Moe Lane

Well, here’s something ironic for you.  Ezra Klein, after writing this laudably honest admission about policy responses to atrocities like the Newtown mass murder:

I’ll tell you what scares me: I don’t think we know how to prevent a tragedy like the Newtown massacre. The more information that emerges on the killings, the less effective any of the potential policy remedies appear to be.

…and listing some of the most common rhetorical arguments, pros and cons, Klein then promptly brings up the thought of seeing if there’s a way to restrict handgun purchases… despite the fact that nobody at Newtown was murdered with one.  In fact, he’s pretty explicit in trying to come up with a way to generalize a response to the aforementioned atrocity.  And they wonder why pro-2nd Amendment folks don’t trust anti-gun Democrats…

Moe Lane

PS: We will have no consensus on what to do about awful events like Newtown until we come to a consensus on what constitutes ‘sick,’ ‘crazy,’ and ‘evil.’  Sorry to say that, but that’s how I see it.

Being this bitterly envious and jealous of… Ezra Klein.

Ezra.
Klein.

Talk about lowered expectations: I sincerely hope that somebody will intervene before I ever get this bad.

Moe Lane

PS: Seriously: this is so inane that it wasn’t even worth a RedHot.

Or: Why Johnny Can’t Drive.

Washington Post’s Ezra Klein’s substitute writer Brad Plumer got the unenviable job of having to admit that the government’s infamous Cash-for-Clunkers stealth auto dealership bailout – in which people traded in still-useable cars in exchange for trade-in money for a new car – didn’t particularly stimulate the economy, didn’t improve US car manufacturer’s market share, and “increased average fuel economy in the United States by just 0.65 miles per gallon.”  The trigger event for this admission was this Resources For the Future report that is fairly damning, in its somewhat dry and equation-laden way: of course, we on the Right were all yelling about this issue right from the start, but it’s still nice to see some math backing us up.

Still, Klein’s substitute doesn’t consider another economic factor: what happened as a result of taking used cars off of the market.  You see, there’s a considerable demand for almost worn-out cars: poor people, young people, and/or urban minorities can maintain them well enough to be cost effective – if the price is low enough.  And what happens, class, when demand remains the same but the supply decreases?  (more…)

…I mean, really, what’s the point of being snarky, in a world that has Iowahawk in it?

Yeah, yeah, go read the whole blipping thing.  I’ll be in the corner, whimpering like a whipped dog.

(H/T Instapundit) This comment is going to haunt Ezra Klein for the rest of his career as a ‘wonk:’

…as it should, because it was an incredibly stupid thing to say – even considering that it was said on MSNBC, which means that almost nobody saw it anyway. For those without video access, Klein (in the process of sneering at the GOP’s plan to start the 112th Congress with a reading of the Constitution*) rather bravely admitted that he has a learning disability which makes it difficult for him to read English properly:

The issue with the Constitution is not that people don’t read the text and think they’re following it. The issue with the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago.

At least, I assume that’s what he’s admitting. Because the alternative is to take seriously his notion that there really is something difficult to comprehend about a document so simple and straightforward that its mere existence argues strenuously against the notion that nothing well-written ever comes out of committee.

As you might have guessed, I am not taking seriously Klein’s notion.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(more…)

B.R. Myers:

The question of where Europe ends and Asia begins has troubled many people over the years, but here’s a rule of thumb: if someone can pose as an expert on the country in question without knowledge of the relevant language, it’s part of Asia.

- Quoted by The New Ledger’s Christopher Badeux, as part of his elegantly savage takedown of crypto-Durantyites* Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias.  Mind you, I don’t agree with everything Myers writes in that article… but it’s nice to read an Atlantic article where the author has no subconscious need to proactively wince over the magazine’s unseemly fascination with Sarah Palin’s uterus.

Moe Lane

*This was almost ‘neo-Durantyites,’ but I thought that I’d save that sneer for the first really hardcore apologists for Tienanmen Square.

‘…the soft sophistry of low absolutism.’ – Matt Welch, in the process of eviscerating Ezra Klein for, among other things, holding up as a model the state-run newspaper industry of a minor European country with no meaningful defense budget and a GDP comparable to that of North Carolina’s. (Via Jim Treacher‘s Twitter.)

I’d comment further, except that I’m doing a quick check for the thens, so forths, after alls, insofars, and especially of courses that apparently cause Matt to get that funky Hulk-pupil effect going.  I haven’t decided yet whether to banish them from my language, or save them up for the next Reason shindig…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.