Month: April 2011

#rsrh Confirmed: Obama watches just MSNBC?

I was going to hit this Political Punch post about the President ‘telling an untruth’ about why he finally released his long-form birth certificate, and I was going to point out this Ace of Spades HQ post noting that the network that obsesses most about Birthers was MSNBC – only Jim Geraghty hit this in his Morning Briefing, so read that instead.

But I’ll note this: if President Obama’s getting all of his information from MSNBC, it would explain handily why he thinks that the media was obsessing over his birth certificate; the people at MSNBC were, and it was warping their coverage of the President (something like 9.2% of MSNBC’s total coverage last week was on birthers).  I recommend that if the President would like to get a better idea of what people are talking about, then maybe Obama should try a less biased, and more mainstream, news source.

Like, say, Fox News.

‘Fight of the Century.’

(Via Instapundit) EconStories has another one of their extremely good Keynes v. Hayek videos up:

My only issue with this series is that it’s fairly obvious that the creators are fundamentally on Hayek’s side… and while they do (I think) a credible job of being fair to Keynes it would be helpful for the economic debate if there was somebody who was ready to as passionately, entertainingly, and creatively argue Keynesian theory on its own merits.  Of course, there is some argument whether Keynes himself would be comfortable with some of the stuff done in his name these days…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Death toll from Southeastern tornadoes at 178.

Most of that is from Alabama, which was hit hard by the storms – but most of the rest of the southeastern part of the country has been hit by the storms, so if you were planning to contribute to the American Red Cross this Christmas, well, they could probably use the help a little sooner than that.

My prayers and good wishes for everyone hurt by this tragedy.  And remember: always keep a supply of fresh water, batteries, and other disaster relief supplies handy! You may not live in a tornado zone, but there’s always something.

(crosspost)

#rsrh QotD, Too-Public Pragmatist? edition.

Not that I intend to get sucked into the FL-SEN primary quite just yet, but this line from Ace about Florida primary candidate Adam Hasner made me laugh out loud:

I am completely against choosing political candidates based on irrational, tribalistic ethnic appeal, in all circumstances and based upon sacred principle.

Unless it works in our favor. In which case… okay.

Particularly since normally we’d be talking about going a little bit incremental, given that it’s a Democratic-held seat and all that.  But that’s the thing about getting a couple of wins; it makes you hungry for more.

Moe Lane

Beware the Pittsburgh ninja.

BEWARE!

In the latest event, a sword-wielding ninja smashed 11 cars in South Union Township, PA. and tried to stab a man who confronted him, say police. Santino Guzzo said he heard glass breaking, found the ninja hiding in a yard, and was cut in the hand during the ensuing ninja escape.

“He was like a gazelle that just got attacked by a lion,” Guzzo told the Pittsburgh Trib. “He got up and fell, and got up and fell. Then he jumped off a cliff.”

Guzzo reported that he “did not move with the grace typically associated with a ninja” and that he therefore “will not live in fear of the ninja’s return.”

By the way, Boing Boing:  the plural of ‘ninja’ is ‘ninja.’ Yes, yes, I know: English traditionally doesn’t give a [expletive deleted] what the grammatical rules are for other languages.  But, given that ‘ninja’ means ‘night-clad assassin of DOOM’… well, do you want to offend them with your barbarian’s defiling of their native tongue?

That’s what I thought.

Moe Lane

Florida Democrats astroturf GOP town halls!

…and don’t do a very good job of it, really. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Rep. Daniel Webster got heckled by “members of progressive groups such as Moveon.org and Organize Now,” while Allen West got screamed at by a woman later identified as being a former radio host for Air America (remember them*?).  A few things to note about this:

  • When the newspapers are taking the time to note that hecklers are professional activists, then the activists are officially Doing It Wrong.
  • And the reason why the activists are officially Doing It Wrong is because the goal of the exercise is to upset and dismay the legislator that you’re trying to target.  During the health care town hall meltdown, what one took away from it was the way that Democratic legislators ran and hid from their own constituents.  Politicians who didn’t – like, dagnabbit, Barney Frank – generally came out of the situation with little trouble.
  • And in fact neither Webster nor West were particularly upset nor dismayed at the reaction.  Webster kept patiently explaining his votes and calmly engaging the screamers.  West bluntly told his screamers that they weren’t going to intimidate him.

Continue reading Florida Democrats astroturf GOP town halls!

#rsrh Oh, my aching [expletive deleted] head…

…as @allahpundit just tweeted, the birth certificate nonsense isn’t the biggest nonsense of the morning:

The brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad may finally be getting the attention of world leaders — but apparently not enough to stop Syria from becoming the newest member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Of course they did.  It’s times like this that make me wish that my life had save points.

Moe Lane