Last Wednesday, the American Enterprise Institute, "a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise", held a meeting at its headquarters for the purpose of promoting a carbon tax initiative. It was apparently the fifth in a series of such meetings.

If that strikes you as completely at odds with its stated mission, well, you're not alone.

Left-right coalitions can be principled and desirable. For example, I worked with environmental groups to help end the ethanol tax credit, and I work with them now to develop the case for eliminating the ethanol mandate. We collaborate because we share the same policy objective, even if not always for the same reasons. The free marketers want to end political meddling in the motor fuel market and the environmentalists want to end federal support for a fuel they regard as more polluting than gasoline. The common objective is consistent with each partnerÂ’s core principles.

But such cases are the exception rather than the rule. In general, when left and right join forces, the appropriate question is: Who is duping whom?

Indeed.

Ben Domenech reported on this meeting in his Transom newsletter this week and characterized it as follows:

The agenda paints a clear picture: this was not an event with economists discussing the merits or problems of a carbon tax agenda, which would be a worthwhile discussion at any thinktank. Rather, it is a strategy session for how to pass something by coin-operated shills, the sort of thing that should be held at a lobbying shop, not a thinktank. The political dynamics of this are simple: much of industry, including ExxonMobil, GM, and others have long supported carbon taxes because it doesn’t damage their competitiveness – they can just pass through the tax – and because they know politicians in Washington find raising taxes politically dicey. The property and casualty insurance companies support these steps as well, because they can use them to justify higher insurance premiums. As is typical with corporate interests, this is their way of being “for” something instead of just being against cap-and-trade and higher CAFE standards. But in order to achieve that, they need cover on the right and the left – they need to have the gloss of the AEI and George Mason brands – and they need active and willing participants in this effort.

That's spot-on. It would be one thing to invite in the leftists and debate global warming or climate change or whatever they're calling it this week. The Heartland Institute does this every year.

But that's not what this meeting was. From all appearances, they accepted the leftists' Carbon Dioxide, the Silent Killer™ argument at face value and moved right into discussions of how best to eliminate it via punative taxation.
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Posted by: andy at 07:38 AM | Comments (188)
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Your weekly placeholder until content arrives. And by content, I mean another weekend open thread.

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Below the fold is the Walking Dead Season 3 trailer from Comic-Con. The new season looks to be just as intense and action packed as the first two. Will the group finally smarten up and acquire some military grade firepower? Will they learn to sleep in hardened structures? Will someone finally put a bell on Carl so he can't simply wander off and endanger the group? The season premier is October 14th on AMC. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:33 PM | Comments (55)
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Well this might be perfect for a Friday the 13th, the 3rd and final one of the year. If you aren't aware, the sun had an X-Class flare yesterday and a CME is heading our way. Estimated time of arrival of the plasma cloud is as early as 5am EST Saturday morning. Here's where it gets interesting. Solar Storm Incoming: Federal Agencies Provide Inconsistent, Confusing Information.

A wave of plasma stoked by an X-class solar flare, the most intense type, is headed towards Earth. This blast of charged particles, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), is forecast to ignite a geomagnetic storm on Earth over the weekend. NOAA predicts it will be minor, maybe moderate. NASA says it will be moderate to severe.

Figures. We'll soon find out who is right. If you get your power from PEPCO, you're screwed either way.

Here's a real good site (SolarHam) to track it and also to see how far the aurora will reach for viewing. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:37 PM | Comments (481)
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Well, it had to happen.

A female manager at a Long Island-based national womenÂ’s organization was a catcalling, butt-slapping, lecherous boss from hell who propositioned the women she supervised and drove them out of the company, a new complaint says.

Krissy DeMonte — who appears in a Facebook photo playfully shoving another woman’s face into her breasts — allegedly unleashed her frisky fury at the National Association of Professional Women in Garden City between September 2010 and March 2012.

Exhibit A: "Later on I'll empower your chooch"

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“She’d say you’re hot, you’re sexy, no wonder why all the guys love you,” McCabe told The Post. “I was extremely humiliated. I felt disempowered. I didn’t know what to do. I felt lost.”

Colleague Crystal Alexander said she suffered similar abuse. “She would pass my desk, and while I was standing up she would smack me on my behind, grab my butt and pinch me as well,” Alexander said. “I think she’s obsessed with butts. It is very peculiar.”

An Islamic scholar just emailed to say, "I get it. I get it."

More at the Daily Mail (of course).

Anyway, the women who complained of abuse were soon being written up for what they term as "frivolous" complaints, and then were fired.

This story gets even better, if you can believe it. The company's national spokeswoman? Star Jones, that awful, stupid woman from The View (but I repeat myself).

Thanks to @theh2.

Posted by: Ace at 01:36 PM | Comments (490)
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I can't vouch for the translation, but that's what this guy says was the question before an Islamic "scholar," asked of him by the original underwear bomber.

And it turns out the answer is "Yes," because jihad comes before everything else. Including keeping your bung's diet halal.

In related news, the Islamic scholar will be teaching at Western Nevada College this fall.

Artist's Conception

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (301)
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Wow.

Turns out the "only beanbags are approved against perps armed with AK-47's" guidance was too bloodthirsty, and left too much to Border agents' discretion.

Now comes news that a Border Patrol training video is instructing agents that, when confronted by a shooter. they should “run away” and “hide”. Only as a last resort, if they are cornered, should agents get “aggressive” and “throw things” at the perps.

Can these things I throw be hard, or do they have to be made of a Nerf-like sponge material?

I've discussed the paper rule vs. the real rule before. In the case of finding possible jihadist sympathizers in the military, for example: if the paper rule is that you're supposed to report your suspicions, but what actually happens is you get branded "anti-Islamic" and have your career derailed if you do, then the real rule is "do not report suspicions about jihadist sympathizers."

On the Border, the paper rule is to investigate and possibly detain suspected drug smugglers, gun runners, and illegal border crossers. But the guidance on the use of force is Let them kill you, because if you draw a weapon, we'll fire you.

So the real rule is "Do not investigate border crossers."

This works out great for corrupt administrations, who can point to the paper rule as evidence of their desire to secure the border, and of course the media will not confront them with the real rule.

Posted by: Ace at 12:06 PM | Comments (153)
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But it did take some time to unwind his position in the company, legally.

And financially. The people at Bain had to come up with a fair price to buy his shares, I imagine.

In explaining the SEC documents filed in 2000 and 2001, Pagliuca said, "Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney's departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999. Accordingly, Mr. Romney was reported in various capacities on SEC filings during this period."

"Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He was just gone. And it happened very suddenly. ... After that, he was not on calls or writing memos. He was gone."

Oh, and Romney's responded to Obama's "I failed to tell a story" statement.

President Obama believes that millions of Americans have lost their homes, their jobs and their livelihood because he failed to tell a good story. Being president is not about telling stories. Being president is about leading, and President Obama has failed to lead. No wonder Americans are losing faith in his presidency.

I can't wait to see the back of this guy.

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (146)
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I don't have much of an opinion, except that I'm marginally inclined against her, so I'll just link some blathering about it.

By the way, I think this is manufactured news -- when there's no news, you make some up. But whatevs.

Ramesh Ponuru calls the hypothetical choice "nuts." The balls on that guy.

Peggy Noonan is a big fan, if you care.

You know what's shocking? Noonan says Rice is 57 years old. Fifty seven? She looks 40.

No link for Politico, but Sarah Palin says Rice would be a "wonderful" Vice President and notes Rice has far more experience than the current President. She gives Rice a qualified pass on her "mild" support of abortion, stating that Rice wouldn't have responsibility over that issue anyway. (Unless, of course, she became President, which is something to consider.)

Bill Kristol is ambivalent, but digs her high 66-24 favorable ratings.

Rice wowed the crowd—and seemed to impress Mitt Romney, who was standing beside her—when she spoke in a featured role at a Romney campaign event two weeks ago in Park City, Utah. Rice is qualified, would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one.

I'd really like to hear this speech where she supposedly "wowed" the crowd. Buzzfeed has a very poor audio copy, which I can't listen to because it's so bad. (Surreptitious recording, I imagine.) I kind of like Rice, but while her bio is kind of wow-worthy, she's never wowed me with a statement or speech.

I think that's why I'm against her. While she seemed like a rock star, and I rooted for her like she was a rock star, and even sometimes dresses like a rock star, she actually never had a hit album, and ten years later we'll all still sort of waiting for her to demonstrate her rock star status.

Posted by: Ace at 11:02 AM | Comments (257)
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Nothing weird here. At all.

He's actually a college professor, but was teaching both college freshmen and high schoolers who were taking the class for college credit (I think).

One student has filed federal suit.

Kubistant “locked the classroom door” and played a “90-minute movie… depicting females engaging in sex and having an orgasm,” Royce’s complaint says.

He also allegedly told the class, which included high school students taking the class for college credit, he would “increase their sexual urges to such a height that they won’t be able to think about anything other than sex.”

Kubistant “announced to the entire class they must masturbate if they intended to pass the class,” according to the complaint. This was after Royce voiced her objection to the assignment, which she says made him “agitated.”

Well, I'm sure he's a young guy and has no trouble getting sex so this is probably just an error in judgment, and there's no reason to suspect him of just using his position to get himself some free stroke material.

Oh.

Ohhhhh.

I see now.

To add a little bit of fairness here: That's what these courses are. They're not really academic; they're self-help, basically (ba-dum-dum). It's less a class than a clinic. Pretty much they're all "Sex Journals" and masturbation workshops.

The classes are for sexually-repressed people who want to loosen up, exhibitionists looking for a forum, dweebs who want to have study groups with whores, and whores looking for an easy A.

I've never really understood why 18 year olds who are humping like rabbits have to be taught how to hump like rabbits, but, still, if that's what the course is and you don't like it, maybe you shouldn't sign up.

via @benk84

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (377)
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