Avoiding Champions Online is hard enough: being told that you can make your own steampunk metal man as a character just makes it excruciating.
Moe Lane
PS: Because I enjoy being married and having a family, that’s why.
PPS: Skin Horse is a fun webcomic. And it’s a Velveteen Rabbit reference, so get your mind out of the gutter.
I’m taking it easy today, and probably so should you.
Wait for it.
That number represents, apparently, the amount of money Americans spend every year on stuff we don’t actually need. And, of course, you can take that one bit of particular information any way you like: even the article that it comes from manages to use it to argue both for the inherent power of capitalism and for the need of a value-added tax.
On the other hand, Instapundit’s reader is right: Best Buy is a toy store for adults (I paraphrase). Which is another, I’ve-had-some-wine way of saying that the aforementioned 1.2 trillion being pumped into the economy could easily disappear if people get worried enough.
Moe Lane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJSZy9UOYOI
Almighty Thor
…OK, that might not be entirely fair: after all, the idea of draconic monsters running through NYC has its points. Still.
You already knew this, of course. But maybe you never articulated it: but that’s all right, because Ace of Spades HQ has for you.
Let me propose a thought experiment. Imagine ten liberals and ten of us. We’re each asked a series of political questions. Our task is not to answer as we ourselves would answer, but instead to guess at what our liberal counterparts will say, and not just as far as conclusions, but also as far as reasoning and assumptions and secondary premises.
Who do you think would do better at this task– we or they? We would. Because while we are fed a steady litany of liberal assumptions and assertions on a daily basis, a liberal is entirely free to ignore the conservative movement’s beliefs altogether by simply never consuming any conservative media.
Read the whole thing.
Background: in 2009 there was a bit of a scandal when two Democratic legislators (one from the Senate and one from the House) parlayed their positions in the state legislature to score cushy government jobs*. In response, the (Democratic-controlled) Oregon House of Representatives passed a bill imposing an one-year moratorium on taking state jobs on exiting legislators, unless those jobs were “publicly advertised and the state seeks out at least three qualified applicants.” The bill died in the (Democratic-controlled) Senate, apparently because the Senate didn’t want to offend the two aforementioned legislators.
But it’s 2011, and the Oregon House is now split 50/50 Democratic/Republican, and the bill (House Bill 3446) has been reintroduced in the House – and passed unanimously by that body. The ratio is still pretty lopsided Democratic in the Oregon Senate, but there may be more movement this go-round. If it doesn’t… well, it may become a bit of an election issue: apparently Oregon state politics are a bit notorious for their revolving-door system for legislators.
So we’ll see.
Moe Lane
*This interpretation of events will no doubt offend some, but then I’ve never really felt bad about hurting the feelings of people who voluntarily apologize on behalf of other people who can go from $22 grand/year salaries to $95-122 grand/year salaries simply because they don’t feel like running for elections anymore.
It’s actually very entertaining to watch The Daily Beast try to offer a ‘balanced’ look at the Trig Palin situation. The short version of said [situation], for those who missed it: one of Wonkette’s more unhinged writers said a variety of disgusting things about Trig Palin; and in response, the Internet took Wonkette out into the alley and administered a curb-stomping made all the more entertaining by the obvious, nervous need of various liberals to join in. The Left is starting to realize just how bad Trig Trooferism looks, you see. The not totally brain-dead portions of it don’t want this issue getting any more press any more, particularly since it will complicate any sort of ‘look at the crazy Birthers’ narrative. So… suppress the Trig Troofers now, and keep them suppressed.
Which is the primary reason for The Daily Beast’s damage control efforts, of course. You see, The Daily Beast recently hired Andrew Sullivan away from Atlantic.com, and Andrew Sullivan is easily the most notorious Trig Troofer out there. And I do mean “most notorious:” Andrew Sullivan obsesses over Sarah Palin’s reproductive system to a degree that puts most heterosexual Casanova-types in the shade. It’s not going to be all that great for Tina Brown if her prized ‘get’ shows up just as the controversy that he’s most known for is being slammed for the pernicious nonsense that it is, all across the blogosphere…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
(H/T: …Somebody.)
The line between the two can get blurry in the Middle East, but it’s being reported that the Assad regime have escalating what has been a steadily-deteriorating situations in Syria. The death toll from yesterday is… well, Syria is keeping foreign reporters out, which makes getting an accurate count correct; but what is getting out is consistent with the Syrians using lethal means to enforce a crackdown.
Meanwhile, we’re issuing stern statements. One half of Hot Air – reasonably enough – asks what else the Obama administration could be doing right now; the other half of Hot Air – also reasonably enough – comments that one thing that we could be doing would be to at least suggest that the Assad regime should relinquish power. I mean, when a dictator’s firing on his own people already, just how much more upset and repressive is he likely to get if the USA formally calls for his ouster? Continue reading Syria firing on funerals/protests.
Not exactly Good Friday music, to be sure.
