What it says on the tin.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:30 AM | Comments (136)
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Happy Thursday all.

The Hippie Endurance Test

This is 101 minutes of hippies beating drums and singing hippi-fied folk songs. It's horrible. And also perfect for measuring your HEF (Hippie Endurance Factor). 3 minutes is average, 10 minutes is manly, and 45 minutes is positively Bronsonesque. And if you can make it through all 101 minutes, well that's a mandatory drug test.

So how long can you go?

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:09 PM | Comments (940)
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Well, at least some of them are running for Congress. One guy is running for... Nancy Pelosi's seat.

Also over there, a trailer for Evan Sayet's Right 2 Laugh comedy show, which seems to be stand-up from conservative-leaning comics.

If you like Sayet -- and remember, he's the guy who did this viral "How Modern Liberals Think" speech -- he's got a Right 2 Laugh stand-up show (him and a posse of conservative comics) at JR's Comedy Club in LA this Sunday.

Posted by: Ace at 04:16 PM | Comments (88)
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It's often the little things that illuminate big differences on important topics. This post by Joshua Green of The Atlantic nicely illustrates the extent to which some people want government in our lives.

When Government Works

I closed on a house this morning--a process that was markedly different than when I last bought a house in 2003. One of the most pleasant ways in which it was different was the ease of shopping for a loan. This was the result of new HUD rules standardizing what lenders must disclose to buyers in their Good Faith Estimate to make it easier for buyers to compare offers, which it certainly was for me. In 2003, I remember poring over lenders' estimates for hours trying to spot the junk fees and figure out which deal was best. This time the key factors--interested rate, lender fees, etc.--were easy to spot because the forms were identical. It took all of three minutes to figure out which was the best deal and then to call the other lenders to ask if they could do better.

Look, congrats on the new home and all but the government doesn't exist to make it easier for people to understand what they are getting themselves in to when they are buying a house.

A home is one of the biggest purchases and important undertakings most people will ever be involved in. It can be complicated and you certainly want to make sure you don't get taken to the cleaners. Still, all of that is on you. If you aren't ready to put the effort into making sure all the paperwork is in order, that you've cut the best deal possible and aren't getting ripped off, then maybe you aren't ready for the responsibility of owning a home.

I bet there are banks or lenders out there that would provide this kind of service if requested or because that kind of customer service is a selling point for them. Why should the government take away their competitive advantage by mandating everyone provide the same information? How do we know the bureaucrats mandated the right information be shared? There's no feedback like in a market place, simply commands.

Keep in mind, HUD had plenty of regulations and programs in place for the last 20+ years designed to help people buy homes. Government doesn't always know better.

And don't forget the monetary costs. Sure when you amortize it across a big department like HUD and a whole nation of taxpayers this kind of program costs very little per person. The thing is behind that regulation is vast bureaucracy that studied the issue, promulgate the regulations and eventually enforce compliance.

Eventually, like a horde of locusts they will move onto the next subject. Their hunger to regulate never satiated.

But all this guy knows is he was relieved of responsibility and it didn't cost him anything. What's not to love?

You know what else is confusing and potentially expensive? Home repairs. What exactly is the proper role for government in ensuring this guy gets the best deal from a plumber, electrician or carpenter?

There are a lot of things that are important we get right on a daily basis. Expecting the government to help us navigate the complex choices of life infantilizes the very citizens who are supposed to be the ones in charge.

I don't want to rain of Green's parade but being relived of individual adult responsibilities is not a triumph.

As I said, it's a little example but they add up. Pretty soon you have a government involved in 'helping' with everything and a people incapable of functioning without it.

What could go wrong?

Posted by: DrewM at 04:06 PM | Comments (211)
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[I gotta make this quick. I lifted Ace's key while he was sleeping one off in the alley behind Seamus's Irish Pub. Before I start going through his shit to see what's pawnable and what isn't, I wanted to post a little piece that was prompted by Doctor Zero's essay "The Dreadful Equation". Anyone who narcs me out gets his ass busted.]

Evolutionary biology adopted the metaphor of Lewis Carroll's "Red Queen" in Through the Looking-Glass to explain the necessity of organisms adapting to ever-changing environments. Every organism must evolve to keep pace with other organisms in their ecosystem to maintain their evolutionary fitness. In other words, you have to run very fast just to maintain you evolutionary position. Losing your evolutionary "fitness" means losing out to (or becoming lunch for) fitter organisms.

This concept works in economics as well. Money (and other financial instruments) are really only batteries, a way of storing energy -- if that energy is not husbanded carefully, it can "bleed away" and be lost to entropy. But since additional energy is required to maintain that existing store of energy, it becomes a problem of efficiency and scale: how you do get more out of the system than you put in? What makes it all worthwhile? more...

Posted by: Monty at 02:57 PM | Comments (146)
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Via Hot Air.

So far he's playing Springsteen's Born in the USA Because he's like a patriot or something.

Okay -- now he's going to rock us.

Now it's Van Halen's "Right Now." It's a smoghastborg of stupidly obvious repurposed rock songs. Can you feel the excitement? Check out his tiny crowd. You can sure feel the adrenaline from them.

The Hug Agenda: His Democratic endorser kept mentioning hugging Charlie, and how wonderful it would be to hug the president.

"I'm Not Mad As Hell And I Probably Will Take It Some More!!!" His Democratic endorser also took a swipe at tea partiers, saying there's some "angry talk" that shouldn't be said, which makes Crist the insurgent, third-party candidate who's not angry and who wants to maintain the establishment status quo.

Interesting.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (182)
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His marriage was supposed to be par one, but he had a little trouble in the rough and dick-shanked into a few strange-bunkers and wound up up at +121.

121. In five years. Though he says he can make up for some of that by being disciplined on the back nine.

The odd thing is that his wife would have forgiven him, apparently, if he had just kept it to 120.

Legal sources told US paper the National Enquirer: “When Tiger was in rehab for sex addiction, he filled out four pages, listing the amount of women he’d had affairs with – there were 121 in all.”

Now, after talking to top US divorce lawyers, Erin, 30, has reportedly drawn up divorce papers. They are said to cite his confession, made when she joined him for his rehab clinic “family week”.

This included a “disclosure day” when a tearful Woods allegedly owned up to the flings as part of his treatment.

But legal sources say it is the failure to name his claimed youngest one-night stand, 22-year-old Racychel Coudriet, that is said to have finally prompted the former model to file for divorce. This reported romp with a neighboursÂ’ daughter later made headlines to add to a string of affairs which had become public, including one with New Yorker Rachel Uchitel, 34.

The source went on: “Raychel Coudriet was not on the list. After Elin found out about her she told Tiger their marriage is definitely over. There is no room for reconciliation any more.”

How the hell did he remember them all?

Hey, Check This Chick Out: Pretty nasty, but she has Tiger Woods beat.

She's charged with having sex with a horse. Also, she gave a sexually transmitted disease to a guy, and also, to his Jack Russel Terrier, too, and not through petting, either.

In related news, she'll be competing on Rock of Love next season.

Thanks to DC.

Posted by: Ace at 12:46 PM | Comments (260)
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Mentioned a while back -- Detroit is depopulating, with one-third of its residential homes simply abandoned. Their big idea is to demolish dying neighborhoods and turn them into farmlands, and condense the city into living (and more easily policed) neighborhoods.

The problem is that even in blighted areas some homes are occupied, and the owners don't want to move.

Frankly, I suspect for most this is a bargaining position -- hold-outs tend to get paid more. I don't imagine many people are actually super-psyched to live in a ghost-town of abandoned, decaying, burned-out homes.

I think one way the city can deal with this is to not be so insistent that every home in these dying neighborhoods be demolished. If they want to stay, let 'em stay -- you can build farmlands around them. Maybe they like the idea of being surrounded by farms. And who does that hurt, really? The only problem is police power, having to run cars out to far-flung houses, but that's a pretty small cost in the scheme of things. And it's not as if we're talking great distances.

But I Detroit only has $40 million for this project. The math seems difficult to me -- how does a dying city without much money adequately compensate people for all the seized homes? I've got a sneaking suspicion they don't have nearly enough and will be mulcting the feds for money every year.

More at Hot Air. It's an interesting question, as it pits the power of the state against individuals who refuse to go along with the plan. And it implicates zoning, which is one of the hottest-button issues around.

I don't know, though. At some point the defense-of-the-individual position crosses over into actual anarchism if taken too far. People tend to be property-rights absolutists right about until the time their neighbor, also believing in absolute property rights, wants to erect a fat-rendering plant, a slaughterhouse, or a porno emporium.

As I said, I think the hold-outs just mostly want better terms. If you can buy them off, fine. If not, avoid using the state power to snatch their land -- just demolish all the homes you do can buy out and turn just that land into farm. Again, I really don't see the big problem with having farmland studded with the occasional house (and connecting road). If people want to live the boonies, that's their right. The boonies have a lot to recommend.

But taking that option also gets people to stop holding out, because, in the end, most of these folks don't want to live in desolation. Again, they're mostly just holding out, so if you just tell them you'll build a road to their house and otherwise convert the neighborhood to farmland, they'll come to terms.

Posted by: Ace at 12:25 PM | Comments (175)
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Many of you are wondering what I am going to run on should I declare an independent candidacy for the United States Senate.

I think the most compelling issue is abundantly clear. Quite simply, I am going to run on the platform of Repeal & Replace!

Seriously...doesn't that link prove my conservative bona-fides to you wingnuts? What more do you want out of me?

Oh...and maybe I'll try to get Bill Clinton a Congressional Gold Medal for sending that Cuban punk back to Havana. During the primary campaign, I came to appreciate just how prudent and farsighted a gesture that was. In fact, as I gazed upon the increasing distance between myself and Speaker Rubio in the polls, I often found myself asking "Where is Janet Reno when she's really needed?"

So, that's pretty much it. Repealing the tanning tax and deporting inconvenient Cubans before they have a chance to grow up and run against you.

That's really all I got. Obama's stimulating everything else just fine, I think.

Well, that's not really true. I do have one other selling point.

I blow one mean Conch! That's important to Florida's voters, especially those who live in the Keys. Why, on a good day, one can see virtually unlimited conch roaming wild and free in their native habitat!

See...here I am putting my talent to full, effective use.

People tell me I have a natural talent for it. "Charlie," they say "you seem like a guy who's blown a lot of conch." I also hear voters tell me that "Washington is full of conch-suckers like you" and that makes me confident that I'll fit in just fine! Unlike my two opponents, Rubio and Meek, who I have never seen blow a conch. I don't think anyone's ever even alleged it.

I mean, that has to count for something, right? My "learning curve" will be much shorter than theirs, and I will be able to get to work on behalf of Floridians that much quicker.

The more I think about it, the more excited I get! I can see it now....hanging out in the cloakrooms, voting with the Democrats 95% of the time, and transforming myself into a one man Chamber of Commerce for Florida Conch.

I have to end this post now, as I have a phone call from Senator Graham to return. He wants to discuss a "comprehensive conch cap and trade" bill, and I am eager to show my ability to reach around the aisle.

See you fine folks in November!

Charlie "a conch in every pot" Crist.

Posted by: Jack M. at 12:13 PM | Comments (48)
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Isn't that what Obama said regarding health care?

Posted by: Ace at 11:56 AM | Comments (93)
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