2-25-12 Hodgepodge

Conservative (Flip-)Flopping 

Ann Coulter recently made an interesting point regarding conservative opposition to Mitt Romney.

In 2008, Romney was enthusiastically supported not only by [Rush] Limbaugh and [conservative talk radio host Mark] Levin, but also by Sean Hannity, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and many others who now seem to view Romney as a closet liberal. This is especially baffling because there is no liberal candidate in the Republican primary this year.

She also makes an excellent point about how easily a brokered GOP convention could backfire. Unfortunately, she undercuts her pro-Romney stand in my eyes when she says that Romney has gotten "better and better" after expressing enthusiasm for him for several bad reasons (e.g., his opposition to stem cell research and his stand on immigration). Oh, and she calls Romney's medical plan "the conservative alternative to national health care".

But then again, I am a pro-capitalist, and not a conservative.

Weekend Reading

"Thinking isn't the problem; it's the ideas that underlie the thinking that are to blame." -- Michael Hurd, in "Teens Aren't Stupid" at DrHurd.com

"Either by taxes or inflation, the belief that the economy prospers when government takes from those who produce and gives to those who do not evades the obvious: no wealth is created." -- Jonathan Hoenig, in "The 'Consumptionist' Dead End" at SmartMoney

My Two Cents

Michael Hurd's piece nicely makes a point I recently alluded to -- and commenter Jim May made explicit through a software analogy. In addition, as a parent, I again find myself grateful to Dr. Hurd: he warns about yet another stupid parenting idea being foisted on the public. Call it "'gist-based' [not my term] normative thinking".

It's Easier to Ask Forgiveness...

This guy eventually settled on my usual approach when confronted with a stupid bureaucratic requirement and a bunch of spineless second-handers who wouldn't give him a straight answer about an obvious workaround. "The result? Silence. Nothing. No complaints, no rejected packages."

-- CAV