Politics and Culture

1. I thought the "moment of silence" in congress for Michael Jackson was pretty odd. He's an entertainer with a mixed record of private harm-personal good. And, then I realized that the Democrats are in control; they probably admire Jackson's money management style.

2. American exceptionalism, for ill. Europe's been there-done that on climate change, green jobs, polar bears, health care, and the left in general.

What do we do? exactly the opposite: more government and taxes, less freedom. We'll briefly meet in the middle as they pass us by. Chart below.

3. Comparing the Iran situation to the Honduran one, the only possible justification for Obama's tougher stance with Honduras is that, placing the burden of proof on the Iranian protesters, the Iranian government seemingly followed their process while the Honduran army and supreme court illegally ousted their president. One can argue that Honduras followed their process as well. One can't argue, however, that the Honduran authorities are worse in any way than the Iranian mullahcrocy. The left penchant for appeasing enemies while getting tough with friends (the ousted Honduran president was a leftist) may have had something to do with Obama's different policy prescriptions as well. Being suspicious of anybody who supports us is almost like a reflex, for leftists,

4. I'm glad that the Huffington Post so strongly condemned the Honduran supreme court. Weren't they the ones who said that we shouldn't have anything to say on Iranian elections after our experience with the 2000 U.S. presidential elections. I think the supreme court verdict in favor of Bush is much more congruous to what happened in Honduras than Iran.

5. Obama thinks meddling is good when it's a weak country ousting an anti-American leftist.