“If you like it, you can keep it”: ObamaCare set to trigger insurance policy cancellations « Hot Air

“If you like it, you can keep it”: ObamaCare set to trigger insurance policy cancellations « Hot Air: "In order to work, of course, ObamaCare desperately needs young and healthy people to start paying into the system for an outsized portion of the benefits they’re likely to not use very often — which is precisely why some people with the type of bare-bones insurance that I had are about to get forcibly kicked off of their plans. That kind of thing doesn’t quite jibe with our minimum requirements, you see, says the all-knowing ObamaCare law from on high — but don’t worry, because there will be plenty of available benefits and subsidies to make up the difference, we swear!"

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RNC video: The buck stops … where? « The Greenroom

RNC video: The buck stops … where? « The Greenroom: "As I wrote two weeks ago, the buck stopped stopping four years ago.  It’s now in a holding pattern at Dulles Tower, and it won’t have a landing clearance until Simon & Schuster pays millions of dollars for it in 2017."

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McAuliffe in 2001: Bush’s election killed my dad « The Greenroom

McAuliffe in 2001: Bush’s election killed my dad « The Greenroom: "Classy, eh?  Andrew Kaczynski discovered this lovely eulogy  from C-SPAN’s archives in which the man who wants to run Virginia said that his 83-year-old father couldn’t handle seeing a Republican President."

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MSNBC Contributor Michael Eric Dyson: Eric Holder ‘Is The Moses Of Our Time’ | Mediaite

MSNBC Contributor Michael Eric Dyson: Eric Holder ‘Is The Moses Of Our Time’ | Mediaite: "One would have to imagine that John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, and Michael Mukasey would be surprised to learn that they were due such reverence when they occupied the office of attorney general."

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Obama's Numbers on Job Approval, Honesty Suddenly Tumble | National Review Online

Obama's Numbers on Job Approval, Honesty Suddenly Tumble | National Review Online: "If you’ll allow me to quote Matt Welch twice, he articulates an irritation buzzing around the back of my head, pundits’ all-too-frequent declaration that whatever scandal is in the headlines is an obviously frivolous and inconsequential distraction, and that they’ve figured out what we really ought to be talking about if we’re serious, thoughtful people. You know . . . “the real scandal,” as they incessantly declare."

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Former IRS Commissioner visited WH more than twice as often as Eric Holder « Hot Air

Former IRS Commissioner visited WH more than twice as often as Eric Holder « Hot Air: "The massive number of visits raises serious questions about Shulman’s activities in the White House. As IRS commissioner, he reported to Tim Geithner at Treasury, not anyone in the West Wing. Shulman, in fact, had more than three times as many visits to the White House as his nominal boss.  What was the West Wing team telling Shulman?  What was Shulman telling the West Wing team on his weekly visits?  Looks like it will take a few more subpoenas to find out."

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State Dept spokesperson: Meh, we haven’t really decided if we’re going to comply with that Benghazi subpoena « Hot Air

State Dept spokesperson: Meh, we haven’t really decided if we’re going to comply with that Benghazi subpoena « Hot Air: "I’d say this sounds a lot more like stonewalling than cooperating; and while progressive pundits and politicians insist that the GOP is jumping the shark with Benghazi and that there’s no actual “there-there,” then why in the heck don’t they just turn over the requested documents already and put this whole thing to bed?"

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Best of the Web Today: The Anti-Mentor Responds - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: The Anti-Mentor Responds - WSJ.com: "As for our "level of obsession," there is a genre of nonfiction known as "memoir" or "autobiography," in which authors relate narratives based on personal experience. To play a formative role in the life of a prominent writer is to heighten your likelihood of appearing as a character in such a story. Those who teach journalism and other disciplines that involve writing would be prudent to consider it an occupational hazard."

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Best of the Web Today: We're All Fox News Now - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: We're All Fox News Now - WSJ.com: "The New York Times's reaction, while not as breathless, was more dramatic. The paper's editorial appeared a week ago tomorrow--before Holder's involvement had publicly emerged--under the headline "Another Chilling Leak Investigation." The editorial was straightforward and reasonably argued. That may not sound like a great compliment, but this is the New York Times editorial page we're talking about."

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Tim Carney: Democrat-heavy IRS will always distrust Tea Parties | WashingtonExaminer.com

Tim Carney: Democrat-heavy IRS will always distrust Tea Parties | WashingtonExaminer.com: "If you take a group of Democrats who are also unionized government employees, and put them in charge of policing political speech, it doesn't matter how professional and well-intentioned they are. The result will be much like the debacle in the Cincinnati office of the IRS."

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Washington Post Runs Features On WH Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler’s … Taste In Shoes | Mediaite

Washington Post Runs Features On WH Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler’s … Taste In Shoes | Mediaite: "No. They don’t and she can’t. Know what can move markets? The news that the White House counsel concealed from the president the details of a concerted effort by a government agency to systematically intimidate Obama’s political adversaries. If proven true, that would be a bad look that no number of expensive shoes can compensate for."

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A “New Deal” for Europe’s youth? Er… « Hot Air

A “New Deal” for Europe’s youth? Er… « Hot Air: "So… the solution to a bloc of countries who for years have been trying to centrally plan and hitch together their economies while individually ramping up public spending to cataclysmically irresponsible levels and subsequently inflicting deed-seated damage on said economies… really just sounds like still more central planning and public spending. Awesome."

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Brit Hume: Putting Holder in charge of probing media warrants a “howling conflict of interest,” blasts Juan Williams’ defense « Hot Air

Brit Hume: Putting Holder in charge of probing media warrants a “howling conflict of interest,” blasts Juan Williams’ defense « Hot Air: "Intimidating potential whistleblowers may have been the point of the Sanger investigation.  The point of the Rosen and AP probes was to intimidate reporters and news organizations. We’ll see if Holder and the DoJ succeed at the latter."

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Charles Krauthammer: There’s a fly in my soup - The Washington Post

Charles Krauthammer: There’s a fly in my soup - The Washington Post: "It’s not unlawful to run an ad hominem presidency. It’s merely shameful. The great rhetorical specialty of this president has been his unrelenting attribution of bad faith to those who disagree with him. He acts on principle; they from the basest of instincts."

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‘Alice in Wonderland’ coercion - The Washington Post

‘Alice in Wonderland’ coercion - The Washington Post: "Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, says a single hypersensitive person could declare herself sexually harassed because she considers “unwelcome” a classroom lecture on the novel “Lolita” or a campus performance of “The Vagina Monologues.” Do not even attempt a sex education class."

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Report: DOJ told Fox News parent company of phone records probe - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Report: DOJ told Fox News parent company of phone records probe - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room: "A Fox News executive told CNN, however, that while the parent company, News Corporation, knew of the subpoena in May 2010, Fox News management were not informed."

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Best of the Web Today: Why Did Lois Lerner Take the Fifth? - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: Why Did Lois Lerner Take the Fifth? - WSJ.com: "But, you may ask, what about the children? Unlike recipients of cash or cash-equivalent benefits like Social Security or food stamps, you can't measure the benefit of schools in terms of dollars. And this study makes no effort to gauge the quality of education. It could be that Idaho's school system gives taxpayers an unusually good value for the money."

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Jay Carney Invokes Birtherism To Fire Back Against Scandal Outrage | Mediaite

Jay Carney Invokes Birtherism To Fire Back Against Scandal Outrage | Mediaite: "At this stage of the game, when outrage is building on both sides of the aisle, it may be just a little too late to dismiss this as just petty politics."

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Nash woman charged with trying to poison family :: WRAL.com

Nash woman charged with trying to poison family :: WRAL.com: "A Nash County woman upset over being told she couldn't have some cheese tried to poison several family members over the weekend, authorities said Monday."

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Apple to face tax grilling - Telegraph

Apple to face tax grilling - Telegraph: "The complex tax planning, commonplace in large companies, has allowed Apple to avoid criticism levelled at Google and Amazon over their tax affairs. Mr Cook has insisted Apple does not funnel profits abroad.
The iPhone-maker has $102.3billion in cash outside the US. To pay a dividend, Apple is borrowing $17billion at home rather than risk huge tax bills, which could be up to $9billion, by bringing its foreign money into the USA."

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Best of the Web Today: The Dog Whistler - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: The Dog Whistler - WSJ.com: "As we've repeatedly argued, if that is the extent of Obama's involvement in the scandal, it is much more worrisome than if the persecution of dissidents was carried out under his direct orders. It would mean that the government itself--the permanent institutions of the state, not just the administration currently in office--has turned against the citizenry and the Constitution."

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Howard Dean: “Benghazi is a laughable joke” « The Greenroom

Howard Dean: “Benghazi is a laughable joke” « The Greenroom: "All that aside, no amount of polling can or should alter the moral correctness of seeking the truth about a terrorist attack that claimed four American lives.  Dean was also asked about the IRS and DOJ affairs.  His verdict: “To call all these things scandals is a little on the silly side.”  He instead harped on the House’s latest attempt to repeal Obamacare — which probably sounds better than ever to many Americans."

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Progress? Journalists notice “shifting” White House account of IRS scandal « Hot Air

Progress? Journalists notice “shifting” White House account of IRS scandal « Hot Air: "It’s gotten so bad that Epstein had to supply a timeline to keep the stories straight.  Maybe that will help Jay Carney in his next press briefing explain just how little anyone knows about what’s happening  in their own administration."

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Barbarians at the Campus Gates | National Review Online

Barbarians at the Campus Gates | National Review Online: "Academic campuses have become among the least free places in America. “Speech codes,” vaguely worded but zealously applied to those who dare to say anything that is not politically correct, have become the norm. Few professors would dare to publish research or teach a course debunking the claims made in various ethnic, gender, or other “studies” courses."

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Jon Stewart Slams Obama, GOP, And Media For Big DC Scandals: ‘Can Anybody Do Their Jobs In That Town?!’ | Mediaite

Jon Stewart Slams Obama, GOP, And Media For Big DC Scandals: ‘Can Anybody Do Their Jobs In That Town?!’ | Mediaite: "Stewart said if the government could put the same energy of election season into actually governing, maybe a lot more could get done in Washington."

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Three Signs There’s a Cover-Up | National Review Online

Three Signs There’s a Cover-Up | National Review Online: "Yes, the old Washington adage that the cover-up is worse than the crime is true. But as far as the American people are concerned, the general failure to hold government employees accountable for the IRS scandal — and in some cases the refusal even to identify them — is the ultimate insult added to injury."

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Great news: Sequester not impacting federal bonuses « Hot Air

Great news: Sequester not impacting federal bonuses « Hot Air: "When put into place, the bonuses made some economic sense.  For one, it provided a more competitive position for government agencies so that they could compete against the private sector for the best talent.  The bonuses were supposed to be tied to performance measurements so that enterprising executives could shake up hidebound bureaucracies and introduce more efficiency and value."

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Carney: No, seriously, Obama’s lawyer didn’t tell him that the IRS was targeting tea partiers when she found out; Update: Obama’s chief of staff was told? « Hot Air

Carney: No, seriously, Obama’s lawyer didn’t tell him that the IRS was targeting tea partiers when she found out; Update: Obama’s chief of staff was told? « Hot Air: "If I didn’t know better, I’d think being kept blissfully unaware of his Justice Department snooping on reporters and his tax collector targeting his political enemies was something he did by design, to give himself ignorance as an excuse for when the news eventually broke. Obama’s “passivity” and “disengagement” aren’t bugs in his strategy of governance, they’re features."

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Best of the Web Today: A Crisis of Authority - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: A Crisis of Authority - WSJ.com: "That's not "good government," it's rent-seeking. A large, established corporation was seeking to use the regulatory power of the state to set up barriers to entry by smaller competitors. It is an exact parallel to the McCain-Feingold media's insistence that corporate free speech is an outrage against democracy. In making that claim, the New York Times and others almost never mention that "media corporations" were exempt from McCain-Feingold's unconstitutional censorship."

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From the Mouths of Knaves | National Review Online

From the Mouths of Knaves | National Review Online: "With a legal and regulatory environment as complex (and sometimes contradictory) as our own, practically anybody can be found guilty of a violation at any time, given a sufficiently motivated regulator. "

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Nonprofit tea-party chief: I’ve been hassled not just by the IRS but by the FBI, ATF, and OSHA « Hot Air

Nonprofit tea-party chief: I’ve been hassled not just by the IRS but by the FBI, ATF, and OSHA « Hot Air: "If the IRS’s big problem circa 2010 was that it was overwhelmed with nonprofit applications (or so the agency falsely claims), why did that lead to unusually onerous demands for information? The typical government response to unmanageable workloads is to cut corners, yet the agency ended up asking Engelbrecht to send them copies of every Facebook post and Tweet that she ever sent, amid hundreds of other questions. That’s odd, no?"

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Eric Holder walks fine line on prosecuting journalists - POLITICO.com

Eric Holder walks fine line on prosecuting journalists - POLITICO.com: "If Rosen were considered simply a bystander, prosecutors might have had to use a subpoena, which would likely have involved notice to Rosen and a chance for him to fight the subpoena in court."

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DOJ IG report rips former U.S. Attorney for leak designed to smear Fast and Furious whistleblower; Update: Two more Fox News reporters’ e-mails obtained by DOJ « Hot Air

DOJ IG report rips former U.S. Attorney for leak designed to smear Fast and Furious whistleblower; Update: Two more Fox News reporters’ e-mails obtained by DOJ « Hot Air: "Matt Boyle has another memory freshener at Breitbart, namely that Burke isn’t the only former DOJ employee accused of trying to smear the Department’s critics. The DOJ’s director of public affairs resigned a few months ago after Boyle revealed e-mails between her and the studiously nonpolitical 501(c)(3) Media Matters showing them colluding to attack various reporters and administration opponents."

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MSNBC Speculates: Bush Appointee In IRS Targeted Tea Party Because They Reflected Badly On GOP | Mediaite

MSNBC Speculates: Bush Appointee In IRS Targeted Tea Party Because They Reflected Badly On GOP | Mediaite: "But the whirlwind speed of the arguments from the left intended to support the actions of the IRS in this scandal are inherently difficult to keep up with. The logic does not need to be especially sound so long as it exonerates the discriminatory behavior exhibited by federal officials."

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WaPo: Justice spied on Fox reporter in 2010 « Hot Air

WaPo: Justice spied on Fox reporter in 2010 « Hot Air: "The Washington Post reports that the Department of Justice spied on James Rosen, Fox’s Washington correspondent, in 2010."

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Schieffer: Welcome to Dumb and Dumber in Washington « Hot Air

Schieffer: Welcome to Dumb and Dumber in Washington « Hot Air: "Pfeiffer sat across the desk from Bob Schieffer on CBS’ Face the Nation, and Schieffer wondered … why? Why does the White House rush to take credit for every little success, Schieffer wondered, and then send out ignorant flacks in every failure and scandal?"

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WaPo vs WaPo (vs WaPo!) on IRS targeting of conservative groups « Hot Air

WaPo vs WaPo (vs WaPo!) on IRS targeting of conservative groups « Hot Air: "On Friday, the low-level IRS officials insisted that they wouldn’t have applied any special scrutiny without a directive from management.  On Sunday, they’re back to being rogue agents making their own decisions.  I wonder if Washington Post reporters actually read the Washington Post."

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Video: Say, how about having only one pilot on commercial flights? « Hot Air

Video: Say, how about having only one pilot on commercial flights? « Hot Air: "If the UAV technology could be adapted for commercial flights, that would seem to be its best use — ensuring that any hijackers who manage to get that far end up with no control of the aircraft anyway."

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Who’s the mystery man at the IRS who issued the directive to focus on conservative groups? « Hot Air

Who’s the mystery man at the IRS who issued the directive to focus on conservative groups? « Hot Air: "We should have answers soon. Darrell Issa’s House committee is set to interview the four IRS employees in Cincinnati at the heart of this later today. Sources told a local reporter last week that the employees “simply did what their bosses ordered.” Once we have the bosses’ names, then we can get down to business in finding out if they were only doing what their bosses ordered too. Fun."

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Robert Gibbs: Maybe my former bosses should explain this AP scandal « Hot Air

Robert Gibbs: Maybe my former bosses should explain this AP scandal « Hot Air: "On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough points out that the AP scandal (and the new scandal of spying on James Rosen at Fox) “gives the administration what they want,” which is an intimidated press corps and a frightened cadre of potential whistleblowers within the administration."

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White House knew of IRS scandal “weeks ago” « Hot Air

White House knew of IRS scandal “weeks ago” « Hot Air: "How could the top White House lawyer sit on the knowledge that the IRS had targeted the President’s political opponents without informing the President?  Answer: Either Ruemmler was incredibly incompetent or the White House is lying about when Obama knew of the scandal."

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Senate Finance Committee issues request for detailed information on IRS targeting scandal by May 31st « Hot Air

Senate Finance Committee issues request for detailed information on IRS targeting scandal by May 31st « Hot Air: "The implications of finding such communications are clear enough.  If there’s fire in that smoke, the White House could well claim executive privilege to block Congressional access to it.  If that happens, we’ve entered the special-prosecutor zone."

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China’s hackers are back at it « The Greenroom

China’s hackers are back at it « The Greenroom: "Who thought that the Chinese military could be “shamed” in the first place?  Isn’t this the same nation that forcibly aborts children in support of the one-child policy that Joe Biden “fully understand[s]“?  Shame isn’t exactly high up on their response list. It looks like they only stopped long enough to try less-detectable strategies, and that’ll be their strategy the next time, too."

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CBS's Sharyl Attkisson Says Team Obama 'Perfected' Delaying Info Release And Has 'Quit Talking to Me Altogether' | NewsBusters

CBS's Sharyl Attkisson Says Team Obama 'Perfected' Delaying Info Release And Has 'Quit Talking to Me Altogether' | NewsBusters: "On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Monday, Attkison said the Obama administration has "perfected" delaying public release of information, and reported the White House has "quit talking" to her altogether."

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Political Satirist Andy Borowitz: 'Obama Denies Role In Government' | NewsBusters

Political Satirist Andy Borowitz: 'Obama Denies Role In Government' | NewsBusters: "President Obama used his weekly radio address on Saturday to reassure the American people that he has “played no role whatsoever” in the U.S. government over the past four years."

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Loneliness and Suicide - NYTimes.com

Loneliness and Suicide - NYTimes.com: "More Americans now die of suicide than in car accidents, and gun suicides are almost twice as common as gun homicides."

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About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails… « Hot Air

About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails… « Hot Air: "The incorrect versions – and they were inaccurate quotes – were not generated by GOP operatives. They were extracted by ABC’s Jon Karl from notes taken by attendees at the original meeting when the White House refused to initially allow anyone to have copies which could have been used for full referencing. ABC went with the notes, being the closest thing anyone had to an official record, and the GOP worked off those notes. But even then, the “doctoring” wasn’t nearly as significant as the Democrats are making it out to be."

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President Obama admits he's a socialist - NYPOST.com

President Obama admits he's a socialist - NYPOST.com: "In confessing his dreams of “going Bulworth,” Obama confirmed that what he thinks and what he says out loud are two different things. He let slip the mask of a center-left moderate — a “pragmatist” who only cares about “what works.” The press and even right-of-center columnists like Ross Douthat and David Brooks have always insisted that this completely unconvincing masquerade is genuine."

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Krauthammer on IRS Testimony: ‘You've Got to be a Knave or a Fool to Say That and an Idiot to Believe It’ | NewsBusters

Krauthammer on IRS Testimony: ‘You've Got to be a Knave or a Fool to Say That and an Idiot to Believe It’ | NewsBusters: "The testimony from Miller comes under the category of “How stupid do you think we are?” Here is a guy who said that the IRS openly discriminated against groups on the basis of their politics, but the action was not a political action. It was instead an attempt at efficiency. You've got to be a knave or a fool to say that and you have to be an idiot to believe it. It's simply a contradiction in terms. It's a matter of definition. It isn't even a matter of fact."

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Schieffer to Obama Advisor: ‘Why Are You Here? Why Isn’t the White House Chief of Staff Here?’ | NewsBusters

Schieffer to Obama Advisor: ‘Why Are You Here? Why Isn’t the White House Chief of Staff Here?’ | NewsBusters: "His impatience continued on Sunday's Face the Nation when Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer gave stock answers to questions about the three crises facing the President leading Schieffer to first accuse his guest of taking "exactly the approach that the Nixon administration took" and finally scolding him by asking, "Why are you here today? Why isn't the White House Chief of Staff here to tell us what happened?""

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Candy Crowley: Is it Possible This Isn't Political and IRS Didn't Intend to Harass the Tea Party? | NewsBusters

Candy Crowley: Is it Possible This Isn't Political and IRS Didn't Intend to Harass the Tea Party? | NewsBusters: "To quote syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, "You've got to be a knave or a fool to say that and you have to be an idiot to believe it.”"

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Belmont Club » The Lying King

Belmont Club » The Lying King: "There is no good reason one can think of. The president may not realize the cost of reducing the trust content of his actions. Perhaps they teach that lying has no cost in Chicago, but in reality trust’s absence exacts a very definite price."

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Virgin birth or hanky-panky? Anteater mom sparks a scientific debate - Cosmic Log

Virgin birth or hanky-panky? Anteater mom sparks a scientific debate - Cosmic Log: "Is it a case of anteater virgin birth, a hormonal quirk or just some desperate hanky-panky? Whatever it is, Armani the anteater's surprising pregnancy has sparked a debate over what animals are capable of when it comes to sex."

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S.E. Cupp vs. Michael Moore on Guns: ‘I Just Happen to Be Informed’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

S.E. Cupp vs. Michael Moore on Guns: ‘I Just Happen to Be Informed’ | Video | TheBlaze.com: "“There’s no bubble. I am a gun owner, I have lived and breathed this issue personally for a decade,” Cupp shot back. “It’s not a bubble, I just happen to be informed on gun issues, unlike those people who talk about them.”"

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The Current Short-Term Future of Gaming

What I mean by this is what I believe to be the future of gaming in the next year or two.

Consoles seem to be losing their luster but only so far as they try too hard to be like PC gaming. I have a PS3, but I don't see myself getting the new PS4 because I don't see the need for it. The return on value in new consoles is decreasing without the addition of advanced peripheral technologies because video quality can only get so good in relation to the goodness of the average television screen. Making the experience better should be the prime motivation of new consoles, but only Nintendo tries to do that anymore (with Sony and Microsoft trying to copy any Nintendo success.) Please, Nintendo, announce a new Zelda or Smash Bros. soon. I'm only really looking forward to one new console game that's been announced: Saints Row 4.

Pokemon continues to completely dominate the handheld gaming market because that's what Nintendo does. Smart phone app games will never be able to put that much of a dent in that. Pokemon continues to innovate on its well established franchise. It will continue to work for the foreseeable future. Pokemon X & Y will have Pokemon mounts, so yeah, awesomeness on the horizon.

Valve's Steam engine plus the emergence of Kickstarter has allowed a mass outcropping of unleashed talent and creativity to the Indie market unheard of just a few years ago. This is a very positive development and would love more of it. The Ouya is likely to be just the beginning of the goodness.

Minecraft and its insane levels of popularity has given way to creativity tools being embraced as a game platform more than Garry's Mod ever did. But the "open world with a goal" game type has also gained popularity due to Minecraft. Minecraft continually adds new stuff to itself. Games like Don't Starve are starting to follow the same strategy. I can't wait to see where this leads. Hopefully, Yogventures is phenomenal. I missed out on the Kickstarter (discovered the Yogscast like three days after the Kickstarter ended, seriously.) This can only lead to positive things.

Let's Play and gaming commentary videos have essentially taken over YouTube. PewDiePie and those like him are posed to rule over YouTube's top subscribed in a year or two due to this. The reason is rather simple: Putting out original content every single day will eventually build up subscribers and views faster than a video or two every week or two. The absolutely fantastic Video Game High School (produced via Kickstarter to boot) is a testament to the power of video games on the Internet culture.

Google Glass is the first big leap towards HUD-type game helmets/visors that every gamer has wanted for the longest time. I can't wait to get one, as I have since I first saw one in that one Sims game.

Not a lot of negative on the horizon, but I tend to be an optimist when it comes to technological advancements.

Leno: It’s Gotten So Bad for Obama Fox News Changed Its Slogan to ‘See, I Told You So!’ | NewsBusters

Leno: It’s Gotten So Bad for Obama Fox News Changed Its Slogan to ‘See, I Told You So!’ | NewsBusters: "Well, you know, love him or hate him, you got to admit President Obama is a new kind of Democrat. I mean, think about it. He's embroiled in three scandals, not one of them involves sex. That has never happened before. That has never happened before."

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WATCH: Cable Networks Eagerly Anticipate When GOP Will ‘Overplay Their Hand’ | Mediaite

WATCH: Cable Networks Eagerly Anticipate When GOP Will ‘Overplay Their Hand’ | Mediaite: "The press, which appears eager to cover an overreaching GOP, would be well advised to stop conditioning the public to expect it. At this rate, and given the high expectations set by the media and the gravity of the scandals that are presently unfolding, the Republican Party could not “overplay their hand” if they tried."

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Of Course It Troubles Me. Are You Kidding Me? « The Greenroom

Of Course It Troubles Me. Are You Kidding Me? « The Greenroom: "We should be thinking this is what you get with big government in practice. This is what you get when you have a government that just has gone beyond its moorings, that has gone beyond its scope, and this is the kind of government you get with progressive politics. And that’s just not in keeping with our Constitution. That’s not what we deserve. We want equality under the law, and that’s not what we’re getting, whether we’re a reporter, a taxpayer, or a citizen."

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Ann Coulter Star Trek | Daily Currant Parody Fools Internet | Mediaite

Ann Coulter Star Trek | Daily Currant Parody Fools Internet | Mediaite: "“These ‘satire’ sites would work better if their writers had the tiniest ability to be funny,” she told Mediaite in response."

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In Tomorrow's Wars, Battles Will Be Fought With a 3-D Printer | Danger Room | Wired.com

In Tomorrow's Wars, Battles Will Be Fought With a 3-D Printer | Danger Room | Wired.com: "It’s a far-out vision for future combat, but at least one naval officer thinks it could happen. According to Lt. Cmdr. Michael Llenza, who sketched out the scenario in the latest Armed Forces Journal, 3-D printing could arguably “upend the way we think about supply chains, sea basing and even maritime strategy.” And by we, Llenza doesn’t just mean Americans. The Chinese military is already bragging about how they are printing parts for their next-gen aircraft."

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Best of the Web Today: President Asterisk - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: President Asterisk - WSJ.com: "The Weekly Standard notes that NBC's Lisa Myers "reported this morning that the IRS deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election.""

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WH: Golly, if we had a shield law, we wouldn’t have broken the other laws in AP records scandal, or something « Hot Air

WH: Golly, if we had a shield law, we wouldn’t have broken the other laws in AP records scandal, or something « Hot Air: "So the sudden concern now is rather transparently hypocritical — and a way to pander to the media that the Obama administration has (potentially) alienated.  It’s also a shell game in terms of the current scandal, because existing law should have prevented the seizure in the first place, at least in the manner accomplished by Deputy AG James Cole and Justice."

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WaPo: CIA asked AP not to expose Yemen terror plot bust until White House was ready to crow about it publicly « Hot Air

WaPo: CIA asked AP not to expose Yemen terror plot bust until White House was ready to crow about it publicly « Hot Air: "Am I understanding that correctly? The CIA went on bargaining with the AP after the security worries had evaporated, purely in the interest of preventing the administration from being scooped on its glorious “plot foiled” announcement the next day?"

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Jon Stewart Slams Obama Claim He Learned About IRS Scandal 'Last Friday' | NewsBusters

Jon Stewart Slams Obama Claim He Learned About IRS Scandal 'Last Friday' | NewsBusters: "Stewart then criticized Lerner for thinking that “an apology was good enough for an IRS-related matter.” She also admitted that she's not good at math, which also drew fire from the liberal host: “That’s a good one, a lady who works at the place that calculates people’s taxes!”"

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Would You Believe The Administration Got Phone Records of The House Of Representatives? « The Greenroom

Would You Believe The Administration Got Phone Records of The House Of Representatives? « The Greenroom: "Exit question: I’m sure mainstream media, and the other two branches of government, see no problem whatsoever in secret records searches between the two branches, right? No separation of powers issue here. Heh. Can’t wait to see if this gets picked up tomorrow."

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Media Matters: We’re not defending letting the DOJ sift through reporters’ phone records, but Media Matters is « Hot Air

Media Matters: We’re not defending letting the DOJ sift through reporters’ phone records, but Media Matters is « Hot Air: "Among the reporters openly laughing at the “Media Matters distances itself from Media Matters” defense: Ben Smith, Dylan Byers, and HuffPo’s Jason Linkins. Partisanship on the Democrats’ behalf is fine most of the time, but choosing the White House over the guild is going to earn MMFA heat from places it never anticipated. Oh well. In lieu of an exit question, I’ll leave you with Byers’s summary of Media Matters’s spin."

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Holder to Issa: Your conduct as a member of Congress is really pretty shameful, you know « Hot Air

Holder to Issa: Your conduct as a member of Congress is really pretty shameful, you know « Hot Air: "Holder blithely cautioned that “I’m sure there must have been a good reason why only the to-and-from parts were provided,” to which Issa rejoined, “Yes, you didn’t want us to see the details” — which really is nothing more than a statement of the obvious, but Holder didn’t like that at all."

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Open thread: Obama to address IRS scandal at 6 p.m. ET; Update: More than 75% of donations at Cincinnati IRS office went to Democrats; Update: Acting IRS commissioner resigns; Update: Was resigning anyway? « Hot Air

Open thread: Obama to address IRS scandal at 6 p.m. ET; Update: More than 75% of donations at Cincinnati IRS office went to Democrats; Update: Acting IRS commissioner resigns; Update: Was resigning anyway? « Hot Air: "In one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa. In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent “Ms. Richards” told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood."

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Chris Matthews: “White supremacy” is a pretty big part of all of this opposition to Obama « Hot Air

Chris Matthews: “White supremacy” is a pretty big part of all of this opposition to Obama « Hot Air: "Well, that devolved quickly. Firstly, I would merely point out that, no actually, racism isn’t merely white supremacists’ attitude toward everybody else, and that no category of racism is deserving of a “So what?” dismissal. But, more importantly… what the what? From where is he pulling this ‘ten-to-twenty percent of Americans are white supremacists’ number, and then extrapolating from that the fact that this racist fraction of the American population is somehow the ruling voice of and force behind the entire conservative movement?"

Obama just killed liberalism.  Let's pop open some champagne!

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Carney unsure IRS did anything wrong, but positive White House, campaign had no involvement « Hot Air

Carney unsure IRS did anything wrong, but positive White House, campaign had no involvement « Hot Air: "You keep using that word “if.” I do not think it means what you think it means."

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Best of the Web Today: The IRS's Nonprofit Helper - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: The IRS's Nonprofit Helper - WSJ.com: "That yearning for Obama's success has cost the press dearly. Yoo is right to think the press's abject treatment of Obama has encouraged his administration's disrespectful treatment of it."

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What's the Matter with Joan Walsh? | National Review Online

What's the Matter with Joan Walsh? | National Review Online:

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Collectivism and Marxism

Few academic economists, since almost all of them are Keynesians of some sort, will teach Hayek.

Marx's theory (Marxism) is essentially a theory on collectivism and the one everybody with a pulse knows by name. Yes, collectivism as a theory existed before Marx, but his theories on it were what birthed most of what came after him.

They're not really successful, which is my argument. Their supporters find ways to make it sound that way, but they're really not. The NHS has a new controversy every damn month at this point of them doing something "Holy balls!" terrible.

The simple truth that people will care for something better if owned individually than owned collectively is why collectivism fails.

White House: Well, the conduct “of a small number of IRS employees may have fallen short…” « Hot Air

White House: Well, the conduct “of a small number of IRS employees may have fallen short…” « Hot Air: "President Obama also glossed over the issue during his press conference with British PM David Cameron just before noon, obligatorily agreeing that it’s “outrageous,” that the “IRS as an independent agency has to act with absolute integrity” and that “I’ve got no patience for it and I will not tolerate it,” but ultimately demurring: “The IG is conducting their investigation and I’m not going to comment prematurely.” …Hmm, waiting for the IG report to comment? As fond as President Obama is of that politically safe route (where have we heard that before recently?), the IRS had been caught red-handed in official wrongdoing here, and it doesn’t look like the forthcoming IG report is going to be helping their case by any stretch of the imagination."

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Obama on Benghazi: “There is no there there” « Hot Air

Obama on Benghazi: “There is no there there” « Hot Air: "House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa had some words for the president following his self-righteous display of misdirection: “Only the president could tell us with a straight face that there’s never been any confusion and that from the beginning they’ve said the right thing. … As you go through the facts as they were, yes, in real-time, we knew this was an al Qaeda backed terrorist attack and everything else in between is simply revisionist history.”"

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Texas school district candidate wins seat, 1-0 « The Greenroom

Texas school district candidate wins seat, 1-0 « The Greenroom: "The San Antonio Express-News reports Christina Mercado has won her race as District 1 representative on the Lytle School District by collecting the only vote cast in Saturday’s election for the open board seat."

Absolutely hilarious.

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What the AFL-CIO Can Do for Veterans « The Greenroom

What the AFL-CIO Can Do for Veterans « The Greenroom: "“After facing enemies abroad, is an $8.81 an hour part-time job the best we can offer returning veterans?” asks Trumka.

He’s right. Veterans deserve more than $8.81 an hour. And I know a place where they can do much better, get amazing benefits and not have to work nearly as hard."

(They should go work for the AFL-CIO, because Trumpka is nothing if not a man who lacks any ability to foresee controversy.)

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Page Six: Clintons won’t support Weiner in mayoral bid « The Greenroom

Page Six: Clintons won’t support Weiner in mayoral bid « The Greenroom: "Will this kill our chances for all sorts of double-entendre jokes over the next few months?  If true, it’s certainly going to raise questions about Anthony Weiner’s ability to attract support — if even his wife’s closest friends aren’t getting on board."

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Obamanomics and "An Argument Entertained"

I question your premise, you bring up statistics, I claim those statistics do not prove your point and are faulty, you get more statistics. Back and forth, forth and back.

Statistics are useless in proving an argument one makes because they change every second but are not updated every second. Just wanted to say this before I got into it.

The U.S. health insurance market is more heavily regulated (and this was BEFORE Obamacare) than any other industry in the United States.  It is a far breath from a free market. It is filled with cronyism, back-scratching, Big Business using Big Government to screw the little guy (I call this Obamanomics from the book written by an author I met,) etc.  Obamacare exacerbated all of those problems, made bigger problems, and solved none of the actual problems in the U.S. health insurance market.

Health care is no more a right than food is. I am not owed food by my government. No man is. Doesn't stop government from creating "temporary" programs to deal with this "problem." There is nothing quite as immortal as a temporary government program. It becomes an entrenched interest and critics of it get demagogued to bloody 'ell.

The Insidious Justification For Media Silence On Benghazi And IRS Scandals: Conservatives Cared Too Much | Mediaite

The Insidious Justification For Media Silence On Benghazi And IRS Scandals: Conservatives Cared Too Much | Mediaite: "For Todd, the fact that an alleged cover-up failed is evidence enough that no cover-up existed. Of course, this blatant effort to exonerate the White House is deeply fallacious."

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Glenn Beck To The AP: ‘Nice To See Everyone Else Playing Catch-Up’ On IRS Story His Site Broke In 2012 | Mediaite

Glenn Beck To The AP: ‘Nice To See Everyone Else Playing Catch-Up’ On IRS Story His Site Broke In 2012 | Mediaite: "As the scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups grows, conservative radio host Glenn Beck is not missing out on an opportunity for a well-deserved “I told you so.” On Monday, the Associated Press published a story revealing that senior officials in the IRS were aware that the agency was singling out conservative groups for added scrutiny as early as 2011. In a statement released to the Associated Press, Beck said that he welcomed the mainstream press catching up to a story that his organization was reporting on more than one year ago."

Precisely.

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The American Revolution was better than the French Revolution

Which was better? Which led to better developments? Which led to a better governing philosophy?

This is essentially a very old debate that is still going on. In a nutshell, this argument began with Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. The latter thought the two revolutions were both good. The former wrote a big book criticizing the French Revolution. The latter then wrote a book criticizing the criticism with a much better sounding title (but overall, not that great of a book.)

Due to the time period, the largest and most destructive debate of the last 500 years hadn't really begun yet. That was the debate which began with the theories of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It had not yet really become a debate yet. This would happen when the Constitution was being debated and would continue until it's official settlement in the early 1990's.

(I think it's pretty obvious where I stand on this one.)

Bozell Column: Free Speech for Conservative Students? | NewsBusters

Bozell Column: Free Speech for Conservative Students? | NewsBusters: "In New Mexico, a group of evangelical high school students aligned with the “Church on the Move” lost a round last month in their fight to give classmates two-inch “fetus dolls” with a pro-life message attached. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the school district’s authority to stop the doll distribution. Why?"

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Maher: 'If You’re Rich You Should be Begging the Government to Redistribute Your Wealth' | NewsBusters

Maher: 'If You’re Rich You Should be Begging the Government to Redistribute Your Wealth' | NewsBusters: "Somehow one imagines this liberal hypocrite not including himself in the ranks of those that should be begging the government to redistribute their wealth."

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The Noam Chomsky Fallacy

There's something which I call the Noam Chomsky fallacy. Noam Chomsky, terribly stupid man that he is (tenured at MIT since before 'Nam for Christ's sake,) abuses this fallacy all the time. He has endless citation but the citations tend not to prove the point he's citing them for.

My best friend, God love 'im, is a Noam Chomsky fanboy, serial sanctimonious atheist, and sore debate loser. (He never wins debates with me, making him really fun to debate as I do have to try to beat him even though I always win. It's because I actually try.)

Tommy Christopher is essentially who is using this tactic heavily right now. Said man is on a crusade for gun control right now, using his bully pulpit as editor of Mediaite as a soap box in pursuit of his eroding goal.

Constitutional Republic

America is a Constitutional Republic. Democracy is a folly, the Founders thought, because of the Tyranny of the Majority. It is also why there are two legislative bodies in America, so as to also counteract the Tyranny of the Minority.

The people know less what to do with each other as a group than the politicians. Individuals make the best decisions for just themselves. In short, the sum of individual decisions is greater than the sum of its parts.

The great debate of the 20th century:  Individualism vs. Collectivism. The latter lost. Certain people need to get over that. There are over 80 million who can't because they were sacrificed at the alter of collectivism in the 20th century alone.

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

The Economics of Action Figures, Part I: Value

Action figures, being an avid collector, have always interested me on a fundamental level.  I got my first action figures at the ripe old age of three and a half years old, during the summer before I started pre-school.  I was born at the best time for action figures, 1990.  Of course, my parents first bought me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures.  At this point, TMNT figures were actually on the outs, as were some of my other first action figures, the five-inch G.I. Joes.  The years 1993-1995 would see the explosion of two forces that forever changed the action figure landscape:  Toy Biz and Power Rangers.

Toy Biz, of course, had the contract to make all the Marvel Comics figures, several of which are currently in my line of sight (eBay is a wonderful thing.)  The most popular line from Toy Biz ended up being the X-Men figures, and, boy, did Toy Biz go overboard in that department.  (For example, an awesome looking character that was in no more than two comics of the X-Men 2099 storyline got a figure.  Said character, The Shadow Dancer, is so insubstantial in the Marvel Comics mythos that most of the Google Image search results will be of the action figure.)  The success of these toys would eventually lead to the Marvel Legends line which continues to this day.  Toy Biz, unfortunately, eventually lost the contract to Hasbro for reasons I still do not adequately understand.

What seems to confuse many is that I have never been a big fan of comics in general.  Sure, I’ve read Watchmen and love me some manga, but most of my comics knowledge stems not from reading actual comics but spending insomniac nights reading Wikipedia and sites such as the Marvel Comics Database.  I love the stories, powers, and ideas.  I even write science fiction and fantasy stories in my spare time.  But enough of that.

The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was one of my favorite shows as a child (oddly enough, I don’t think I ever really watched much of the animated TMNT or G.I. Joe shows.)  And no rational person will say that that theme song did not rock.  But, watching the episodes as an adult makes me think “This show was garbage!” In short, Power Rangers was a 22-minute Godzilla episode with ninjas in a giant mech fighting the monster dujour.  The show was designed to keep young boys’ attention and spark imaginations (oh, the playground Power Ranger “fights,” good times.)  The people at Bandai knew what they were doing and merchandized the ever loving crap out of every villain that ever graced an episode.  Since this was the time before I understood the concept of “plastic can actually break,” most of those figures are either broken, covered in goop of some kind (making the inner mechanics unworkable,) and/or lost in my parents’ basement somewhere chillin’ with the spiders and my dad’s old Playboys (I don’t live at my parents’ anymore.)  I will probably end up finding them when my parents die or move out and the inevitable “Let’s get all this crap out of the basement so this house can actually be sold” happens.

But enough about my nostalgia.  (More on that later.)

To make a long story short (too late,) action figures are an important part of my life to this day.  I have since graduated from college with a degree in Marketing.  Even though I took several economics courses, I never learned a damn thing about economics in any classroom (I will probably write about that on my blog at some point.)  I self-taught myself centuries of economic theory by reading books and articles and listening to lectures by economists both current and dead.  Didn’t take long for me to discover the great F. A. Hayek, who I would call my intellectual hero (and where I got the name for my blog.)  He was one of the main members of the Austrian School of Economics and its most prominent member.  Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan could both count him as an economic adviser.  He has the distinction of predicting the fall of the Soviet Union for the precise reason it fell back in 1944 (nearly 50 years before it happened) and lived just long enough to see it happen.  I imagine him just dropping a microphone and walking away.

Now, I doubt anybody reading this (other than you, yes, you, in the back there) has heard of Hayek.  Most economics professors despise him and modern libertarians do him no justice by invoking his name as support for their insanity.  I’m talking about you, Ron Paul.  I never heard about Hayek in the classroom, even though he’s the founder of modern microeconomic thought.  This is easily explained by the fact that most academics are fanboys (that’s the best word for it) of Hayek’s ideological rival, founder of modern macroeconomic thought John Maynard Keynes.  Now, that’s a name a lot more of you should have heard of.  Keynesianism and Neo-Keynesianism are both current and popular (not to mention wrong) schools of economic thought.  Former Enron adviser and current Princeton professor and New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman is perhaps the most “prominent” (read:  notorious) Neo-Keynesian.  He’s the idiot who suggested the U.S. government fake an alien invasion in order to stimulate the economy with the vast defense build-up this would necessitate.  Really.  And said with a straight face that the events of 9/11/2001 would be a great boon to the economy because of all the construction that would now be necessary.  Really really.  The dude is a walking, talking Broken Window Fallacy.

Now, where was I?

Unlike DVDs or books (the only two things I have more of,) action figures have relatively little base value in them.  Action figures themselves don’t cost much to make once the molds are formed.  This means little variable cost outside of the fluctuating price of plastic.  Plastic, being a byproduct of petroleum, tends to shoot up in price when oil prices spike.  The oil spikes of the middle part of the last decade are the only answer I have for “What happened to Toy Biz?” but that’s neither here nor there.  Now, movies and books require an extensive effort to film or write.  Action figures are solely merchandise items to compliment some already established property for the most part.  If an alien came to this planet, it would see no difference between a limited edition The Flaming Carrot action figure and a blob of melted DVD boxes.

The action figure market is one of the best case studies in the economic concept of value.  Value, as Hayek and many others taught, is inherently an individual and subjective beast.  For example, you might want to pay over $100 for that DC Direct Larfleeze action figure.  You see $100 as a worthwhile trade for that figure.  I realize that price is insane and value the figure much below that.  I decide to buy the DC Universe Classics Larfleeze for around thirty bucks with shipping.  In short, we both just made a subjective and voluntary choice to engage in commerce at a level that was comfortable for us both.  The market price of some goods can be predicted with some accuracy due to the inherent established value of said goods.  Gold, for example.  Or oil.  But an action figure’s value over time, in the bowels of eBay and the Amazon Marketplace, is largely determined by pure demand at any snapshot in time.  It’s why I was able to get like every awesome looking 1993 Toy Biz X-Men figure I wanted for under $50 in totality (like fifteen to twenty figures, excluding shipping) in about two months time.  Demand for them was very low.

Now, some of you are probably thinking, “Wait, there’s another part of the whole ‘laws of economics’ thing” I’m forgetting.  Yes, supply.  X-Men figures in the early ‘90s were marketed primarily to young kids and, as such, a bajillion of ‘em were made.  This does help explain why X-Men figures from twenty years ago are now under $5 mint in box, but not why there are still so many of them still in their boxes instead of broken in your parents’ basement.  The demand just ain’t there.  The figures themselves are not much in the way of collector’s items today.  They are awesome to play with and pose but, like most of the early TMNT figures, are pretty shabby looking compared to anything sculpted by Four Horsemen Studios (seriously, those dudes are amazing.)  Supply only explains the small part, the potential X of any action figure that is still in its box. (I tend to only buy action figures in the box even though I intend to open them because I don’t want a used figure with potentially missing parts and accessories.)

Even demand explains little.  Action figures with no real demand will stay at obscene prices forever.  Considering some weirdo has been holding onto the figure for sometimes decades before trying to sell it, this dog don’t hunt.  eBay and the Amazon Marketplace allow sellers to coalesce around an “established” (but subject to change at any time) market price.

This is where value comes in.  Action figures that had a huge supply and epic demand at launch will later lead to relatively few remaining mint in box only a couple of years later which leads to a notorious phenomenon seen in every market:  The speculator.  These are the aforementioned weirdos who decide to buy action figures as a long-term investment.  (I buy action figures off these guys all the time, but I still think it’s weird.)  They will hold onto an action figure (or buy multiples of the same action figure) and put it on the market when enough time has passed since it came out or demand starts to creep up again.  Now, that’s the smart and prescient speculators.  Most just cut their losses and sell the figure for far less than what they paid for it (which means even less due to ever increasing inflation) when they (read: parents/girlfriends/wives) just want the damn things out of the house.  I benefit heavily from this type of speculator.  When I get the action figure in the mail with the K B Toys (good times, good times) price tag still on it, I laugh when it is less than what I paid for it with shipping.

Future value can rarely be predicted for an action figure.  This is why merchandise speculators are usually out of their minds to think they can make more than a few bucks per figure on average.  Sure, buy a rare, less-than-a-thousand-made exclusive action figure at San Diego Comic Con and immediately put it up for sale on eBay at double what you paid for it.  You might get lucky and get a quick 100% return on investment.  But that formula has many value-added components to it.  It is almost designed to make money for the smart.  Nerds with money rarely need much reason to waste it on overpriced toys.

No, I’m talking about the TMNT figures that just came out.  Some of those figures, somehow, are already selling at $20-30 on Amazon.  This is insanity, seeing as more will definitely be made (they sell like hotcakes everywhere.)  Oh, and they’re priced under $9 at Wal-Mart.  Speculators want such an immediate return on investment, they’ve corrupted the practice.  They quickly realize which action figures are clearly awesome looking and/or limited per shipment case.  They then buy all of said figures they can find and immediately turn around to flip them on eBay at up to five times what they just paid for ‘em.  It’s sickening.  Now, the good thing is that this dies down quickly when the speculators are getting few buyers at such an inflated price for toys primarily targeted to children during stagnant economic growth (idiots...)  I tend to wait a month or two before biting the bullet on such action figures.  Although, the “adult collector” figures like the DC Infinite Earths line typically need to be bought immediately (at least the awesome ones) or it can take six months or more for the action figures to reach a sane price level again.

In short, the value of an action figure is determined by the sellers’ belief of what the future price will be intersected by what a sane person will pay for a certain piece of molded plastic, all over time.

The "Battle" of the Sexes

Outside of basic evolutionary impulses that are automatic and cannot be changed through a seminar or class, there are a few things men and women both do that make the "battle of the sexes" a bigger problem than it needs to be. I promote diversity of thought and debate with everyone I encounter on any topic I'm interested in. I also have a habit of striking up conversations with random strangers who are in the same relative space I'm in. (Think person next to you on a plane or something.)

The only way we truly learn is by applying our own theories of everything to the real world. Our theories of everything are another word for "opinions" or "subjective truths."

The 3-D Gun and what it means

Makeshift weapons that can be assembled from one visit to the hardware store are insanely cheaper and less likely to raise eyebrows. Anybody who buys a 3-D printer will be flagged, probably, if they also buy any ammunition and yet don't have a registered firearm. It's just too easy to track and flag. Not to mention insanely expensive. The insane usually don't have several thousands of dollars just lying around.

And anybody who doesn't like the 3-D gun can't do anything about it. It cannot be "uninvented." Nicolas Cage taught us that in "The Rock." Attempts to make the gun not exist will only lead to its further circulation and exacerbate its creators.

Externalities are Bullshit

Externalities are something those that do not understand economics bring up. Literally every action or inaction a person does every second of every day creates externalities. For instance, my decision to take a nap instead of watching a show on Hulu creates an externality in that Hulu and its partners make less advertising revenue.

Due to the billions upon trillion upon upon upon near infinite decisions made every day by every living thing in the entire world, economics is insanely complex on its surface. It is chaos.

This is where spontaneous order comes in. These near infinite decisions and actions every day create, essentially, ordered chaos. As an example found in nature, thousands upon thousands of bats can fly out of a cave all at once and none of them bash into each other.

This is the best approach to economics. It is free market capitalism with few regulations. Regulations that simply assure various assurances necessary for capitalism to work. Liberty laws. Essentially, legal moral codes. If violated, person is punished. Property laws, laws against assault and murder and everything bodily harming inbetween, and such.

It is not the government's role to "prevent" things. It is there to respond to violations in the basic liberty laws. The market can take care of everything else better than the government ever will.

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Dem Rep: ObamaCare will totally prevent bad marriages, or something « The Greenroom

Dem Rep: ObamaCare will totally prevent bad marriages, or something « The Greenroom: "By the way, Jason and I had a lot of fun during the show in recalling our bachelor days, when we used to impress women at nightclubs by talking about the size of our health insurance plans. Unfortunately, that ended up with us arguing about who had the biggest pharmacy coverage, and that just never ends well."

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Gay Rights Kommissar Rachel Maddow Wants Legal Action Against PolitiFact | NewsBusters

Gay Rights Kommissar Rachel Maddow Wants Legal Action Against PolitiFact | NewsBusters: "Maddow's feud with PolitiFact began two years ago when they nailed her for a bogus claim about Wisconsin's budget surplus. Since then she's had it in for them, not so much for their judgment calls on when someone in politics or media gets it right or wrong, but because PolitiFact does not defer to Maddow as supreme arbiter of such matters. Until Maddow can go longer than a news cycle without getting nailed at NewsBusters and elsewhere for her default toward deception, she's in no position to judge."

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Stephen Colbert Whines Over Sister's South Carolina Defeat

Stephen Colbert Whines Over Sister's South Carolina Defeat: "This is a classic case of someone getting rich off of partisan bullying politics, then suddenly begging for mercy when they get the snot kicked out of them."

'via Blog this'

Krugman’s Still Wrong | National Review Online

Krugman’s Still Wrong | National Review Online: "One might conclude that it was these tax hikes, rather than nonexistent spending cuts, that are responsible for Europe’s economic slowdown. Something to keep in mind the next time Paul Krugman — or President Obama, for that matter — calls for yet another tax hike on the rich.

None of this makes Krugman either a knave or a fool. But it does make him wrong."

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Best of the Web Today: 'Stop Being a Baby' - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: 'Stop Being a Baby' - WSJ.com: "It's the Bizzaro World Garden of Eden: Eve walks in with full knowledge of good and evil, and the snake tries to disabuse her of it with doubletalk."

'via Blog this'

Two new studies: Gun crime has dropped dramatically over last 20 years — and most Americans have no idea « Hot Air

Two new studies: Gun crime has dropped dramatically over last 20 years — and most Americans have no idea « Hot Air: "Behold the power of this fully armed and operational propaganda machine."

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It’s come to this: Solar installer now suing the government for more money « Hot Air

It’s come to this: Solar installer now suing the government for more money « Hot Air: "This is where the path of relentlessly determined government subsidization of politically-preferred, rather than free-marked-selected, fledgling technologies has brought us: A troubled global solar industry awash in oversupply and rent-seeking, and taxpayer dollars being spent on a lawsuit with a solar company that wants still more taxpayer dollars. The mind reels."

'via Blog this'

PJ Media » Special Elections Offer Opportunities for Both Parties

PJ Media » Special Elections Offer Opportunities for Both Parties: "At the moment, Democrats are favored to win both contests. If the GOP earns a split, Massachusetts is the victory they want."

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The Daily Caller » Penn Jillette is a ‘nutty f@#ing peacenik’ who wants the government off your back » Print

The Daily Caller » Penn Jillette is a ‘nutty f@#ing peacenik’ who wants the government off your back » Print: "“I don’t respect it, and I don’t like it. When Teller and I work on something we try to never compromise. If I have one position and he has another, we don’t try to decide which position we’re going to go to. We try to find another position that we can agree on that’s not compromise. A position that we both agree on more. I think in government you can’t do that. I think that’s a luxury of art.”"

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Fred Hochberg and the Ex-Im Bank (again) « Hot Air

Fred Hochberg and the Ex-Im Bank (again) « Hot Air: "If Ex-Im is supposed to be helping grow American companies and assist them in expanding into overseas markets, why is almost all the money going to a single company? Of $14.7 billion in loan guarantees for 2012, $12.2 billion went to subsidize Boeing sales. Granted, Boeing does a lot of exporting, but aren’t there a lot more companies who could use some help competing in other markets? If that’s all Ex-Im is going to do, maybe the government should just set up a new law specifically to bail out Boeing."

'via Blog this'

Obama Fatigue « Commentary Magazine

Obama Fatigue « Commentary Magazine: "These are not good days for Barack Obama.

His second term agenda has broken down. The Democratic-controlled Senate did not pass even a single part of his gun-control agenda. His effort to use sequestration to batter Republicans has backfired. His budget was sent up to Capitol Hill two months late–and was immediately dismissed. If immigration reform passes, it will be because Democrats kept the president on the sideline, fully aware that his presence in negotiations with Republicans would only make success more unlikely."

'via Blog this'

Best of the Web Today: The Excuse Factory - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: The Excuse Factory - WSJ.com: "These are words not often heard, but Chris Matthews should know better."

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Sanitized Society Puts Hygiene Hypothesis to the Test - Jonah Goldberg - Page full

Sanitized Society Puts Hygiene Hypothesis to the Test - Jonah Goldberg - Page full: "Such hoaxes are commonplace on America's most liberal campuses. Why? Perhaps because students, faculty and -- most damningly -- administrators have fostered a climate of delusion and paranoia that constantly generates fresh excuses for the self-appointed antibodies to justify their attacks on a remarkably healthy society."

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Rapper Danny Brown Received Oral Sex on Stage

Rapper Danny Brown Received Oral Sex on Stage: "Rapper Danny Brown was defended by fellow touring rapper Kitty Pryde after a fan in Minneapolis rushed the stage and performed oral sex on him."

This actually happened? WTF is wrong with some fans?

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Steven Spielberg Will Direct 'American Sniper' Biopic

Steven Spielberg Will Direct 'American Sniper' Biopic: "Kyle, a former rodeo cowboy, shattered the U.S. military's record with more than 150 officially confirmed kills during his service to his country. He was killed Feb. 2, 2012 by a fellow military member suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder."

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Endgame: “Rocky: The Musical” coming to Broadway « The Greenroom

Endgame: “Rocky: The Musical” coming to Broadway « The Greenroom: "The problem here is simple. Just the thought of this is enough to instill a revisionist memory of Sly interrupting his training sessions with Burgess Meredith in the movie to start croaking out show tunes.

And that’s not a happy memory, my friends."

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Boston suspects had plotted July 4 attack, investigators say - U.S. News

Boston suspects had plotted July 4 attack, investigators say - U.S. News: "The brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings originally planned to set off explosives on July 4 — but changed their minds and decided on Patriot’s Day, officials with knowledge of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s interrogation told NBC News."

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Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome

Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome:

Frickin' daily Tweet limit...  Grrrrr...

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New Hampshire Paper: Media Dropped 'The Ball On Ayotte Coverage' | NewsBusters

New Hampshire Paper: Media Dropped 'The Ball On Ayotte Coverage' | NewsBusters: "The truth is, Ayotte enjoys a great deal of support for her vote in this Live Free or Die State. And the elite media would do well to shine a light on those who were protesting her, as Fox News did on Wednesday night. See the below clip featuring an Obama-sponsored protester holding a sign splattered with fake blood politicizing the Boston marathon bombing."

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Obama Speaks Staunchly to Planned Parenthood: Skipped by ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS... | NewsBusters

Obama Speaks Staunchly to Planned Parenthood: Skipped by ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, PBS... | NewsBusters: "“It is outrageous that President Obama addressed the Planned Parenthood gathering this morning, at a time when Planned Parenthood has been exposed for having known about the Gosnell horrors, yet took no action to report this abuse of women and babies,” said Maureen Ferguson, senior policy adviser for The Catholic Association, which opposes abortion."

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Love for 'Hating Breitbart' at L.A. Premiere

Love for 'Hating Breitbart' at L.A. Premiere:

Daily Tweeting limit is forcing me to do this...

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Best of the Web Today: 'Hate Crime' Hoaxes - WSJ.com

Best of the Web Today: 'Hate Crime' Hoaxes - WSJ.com: "Oppression of minorities, and certainly of women, scarcely exists in America in the 21st century. Genuine hate crimes happen, but they are very rare. Few societies in history have offered more security to the previously downtrodden. But the presence of security only makes the need for identity and stimulation more pressing. Hate-crime hoaxes are an extreme way of meeting those needs."

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