Moe Lane

“Baba Yetu,” Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Gold Edition

IT WILL NOT LEAVE MY HEAD.

Via AoSHQ, although I recommend against clicking through for seafood lovers.

I haven’t even seen this movie, and it annoys me.

(Via Hot Air) The Democrats in this Politico piece about former Gov. Palin and the VA/NJ races are spouting nonsense about her long term appeal, of course* – they’re aware as I am that she’s going to be very much in demand in Congressional races where the Democratic incumbent is holding down a seat in a district that McCain or Bush won.  Of which there are quite a few; but Democratic strategists can perhaps not be blamed for not wanting to say something along the lines of ‘Well, THAT WOMAN is going to go through all those Southern/Western Blue-on-Red districts like a buzz-saw, so you might as well get used to it.’  The people who need to hear that most will want to hear it least.

That being said, I don’t expect her to participate in the NJ gubernatorial election, although VA’s may yet still see a presence if the McDonnell campaign goes sour.  Virginia’s at best lightly purple, even now; New Jersey’s pretty definitely blue.  Christie doesn’t have a margin for taking chances right now.

Moe Lane

*As might be perhaps witnessed by interest in her book, which is currently at #3 on Amazon after spending over a week at #1. And that was individual pre-order.

Crossposted to RedState.

…so catch you guys later.

No offense.

I got nothing, sorry.

And the No. 1 reason David Letterman is a cad: The “Late Show” host brought the assistant he was sleeping with on Caribbean vacations with his wife and their young son, sources told The Post.

Letterman’s wife, Regina Lasko, had no clue the comic was having an affair with his pretty, much younger assistant Stephanie Birkitt — a $200,000-a-year employee — when she was tagging along on the cozy, romantic trips, sources said.

Except… wait. The extortion attempt was apparently being scheduled around Cronkite’s memorial service. Now there’s some symbolism for you.

Via JammieWearingFool, via Hot Air Headlines.

(H/T: Instapundit) The Politico’s list of vulnerable Senate seats is interesting, interesting, interesting.  This is not turning out to be a Democratic cycle, as witnessed by the fact that only two of the top eight vulnerable are Republicans.  In their order of sitting incumbents*:

Dodd (CT)
Reid (NV)
Lincoln (AR)
Bennet (CO)
Specter (PA)
Vitter (LA)
Boxer (CA)
Burr (NC)

Of those eight, the only one that I’d quibble over is Vitter: he’s theoretically vulnerable over the escort thing, but the story’s been out for a while and he’s still crushing Melancon.  Not that I expect us to win all of the other six… but we’re going to pick off at least half of them if the country stays on its current path.

No, I’m not going to say which ones. Where’s the fun in that?

Moe Lane

*The open seat ones are also interesting, but hard to assess this far out.

Crossposted to RedState.

Wow, this is off-message.

The DNC:

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists – the Taliban and Hamas this morning – in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO.

Meet some terrorist lot thrower-inners.

Glenn Greenwald:

there are simply no meaningful “peace” accomplishment in his record — at least not yet — and there’s plenty of the opposite. That’s what makes this Prize so painfully and self-evidently ludicrous.

Peter Beinart:

I like Barack Obama as much as the next liberal, but this is a farce. He’s done nothing to deserve the prize.

Ezra Klein:

How long till the Nobel Committee just gives up the ghost and names “you!” the winner of the peace prize?

Lot of people discovered this morning that they’ve suddenly been made Republicans now, is all I’m saying.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

The one wrote the original creed for Dune and the other adapted it while writing Authentic Thaumaturgy*. I just altered the adaptation back in a couple of places.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the brew of Java that thoughts acquire speed.
The thoughts acquire speed.
The hands acquire shaking.
The shaking becomes a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.

Moe Lane

*It’s a gamer thing. You wouldn’t understand.

Nobody has much use for an equivocator. From the Politico’s article on Rangel’s ever-so-slowly increased isolation from House Democrats

Also on Wednesday night, Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., who is running for the Senate, chose not to sign a Black Caucus letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in support of Rangel.

Meek told POLITICO that his vote to refer the Rangel matter to the ethics panel was enough of a statement of his position.

“I’m not on every letter that the Black Caucus puts out,” Meek said. “I didn’t feel that it was something I had to break my neck on.”

This could have been Meek’s moment to shine. It was a chance for him to do something that might have caused a splash outside of his district; something that would have given him a couple of days’ worth of press for the novelty… and opportunities to fix his rather anemic poll standings right now. But no: he went for the ‘safe’ choice of not signing the letter, then downplaying it with a, well, meek murmur when the situation called for a loud roar.

This is the problem with inheriting your seat from your mother: it doesn’t teach you proper electoral instincts.  Which is precisely what I like to see in candidates from political parties that aren’t mine.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

No, seriously. These days, Americans only get the Peace Prize because the Nobel committee felt bad about the recipient’s spectacular public failure to successfully oppose George W Bush.  Which is why I’m not as upset about this as other people: heck, when you compare Barack Obama’s record in that regard to Al Gore’s and Jimmy Carter’s the Nobel committee should probably be commended for bravely speaking truth about the not particularly powerful.

They need to rename the prize to something more suitable, though.  The Nobel Got My Rear Kicked By Bush Prize, perhaps? Or does that not sing?

Crossposted to RedState.

Obama’s developing strategy on the Taliban will “not tolerate their return to power,” the senior official said in an interview with The Associated Press. But the U.S. would fight only to keep the Taliban from retaking control of Afghanistan’s central government — something it is now far from being capable of — and from giving renewed sanctuary in Afghanistan to al-Qaida, the official said.

[snip]

Bowing to the reality that the Taliban is too ingrained in Afghanistan’s culture to be entirely defeated, the administration is prepared, as it has been for some time, to accept some Taliban role in parts of Afghanistan, the official said. That could mean paving the way for Taliban members willing to renounce violence to participate in a central government — though there has been little receptiveness to this among the Taliban. It might even mean ceding some regions of the country to the Taliban.

Bullshit.

Via Hot Air.

If for no other reason than it helped keep a very useful skill set nicely honed.  It also didn’t hurt that – all false modesty aside – I was pretty good at it.

That’s it – so here: have an Onion video.  I’m still trying to figure out which side they were ultimately on.

Advocacy Group Decries PETA’s Inhumane Treatment Of Women