Moe Lane

House Of The Rising Sun, The Animals

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to think that we took a wrong turn with regard to popular culture at about, oh, 1968 or so.  And I don’t mean the sex and the drugs; that’s fine.  It’s just that people got so damned sloppy about things for a while.

Normally I would  try to explain why I picked Them!, but in this case Cracked.com already has (in “11 Bad-Good Horror Movies You Need To See”):

WHY IT’S BAD
It’s an old black-and-white movie about giant irradiated ants attacking southwestern American cities.

WHY IT’S GOOD
It’s an old black-and-white movie about giant irradiated ants attacking southwestern American cities.

WHY YOU NEED TO SEE IT
It’s an old black-and-white movie about giant irradiated ants attacking southwestern American cities.

Works for me.

Annnnnd adieu, Going Postal . But soon you will be mine. Soon.

Kentucky Senate President Dave Williams is running for Governor of Kentucky; we had the opportunity to talk about the election today. This race has become more of interest lately with reports that individuals associated with incumbent Democrat Steve Beshear have been allegedly shaking down state employees for campaign contributions; it also came out today that political appointees have been very generous to Gov. Beshear so far this cycle.  We discussed this, and several other items:

Dave’s site is here.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: This article on Gov. Beshear’s somewhat… cautious… performance at the traditionally-partisan Fancy Farm Picnic may also be of interest.  Although if I was a Southern Democrat I’d be kind of cautious right now, too: the current head of their party is doing a number on their brand.

…to watch Torchwood on Netflix instead of his speech.

No, what he should be worried about is that the feedback that I’ve gotten on my decision indicates a consensus that I made the right call.

On the record, like.

It would appear that the DEA does not want to be the fall guy in Operation Fast & Furious*, either:  DEA head Michele M. Leonhart admitted in a letter to Senator Grassley (Judiciary) and Rep. Issa (Oversight) that her organization was in fact involved in the investigation, and provided support for it.  This is a significant admission by Ms. Leonhart, given that (as Bob Owens** of Pajamas Media reminds us) there is an existing allegation by the former head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (BATFE) Phoenix office that the DEA was a full partner in the proceedings. (more…)

[This was edited.  Heavily.  I was in a white-hot fury when i first wrote it.]

Via the Anchoress comes one of the more offensive stories that you’re going to read today.  Short version: there’s an African-American woman* from McGehee, Arkansas.  She was working to be valedictorian of her local high school and maintaining a 4.0, but became a single mother junior year; so she redoubled her efforts and clawed her way up the academic ladder (via AP classes) to regain the best grade point average… and was made to be c0-valedictorian with white student.  School officials gave her family the runaround on why, reportedly; as the school district apparently has a reputation to routinely shunt African-American students to supposedly less challenging academic tracks, this is perhaps not that surprising.

The special wrinkle, of course, is that McGehee, Arkansas is a Democratic town in a Democratic county in a Democratic Congressional District in what is largely a Democratic-run state – executive and legislative…  and this is where I had to throw out most of the post, because I went on to say some exceptionally rude things.  But I should accentuate the positive, instead: thank God the woman kept the baby.

Helps to remember that that sort of thing is the important thing.

Moe Lane

*I think that recognition of adult status has been earned, here.  Also, name redacted out of privacy considerations: I think that she’s going to have enough problems as it is.

In extremely small amounts – extremely, extremely, extremely small amounts – getting caught up at the Van Allen Belts.  Still, as energy sources go it doesn’t get any more efficient than antimatter – besides, any information on how to stably store antimatter ‘naturally’ for any length of time would be handy when it comes time for us to do it artificially.

So I guess that we better write all of this down for the benefit of the next civilization that decides to have a manned space program, so that they can properly exploit this information.  I hope that they like human rights!

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: Nooooooo, I don’t think that I would quite trust private space development with antimatter quite yet, thanks.

I’m going to summarize this NYT article, only with some subtext added:

We’re on the verge of a second recession.  The problem is that the first recession – which got triggered after the Democrats lied and smeared their way into control of Congress in 2006, and then proceeded to show a talent for sober fiscal governance comparable to those of crack-smoking meerkats – was thoroughly mucked up by said addicted meerkats, not least because they had the bad luck after 2008 to have as their figurehead a Democratic community organizer who can’t even do demagoguery properly (it’s surprisingly hard to ritually summon a Mob via Teleprompter).  Couple that with a charmingly naive Cargo Cultist mentality when it comes to Keynesian economic theory, add the amusing detail that the government has run out of solutions to spectacularly mess up, and you end up with an official government economic policy that can be summed up as follows:

(more…)

Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of The New Day), Jethro Tull

Ah, Pennsic.  Don’t ask me why this song reminds me of it, but it does.

There’s a reason why dancers usually drive better cars than their customers do, you know.

Executive summary of this NYT article (the Hot Air Headlines title is a thing of beauty, by the way)

1. Harold Koh used to be opposed to the Bush administration, and was thus all about busily opposing the government, and its ‘undeclared’ (note scare quotes) wars.
2. Harold Koh is now part of the Obama administration (State Department), and is thus all about busily justifying the government, and its undeclared (note lack of scare quotes) wars.
3. In other words, Harold Koh went from being a shill for the War Powers Resolution to being a shill against the War Powers Resolution.  Without even really trying to hide his lack of shame about the abrupt switch in beliefs.
4. The antiwar Left is heart-sick about this.

(more…)

Start thinking about pricing your books so that they’re competitive with the paperback versions, not the hardcovers.  Give you an example: I’m trying my best to get back to The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.  The hardcover goes for eighteen bucks and the paperback nine and a half… and the Kindle version is eleven.  I’m discovering that I’m more likely to finish nonfiction books on my Kindle than otherwise – don’t ask me why – but pegging the price as a discount on the hardcover is maybe affecting my cheapskate instincts.  Which is why the darn book is on of the piles scattered about the house.

Obviously, a new book is a new book; but if you’re bringing out softcover reprints, maybe linking the new Kindle price to that will help with sales? – Or not.  This thought just occurred to me.

Moe Lane

PS: Downloaded and read Confessions of a D-List Supervillain this morning.  Overall: well worth the three bucks.  Started strong, good character development of the hero/protagonist, action and plot maintained up until the last ‘chapters,’ which unfortunately did come across as slightly rushed (the book was originally a novella, and it still slightly shows).  The book probably could have used another two chapters or so of development, but It Did Not Suck.  Of course, I admit to having a certain weakness for books that have chapter headings like “Like I Need Another Reason to Invade Branson, Missouri” and get away with it…

I figure that these will die down for a while now, though.

So, I’m parking my Mass Effect 2 Shepard [SPOILERS AFTER FOLD]… (more…)