Tag Archives: Instapundit

Forward, eh?

Via Instapundit

Texas: Economic engine of North America

“If you draw a triangle whose points are Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, enclosing Austin, you’ve just drawn a map of the economic and jobs engine of North America.

Texas prospers not just because of oil and gas, but thanks to a diversified and sophisticated economy. It has attracted large numbers of both immigrants and domestic migrants for a quarter-century. One in 12 Americans lives there.”

Via Instapundit.

Space Porno

Riding one of the (now defunct) space shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters to 41 miles high and back again to splash down in the Atlantic. Even the audio is orgasmic.

Via Instapundit.

The Navy’s ultimate suckup

I have relatives who won’t like me saying this. But when it’s true, it’s true. Naming capital ships after living politicians is the ultimate suckup. Case in point: The USS George H.W. Bush. This is pathetic ass-kissing, whatever the stated reason.

Via Instapundit.

Jury Duty, yech

Jury duty is our duty as citizens, right? I suppose. I certainly have the time, if not the inclination, to play the courthouse game on April 2, the date I’ve been told to report to the Travis County courthouse downtown to receive a court assignment.

Allegedly. Allegedly, because I expect to be cut from the jury pool, after walking multiple blocks from wherever I can find a place to park, for the usual reasons: too much education, relation to a law enforcement officer, thirty-five years in the news media, and blogging since then about, among other things, politics and public policy.

The defense lawyers of my aquaintance tend not to want people like me on their juries. I’m not as easy to impress as someone else with none of the above. So I expect to spend an unpleasant day in the courthouse where the linoleum halls are perfumed with the sour flop-sweat of old fears; to be herded about at the whim of self-important functionaries; and, finally, to have to pay a hefty parking ticket because I won’t be allowed to feed the meter.

Although I would like to be wrong.

Mooch ain’t the only moocher

Mooch, as some call the ever-vacationing Michelle Obama—the first First Lady in my memory with a penchant for expensive hotels and fancy restaurants on the taxpayer’s tab, is merely following a national trend for living on other people’s money.

Ours, says a new book reviewed by the Instapundit, is a nation of moochers.

“In today’s America, government benefits flow to large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who’ll keep them coming.  The benefits are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can’t muster enough votes to put this to a stop.”

And we’re not talking about the poor-on-welfare here, but the upper-middle like Michelle and, someday, there could be more moochers than makers.

Via Instapundit.

Locking the barn door

Mrs. Charm says she was not surprised that the pols rescinded the ban on Mr. Edison’s incandescent light bulbs at the last minute. I am, a little.

The incredible stupidity of this whole thing, however, is that the economic horse has already been stolen. The ban was rescinded only after the incandescent bulb factories were shut down, people had lost their jobs and retailers had stocked up on the new bulbs which will now be hard to sell.

And, BTW, the ban is not rescinded permanently, oh no, but only until Sept. 30, 2012.

The Obumbles Depression wanders on, ever in search of new ways to kill jobs.