Month: April 2014

I hope that @TheWookieeRoars said ‘Just start putting on the zeroes, boys…’

“…I’ll let you know when there’s enough of ’em.”

The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga,Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, andKenny Baker in the new film.

Via Hot Air, where Allahpundit has gone through the depths of despair and utter futility to the placid pools found beyond, and thus to a place where he can hope that “people will be pleasantly surprised by the results.” Me? I’m a Philistine, boychiks. Gimme what I crave! And go ahead and pass around all those tons of Disney cash freely there, Abrams. To quote Commander Riker: when the train comes in, everybody rides.

I have a corollary to the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

For those who do not know it, Michael Crighton put it as follows:

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

Continue reading I have a corollary to the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

It’s like Alan Grayson has to find new and exciting ways to be a putz.

I cannot imagine doing something like this to my children.

When U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson married his wife, she was already wed to another man, according to a new court filing by the congressman’s lawyers, seeking an annulment on the basis 

And by ‘this’ I mean ‘making horribly public allegations about their mother.’ I don’t have the slightest idea whether said allegations are true or not, but good Lord.  How was the man planning to explain this to his youngest children? Continue reading It’s like Alan Grayson has to find new and exciting ways to be a putz.

Media Matters staff discovering that their bosses are union-busting hypocrites.

To quote Oscar Wilde, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at this:

The apparent decision by executives at Media Matters for America to oppose the unionization of their staff has left employees at the progressive media watchdog feeling stunned and betrayed, according to a statement from pro-union workers.

Media Matters management recently declined to recognize the union through the “card check” process, instead exercising its right to force a union election under National Labor Relations Board oversight. If an employer wants to keep a workplace union-free, the latter route can give it time to delay the proceedings, bring in union-busting consultants and pressure workers to vote down the union.

Continue reading Media Matters staff discovering that their bosses are union-busting hypocrites.

WaPo uses the dread number ‘2006’ when discussing Barack Obama.

Everyone in the world – well, maybe not quite that many people – is talking about this Washington Post-ABC poll/article that suggests that Barack Obama has been merely spitting in the wind for the last month.  There’s a lot to mine in there, and not just for our side*, but this passage jumped out at me:

Although Obama’s overall approval rating is at its lowest point ever in Post-ABC polls, his disapproval is still a few points better than at its worst. That’s because more people than usual say they had no opinion. At this point, Obama’s approval rating looks only slightly better than that of President George W. Bush in the spring of 2006.

Continue reading WaPo uses the dread number ‘2006’ when discussing Barack Obama.

Oh, how the Trilateral Commission has fallen…

…I remember the days when reporters snooping around the Tri-Lats could expect to be captured and programmed into sleeper agents assassinating Third World warlords.  Now?  Apologies.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s private remarks to a meeting of influential world leaders last week were allegedly taped by a reporter from The Daily Beast, a fact that led to a personal apology from Trilateral Commission chairman Joseph S. Nye on Monday.

In a letter to Sec. Kerry, obtained by POLITICO, Nye expressed “my deep apology and dismay that a reporter form The Daily Beast, Josh Rogin, somehow sneaked into the meeting room in which you were speaking to the Commission this past Friday.”

“He was not invited,” Nye wrote. “Althought how Mr. Rogin slipped past both Commission staff and Diplomatic Security is unclear to me, we have confirmed that he indeed was present and apparently recorded the session.”

I got my issues with the Daily Beast (and I probably do have issues with Josh Rogin about something he’s written), but if I were him I’d be putting Outwitted the Trilateral Commission on my next set of business cards. Because that’s a brag, in the right circles.

Moe Lane

PS: Heck, that should go on the resume.

…Chicken boxing.

When I got told today about chicken boxing, I immediately accused the person who told me about it of making the whole thing up.  But no.  Louisiana legislators on the state Senate Judiciary committee were discussing how to tighten up the state’s law against cockfighting, when state Senator Elbert Guillory pointed out the potential for overreach…

Guillory said he was especially concerned about the part of the law that deals with paraphernalia.

“Leather spur covers and plastic spur covers, um, that are used in the legitimate sport of chicken boxing might be considered paraphernalia,” Guillory said.

“Wait, wait, wait … chicken boxing?” [state Senator J.P. ] Morrell said.

“Yes, chicken boxing,” Guillory replied.

At that point, it took Morrell a few stops and starts before he could articulate his point.

Continue reading …Chicken boxing.

Just finished reading “Zhirinovsky’s Russian Empire: An Alternate History.”

I picked up Zhirinovsky’s Russian Empire: An Alternate History on Kindle: it is a distinctly dystopian alternate history where Boris Yeltsin is killed in the 1991 during that counter-coup and Russia ends up being run by a guy named Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who I was distinctly displeased to discover is an actual Russian politician. I was kind of hoping that the author had made the guy up. Anyway, the Soviet Union kind of… mutates under this fellow, and generally turns the next two decades’ worth of world history into various types of excrement.

  • Pros: The book is written as a collection of interviews, transcripts, newspaper articles, and book excerpts.  Generally the tone is quite well done, with the author simultaneously suggesting a narrative while also allowing for a certain amount of unreliable narrator. The overall scenario is plausible, if you accept the basic premise that the Soviet Union might have been able to function as essentially a Russian-dominated empire (which was, after all, really what the USSR was).
  • Cons: It’s a very long book.  Almost dauntingly so.  And, forgive me for saying this: the book needed a copy-editor’s services.  It’s not enough to spell-check; you need to go through each physically printed page, looking for errors.
  • Neither Pro nor Con: When dealing with the parts of the book involving American politics, it is impossible to determine whether the author was mocking the Right, or mocking the Left’s favorite stereotypes about the Right. Possibly the author intended to do both.

All in all, for three bucks it’s not bad, if you want to read about just how horrible things could have been over the last twenty years.  but I’d maybe wait until the author proofs the book again.