Thursday, February 24, 2011

Wisconsin

Those on the right, who oh so often are quick to denounce anyone who dares to suggest that Tea Party protesters, seem to have no problem condemning the protestors in Wisconsin as "violent thugs". They see no irony in this.

Are there some people among the protestors who've said stupid violent things? Sure? That's true of any large group. Will conservatives admit the same about tea-baggers? Apparently not.

Here's a good video about it.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

DOMA Dead? Dun Dun DUNNN!!

So Obama has decided not to defend constitutional challenges to the Defence of Marriage Act. What practical difference will this make? One reason DOMA was passed was to prevent same-sex married couples from being able to demand that their marriages from being recognized in states that don't want to recognize them. Will people be able to do this now? Will people be able to cite the full faith and credit clause to force states to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states? Will the SCOTUS uphold its constitutionality without the Attorney General defending it?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Qaddafi on Drugs?

I've just been walking Fareed Zakaria on Parker/Spitzer and they asked him what his impressions of Qaddafi were when he interviewed him before the revolt in Libya. His response: "I seriously thought he was on drugs."

If only Qaddafi were not so brutal, he would be the coolest world leader out there today, with the exception of maybe Berlusconi. He dresses like he's a 17th century European monarch all dolled up for a portrait, and his 40 or 50 bodyguards are all women trained to use high powered weapons. He's like a teenaged boy who's been put in charge of a country.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Market Solution to Global Warming

Most of the really pro-free market guys say they don't believe in global warming, despite the science. Why is this? They seem to like science when it produces profitable technology, but not in this case. Why? I suspect it's because if they admit that global warming is real, that it is caused by human activity, and that it will cause massive problems very soon, their ideology provides no solutions.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that global warming is real, human caused and soon to do great damage. What is the free market solution to this? If clean energy doesn't become more profitable than fossil fuels in time to prevent catastrophe, how is the market going to address this problem? How do you fix this without state intervention?