Pun Salad

• A glimpse of our glorious green future. As provided by Matt Ridley, not as rationally optimistic as usual: The Root of the Energy Crisis.

  Had it not been so exceptionally calm in the run up to this autumn equinox, one could call the energy crisis a perfect storm. Wind farms stand idle for days on end, a fire interrupts a vital cable from France, a combination of post-Covid economic recovery and Russia tightening supply means the gas price has shot through the roof – and so the market price of both home heating and electricity is rocketing.

  But the root of the crisis lies in the monomaniacal way in which this government and its recent predecessors have pursued decarbonisation at the expense of other priorities including reliability and affordability of energy.

  It is almost tragi-comic that this crisis is happening while Boris Johnson is in New York, futilely trying to persuade an incredulous world to join us in committing eco self-harm by adopting a rigid policy of net zero by 2050 – a target that is almost certainly not achievable without deeply hurting the British economy and the lives of ordinary people, and which will only make the slightest difference to the climate anyway, given that the UK produces a meagre 1 per cent of global emissions.

  I'm sure apologists will deploy shiny-object distractions. Brexit! Tories in charge!

  We are currently enduring TV ads pushing Biden's "Build Back Better" legislation, with promises to "cut costs" and "create jobs". Significantly, no promises are made to cut energy costs; those will skyrocket. And extracting trillions from the private economy will destroy jobs there; they ask you not to notice that.

  But the real unstated assumption is: "Trust us, we're much smarter than those Brits." Or Venezuelans. Or …

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• But many jobs were created. Liz Wolfe notes usual government efficiencies: 21 Federal Agencies Manage 200 Different Diet-Related Programs, Leading to Overlap and Chaos.

  The federal government seems concerned that 42 percent of American adults are obese, but apparently not concerned enough to have formed a competent, coordinated plan of attack.

  A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report publicly released this week found that 21 federal agencies oversee 200 different efforts focused on research, improving crops' nutritional quality, health education and food access initiatives, and regulating grocery stores and restaurants. The GAO admits that, upon study, these nearly two-dozen agencies "have not effectively managed fragmentation of diet-related efforts or the potential for overlap and duplication," which leads to your taxpayer dollars going to waste.

  I fantasize about giving a quiz to college students about government, with questions like:

  13. The optimal number of federal agencies involved with hectoring Americans about their diet is:
      1. Zero
      2. One
      3. Twenty-one
      4. Some other number. Write it here:      . Justify your answer on a separate piece of paper, using crayons provided at the front desk.

  Of course, government employees were deployed to investigate and report government waste and incoherence in this relatively small sector. Why it's almost as if the purpose was to create more Federal Government Jobs, instead of doing anything useful.

  Didn't the US somehow survive without any agencies nagging Americans about what to eat?

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• A darn good question. And good American Charles C. W. Cooke asks it: Why Aren’t Americans Protesting in the Streets?

  Here’s a question for any American who is capable of thinking past next week: Why, in the ever-loving hell, are you not out in the streets, protesting peacefully against what the Democrats in Washington are trying to do to the federal budget?

  Seriously, what is wrong with you? Why aren’t you calling for town halls? Why aren’t you forming committees? Why aren’t you calling Congress and demanding that it stop? Judging by its current behavior, the federal government has decided to completely give up on reality. But you haven’t, right?

  Right?

  Right.

  Most of the items cited here carry at least an implied "Read the Whole Thing" recommendation. In this case I'd make it explicit: it's a free article, it's short, please read the whole thing.

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• Damn. I was really counting on that coin. Robert E. Wright debunks a debt "solution" offered by fundamentally unserious people: the Trillion Dollar Coin Can’t Save US from Debt Crisis.

  Another US debt crisis looms because Congress has yet to authorize an increase in the national debt ceiling. It isn’t the first time such a crisis has occurred and, alas, probably won’t be the last as reconstitution of America’s fiscal constitution seems unlikely anytime soon.

  In fact, if Paul Krugman gets his way, America’s fiscal situation will be getting much worse very soon. That’s right, like other Progressive canards, his ill-conceived trillion dollar platinum coin idea has sprung back to life, like a zombie. It’s time to shoot this one, like DC statehood, dead in the head.

  Here’s the Nobel winner’s idea: if the Treasury needs money to pay Uncle Sam’s bills, which have grown quite hefty of late, and it can’t borrow, it can expend a paltry sum to mint a platinum coin stamped with the desired amount, deposit it at the Federal Reserve, and then draw on its Fed account to pay America’s creditors, from China to grandma.

  Wright (patiently) points out that the legislation that allows Treasury to mint platinum coins specifies bullion coins. Which (if you have any) you keep in a very safe place.

  Which are different from fiat-money coins. The objects you throw into that big jar in your bedroom closet.

  Click over if you need the difference explained further. For example, if your name is "Paul Krugman".

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• It's not just woodland advice any more. David Henderson on how to deal with Angry Bears (Formatting changed slightly from original).

  Something that helps me deal with government in these situations is to think of it as a big angry bear. That helps me not moralize too much and, instead, to just remember to focus on how to survive and thrive around the big angry bear. That’s why I pay the incredibly high taxes I pay; it’s why I don’t bother fighting expensive traffic tickets for driving in ways that endangered no one; etc.

  It’s not just government. I find that going along with other things that don’t make sense is often a good idea when others can impose substantial costs.

  An example follows from David's recent airplane trip. You can probably guess the details.

  I would guess at a corollary: if you do decide to resist the bear, make sure you have adequate skills and resources you can bring to the game.

Wow, it's been over a month since I've seen a non-Marvel movie. Even longer since I've watched a romantic comedy. So maybe I was in the mood, but I liked this Netflix streamer a lot. I can imagine on a different evening I might write it off as a prefabricated flick that might have been on the Asian Hallmark Channel, if such a thing existed. (It doesn't. Does it?)

No, it wasn't prefab. It was clever and funny, brought off by talented people. Written and produced by the stars, Ali Wong and Randall Park. All respect to them.

Ms. Wong plays Sasha, Mr. Park plays Marcus. As youngsters in San Francisco, they were next-door neighbors and best friends. Their friendship continues through high school, and after one night of ill-considered passion, they go their separate ways. Marcus underperforms, assisting his dad in the HVAC biz, getting high, playing with his band ("Hello Peril", hah!) in a neighborhood dive. Sasha becomes a glamorous celebrity chef. And thanks to the devious manipulations of a longtime friend, they meet up again after years…

Reader, I'm not gonna lie: if you've seen more than a few romcoms (and who hasn't), you'll recognize the overall plot structure here. So the details matter, and so do the actors. And that made the difference for me here; it was a lot of fun, chuckles all the way through.

Consumer note: if at all possible, I suggest you see it without checking out the cast list ahead of time. No spoilers here, but someone shows up…