Moe Lane

Because Chuck Norris needs ten thousand troll livers to finish his latest quest.

World of Warcraft Battle Chest

(Sorry, but I can’t find a music video that can beat that one.)

A quick review of the recent breakdown in Pakistani-American relations:

Last Saturday a NATO airstrike reportedly killed 24 Pakistani troops located in military bases on Pakistani soil. The exact details of the situation are still unknown: the Pakistanis are claiming that the assault was completely unprovoked, while (admittedly anonymous) Afghan sources claim that NATO troops were returning fire. Either way, the population of Pakistan is enraged – to the point where they’re burning the President in effigy* – and NATO forces are worried about our allies the Pakistanis taking this opportunity as an excuse to step up reprisal attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan. Which, if true, would be even more offensive than the burning in effigy. (more…)

Amazon.com has a Cyber Monday?  This is an actual thing?

Sorry: it just sounds weird, for some reason.  I got the impression that ‘Black Thursday’ really took off when the online shopping thing started seriously eroding the brick-and-mortar stores’ bottom lines; but what, exactly, are the online retailers competing against?  Tangible hallucinations?

But far be it from me to avoid a source of filthy lucre…

CYBER MONDAY!!!!!

…on the sudden loss of wife and mother Kimberly Webb Joyner.  My prayers for James and his loved ones, as well.  It is unlikely that any words can be truly comforting in a tragedy like this, so I will simply offer my sympathies to them and hope that this will be sufficient.

Big get for Team Gingrich; problematical for Team Romney, given that the New Hampshire paper spent a good portion of the time between its 2007 endorsement of John McCain and the New Hampshire primary going after Mitt Romney… to Romney’s eventual cost.  Now, the numbers are a bit different between then and now; Romney’s in a noticeably better position.  Whether that survives a reprise of 2008 cycle is another question entirely.

But do note: the Union-Leader doesn’t have a notable track record in picking candidates.  Although I don’t know why I’m bothering to tell you that: given their past sledgehammer-the-fly track record when it comes to pushback on bad news, Team Romney will end up using a fifty-foot laser cannon to inscribe that fact on the surface of the moon…

Because this problem isn’t going to get any better any time soon.

Ferrie Bailey’s job should be easy: hiring workers amid the worst stretch of unemployment since the Depression.

A recruiter for Union Pacific Corp., she has openings to fill, the kind that sometimes seem to have all but vanished: secure, well-paying jobs with good benefits that don’t require a college degree.

But they require specialized skills—expertise in short supply even with the unemployment rate at 9%. Which is why on a recent morning the recruiter found herself in a hiring hall here anxiously awaiting the arrival of just two people she had invited to interviews, winnowed from an initial group of nearly five dozen applicants. With minutes to go, the folding chairs sat empty. “I don’t think they’re going to show,” Ms. Bailey said, pacing in the basement room.

Or maybe it’ll be plumber’s school.  Or welding.  Doesn’t really matter: until people don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to get poorly educated for white-collar jobs that don’t actually exist, some sort of technical training is looking more and more attractive. We’re always going to need electricians and plumbers, and they can improve their minds on their lunch breaks.  Which they’ll get, because we’re always going to need electricians and plumbers.

Heck, the way the gender gap is accelerating these days in white-collar employment they’ll end up marrying well, too.  I am going to laugh my butt off if we end up back at the 1950s model, only it’s the woman with the 9-t0-5 office job and the man with the part-time work/primary caregiver role…

Ah.  Five hour car rides where you get to play How long until the children poop? for four out of five of them.

Good times.  Good times.

(twitch)

(twitch)

Heart Of Gold,  Johnny Cash

Although I hear that some other guy did this one, too.

There are only two more Republican debates before the Iowa caucus, and they’ll both be in Iowa.  It’ll all be over soon.

No.  NO!  We WILL survive this!  Never doubt that!  And do you know why?  Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die.

(pause)

OK.  Bad precedent.  But still.

This is staggering!

Any other nominee [besides Romney or Huntsman] would gravely test my commitment to the political party I’ve supported since I entered the United States as a college student in the fall of 1978.

(more…)

…which is to say, I’m busy trying to keep my eldest from falling into it.

I even have pictures.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the right kind of wires to… hold on.

(more…)

Ed Morrisey’s gotten  tired of them too – even as free entertainment – as his sardonic reaction to the Occupy LA people finally getting the Gucci loafer* suggests:

Even the most casual observer will notice that the general assemblies tend to be indiscreet forums (THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES TEND TO BE INDISCREET FORUMS), and the constant, loud repetition (AND THE CONSTANT, LOUD REPETITION) makes secrecy an unattainable status (MAKESH SREBRECY FAN UNNTRETATTINO FLATULENCE).

That last word was probably warped with malice aforethought.  Not to mention: malice richly, richly deserved.

Moe Lane

*Or does Gucci make boots?  I’m not exactly checked out on high fashion.