Moe Lane

Independence Day is the movie that fuels the very idea behind TV Tropes.

Independence Day is proof that collages really are their own art form.

Independence Day is the movie that would result if you yanked an Atomic Horror director forty years forward in time.

Plus, it had this classic scene:

…so there’s that.

Moe Lane

*While Mars Attacks! is the movie that a 1950s Atomic Horror director would have made if he only had the budget and special effects access*. The difference is subtle, yet important.

In a stunning coincidence*, there seems to be a certain correlation between the contributions of the Virginian Moran Boys:

Moran Campaign Contributors Have Business Before Brother

More than a dozen defense contractors with business before U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, have donated thousands of dollars to Moran’s younger brother Brian, a candidate for governor of Virginia.

Brian Moran filed a campaign finance report this week that shows he collected $80,000 during the first three months of 2009 from 18 contractors that have been longtime backers of the congressman. Seven of the firms are awaiting approval of Moran-backed earmarks totaling $14.5 million.

The claim, of course, is that there’s all sorts of separation between Rep. Jim Moran and Brian Moran – the fact that one is a powerful defense pork appropriator has no connection whatsoever to the generous contributions made to the other.  And the fact that the one is finding his campaign contributions drying up in the wake of the PMA raid and closure should not in any way, shape, or form be seen as an indication that any sort of money flow is attempting to find another channel.  It’d be silly to think otherwise. (more…)

…to be found here, the emphasis is on “think:” I know enough about guns to know that they’re not magical talismans that mystically control all situations, but pretending anything beyond that would only result in gales of horrified laughter from my father-in-law, who does know something about guns.

But I do know something about history, so I can comment about this:

You see that guy? Don’t mess with that guy.

Just… don’t.

Moe Lane

PS: The Gurkha situation is actually fairly interesting: the current government of Nepal – democratically elected Maoists, and that’s apparently not an oxymoron – is in favor of ending the recruitment of Gurkha regiments; they’ve backed down in the face of the disapproval of former Gurkhas, because You Do Not Mess With Gurkhas.  Something that the British government itself might contemplate, particularly when it comes to pensions.

Alas, thanks largely to the Online Left’s decision to go full pornographic on their criticism of the Tea Party movement I can’t really reproduce the language here, but go read it over there and snicker at what happens when you take a thought to its logical conclusion.

Because… yes. Help. Help! I’m being repressed!*

Moe Lane

*Gimme a break: I got to pay for this site somehow.

Crossposted to RedState.

First off, we have two of the organizers: Teri Christoph of Smart Girl Politics and Chandler Ramelli of A Not So Capitol Idea:

(more…)

Via Bob Krumm, via Glenn Reynolds who has some interesting observations about how she’s like the Tea Party thing – but first things first. Dag, but that’s pretty singing there. I expect that the charity CD that’s it’s from is going to get re-released in the very, very near future.

Moe Lane

PS: Amazon isn’t wasting any time.

Crossposted to RedState.

Everybody in the world will be referencing Snakes on a Plane for this story, apparently.

Baby Pythons Escape on Passenger Plane

April 16, 2009 — Four baby pythons escaped from a container aboard a passenger plane in Australia, leading to a search that forced the cancellation of two flights, the airline said Thursday.

Personally, I feel sort of sorry for the snakes: there isn’t any particular harm in a Stimson python, apparently.  For an Australian species, that’s actually pretty impressive.

This may be a bit old, in Internet terms, but it is a very clever music video.

Oren Lavie, Her Morning Elegance

Via Apropos of Nothing.

This entire rant by Nick Gillespie of Reason Hit & Run is a thing of beauty… but, alas, full of rough language. This paragraph is relatively repeatable in polite company (H/T Instapundit):

And now this morning, Obama was on the tube again, yapping about traffic jams. What the hell is going on here? The president of the freaking United States is talking about traffic jams? Then again, in grammar school we did all learn that part of George Washinton’s Farewell Address where he warned against entangling alliances and the dread menace of highway jughandles and traffic circles. That Obama’s big solution is, ta-da!, “high-speed rail” is simply one more sign that he is simply not serious about anything other than paying off 19th and 20th century legacy special interests. I look forward to tomorrow’s press conference, when Obama trains his laser-beam brain on the question of whether Razzles is a candy or a gum.

…although there’s certainly more in there*. Nick’s in full-fledged rant mode, and while he’s obviously primed mostly to go off on the President he’s not sparing of his libertarian colleagues, particularly the ones that decided that a Illinois Democrat was a compelling libertarian alternative to an Arizona Republican in this election. Which was, really, very silly. I’m sorry to say that, but it’s true. Putting Obama in the White House meant that this guy doesn’t have a veto pen looming over him. Putting Obama in the White House meant further empowering a political party that doesn’t care if your dishes are clean. Putting Obama in the White House means that we’re about to get the organic food industry gutted in the name of regulation. And putting Obama in the White House means this happened:

(more…)

What’s Yiddish for “You’re doing it wrong?“  I don’t actually speak the language: I merely know the vocabulary words required for all residents by New Jersey state law*.

Via The Sundries Shack, who – less cruelly than I – did not mention the exceptionally poor grammar and spelling of everybody involved.  Including the critics.

Moe Lane

*Note: this law may not exist.

Crossposted to RedState.

That’d be Ed Anger of the Weekly World News, of course: anyway, he’s had a pitch-perfect imitation going of a caricature of a conservative (not the same thing as a pitch-perfect imitation of a conservative, of course) for some time now, and that’s all right, really. He can keep it under control. I can handle Stephen Colbert; I can handle Ed Anger. Only… every so often he mentions something like Tax Freedom Day – a topic that a certain segment of the partisan spectrum hates even mentioning.

It does make you wonder which direction the satire is pointed at, sometimes.

Moe Lane

PS: Oh, wow. Paratabloids: Poems Inspired by Headlines From the Weekly World News: that would almost be worth buying a Kindle 2 for alone.

Although the question is moot.

Either Repo! The Genetic Opera, or My Favorite Year. I’m footloose and fancy-free at the moment.

Moe Lane

PS: The book that some of you are probably trying to remember right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.