Month: June 2009

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we had to whittle our own spears…

…and hunt down large, ill-tempered prehistoric badgers for our food. Then eat them, raw, because we hadn’t discovered fire yet. At least, that’s what I did: Rand Simberg was probably one of those early adopters of flame technology. He has the look…

What? Sorry, I was reacting to this story about a thirteen-year-old kid who carried around a Sony Walkman for a week, all anthropologist-like. His conclusion?  It’s a big, heavy, clumsy device that sucks up batteries like nobody’s business and eats tapes.  Here’s a quick news flash: we knew that at the time, too. That’s why people went out and invented the MP3 player in the first place: if the Sony Walkman hadn’t been ultimately a big pain in the neck, we wouldn’t have bothered. I mean, really… 1979 was the year that Alien and the first Star Trek movie came out. We had some idea that you could make the blessed things smaller.

Sheesh.

Moe Lane

PS: No, I have no idea why this harmless and innocuous article got up my nose like that.  Maybe it’s because I never knew until now what the metal switch was for, either.

PPS: This thing with the metal switch may have been a common situation.

Meet Carol Browner, Energy Czar.

Via Ed Morrissey, witness her full and total awareness of the cap-and-trade monstrosity that her political party is threatening to unleash upon the world:

“I’ve read major portions of it, absolutely.”

You know, this is one of those times that I almost feel sorry for hyper-partisan Democrats. Can you imagine having to go through life having to pretend that this administration has any idea what it’s doing?

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, I would accept the “The executive branch hasn’t had an opportunity to read what the legislative branch has cobbled together yet…” excuse. Assuming, of course, that it’s immediately followed by “…which is why the President’s going to veto the bill and send it back to the House so that they can do a competent job this time.”

Until then… well. I voted for the other guy.

Crossposted to RedState.

We are finishing up the handover of security for Iraqi cities to the Iraqi government.

(Via AoSHQ) It has been declared a holiday, and for good reason. They’re getting their country… well, ‘back’ is the wrong word; under the Baathists it was never really ‘theirs’ to begin with. But they do take responsibility for their cities and towns now.

Iraqis Celebrate Day of National Sovereignty Marking US Troop Pullback

Iraqis are staging a national celebration to mark the impending June 30th withdrawal of U.S. troops from most cities, towns and villages. Celebrations in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, include music, dance and poetry.

I think that this is a nicely iconic image:

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

xkcd calls it on Idiocracy.

I watched about half of it, all the while muttering You could have at least referenced “The Marching Morons,” until I more or less lost interest.  I think that this comic has helped me understand why.

idiocracy

It’s because the movie was smugly smoking crack, that’s why.  And, absent the social insight, well… Idiocracy just ain’t all that as a film.

Moe Lane

PS: xkcd is indirectly referencing something called the “Flynn Effect,” which basically indicates that average IQ scores have been going up since we started using IQ tests.  For some reason, the most obvious answer as to why – better infant and child nutrition worldwide means less brain damage – is being resisted by some; ach, well, it’s not like this is my field of study anyway, so I have no skin in the game.

For the “Not a Public Utility Files.”

I should probably take it easy today: we just crammed a month’s worth of tabloid news into a week, and it’s maybe taking its toll.

But imagine how the Weekly World News must be feeling right now.  They’re in serious danger of drowning in their stock-in-trade: no respectable online tabloid should have to cover Michael Jackson’s funeral AND Mark Sanford’s Sasquatch lover AND Ahmedinejad moonwalking at the same time. There’s just not enough space on one front page.

Rewarding party loyalty: Kirk, Castle, and Cao.

Like RS’s Erick Erickson and TNR’s Ironman, I instinctively shy from a boycott of the NRCC because they had eight members out of one hundred and seventy eight who flunked a test vote.  Some of the names on that list hurt to see, and a couple are exercises in teeth-grinding; but perfect is the enemy of the good, and Congressional Republicans have done a good job in using our lopsidedly minority status to the best effect possible.  Nobody’s pretending that this was passed with bipartisan support.  Nobody’s even trying.  That’s better news for next year’s elections than what I was frankly expecting, back in December 2008.

That being said: this was a test vote, and these eight represent eight ‘Blue Dogs’ that could safely vote No on this bill and keep pretending to their constituents that they believe in fiscal responsibility, and there needs to be some sort of response to that.

I have a modest suggestion along those lines, and his name is Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA-02). Continue reading Rewarding party loyalty: Kirk, Castle, and Cao.