Obama Approval Down

Rasmussen Reports does a daily Presidential Approval Index which we follow here at COTTonLINE. The latest reading comes in a -21, based on 43% Strongly Disapproving and 22% Strongly Approving of his performance. Today's PAI of -21 ties the lowest ever index score for this president. Rasmussen adds:

Overall, 43% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That is the lowest level of total approval yet measured for this President.

The erosion continues in face of the President's professorial performance moderating the health care summit.

Interesting Research

CNN reports interesting findings by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science. They will soon be published in the academic journal Social Psychology Quarterly. Kanazawa finds that liberalism, atheism, and male sexual exclusivity are related to higher IQ. Sexual exclusivity means being sexually faithful to one partner. CNN says this of Kanazawa's findings:

The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say.

I suspect you can spin all sorts of scenarios out of these findings, I know I can. Anyway, something fun to play with while stuck in traffic.

For example, college faculties are largely liberal and atheist, though not I think, any more sexually exclusive than the population at large

Into A Stream?

Mark Steyn is often funny, today he is not. If you have a strong stomach, read his post concerning the unintended (I hope) consequences of the one child policy in China. See this post in National Review about these ugly practices. Reviewing a new book Message From An Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran, he quotes:

Where I come from, people talk about smothering a baby girl or just throwing it[!]into a stream … to be eaten by dogs, as if it were a joke. How much do you think these women loved their babies?

Steyn relates this to the problems with multiculturalism, showing that all cultures are not equally wonderful. I'm not convinced that point needs making again, but if it does, Steyn has made it.

Travel Blogging I

Dateline: Santa Ynez, California. The DrsC will be spending some time here in Ronald Reagan country - the coast range valleys northwest of Santa Barbara. It’s very pretty here; the green/brown cycle is exactly the reverse of most places in the U.S. It is green in the winter and brown in the summer. California gets almost all of its rain in the months from November to May, and most of that in December and January. So the grass gets green in winter and dries out in summer. Most of the state doesn’t get enough hard frosts to kill the grass in winter, so green is what we’ve got now, it goes away in May.

If you’re having trouble placing where I write from, it is the setting of the film “Sideways” and the site of the Michael Jackson getaway he called “Neverland.” There are a lot of wineries and horse ranches here; only a few of either are serious economic propositions in my judgment. In other words, there are a lot of rich people here who thought it would be fine to own a vineyard and winery or perhaps a horse breeding ranch. Oddly, there is also a small Indian reservation for the Chumash tribe which features a quite large casino. Oh, yes, and the valley is the location of the small “Danish” town called Solvang which is overloaded with souvenir shops and bakeries.

Ironically, homes in Santa Barbara (or here) cost too much for not-rich people to buy. So many of the not-rich people who work in Santa Barbara live in the Santa Maria and Lompoc areas and commute through the Santa Ynez valley, causing traffic backups during rush hours. They could go via US 101 but that route is farther and probably slower. It is the same economic dynamic that drove hundreds of thousands to commute into Los Angeles from the inland desert communities, seen here in miniature.

Why do we come here? As I write this we are sitting with the door open, and windows too. It is almost too warm. We took a walk earlier, beautiful blue sky reflected in the reservoir, ground squirrels scampering around, boats out fishing, and yet the place we are in is not crowded, unusual for Southern California. Yesterday was cool and blustery with rain showers, tomorrow may be the same. But it is the days like today that draw us back year after year – the feel of late spring in mid-winter in a much prettier setting than Palm Springs, ya gotta love it.

I grew up here, one major valley to the east, and didn’t appreciate what I had till I no longer had it. That is one of the less attractive aspects of human nature.

U.S. Won't Support Brits

The United States has announced it will not support British ownership of the Falklands Islands in the face of the latest Argentine challenge. See this article in the Daily Telegraph.

The U.K. is our oldest, strongest ally. They have come to our support many times. For us to fail to support them is disgusting, and evil.

Greeks Injure Own Cause

The deputy prime minister of Greece has, in classical Balkans style, dragged up the memories of German behavior in Greece during World War II. See this Daily Telegraph article for details.

Having done so is supposed to make the Germans of today, almost none of whom were alive then, more willing to provide financial bailout for Greece. I don't think it will work.

Never forgetting a wrong done to your ancestors, however many generations ago, is very characteristic of the Balkans. People in this region are world-class haters and grudge-holders.

Greeks insist on their government spending more money than it takes in, in good times and bad. And they engage in widespread tax evasion. Now they want the other members of the EU, mostly the Germans, to bail them out. Good luck.

If a bailout happens, it will be because the wealthier nations want to hold the euro zone together, not because the Greeks earned it. Spain will be next in line for a handout. Ultimately the euro experiment, encompassing both wealthy nations and poor nations, will probably fail.

Union Popularity Down

See this survey done by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press which finds that favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward unions are about equal. These attitudes have become substantially less favorable in the last few years.

Pew doesn't say why they think these attitudes are changing. In my experience a sharp decline in something's popularity is usually associated with some malfeasance on its part. Do we suppose the decline in union popularity is associated with the failure of the unionized "big three" auto firms? Or the widely held perception that the unionized public schools are not performing? Or maybe the malign influence public employee unions are having on our political life? My guess: all of the above.

Black Eye for Chavez

See this lengthy Washington Post article concerning a report compiled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. The report takes a very negative view of the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela. The article is quite detailed in listing the various anti-democratic moves made against those who do not support Chavez.

This negative OAS report won't cause Chavez to behave differently, but it may encourage other nations in the hemisphere to be less cordial in their relations with Venezuela. And it may also discourage nations like Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia which have been emulating Chavez.

Trouble in Nicaragua

Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes a weekly column on Latin America for The Wall Street Journal. This week she takes a look at the Ortega regime in Nicaragua and doesn't much like what she sees. O'Grady observes:

Investors are fleeing the country and the economy is anemic. An electorate that never was very fond of Mr. Ortega is growing more dissatisfied.

Aware of this, Ortega is busily working to steal the elections as he conspires with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. I wonder if Ollie North is ready to help the Contras again? This time he'll have to do it without presidential help.

Presidential Approval Sags

The Rasmussen Report runs a daily Presidential Approval Index poll, a poll this blog looks in upon with some frequency. As of today, Sunday, February 21, 2010, the index sits at -19. This is based upon 22% of likely voters responding that they Strongly Approve of President Obama's work, whereas 41% Strongly Disapprove. As Rasmussen notes:

That is the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President.

Summarizing the more general findings, Rasmussen says:

Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

Quite an 'accomplishment' for being in office only 13 months.

Cook: System Is Broken

Charlie Cook is one of our best political analysts. Here in the National Journal he writes about the dysfunctionality of our Washington system. If you have a very strong stomach, go take a look at his view of the dismal state of our political system. Not only is it grim, it makes a lot of sense too.

Spengler: Israel Should Attack

David P. Goldman, who under the pen name Spengler writes about foreign policy for Hong Kong's Asia Times, has looked at all the variables and reached the conclusion that Israel should attack Iran. He concludes:

The strategic framework in which a unilateral Israel strike on Tehran makes sense is one in which all depends on Israel's capacity to improvise and dominate the situation through a combination of force and unpredictability.

You may not agree with his analysis but I think you will find his reasoning interesting.

Falklands Fuss

See what Argentina is doing to make Britain's life miserable vis-a-vis drilling in the Falklands (or Malvinas). My guess is that they have the right of this, if they don't want ships sailing from Argentina to the Falklands with cargoes of oil drilling supplies, they can probably prevent it.

The Brits can drill but will have to provision the drilling site from somewhere other than Argentina, which makes it more difficult and more expensive. Brazil or South Africa are both possible supply bases.

Quote of the Day

John Hinderaker, of Power Line, writing about the Obama administration backing away from the good relations Bush was cultivating with India:

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that a hallmark of Obama's foreign policy is perversity.

Ebbing Blue Tide

See what the guys at Politico say about the shifting political sands 15 months after the Obama surge:

The rapid reversal in Democratic fortunes in the very places where Obama's success brought so much attention suggests that predictions of a lasting realignment were premature.

There is a lot of state-by-state analysis in the article for those of you who love that level of political detail.

Greece Buggered

Go see the latest in the way the European Union is dealing with Greece. This article in the London Daily Telegraph pretty much lays it out. As a result of needing financial help from the other members, Greece loses its sovereignty in that body.

Some of the people writing comments suggest that the countries of the EU lost their sovereignty when they signed on to the Lisbon treaty. Whatever. The real question is this: will the Greeks man up and take their sovereignty back or wuss out and let it slide?

Majority Against Reelection

See the CNN/Opinion Research Poll here which asks, among other questions, whether the person being polled believes Barack Obama should be reelected. A majority of those polled (52%) answered no. Only 44% answered yes.

That is quite an accomplishment in just 13 months.

Quote of the Day II

The ever-popular Mark Steyn, writing for the National Review Online, about popular responses to the world-wide recession, that in contrast to Europe:

This is the only country in the developed world where a mass movement took to the streets to say we can do just fine if you control-freak statists would just stay the hell out of our lives, and our pockets.

That is a fair description of the Tea Party movement. Go read the whole article, this is only a sample.

Cheney A Winner

For those of you who share my positive view of Dick Cheney, you'll enjoy this article by Nile Gardiner in the London Telegraph. He sees Cheney as the prime spokesman for a muscular U.S. foreign and defense policy. He concludes:

Dick Cheney has become an extraordinarily influential game-changer in post-Bush Washington, emerging as Barack Obama’s leading nemesis on national security.

Indefinite Detention?

This article in Politico talks about needing a law to allow "indefinite detention" for terrorists and the sort of violent riff-raff we have held in Guantanamo. I truly don't understand the need for such a law.

What is wrong with calling the detainees "prisoners of war" and announcing that they will be detained until the long war is won, if that ever happens? Historically prisoners of war were not tried, they were simply detained until the war ended.