Free kibbles

The FCC relaxes rules on media companies. Pretty soon we'll only have 2. I prefer more competition.

Following the script reported by Robert Novak, the Senate incorporates Iraq war funding into the budget, then passes it. The WSJ reports the pluses and minuses of the new budget. The new version guts the border fence. Bush should veto and demand a continuing resolution, but since the bill contains Iraq war funding, I doubt he will.

The EU is committed to harming consumers and car manufacturers in the name of fighting global warming by fining car manufacturers for CO2 output.

Imagine fraud in the UN peacekeeping missions. OK. That's just too easy.

White House lawyers were involved in the decision to destroy the CIA interrogation tapes. This show the White House did due diligence, which explains why they say destroying them was perfectly legal. This is another non-issue that Democrats are trying to exploit for political gain.

Time names Putin person of the year. Gen. Petraeus, who came in 5th, was a better choice, but at least it wasn't Al Gore, who came in second. Time on Gen. Petraeus.

Record cold temperatures all around the world. That's Gore's version of global warming.

Reason reviews book critical of FDR, the New Deal, and his big-government legacy.

Reason says that crack punishments are out of line with power cocaine punishments. I was under the impression that crack was much more highly addictive, prompting the higher penalties. Both should be legal like all drugs.

Reason says baby bonds as proposed by Hillary are a basically Republican idea, promoting the "ownership society." I prefer no government intervention at all.

Woman claims she's pregnant with John Edwards' baby. True or not, residential politics has stoops so low make front page news in the National Enquirer. Maybe the campaign will play out in porn clips in 2012.

Bush the Elder refutes Bill Clinton's irresponsible statement that Bush the Elder would tour the world with Clinton to repair the damage done by Bush the Younger. This should come back to haunt Hillary, but as inept as the 2 parties are, you never know.

Bill Clinton is blocking release of 2,600 pages of documents from his presidency.

Huckabee and Giuliani in virtual tie nationally. Huckabee claims the bookshelf wasn't intended to appear as a cross. It's hard to believe that they didn't notice how incredibly prominent it was.

Unfortunately, Ron Paul follows Neville Chamberlain's non-interventionist approach to using the military. Look where that got Europe and the rest of Britain. According to Paul's rules of engagement, he would have let the fascists take over the world if the Japanese hadn't bombed Pearl Harbor. The consequences of this rabid non-interventionism can be explained by paraphrasing a famous poem: First they came for the Europe, and I wouldn't intervene because I wasn't the Europe. Then they came for north Africa, and I wouldn't intervene because I wasn't north Africa. Then they came for Asia, and I wouldn't intervene because I wasn't Asia. Then they came for me, and there was nobody left to intervene on my behalf. There's a healthy middle ground between Ron Paul's ostrich-like non-interventionism and our unjustified invasion of Iraq.

How come movie zombies suddenly run instead of walk? Because Hollywood can no longer tell a good story of drawn out terror at a classic zombie pace.

New release of Perl, 5.10, to mark the 20th anniversary.

Calling the new energy bill the worst energy bill in history, Cato inadvertently explains why a do nothing Congress is way better than a do the wrong thing Congress.

Cato defends the rights of Americans to gamble online at any site they choose.

While explaining that the current budget bill is better than it would have been if President Bush hadn't threatened a veto, but still bad, Cato explicitly states that gridlock is good, and that President Bush should veto this bill and demand a continuing resolution to hold spending flat.

FEMA's bureaucratic delays after hurricane Katrina failed to stop corruption, but succeeded in stopping rebuilding.

I don't know how this is caving to Muslims. All this tells me is that socialized medicine doesn't allow patients to chose their own doctors because it's dictatorial.

Capturing and indefinitely storing carbon from power plant is too expensive. Gosh. Who would have ever guessed that it would be expensive?

Refrigerants used to air-condition Bali conference are more damaging to the atmosphere than all the privates jets of the participants combined, which was 20,000 small cars for a year worth apiece. The conference was double the hypocrisy that we originally thought.

Saudi Arabians don't like us. It's no wonder since they teach Whabbism there. And we just look the other way while sending them $40 billion in weapons.

The Heritage Foundation suggests a Christmas vacation planned around visiting the 11,300 pork barrel projects in the the new budget bill.

Judge rules that TorrentSpy destroyed evidence.

Jonah Goldberg says Hillary made the campaign a referendum on the 90s, and that's one of the reasons Obama is surging.

Here's a transcript of the last Republican debate in Iowa. Keyes, Huckabee, Tancrado, and Hunter all mention a fair tax. The NYTimes never uses the name FairTax in its transcript, but I think all 4 of these candidates were referring to the FairTax.

Electric sports car.

The WSJ recognizes that if Iran had slowed its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it was because we invaded Iraq and the subsequent roll-up of the Libyan weapons program and A.Q. Khan network. We know now that Iran is not afraid of the US, like they had to have been in 2003. The Mullahs picked nuclear hawk Ahmadinejad in 2005. It would be the height of folly to think that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. This article also explains that while the NIE contains the intentionally headline grabbing line about Iran halting its weapon program, it hides the detailed definition on nuclear weapons program in a footnote so it can hide from the headlines, where it explains that it meant "covert enrichment" we know for certain is no longer necessary because of their "overt enrichment" program which can create material for weapons. Switching from a covert enrichment program to an overt enrichment program does not mean they stop developing nuclear weapons. The NIE just tried to define it away to make its own policy, which is the act of rogue agents.

On a zero sum economy and the socialists who have taken over the environmental movement.

Michelle Malkin explains that Washington is killing the border fence because they don't want border security, they never did, but they were forced to make it appear they did when the American people revolted on the issue this summer. I still don't like the border fence. As long as Latinos have an economic incentive to come here, a border fence will only temporarily slow them down and redirect them. We have to remove the economic incentive by punishing employers who willingly hire illegal aliens.

Outspoken Iraq critic grudgingly recognizes small reconciliation step in Iraq. Author credits the UN before noting that the US had 200 diplomatic meetings to make this happen before the UN even showed up. Even though this article bleeds that kind of radical liberal point of view (who would have known Condoleezza Rice was born a slave?), the author is forced to admit the progress he's seeing. It will take a long time, and I'm afraid there will be setbacks, but it's going our direction now.

US students are 33rd in math and 27th in science in the world. Walter Williams is right that money is not the problem, but he's wrong to blame it solely on bad teachers. Bad teachers are a problem, but the bigger problem is the lack of emphasis on children's develop in families. This is another symptom of the continuing breakdown of the American family because of the assault on American values. And the solution to that problem, and the problem of bad teachers, is competition. When parents can chose the school they send their children too, and the money them, competition will make the schools and teachers better, and the families will re-focus on the education of the children. Competition will restore the neighborhood school to its historical position as a foundational institution of American society, where it belongs, and American children will retake their position as the best educated in the world.