QotD, Scarier Than It Looks edition

MSNBC VP Bill Wolff, in the process of denying that his entire network has a psychotic sexual obsession towards Sarah Palin:

“MSNBC does not have a political agenda.”

Here’s why it’s scary: what if this guy actually believes that? Cynical lying we can handle: heck, the media does that every day.  But this kind of lack of elementary self-awareness that’s for reals – well, it’s the sort of thing that ends… badly.

More globalwarming heading our way.

NO! MAKE THE ANGRY FROZEN WATER SKY DEMONS STOP!

Seriously: my kid’s made preschool one, two days a week the last half-month because of all the globalwarming that we’ve had so far.  And now I have ice storms to worry about?  Let me put it this way: Maryland shuts down if the state government hears the phrase “ice storms*.”  Actual ice storms usually involve the sacrifice of an unblemished ram to the aforementioned angry sky demons.

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, this means that the Maryland state government does no actual work, which is an improvement.  Hey, just because the joke is old doesn’t make it not true.

Democrat-backed bank ‘reform’ kicks poor in the face.

I thought that the title would get your attention.

If you’re upset by the title, well, my response will be tempered by your political affiliation.  If you’re a Republican or an independent, my response is “Yes, it really is that awful.  Here’s a list of some of the possible-to-plausible fallout from the CARD Act and Dodd/Frank (and its associated Durbin Amendment):

  • Credit-card rates for new card-holders range from 14.72% to 20% for the range typically associated with young people to starting at 24% (and the sky’s-the-limit) if your credit rating is bad;
  • Annual fees on debit cards;
  • Limiting debit card reward programs;
  • Creating a price cap on transactions using a debit card;
  • Raising ATM non-customer fees;
  • Increasing fees on checking accounts;
  • Increasing minimum balance requirements for debit and checking accounts;

…and those are just the most obvious possibilities.  There’s undoubtedly half a dozen that should have been listed, but weren’t.

Continue reading Democrat-backed bank ‘reform’ kicks poor in the face.

Alec Baldwin politics Senate taxes (placeholder post)

Just on the off chance that Alec Baldwin ever runs for political office in the near future… whoever is researching this, be sure to have your boss ask Alec how that residential status tax audit turned out.  Or why he fought it in the first place, seeing as Baldwin was for raising taxes on… well, people as rich as him… back in 2006.

Deceiver.com.  Doesn’t always have stuff that you can use – but when they do, it’s usually tasty.  And they have the saving grace of bipartisan finger-pointing.

#rsrh Big Hollywood’s Top 25 Leftist films.

If you have an hour or so to kill, go to the bottom of this page and start scrolling up.  John Nolte does a very good job in both analyzing not only why a movie is Left-wing, but why it’s still good in spite of that particular and lamentable character flaw.  I haven’t seen all of these films, but the ones that I did see I liked.

And I’m going to check out Dead Man Walking pretty much on Nolte’s recommendation; I liked Bob Roberts in spite of itself, and if Tim Robbins made a better film…

Moe Lane

PS: John, if I can make a guess… the reason why you hated the movie Pleasantville is possibly because you didn’t watch it as it should have been watched: as a Cthulhu Mythos-style cosmic horror film.  I’m being perfectly serious: Ken Hite worked out that interpretation, and it makes a good deal of sense.  As much as your argument that Apocalypse Now reflects a literal wandering through Hell…

#rsrh Quote of the day, You Have Been Warned edition.

Glenn Reynolds, in response to Wisconsin state legislator Jon Richards’ apparent petulance over the idea that he can be stopped from exercising his naked Will to Power by a mere set of laws:

…to politicians who dismiss the constitutional allocation of power as a “technicality,” be reminded that on tax day people pay taxes, instead of treating you like robbers, because of the constitutional allocation of powers. Without that, you’re just another bandit to be treated accordingly. Do you really want to dismiss the rule of law that way? The answer, of course, is that to politicians, the rule of law — like the taxes — is for the little people. I would recommend against pushing too hard on that front right now, though.

You know, Glenn Reynolds would not exactly be my first choice for recruitment into the New Jacobins.  It is a measure of just how badly the Democratic Beltway aristos are doing right now – worse, how little they care about how badly they’re doing – that we’re hearing more and more exasperation and anger in voices like Instapundit’s.

Moe Lane

#rsrh High-speed rail.

The Left is whining about it again [Link fixed.].  Speaking as somebody who’s actually used Amtrak in the past, let’s just establish this once and for all: it’s great for going from Manhattan to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and/or Washington DC… if you’re having work pay the several hundred dollars in fares that you need for a round trip.  If you’re don’t, it’s expensive.  If you need to go somewhere else than from city-to-city, you’re stuck.  If you rely on Amtrak for a daily commute, you are smoking crack.  If you have kids, then an Amtrak trip is excellent practice for dealing with the fires of Hell.

Bottom line, folks: urban types love high-speed rail because it more or less conveniently links the roughly .5% of the country that they actually care about.  The rest of us use this thing called an “automobile,” which is a marvelous device that likewise goes from city to city; plus, you can use it to do such different activities as facilitate shopping, explore rural and suburban areas, and engage in emergency transportation.  In a pinch, it even makes for an impromptu locale for fornication.

Try doing that on the Acela.

#rsrh Eliminationist rhetoric in the… Mikado?

I am afraid that complaining about calling for the beheading of Sarah Palin IN THIS SPECIFIC CASE falls into the category of “They will get away with it:” the production was of The Mikado, which is a Gilbert & Sullivan opera that features a song called “As someday it may happen” (more commonly known as “I’ve Got A Little List”).  The topic of said song is about suitable subjects for execution; it was wide-ranging in the original, included public figures generally, and has traditionally been updated to include contemporary targets.  I can personally speak to this tradition being both real, and scrupulously followed; a decade ago I attended one revival in DC where the song called for the mass culling of everybody involved in Bush vs. Gore.

Not having seen the production by the Missoula Children’s Theater, I don’t actually know if the aforementioned beheading was included in that specific song; if it wasn’t, the letter writer has a point.  If it was… hey, I love reading Instapundit and James Taranto, but the Republic has survived in spite of this tradition for a century now.  The real question is whether the director thought to balance the score by,  say, hoping for the defenestration of a left-wing politician…

Moe Lane

[UPDATE]: James kindly sent me the MCT Community Theater’s (I was pleasantly surprised to hear that kids were being shown Gilbert & Sullivan) “Sorry if anybody was offended; we’ve removed the lines in question” response.  I normally hate that sort of thing, so I will simply note that they did so and move, as they say, on.