Month: September 2009

Book of the Week: Liberating Atlantis.

As it is Sunday, we shall now switch out On Stranger Tides for Harry Turtledove’s Liberating Atlantis. It’s the third book of an alternate history series where the eastern half of the North American continent (named Atlantis by the inhabitants) had apparently been detached millions of years previously and more or less parked in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The previous two books highlighted the alternate’s version of the Age of Discovery and the American Revolution; this one looks to address Atlantis’ version of the American Civil War.

Or you could just buy it because it’s by Harry Turtledove. I find that to be a remarkably successful book-buying strategy.

Moe Lane

Non-aggressive bears non-aggressively invading Aspen.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Today’s “local bears collectively realize that people don’t shoot them on sight anymore” story comes to us from Aspen, Colorado (and via Drudge). They’re up to ten times the usual number of sightings, with a proportionate increase of well-meaning, yet dumb, comments from mystic environmentalists:

“Bears are emblematic of the Aspen community,” said Aspen resident Mark Goodman. “They are wild, beautiful, fabulous creatures that are awesome, yet you keep your distance … the beauty and the fear is what makes it so fascinating.”

Actually, they’re quarter-ton omnivores who fairly quickly work out that those metal cylindrical things usually contain a lot of perfectly edible food, that people keep around a good number of easily-caught animals, and that for some reason it takes a while for humans these days to start shooting off the boom-sticks in response to a black bear taking advantage of the first two points.  Not that I have anything against bears, but romanticizing them is a bad idea.  If for no other reason than because romanticizing them leads to this kind of cognitive dissonance:

Black bears tend to be timid and are generally not aggressive.

[snip]

In Aspen, three people this summer have been attacked in their own homes, including Maureen Hirsch. A bear came into her house through locked French doors.

I’d love to know what ‘aggressive’ even means in this context. The bear has a switchblade?

Moe Lane

Was the Polanski arrest a smokescreen?

Somebody in the AP thinks it’s plausible, if their accidentally-published notes are any indication (via @calebhowe):

they particularly want to know why now. (has he never set foot in switzerland before?) sheila, theorizes that’s because they’re under intense pressure over ubs and want to throw the U.S. a bone, but can you check with justice department sources there?

UBS is a major Swiss financial institution – and one that’s recently been showing up in a lot of stories about Americans being indicted for tax evasion.  The latest one was yesterday, actually – and the timing is interesting.  Not that the UBS issue is really on the public’s radar right now…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Shea-Porter emulates ‘Kerry strategy’ re: being thrown out of town hall.

Background on this issue here: the short version is that Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is rather belatedly attempting to ‘correct’ the impression that she’s been thrown out of town halls in the past.  Such an impression jars badly with this video of her having one of her constituents thrown out of current town halls – complete with her mockery of the man.

By the way?  Support Frank Guinta. Continue reading Shea-Porter emulates ‘Kerry strategy’ re: being thrown out of town hall.

Honduras to Brazil: this Zelaya thing’s getting old.

(H/T: AoSHQ) Not to mention Brazil’s public and increasingly outrageous assistance to Zelaya. So it’s going to have to stop:

Honduras is accusing Brazil’s government of instigating an insurrection within its borders, and gave the Brazilian Embassy 10 days to decide the status of ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, who has taken refuge there.

[snip]

The statement said Honduras would be forced to take measures against Brazil if Brazil did not define its position on Zelaya. It did not specify what those measures would be.

Well, according to Zelaya himself it’ll mean more hallucinogenic Jewish gas – no, really: that’s what he thinks – although it’d more likely that the Hondurans will just PNGing the entire Brazilian embassy and refusing to credential more until Zelaya is either in a Honduran jail, or is both de jure and de facto out of Honduran territory.  Given the general lack of a popular uprising to ‘rescue’ the ousted former president from his durance vile, that would be a reasonably face-saving way to end the confrontation.

Mind you, the way that this administration seems determined to play Ugly American, we might not be so lucky.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Roman Polanski arrested: to be extradited?

(Via @vermontaigne) Amazing how having kids changes a person’s opinions on this sort of thing.

The Swiss Justice Ministry says director Roman Polanski is being held by Swiss authorities ahead of his possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

The ministry says in a statement that Polanski was arrested Saturday upon arriving in Zurich. It says U.S. authorities have sought Polanski’s arrest around the world since 2005.

The 76-year-old was flying in to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival.

And by ‘changes’ I mean ‘intensifies, with the searing focus of a gamma X-ray laser.’  Free piece of advice, to anybody who feels like defending this guy: don’t take it personally when people get to the part about ‘sex with a drugged 13 year old’ and visibly stop caring about mitigating circumstances.  Or when those people look at you in much the same way that they look at canine waste products found stuck to their shoes.

Well, OK, maybe you should take that personally.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

MM to NYT: Welcome to the jungle.

I prefer the term ‘Fishbowl,’ myself.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

The New York Times, on its corrected coverage of the ongoing fall of ACORN:

ON Sept. 12, an Associated Press article inside The Times reported that the Census Bureau had severed its ties to Acorn, the community organizing group. Robert Groves, the census director, was quoted as saying that Acorn, one of thousands of unpaid organizations promoting the 2010 census, had become “a distraction.”

What the article didn’t say — but what followers of Fox News and conservative commentators already knew — was that a video sting had caught Acorn workers counseling a bogus prostitute and pimp on how to set up a brothel staffed by under-age girls, avoid detection and cheat on taxes. The young woman in streetwalker’s clothes and her companion were actually undercover conservative activists with a hidden camera.

Michelle Malkin grades them for the effort: short version is that they’re still flunking, and will continue to do so until they address the Anita MonCrief matter*. Michelle ended her article by welcoming the NYT to the ‘jungle.’ Personally, I prefer ‘Fishbowl:’ it’s more descriptive.  People notice these things now.  They notice, also, when newspaper websites do their best to avoid linking directly to conservative online sources; I’m pretty sure that Big Government wouldn’t have gotten that link if ACORN hadn’t pulled their own statement from their own website.

I don’t actually want to see newspapers go away, seeing as they’ve got structural advantages on news gathering that I envy.  Like actual budgets: when someone like Robert Stacy McCain** decides that he’s going to go down to Kentucky and cover the Bill Sparkman murder, he has to shake the tip jar, write a few posts highlighting the issue, and hope that somebody comes through for his expenses.  The equivalent NYT editor simply calls up the relevant department and has somebody set it up.  The ability to follow stories that easily is a powerful ability; would that the NYT was willing to take advantage of it.

Moe Lane

*Unless you consider one sentence sans link or details at the end of this piece ‘addressing.’  Michelle clearly doesn’t.  For that matter, I don’t think that I do, either.

**Otherwise known as R.S. McCain, Bob McCain, Stacy McCain, or Robert McCain.

Crossposted to RedState.