Month: November 2010

Cracked.com checks out the Green Movement.

Nice to know I’m not the only one who noticed the religious nature of these people:

Stephen explained in hushed tones that this was a group of social vegans; they practiced a strict regimen of avoiding animal products at all gatherings. He insisted that if I were to try it, after awhile I wouldn’t even like the taste of meat or dairy anymore in the presence of others.

It made sense. At last I understood the self-flagellation part of this faith. We were to inconvenience ourselves with no discernible end, save the faith that the practice alone would make us feel better about our impact on this planet. All our self-loathing could be expunged by a constant regiment of minimal corporal punishment, eating tree bark. Just like in other religions, I gathered, suffering was beautiful to them. I looked around and it was working; they were all so beautiful in their conviction. I threw my arms around Stephen in a supportive hug and the Grape-Nuts fell.

:pause:

Dag.  It’s like I’ve got no mockery left in me right now.  Has the last month critically depleted my snark pile to below a self-sustaining level?

Velma Hart (Obama Town Hall Woman) laid off.

Kind of ironic, but supposedly not targeted; Velma Hart’s company (AmVets) just couldn’t afford to keep her any longer, that’s all. At least, I hope that this administration wasn’t so stupid as to get the CFO for Amvets – and a military veteran herself – fired.  Even if Ms. Hart had made the critical mistake of being critical to the President’s face on national television.

But, just in case Ms. Hart was targeted: I’d like to remind her that the representative for her district is Donna Edwards, and that Rep. Edwards is a liberal antiwar moonbat who bragged about voting to defund the war in Afghanistan.  Not to be ghoulish or anything, but since Ms. Hart is out of work anyway what’s the harm in her giving these people a call?  Believe me: voting reflexively Democratic is one of those habits that people can unlearn, and we’re always looking for folks with a good, solid, American background.

Hey.  Just throwing it out, there.  It seems wasteful to have such a great personal narrative there and not use it; and I can think of at least three good reasons why Velma Hart would never be allowed to be a successful Democratic legislator, at any level.  So why not explore other options?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh QotD, Shoot-the-messenger edition.

While going through Ben Smith’s law blogger roundup of THAT WOMAN vs. Gawker (short version: Gawker is kind of hosed*) I came across this bit of misdirected exasperation on William McGeveran’s part:

…if you are sick of hearing Sarah Palin decry the arrogance of the media that covers her, then you’d rather deny her the satisfaction of being right.

I think that it’s just the tiniest bit uncouth to be blaming the victim for this, Mr. McGeveran?  Blame Gawker, blame the abusers of fair use, heck, blame the media/liberal/Democratic crusade if you like.   But I don’t see exactly what THAT WOMAN did wrong here.

Besides exist, of course.

Moe Lane

*They probably didn’t help matters much by taunting THAT WOMAN with links to… sites that proved her point, actually.

#rsrh Gore’s Gory War on Ethanol.

(Via AoSHQ) Hey, you know that 7.7 billion dollars we’re spending every year on ethanol subsidies?  You know, the pseudo-environmental boondoggle that doesn’t actually do anything except pay off politically important American constituencies and push up food costs worldwide?  The policy that has created yet another set of worthless parasites battening off of your tax money?  Yeah, that program’s up for renewal, so we should kill it.

Isn’t that right, Al Gore?

“It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol,” said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.

The whole thing is fascinating reading: so much so that you have to wonder whether Gore has either been replaced with his Evil Twin, or (more likely) he’s simply heavily invested in second-generation biofuels, which are not made from corn.  If the latter, well, it’d make a certain amount of sense for him to publicly and explicitly no longer care about farmers in Tennessee and Iowa, given that Al Gore is never, ever going to be able to become President ever again…

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Gore’s Gory War on Ethanol.

Maxine Waters trial delay.

There was an interesting development in the Rep. Maxine Waters ethics trial last Friday: the charges were abruptly sent back to Ethics’ investigative subcommittee for review… and ‘mum’ was, as they say, the word as to why.  Oh, Rep. Waters immediately claimed vindication – which she would probably do if they were loading her onto a tumbrel – but there hasn’t been much chatter about this.  There may not be for a while, assuming that more details of the story don’t break today.

However, there is one aforementioned detail, courtesy of the NYT, courtesy of Contentions: apparently the charges are being reviewed because of a new set of emails, which purportedly “show that [Rep. Waters’ chief of staff Mikael] Moore[*] was actively engaged in discussing with committee members details of a bank bailout bill apparently after Ms. Waters agreed to refrain from advocating on the bank’s behalf.”  Again, Rep. Waters’ staff is claiming that said emails actually will vindicate her; again, that’s pretty much what they’d say any which way.  Right now, about the only consensus is that it’s unlikely that the Waters trial will actually take place during the 111th Congress. Continue reading Maxine Waters trial delay.

#rsrh Geraghty’s back.

Good line on the entire Obama-is-Job thing: “So This Would Make the 2010 Midterms a Landslide of Biblical Proportions, No?”

Also, check out (ahem) RedState’s analysis of the theology involved in the (absurd) original comparison. We were fortunate to have access to an actual theologian; it’s not something that we would normally consider necessary, and I’m just a little annoyed that The New York Times felt it acceptable to drag laughingly bad religious arguments into what should be a straightforward policy debate…

Moe Lane

#rsrh The TSA is probably doomed at this point.

Completely subjective opinion on my part, but it feels like just about everybody woke up over the course of the last week and realized that not only they hated the current, ineffectual system; so did everybody else.  And after the yelling came the name-calling; and after the name-calling came the sarcastic mockery; and once that starts the perceived support for a group or policy can erode like a sand castle at high tide.  Pretty quickly, too.

Guess we’ll see if the Thanksgiving holiday confirms my opinion or not.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh The TSA is probably doomed at this point.