Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

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On the Road Again

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Heading out to the airport- some quick things.

1.) Solar flares are making the northern lights visible tonight. Anyone in the region want to snap some pics and mail them to me? I think they are beautiful.

2.) My friend slipped me this album by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and it is right up my alley. Here’s a sample:

That’s some pretty raunchy brass. Love it.

3.) Happy to have E. D. Kain aboard. Welcome, Erik!

4.) Going to miss the piglets while I am gone. Not sure if I will be able to sleep without the three lumps around me.

Take care!

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Please allow me to introduce myself

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First of all, much thanks to John for inviting me to write at Balloon Juice. For those of you unfamiliar with my writing, I blog at a number of venues. Up until recently one of those was True/Slant. Currently I write at the group blog I helped launch a year and a half ago, The League of Ordinary Gentlemen; at my own personal blog, American Times; and at The Washington Examiner. I posted for a while at David Frum’s New Majority until he changed the name to FrumForum, whereupon I just couldn’t do it anymore.

I typically write about things like civil liberties, immigration, fiscal sanity, folk wisdom, healthcare policy, reforming conservatism, the war on drugs, transportation and urbanism, the culture wars, and fantasy and science fiction. Occasionally I drop some deep thoughts in 140 characters or less here. These days I mostly listen to The National and The Avett Brothers. I’m reading the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. I don’t own a television, but I’m a big fan of shows like Lost and The Office which I sometimes watch on my computer.

John alluded to me as a ‘sane conservative’ and I’m sure plenty of people would take issue with both descriptors, but I’ll take what I can get. I look forward to stirring the pot around here a bit with my perfectly lucid advocacy of free markets, limited government and fiscal discipline. You may also find that I’m anti-war, anti-torture, anti-stupid-arguments-against-building-mosques, and anti-death-penalty. Indeed, I’m pro-life across the board though I have little interest in immersing myself in the endless culture war debates.

I also have very little interest in bashing other conservatives or, for that matter, liberals. Bashing has very limited utility. And others are better at it in any case.

So thanks for having me! I’ll see you in the combox….

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Early Morning Open Thread

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Max Read at Gawker points out that the Pentagon is holding onto its grudge against Michael Hastings:

Defense Department spokesman Col. David Lapan told reporters that freelance writer Michael Hastings was rebuffed when he asked to accompany, or “embed,” with American forces next month.
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The rejection came as the Pentagon ramped up an internal investigation into the circumstances behind some of the most salacious material Hastings used in his article in Rolling Stone…
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The inspector general, an independent investigator, is considering whether officers were insubordinate and how far up the chain of command responsibility for decisions involving the Hastings interviews extended, officials said. Defense officials outlined the investigation on condition of anonymity because it is ongoing and has reached no conclusions.
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Hastings did not immediately reply to requests for comment Tuesday. He has said he did nothing wrong in chronicling the banter, profanity and jocular insults among McChrystal’s inner circle. In Twitter tweet late Tuesday, Hastings said he refused to participate in the army’s IG investigation.

In more cheerful news, Andy Kroll at Mother Jones reports that Pete Hoekstra, of “Hoekstroika” infamy, has lost his primary bid to become Governor of Michigan to venture capitalist/former CEO of Gateway Computers Rick Snyder. However pessimiticly one regards the prospect of another plutocrat buying his way into politics, anything that puts a roadblock in the path of Hoekstra’s ambitions cannot be a totally bad thing.

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Mayor Bloomberg’s Finest Hour

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This speech by Mayor Bloomberg was amazing:

“In the mid-1650s, the small Jewish community living in lower Manhattan petitioned Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant for the right to build a synagogue, and they were turned down. In 1657, when Stuyvesant also prohibited Quakers from holding meetings, a group of non-Quakers in Queens signed the Flushing Remonstrance, a petition in defense of the right of Quakers and others to freely practice their religion. It was perhaps the first formal political petition for religious freedom in the American colonies, and the organizer was thrown in jail and then banished from New Amsterdam.

“In the 1700s, even as religious freedom took hold in America, Catholics in New York were effectively prohibited from practicing their religion, and priests could be arrested. Largely as a result, the first Catholic parish in New York City was not established until the 1780s, St. Peter’s on Barclay Street, which still stands just one block north of the World Trade Center site, and one block south of the proposed mosque and community center.

“This morning, the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously voted to extend — not to extend — landmark status to the building on Park Place where the mosque and community center are planned. The decision was based solely on the fact that there was little architectural significance to the building. But with or without landmark designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque within the existing building.

“The simple fact is, this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship, and the government has no right whatsoever to deny that right. And if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.

“This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.

You owe it to yourself to read the whole thing. Way to stand up to the bigots, Mayor Bloomberg, and I hope the ADL was watching. They could learn a thing or two from that speech.

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Modern Major General

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Wonkette pointed me to this anti-Obama screed by Major Gen. Jerry R. Curry (US Army Ret.) Ph.D. promising that it broke new ground in senseless wingnuttery. It didn’t, but this comment on the article did:

There are stories all over the internet about Obama being bi-sexual. That he lived with his gay partner in college. There is a picture of this man and Obama sitting side by side. Stories of homosexual men from Obama’s church being murdered before he ran for president, men he’d had affairs with.

I have never heard that Obama was gay before. Is this like the Amero, where I’m the last to know?

Update. I guess my gaydar was just broken:

Sleaze charge: ‘I took drugs, had homo sex with Obama’

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Open Thread

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Sorry for the lack of posts, but I’m rushing to get ready for a trip tomorrow that will have me out of town for the rest of the week. That means cleaning, hiding all the porn, and getting the instructions ready for the house-sitter.

And no, I’m not telling you where I am going, because every time I do, someone makes a generous offer to meet for a beer, and quite frankly, I’ve run out of excuses. It’s not you, it’s me. Ask Tim F.- he’s been trying for five years to get me to meet him 45 minutes away for a beer. I’m just an antisocial asshole.

Going to have an interesting dinner of “shit left over in the fridge.” Anyone have any suggestions for two pieces of turkey, a half a container of blackberries, three eggs, and some homemade marinara?

*** Update ***

I forgot- one of the few remaining sane conservatives will be posting here.

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Profitable Schools

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Last month the Senate education committee held what is expected to be the first in a series of hearings on the growth and risks of for-profit higher education. The hearing, which was stacked with critics of for-profit colleges, came a week after the education committee of the House of Representatives held a hearing focused on accreditors’ oversight of online learning. “We have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely, and that for-profit colleges are serving students, not just shareholders,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate committee, in his opening remarks. Shown the 15-year default data for for-profits after the hearing, he appeared taken aback. “Whoa,” he said.

Community colleges have a high default rate too, 31% compared to 40% in for-profits, but a higher percentage of for-profit students need loans, and the loans are bigger:

Only 10 percent of community-college students took out federal Stafford loans—the most common type of federal education loan—in the 2007-8 academic year, and most borrowed less than $10,000, according to the College Board. At for-profit colleges, 88 percent of students took out Stafford loans, and nearly 20 percent of associate-degree recipients graduated with more than $30,000 in debt. Those borrowing rates reflect the higher cost of attending a for-profit college. In the 2009-10 academic year, the average for-profit institution charged $14,174 in tuition and fees, according to the College Board, and the average community college only $2,544.”I think you’re looking at very different numbers,” Ms. Mellow said. “They’re numbers that for-profit colleges do not want us to look at.”

I’m completely sympathetic to the adult-learner/retraining group, which is where for-profits are directing marketing, because I was one. I attended a series of community colleges part time, then a university part time, then law school, combined with minimum wage jobs and interrupted by a long stint in the Postal Service.
At the time I was doing all that, there were few for-profit “options” and little or no marketing directed to “non traditional students”. There’s a community college 25 miles from where I’m sitting, and I live in the middle of nowhere. Reading this, I’m grateful I didn’t have a for-profit “option”, and I’m not clear why a growing for-profit higher education sector is any improvement on the public community college route I took.
If we needed more capacity in higher education or certificate programs for what looks to be endless cycles of worker displacement and then retraining, why didn’t we build on the existing public (or private) non-profit system?
More here
Via

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