As Marco Rubio dismisses VP chatter, he looks to be preparing for job

Tampa Bay Times  h/t Free Republic

quote:

"He is the best orator of American politics today, a good family man. He is not only a consistent conservative, but he has managed to find a way to communicate a conservative message full of hope and optimism," Jeb Bush told a Pittsburgh reporter last week, calling Rubio the best pick for vice president.

Also, from Wikipedia on Marco Rubio:

Rubio was born in Miami, Florida,[5] the second son and third child of Mario Rubio (1927–2010)[6] and Oria Garcia (born 1931). His parents were Cubans who had emigrated to the United States in 1956 and were later naturalized as U.S. citizens in 1975

Comment:

The complaint against Rubio is even stronger than Obama in terms of natural born citizen.  To recap, that definition by some entails that both parents should be at least naturalized citizens at birth, and the birth should be in the US.  Rubio passes the latter test, but not the former.

Wouldn't we be in uncharted waters if this happens?

Why Won’t They Listen?

New York Times book review of ‘The Righteous Mind,’ by Jonathan Haidt

quote:

Traits we evolved in a dispersed world, like tribalism and righteousness, have become dangerously maladaptive in an era of rapid globalization.

Comment:

This appears to be an interesting book.

h/t Transterrestrial Musings

Newt Gingrich Addresses the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference

Why no breakthroughs in energy?

Some of the top minds discuss the question on a Wall Street Journal Online video. h/t Instapundit



Update:

Comment:

There's no mention of the Thorium fuel cycle. Nuclear power is assumed to be always bad. The three people on the stage are today's superstars. But yesterday's superstars advocated the Thorium fuel cycle in a molten salt reactor.

I am reminded of a story I once read in "Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude". The story was of a man who had an invention that could discover oil. He became discouraged and gave up right on the verge of a great discovery. He set up his machine in Oklahoma City and the machine said that there was a lot of oil. He didn't believe it.  It was "too good to be true".  That phrase was on this video.

Everybody's heard that phrase before. But sometimes a good thing is a good thing and it is right under your own nose. You should check it out. Jumping to conclusions is a bad idea.

Putting things together

This blog is an intellectual exercise, if nothing else.  It hasn't been a commercial enterprise, but that would be nice if it could support itself.  But it doesn't, alas.

There are over 3100 posts now and the blog is reasonably organized.  If anyone wanted an answer to a question, it could be found, I would hope.

I do this myself in order to test that.  For example, I remember reading about envy.  So, I wanted to find this again.  How to do that?  I put the word "envy" in the search box at the top of the page and the top post from the search produced this post.   This post was fascinating for me to read.  I hope that others may have had the same experience.  Now, if you wanted to, you could do the counterpart to that with "Tiberius" as the search word.  This produced another concept which I think is important if one wants to understand where we are, meaning the human race.

There's a theory percolating that I want to explore further: so I put in "Us v Them" in the search box.  It returned this post at the top.   I fear that this mentality could destroy us all.  It's part of what I wanted to communicate with this blog.  There are solutions to problems, but I suspect that the Us v Them approach is not a constructive way to solve problems.  It's not the 99% v the 1%.  There's plenty of blame to go around.  I figure that envy is a problem for the 99%, while the Tiberius syndrone is a problem for the 1%.  The refusal to recognize each one's part in the problem will not get us to a solution.  Instead it will lead to strife and an unsatisfactory outcome.


There's a question that pops up from time to time when a new technology is being discussed.  The question goes something like this:  "If it is so good, why isn't it being done?"  I think the answer to that question has been provided here in this blog, provided that an answer is really desired.  I suspect that the question is being posed as a way to discredit new ideas.  A sort of Tiberius syndrome attitude.  The question presumes that we live in a perfect world   It should be obvious that this isn't the case.

This blog isn't about despair, but at times, it can be discouraging.

Would you eat a test tube burger?

Nearly three fourths of those who responded to the online poll said "no".   But it is good for the environment, it is said.

Mass-producing beef, pork, chicken and lamb in the lab could satisfy the growing global demand for meat - forecast to double within the next 40 years - and dramatically reduce the harm that farming does to the environment.

It would seem that the environmentalist movement has its limits.   h/t Transterrestrial Musings

Does ObamaCare have a captitation tax?

This question was addressed by a RedState post in 2010.

quote:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care ACT of 2010 requires all individuals – whom it inconveniently refers to as “taxpayers” – to pay a “penalty” on their failure to act, i.e., on their failure to purchase proper health insurance or to enroll in a proper plan. I know of no case describing inactivity as the type of transaction or action which can be the subject of an excise tax; indeed, I doubt such a case exists.

also:

I agree with the state sovereignty and commerce clause attacks; however, I have concerns about them being winnable. In contrast, I’ve not yet see a colorable flaw in the capitation attack. It should succeed.  [emphasis added]

Comment:

 It seems like a capitation tax to me.  Will this be one of the arguments against it in the pending Supreme Court case?

Update:

More here.