In Greece, a Brewer’s Dream Runs Into Frustration

Statism:

In Greece, a Brewer’s Dream Runs Into Frustration - NYTimes.com: "The cost of labor in Greece from 2005 to 2010 has been, on average, 25 percent higher than in Germany, according to a recent analysis by Variant Perception, a research firm based in London. (Ireland, Portugal and Spain also have relatively high labor costs.) Quite simply, Greece has had trouble producing goods and services that people want to buy — a result being a persistently high trade deficit that even now, amid the deepest of recessions, has hardly budged."

Picking the Perfect Gun for a New Shooter

Good advice:

Picking the Perfect Gun for a New Shooter | GunUp: "OK, then, what pistol SHOULD they start out with? First, a pistol is the wrong place to start anyway. To get someone started into shooting, how about a single shot bolt action .22 rifle? Starting with a single shot rimfire rifle some very important lessons can be taught, starting with range safety. Range commands, the 180 rule, the Four Rules of Gun Handling, sight alignment, breathing, trigger control, and more, can all be covered using a rifle instead of a pistol. Using a rimfire rifle will also build some confidence, as the new shooter will be certain to get some reasonably good hits on the target without a lot of training. Why a single shot rifle? It reinforces another very important lesson, “Make the first shot count, don’t rely on follow up shots to make up for poor shooting.”"

And Now For The Flipside

Heh:

iOwnTheWorld.com » Blog Archive » And Now For The Flipside

Fate of Coptic Christians in post-Mubarak Egypt worries some

A very serious worry, pray for the Copts:

Fate of Coptic Christians in post-Mubarak Egypt worries some | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment: "Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton warns Egypt’s ancient Coptic Christian minority could become increasingly endangered should the protests against Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak drive him from power."

U.S., Japan told time running out to deal with debt

Change:

U.S., Japan told time running out to deal with debt | Reuters: "Japan and the United States faced new pressure to confront their swollen budget deficits as the IMF and rating agencies demanded more evidence they can bring their public debts under control."

U.S. Budget Deficit to Pass $1.5 Trillion This Year

This could be depressing, but I won't let it!

U.S. Budget Deficit to Pass $1.5 Trillion This Year - Megan McArdle - Business - The Atlantic: "'Grim' doesn't seem to be a terrifying enough word to describe the budget outlook that the CBO released today. Oh, sure, we sort of knew this was coming--tax cuts are expensive if you don't find spending cuts to match. And yet the numbers still hit one like a punch to the gut. From a guy wearing brass knuckles. Wrapped around a roll of quarters. Shiny new quarters that you can't really afford to use for punching people, because you've got a $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year."

America's Dying Cities - Newsweek

Interesting and scary:

America's Dying Cities - Newsweek: "From 2000 to 2010 the U.S. population increased by the smallest rate than at any time since the Great Depression, rising 9.7% to approximately 308 million people, according to new census data. It’s yet another sign of the tough times that many Americans faced during the second half of the 2000s due to an ailing economy, but it only begins to paint a picture of the country’s money woes."

100 Programs the Republican Study Committee Wants to Abolish or Cut

Here's just a few:

100 Programs the Republican Study Committee Wants to Abolish or Cut | The Weekly Standard: "Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.

Save America's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.

International Fund for Ireland. $17 million annual savings.

Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.

National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.

Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.

Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings."

Abortionist faces eight counts of murder in Philadelphia

Horrific:

Abortionist faces eight counts of murder in Philadelphia; Update: How did he escape notice so long? “By design“ « Hot Air: "This may be as ghastly a story outside of the Tucson massacre as we’ll see all year … I hope. An abortionist arrested in Philadelphia faces eight counts of murder, one for the death of a patient, and the other seven for killing babies who survived his botched abortions. The district attorney alleges that Kermit Gosnell used a pair of scissors to sever their spinal cords:"

Good news: Study confirms that college is pretty much a total waste of time

A University education is devolving, we are ending up with kids who can't think critically. Now, could this be planned?

Good news: Study confirms that college is pretty much a total waste of time « Hot Air: "Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn’t determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin…"

The WaPo’s ‘On Faith’ Blog Spikes a Regular Contributor When He Writes on Islam

Very interesting:

Pajamas Media » Thou Shalt Not! The WaPo’s ‘On Faith’ Blog Spikes a Regular Contributor When He Writes on Islam
“Mutual blasphemers, love one another!” is the title of an essay I published many years ago. Now as then, the human project is to learn not only to live with, but to love, “the blasphemers” (meaning whichever of the two religions is not yours).

1. But the project, so defined, is not neutral. It is Christian and humanist. Christian: Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” Islam, to the contrary, is essentially hostile to “the infidels.” Humanist: Calling evil good is bad news, but the worst news is violence done in the name of God (spelled out, for example, in Mohamed Atta’s theological justification for the attack he led, “9/11”).

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: How Big is China?

Perspective:

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: How Big is China?
If Americans wanted to imagine what it would take to be "strong" in the way China currently is, [Barnett] said, all we'd have to do is think of moving the entire population of the Western Hemisphere into our existing borders. Every single Mexican. (Rather than enforcing the southern border, we'd require everyone to cross it, headed north.) Every Haitian, Cuban, and Jamaican. Everyone from Central America. All 190 million from Brazil. And so on. Even the Canadians. China, by the way, is just about the same size as the United States, though a larger share of its land area is desert, mountain, or otherwise nonarable.

If we did that, we'd be up to about a billion people -- and then if we also took every single person from Nigeria, and for good measure everyone in hyper-crowded Japan too, we'd finally be up to China's 1.3 billion size. At that point, like China, we'd have tremendous scale in everything. Rich people. Big businesses. A huge work force. Countless numbers of multi-million population cities. And we would also have a tremendous amount of poverty, plus pressure on resources of every kind, from water to food to living space. Just as China does now. Scale gives China some strengths. But it also creates tremendous challenges, as Americans would recognize if we thought about this prospect for even a minute. Seriously, reflect on this, and consider that it is China's reality now.

I do not want civil discourse « Don Surber

Quite an enlightening rant:

I do not want civil discourse « Don Surber: "For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. senators from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who misattributed “dissent is the highest form of patriotism” to Thomas Jefferson; the words belong to the late historian Howard Zinn.

Once in power, liberals were the opposite of gracious."

The pilot who stuck to the right schedule « Hot Air

A nice feel good for the day:

Video: The pilot who stuck to the right schedule « Hot Air: "After one of the more unpleasant weeks we’ve all spent in politics, we need a week-ending palate cleanser that restores our faith in humanity."

Green journalists lament the lack of overwhelming coverage of global warming in the liberal media | Watts Up With That?

So sad:

Green journalists lament the lack of overwhelming coverage of global warming in the liberal media | Watts Up With That?: "Green journalists and partisan bloggers are baffled about the lack of sufficient coverage of the “2010 hottest year ever” — and utter failure to ram through climate legislation in the 111th Congress. After scratching your head in amazement at the conundrum these journalists find themselves, something about pots, kettles, and a mirror comes to mind."

Climate of Hate

This says it all:

Climate of Hate

Real Estate, Housing and Economy: The Foreclosure Dump - CNBC

This is not good:

Real Estate, Housing and Economy: The Foreclosure Dump - CNBC: "It's coming, no question.

Today's report from RealtyTrac serves as a warning to big banks, Fannie, Freddie and local communities; The foreclosure glut is coming, and they'd better be ready to get rid of that glut in a big way."

Why the Left Lost It

The meltdown has been spectacular:

Henninger: Why the Left Lost It - WSJ.com

They expected to take losses in November. What they got instead was Armageddon. Suddenly an authentic reform movement, linked to the Republican Party, whose goal simply is to stop the public spending curve, had come to life. This poses a mortal threat to the financial oxygen in the economic ecosystem that the public wing of the Democratic Party has inhabited all these years.

The stakes for the American left in 2012 couldn't possibly be higher. If then, and again in 2014, progressives can't pull toward their candidates some percentage of the independent voters who in November abandoned the Democratic Party, they could be looking in from the outside for as many years as some of them have left to write about politics. A wilderness is a terrible place to be.

Against that grim result, every sentence Messrs. Krugman, Packer, Alter, the Times and the rest have written about Tucson is logical and understandable. What happened in November has to be stopped, by whatever means become available. Available this week was a chance to make some independents wonder if the tea parties, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Jared Loughner are all part of the same dark force.

Big Lies and Little Ones

Wow:

Big Lies and Little Ones - WSJ.com

In the wake of the Tucson massacre, the indecent behavior of the formerly mainstream media has not been limited to the New York Times-led witch hunt against Republicans, conservatives and independent media voices. Equally appalling in its own way has been the rush by pundits to advise President Obama on how to make political hay out of the atrocity.

The worst example is a Monday article by Newsweek's Jonathan Alter titled "Can Obama Turn Tragedy Into Triumph?" This passage will live in infamy:

Conservatives like to argue that these are isolated incidents carried out by lunatics and therefore carry no big lessons (unless the perpetrator is Muslim, in which case it's terrorism); liberals view them as opportunities to address various social ills. Obama is in the latter category and should act accordingly. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Rahm Emanuel famously said in 2008. The same goes for a shooting spree that gravely wounds a beloved congresswoman.

Risk, Prohibition, and Category 3

The whole thing is long but very good:

Risk, Prohibition, and Category 3: "In the case of Loughner, a tragedy welcomed ghoulishly by the left, leftists have even bigger ambitions in mind than they've ever admitted before.

Guns? That's nothing. Banning guns, or at least a lot of them, is a minor step on the way to a much bigger goal: What they're seeking to do in the current debate is prohibit any and all expressions of right-leaning political belief.

And it's an easy call for them, of course. Right-leaning political belief has zero legitimate value -- negative value, really! -- and the risks of such dangerous thought are frighteningly large!

Ban it. Ban the right. Ban them entirely. They contribute no positive value to society and in fact impose unbearably-high risks."

The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010

Nice roundup of the extreme tolerance of the left:

Michelle Malkin » The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010: "The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010"

The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel - WSJ.com

Read the whole thing:

Glenn Reynolds: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel - WSJ.com: "Shortly after November's electoral defeat for the Democrats, pollster Mark Penn appeared on Chris Matthews's TV show and remarked that what President Obama needed to reconnect with the American people was another Oklahoma City bombing. To judge from the reaction to Saturday's tragic shootings in Arizona, many on the left (and in the press) agree, and for a while hoped that Jared Lee Loughner's killing spree might fill the bill.

With only the barest outline of events available, pundits and reporters seemed to agree that the massacre had to be the fault of the tea party movement in general, and of Sarah Palin in particular. Why? Because they had created, in New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's words, a 'climate of hate.'"

Union Bosses Scheme to Be Girl Scouts’ Next ‘Tagalong’

Crazy:

Union Bosses Scheme to Be Girl Scouts’ Next ‘Tagalong’ - Big Government: "Should the federal government force employers to treat all outside organizations alike, the clear answer for anyone with half a brain is to deny access to everyone equally. One business owner, Brett McMahon, writes at Halt The Assault:

If this new request by union leaders is allowed to become law, its effect will be for many business operators like myself to have no choice but to close doors to any outside groups. The impact to charities ability to operate and reach support would be devastating. Ultimately, unions are trying to make sure that no one wins.

Sorry, Girl Scouts. Sorry, Boy Scouts. Sorry, Red Cross. And the local soup kitchen. This is not hyperbole. This is a direct threat to the ability for small business to say who comes onto their property and how they affect their business."

Vet tackled shooter

Apparently vets are only good for the narrative when they do something wrong:

Blog Archive » Vet tackled shooter: "74-year-old Colonel Bill Badger tackled Jared Loughner while he was reloading his Glock according to telephone interviews with Fox News. Yeah, you go and try to find the story somewhere.

Col. Badger was also shot in the back of his head before he tackled Loughner. According to Col. Badger, someone whacked Louchner with a folding chair while he was reloading. That gave Badger an opportunity to grab his left arm while someone else grabbed Loughner’s right arm and they forced him to the ground.

I guess it’s more newsworthy when the shooter is thought to be a veteran than one of the guys who ended the shooting is a veteran."

German Left Party Seeks to Reintroduce Stalinism

Wow:

German Left Party Seeks to Reintroduce Stalinism | The Weekly Standard: "“We can only find the ways to communism if we get started and try them out, whether in the opposition or in the government,” Gesine Lötzsch, co-president of the German Left Party, declared earlier this week."

‘It’s still just me’—Will Boehner Be the Anti-Obama?

I also liked him:

Roger L. Simon » ‘It’s still just me’—Will Boehner Be the Anti-Obama?: "Like much of the world that doesn’t live Inside the Beltway, I was only marginally aware of John Boehner until some months ago when it was becoming clear he might be the next speaker. And even then I wasn’t impressed. The man-tan look made me assume he was just another shallow pol.

I was wrong. As of now, I have done a total about-face. In his speech today, John Boehner showed himself to be among the most impressive figures on our political landscape, and he did it by being that rarest of things in politics: a humble human being."

Video: The man with the golden voice « Hot Air

Feel good story of the day:

Video: The man with the golden voice « Hot Air

Curbside Classic: Triumph TR-6 | The Truth About Cars

I still love the TR6:

Curbside Classic: Triumph TR-6 | The Truth About Cars: "For decades, British roadsters had a spell on Americans. And the rivalry between the MG and Triumph, the two leading exponents of the genre, was legendary. They each had loyal adherents to the respective marques, and the stiff competition kept the improvements coming, even if not exactly at a breakneck pace. But by about the time this TR-6 first appeared in 1969, the race was essentially over: the new MGC was DOA, and the MGB was quickly slipping into its ossification period, while the Triumph reveled in its final incarnation of the classic formula: old school, but with a healthy kick of life in it yet."

Raging Against “Them”

From Victor David Hanson:

Works and Days » Raging Against “Them”

Would Californians be happier if we let in, say, 10 million more illegal aliens, and shut down east-side San Joaquin Valley water deliveries as well to save far more fishlets than just the smelt? Are not we still discriminating against transsexual and transgendered in the military? Why is there not diversity/affirmative action redress for underrepresented gay officers? Why are not these legitimate questions?

Cannot liberals press on with their dream and insist on amnesty, go for single-payer health care, lobby for a 50% income tax rate on higher incomes? If spring is delayed by frost and snow this year into June or July, would that even more so prove the case for global warming? Will Al Gore make another film, A Really Really Inconvenient Truth?

In short, there is no “them” who wrecked Greece, ruined California, subverted the climate change movement, sidetracked a half century of liberalism to come, or discredited mega-deficit spending.

“Them” you see is simply a shorthand for “I got what I wanted, and I am mad at someone or something for not allowing the world to become what I think it should have been.”

There Oughta Be a Law: Californians Getting 725 New Ones in 2011

Hmm. Will insurance go up or down for men and women?  Via Drudge:

There Oughta Be a Law: Californians Getting 725 New Ones in 2011 - La Mesa, CA Patch: "Californians will welcome 725 new laws on Jan. 1. Here's a glance at some of the laws taking effect when you ring in the new year:

* AB 119 prevents insurance companies from charging different rates for men and women for identical coverage."