No One Knows What It's Like

I'm glad I have green eyes. Dodged a bullet there.

And the trees were all kept equal by hatchet, axe and saw

An interesting story about the state of government-run health care in Sweden and some good stuff in the comments also. This bit stuck out:

His doctor's request was denied because the drug was 33 percent more expensive than the older medicine. Mr. D. offered to pay for the medicine himself but was prevented from doing so. The bureaucrats said it would set a bad precedent and lead to unequal access to medicine.

Right, so instead it will lead to complete lack of access to everyone. Welcome to the perversity of the socialist paradise.

As We Say, Not As We Do

Biden to local officials: Don’t use stimulus money on stupid ideas

Apparently that right is reserved exclusively for the federal level.

Tarnish on the Golden Calf?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cue the outrage. For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.

Why the sudden furor, just weeks after Barack Obama's team paid out $30 billion in additional aid to the company? So far, the administration has been unable to match its actions to Obama's tough rhetoric on executive compensation.

The story itself isn't surprising, but the fact that this spotlight is being shown into this until-now largely-overlook crevice by the Associated Press is.

Could the honeymoon be nearing it's end?

Sounds Familiar

Where have I heard this before...

Funes promised to create a broad government composed of FMLN members and outsiders like himself. He said he sought a close working relationship with the United States and vowed to champion the cause of El Salvador's poor. "This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador's greatest hope," he said. "I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change."

Stay tuned for El Salvador Spending.

Whatchu Talkin' Bout?

Willis?

Prediction: This will not catch on quickly. I still call that other one the Amoco Building.

Tell Me About "Islamophobia" Again

A 75-year-old widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

The woman's lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence.

He said his client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media, and he declined to provide more details about the case.

The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread at her home in al-Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh.

Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were convicted and sentenced to lashes and prison.

The remarkable thing about this is that there is absolutely nothing remarkable about it in some parts of the world. But we're not supposed to associate it with the people who perpetrate it. That would be unfair.

Incredibly Dumb Thing Said

EJ Dionne writes in the Washington Post:

"Wall Street conservatives — well-represented on the financial cable shows and the Wall Street Journal's editorial page — are arguing that the stock market is collapsing because Obama wants to institute a relatively modest set of tax increases on the wealthy, starting in 2011.

"But these voices supported lower taxes on the rich when the economy was bad, when the economy was good and when the economy was so-so. They have no credibility."

Well, golly, so Dionne finds that conservatives consistently favor lower taxes and then extrapolates that this somehow damages their credibility. That is a gobsmackingly dumb conclusion to draw.

Eye of the Beholder

Flashback: 2006 Poll Showed Most Democrats Wanted Bush to Fail

That must have been before Nationalized Hopeandchange.

It's Called What?

"It’s the Obama bear market," said Dan Veru, who helps oversee $2.8 billion at Palisade Capital Management in Fort Lee, New Jersey. “We don’t know what the rules are in so many different areas the government is touching.”

Where is this market, you ask? And is anyone actually buying these Obama Bears? Or is this the new name for Chicago's NFL team? I don't know, but it seems pretty obvious that they no longer only poop in the woods. Check your retirement account.

Tough to Sell Out if Nobody's Buying...

Looks like the attempt to mask the cave-in to Russian demands over the missile defence plans as something other than a retreat has hit a snag.

Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday rejected any suggestion that Moscow would “trade or exchange” in policies in order to dissuade the US from installing an anti-ballistic missile system near its borders in Eastern Europe.

Maybe because everyone already knows that there are "no preconditions" for Team O. They'll sit down with anyone. More worrisome is the possibility that they will give in to anyone willing to spend our money or weaken our positioning.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out. Before you know it, we may be paying for a fence to protect Russia.