Free Republic

Can computerized cars drive better than we can? The cover story of Time’s March 7 issue makes “the increasingly compelling case for why you shouldn’t be allowed to drive,” claiming that computerized cars are (or, it is hoped, will be) safer drivers than humans, and so the logical thing is to ban humans from driving altogether. The plan is simple and familiar: First you use behavioral economics (higher taxes) to discourage a certain behavior — think of smoking — and once it’s gotten really unpopular, you ban it. Before you know it, you can’t smoke in Central Park.

Now that Donald Trump has wiped the floor yet again with the other Republican candidates in the Nevada caucuses, it's time for the GOP to face reality -- barring force majeure, they have a presidential candidate, like it or not. The so-called establishment has a choice: Get on the Trump bandwagon or try some desperate maneuver to stop him. But what would that be? A Rubio-Cruz ticket, assuming they would do it? At the time of this writing, the two men added together don't equal the Trump vote in Nevada -- and that's even assuming their voters would hold, which...

At a Wednesday morning campaign event in Bluffton, SC, Donald Trump takes his relitigation of the Bush administration's record on 9/11 and Iraq to the next level, seeming to imply that we don't currently know who "really" committed the 9/11 attacks. Trump says if he is elected: "you will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center." "It wasn't the Iraqis," he explained. "You may find it's the Saudis." "They have papers in there that are very secret," he also said, referencing the 28 still-classified pages of the 9/11 commission report. "But you will find out."

The man who accused Elmo’s puppeteer of sexual misconduct reportedly wants to recant his recantation. Sheldon Stephens, 24, last week withdrew sensational claims that, as an underage teen, he had a wild fling with Kevin Clash, the voice behind the beloved Muppet Elmo. Now Stephens is interviewing lawyers in hopes of ripping up the $125,000 deal he reached with Clash, 52, to deny there was any illegal sex, according to TMZ. (snip)

Via Twitchy Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) The man who accused Kevin Clash (Elmo) of underage sexual conduct has RECANTED. His lawyer now says it was "adult consensual relationship." Kevin Clash statement: "I am relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest. I will not discuss it further." Now: will every media outlet that wrote long stories about Elmo yesterday write equally long stories today?

It would be great if we could organize a series of rallies all up and down the I-95 Corridor to cheer Scott Brown on as he drive the truck down to Washington DC. He is supposed to be driving down Thursday or Friday, so time is obviously short. Maybe it is just a fantasy, but wouldn't it be grand to have a Scott Brown Truck Tour, so all of the folks who weren't lucky enough to be in Massachusetts to vote for him got a chance to come out and show their support? Think of all the free publicity, and...

CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel made up of medical and public health experts, met July 29, 2009, to make recommendations on who should receive the 2009 H1N1 vaccine While some issues are still unknown, such as how severe the flu season, the ACIP considered several factors, including current disease patterns, populations most at-risk for severe illness based on current trends in illness, hospitalizations and deaths, how much vaccine is expected to be available, and the timing of vaccine availability. The groups recommended to receive the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine include: Pregnant Women because they are at...

So long folks! You've been great. See you down the road, maybe. JimRob... You're the best!

The Huffington Post actually has a poll and a slideshow up about Governor Palin's toenails. No, I'm not kidding, and it's already got hundreds of poisonous comments. This reminds me of the numerous wire photos of the Governor's feet and lower legs during the 2008 campaign, and the interest seems to be continuing. For instance, Ben Smith's Politico piece from last Saturday's Auburn visit included this quote: Her four-car motorcade, including two black SUVs provided by the New York State Police, then headed to Seneca Falls, where Palin, bright red toenails visible in open shoes, trooped through a museum that...

How quaint. The Republicans are concerned about checks and balances. The specter of Specter helping the president have his way with Congress... (snip) Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, tried to put the best face on it, noting, “This will make it easier for G.O.P. candidates in 2010 to ask to be elected to help restore some checks and balances in Washington.” This is quite touching, given that the start of the 21st century will be remembered as the harrowing era when an arrogant Republican administration did its best to undermine checks and balances. (Maybe when your reign...

After endorsing the president in October, I think so far he’s living up to expectations. It’s funny: When you endorse (to use a too-fancy term in my case) a presidential candidate, as I did Barack Obama in this space last October, he sort of becomes your responsibility. Back to that in a moment. Meanwhile, I am delighted, overall, with our president’s first 100 days. I think he has struck a fine tone overseas (trans: the U.S. is less detested than it has been in recent years). He has exhibited the “first-class temperament” that persuaded me he was the man for...

Apparently, there is a litmus test to be Miss (Liberal) USA these days. Until the interview round of the contest, Carrie Prejean– who was representing the State of California was the front-runner. She drew a question by celebrity blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. who posts under the pseudonym Perez Hilton, the “Queen of Mean.” (snip) When people are arguing for tolerance and equal rights for gays they undermine their own argument when they resort to intolerant, hateful language that shows a complete disrespect for women. Whether you are talking about gay marriage or the price of coffee at Starbucks, it...

In diplomacy and espionage, there is no worse mistake than "mirror-imaging," that is, ascribing to foreigners your own actions and views. For Westerners this is especially debilitating, given our modern proclivity to assume that others pursue their interests in secular, material, and guilt-ridden ways. Confession is an important part of the Western tradition; self-criticism is less acute elsewhere. Americans, the British, the Spanish, and the French have written libraries about their own imperialistic sins; Arabs, Iranians, Turks, and Russians have not. In an unsuccessful effort to reach out to Iran's clerical regime in 1999, President Bill Clinton apologized for the...

It’s unfashionable right now to worry about things. The dark ages of being ruled by a thuggish tyrant are now behind America. By electing Barack Obama (the pinnacle of perfect manhood) our leader, we have entered a new era of enlightenment and declared to the universe that we are no longer feuding beasts. Soon Obama’s extremely targeted and precise stimulus plan will have us overflowing with riches, and his wisdom in all things will bring peace to this world. Then all the troubles we now have will be but fables to scare children with. Despite all this, though, I still...

It’s always great to see the stock market come back from the dead. But I am deeply worried that our political system doesn’t grasp how much our financial crisis can still undermine everything we want to be as a country. Friends, this is not a test. Economically, this is the big one. This is August 1914. This is the morning after Pearl Harbor. This is 9/12. Yet, in too many ways, we seem to be playing politics as usual. (Blah. Blah. Rush Limbaugh runs the Republican Party, etc) As for President Obama, I like his coolness under fire, yet sometimes...

A humanitarian convoy led by maverick MP George Galloway carrying medical supplies for Gaza has come under attack in Egypt The convoy, carrying aid worth £1 million, was pelted with stones and vandalised after it stopped in El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. "It's an absolute disgrace,'' convoy organiser Yvonne Ridley told AFP. "The power was cut. Under cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones. "Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans,'' she said. "Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack." (snip) "George Galloway...

To avoid a potentially messy court fight, Gov. Jon Corzine has paid $362,500 to the brother-in-law of labor leader Carla Katz, his former girlfriend. Corzine completed the confidential deal with Rocco Riccio, a former state employee, in late September after Riccio threatened to sue the millionaire governor for allegedly reneging on a promise to find him a private-sector job, the governor confirmed. The payment marks the second time the governor has paid Katz or one of her relatives after publicly saying he had ended all financial ties to the labor leader he dated for two years. (snip) Riccio has said...

WITH three Afghan government ministries in Kabul hit by simultaneous suicide attacks this week, by a total of just eight terrorists, it seems that a new “Mumbai model” of swarming, smaller-scale terrorist violence is emerging. The basic concept is that hitting several targets at once, even with just a few fighters at each site, can cause fits for elite counterterrorist forces that are often manpower-heavy, far away and organized to deal with only one crisis at a time. This approach certainly worked in Mumbai, India, last November, where five two-man teams of Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives held the city hostage for two...

WASHINGTON: As President Obama spreads his New Testament balm over the capital, I’m longing for a bit of Old Testament wrath. Couldn’t he throw down his BlackBerry tablet and smash it in anger over the feckless financiers, the gods of gold and their idols — in this case not a gilt calf but an $87,000 area rug, a cache of diamond Tiffany and Cartier watches and a French-made luxury corporate jet? Now that we’re nationalizing, couldn’t we fire any obtuse bankers and auto executives who cling to perks and bonuses even as the economy is following John Thain down his...

"I hope he fails" -- Limbaugh It is, of course, a calculated outrage. Meaning, it was spewed by a clown in the media circus to kick a familiar sequence into motion: angry denunciation by bloggers, pundits and supporters of President Barack Obama (the ''he'' whose failure is hoped), followed by Rush Limbaugh refusing to retract a word, a courageous truth teller who will not be moved. And, trailing behind, like the folks with brooms trail the elephants in the circus parade, Limbaugh's devotees, complaining that their hero has been misquoted, misunderstood or otherwise mistreated. ``What Rush meant was . ....