URLs du Jour

2021-12-21

  • That's some impressive nudging. I'm currently reading a good book, Escaping Paternalism, a rebuttal to those arguing for government efforts to "nudge" the citizenry toward making better choices. Since <sarcasm>I am now an expert in that field</sarcasm>, I can definitively say that the White House's Christmas message ain't the way to go:

    Merry Christmas to you too, wh.gov.

    Adding in a perceptive comment from Allahpundit at the above link:

    Biden and [White House COVID czar Jeff] Zients may have been less politic about it but in substance they’re saying nothing different from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who earned applause on the right recently for refusing to order a new mask mandate in his state. The emergency phase of the pandemic ended once vaccines became widely available, Polis argued. If you’re too stubborn or ignorant to get one and save yourself, he’s not going to try to save you. “You don’t tell people to wear a jacket when they go out in winter and force them to [wear it]. If they get frostbite, it’s their own darn fault,” he explained. “If you haven’t been vaccinated, that’s your choice. I respect that. But it’s your fault when you’re in the hospital with COVID.”

    "When a dog bites a man, that is not news. But when a Democratic governor tells the cold sober truth, that is news."


  • Faucism? I missed this new word. But Google says I have nobody to blame but myself. (You'll have to reassure Google that you really did mean to search for that word, despite it resulting in 99,400 hits.)

    Anyway, Robby Soave declares himself Against Faucism. And so should we all.

    Last week, the CEOs of American Airlines and Southwest Airlines told Congress that they do not think mask requirements make much sense on airplanes, where the air filtration systems are superior to what is typically found in an intensive care unit.

    "I think the case is very strong that masks don't add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment," said Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest. "It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting."

    Unwilling to let anyone undermine the case for keeping a government mandate in place, White House coronavirus advisor Anthony Fauci threw cold water on the idea.

    "You have to be wearing a mask on a plane," he said bluntly on television Sunday.

    Fauci shows he's taken the politician's syllogism to heart:

    1. We must do something.
    2. This is something.
    3. Therefore, we must do this.

    Adding the corollary: "4. And we gotta keep doing it, no matter how pointless or stupid."


  • For the record: "pivot" means to twirl about without actually going anywhere. Which makes perfect sense in the context of this Federalist story: Democrats Pivot Back To Radical Election Bill That Would Ban Voter ID.

    President Joe Biden recently delivered remarks to donors and party officials and stated, “The struggle is no longer just who gets to vote or make it easy for eligible people to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote; whether your vote counts at all.”

    Biden was speaking about proposed changes to U.S. elections by congressional Democrats who are now ditching their stalled multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better bill and pivoting back to radical election legislation. Democrats often frighten their base by framing election issues in racial terms — they falsely assert Republicans are trying to dilute the minority vote and return to an era of Jim Crow laws — and market election bills as “protecting voting rights,” which is a complete misnomer, considering everything this bill does would exponentially degrade election security and catastrophically raise the potential for fraud.

    The legislation increases the likelihood of a disputed election and should be rejected outright, especially considering the chaos this country endured after the 2020 election. The United States already has the knowledge, resources, and technological acumen to design and deploy secure election architecture that minimizes the potential for fraud and inspires confidence in election results. The policies currently being put forth would make things worse, not better.

    Which brings us to…


  • Something she never noticed in her four years as governor. NHJournal notes the latest doom-and-gloom from our state's junior senator: Maggie Hassan Says NH Voters 'Sliding Toward Authoritarianism'

    When Sen. Maggie Hassan says she flipped on the filibuster to “protect the wonderful elections that we have in New Hampshire,” the obvious question is, “Protect them from whom?”

    Hassan made the comment to WMUR in an interview the day after her surprise announcement from the floor of the U.S. Senate that she was doing a 180 on the filibuster. The interview was part of an all-hands-on-deck effort by New Hampshire Democrats to beat back some of the political fires her sudden reversal had sparked. Republicans had a field day pointing out that not only did Hassan write a letter in 2017 pleading with then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to keep the filibuster in place, she participated in more than 300 of them during the last year of the Trump presidency.

    For the record, both our senators have (so far) a perfect "Biden score" at FiveThirtyEight, only 16 other senators can say the same. On the House side, our representatives Pappas and Kuster are similarly "independent" minded.


  • It's not as if our electoral system couldn't use some help. Specifically, as described by the NR editors, Republicans Should Help Reform the Electoral Count Act.

    The 2020 presidential election concluded with a political and constitutional crisis unmatched in the United States since the 1876 election. Congress should respond, as it did after 1876, by shoring up and clarifying the process for resolving presidential elections with disputed outcomes. That will require the votes of Senate Republicans, who should support reforming the Electoral Count Act as a matter of both good policy and political self-interest.

    Article II of the Constitution, together with the Twelfth Amendment, sets forth a basic division of labor in electing the president. Congress picks the date for states to choose electors and must set a uniform date for the electors to cast their votes in their own states. State legislatures have plenary power to decide how the electors are selected; the legislature itself may choose the electors, but since 1876, all states have instead held a popular vote. The electoral votes are opened by the president of the Senate (the vice president, if one is in office) in the presence of the House and Senate, “and the votes shall then be counted.” But the Constitution leaves many questions unanswered.

    They should be able to get this done without larding it up with politics.


  • Yes, we live in the future. Slashdot headline, with no further comment: Philadelphia Woman Gives Birth in Front Seat of Tesla on Autopilot.

    OK, not a comment, but a query: does that come off Tesla upholstery easily?