Moe Lane

Simple in execution, sort of…

The president has been unable to curb the nation’s nine percent unemployment rate, so he will be forced to put the best possible face on a sputtering recovery.

Democratic strategists say that means adopting an ungainly three-pronged political approach: Talking up economic gains since the darkest days of 2008 and 2009, highlighting a modest job-creation agenda blocked by Republicans and making the case that things would be far worse if the GOP were in charge.

…but completely impossible in practice, and here’s why: when the Democrats took Congress in 2007, people would get worried if you even suggested to them that the unemployment rate might hit 5.5%.  When the Democrats took over the whole government in 2009, people were grimly preparing for an extended period where the unemployment rate would not come down below 8%.  Today?  We’d sacrifice a goat to get 8%; we’d also sacrifice one to get 5.5%, but nobody would even remotely expect it to actually work.

In other words: define ‘far worse.’  Only, the Democrats have to do it with an actual straight face.

Moe Lane

This is a ‘That is an awesome father.’ (“Teen’s dad spends school year waving at bus, embarrassing son”)

There were costumes involved. I’d steal this, but it’d be derivative.

Moe Lane

PS: I’m guessing that this one was Allahpundit‘s: I don’t think that he has kids. NTTAWWT.

The tutorial – such as it was – sucked, but I knew that; still, I’m halfway through freaking Act 1 and I still don’t feel like I have a handle on the game play, I keep stalling out and dying at this one spot, and all the fun is in the storyline – which is nice, except that this is supposed to be a monster-hunting game..  Even on Easy this game is an absurd grind at best and calibrated-above-my-skill-level at worst.  Honest to God, The Witcher itself was fine, really.  I didn’t want anything really, you know, different: just some better graphics and maybe a tweak of the combat rhythms.  Just monster-killing, with the obligatory grand epic storyline.  Instead I get this.

Arrgh.

Moe Lane

PS: Because I don’t have anything else to play until ME3 comes out, that’s why.

Apparently, EpicMealTime has made a deal with Netflix: sign up at http://netflix.com/bacon and they get money.

Because bacon ain’t cheap.

Jeff Goldstein, on the… Foreskin Man… comic book, which is precisely as bad as a cynical reader of the Internet might wearily supposed it to be.  If you’re wondering why the heck that I’m showing you that, by the way – it’s because banning male circumcision is on the ballot in San Francisco, and one of the groups pushing it produces the aforementioned comic book.  Really, it’s not satire: as RS McCain noted, Andrew Sullivan is a noted anti-male circumcision advocate, which should tell you right there that they’re reliably nuts.

Anyway, Jeff writes:

Incidentally, when we said never again? We meant it.

Fair warning.

The hope is that San Francisco isn’t quite this inane – I originally meant to write ‘insane,’ but this works too – but then, hope is not a plan.  God bless ‘em, but that city thinks up the most damfool things, sometimes.

Moe Lane

PS: Don’t bother: it’s just going to go right to spam.

Fred Barnes, who is perhaps just a bit restive waiting for the 2012 election cycle to really start:

The economy is languishing, joblessness is stuck at an abnormally high rate, the housing market remains in decline, the deficit will exceed $1 trillion for every year of Obama’s term, the national debt is north of $14 trillion, and markets are anxious. There’s a connection between our troubled economy and Barack Obama. If Republicans drive home the link, they’ll oust him and win big in 2012. It’s as simple as that.

And if it was June of 2012 and we hadn’t started this, I’d be concerned – but, contrary to popular belief (and perhaps egged on by the pundit class*), it’s early days yet.  Heck, we don’t even have a nominee. Because the election’s not for another year and a half, and all that.

Moe Lane

*Ahem.

As Ace notes, this is irrelevant… except that it’s going to make the Left squirm and seethe like nobody’s business.  Let me tell you what I think happened:

We have here a guy.  He’s a paid political operative guy – either side; Weiner has a comprehensive list of enemies* – whose job it was to keep track and maybe push a little on Anthony Weiner.  Last week, he hit the mother-lode; the Congressman accidentally tweeted out a picture of his genitals to a nubile co-ed, and then tries to cover it up.  Our operative then proceeds to blow up the story, get it self-sustaining… and then, once Anthony Weiner is busy digging his own grave, our operative burns his Twitter account and email and walks away, whistling.  And probably with a nice bonus, too.

I like this theory because it fits the facts and doesn’t require an idiot plot: somebody got lucky, sure, but chance favors the prepared mind, right?  Best part is, this kind of cutout means that unless you figure out who ordered the political hit you’ll never be able to identify the guy who carried it out.  Unless he starts talking on his own, of course: I figure that if he’s a Democrat he’ll blab some time in 2014.  As in, after the Mayor’s election in NYC is over.

Moral of the story: don’t take a picture of your junk and then tweet it.  If you do, don’t be surprised if somebody whose only job in life is to muck up yours will use it against you.

Moe Lane

PS: If he’s one of ours he’s never going to blab.  Because if he’s one of ours then we’re going to need him for more work later.

*’PatriotUSA76′ is actually one of those handles that you see more from people trying to fake being a conservative.  I say this as a guy who is a site moderator for a large political blog.  On the other hand, ‘Dan Wolfe‘ is the low sort of pun name that somebody from my side would use…

Apparently, THAT WOMAN is making them break traffic laws.

The reporters who are speeding, tailgating, cutting off other cars, blasting through roundabouts and passing on the right in an effort to keep up, say they have no other choice since they never know what Palin’s up to or where she’s headed — and aides typically won’t tell them anything. Once they’re on the road, they’re filing urgent updates by phone and figuring out unorthodox bathroom breaks, like the reporter who pulled over to relieve himself on the side of the highway going from Gettysburg, Pa., to Philadelphia — drawing notice from both Palin aides and the rest of the trailing press.

Hey, here’s a radical notion: STOP STALKING HER, then.  Because you do realize that she’s doing this to mess with your heads and give everybody else a good laugh, right?

Moe Lane

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Disgusted and sickly envious: what the hell does a man have to do to get the kind of unhinged conspiracy theorizing that ‘stack scored, there? – Because whatever the requirements are, dammit, I’ve earned some.  I mean, I dunno: work for nine years at the craft of blogging, help create one of the most influential go-to Right-political websites out there, and what do I have to show for it?

Yes, yes, an iPad 2 and a turnaround time of two hours on callbacks.  Hush, I’m busy feeling put-upon and petulant.

Moe Lane (more…)

Jack Kevorkian died this morning.  He was best – actually, only – known for being an enthusiastic supporter of assisted suicide.  Frankly, I think that he got off on killing people.  Sure, Kevorkian did it with their permission and participation, and only then – but you looked in his eyes, and there was something there looking back that fed on death.  Something that was always hungry.

Oh, well, he’s no longer humanity’s problem.

With his (hilarious) one-state solution for the Middle East:

Especially this line:

“Some anti-Semites that the Jews already run America, but that’s ridiculous. If the Jews ran America we wouldn’t be fourteen trillion dollars in debt. (pause) Knuckleheads.”

There’s going to be some epic-level whining over that observation. Which is not the same as calling it incorrect, necessarily.

(Via Instapundit)

Moe Lane

PS: One other factoid for you: hey, where’s the safest place in the Middle East to be an openly gay Muslim? Yup, you guessed it: Israel.

I only punch down when I have a personal interest in putting the boot in.  Or I feel like it.  I personally consider blog wars to be a zero-sum kind of situation: somebody’s going to be wasting his or her time in participating in one, and it’s usually the person with more reach, readers, or reputation.  For that matter, I think that the larger left-sites are mostly there to try to distract folks on my side from going after Left-politicians and opinion leaders; and when you’re playing this game you try to tackle the opposing team, not their cheering squad*.

Whether I’d feel this way if I wasn’t part of  RedState (which is a website that everyone by now ranks as one of the top political blogs out there) is, of course, another question entirely.  One that I will ignore with dignity.

Moe Lane

*Unless they offer you a gratuitously free hit, mind you.