URLs du Jour

2008-06-25

  • Instapundit quotes Jerry Pournelle approving John McCain's reward offer for significant improvements in battery technology for hybrid or electric cars. I'm more convinced by the criticism of David Harsanyi:

    Some campaign ploys are a cry for attention. Others just empty promises. And sometimes, candidates prove that they have absolutely no clue what's going on.

    Congratulations, John McCain, you've scored a natural hat trick.

    Via Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek, who's quoted by Harsanyi.

  • Greg Mankiw notes agreement between strange bedfellows on whether speculators are to blame for high oil prices. One of them is previously-mentioned very-left Paul Krugman; the other is very-libertarian Alan Reynolds, who concludes:

    The urge to blame speculators is as big a waste of time as blaming oil companies. Americans want more oil and gas - not more hot air from politicians.

    Ah, but the supply of the latter is always greater than demand. So it's cheap. That's Econ 101.

    For more: McQ at QandO is equally excoriating on this and other red herrings:

    So while going after speculators and price gougers and not filling the SPR get tossed around as solutions to the gas price problem, Democrats continue to refuse to address the real problem of supply and demand. They continue to block all efforts to begin the process of putting more oil on the market. Hopefully voters who may be paying over $6 for gas at some point in the future if nothing is done to expand the supply, will reward Democrats (and those Republicans supporting them) with the retirement they deserve.

    That would be nice, although I'm not hopeful.

  • But not all us right-wingers are pooh-poohing the it's-all-the-speculator's-fault meme. In fairness, check out Noel Sheppard at Planet Gore. I'm not persuaded: he's relying on testimony from tame economists before a Democrat-controlled House committee, set up to take whatever partisan gains they can get. But make up your own mind. As if you wouldn't do that anyway.

  • From the "Must be More to the Story" Department, an article about Stephen Hawking's refusal of a knighthood contains this mystifying paragraph:

    "Professor Hawking does not like titles. In fact he dislikes the whole concept of them," a spokesman told The Times.

    Could Professor Hawking be a Cretan?

  • Is America a great country or what? Ice-T has gone from an original gangster to contestant on Celebrity Family Feud. He was up against (so to speak) Joan Rivers last night. The mind reels at how the American Dream unfolds for some.

    I missed it. Don't want the mind to reel too much at my age. I watched a Mannix Season One DVD from Blockbuster instead. <voice imitation="cranky_old_codger">Joe Mannix could kick Ice-T's ass. Either on the streets or on Family Feud</voice>.


Last Modified 2012-10-12 6:11 AM EDT

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