Month: December 2014

Favorites of 2014.

  • Favorite movie: Godzilla.
  • Favorite book: The Rhesus Chart (Laundry Files).
  • Favorite gaming supplement: Song of the Siren.
  • Favorite gaming supplement I didn’t write: …tough call, actually.  There was a lot of good stuff that I either discovered for the first time in 2014, or it came out then, or there was a Kickstarter. Go check out Pelgrane Press and Dark Osprey.  Something over at either will suit.
  • Favorite song: …is pre-loaded for tonight.

Can’t think of anything further to gussy up this particular content, sorry.  I mean, seriously, does anybody even care?  This ain’t exactly War and Peace.

Predictions for 2015.

These are quite often wrong.

  • John Boehner will be confirmed as Speaker of the House.
  • Mitch McConnell will be confirmed as Senate Majority Leader.
  • Neither Harry Reid nor Nancy Pelosi will announce their retirements in 2015.
  • A Republican will win the special election for NY-11.
  • The Supreme Court will, in a 5-4 decision, rule that Obamacare only authorizes subsidies to individuals who have signed up via a state exchange, not the federal one.
  • The next month after that will host one of the most intense domestic political debates in American history.
  • The Supreme Court will, also in a 5-4 split, rule that the US Constitution neither permits nor bans same-sex marriage. It will resolutely ignore the FF&C Clause, except in the dissents.
  • At least three Senators will announce this year, surprisingly, that they will not be seeking re-election.
  • David Vitter will win the governorship of Louisiana.  His running mate will be Elbert Guillory, who will also win.
  • Good 2015 movies:  Age of Ultron, Star Wars Episode VII, Inside Out.
  • Bad 2015 movies: Jurassic  World, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Fantastic Four, Jupiter Ascending.
  • 2015 movies that will defy analysis: Terminator: Genisys, Ant-Man.
  • Lastly: The Chicago Cubs will win the World Series.  I figure that the payoff from being right on this would easily make up for any sting from being wrong.

I think that should cover it.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Wait, one more: hoverboards!

Yeah. ‘Mark Uterus.’

What was up with that?

That came out of nowhere, and it probably ensured that Mark Udall’s campaign would falter in CO-SEN. Not that I mind, because Mark Udall’s constant consultant-based rhetorical strategy was indeed awful, but I have to wonder. What triggered it?

Tweet of the Day, That Thing Would Last Five Minutes Against The Black Bloc edition.

It’d almost be an act of cruelty to deploy one of those things. I say ‘almost’ because at the moment you can’t actually be cruel to a machine.

I stopped counting the failure points on that design after the first half-dozen. Yeah, I know: robotics was not exactly a mature science in 1924. But did anybody really think to look at the design? Sheesh.
Continue reading Tweet of the Day, That Thing Would Last Five Minutes Against The Black Bloc edition.

Walking Blue Flu from NYPD?

One wonders.

It’s not a slowdown — it’s a virtual work stoppage.

NYPD traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses have dropped off by a staggering 94 percent following the execution of two cops — as officers feel betrayed by the mayor and fear for their safety, The Post has learned.

The dramatic drop comes as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio plan to hold anemergency summit on Tuesday with the heads of the five police unions to try to close the widening rift between cops and the administration.

Continue reading Walking Blue Flu from NYPD?

Scenes from the 2016 Democratic Shadow Gutter War: Clinton v. Webb.

Via Hot Air comes a whisper of the back-alley brawls that are even now starting to formover the 2016 election, out there where nothing is really too low a blow and everything can be denied later:

While they aren’t acknowledging [Jim] Webb publicly, [Hillary] Clinton loyalists are keeping an eye on him privately. The week before Thanksgiving, staffers of Philippe Reines, Clinton’s longtime communications guru, pitched talk radio producers on the racy, sexually charged writings in Webb’s novels, according to a source. Webb was forced to fend off a similar attack in 2006, when Allen accused him of “demeaning women.”

Webb also has previously apologized for writing that a Naval Academy dorm was a “horny woman’s dream” in a 1979 Washingtonian magazine piece titled “Jim Webb: Women Can’t Fight.” The piece’s central argument was against allowing women to take combat positions in the military. If Webb were to ever attain traction, Clinton’s allies would certainly lob the rhetoric back at him.

Continue reading Scenes from the 2016 Democratic Shadow Gutter War: Clinton v. Webb.

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) under federal investigation.

Ooo.  This should be fun: “Federal authorities are investigating substantial payments made to the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, by a small law firm that seeks real estate tax reductions for commercial and residential properties in New York City, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” To summarize the article: one way to hide payoffs to politicians is via the venerable “consulting/contract work” method.  You pay a guy a salary, he picks up the paycheck, and understandings are reached.  In this particular case, apparently Silver wasn’t reporting the income in question – which, truth be told, sounds a bit weird: that seems to be a rookie corruption mistake. The point is that Silver is taking a lot of revenue from a law firm that specializes in a type of tax law that Silver reportedly has no professional experience in, and has been doing so for some time. Continue reading New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) under federal investigation.