Good piece at NRO, rubbishing liberals' claims about Texas' unemployment situation and poverty rate.

You probably know that while Obama benefits, statistically, from discouraged workers -- workers who have simply left the work force entirely, due to the futility of finding work, and hence are not included in the unempoloyment rate -- Texas' unemployment rate is distorted by the large number of encouraged workers entering the state to find work.

But here's something worth mentioning about the claims about Texas' supposedly-high poverty rate:

Plumer: “The state boasts the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers in the country . . . .”

Meyerson: “It has the fourth-highest poverty rate of any state. . . .”

Unfortunately, neither of these writers really understands what these numbers mean. The biggest problem with both claims is that Texas has the second largest percentage of under-18-year-olds in the country. Children between ages 0 and 17 donÂ’t make much income, if any, but they nonetheless are factored into per capita income calculations. In order usefully to compare what people are making across the states, a better approach is to compare GDP per adult. In 2008 Texas ranked 14th, which is not too shabby. Even more important, from the day Perry became governor in 2000, until 2010, Texas ranked 10th in terms of real GDP growth per adult. By contrast, California ranked 24th.

Krugman and his cronies may not realize it, but TexasÂ’s very young population also dramatically raises the rate of people in the population earning the minimum wage. Given that single women with kids make up such a large portion of those in poverty, it isnÂ’t surprising that the high birth rate also drives up the poverty rate.

On the other hand, Daniel Foster looks at claims that Perry is practicing "crony capitalism" and, alas, cannot entirely rebut them.

I'm bothered by his point five:

5. Perry is not (yet) Rod Blagojevich. Conspicuously missing from the Perry stories is any suggestion that Perry himself has done anything unlawful. “If this were a real charge,” as Sullivan puts it, “Mr. Democratic Strategist Who Hates Rick Perry would take his case to the FBI and not the Washington Post.”

Well that's not very encouraging.

I don't see anything there, though. Texas, like any state government, awards licenses and contracts; yes, many of these go to rich businessmen who donate to Rick Perry, but... I imagine the list of rich Texas businessmen who don't donate to Rick Perry is rather short.

This looks sinister if you proceed from the assumption that every contract or license must be a quid pro quo. But these are routine grants. And political donations are themselves routine.

Posted by: Ace at 09:09 AM | Comments (247)
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Meet the new study, same as the old study.

The trick here is the same as in all of these "studies." A series of questions are asked, most of which are, to the disinterested observer and especially to the bona fide scientist, neutral in nature.

But then, in the report-writing/media PR unveiling phase, these "scientists" assign the respondents' answers moral values.

That's odd for a scientist, isn't it? Taking neutral policy preference data and assigning it a moral, quasi-religious import?

They also contradict themselves left and right, but that's okay, as long as the report is internally consistent in branding everything about the Tea Party morally weak.

Tea party voters are more likely to fear change and harbor negative attitudes toward immigrants, according to a study presented Monday at the American Sociological Association's annual conference in Las Vegas.

"Fear change?" "Fear" is a loaded, emotional word. What they mean of course is that the Tea Party resists the progressive agenda. But that wouldn't make headlines, as it's obvious, so "resists the progressive agenda" becomes "fears change."

As far as "negative" feelings about immigrants -- yes, but how many of those "negative" feelings are of a legitimate policy question nature? As usual the good little court astrologers flatter the king by calling his enemies weak and pitiful.

The study, called "Cultures of the Tea Party," also claims voters who felt favorably toward the tea party movement valued deference to authority and libertarianism.

Deference to authoritarianism and libertarianism?

Did the writers look up these words? They're nearly direct opposites.

I think a more scientific way to report it is that the Tea Party favors some government intervention in some social areas where the socialist charlatans would prefer none, and that they disfavor government intervention in economic areas where the progressive bone-casters want lots.

But this means that the progressives themselves could be described as, depending on the issue, "deferring to both authoritarianism and libertarianism."

But that would be 1, obvious, and 2, not newsworthy and worse 3, insufficiently flattering to progressives.

So the report takes the noticeably unscientific position that economic paternalism and social-values libertinism must be the "correct" policy profile, and any deviation from that evidence of moral and intellectual degredation.

Ergo, Tea Partiers defer to both authoritarianism and libertarianism, whereas progressives... just believe in common sense, I guess, which is libertarianism and authoritarianism. But note the correct order there.

...

The findings are based on a telephone poll of nearly 4,500 registered voters in North Carolina and Tennessee conducted last year. The researchers also conducted 10 interviews and kept track of any signs and costumes at a tea party rally in North Carolina...

They kept track of the costumes and signs? Oh dear. I hope they didn't spy any giant paper machiere Vampire Dick Cheneys.

You can infer from that last bit that this was intended to be a hit job from the outset.

...

The poll also found that 51 percent of people who were very concerned about "changes taking place in American society these days" were tea party supporters. Nearly 85 percent of tea party supporters said the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted "as the Founders intended," compared to only 34 percent of other respondents.

But tea party supporters were twice as likely as others to favor constitutional amendments, including a ban on flag burning and an overhaul of the 14th Amendment, which states that people born in the United States are citizens.

"The (tea party) supporters' inconsistent views of the Constitution suggests that their nostalgic embrace of the document is animated more by a network of cultural associations than a thorough commitment to the original text," the report states.

Wait, but what about all this "fear change" when they actively pursue change?

And I don't even have to note the strangeness of claiming it is "inconsistent" to demand the Constitution be implemented as written, including making changes to it, via the Amendment process, which is as written.

Again, note the opposite here, and how this writer would not similarly cast his fellow communist organ-squeezers as "inconsistent." Progressives fear change, as they resist constitutional amendments, and yet inconsistently demand that the Constitution be changed at the whim of five judges armed with public opinion surveys and treatises on foreign law.

Oh, but that's consistent. The guys saying the Constitution should be read as it's actually written, and changed via the mechanism specified within it -- those guys are the "inconsistent" ones who "fear change."

These reports always do the same thing-- they take a particular political agenda, socialist/collectivist transnational progressivism, assume that (completely unscientifically) to the be the self-evidently correct position and therefore the priviledged position, then note the bloody obvious that non-progressives do not believe in progressivism.

Then they go off on a Tourettes jag calling non-progressives cowards, morons, haters and brutes.

And then they slap a brand name on it-- Science (TM).

Posted by: Ace at 08:08 AM | Comments (259)
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From Phyllis Schlafly at Townhall.com:

Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan tossed out this case in which some female employees accused financial and media services giant Bloomberg LP of workplace discrimination because their bosses failed to pretend that pregnant employees and those who took time off for maternity or other purposes were really doing the same work as those who worked faithfully fulltime on the job. This is another example of the fact that the feminist goal was never equal pay for equal work, but always was more pay for less work.

Referring to the way the women's case was based on a few anecdotes and not statistics, the judge wrote, "'J'accuse!' is not enough in court. Evidence is required."

Mirabile dictu! The judge really shocked feminists, since they usually win when they assert fault against the so-called patriarchy without any evidence or fear of prosecution for perjury.

The trouble with many younger women is that feminism falsely taught them to plan their life career in the workplace without any space or time for marriage, a husband or children. They have a total lack of understanding of how demanding a new baby is, and how they really want to spend their time after a baby arrives.

Via @AdamSBaldwin.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 07:40 AM | Comments (117)
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Eric CantorÂ’s WaPo op-ed.

The president has acknowledged that without reform, spending on entitlement programs is unsustainable. But he has also made clear that he would never support the type of structural changes to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security needed to make these programs solvent as envisioned in our budget — even if Republicans agree to his demand for tax increases. While a compromise on the way to strengthen entitlements may be one thing, raising taxes in this economy is another. Doing so would exacerbate the jobs crisis for the 14 million Americans out of work. It would negatively affect the businesses across America that we are counting on to get our economy going.

The Euro is doomed, ChinaÂ’s in for a radical slowdown, and America might yet end up as the least-worst economy left standing by the end of the decade. Yay us!

Why Amazon canÂ’t make the Kindle in the US.

Green jobs, red faces.

Is the main driver of unemployment a lack of labor mobility? There is a shortage of jobs in certain geographical areas, but there is also a lack of qualified applicants for the jobs that exist. The author blames stubborn unemployment numbers on a lack of labor mobility, and there is some truth to that, but a bigger issue is the asymmetry between the skills being demanded of the workforce versus the skills that the citizens are actually learning. ItÂ’s a failure of the educational system first and foremost.

Brother, can you spare $1.2 Trillion? But keep it on the down-low. I don't want anybody to know I'm hard-up.

Eurocrats are still pushing fiscal unity. I don't think it's going to happen.

Yet another reason to give Boomers a high-stepping kick in the nads. I jest...but only a little. I feel like the smallest child in a house full of bigger siblings who clean out the fridge of all the good stuff before I can get there. Oreos? Gone. Twinkies? Gone. Brownies? Gone. Leftover fried chicken? Gone. All that's left is some old celery and prune juice.

CDS Market: WeÂ’re getting pretty alarmed over here.

President Obama to serve up yet another giant nothing-burger. You know, I just can't get enough of this guy. A day without a gassy meaningless speech from King Putt is like a day without sunshine.

Taking the fabled “dine and dash” to a whole new level.

Germany’s “us or them” moment.

In coming months, Germany may have to make an agonizing choice: stable money or European integration.

More on the unpleasant choices facing Germany and the EU.

The recession of 2011?

A reminder: The Fed canÂ’t cut rates below zero. And they canÂ’t force people to borrow money.

Amity Schlaes: WhatÂ’s the best thing Congress can do? Take their ball and go home.

Singer is blunter. About Washington's impact on the economy, he says simply: "Congress subtracts value."

Demographic DOOM. We're considerably less boned than Europe in this regard, so I guess we have that going for us.

The blue social modelÂ’s war on the young.

E. J. Dionne: We already consider you our Emperor, Barack! Please begin acting like one! The Imperium Americus will usher in a new age of freedom and prosperity!

Lie for years and get fat bonuses. Tell the truth and get fired. What a world. I'm sure this had nothing at all to do with the recent downgrade of US debt, that there was absolutely no pressure brought to bear by a red-faced Administration. (I wonder if Obama sent Luca Brasi over to S&P to deliver the message.)

King Putt: The $4 Trillion dollar man. And he doesnÂ’t even have a bionic eye.

UPDATE 1: Those evil GOP bastards want to tax the poor! Well...yeah. When half of the people in the country pay no federal income-tax at all, they have no skin in the game. Everybody should pay something for the government they receive, just to remind them that government isn't free.

UPDATE 2: Posner: Yeah, we're in a Depression, all right.

Unfortunately, even when the economy recovers, and tax revenues increase, the federal deficit will continue to rise because of the rapid growth of entitlement expenditures—primarily Medicare and Social Security and, because of the health-reform law, Medicaid.

Posted by: Monty at 04:41 AM | Comments (280)
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There's no such thing as the supernatural. Everything, by definition, is natural. But you have to find out what the rules are...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (159)
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Woohoo: English V3.31 Finally Released

Well I've been testing V.3.30 at work for a while now and so far I've been uber-plus-pleased with it. And the reviews for 3.31 all seem pretty positive too:

Just downloaded the beta version of English V3.31, and I have to say I am very excited about it. This is definitely going to be a feather in the cap of Anglophones everywhere, and way better than the notorious V2.99 release of French (or the 'deux point neufty-neuf' as it has become known). There's a ton of new features to talk about, so let me dive in right away with some toothsome details.

New official features include 'parameterized clichés' AKA snowclones such as "X is the new Y", "A is B'ed by X and Y, but mostly Y", and the 'emphatic period':

Now, top punctuation boffins have come up with a solution that reintroduces the power of exclamation but has a built-in mechanism that defeats attempts at repeated-stop hyperbole. Here is the emphatic period in action:

It. Was. Julie.

In V3.31 the ongoing reengineering of English from a stodgy, safe statically-typed language to a modern, dependency-subcutaneously-injected dynamically-typed language continues apace. Nouns can be freely and implicitly cast to verbs; adjectives take on the labour of adverbs at the drop of a -ly. Who, in 2011, is so ridiculous (sic) fuddy-duddy as to think differently? We all know to think different now.

However some features were removed such as the Oxford Comma which is now officially unofficial, deprecated and no longer recommended for new literary designs.

And support for British 'heritage' spelling and vocabulary ('Inglespeak') was rejected in this release so "Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote the droghte of March hath perced to the roote..." still generates parse warnings.

Also 10 Commonly Misunderstood English Words
Eh. I'm betting all these 'wrong' meanings will be approved before EnglishCon 2025. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:18 PM | Comments (544)
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Would you believe he'll present a budget?

No? How about, would you believe he'll at least present a plan?

Still no?

How about a quickie outline?

"The president is going to outline a short-term plan to accelerate the economy," Axelrod said on ABC's This Week, "in the face of the hits we've taken, because of the Arab Spring and oil prices, because of the Japanese earthquake, because of Europe that have slowed down economic growth.

On Meet the Press, Gibbs used similar language, "The president is going to outline some ideas, the president has outlined ideas every day he's been in the White House."

more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:42 PM | Comments (289)
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It would take a while to review. I'll do it later. But I want to warn you: It's bad. It's really bad.

It is a failure in all possible ways. Not the least of which is that the writers and director seem to have never actually read a Conan story, and have no idea of the right tone (hint: It's not Hostel style torture porn, especially not when that torture porn is committed by the titular hero), and no idea of what his world is like and what sorts of stories happen in it (hint: it's not World of Warcraft with soaring fantasy towers and two mile deep CGI ravines).

I also saw Fright Night, which was okay, but disappointing. I think the movie goes wrong when sort of early on (about halfway through) the vampire decides the whole "stealthy predator of the night, striking from shadows" schtick isn't for him, and just starts blowing up houses and blatantly killing people in the street in broad daylight. (Well, broad dusk, anyway.)

I sort of expect that at the climax, when the vampire is really pushed to the edge and it's a matter of survival, so maybe he has to drop his mask and do things he otherwise would be too cautious to do, but halfway through the movie? It becomes implausible that with serious property crime and a string of obvious murders and disappearances, the hero doesn't seek the police. (He claims they'd just laugh at the suggestion it was a vampire at work, but the original already dealt with this: So you don't say the perp is a vampire, you just say he's a murderer.)

Oh, the actual climax is lame, and features perhaps the dumbest plan for killing a vampire I've seen. What's dumber still is that it apparently works.

It's not bad. It's okay. It can definitely wait for DVD.

Colin Ferrel is initially interesting as the vampire, because he plays him as a Sketchy Douchebag. That is an interesting take, and fits with the original material, that vampires are nasty murdering monsters, not Dreamy Gothic Anti-Heroes. And it fits with the whole idea that these are arrogant, sociopathic predators. I liked that his vampire frequently was looking over his shoulder, like the shifty fugitive he is.

But halfway through he just becomes a murder-machine so that characterization is lost.

David Tennant is okay but he comes off a bit like he's Russel Brand -- he curses a lot, which is somewhat amusing at first -- and his character is written broadly and cartoonishly. He isn't grounded in realism and doesn't have the light emotional arc the Roddy MacDowell version did.

For the mini-reviews: Conan, maybe a half a star for the breasts you see early in the movie. For Fright Night, two stars.

Posted by: Ace at 03:14 PM | Comments (459)
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The NYT, shocker, doesn't like tar-sand petroleum extraction. Why? Carbon dioxide, "The Invisible Killer."

Well, Canada doesn't care about Kyoto or the NYT and they're not going to stop producing valuable oil over Chicken Little nonsense.

The Times' carefully-crafted response? Block the pipeline into the US, and force those Snowbillies to sell their tar sand petroleum to China.

Canada’s government is committed to the tar sands business. (Alberta’s energy minister, Ronald Liepert, has declared, “I’m not interested in Kyoto-style policies.”) The United States can’t do much about that, but it can stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

A blogger asks:

What would stopping the Keystone XL pipeline accomplish? Do they not want the ten of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly created from the pipeline? Would they rather have the U.S. be less energy secure? Do they want to be on the side of anti-growth, anti-energy protesters?

It sure looks that way to me.

The pipeline goes to the Texas Gulf Coast. I assume that is because the slurry produced by the process requires additional refinement, and so, they send it to Texas.

Why stop Texans and Louisians from working, if the work is just going to be done elsewhere?

The left speaks of being pro-science, and yet they are ignorant Luddites.

It's an old saw that people like sausage, until they see the sausage factory.

The luddites of the left want (I assume) to be able to travel, heat their homes, and have electric light at night.

So they want the sausage, it seems.

But they are determined to shut down every sausage factory on the planet.

Where do they think the sausage will come from, then? The Sausage Fairies?

The left treats the wonder of artificial lighting and home heating and long-distance travel as if these are natural phenomena of the earth, like the wind or the tides.

They are not. When one turns on an electric light, that energy is coming from somewhere. 80% of such energy comes from the chemical combustion of substances. Another 10% comes from the nuclear combustion of substances, and 10% at most comes from renewables. (Which they also don't like -- they whine about the biggest generators of renewable power, dams.)

Like food, energy is farmed. There are bona fide workers providing it, extracting it from real-world sources.

It is not magic. God does many things but he does not send electrons streaming into liberals' homes.

Like children, they continue crying about the pretty cows being killed while also continuing to munch on their cheeseburgers.

This is understandable in children; children do not understand trade-offs.

Apparently neither do the ideologically extreme, purely-theoretical children at the New York Times.

Posted by: Ace at 01:33 PM | Comments (300)
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Qadaffy's bought-and-bartered media is 10% more pro-Qadaffy than our own media is pro-Obama.

Fun video of a Qadaffy hack waving a gun on live TV insisting the rebels will not defeat her.

Earlier she denounced a witness complaining of being raped by Qadaffy's goons as a "liar" and a "whore."

She's slated to be Lawrence O'Donnell's fill-in host on MSNBC.

"They're Inside My House:" As Qadaffy's son does some kind of radio broadcast, rebels enter his house, shooting.

Posted by: Ace at 12:39 PM | Comments (131)
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