Month: April 2011

#rsrh Don Giljum apparently can’t speak English.

Admittedly, the big words are hard; but that’s no excuse.  Anyway, in this specific example… paranoia is a condition where someone has an irrational fear of persecution. What avowed Commie* Don Giljum of Operating Engineers Local 148 was describing in the how-to-plan-out-union-violence-and-intimidation video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oTooyabyA&feature=player_embedded

…was the perfectly natural reaction of a man who is the target of an organized conspiracy to intimidate and persecute him. I’m not surprised that Giljum’s not intelligent enough to understand the distinction, though: after all, Marxism is intellectualism for stupid people.

And the naturally vile, of course.

Moe Lane

*I had tacked on a ‘scumbag’ after that, but I decided below that it was kind of redundant.

Supreme Court will not expedite Obamacare suit.

To summarize: Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General for Virginia, requested that the US Supreme Court expedite its presumed-inevitable review of the Virginia Obamacare suit currently wending its way through the lower courts (this is the suit that found the individual mandate both unconstitutional, and severable, from the rest of Obamacare*).  The court has declined to do so; which means that the issue will probably not be actually addressed until the summer of 2012.  This decision is of note for two reasons:

  1. The eventual Supreme Court decision will be – no matter what it actually is – a burning issue in the 2012 Presidential election.  The White House apparently thinks that this will end up helping the President; to which I respond that the White House should stop and think about its to-date track record when it comes to predicting popular opinion.  Or, more accurately, that it should not, as so far said track record has been very helpful for the Republican party.
  2. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan apparently did not recuse herself from this particular situation – this, despite evidence that suggests that she should recuse herself, given her possible involvement in the Department of Justice’s original plans to challenge Obamacare (remember, Kagan at that time was Solicitor General).  There was a FOIA request made on these issues; it may not be wise for the White House to let that go unfilled until the summer of 2012, too.

Continue reading Supreme Court will not expedite Obamacare suit.

The problem of unsecured Wi-Fi.

While I agree with Instapundit that the point of this story should be as much “Cops should be more damned careful about accusing people of being child molesters” as it is “People should consider the implications of offering up unsecured Wi-Fi connections,” I’m forced to admit that the following:

In Germany, the country’s top criminal court ruled last year that Internet users must secure their wireless connections to prevent others from illegally downloading data. The court said Internet users could be fined up to $126 if a third party takes advantage of their unprotected line, though it stopped short of holding the users responsible for illegal content downloaded by the third party.

…doesn’t really upset me all that much. God forgive me, but 126 bucks sounds like it’s about the right amount of a natural-born damned fool fine to impose on people who don’t pay attention to felons borrowing their Internet connection.

Yes, I’m getting old.

Moe Lane

#rsrh President Barack Obama is the Hindmost!

…And it’s a shame that more people on the Right read Larry Niven, because they probably have no idea just how insulting it is to compare the President of the United States to a Pierson’s Puppeteer*.  Which is what an Obama supporter has just inadvertently done:

One of his advisers described the President’s actions in Libya as “leading from behind.” That’s not a slogan designed for signs at the 2012 Democratic Convention, but it does accurately describe the balance that Obama now seems to be finding.

Leading from behind.  Man, that’s perfect. As John Podhoretz, who is also licking his chops in anticipation, recognizes:

The crystallizing phrase “leading from behind” may not be something you’ll see on a sign at the 2012 Democratic convention, but it will almost certainly be in the acceptance speech of the nominee of the Republican party at its 2012 convention, and will be thrown in Obama’s face during the presidential debates by his GOP rival, and will be the centerpiece of the critique of Obamaism going forward.

You know, this may be the first moment where I am actually starting to look forward to this election.  Oh, the fun we will have…

Via @baseballcrank

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh President Barack Obama is the Hindmost!

#rsrh I need to apologize to Trapper John.

I started off putting a post together on this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvs19fvhQzU&feature=player_embedded

…under the assumption that Wayne Rogers (who used to play Trapper John on television) was the ‘liberal elitist douchebag‘ mocking the poor, telling people concerned about higher energy/food prices to get a better job, and generally acting like a complete and utter [expletive deleted].  Hey, former Hollywood actor: seems reasonable enough to assume, right? Continue reading #rsrh I need to apologize to Trapper John.

The 23.7 million dollar fly book.

It’s amazing what can happen when two Amazon.com vendors enter into what is effectively an automatic price raising war with each other.  The short version: one vendor was automatically setting the sales price of a book that he was offering to be 99.8% of a second vendor’s price… and the second vendor was automatically setting his sales price to be 127% of the first vendor’s price*.  The number got up to almost 24 million before anybody noticed.

Interesting thing, the used book retail industry. Especially when you mix it with the Internet.

Moe Lane

PS: This is the book:

*The guess by the author of the linked post is that the second vendor didn’t actually have the book, but could get their hands on it if somebody actually ordered it; and as having a good feedback record is a plus in this business, somebody might actually order from them even if they’re selling it at a higher price.

“Does Botox make you a sociopath?”

…What?  Sorry: I was just fear-mongering for traffic.  Apparently what’s actually happening is that there’s a study out that suggests that people who have deliberately had their facial nerves damaged end up with a reduced ability to perceive other people’s emotional responses.  This is supposedly due to the disruption of a feedback loop between the brain analyzing visual data of other people’s facial features, and a check of the person’s own facial muscles… and I probably got that completely and amazingly wrong, sorry.  Anyway: it probably doesn’t make you a sociopath, no.  Which is probably the wrong term to use, too.

Oh, well: I’m too busy trying to not make the obvious comments about our political/celebrity class to really worry about how badly I got the scientific explanations wrong.  It’s hard going, actually: I’ve never seen the wisdom of injecting botulism toxins into your face, and news like this merely validates that suspicion most neatly…

(Via Instapundit)