Same Sex Marriage

James Taranto:

Same-sex marriage is a logical extension of the idea of sexual equality. If men and women are at the deepest level interchangeable, then there's nothing to distinguish a "husband" from a "wife" and no reason that a "marriage" has to consist of one of each rather than two of one or the other.

NY Math

Uh, really? Math not really the good Mayor Bloomberg's strong suit? Using their numbers yields the following:

I guess this is why he can say something as silly as, "Is purchasing two 16 oz sodas too much of an inconvenience to help reverse a national health catastrophe?"

Shouldn't the calories in a 32oz be exactly twice those in a 16 oz? Somehow 7, 12 and 32 oz cups contain 4% more calories in NY. And when you huddle up 64 oz of soda in NY the calorie bump doubles to 8%.

Apparently there is something quite magical about the 16 oz cup in NY. Another example of the science being settled?

And I guess he doesn't care that it creates twice the waste.

Green Jobs

I guess we are all green now. Green jobs include:

• Manufacturing wind turbines
• Sweeping the floor in a solar panel facility
• Driving a hybrid bus
• Driving any bus
• Putting gas in a bus
• Clerk at a bicycle shop
• Selling antiques at an antique shop
• Selling used goods at a Salvation Army or consignment shops
• Selling rare books and manuscripts
• The teenage kid who works full time at a used record shop
• Manufacturing railroad rolling stock
• Hauling trash
• Oil lobbyists who advocate environmental issues

Issa was asking similar questions back in September of 2011:



Remember, no new jobs are created. They are just now reclassified as "green jobs".

Klavan helps us to understand this complicated matter:

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine

The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone.

From Taranto:

The night before the jobs report came out, Timothy Egan of the New York Times wrote that "the verdict is still out" on the president's economic record. "Because he got hit with the Bush hangover, his overall job numbers show a net loss of about 850,000, from January 2009 to the present," Egan writes. "But if you start a year into his presidency, Obama has added almost four million jobs."

The verdict is also still out on the 2012 Chicago Cubs. Sure, if you count the whole season, they have one of the worst records in the Major Leagues. But if you ignore their losses, they're an impressive 18-0.

Back to Obama:

The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, Governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.

By funneling more money from the feds who have flexibility in dealing with lower revenues does he mean more stimulus? And by flexibility does he mean borrowing and printing? Those are two things state governments can't do.

And so, you know, if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments and how do we help the construction industry? Because the recipes that they're promoting are basically the kinds of policies that would add weakness to the -- to the economy, would result in further layoffs, would not provide relief in the housing market, and would result, I think most economists estimate, in lower growth and fewer jobs, not more.

Says he.

Contest Racism

From the official rules:

PROMOTION OPEN ONLY TO INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL PERMANENT U.S. RESIDENTS WHO ARE LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE FIFTY (50) UNITED STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND PUERTO RICO...

Hmm. Does that make the contest racist like those who want voter ID are racist?

Heap Big Prevaricator

Elizabeth Warren self-identifies as an Cherokee Indian at one of the most prestigious law schools on the planet and yet she denies knowing about Harvard reporting her as a quota-filling minority. It strains credulity to imagine that you might rise to that level without knowing what others, especially your employer, is saying and writing about you. True, Google hasn't been around forever, but this seems at least slightly implausible. Doesn't she represent the best and brightest? If so, how could she have missed this? At the very least it demonstrates a lack of professionalism and manners for Harvard to be touting her minority bona fides without seeking her permission first.

The Boston Globe reports:

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago.

How would this idea have sneaked into the heads of those bean counters at Harvard unless she had checked a box somewhere indicating her status. Have you ever had this happen or have you ever heard of this happening - that somebody's ethnicity or race had been misidentified - and that for six years? And that person was unaware? That she denies self-identifying as a Cherokee to gain favor at Harvard? After submitting recipes that were purportedly handed down  from her Cherokee ancestors to a cookbook of Native American cuisine called Pow Wow Chow? And who had justifying her self-identity because her ancestors had "high cheek bones"? Who was sufficiently unaware as to not have known that Harvard Law School identified her as their "first woman of color"?

Do the people of Massachusetts really want a person in a position of power who was that unaware?

And secondarily, why is a liberal Democrat running from this affirmative action discussion? Warren's spokesman said:

There is nothing new in this report.  Elizabeth has been clear that she is proud of her Native American heritage and everyone who hired Elizabeth has been clear that she was hired because she was a great teacher, not because of that heritage.

Why have affirmative action policies in place if not to create openings for people such as Elizabeth Warren to walk through? Isn't the intent of affirmative action to overcome the systemic and cultural bigotries that would preclude a thoughtful, intelligent person from entering an area that would normally be closed? Isn't this a finger in the eye of all who oppose quotas? Why isn't this held up as a success of affirmative action or used as a campaign gem to laud the benefits of policies Warren undoubtedly supports? Shouldn't this self-identified minority be hailing her successful bigotry defenistration? Why the embarrassment and disassociation by Warren? Was she cheating and that is why she would like some distance here?

Doesn't her claim that she was only evaluated on merit and not on her racial identity debunk the entire premise of affirmative action policies?

Given that the left is busy banning the use of Indian imagery as mascots, maybe there is some secret cabal afoot to scrub American Indian lore from the conciousness of America - or at least that is how it would be reported if the right was doing something similar.

Victor Davis Hanson, The Power of Cool

Identity is key here. In general, to win exemption from the left-wing critique of America, the affluent must construct cool identities as far distant as possible from the white Christian heterosexual male, who is most culpable for creating our present affluence from ill-gotten gains. The multimillionaire Elizabeth Warren and her husband make nearly $1 million a year. They live in a home beyond the reach of 99 percent of America. And she may well have plagiarized and been dishonest about her own heritage. No matter -- Warren washed away both her privilege and her sins by reinventing herself as a “Cherokee” who fights Wall Street oppressors.

Mark Steyn, Breaking! The House of Windsor is One of the Five Tribes

Two of the possibly plagiarized recipes, said in the Pow Wow Chow cookbook to have been passed down through generations of Oklahoma Native American members of the Cherokee tribe, are described in a New York Times News Service story as originating at Le Pavilion, a fabulously expensive French restaurant in Manhattan. The dishes were said to be particular favorites of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Cole Porter.

Maggie Haberman, Fordham piece called Warren Harvard Law's 'first woman of color'

The mention was in the middle of a lengthy and heavily-annotated Fordham piece on diversity and affirmative action and women. The title of the piece, by Laura Padilla, was "Intersectionality and positionality: Situating women of color in the affirmative action dialogue."

Asked to comment, Warren spokesman Alethea  Harney said, "There is nothing new in this report.  Elizabeth has been clear that she is proud of her Native American heritage and everyone who hired Elizabeth has been clear that she was hired because she was a great teacher, not because of that heritage.

Investigate JP Morgan

JP Morgan had a $2B loss. California just reported what is essentially a $10B loss. And who is going to be investigated?

Think Like a _______ Person

The right thinks that people should be regarded not based upon their ethnicity, sexual preference, gender, social status, skin color or other physical characteristic but on shared values and the content of their character.

It is the Left that argues that every gay person must think like a leftist.
It is the Left that argues that every black person must think like a leftist.
It is the Left that argues that every woman must think like a leftist.
It is the Left that argues that every Hispanic person must think like a leftist.
It is the Left that argues that every poor person must think like a leftist.

Taxation Without Representation

Millions of illegal immigrants are getting a bigger tax refund than you. Eyewitness News shows a massive tax loophole that provides billions of dollars in tax credits to undocumented workers and, in many cases, people who have never stepped foot in the United States. And you are paying for it!



And there probably isn't any voter fraud either. Oh, wait...

Julia - Cradle to Grave

Ross Douthat takes a look at the Obama campaign's Julia ad.

What’s more, she seems to have no meaningful relationships apart from her bond with the Obama White House: no friends or siblings or extended family, no husband (“Julia decides to have a child,” is all the slide show says), a son who disappears once school starts and parents who only matter because Obamacare grants her the privilege of staying on their health care plan until she’s 26.

Its all about her. Kinda self-centered, right?

He goes on:

In addition to ignoring the taxes that will be required of its businesswoman heroine across her working life, “The Life of Julia” hails a program (Head Start) that may not work at all, touts education spending that hasn’t done much for high school test scores or cut college costs, and never mentions that on the Obama administration’s own budget trajectory, neither Medicare nor Social Security will be able to make good on its promises once today’s 20-something Julias retire.

Would the ad be as effective if Julia's name were José or Shaniqua? Doesn't the Obama campaign care about minorities?