The American Mind

Avoid the dubstep phenomenon and listen to some good drum and bass music that is the former’s ancestor.

Never accuse Next Media Animation of being sympathetic toward the death of brutal dictator Kim Jong-Il.

I thought the man with the Hennssey sign was a nice touch. Kim Jong-Il was quite the fan of the liquor.

Christopher Hitchen, acerbic critic and writer, died. He was our Orwell–in fact, he wrote much about him. While being a one-time Troskyist, he realized the world was more complex than a strand of Marxism could handle.

He also was too complex to be contained by labels. Over the decades he moved away from the Left to, not so much the Right, but a place where the Right was comfortable enough to embrace his observations…but not always as seen in this piece from earlier in the year critical of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s public “union busting” and gushing of state political legend, “Fighting Bob” LaFollette.

He certainly wasn’t perfect. Heck, I’m certain he wasn’t that great a guy, but he could write, and argue, and think. And he did it all with aplomb, style, and audacity.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

2011 has been amazing for me. I have a new job, am living in a new apartment, am cooking up a storm, and am enjoying it all.

Here is what I’m thankful for:

• A generous God who has given me more than I deserve.
• A wonderful family.
• Great friends.
• A great job.
• Books.
• Rush (the band).
• New Orleans.
• The Milwaukee Brewers.
• The 13-time World Champion (and still undefeated) Green Bay Packers.

I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

For thinkers like Richard Epstein and Thomas Sowell (as well as Adam Smith), it’s about having a systemic analysis of society. Good political economies involves establishing good processes and institutions that direct people’s incentives to benefit society as a whole. Attempting to manage particular outcomes through wealth redistribution ends up failing due to the inability to collect, process, and adequately adapt to constantly changing information.

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

[via The Coalition of the Swilling.]

There’s a gap between Warren Buffett’s idea to tax high-income earners and the administration’s “Buffett Rule”. Today, Buffett said on CNBC [emphasis mine]:

My program is to have a tax on ultra-rich people who are very tax rates. Not just all rich people. It would probably apply to 50,000 people in a population of 300 million.

In essence, Buffett wants another Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) while the administration proposes a broader tax that applies higher tax rates "to those making over $1 million." Neither are good, because both would hurt American job creators and make them less competitive globally.

UPDATE: The difference between the “Oracle of Omaha” and the administration is the scope of their tax increases. Buffett is making a (debatable) fairness argument that a few of the “ultra-rich” pay higher tax rates–about 50,000 people. The White House, seeking ways to pay for their jobs plan, wants more affected–about 450,000 people.

Buffett’s concern is tax fairness, while the White House wants more revenue. Gregg Sargent can claim otherwise, but these are two different ends.

Being a big Burn Notice fan, I follow Jeffery Donovan (Michael Westin) on Twitter (@Jeffery_Donovan). He tweeted this, which is news to me:

Last night finished work at 1030pm and started at 8am. Do the math. We start today with new cast members. Dean Cain and Kristanna Loken!!!

A Google search turned up nothing about either joining the cast.

Dean Cain is most famous for playing Superman on ABC’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the 1990s.

Kristanna Loken played the bad guy in Terminator 3 and also had roles in televisions shows such as The L Word and Painkiller Jane.

• A 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in central Virginia shook Washington, DC and the East Coast. It was felt as far away as North Carolina and Ottawa, Canada.
• In the Washington, DC-area, cell phone service went down for many who were trying to contact loved ones. The White House and the Capitol were evacuated. A National Park Police spokesman said, all national monuments and parks in Washington are "stable but closed." A local television station reports that National Cathedral received damage. Also, there was a report of a possible building collapse at a bank on Capitol Hill.
• Politico reporter, Seung Min Kim, tweeted, "Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del) is holding pro forma session of Senate at Postal Museum following #DCQuake, spox says."
• Two reactors of the North Anna Power Station, near the epicenter of the quake, were shut down and are running on emergency generators.

This was my first earthquake. I just returned from lunch when the building started shaking for ten seconds. Then the fire alarm begin ringing signally all staff to evacuate the building. In downtown DC, where the Chamber is located, office workers filled Farragut Square Park. Electricity and traffic lights remained on, and the situation was orderly as you can see from a few pictures I took.

UPDATE: The local Fox station reports, the “US weather service expects no threat of tsunami.” That means someone seriously thought that was a danger.

By hitting a 3-run homer in the National League’s All-Star Game victory, Prince Fielder was named MVP. It was a great game by a great slugger.

MLB.com is being a pain by not letting me embed the video of Prince’s home run. So instead, here’s a fitting music video interlude:

“Royal Blast: Prince’s Homer Lifts NL Past AL”

The Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

Gordon Wood in The New Republic:

In fact, even today America is not a nation in any traditional meaning of the term. We Americans have had to rely on ideas and ideals in order to hold ourselves together and think of ourselves as a single people. And more than any other single document in American history, the Declaration has embodied these ideas and ideals. Since it is our most sacred text, the day, July 4, 1776, that gave birth to it ought to be understood with all the significance and solemnity that John Adams gave to it.

[Picture via gitsul.]

Slate’s Noreen Malone on the coupon monster, Groupon:

However it might turn out as a business venture and despite the painful prose of its assembly-line jokes, Groupon is practically, if accidentally, the Tocqueville of the moment in its sweeping generalization about what the American public wants. And, I suppose, in the minor and yet telling choices it forces each day, a service like Groupon holds a mirror up to each individual buyer, too. Or maybe, you know, it’s just a pretty good place to get a deal on dinner every once in a while.

As like most Slate conclusions, it’s too cute by half.

“My Groupon Week”

This is an accurate depiction of a Rush (the band) show:

Two records were set at the Bell Centre Wednesday night: one for the most sustained air-drumming by a concert audience (one fan brought sticks!) and another for the shortest line-up at the ladies’ bathroom.

Tomorrow night in Baltimore, I’ll be with a mess of Rush fans, but I won’t be air-drumming. I’ll be pretending to be Geddy Lee.

It’ll be my third Rush show in a year. But when a band has been together this long you don’t know when they’ll call it quits. I’m taking every chance I can get to see them. Yes, they’re that good.

“Concert Review: Rush’s Three-Hour Triumph”

March Madness is one of the best times in sports. For a few days a basketball fiend can watch non-stop basketball from morning until night. Well-known teams from big conferences loaded with top-notch talent will square off with unknown schools, and upsets are sure to happen.

Many are predicting the Wisconsin-Belmont game will offer such an upset. I haven’t seen Belmont play, but I’ve watched plenty of my Badgers. If Bo Ryan’s team can control the tempo, make sure Jordan Taylor has a good game, and prevent Belmont from making lots of three-pointers then the Badgers will win.

As for Marquette, I give them a 50-50 chance of getting past their first game against Xavier. They do have talent and a good coach, so they could get hot. If they win a few games it’ll be a sign the Big East indeed was as powerful a conference as many thought this year.

As for my Final Four picks, in one bracket I have Ohio St., Kansas, Duke, and BYU. Kansas beats Duke in the finals. In my other bracket I have Ohio St., Texas, Kansas, and BYU. Kansas beats Texas in finals. I have too many #1 seeds, and with this field being as even as I’ve seen in a long time I’ll be pleased if I get two out of four Final Fours right.

Today, I hope you get to watch as many games as you please while trying to get some work done. Try to get to a bar, have a beer, and cheer on a team. You’ll find be yelling, “Go Badgers!” and “Go Warriors.”

Last week, I took on the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin’ Challenge: east 12 of their spiciest chicken wings in six minutes. I finished with time to spare. Watch the video if you dare: