Author: Moe_Lane

#rsrh I actually partially agree with Dana Lithwick.

Shocking, I know: but if Jared Loughner is in point of fact a violent paranoid schizophrenic with no control over his actions, then it complicates my desire to see him executed for murdering six people, including a nine-year-old girl.  I suspect that he will be determined to have been aware of the consequences of his actions – and I do not actually subscribe to Lithwick’s either/or of politically-motivated, self-aware shooter/apolitical unaware crazy person; obviously, Loughner could be a apolitical, self-aware shooter who is barely sane enough to stand trial – but if it turns out that the guy was truly incapable of understanding what he was doing then there’s some question as to the point of executing him.

Fortunately, not my call to make.

How to vote for the Hugo.

Ian Tregillis – author of Bitter Seeds, which is eligible for a Hugo this year (more later) – has provided links on where to submit nominations for the 2010 Hugo award (which is, of course, the premiere award for science fiction). I’m half-tempted to shell out the fifty bucks for voting privileges myself; goodness knows that my original career path got short-circuited about ten years ago, but it’d be nice to have have at least some connection to that aspect of my life.

As to Bitter Seeds itself, I quite liked it: it was a good horror/supernatural/sorta-kinda-superhero-not-really alternate-history World War II book that did not hesitate to allow a significant change to history, well, significantly change history.  This is always a bit of a problem with WWII alternates that have supernatural and/or metahuman elements to it: what’s stopping the metahumans from using their powers to end the war?  It can be explained – and explained well – but it’s kind of refreshing to have a book that confronts the problem head-on.  Worth picking up.

Continue reading How to vote for the Hugo.

Sympathy for the Moonbeam.

While the rest of the country is focused on Arizona, California remains in a bit of a fix – and by ‘fix’ I mean ‘rampaging financial crisis.’  The state needs to come up with twenty five billion dollars to handle its budget shortfall, and incoming Governor Brown has decided to split the baby* in the new budget.  He’s proposed 12.5 billion in spending cuts and 12 billion in tax hikes.  Said tax hikes will take the form of extensions on current tax rates (which will need to be ratified by the voters in a June vote; the spending cuts will hit everywhere except K-12 education & prison guards (which are represented by two lobbying groups that were heavy supporters of Brown).  But the controversy over that may pale in comparison to Brown’s proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies, which is currently having the same effect on local governments as a thrown rock does, right after it impacts the hornet’s nest.  No doubt more controversy, objections, push-back, push-push-back, and scenes of torch-bearing mobs are all to follow.

All in all, I’m glad that I’m not Governor of California – and, truthfully, there’s a certain relief in the notion that I’m not obligated to give the Governor of California advice on how to fix his state’s long-time financial woes.  I will, anyway** – I’m that nice a guy – but I don’t have to, and arguably the state of California has already made it clear that fiscal conservatism is not welcome over there.  Which is their privilege: but it means that all I have left to offer is a certain rough sympathy.  Which, for what it’s worth, I extend.

Moe Lane

Continue reading Sympathy for the Moonbeam.

Obama’s Tucson speech preempted by THAT WOMAN.

Mister President, here’s the bar that you have to clear.

Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

It’s a high one. A much higher one than your attendants are telling you that it is. They are almost certainly telling you to concentrate on the ‘blood libel’ comment – which, by the way, will immediately resonate with at least 40% of the population of the country, mostly because it is damned accurate* – but what you really need to do is take note of the fact that she’s saying the things that the President should be saying right now about the need to come together, the glory of this country – and, yes, that the Democratic party is acting like a bunch of [expletive deleted] right now, and that they need to stop.

Call in your speechwriters. Make them watch this speech. Tell them that you need one just like it, only twice as good. Because if you don’t – if you go with your usual scheme where you try to set yourself up as the only rational solution in a world full of the irrational – you will merely hasten your irrelevance.

(See also here: I promoted, but I had more to add).

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Continue reading Obama’s Tucson speech preempted by THAT WOMAN.

Transparent… palladium?

Which is like transparent aluminum, except that it actually exists outside of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  I’m guessing: there’s science involved, and I let my wife handle the science above a certain (read: ‘minimal’) level.  Sounds like they’ve worked out how to make the glass significantly less brittle, which will give all sorts of structural advantages.  Was that a safe summary?  I think that was a safe summary: I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.

Sanders puts Tucson attack in fundraising crosshairs.

Title written with (fully justified) malice aforethought.

Senator Bernie Sanders – the socialist Senator from Vermont who we’re supposed to pretend isn’t a socialist because the Democrats get upset about us bringing up the entire ‘socialism’ thing – has decided that the best way to handle last weekend’s attempted assassination of a Congresswoman (and the murder of six people, including a nine-year-old girl) is to send out a fundraising letter blaming the whole thing on the right wing.

Given the recent tragedy in Arizona, as well as the start of the new Congress, I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few words with political friends in Vermont and throughout the country. I also want to thank the very many supporters who have begun contributing online to my 2012 reelection campaign at w ww.bernie.org…

[several paragraphs’ worth of Left-pornography]

…

In light of all of this violence – both actual and threatened – is Arizona a state in which people who are not Republicans are able to participate freely and fully in the democratic process? Have right-wing reactionaries, through threats and acts of violence, intimidated people with different points of view from expressing their political positions?

Bernie Sanders’ answer is, of course, “Not if you give me money!”  That the attacker was a 9/11 Troofer who opposed the war and believed in shadow conspiracies – which is pretty much Sanders’ fund-raising base right there – is irrelevant to the Senator’s purpose, which is to transfer as much money from the pockets of the gullible to his own*.  So is the charmingly naive bourgeois notion of ‘human decency,’ which might have otherwise kept the Senator from Vermont from engaging in this behavior.  Nope: this is about bringing in the cash by making people afraid and hateful – which would be ironic, except that anybody who is a voluntary socialist in America is dead to the concept anyway…

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading Sanders puts Tucson attack in fundraising crosshairs.

‘Three’ quotes from Paul Kanjorski.

All on the subject of civility.

…it is incumbent on all Americans to create an atmosphere of civility and respect in which political discourse can flow freely, without fear of violent confrontation.

– Former Representative Paul Kanjorski (D, PA), January 11, 2011.

“That [current Florida Republican Governor Rick] Scott down there that’s running for governor of Florida,” Mr. Kanjorski said. “Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him [*] and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him.”

– Former Representative Paul Kanjorski (D, PA), October 23, 2010. (Via Mark Hemingway)

“I am sorry that I called for the literal killing of Governor Scott – and that I wrote an op-ed calling for civility without ever once admitting that by my own moral pretensions I was one of the worst offenders of my party, let alone the larger political scene. I am so, so sorry.”

– Former Representative Paul Kanjorski (D, PA), don’t hold your breath waiting for him to say that.

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading ‘Three’ quotes from Paul Kanjorski.