Newmark's Door

Posting will resume on Thursday.

Excellent piece by economist Brian Albrecht: "The very factors that make tech companies targets are also what make them valuable to consumers."

Dave Barry's annual column, better than most because he has so much material to work with. A theme is Boeing Corp. and here is a taste:

In aviation news, a Boeing plane flying from Australia to New Zealand suddenly goes into a nosedive, injuring 50 people. Another Boeing plane, taking off from the San Francisco airport, loses a piece of landing gear. A Boeing spokesperson says that the company, after conducting an in-depth review, has tentatively identified the root cause of the recent problems.

“We think it’s gravity,” said the spokesperson. “It seems to be getting worse.” As a safety precaution, Boeing is advising pilots to avoid taking off, and simply taxi the planes from city to city, which the spokesperson says “may result in delays, especially to overseas destinations.”

A small sample of this past year's craziness. 

Ed Driscoll at Instapundit aptly comments:

The ghosts of the Weimar Republic are shaking the heads at 2024’s level of insanity and shouting that we really need to dial the craziness back a notch or twenty.

Related: George Will's recounting of the year's craziness, "Thanks for the laughs, 2024, you ridiculous year".

Sort of related: "2024 was a year of gaslighting — here are the worst media lies".

Politico's digest of lousy predictions.

The author concludes that Star Trek or Star Wars are unlikely.

Leaving aside the search for "villains" in the US health system, this is an excellent piece by Noah Smith.

Related: "The Failure of Obamacare".

Interesting but partly scary, especially this (I had wondered what they would do about civil service appointees):

Another great general I knew had a problem with civilian workers who told him he couldn’t fire them. His answer was not what they hoped for. He explained, “Maybe not, but by the time you sue and get your job back, I will be retired, and you will be old.” 

A useful reminder from David Goldman--if anybody needs one--that not everybody wants to be Western.

Absolutely correct. I hope Republicans take this to heart.