Snow!

The prediction was for snow starting last night, but there was nothing but overcast as of 2:30am. This morning, however, we had about four inches, and more fell all day, We've ended up with with about eight inches, which is more than Virginia Beach has had since 1989. Pretty much all events are cancelled, bus service isn't running, and so forth. One of my friends told me her car is stuck in her parking lot, literally unable to move; our guess is the tires are frozen into a puddle. I made a snowman about a foot tall, as the snow was too dry to make it much larger.

However, I'm not complaining about the cold. Diana and Josh are in Montreal and the temperature there is 40 below.

State of the Union 2010

The transcription of last night's State of the Union address:

America has had tough times before, and we're having a tough time now, which is Bush's fault. Therefore I am going to continue Bush's policies. I'm reducing taxes, getting tough on terrorists, and working with other nations to contain Iran. I'm also going to increase spending on clean energy while freezing spending; I'm going to cut taxes while raising them; and I'm going to concentrate on health care reform and cap and trade while focusing all my attention on the economy. Me, me, me. I haven't accomplished anything good this past year, but it's not my fault even though I had a majority in both houses; I wasn't actually trying to accomplish anything, which is why I kept scaring people with health care. The economy is turning around even though one in six people is unemployed and mortgage defaults are still going up. We've created two million jobs, two thirds of them in Congressional districts that don't exist. Everyone should have college degrees and green jobs and debt and be healthy but not rich because being rich is bad and taxable. I'm miffed at the Supreme Court for allowing foreigners to influence our elections, although that's not actually what SCOTUS did. And I'm annoyed by all you blockheads, Democrats and Republicans but mainly Republicans, for being divisive and partisan. If you really loved me, you wouldn't keep saying "no" to me. God bless everyone, especially me. The End.

Citizens United vs FEC

Turns out the Supreme Court of the United States has a blog, where cases like Citizens United vs FEC (which just struck down part of the restrictions on corporations contributing money to politics) are discussed, mostly in non-technical terms. I'm not sure that was a bright idea.

On the one hand, I'm in favor of free speech.

On the other hand, it's shaky to say that giving money is the same as speech. You can try to persuade someone to go to bed with you, or a company representative to give you a deep discount, and those are legal; but when you offer money, it's solicitation or bribery.

Back to the first hand again, if the only organizations which can spend money on political ads are the political parties, what happens if the both parties ignore something you think is important?

The gripping hand is, I got more than enough political advertising last campaign to last me a few more years; anything that reduces the total has got to be good.

For a much more thorough discussion of the decision and things left undecided, look through SCOTUSblog.

Evading Reality

You can evade reality, but you cannot evade the consequences of evading reality
--Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit

Nuts vs Creeps

From Allahpundit on HotAir.com:

Speaking broadly: In the 2006 and 2008 elections, and at some point during the past decade, the ancestral war between Democrats and the Republicans began to take on a new look. If you were a normal human sitting at home having a beer and watching national politics peripherally, as normal people do until they focus on an election, chances are pretty good you came to see the two major parties not as the Dems versus the Reps, or the blue versus the red, but as the Nuts versus the Creeps. The Nuts were for high spending and taxing and the expansion of government no matter what. The Creeps were hypocrites who talked one thing and did another, who went along on the spending spree while lecturing on fiscal solvency.

Puns

A good pun is its own reword.

Decisions

The future doesn't just happen--it's shaped by decisions.
--Paul Tagliabue, former NFL commissioner