Sleepless in Midland

The left wants Trump to ignore fed court ruling -- hilarious

For over a year federal judges have ruled against Trump administration initiatives. And the left cheered.

So it's ironic and funny to see them wring their hands over a ruling on 3d printed guns. And take a look at this Associated Press article, noting particularly the underlined words.

"Gun-control groups made a last-ditch effort Friday to block the Trump administration from allowing Americans access to blue-prints for 3D printable guns on the internet, ..."

What exactly is the Trump administration supposed to do? How exactly does a president overrule a federal judge? That certainly isn't a power the left would want to bestow on Donald Trump. It's laughable.

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11:24 AM 7/29/2018

Rand Paul explains how at least one former official monetized his security clearance -- spoiler, it's John Brennan

It concerned John Brennan's call to former officials -- turned talking heads -- in which he divulged information about an underwear bomber in 2012. Those talking heads went on to divulge this to the networks. And in so doing, they compromised an operation. See Rand Paul: John Brennan’s Security Clearance Is a Danger:

Clear evidence concerning the bias of multiple, high-ranking current and former intelligence community officials should make us think twice about letting retired intelligence officials keep access to classified information, especially if they become talking heads on television after leaving public service. ...

John Brennan’s careless leak to former intelligence officials turned television commentators helped compromise an operation and risk the life of a double agent, and who knows what other objectives it also hindered or outright prevented. This is exactly why former intelligence officials who are now talking heads on television should not continue to have a security clearance.

John Brennan, now a network talking head, is the poster child for the partisan deep state bureaucracy more loyal to party than country.

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12:49 PM 7/28/2018

Devin Nunes provides quote of the week and it's scary

This comes to us in Devin Nunes, Washington’s Public Enemy No. 1 By Kimberley A. Strassel:

Mr. Nunes’s efforts have provoked extraordinary partisan and institutional fury in Washington—across the aisle, in the FBI and other law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, in the media. “On any given day there are dozens of attacks, each one wilder in its claims,” he says. Why does he keep at it? “First of all, because it’s my job. This is a basic congressional investigation, and we follow the facts,” he says. The “bigger picture,” he adds, is that in “a lot of the bad and problematic countries” that Intelligence Committee members investigate, “this is what they do there. There is a political party that controls the intelligence agencies, controls the media, all to ensure that party stays in power. If we get to that here, we no longer have a functioning republic. We can’t let that happen.”

Bold added by me because this is scary.

(Alternate link.

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8:32 AM 7/29/2018

How long before self driving car gets hacked?

As we hear more and more about self driving vehicles it's tempting to get complacent and dream of the possibilities.

But it doesn't take a pessimist to imagine one negative aspect -- the possibility of remote hacking. We've already heard of vehicles being hijacked by laptop, i.e., locks and brakes disengaged without the owners' approval.

Making some computer device unhackable is probably impossible. The process can be slowed, but the risk can't be eliminated.

According to Reuters, a meeting was held in March in which Transportation Department officials met with interested individuals to compile information about self-driving vehicles in which law enforcement representatives wanted the ability to take over such a vehicle. That would be a lot safer than what they can do now to a moving vehicle.

But if law enforcement could take over an autonomous vehicle, it follows that hackers could eventually do it, too.

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1:26 PM 7/27/2018

Thank goodness for air conditioning and the system that keeps it running

A little storm front is angling from NW to SE in the western side of Texas as of the time of this writing. And temps are slightly lower than they've been for the past few weeks in which the daily highs exceeded 100F by several degrees.

In the history of Texas, air conditioning is a fairly new phenomenon. But what a difference it makes. Without air conditioning on a hot summer day the heat can occupy a person's entire attention.

In years past, over usage has caused system shutdowns, even without Russian hacking. Luckily, to date this summer our little region of Texas hasn't had a power outage, and that's with record setting electricity demand.

So, keep up the good work, energy workers! We're depending on you!

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1:52 PM 7/26/2018

Stunner -- fake racist claim right here in West Texas

These days whenever we see or hear a news item in which one individual describes some act of racism it's probably a prudent approach to give it at least a 50% chance of being fake.

But it's probably hard for a reporter to put that principle in effect when he is staring at a super salacious story about racism.

That's what happened in our neighbor city of Odessa, TX, the other day. You've probably heard the story. First, a waiter claimed that a customer wrote a racist note on a receipt. Here's the Odessa American's first report complete with a glowing portrayal of the claimant: Racist receipt at restaurant condemned.

It took the restaurant owner's own investigators to do the fact checking -- the note was faked. But let's give credit to the Odessa American for reporting that important narrative breaker a week later in Saltgrass COO, waiter say racism story made up. Oops.

Does anyone wonder why so many people don't trust the media?

P.S. Newspeak addition: "Terrorist" is now a racial epithet.

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5:37 AM 7/25/2018

Meat surplus reported -- So why aren't the store prices coming down?

News reports tell us this: Federal Data: US Stockpiling 2.5 Billion Pounds of Meat:

A record amount of beef, pork, poultry, and turkey - 2.5 billion pounds - is being stockpiled in U.S. facilities, federal data is expected to show, The Wall Street Journal reported.

While U.S. consumers have a growing appetite for meat, that appetite is not increasing fast enough to match the production of hogs and chickens in the U.S. meat industry, so the industry is depending more on exports, the report said.

However, Mexico and China, two of the largest foreign customers for U.S. meat, have set tariffs on pork products in response to U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, and other goods. U.S. hams, chops, and livers have become more expensive in those markets, which is slowing down sales, said industry officials.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation projected that U.S. beef exports to China could have reached $400 million in four years, Fortune noted.

The growing stockpiles and the trade risk could cause "one of the biggest corrections we’ve seen in the industry in several years," Christine McCracken, protein analyst at agricultural lender Rabobank, told the Journal.

Facilities are being built and expanded to store the meat frozen. (Aside: What percentage of the poultry, pork, and beef in markets is or was frozen? If one assumes those labels that say "never frozen" are the extent of the products that were never frozen, then it must be a pretty high percentage.)

Meanwhile, they are blaming Trump's tariffs for this market condition. Well, I for one am ready to loosen my belt and eat more poultry once the prices go down to reflect the surplus. They haven't yet, but I'm ready to do what I can to make America great again.

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12:21 PM 7/24/2018

Where were all those concerned Dems when Obama/Kerry made that secret deal with Iran

To hear Dems these days you'd think that the worst threat to the U.S. is a president who has a meeting with a foreign adversary without fully disclosing every word that was spoken. For example, Leon Panetta: Americans entitled to know what Trump said to Putin.

Oh, please. It wasn't too long ago that Barack Obama, John Kerry, and company made a secret deal with Iran. -- Congress Concerned Another Obama ‘Secret Deal’ With Iran Derailed New Sanctions on Tehran -- Where where those critics then? Oh right, that was different. It's a partisan thing.

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2:43 PM 7/23/2018

Department of Defense can tell you the ideal amount of coffee to drink

Jo Craven McGinty summarizes her discussion about the ideal amount of caffeine to counteract sleep deprivation with Army medical researcher, Jaques Reifman, in What’s Your Ideal Caffeine Fix? An Algorithm Can Tell You. (Alternate link.)

In sum, many soldiers don't get enough sleep. And the research effort was directed at establishing the ideal amount of caffeine a person would need to consume to remain alert. Here's the take-away from her article:

Those who don’t get enough rest are advised by the guidelines to consume 200 milligrams of caffeine when they wake up and another 200 milligrams four hours later. Soldiers who work nights are told to consume 200 milligrams at the beginning of the shift. And those who expect to go without sleep for several days are instructed to consume 200 milligrams at midnight, 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.

It might be a challenge to measure the caffeine in coffee, and in that regard here's a link to a Caffeine Chart. As you will see, the caffeine measures diverge drastically per source. Perhaps the most accurate measure might be in caffeine pills such as NoDoz or Vivarin which the chart shows as 200mg per caplet or tablet.

For the raw research paper, click here.

Sweet dreams.

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10:22 AM 7/22/2018

The spread of a hollow point bullet

The other day at a local outdoor shooting range there was a segment of a target board backing laying on the ground with a bullet fragment stuck in it.

insert three pics here

It appears to be a hollow point bullet jacket minus the lead. The lead must have either fallen out, presumably, after it struck the target backing. Anyway, there's no lesson here, it was just an interesting find, particularly since the jacked appears to have been turned inside out and it didn't penetrate the target backing.

Meanwhile, for a handy comparison of self defense rounds, see Luckygunner.com's review: Handgun Self-Defense Ammunition Ballistics Test.

P.S. They were smart to call the bullets "defense ammo." The anti-gun folks would probably call them "assault bullets" if they thought they could get away with it.

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1:27 PM 7/21/2018

Is the Daily Caller show prep for Rush Limbaugh?

Rush Limbaugh likes to claim that his show is "show prep" for the main stream media reporters. So it's interesting that show prep for his own show appears to be conservative blogs.

I listened to the first half hour of his show on 7/19/2018 and heard him describe the Democrat Party's new slogan. And it sounded almost identical to the description from a Daily Caller article a day earlier, including the same comparisons. See The Democratic Party’s New Motto Same As A Used Car Dealership, Personal Injury Law Firm. Here's the part that appeared to have been purloined:

House Democrats revealed their new slogan for the upcoming 2018 elections, but whoever was behind it probably forgot to check that it’s identical to the one used by a used car dealership in Texas and a personal injury law firm in Florida.

The motto, “For the People,” debuted at a private meeting with members Wednesday, according to Politico.

Well, Limbaugh is entitled to get ideas from wherever he can. I'm not actually a regular listener, but even as an occasional listener, it seems as though he gets ideas from the popular conservative blogs without giving credit to the source.

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12:45 PM 7/19/2018

Alan Blinder tries to explain economics to the masses

There was an item on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal recently by Alan Blinder titled A Brief Introduction to Trade Economics. Alternate link.

There he describes trade surpluses and deficits using the homespun analogy that's been around a while and sounds very reasonable. An individual gives a store money for groceries, and a personal trade deficit results.  But that's not a bad thing. I first heard the analogy in an interview with Rand Paul, but who knows where it originated.

But then he gets to the the principle of comparative advantage, i.e., each country does best when it produces and sells the things that country is better at than other countries. So far so good.  Read his article to see his explanation of it.

But the things the U.S. produces best are technology and military weaponry. The weaponry is a special area and any trade deserves special scrutiny. As to technology, once it gets in the hands of a foreign entity such as China, they've got it, and there's no getting it back. And there's always the potential for wars, and any country expecting to defend itself shouldn't give up raw materials it might need.

But economists are focused on tariffs. Ideally, each country could trade with another with no tariffs. But currently, it's very one sided. It appears Trump would go along with eliminating tariffs if our trading partners did too. And if that doesn't happen, Trump wants to retaliate with tariffs on imported products and wait for the other side to blink. That may or may not happen. But it might be at least worth a try.

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10:15 AM 7/18/2018

Ira Stoll on the Vote Where It Counts movement in NY state

The Vote Where It Counts movement in NY state encourages owners of multiple houses to be selective of the jurisdiction in which to vote so as to have the most impact. The purpose, of course, is to help make that blue wave less of a mirage and more of a reality.

The intellectual Ira Stoll notes an irony which he explains in his article at Futureofcapitalism.com. See Vote Where It Counts:

The idea that urban dwellers wealthy enough to afford vacation homes should use their political power to dilute that of rural Americans who aren't lucky enough to have a choice of homes from which to vote seems like it treads awfully close to non-egalitarian means to achieve (allegedly) egalitarian ends.

It certainly does reinforce the belief that the wealthy elite think they know better than the rabble and don't mind forcing it on them.

Right on cue to help make the point is this headline from the satirical site, Babylonbee.com, Bernie Sanders Rails Against ‘Greedy Rich People’ From Third House.

Speaking of Sanders, he not only has multiple homes. He has powerful comrades. De Blasio spends weekend at Bernie Sanders’ summer home.

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12:06 PM 7/17/2018

universal basic income test in Stocton, California, probably won't be a fair test

By now anyone with a passing interest in universal basic income knows about the upcoming trial balloon that's supposed to begin in early 2019. If not, see Stockton to become first U.S. city to test universal basic income plan. To wit:

Stockton, California, will soon become the first U.S. city to experiment with a universal basic income program, granting 100 residents $500 a month with no strings attached.

The project is being backed by Silicon Valley titan Chris Hughes, whose Economic Security Project gave $1 million toward the effort.

I'm not enough of a statistician to know whether 100 recipients are enough to get reliable results. But there's a bigger obstacle to a fair reading: U.S. government entitlement programs combined with California's generous welfare system and the likelihood that they will all still be available to the recipients.

Here's the way Charles Murray envisioned it, from his article A Guaranteed Income for Every American:

The UBI is to be financed by getting rid of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Supplemental Security Income, housing subsidies, welfare for single women and every other kind of welfare and social-services program, as well as agricultural subsidies and corporate welfare. As of 2014, the annual cost of a UBI would have been about $200 billion cheaper than the current system. By 2020, it would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper.

Alternate link.

But even if the Stocton experiment isn't a true test of a pure system, the results will be interesting, nonetheless.

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1:23 PM 7/16/2018

Waiting for El Nino to cure summer drought

Long term weather forecasts are notoriously unreliable. But here's one those of us in drought stricken Texas are hoping will come true:

chance for El Niño increasing to about 65% during fall, and to about 70% during winter 2018-19

Source: CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER.

El Niño typically results from higher than usual water temperatures in the Pacific. And the phenomenon usually produces wetter weather in the Southwest. Here's hoping!

More resources: Current status.

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11:56 AM 7/15/2018

Moonlighting as a butler -- article in WSJ

This has to be cutest article I've read all weekend. Jim Ross wanted something to contribute to a charity auction and hit on the idea of selling his services as a butler in the style of the butler in “Downton Abbey.” It was a hit, and he continued doing it. See A Butler Will Serve You Right. Here's an excerpt:

All I had to do was imitate Carson’s mannerisms: low and melodic voice, precise and measured movements, deferential and modest approach.

It worked. I served iced tea to ladies at a wedding shower, greeted the membership at a Kiwanis Club luncheon, and poured champagne for revelers at an 80th-birthday party. I butlered a “celebration of life” for a woman who died young. I ironed newspaper pages, flattening out the wrinkles, while on air with a local radio host. (Your newspaper pages haven’t been pressed? The horror!)

I even made an appearance at the state prison north of town, regaling inmates with tall tales of James the Butler’s professional background. It was a huge hit. Eat your heart out, Johnny Cash.

What a hoot!

His day gig is as managing editor of the local newspaper.

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3:13 PM 7/14/2018

Once again local taxing entity expresses surprise at high sales tax revenue

Local taxing entities plug a number into their annual budgets to account for an expected revenue from sales taxes. And they are always shocked, shocked, that too much money came in. If only all of us could get such surprises on such a regular basis.

The latest example comes to us by way of Stewart Doreen at MRT.com in County breaks record for sales tax collected in fiscal year.

The only problem the taxing entities have is deciding what to buy with all that money. They never give any thought to giving it back to the tax payers.

Fortunately at the Midland County level, the winner of the Republican Party runoff for County Judge, Terry Johnson, having been the one least favored by the establishment, is likely to win the position in November. Those of us on the paying side of the tax equation have high hopes for the future.

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2:32 PM 7/13/2018

Strzok and friends make it hard to look at that whole FBI thing dispassionately

It's hard to remain objective about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Sometimes I have to step back from the news and question whether I'm merely getting caught up in the lynch mob atmosphere, or whether there really were some serious shenanigans going on with that whole top level FBI tilt in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump.

Peter Struzok and Lisa Page certainly don't help their cause when they play cat and mouse with Congress. For details, see the following:

US Marshals served subpoena on FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Goodlatte says, threatening to hold her in contempt; and
BREAKING: Goodlatte Says FBI's Peter Strzok Will Be Recalled For Contempt

I recall how joyous a Democrat acquaintance was when Scooter Libby was convicted. It's high time some of those nefarious FBI agents received some well deserved justice.

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3:47 PM 7/12/2018

80% of meetings are waste of time

Some people seem to thrive on meetings -- for the most part, they are the ones who talk the most and relish any attention they receive. But most of us hate them and resent any attendance requirement.

Maybe for that reason -- call it bias confirmation if you want -- it's always fun to read articles criticizing meetings. The toon in the margin came from the July 11, 2018, print edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Here's the one that inspired this blog post: Tortured by meetings. Excerpt:

One eternal problem has been their inefficiency. In 1957, C. Northcote Parkinson, an academic and legendary writer on management, came up with the law of triviality, that “the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved.” In that same spirit, this columnist would like to propose an even broader principle, applying to gatherings of ten people or more, and immodestly called Bartleby’s Law: “80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted.”

Various corollaries to this law follow. After at least 80% of meetings, any decisions taken will be in line with the HIPPO, or “highest-paid person’s opinion”. In short, those who backed a different outcome will have wasted their breath. Perhaps because they are aware of the futility of their input, fewer than half of the people in a large meeting will bother to speak and at least half of the attendees will at some point check their phones.

I'm surprised that most are not staring at their phones the entire time. But here's why the meetings are still with us:

Part of the problem lies in the paradox that, although workers hate attending meetings, they loathe being excluded even more. Nothing is so likely to induce paranoia than a department meeting to which you are not invited. To avoid this fear, managers are tempted to invite as many people as might be interested.

Read the whole thing to see tips on how to hold successful meetings. The best tip came from General Electric CEO, John Flannery, who suggested: “little or no meetings where possible”.

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1:56 PM 7/11/2018

What's hiding in the weeds of Bush admin memos that could hurt Brett Kavanaugh?

As pundits pore over Brett Kavanaugh's track record, so far the biggest complaint appears to be about a dissent he wrote in a case in which he may have laid the groundwork for Justice Robert's ruling that upheld the law. It would be hard for Democrats to use that as a reason to oppose him, but they certainly wouldn't mind if it troubled Republicans.

So once opponents begin scrutinizing the memos Kavanaugh wrote or approved while he worked for the G.W. Bush administration, one has to wonder whether any of them addressed waterboarding. Uh oh. Regardless of what the memos said, they would be turned into ammo for the opposition, for sure.

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2:33 PM 7/10/2018

Iowa guy brags about not having an air conditioner -- don't try it in Texas

One of the things on my fear list is a long term blackout. Never mind that 90% of us will be dead within a year. The heat would make Texas unlivable.

It's hard to imagine the early arrivals who settled in West Texas before air conditioning became main stream. My parents, my sibling, and I lived here during that time. But in the old days houses were built to allow circulation of the air. And I can say without air conditioning that if you've never experienced it, you don't know what your are missing. But to paraphrase the old saying, that luxury once experienced became a necessity.

Just a couple of weeks ago we endured a high afternoon temperature of 110 degrees F. And it was awful. The breeze outdoors in the sun felt like the air that rushes out of a hot oven if your face is too close to it when the door opens.

Anyway, I read this: I Gave Up AC This Summer To Live Within My Means, and came away thinking it must be nice to live in a climate that doesn't test your limits every day.

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2:13 PM 7/9/2018

Is Amy Coney Barrett's religion a cult?

Dianne Feinstein seems to embody the anti-Christian aspect of many Democrats. And as Mona Charen observed in Amy Coney Barrett's 'Cult':

Sen. Dianne Feinstein famously reproved the nominee by intoning that "the dogma lives loudly within you, and that's of concern."

To be fair to Feinstein, unless there's more to it, she avoided using the word "cult," a word which most us us associate with David Koresh, Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard and religious groups that demanded allegiance to some central figure and strict obedience to the rules promulgated by that central figure.

But Ms. Barrett's religious preference doesn't seem to be out of line with the other Christian churches. Looking at the church's website, People of Praise, one comes away with the impression that its members are caring, generous, and very welcoming of others. Love one another is not all that threatening.

To hear Democrats, it's tempting to conclude that they think Christianity poses some sort of a threat. On the other hand, the mention of Islam triggers a dogmatic and distorted notion of tolerance. Freaky.

That said, Ms Barrett is probably not likely to get the nomination. President Trump prides his unpredictability. But he's probably tempted to try to skip anyone who has already riled up the loudest Democrats.

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1:00 PM 7/8/2018

Howard Kurtz on Republicans who now favor Democrats

Years ago Arianna Huffington famously left Republicans, like her ex-husband, behind. And many of her new fans simply took it as given that it was her smarts and nothing else that led her to switch her support to Democrat candidates.

Maybe that's how certain former conservatives hope they are viewed as they switch their allegiance to Democrats.

Howard Kurtz addresses some of those high-profile former conservatives in Divorcing Trump: Why some conservatives are now pushing Democrats (!):

These people deserve to be taken seriously. But it doesn't invalidate their arguments to say that there are certain rewards in the media culture for conservatives who break with their side. Favorable publicity. MSNBC contracts. New respect from the left for their independence. (Flip the script for a moment and think about how the few Democratic pundits who broke with Barack Obama were denigrated or dismissed.) ...

The problem for those who have [switched allegiance] is that they have spent their careers warning that the Democrats are the party of big government, reckless spending, overregulation, social engineering, identity politics and weak foreign policy. To suddenly root for the Dems means these pundits are effectively embracing that which they have always denounced.

It's an interesting phenomenon, and it's fun to watch. But I'm such a bumpkin that I see it as a personality issue. It's called Trump Derangement Syndrome. They hate his personality, and maybe they have reason to be spiteful. But it clouds their thinking to the extent that they can't give him credit for the things he actually achieves. He's brash, abusive, and appeals to the unwashed. To them, that overrides any value he could have to the country.

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1:26 PM 7/7/2018

Shaving face

I shave on most days, and the two devices I use most commonly are an old Norelco electric razor and a blade razor.

After hearing so many ads for safety razors I decided to try them after many years of using one of the Gillette Fusions with the disposable multi-blade razor cartridge. But it's old, and I'm afraid that the blades available these days might not fit. They are too expensive for trial and error.

I dug out an old safety razor and put a new blade in it. But the razor had been dropped too many times and resulted in too much blood letting.

So I ended up buying a new Van Der Hagen safety razor along with some of that brand's blades. It works great. And so far, no cuts!

All this came to mind as I read this popsci.com article: For the closest shave, get naked—doctor's orders. Basically, it says the best time to shave is after a shower while the face is wet and warm. (Actually, a basin of warm water and a wash cloth can achieve the same effect.)

Among the other suggestions are to use a shaving gel rather than cream:

Next, Fenton suggests you thoroughly rub a shave gel or cream into your face. Generally, he thinks the gels do a better job. Lathering in the goo helps the whiskers stand up on their ends, making them easier to mow down with your razor blades like you’re the grim reaper scything souls. If you’re not shaving in the shower, let the gel sit for a couple minutes before you pick up your razor.

And this:

Fenton suggests shaving with the grain, not against it, to avoid irritation and ingrown hairs. Jaber also recommends going with the grain, but says, “If you want a really close shave, and your skin can handle shaving against the grain, by all means do it.” It all depends on how sensitive your skin is and how close a cut you want.

After each stroke, rinse off your razor. This will keep it clean so it cuts efficiently.

As for cuts, I've relied on the styptic pencil to stop the bloodshed. But here's their alternative:

What if you’ve actually cut yourself though? First, apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Then cover the tiny wound with a product like Vaseline or Aquaphor to help it heal, says Jaber.

Meanwhile, those of us who like to stretch the pennies are likely curious about how to sharpen a razor blade. The most common advice on the net is to strop them on blue jean material.

Good luck, and may all your shaves be blood free.

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2:03 PM 7/6/2018

Dems gearing up to oppose Trump's Supreme Court nominee even if they don't know who it is

Accuracy in Media points us to an effort to gin up forces to oppose Trump's next Supreme Court nominee, whomever it is, in WaPo’s Marcus: Time for Another Bork Moment. In the article, WaPo deputy editorial page director Ruth Marcus praises Elena Kagan, laments the failure of Merrick Garland's nomination, and celebrates Robert Bork's defeat. Marcus' article can be found at This must be another Bork moment:

From my vantage point — and I covered the Bork confirmation — it was a fight worth waging with all necessary ferocity.

I wasn't paying attention during the Bork hearings, but the Clarence Thomas hearings certainly brought home how hard Democrats will fight against a Republican nominee.

Democrats pretend they don't want partisan splits on the court, but that's not right. They certainly don't regret them when the decisions favor Democrats.

Democrats should be grateful that Republicans don't select judges the way Democrats do. We are all much better off with judges and justices who make decisions based on what the Constitution says and not based on popular culture and political whim.

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9:51 AM 7/5/2018

Build that wall -- Iraqis make plans to keep terrorists out

Countries all around the globe utilize a pretty good method of keeping uninvited people out. Yes, walls are more common than Democrats want to admit.

Check this out: Iraq Begins Constructing Border Fence to Keep Jihadis Out:

Iraq has begun constructing a fence on its border with Syria to keep Islamic State jihadis from entering its territory, the country’s border guards spokesman revealed Sunday.

“Ten days ago we started to set up a barbed wire security fence with surveillance towers along the border with Syria,” said border guard spokesman Anwar Hamid Nayef in Iraq’s Anbar province, adding that experts from Baghdad’s defense ministry and the U.S. would soon visit “to evaluate the effectiveness of the fence.”

The new 20-kilometer barrier will include a six-meter-wide trench, surveillance towers, and the use of thermal imaging technology to detect potential Islamists attempting to cross the border. It will run over the border town of Al-Qaim, where Iraqi forces defeated ISIS last November.

Barbed wire, towers, and thermal imaging technology will likely work for them if they've got a reliable force to deal with any intruders. Here in the U.S. border enforcement is dependent on political whim. And a barrier that is virtually impenetrable might be a better system.

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1:52 PM 7/4/2018

Happy 4th of July

There was a segment on TV in which young people were asked whether or not they were proud of America. Around 70% said they were not proud. Sounds about right.

In my case, proud isn't the right word. I've really done nothing to make the country better, so any pride would be false. Lucky is the better word. Of all the places in the world, the U.S. is the best there is. And those of us who are here, whether born here, brought here, or here by choice, really should feel lucky.

Happy 4th of July. There's the day we celebrate as the birthday of the Declaration of Independence. By golly, we should thank our lucky stars.

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10:54 AM 7/3/2018

The flip side of the AMLO win -- a better quality of immigrants to U.S.

The other day I noted that an AMLO win in Mexico might influence potential immigrants to stay in or go to Mexico for the free stuff resulting from the socialist system Mr. AMLO was expected to put in place.

Well, there's another side to that. Monica Showalter puts it in the form of a question, Will we get a better quality of illegal under Mexico's new president, AMLO? Excerpt:

Basically, his election signals a bid to grab back Mexico's underclass from the United States and shower them with benefits at home to keep himself popular.   ...

Taxes are likely to skyrocket.  Good jobs are likely to shrink.  And the people who will be hurt from that? Mexico's middle class, the hardworking, educated Mexicans who have jobs, pay taxes, and aren't going to like AMLO's skyrocketing taxes as he insults them with claims that they are "the rich" and need to be taxed a little more. 

The Venezuela and Cuba examples show that first it's the middle class who flee, then the lower middle class, and then the poor, after their home country has run out of other people's money.  Mexico, at the front of its new socialist administration, will likely have money from taxes and will drive out its middle classes first.  The poor, meanwhile, will likely stay put, at least until the Other People's Money runs out.

Net result: Immigrants and aliens from Mexico (who are declining in numbers here already due to Mexico's own population declines and rising incomes) will be less likely to want welfare here and more likely to want opportunity here.

Hmm. Very interesting. In the short term, this might be good for the U.S.  However, the lessons of Venezuela and Cuba tell us that in the long run we'll still need The Wall.

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12:40 PM 7/2/2018

Hugh Hewitt's show gone from MSNBC

It probably wasn't a very good fit, and the broadcast time -- 7:00AM CDT Saturday -- was atrocious.

So it shouldn't be that surprising that MSNBC pulled the plug on The Hugh Hewitt Show. Watch his announcement at mediaite.com: Conservative MSNBC Host Hugh Hewitt Announces Cancellation of Show.

I made a practice of recording the show for later watching. But as to the suggestion that Hewitt's competition was Fox News, I would suggest that C-Span's Washington Journal might have more appeal then either of those shows.

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10:42 AM 7/1/2018

If AMLO wins in Mexico they'll have their own socialist paradise ...

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aka AMLO, tells his audiences what they want to hear, which makes him a typical politician. His propensity for socialism is troubling to those of us North of the border but shouldn't be all that surprising. Read about him at Who is AMLO? Meet Mexico’s presidential hopeful.

So any prospective immigrant to the U.S. seeking a socialist paradise, look no farther than Mexico.

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9:41 AM 7/1/2018