Moe Lane

Eight being the number of attacks/planned attacks/foiled attacks against military facilities in the USA since January of 2009.  For those trying to keep track, they were (I believe):

• Bronx Air National Guard base attacks.  May 2009.  Foiled.  Perpetrators: Islamist radicals.
• Arkansas military recruiting station shootings.  June 2009.  Successful.  Perpetrators: Islamist radical.
• Quantico base attack.  August 2009.  Foiled.  Perpetrators: Islamist radicals.
• Fort Hood shootings. November 2009.  Successful.  Perpetrator: Islamist radical.
• Pentagon checkpoint shootings.  March 2010.  Successful.  Perpetrator: Crazy person*.
• Virginia military facilities shootings. Successful. October-November 2010.  Perpetrator: Islamist radical.
• Baltimore military recruiting station bombing.  December 2010.  Foiled.  Perpetrator: Islamist radical.
• Seattle military recruiting station.  June 2011.  Foiled.  Perpetrators: Islamist radicals.

Note the theme.  As Ace of Spades practically snarls, it’s not like the New York Times can.

Moe Lane

*Before anybody perks up: 9/11 Troofer.

Oh, they totally deserve having it stripped, of course – even Democrats admit that Media Matters for America is a cheap strumpet for their party – but I have a pragmatic reason for being against removing their tax exempt status.  If MMfA loses its tax exempt status, it will inevitably go belly-up (nobody’s going to fund an exposed fake tax-free), so after it goes belly-up the cash currently being allocated to keeping it around will unquestionably end up going to another liberal/progressive/Democratic institution.  Given that the propensity for MMfA staffers to have both thumbs up their asses is so institutionalized that it’s now part of their dress code, this could only be an improvement for the Left.

So.  George.  Double their budget.  Or, Hell,  just give ‘em big stacks of cash and have ‘em burn them in a field.  It’ll save you some time, really.

Moe Lane

PS: No, seriously.  They really do suck that badly.

Either as a comeback for Barack Obama after he loses in 2012, or in the form of Michelle Obama if her husband wins.

:pause:

Would it be rude if I were to suggest that Medved might want to check any hypothetical crack that he might have hypothetically in his possession to see whether it might hypothetically contain powdered hallucinogenic toad skin? – Because, well, wow.

Moe Lane

They want regulation of marijuana to be up to the states.  My reaction?

1. [rank, hideous hypocrisy that is courting a lightning strike from its sheer, brazen effrontery] No-one under the age of 21 should be allowed to smoke marijuana.  Period.  Never, ever, ever, ever. [/rank, hideous hypocrisy that is courting a lightning strike from its sheer, brazen effrontery]*
2. It is exceedingly unlikely that this is ever going to pass, given that darn few politicians on both sides of the aisle wish to appear weak on what the libertarians call The War on Some Drugs.
3. I can think of several hundred things that I’d rather see the federal government do than go after pot smokers.  That list includes ‘naming post offices.’
4. It’d be so worth it, from a vicious partisan point of view, to get this bill passed by Congress – just to hear the screams of outrage on campuses across the nation when President Obama vetoed it.

And… that’s pretty much it.

Moe Lane

*Really, it’s amazing how I still haven’t been struck by lightning.  I wrote that last night.

Imitation is, as always, the sincerest form of flattery… but I must ask: is it really too much to require that the flatterer at least try to understand what he or she is attempting to imitate?  Even if it’s just a little?

Case in point.  9/11 Troofer and general Leftist Van Jones would like to start his own version of the Tea Party – and there’s three things wrong with that plan from the start:

1. Van Jones would like to start his own version of the Tea Party. The Left still doesn’t get that you can’t get a general populist movement started by a generalissimo.  Take it over?  Sure.  Start it?  Nope.
2. Van Jones would like to start his own version of the Tea Party.  The Left still also doesn’t get that there’s absolutely nothing stopping them from going to existing Tea Party groups and making their case that those groups should adopt the causes that the Left likes.  There’s quite a bit stopping the Left from succeeding, mind you – but that’s a different issue; the point is that as long as the Left keeps telling themselves that the other guys are somehow not authentic, the Left is going to keep messing up their imitations*.
3. Van Jones would like to start his own version of the Tea Party.  With a media roll-out and focus groups drawing from economists (who are representatives of one quarter of the people who got us into this mess in the first place) and activists (the second quarter) to try to turn the whole thing into a set of requirements for Democratic politicians (the third) to ignore**.  Trust a Leftist to put the cart before the horse: you don’t start with media attention, you make them give it to you.  “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win?” – Geez, did I really have to write out that quote?

(more…)

Background: Patterico’s Pontifications and Ace of Spades were blessed, if that’s the right word (it’s not), with an email from ‘Alicia Pain’ that could either be read as a warning to lay off digging in further on the Antony Weiner / Betty / Veronica direct messages story*, or a threat if either continued to do so.  Ace got more out of the author of the email than Patterico did, mostly by responding and using bad language until s/he slipped up and claimed to be working for a client.

Anyway, speaking as a professional, more or less (and for a change)… absent further data, hard to tell.  The email address is throwaway and both Patterico and Ace make their email available but not easily accessible (they’re both Old School), which argues against the ‘random lunatic spouting off’ theory; however, the Internet is full of people who like to make grandiose claims about what they do for a living, what shadowy networks of powerful people they belong to**, and how other people should listen to them when they’re only trying to help.  None of the people really associated with that name on the Internet already seem to be a good fit for either possibility, so I suggest waiting for more info.

Moe Lane

(more…)

Born In The U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen

You could write a doctoral dissertation – or, at least a masters’ dissertation – on the multilayers of irony that are represented by this song, how it was entertainingly subverted by the Right, and how its history is in itself a humorous subversion of said song’s underlying message.  In fact, probably somebody already has; I only hope that it’s vaguely readable.  I get the impression that many aren’t.

What, you want a reason? OK:

STEAMPUNK DALEK!

That’s all the reason that I need.

Moe Lane

PS: STEAMPUNK DALEK!

…when a piece does not gel.

Ach, well. Lemme change the subject: I feel like throwing some money at roleplaying game publisher Pelgrane Press. So… Esoterrorists, or Trail of Cthulhu? The first is ‘occult counter-ops trying to keep a lid on Magicians Behaving Badly;’ the second is Pulp-era Cthulhu Mythos adventuring. I have rather more of the latter than the former, if that helps.

I actually remember seeing this on TV when it was on.

I’ve always liked tap dancing… to watch, mind you; I don’t have any training in it, although I kid myself that I might have been all right at it if I had ever tried. I got it from my dad, who I think could tap-dance a little, I’m not sure. Anyway, seeing somebody who knows how to hoof always gives me a smile.

See also:

Michael Williams was formerly running in the Texas Senate primary, but has switched over to the House race in light of news that his home town is now going to be smack dab in the middle of one of the four new House seats assigned to Texas because of the last Census.  We talked about that, and about sand lizards, and a few other things:

Michael’s main campaign site is here: he also has Bowtie Patriots, which is more Tea Party-centric.  Check them both out.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Alternative title: Hey, I was wrong about something!

I was absolutely certain that there was insufficient moral courage in the California state government to actually make stick the new rule that if California legislators don’t produce a balanced budget on time every year, then California legislators don’t get paid until they actually do produce a budget.  That’s probably because I’m a bit cynical when it comes to political foxes and fiscal hen-houses, particularly when it comes to rapidly-becoming-failed states like California.  So I assumed that Gov. Brown’s veto was, while nice, just part of the political kabuki theater that is West Coast politics.

Turns out I was wrong: (more…)