Access-orizing

Interesting recordings of a call between Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Ian Murphy posing as David Koch. What I find most noteworthy are two things. The first is the banality of it (oddly somehow at the same time as being so interesting). Initially that was my only reaction, but then I thought about (#2) the level of access of that Koch clearly has to the governor. Even though I have no reason to believe that Koch is anything but sincere in what he's pushing, this isn't just some guy interested in politics. He has lots of business interests in the state. No, wait, not just in the state, with the state. There may not be anything untoward happening with all of that, but then again, there probably is, if for no other reason then contributions lead to access, access leads to familiarity, and familiarity leads to it being easier to get sweetheart deals even without outright corruption. So, yes, I find this worrying, even with nothing really scandalous happening on the call itself.

Oh

Wow, I can't believe it didn't see it before. Clearly people who have problems with federal spending on infrastructure are racists, if not outright pro-slavery.

Empirical Proof that America's Liberals Are Stupid

Sasha Volokh wrote a pretty out there post about asteroids, taxation and rights, specifically noting that his views here are not normal for Libertarians. Delong doesn't just rightly make fun of Sasha, no he says that this shows that "America's Libertarians are Completely Insane". Reading comprehension and/or fairness/honesty are not the man's strong suits. Using his logic, I conclude that America's Liberals are dishonest or idiots, or both. And no, I don't think he's kidding.

NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl Sunday

Last week I went 1-1 against the spread, 2-0 picking winners, bringing this postseason to 5-5 and 6-4.
Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, Packers favored by 2.5. Two excellent QBs, two of the best defenses. However, the Steelers D is mainly strong against the run, which will be less relevant in this matchup. Plus the conditions will favor the Packers. Packers 27, Steelers 20.