Quickies

Top 10 conservative movies of (last) decade,

Yet another reason to revile Obamacare: Trial lawyers will wet their beak to the tune of $50 million over 5 years for a program designed to encourage states to consult them on "alternatives" to malpractice claims. That should bear some positive results.




Who has the stronger lobbying presence in Washington D.C., the Botox industry or the tanning industry? According to Obamacare, definitely the Botox industry.

As US senators prepare to vote on the healthcare reform bill today, an unlikely casualty of one of Barack Obama’s keystone policies has now emerged: tanning salons.

A 10 per cent sales tax on salons that use sunbeds was slipped into the bill at the last minute, replacing a tax on cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections, which became known as the “Bo-tax”.

No doubt, Speaker Pelosi was pleased by this development.
H/T: Harrison




Former major leaguer, Doug Glanville, totally knows where Tiger is coming from.

It was like a kid finding Batman’s belt in the lost and found. No point in giving it back until you’ve tried all your new powers.

Victor Davis Hanson on the use of adverbs:

When we do know for a fact that Mutallab tried to blow up a plane, we get a presidential "allegedly" ("a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire"), and yet when we don't know all the facts, as in the Professor Gates mess, we get instantaneous certainty ("the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.")

Amazing stat(s) of the day:

According to Transparency International, Iran is today one of the most corrupt economies in the world. It also has the ignominy of topping the list of all countries in terms of brain drain. Each year, between 150,000 and 180,000 of the country's best and brightest leave the country. The yearly cost to Iran for this brain drain alone is estimated to be almost equal to the yearly cost of the Iran-Iraq War, according to the World Bank.

And finally, and to prove our hearts are in the right place for the upcoming year... another economist predicting a double-dip recession.

So what we're left with is the type of government-sponsored orgy of spending and money creation that Washington used to condemn with all-knowing righteousness when undertaken south of the border. But the effect of our doing it is far more consequential, since America possesses the exorbitant privilege of minting not only its own but the world's money.

As we move into 2010, no doubt the horns will be blowing for the long-awaited U-shaped recovery. I suspect it won't be long before we realize we've drunk too much, and that the second dip of a W-shaped recession awaits us.