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Instapundit has nice words for

ArchPundit September 23, 2002 No Comments

Instapundit has nice words for Counterspin Central’s Hesiod. The question I have is about this comment:
“That puts him head and shoulders above most of the anti-war critics. And most of the anti-war Democrats in Congress.”

But what serious critics is Glen talking about? Chomsky and gang can hardly be called serious. Congress has been largely avoiding the issue and I’m always confused by the strange notion that those opposed to the war are a monolith. I’m for the war, but most of the discussions I see breakdown into several categories; the looney left of people like Cockburn, skeptics of the truthfullness and timing of the administration, deterrence advocates, and multilateralists who aren’t even necessarily anti-war, but for going slow getting there. Of the four categories, Cockburn, Chomsky and the other fruitcakes are the smallest group and the least influential.

It seems many of the warbloggers are arguing against boogeymen most of the time that aren’t the real resistance out there. Zell Miller has voiced this the best by describing the discussions he had at home with some generally pretty conservative folks who are skeptical of this upcoming war. The real resistance isn’t the loony left, but people in the heartland who need to be convinced it is necessary. They are maybe not the best informed of us, but their skepticism is the same skepticism that the Founders had regarding overseas entanglements. The evidence of this is those who are voicing concerns. Jim Leach, Mark Kirk and other moderate Republicans are concerned about what is going on and not because they are wimps or leftist fruitcakes, but because their constituents are concerned.

Darth Vader suggest Harbour could

ArchPundit September 23, 2002 No Comments

Darth Vader suggest Harbour could run for Mississippi. Let me remind everyone of one of the funniest Congressional Hearings ever:

SEN. FRED THOMPSON: But when you?re sitting on a boat in the Hong Kong harbor, talking to a gentleman, who?s a citizen of Taiwan, I mean, that does raise certain other potential implications in terms of appearances, but it?s an appearance business that we?re both in, isn?t it?

Vader encourages the circular firing

ArchPundit September 23, 2002 No Comments

Vader encourages the circular firing squad with this tidbit:

Privatized Social Security?

The party leadership’s advice to Republican House candidates to avoid the issue of Social Security privatization has angered conservative theoreticians who fear a long delay in changing the system.

Rep. Tom Davis, the House Republican campaign chairman, has called on the party’s candidates to stay away from the issue, and especially the word ”privatize.” Steven Moore, chairman of the supply-side Club for Growth, said in a memo to Davis, ”Republicans must run ON the issue of creating Social Security private investment account options, not AWAY from it.”

A footnote: The latest Republican candidate to avoid the issue is Elizabeth Dole, who forced the withdrawal of a Democratic ad putting her on record for private accounts. Dole enjoys a big lead over former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles for the open Senate seat in North Carolina.

I love the Chicago Tribune,

ArchPundit September 23, 2002 No Comments

I love the Chicago Tribune, but this vendetta against the Madigans is a bit much. Birkett isn’t any cleaner and the more reasonable media outlets have covered his problems with taking money from lawyers in DuPage that regularly do business with him.

Let’s stipulate that I need

ArchPundit September 22, 2002 No Comments

Let’s stipulate that I need to get a life right off the bat. It is after midnight and I found a very interesting article while randomly going through blogs. Via Virginia Postrel I found this very good article on the evalution of different species under the Endangered Species Act.

Fellow environmentalists hate me when I bring up these subjects because, generally, they don’t have much of a grounding in economics. Ultimately though we do place values on all life. I actually think that if we force a valuation to be stated, most folks would be appalled by the amount we spend protecting children or endangered species. Opposition is very strong often for the reasons that Coursey ably mentions. Many refuse to put a dollar amount explicitly on life. The problem is we do put a value on it by how much we spend to protect it and explicitly stating that cost is essential in a society of scarce resources (for those less economically inclinded–all societies have scarce resources).

I’ll stop on the points because Coursey has obviously taken more time to develop the argument and you might as well read him.

There is anotehr interesting point in the article. In discussing his research, the reporter’s efforts to get a good story got in the way of reporting the findings. From Coursey’s description she kept trying to draw a conclusion that wasn’t necessarily warranted regarding the value of the Florida Panther. Even despite his best efforts she couldnt’ grasp the work was preliminary and it wasn’t necessarily normative. Certainly, we want to use social science to draw normative conclusions, but a positivist paper in itself is not adequate to make such conclusions.

Much of what we read in the press is dumbed down and interpreted far beyond what the work says. Often, this leads to Limbaugh and others ridiculing real research because, not only do they not understand it, it was even presented in context of the question.

Kaus has officially lost it.

ArchPundit September 22, 2002 No Comments

Kaus has officially lost it. Not only is the article inane, it specifically distorts the debate over immigrants and welfare. The defect in the reform was that permanent residents were denied benefits. As Alan Sympson, no flaming liberal put it, these people are practically citizens and the fruitcakes in Congress who tried to limit their benefits are stupid if they didn’t undersand that.

Kaus, who does not have the excuse of stupidity, knows that is what the debate was over, but apparently doesn’t care. For a guy who used to be interesting, he is increasingly becoming a crank. Perhaps editing is what helped him and Sullivan be interesting.

Jeff Golden at High Country

ArchPundit September 21, 2002 No Comments

Jeff Golden at High Country News takes the admirable position of being for common sense. He lists 6 points that are all pretty reasonable and center on consensus building. Who would disagree? One big twit with a lot of backers who don’t benefit from consensus.

Another High Country News article

ArchPundit September 21, 2002 No Comments

Another High Country News article examines the effects of Bush’s order to increase energy projects. Jon Margolis seems to be making a similar argument to what has been said about maximum cuts becoming the quota instead of the max.

Going to HCN for the

ArchPundit September 21, 2002 No Comments

Going to HCN for the trifecta is a little older of an article on the Navajo potentially using smaller trees for Homebuilding. This seems like it could provide jobs in clearing brush, building and then housing at lower rates than HUD does.

And one more. They have

ArchPundit September 21, 2002 No Comments

And one more. They have collected the articles on coalbed methane which is quickly becoming the industrial hog farm issue of the west. Amazingly, energy companies have found how to get environmentalists and ranchers together.