ArchPundit

Off to have my eyes dilated and be annoyed that I can’t focus on anything for the rest of the day.

Rich reports the doctors have reattached the portion of Mark Kirk’s skull they removed to deal with swelling on the brain.

He seems to be recovering well and that’s great news.  I look forward to the day he’s well enough for me to get mad at him again.

Jeebus:

Q&A

Gee, what is he trying to say?

The Republican candidates are running to the right of Alan Keyes on contraception.  If you recall, I tried to get him to come out for a prohibition on contraception in 2004.  He wouldn’t go for it even.

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Aaron has the full story:

CREDO Mobile’s Super PAC will set its sights on ten tea party Congressman this November according to a press release. Illinois’ own self-proclaimed “crazy Tea Party freshman,” Joe Walsh heads the list of the six named so far by the group.

Walsh faces a tough reelection fight in the redrawn 8th Congressional District that spans from O’Hare to Elgin. His Democratic opponent is not yet known as two heavyweights, Tammy Duckworth and Raja Krishnamoorthi, fight it out until the March 20 primary.

CREDO aims to support local organizing in all ten targeted districts through a volunteer based grassroots initiative. The newly formed SuperPAC claims to have the second most donors, trailing only satirist Stephen Colbert’s foray into politics, and will spend millions of dollars around the nation.

“We’re talking about some of the most odious members of Congress. Even for Republicans these guys are low,” said Campaign Manager Matthew “Mudcat” Arnold in a statement. “We’re going to empower local activists to organize their friends and neighbors to lay out the truth about their representatives in the most basic terms: They are anti-woman. They are anti-science. They are hypocritical, bigoted, and have said and done things that are downright crazy. They’ve done more to embarrass their constituents then they have to govern or work toward solutions. They are unfit for Congress, and we’re going to help their constituents hold them accountable.”

Walsh is toast, but it’s probably a good fundraising tool given he always attracts attention.  Imagine how awesome it must be for the trackers on Duckworth and Raja’s campaign following around a truly crazy person all day.

Catholic Bishops whine and Chris Matthews and EJ Dionne think the end of the world is coming.  The amazing thing about watching pundits on television is how little they know.  Listening to Mathews, Dionne, or Chuck Todd talk about how mandating contraceptive coverage in religiously affiliated institutions is going to lead to Catholics voting against Obama in huge numbers, one has to wonder if they know anything about actual Catholic voters.

As has been pointed out repeatedly around the internets, huge majorities of Catholics support Obama’s position on the issue.  Also, despite the caterwauling by Bishops, many of the Catholic affiliated institutions already provide contraceptive care in their health care plans.  One might think they are being disingenuous or something.  But the great intelligentsia is convinced the Bishops equal Catholic opinion and repeat  stupid claims about how this will hurt the President while there is no evidence it will and some evidence it might even help.

But more than anything what stuns me about this whole deal is that similar coverage is already mandated in 28 states.    The Bishops have started a fight over an issue they lost years ago and pundits have gone along for the ride.  I long ago gave up any hope that television pundits knew anything about public policy, but the annoying thing is their stubbornness in staying ignorant while pontificating on it for weeks.

As I have been railing about for 8 years, this is another battle in the war on making anything sexual icky and tut tutting about slutty women who do nothing more than act like normal human beings.  Mature human beings understand that sex is a normal part of life and sexual health is like any other health care issue.  However, our chattering classes constantly cave to a bunch of ninnies who treat the entire subject as somehow strange and dangerous.

People, those average people on the street pundits like to claim to understand, use contraception and not only is that okay, it’s a good thing.  Planning being a parent is a very good thing–it’s what a responsible adult does.

Santorum, the Bishops, and other scolds want to deny reality on sex and adults because  they think they know better what women should be doing with their bodies.   It’s time to tell them to grow up and act like mature adults.

All over Missouri. 

So not safe for work I can’t even say.

And I didn’t even bother to vote for the bastard by crossing party lines.  He’s an awful human being who couldn’t represent the modern GOP better.

While Romney is the likely nominee for the Republicans, a Barack – Newt match-up would be hysterical to watch.  Kind of like some race in 2004.  Lots of bold claims about how Newt’s brilliance will wipe the floor with Obama only to have it turn into caterwauling about how anyone thought Newt would be anything, but a disaster while runs a campaign based on repeated proclamations of how brilliant he is.

Any pics of Newt in a cowboy hat or videos of him singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow are greatly appreciated.

BTW, Eric has made similar cases that Newt and Keyes are similar.

Soylent Green is People!

The senator says that his research shows there are companies in the food industry that have used human stem cells to help them research and develop products, including artificial flavorings.

“I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be. What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here,” Shortey tells KRMG’s Nicole Burgin.

To that end, his proposed statute reads, “No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.”

“I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be.”

Let me repeat:

“I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be.”

The Modern GOP:  Making the Onion Obsolete.

That tying a guy’s salary to purely statistical goals he self reports could lead to a scandal:

But year after year, Pless reportedly met or exceeded the goals by falsifying data, concluded a 114-page report by the university’s legal counsel, its ethics office, law firm Jones Day; and Duff & Phelps, a financial advisory and data analysis firm. The university also released thousands of pages of supporting material, including the email exchanges.

U. of I. hired the two firms after the university’s ethics office received a tip in late August that erroneous information had been reported about the Class of 2014, a group the college touted as “the most academically distinguished” in school history, with a median LSAT score of 168 that bumped the college into a “rarefied level.” The class’s actual median LSAT score was 163, a significant drop from the previous year’s honestly reported score of 167.

The report, released Monday, concluded Pless inflated academic credentials for the class of 2008 and the classes of 2010 through 2014. The acceptance rates of four of those classes also were manipulated. Pless “knowingly and intentionally” submitted false data by changing individual students’ grades and test scores or inflating the overall class median, according to the report.

To understand what a drop of 167 to 163 means, a 167 is around the 95th percentile on the most recent test (percentiles do move around on the test,so these previous year’s tests are probably off a bit here) to a 163 which is around the 88th percentile.  That’s a pretty big drop, but part of the problem is the Illinois Law School seems heavily focused on using a mediocre measure of quality in the US News & World Report rankings.

Grades and scores could both change significantly by year regardless of what the Law School does.  Being a slave to USN&WR rankings makes the school a slave to random fluctuations and specifically is an invalid measure to base a strategic plan.  A law school, as any educational institution should, should have a vision of what it does and do that the best it can.   Being a slave to measures that will necessarily fluctuate from year to year creates a situation where the institution is chasing statistical artifacts that have little to no meaning.  That is a corruption of the institution in the worst possible way and a surefire method to eventually turn into a mediocre institution.

I’ve been listening to The Beer Report which is an unpretentious and generally funny beer podcast from a couple guys in Central Illinois.  In recent podcasts they have covered some good beers, but also had some funny riffs on the Beer Advocate and Dick Cheney.

For all the time I’ve been away, he pretty much wins for any number of mind numbingly stupid things the dumbass has done in just a to remain very short Congressional Career.  Even Mike Flanagan had better sense then Walsh.  I, of course, want Walsh returned to Congress, but I doubt even Illinois Republicans will do anything that stupid.

But for all of his stupid utterances, the stupidest and most uncredible is:

Walsh’s ex-wife says Walsh owes more than $100,000 in back child support for their three children. Walsh counters that he and his wife had a “verbal agreement” that he didn’t have to pay child support during years when he wasn’t earning as much.

So, let’s get this clear Congressman.  Your ex-wife, the one who has sued you multiple times for lack of child support payment, just agreed to you not paying child support.

What everyone seems to forget is that Walsh wasn’t just running for Congress and loaning his own campaign thousands of dollars, but he had two homes at the time:

Questions about Walsh’s finances have recently dogged his campaign. After the primary, news surfaced that Walsh lost his Evanston condominium to foreclosure last June, because he owed more than $300,000 on the property. Walsh says he’s a venture capitalist who averaged $40,000 in income the last two years but then fell on tough financial times. However, he still managed to scrape together enough money to rent a $3,300 per month house in upscale Winnetka.

Now, he didn’t pay his child support and he had a condo foreclosed on, but he paid $3,300 a month in rent for a house in Winnetka.  Has he ever heard of Schaumburg?  I have no brief with someone who makes financial mistakes–I have more than a few under my belt.  However, I do find it odd to spend $3,300 a month on a house while  going into a foreclosure and claiming to be too poor to pay child support.

What an amazing douchebag.

New version of the video–the real craziness starts about 8 minutes in, but even before then the humor starts.

Also–District 116 posted it and deserves credit–I didn’t quite realize it was a blog at first.  My apologies for bad netiquette.