Jeff Cooper discovers a truly stupid man in Boston Globe and MSNBC sports ‘columnist’ Rob Borges, who suggests that Lance Armstong isn’t an athlete.
I raced bicycles (a long time ago), and was lucky enough to be a suiveur (one of the guys in the cars) at the ’78 Tour (Hinault won, the riders went on strike, I got to have lunch with Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil). These guys were riding up hills comparable to Sepulveda going north into the San Fernando Valley at over 23mph…
…and this moron thinks they aren’t athletes?

Jeff Goldstein, over at Protein Wisdom fillets the fast-food lawsuits.
I couldn’t say it any better; why bother?

From today’s NY Times

The bill, which has been vigorously opposed by consumer-rights groups, had long been the top legislative priority of credit card companies and some banks, which insist that many debtors abuse the bankruptcy laws to escape debts they should be able to pay. The companies sharply stepped up campaign contributions to members of Congress in recent years as they promoted the legislation.
Among the biggest beneficiaries would be the MBNA Corporation of Delaware, which describes itself as the world’s biggest independent credit card company. Ranked by employee donations, MBNA was the largest corporate contributor to President Bush’s 2000 campaign.
The company has also recently acknowledged that it gave a $447,000 debt-consolidation loan on what critics viewed as highly favorable terms to a crucial House supporter of the bill only four days before he signed on as a lead sponsor of the legislation in 1998. Both MBNA and the lawmaker, Representative James P. Moran Jr., Democrat of Virginia, have denied that there was anything improper about the loan.

I’m too disgusted to comment.

God, I love technology…

Alwin Hawkins, over at ViewFromTheHeart (note: no permalinks) responded with a description of the German health insurance system (his disclaimers: it was from an old class, he’s not a health care economist, bla bla bla)…it’s a clear explanation of what sounds like a damn sensible system.
I’ll dig in a bit as time allows and try (for once) and comment sensibly.

The process begins…here’s L.A. County’s reaction to the health care fiscal crisisin today’s L.A. Times (obtrusive registration required, or just sign in as “laexaminer”/”laexaminer”).

Los Angeles County supervisors will ask voters to approve a $175-million parcel tax to shore up the county’s fraying network of emergency rooms and trauma centers, officials said Wednesday.

Take a look at Steven David’s commentary in today’s L.A. Times (obtrusive registration required, or just sign in as “laexaminer”/”laexaminer”).
Short version:

As long as the Palestinian Authority is unwilling or unable to curb those who deliberately seek to kill innocent Israelis and bring these attackers to justice, it is up to Israel to do so. Targeted killing does this, and at a cost that is far less harmful to the Palestinians than its alternatives.
Targeted killing will not bring peace to the Middle East. Only a political solution that calls for an independent Palestinian state can do that.
A policy of targeted killing also must carry with it adequate safeguards, including civilian oversight. Targeted killing must focus only on combatants. Political leaders, no matter how odious, must be spared. And targeted killing cannot be carried out forever. It is a policy that makes sense only during war or armed conflict. Once a peace settlement is reached, it must end.
For a region going through a horrendous time, targeted killing is the worst possible policy–except for all the others.

I haven’t blogged about yesterday’s Israeli attack that killed Hamas military leader Salah Shehada (I’ll assume everyone knows the basic facts, if not, click here), partly because there’s not much new to say, and partly because I’ve been trying to figure out how I feel about it.
Short version: Israeli intel showed a major terrorist leader’s location, and they sent an F-16 to take him out with what is variously described as a bomb or missile. Whatever it was, it got the bad guy and leveled his apartment building, killing 14 others, including women and children.
I’ve turned my head when Israel has assassinated Palestinian terrorists; it’s a dirty war as all wars are. And there is a part of me that genuinely roots for the Israelis to simply wipe out the bastards who are sending Palestinian youth to blow themselves and innocents up in Israel.
But I’ve always been uncomfortable with it.
I’ve talked in the past with friends who argue for war by assassination…make the political leaders backing the war as vulnerable as the scared kids they send to the front lines, they say. And there’s something to that.
And in the Israeli’s defense, their enemies don’t exactly live on bases, surrounded by uniformed military, and drive vehicles with distinguishing markings, as contemplated by the Geneva Convention.
And now…to blow up a building to get the one guy inside it…seems like a dangerous thing for the Israelis to do.
Let’s be clear. It would take Israel two, maybe three hours to demolish every structure in the West Bank and Gaza. The limit would be how fast they could rearm and turn around the aircraft. They could do it with conventional munitions and would easily have enough left over to defeat the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and mount a credible threat to the Iranians.
They haven’t. Why? Because they have to live with themselves, and because they are smart enough to realize that they ultimately have to live with their neighbors. The fact that they would mightily piss off the United States might factor into that as well.
So how do I feel about this? Confused, unhappy. The Israelis have the high moral ground exactly because everyone knows they could flatten Palestinian-administered territories and haven’t.
That moral capital is worth something, even in the face of all the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiment abroad in the world.
So how do I feel?? Confused, concerned. Glad they got him, and sad they didn’t get him in another way. Sad that they have to get him at all.
For some other views, check out Protein Wisdom in support and Jeff Cooper not.

Via Yourish:
Calif. governor calls for crackdown
on anti-Semitism at state universities.

In the comments on my post on Rall, below, Demosthenes takes exception to my position:
AL: I think you’re glossing over Andy’s valid point, and missing the fact that this is neither the Harding administration, and historical comparisons are limited by other, differing factors. At this point, we’ve got a combination of factors that hasn’t really happened in history: we’ve got a tightly integrated worldwide system of capital flows, a lot of “rank and file” investors, the presence of an abundance of other ways of capitalizing companies, and proof that corporate bosses were playing around with the numbers in an attempt to make themselves look good. Some of these have been present before (Harding administration, for some, 1929 for others) but I believe the combination is unique, as are all the other social, political, etc. forces involved nowadays. (Hell, this is happening in the middle of a war… isn’t that new?)
Well, one could argue that every historic moment is different from every other moment; there’s truth in that. I’m suggesting that the current situation has more in common with similar situations in the past than not; that’s partly my philosophical approach to life…I learned early on that the exceptionalist argument made by my generation didn’t hold much water. I think we’re in for an interesting time of it on a lot of fronts, but don’t believe that the current round of market scandals nor the (to me inevitible, if only I’d had the nerve and cash to back it up…) decline in the markets represents The End Of Things As We Know Them (or as my gun nut friends are fond of discussing TEOTWAWKI – The End Of The World As We Know It). I’m actually more interested in why it is that so many people seem to long for the Catastrophe, and wonder if that’s somehow unique or related to the philosophical crises I’ve tried to discuss before.
As for that silly bit against Rall… I realize you don’t like the guy, but dislike doesn’t mean dismissable. I think Rall had a valid point in that this could mean a significantly lowered role for stock markets for a long time to come, and it plays into the hands of those young protestor critics of global capitalism awfully well. I think the only reason they haven’t had a bigger presence is because of the WoT, but if that changes, they’ve got ready-made examples for their charges.
I don’t dislike the guy, I’ve never met him. I think that he tends to write stupid things, and since he nominally plays on my team (liberals) that annoys me. I think that markets will play a lower role in corporate capital formation than before, but that’s a good thing, because five clowns and a Yugo can no longer go public at an immense market cap. There’s a reason old-fashioned investment and lending strategies tend to survive: they work pretty well.