I think I've heard that before

From Denmark comes this little compilation.



The clip comes from Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR’s Detektor. The host is Thomas Buch-Anderson.

Hat tip to Powerline.

Semantics

From Greg Mankiw's blog:

Consider these two policies:  

A. An employer is required to provide its employees health insurance that covers birth control.

B. An employer is required to provide its employees health insurance.  The health insurance company is required to cover birth control.

I can understand someone endorsing both A and B, and I can understand someone rejecting both A and B.  But I cannot understand someone rejecting A and embracing B, because they are effectively the same policy.  Ultimately, all insurance costs are passed on to the purchaser, so I cannot see how policy B is different in any way from policy A, other than using slightly different words to describe it.

Yet it seems that the White House yesterday switched from A to B, and that change is being viewed by some as a significant accommodation to those who objected to policy A.  The whole thing leaves me scratching my head.

Me too.

What a difference four years will make

From a Bloomberg story on the SOTU:

Of all the themes and subjects absent from Obama’s speech, however, the most depressing omission was also the most unquantifiable: hope. The word itself appeared just once. Obama as candidate was all about offering hope. Obama as president -- somewhat understandably -- has been more about staving off despair. Double-digit unemployment will do that to a president. 

Guess we won't be seeing those HOPE posters this time around.