Month: January 2012

Tolkien dissed by Nobel Committee?

@Slublog is just a bit offended that the Nobel prize committee back in the Sixties apparently did not particularly enjoy JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings, and definitely rejected it for a prize.  In particular:

The reporter discovered that jury member Anders Österling wrote that the novel ‘has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality’.

…I’m sorry: Anders who?

Moe Lane

#rsrh Well, one more day until New Hampshire.

And then we can stop pretending that we particularly care what those voters think, just in time to go over to South Carolina and pretend that we all particularly care what those voters think. And so the cycle continues.

…What? Dude, I live in Maryland and I’m a Republican. Nobody – and I mean absolutely nobody – is going to even pretend to pretend to care about how I, or anybody else, plan to vote in our primary.  Heck, the deadline’s in two days and the only people on the ballot for President at this point are three local Democrats.  Just the way it is.

Who are the Democratic gun-grabbers in the US Senate? Let’s find out!

In the course of reading this subtly bitter (and thus subtly entertaining) story (via Instapundit) about the effective collapse of the anti-gun movement on the grassroots level, I came across this passage: “In November the Republican House approved a measure that would require states to respect concealed carry permits issued by other, less restrictive states; it now awaits action in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where its fate is uncertain.”  This refers to HR 822, which passed in the House with bipartisan support and is now awaiting action from Judiciary in the Senate.  As people reading this probably know, reciprocal respect of other states’ right-to-carry laws is a hot topic: it recently came to the forefront when a Tennessee woman got arrested for trying to check in her firearm at the 9/11 Ground Zero site.  I should also note in passing that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (INDEPENDENT) attempt to smear said woman by claiming she was also in possession of cocaine backfired: the woman didn’t have any.  But she’s still facing several years of jail time – no, really – for a ‘crime’ that more enlightened portions of the United States of America decriminalized some time ago*.

But that’s a different post – although conservative/Republican groups should take note that New York City is not a safe tourism/convention destination for their members under Mayor Bloomberg – the real question is what the Senate plans to do about restoring civil liberties.  Particularly all those Senators from Shall-Issue states (i.e., states where firearm possession is a right to be exercised, and not a privilege to be granted). Continue reading Who are the Democratic gun-grabbers in the US Senate? Let’s find out!

#rsrh Bill Daley out as White House Chief of Staff.

And by ‘out’ I mean ‘diving out a window:’ the LA Times reports that the news was unexpected and that the President gave Daley a day to think over his resignation.  But apparently Daley wants… to spend more time with his family. He’s to be replaced with OMB Director Jacob Lew.

Two thoughts on this:

  1. Yeah, I’m also wondering what the scandal is, when it’s going to hit, and how much of an impact crater that it’s going to make.  Mind you, I don’t know if any of that is going to splash on Daley.
  2. This makes four Chiefs of Staff in three years.  That ties Barack Obama with Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, both of whom had two terms.   I’m starting to get the impression that the Obama White House is not institutionally healthy.

 

#rsrh Gordon Gecko: misquoted all these years?

As Jim Geraghty points out, if you actually watch the speech that Gecko made in Wall Street…

…it’s actually a pretty harsh critique of precisely the kind of crony pseudo-capitalism that has long been a drag on the economy… particularly under this administration, which apparently takes the position that the biggest problem with our current semi-free market system is that there weren’t enough Democratic clients getting their cut. Continue reading #rsrh Gordon Gecko: misquoted all these years?

#rsrh The media is most to blame for this Depp/White House/Halloween story.

Background: it’s more or less just coming out now that in October of 2009 the White House hosted an Alice-in-Wonderland-themed party put on by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp – which was, to quote Jodi Kantor, author of a new tell-all book (The Obamas), deliberately not publicized: “White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged…”

More here, here, and here.  To get this out of the way… yes, the White House was correct: it would have looked bad if it had come out at the time.  It looks a good bit worse now – frankly, hiding this was stupid.  As is the flailing about trying to pretend that this was never a big deal in the first place; which it might not have been, if they had just admitted that the Obamas had a couple of Hollywood people over to throw them a themed Halloween party.  Then again, obviously the White House knew that this was a bad idea from the start, which is why they felt the need to cover it up. Continue reading #rsrh The media is most to blame for this Depp/White House/Halloween story.

Introduction to Mia Love (R-CAND, UT-04 PRIMARY)

Mia Love is the current Republican mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah: she kicked off her bid today to be the Republican candidate for Utah’s new Fourth Congressional district.  Mia’s running on basic small-government principles, focusing on government being often the problem, and not the solution, to our problems.  She’s got a fairly crowded primary to deal with, and will be facing a transplanted Jim Matheson (who got redistricted out of his seat) if she wins the primary, but it’s Utah and Mia’s a pretty straightforward conservative Republican across the board.  Public defender of the Tea Party, too, and her campaign is definitely interested in grassroots outreach.

Her kickoff video is after the fold: Continue reading Introduction to Mia Love (R-CAND, UT-04 PRIMARY)

Are we… living in a sports movie? [UPDATED]

Let’s review the evidence:

  • The Broncos go 1-4 in their first five games, putting them in the cellar and making it look completely unlikely that they’d make the playoffs.
  • They bring in Tim Tebow, a devout Christian and controversial choice.  For example, lot of people keep noting that he can’t throw passes.
  • Tebow wins one!
  • Tebow loses one.
  • Tebow then wins six in a row!  The words ‘Divine intervention’ and ‘No f*cking WAY’ are often heard in the background, as typically Tebow keeps winning by somehow ripping victory from the jaws of defeat in the fourth quarter. Continue reading Are we… living in a sports movie? [UPDATED]

#rsrh QotD, I’d Pay Money To See This Edition.

Mark Steyn, on the inane questions we saw asked today and yesterday:

I see Terence Jeffrey and Andy McCarthy are having a disagreement about the correct response to a question on gay adoption. The correct response is to take an unconstitutional federally-funded supersized condom, roll it over George Stephanopoulos’ head, and say, “That’s odd. I can no longer hear a word you’re saying. So let me throw in my two bits on impending multi-trillion-dollar ruin…”

Let the record show, by the way, that I give Mitt Romney an A for his response last night to that stupid  contraception question.  But it would have been an A-plus if he had started with a “George, you ignorant slut…” Continue reading #rsrh QotD, I’d Pay Money To See This Edition.