McChrystal was sent to Afghanistan to replace the former commander who Obama fired. If the White House calls McChrystal's bluff and he does resign, it will be a serious setback for an administration that already has had several and doesn't need any more.

Once again, the rock and hard place are in close proximity. Being President is no easy task.

Mandatory Health Insurance is Necessary

If a motorcyclist has an accident and injures himself to the point where he is a vegetable, you and I get to pay to take care of him for he rest of his life. This being the case, in most states we insist he wear a helmet as it reduces the odds of our being saddled with his lifetime care.

Similarly, if a healthy young person elects not to buy health insurance and subsequently becomes very ill, once again we will pay his bills. Our society is uncomfortable with the idea of allowing that improvident person to die because he or she has no insurance nor cash with which to pay their bills.

If we are unwilling to allow persons without means to sicken and die without care, then we must require them to purchase health insurance if at all possible. Not to do so is to encounter "adverse selection." "Adverse selection" occurs when only the people likely to get very sick buy insurance. If that happens, the premiums will be horrendous.

If requiring healthy young people to buy health insurance is a tax increase, so be it. In this case, the old business professor's knowledge of insurance principles outweighs the old conservative's desire not to raise taxes or to interfere in peoples' lives.

Gallup: Government Too Involved

See this Gallup polling report about the level of government involvement in our lives. Here is the question they've been asking since 1993:

Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to solve our country's problems. Which comes closer to your own view?

Currently 57% of those polled agree with the first statement: "government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses."
Only 38% want the government more involved.

Go here to see the Gallup chart which shows that, with the exception of a brief period in 2001, there have always been more Americans agreeing with the first statement than with the second. Commentators describe the U.S. as a basically conservative, pro-capitalist nation; this chart explains why.

Electoral Talent Doesn't Translate

Recently there have been several individuals who are very talented at getting elected but not talented at governing, once elected. Off hand I think of President Obama and Governor Schwarzenegger, to mention notable examples from both of the major political parties.

Can we think of a way, a priori, to identify such candidates before they are elected? Certainly one thing these two had in common was very little experience in elective office.

Given the poisonous nature of our current politics, I suspect their inexperience was viewed by the electorate as an advantage. Of course it turned out to be a crippling disadvantage.

Quote of the Day

Edward Lucas, writing for the London Telegraph about President Obama:

Regimes in Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran simply pocket his concessions and carry on as before. The picture emerging from the White House is a disturbing one, of timidity, clumsiness and short-term calculation. Some say he is the weakest president since Jimmy Carter.

Here at COTTonLINE we've been making the comparison with Carter for some months now. Meanwhile, grotesque examples of Obama's replay of the Carter foreign policy continue to pile up.

Quote of the Day

Mary Anastasia O'Grady, writing for The Wall Street Journal, about the impact of drug cartels on Mexican officialdom:

Government officials who couldn't be bought with silver were eliminated with lead.

That is a very poetic, albeit metallic, statement of the problem.

Demography Is Destiny

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article by Gunnar Heinsohn about the demographic reasons why Afghanistan is a tough fight first for the Soviet Union and now for a NATO force that is mostly the U.S. The basic issue is the comparative birth rates:

Decade after decade, the women of Afghanistan have been averaging three to four sons each. This means even if an Afghan family loses two or more boys on the battlefield—"disposable sons"—it still has one or two male offsprings at home to carry the family into the next generation. Russian soldiers in 1979, however, were likely to be only sons. Statistically, that is also true for American soldiers in 2009.

Among several candidates for the most chilling phrase you'll hear this year, surely "disposable sons" must rank high.

Racism Flow Chart

This tragicomic flowchart is provided by Missourah.com, the original can be accessed here. Hat tip to the guys at Power Line for the link. Click on the chart to enlarge it.

Color Blindness

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of San Francisco, was filmed making the following heart-felt plea, available here on RealClearPolitics:

I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw... I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and ... I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made.

No doubt what she says is sincere and represents her true feelings. When her pals on the left are on the receiving end she frets. When folks on the right are receiving the vitriol, as was abundantly true during the eight years of the Bush administration, she was notably quiet.

There are blue states and red states. One could wish Speaker Pelosi was equally concerned about possible violence directed toward all, not just toward her blue state friends and supporters.

Racism and Politics

Former President Jimmy Carter has famously said that criticism of Barack Obama is racism. Does that mean that the African-Americans who criticized President Bush were racists too? If women criticize men in office is that sexism? Or vice versa?

People in, or running for, elective or appointive office are legitimate targets of criticism. Get over it. Otherwise the only people who can criticize an official are those of the same race and gender - patently ridiculous. If that were true, we'd have to elect only white females in order not to disenfranchise the largest single group.