Tech Central Station is one of the Chief’s favorite sites. It invariably has a high concentration of thoughtful analysis of a diverse set of issues. It presents what can only be considered a “target-rich environment” for secondary commentators like bloggers.
There are so many interesting pieces on deck right now that one doesn’t know where to start, so a thumbnail type digest is in order, although the items are not (in any particular order):
…the recommendations of the NAS’s National Research Council (NRC) review of the EPA’s latest draft report on dioxin could — or at least should — turn the entire cancer-rating system of the EPA (and other agencies) on its head.
Ooops! Feeding gallons of stuff to rats for years is NOT equivalent to trace exposures in the environment.
Vulgar Fractions and the Double-Effect
A clear-headed analysis of the issue of so-called proportionality as it applies to the Lebanese front of WW-IV.
The moves against removal of lead from solder: NOT a good idea by any means!
How Do You Stop Rockets From a Hijacked State?
Back to Lebanon again (and again…). Austin Bay takes the issue of Hezbollah in Lebanon to its unmitigated logical conclusions:
Israel says disarming Hezbollah is one of its objectives. But to truly achieve that goal — to stop the rockets, in any permanent way — means ending Iran’s and Syria’s ability to hijack Lebanese neighborhoods. And that means holding Iran and Syria responsible for hijacking Lebanon and supporting Hezbollah’s rain of rocket terror. Holding Iran and Syria responsible may well mean taking the war to Tehran and Damascus.
IT seems that some moonbat group calling itself the new economics foundation or nef (sic) has developed something called the “Happy Planet Index” which purports to rate the relative happiness of the inhabitants of the various nations of the world.
Unfortunately we in the United States are cursed to live in the 150th rated country. To be happy we should move to someplace like Cuba in 6th place, Vietnam 12th, Bhutan 13th and Sri Lanka 15th. With proper promotion, perhaps this could solve the US’s illegal immigration problem. The poor Latinos/Latinas obviously don’t know what they are losing by coming up norte.
Not ready to move to Cuba yet? Neither is the Chief. He’ll just keep toughing it out in the USA.
The GOP: Drinking Itself Sober
PART of what’s wrong with the national GOP these days:
The Three Deadly Republican Spending Rationalizations are:
1) “This program will be expensive, wasteful, and corrosive to the virtues that make a free society function, but it’s popular, and we need it in order to keep the Republican majority.”
2) “This program will be expensive, wasteful, and corrosive to the virtues that make a free society function, but it’s necessary in the name of national security.”
3) “This program will be expensive and wasteful, but it will actually improve the virtues that make a free society function, because it uses the power and affluence of a large central government to subsidize independence, self-discipline, decentralization, and the rejection of the welfare state mentality.”
Fortunately, there are some solutions offered also:
For these and my other political sins, Father, I ask for the voters’ mercy. What’s that? My penance is to abolish earmarking and to make the abolition of wasteful spending an immediate legislative priority? You want me to renew the push for the elimination of superfluous federal departments in order to devolve real power to the states? And you want me to take up the fight yet again for private Social Security investment funds in lieu of compulsory participation in the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme? You actually want me to act like small government is a moral good unto itself, and not just a means to the end of a strong economy?