Moe Lane

(Via Hot Air Headlines) In the course of an otherwise generic NYT Op-Ed bemoaning how the USA’s two-party system is just a touch more resilient than our self-appointed media elite would like it to be, Charles Blow comes up with this observation (bolding mine):

The party that wins the White House generally loses Congressional seats in the midterm, but this Democratic-controlled government has particular issues. Its agenda has been hamstrung by a perfect storm of politics: the Republicans’ surprisingly effective obstructionist strategy, a Democratic caucus riddled with conservative sympathizers and a president encircled by crises and crippled by caution.

Well. The Democratic faithful can’t do anything about us awful, awful, Republican obstructionists; and they certainly can’t do anything about this crippled* President. I guess that leaves getting rid of the Democratic conservatives lurking about. Burn them out! Burn them out! BURN THEM OUT!

Hey, just trying to be helpful.

Moe Lane

*Blow’s word, not mine.

Crossposted to RedState.

Just saying, Vladimir.

“I do not think that ‘top-rock’ or ‘down-rock’ breakdance technique is compatible with alcohol or drugs,” Putin told cheering hip-hoppers who responded with chants of “Respect, Vladimir Vladimirovich”.

No, that’s not really taken out of context: Putin went to hang with Russian rappers. I think that I’ve mentioned before that the man really needs to get cracking with discovering that he’s actually descended from the Princess Anastasia?

Moe Lane

We so totally do.

(pause)

Which is more appropriate: this video?

Or this one?

No, really.

Via here. I don’t want to turn this into ‘POTUS Goes To China’ Saturday, mind you – but, come on: flaming bust of Obama? You can’t expect me not to at least mention it.

Moe Lane

It’s not exactly a declaration of kanly and the starting of a blood feud, but this is actually a bit waspish of the New York Times:

Declaring himself “America’s first Pacific president” (a description that somehow ignored Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, two Californians)…

So much so that I’m startled. Perhaps one of the authors of the article is from California?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

There’s Something About Mass Murder That Just Never Goes Out of Style.

There’s a few in this one:

• Using a bloodthirsty Communist dictator to sell T-shirts.
• Watching quite a lot of administration pushback on the socialism thing get casually subverted by some guy in China trying to sell some T-shirts.
• The Chinese kicking off a visit that’s supposed to be about mutual cultural outreach by banning the T-shirt in question.

Although I suppose that the last one is an improvement. Back in the day, they’d just have taken the vendors out, shot them, then charged their families for the bullet.

Moe Lane

PS: They’re available for sale here, which is a site that will cheerfully pander to both sides of the spectrum when selling you overpriced President-themed junk.

Because that’s AMERICA.

Crossposted to RedState.

Hey, it worked for  Rocky.

Eye Of The Tiger, Survivor

Not sure why, but it did.

I know it. If nothing else, I broke down and bought Dragon Age: Origins. That kind of retail therapy suggests Significant Things Afoot.

Perhaps I’m just counting the days until I’m a parent of two. If you suddenly don’t hear from me for a day, that’s probably why.

Why? Simple. We’re using this technology to make better video games.

“I think I’d like to levitate something,” I said.

“Sure.”

To start you need to quickly synch your brain, teaching the computer to recognize the thought you use to perform the specific action. In my case I imagined the box in the center of the monitor drifting away.

After doing this for a second or two, while the program “recorded” they asked me to give it a try.. and it worked. Imagining the box floating up off the top of the screen, I was surprised to see it waver and then slowly move upwards until it disappeared.

We could, however, be fast-tracking a program that would let us combine rocket launchers with video telemetry to give our warfighters the technological equivalent of the Magic Missile spell. For that matter, I imagine that the need to ‘paint’ a target for our laser-guided ordinance might be made easier if all you had to do was keep looking at the target. And I can think of two or three ways how you could combine this tech with drones to wreck a lot of people’s days. But we’re not doing that. We’re making video games.

Take. The. Hint.

Moe Lane

(Via Penny Arcade)

Except that I should go watch Strange Brew again.

Via Probably Bad News.

Half of what they asked for, but he’s going away for a while.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – A former Louisiana congressman who famously stashed cash in his freezer was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands in bribes in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa.

(H/T: Riehl World View) You know, when you’re faced with this sort of situation – one where you see a flawed, corrupted, fundamentally weak man finally be caught up by the impersonal forces of law and justice – there are times where you have to look on and ask yourself, Was it worth it to see the wreckage that has been made of this person’s life?  Can there be satisfaction in seeing an elderly man sent to prison for what might be the rest of his days?  Are you satisfied at the way that the foe has been relentlessly brought low?

(pause)

(Brightly) Yes!

Moe Lane

PS: …in his freezer.

Crossposted to RedState.

Not Right Now: Real Soon Now (via AoSHQ).  Apparently the plan is to wait until after the current wave of spending, then convince the Democratic party to stop spending taxpayer money that does not, in point of fact, quite exist.  Except for funding a new jobs bill, which somehow isn’t expected to ‘count.’

But can he do it, after… oh, let Bryon York get this one:

I asked whether Obama, after presiding over the stimulus, the bailouts, the big Democratic budget, the House cap-and-trade vote, health care reform, and finally, a tripling of the already-high federal deficit, could plausibly position himself as a spending hawk. “Their principle failure is that they have allowed themselves to be defined as government interventioners and huge spenders,” the strategist told me. “If he becomes the great expander of government and the great increaser of spending, he’s going to get destroyed in 2012.”

Actually, the principal failure is that they are government interventionists and huge spenders – and have revealed this blatantly enough that independent voters have noticed. In other words, it’s not ‘If he becomes;’ it’s ‘he has become.’  That’s the primary reason why his economic marks are so poor Right Now – and why waiting for Real Soon Now is contraindicated.

Contraindicated.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.