Moe Lane

…just take a moment to let that one sink in for a moment. We have stuffed animals with USB ports, now.

(pause)

OK, done with the mini-Future Shock? Cool. Anyway, I was customizing this sucker, and I kept asking myself, What is this reminding me of?

Oh, right.  Her.

…leaving no-one in particular to challenge the Republicans.

Instapundit has reminded me of this story about retired General Ricardo Sanchez’s dropping out of the Democratic TX-SEN primary.  The very short version: Sanchez was the handpicked recruit of the DSCC, much to the cynical amusement of hardcore partisan Republicans who looked forward to savaging rabidly anti-war DSCC chair Patty Murray for recruiting and running the guy who ran the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.  And then Sanchez’s campaign… pretty much went nowhere, to the point where the man has decided to drop out from the race three days before the filing deadline.  As to his possible replacements… well, as Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm Blog put it: “So, Texas Democrats: Right now the only two candidates on your side who have filed are Sean Hubbard and Daniel Boone. Or a guy that doesn’t look old enough to drink, and a guy who’s been dead for 191 years.”

In other words, it’s not quite at Alvin Greene territory; more like Tara Hollis territory.  Tara Hollis, for those who don’t remember, is a schoolteacher who ended up being the Democratic sacrificial lamb in Louisiana’s last gubernatorial election; her party leadership adamantly refused to send someone up against Bobby Jindal to be slaughtered, so they let that poor woman do it for them.  As you might guess, I respect Hollis for that; and I’m pretty disgusted with her state party leadership for their cowardice.  And now the Democratic Party of Texas, too. (more…)

Really.  Nothing at all.  I can’t even think of a video.

Sorry.

Keeping from publishing the whole damn thing.

Iowa anchors the Upper American “Heartland,” the rural interior that produces much of the world’s corn, pigs, cattle, and soybeans. The corn grows so fast in Iowa — from seedlings to 7-foot-high stalks in 12 weeks — that it crackles nonstop throughout the summer months. The sound is like popcorn popping slow-motion in a microwave in your mind. That pop-pop-popping can be heard especially in the early morning hours, and especially if you’ve been out drinking and/or taking drugs. You look up from your vomit and see dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying cornstalks that surround farming villages the way the sea encircles an island. And then the corn looks at you, in that corny way it does, and you’re like “Don’t you DARE judge me! I have a PhD!” And then, in a way that few urban minds can fathom, it flaunts and flirts and teases you with its leathery husks and silky tassels bending in unison to the shimmying breeze, begging for you to give it some hot corn sex, but then you pass out again.

That’s the buzz over at Hot Air; and certainly the Greenies are screaming that special scream that accompanies a victim being fed to OBAMABUS.  The word is that the White House gave up Keystone in exchange for a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and doc fix.

Because, hey, elections have consequences.

Moe Lane

PS: I would like to take this time to remind the environmental movement that it’s coming up towards the end of 2011, and that the Democrats want to thank you in advance for your continuing generosity.  If you have any problems, questions, or concerns, the Democrats are of course deeply committed to providing you with the very best in proactive conflict resolution analysis; they will be more than happy to fully document your action item or items, and do their best to provide you with a comprehensive and timely response to them.  It’s just all part of the commitment to awareness that the Democratic party offers to its loyal base supporters.

Essentially, yeah:  The short version is that the largest publishers have decided on a floor on prices, and they’re making it stick.  I see Ace’s point about how this just ends up hurting the publishers themselves – but one nice thing about Kindles is that a lot of the books that I buy and plan to buy generally are going to be: much older titles, which they’re moving for one or two bucks anyway; directly published, which will typically be two-buck specials; and/or something from Baen Books, which will cheerfully sell me five dollar e-books, written by authors that I actually want to read.  Which is to say, areas where the big publishers have little or no control over the price.

And that’s why Amazon.com makes ridiculous amounts of money; they really, really want to be the one who gets to take yours.

(Via @davidhauptmann) Background: the House of Representatives, understandably upset that the Obama administration would rather please foreign conflict oil despots and radical progressives than provide manufacturing and construction jobs to good Americans – to say nothing of cheaper energy – has passed a bill that would expedite the construction of the Keystone ethical oil pipeline.  More specifically, the House passed a bill that would extend the payroll tax cut for a time; given the estimated costs of such a cut, the Keystone language was added in order to get enough Republicans to sign off on the whole thing.  In other words: no energy jobs, no overall bill.

The Senate version has yet to be voted on, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a bind.  There are at least four Democratic Senators who publicly have come out in favor of the pipeline (Baucus & Tester of Montana, Conrad of North Dakota, and Landrieu of Lousiana); this means that Reid would lose a regular vote 51/49.  Worse, the GOP is claiming at least nine more Democratic Senators support it (Begich, Casey, Hagen, Manchin, McCaskill, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Stabenow, and Warner).  If true, that puts the total up to 60, which is not coincidentally the number that you need to win a cloture vote.  Which means that if Harry Reid puts the bill up for consideration, it’s probably going to pass; and the President has already (and in my opinion, foolishly) threatened a veto, despite the fact that his own private sector union allies support both the cut and the pipeline.

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Look, I really do have nothing against atheists.  But when you write something like this:

“Christopher Hitchens, finest orator of our time, fellow horseman, valiant fighter against all tyrants including God,” fellow atheist and author Richard Dawkins tweeted.

…you have to understand: you’re not exactly swaying me to your position.  For that matter: you’re not really persuading me of your atheism, either.  Seriously, I look at that and I can easily conclude that Richard Dawkins believes in God even more strongly than I do: he just hates His guts.

Via @allahpundit.

Moe Lane

PS: I hope Hitch got through it OK.

…as per The Conservatory.  Let me go take the Amazon.com link on the sidebar down; it was nice to get the revenue, but I’d rather keep my damn light bulbs, thanks.

I Saw Three Ships, Barenaked Ladies

You know that song that your dad does?  The one where he doesn’t remember the words and mangles the tune, but insists on singing it anyway?

Yeah, well, this is my version of that.

Short assessment: …screw it. Perry won tonight. Good answers, and Fox News absolutely GAVE him that one about Operation Fast & Furious.  Ron Paul imploded in three minutes of psychedelic hysteria.  Bachmann & Santorum will drop out after Iowa, and that’s a shame.  Gingrich and Romney did well, but not well with Iowa voters.  And Jon Huntsman will probably be the next Vice President of the United States.

That’s my first impression.  I’m going to go have a little drink now.

On the other hand, Shermy got his own WaPo post, which is frankly more than I’ve ever gotten (or am ever, ever, EVER likely to get).  So I don’t think that Jake is completely correct here when he notes that Shermy will never get the credit he deserves.

Or something.

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