Moe Lane

I don’t debate the sentiment: dependency on others is a strongly addictive mental and moral habit, and one that isn’t all that easy to shake. And it does do weird, and not very good things, to your head. So watching people like Joel Berg demand that they be allowed to take from the Rich what’s not being freely offered by them is indeed disturbing. Especially since it’s clear that Berg doesn’t actually recognize the right of a person to have the final say over his or her own labor.  All that being said, I think that we’re not yet at the point where we have to have the Rich leave before the rest of the population gets it through their heads that redistributing the wealth doesn’t actually, you know, work.

Nope.  I think that an election cycle or two where Rich people start voting their class interests will actually do the job nicely.  Let’s see how pumped the Democrats are about taking away people’s money when the funding dries up…

(H/T: Instapundit)

Crossposted to RedState.

I’m probably going to have to yell at Ace (that video that was done for him ain’t safe for work, by the way) for pointing this XtraNormal site out, the next time that I see him. Or at least make him buy the first beer. It’s distressingly fascinating: the site lets you generate 3D movies using text. There’s just enough choices to demonstrate that I’m not that great at blocking out movies.

Anyway, the first verse of Lepanto.

One hopes that not too many progressives spent their vacation money on grassroots support:

“I cannot support that bill,” Lincoln said, according to one attendee. “Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form.”

I mean, it’s not their kids’ fault.

Via @seanhackbarth.

Crossposted at RedState.

That’s the word that the Washington Post used, so don’t blame me (H/T: Glenn Reynolds):

Obama’s Machine Sputters in Effort to Push Budget
Grass-Roots Campaign Has Little Effect

When his post-campaign organization was unveiled in January, Barack Obama vowed that the 13 million-strong grass-roots network built during his presidential campaign would play a “crucial role” in enacting his agenda from the White House.

But in its first big test, the group dubbed Organizing for America (OFA) had little obvious impact on the debate over President Obama’s budget, which passed Congress on Thursday with no Republican support and a splintering of votes among conservative Democrats. The capstone of the campaign was the delivery of 214,000 signatures to Capitol Hill, which swayed few, if any, members of Congress, according to legislative aides from both parties.

(more…)

Worst possible news, in fact:

April 6, 2009 – Voters Say 3-1 Paterson Does Not Deserve Election, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Most Say He Should Announce Now He Won’t Run

New York State voters disapprove 60 – 28 percent of the job Gov. David Paterson is doing, the lowest approval ever for a New York Governor, and say 63 – 22 percent that he does not deserve to be elected to a full four-year term, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

With numbers like that, it’d take a special miracle from God to convince the man to run for election next year; more to the point, even if Paterson refuses to admit to the inevitable the rest of the NY Democratic Party won’t be quite so stubborn. Hence, the use of the word ‘depressing.’ I much prefer to see the Other Side engage in rather vicious primary battles. Like the one that may be happening with Gillibrand: (more…)

That’s not the PSA. The PSA is that if Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto is selling so well – which apparently it is – that’s probably why you’re not seeing it in bookstores.

So maybe you shouldn’t nag the Anchoress’ son’s girlfriend about it. It’s not her fault, after all.

Crossposted to RedState.

(H/T: Dan Riehl) With regard to President Obama’s decision to not confront the Armenian Genocide question while in Turkey – as noted here from someone on the scene, he specifically avoided using the word genocide – it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that he didn’t keep that particular campaign promise (“America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that President.”).  Politician, lying, lips moving, etc. etc. etc.  Besides, I saw this coming last month.

What should be the focus now is what Congress plans to do about it.  Rep. Mark Kirk (R, IL) is still hopeful that his resolution recognizing the Genocide – which he’s worked on with Rep. Adam Schiff (D, CA), Rep. George Radanovich (R, CA) and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D, NJ) will make it to the floor of the House, but that’s up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA)… who has been noticeably silent on this issue in this Congress.  One would have to be a terrible human being to suggest that this is because there’s no convenient scapegoat this time around…

Moe Lane

*I’d be sympathetic to the problem he’s got with this, except that he shot off his mouth a lot on the subject last year, and the man needs to learn that people pay attention to what Presidents say.

Crossposted to RedState.

Al Gore vs. PETA, and that’s one time where you root for injuries, huh?

They also have a contest, with the winner getting a set of prizes lovingly designed to seriously piss off whoever wins Deceiver Madness. I’d get in on that, but it also requires me to figure out the final score of an actual basketball game, and I don’t even know who’s winning that. Or who was participating in the first place…

Like the DaTechguy, I’m actually not outraged over Kos’s Pittsburgh comments, and for the same reason: this is who the Online Left are, this is what they set out to become, and now they’re there and have to deal with the consequences of eating, drinking, and breathing hate for eight years.  So, no surprise, and you need surprise to sustain outrage.

Fully justified contempt, on the other hand, is still easily achievable.  And quite fun.  I can’t wait to start asking Democratic Congressional candidates if they too believe that Republicans are copkillers, and neither can anybody else on this side of the spectrum.

Jim Treacher is thinking about a name change for his blog – I’m personally fine with his current one, but then I’ve been doing this since 2003 or so; I’m accustomed to in-jokes and whimsical names.  On the other hand, I didn’t exactly go with either when I picked the name for this blog.  On the gripping hand, it’s not my call anyway.

Jim’s been doing fun stuff with Twitter – that really does sound dirty – so check him out.

Admittedly, it was edgy when I was eleven.

Centerfold, by J. Geils Band.

One of the funniest things that was in the original GURPS Autoduel was its suggestion that the dystopian future of that world’s 2020s would portray the 1980s as being idyllic (in much the same way that we romanticize both the 1950s and the 1890s).  It’s still funny (nobody gets near-future disaster scenarios wrong like roleplaying games do*), but not because it isn’t increasing true that we do.

Moe Lane

*Which is not the games’ fault, really: if you’re playing in a near-future game, you want it to be different than the current time period, right?  That means “exciting,” and exciting means that something’s probably blown up somewhere.  Or lots of somethings.  Whatever the current worry is, really.

Does that bring back memories?

Katherine Miller of Vandy Right reacts to the news that the Fairfax County public school system will mandate 40 hours a semester of community service prior to graduation, starting next year:

Now, last week, I actually argued to someone that I was comfortable with individual schools rather than the federal government mandating students complete community service to graduate. Bu, after considering this more, I’m having a Come to Jesus moment: The government, and by extension the schools, need not be in the business of mandating community service. Let me break it down for you.

And she proceeds to do so.  I’ll just give you her bullet points: Katherine explores each one more thoroughly. (more…)