Month: January 2013

Illinois Denny’s manager (temporarily) kicks out off-duty cops for being armed.

Now this is just dumb.

Five police officers were kicked out of a Denny’s restaurant for carrying their guns.

It happened in downstate Belleville.

Needless to say, the national chain is kind of freaking out over one of their soon-to-be-former manager’s decision to encourage off-duty police officers to eat their crime-preventing breakfasts/dinners elsewhere.  Because there’s a reason why Denny’s restaurants don’t get robbed more often, and it’s because criminals are generally smart enough to avoid the places where cops eat.

Sheesh.

Continue reading Illinois Denny’s manager (temporarily) kicks out off-duty cops for being armed.

Just finished reading “Lost States.”

Lost States is a book of Strange Maps; specifically, it’s a collection of some of the almost-states that have been proposed in American history, with maps of how they might have looked.  I liked reading it, being a sucker for Strange Maps, and there were a bunch of Lost States in there that I never heard of.  Fair warning, though: the author demonstrates from time to time a mild (and increasingly dated) irritation towards George W Bush.  Never enough to make me stop reading, but I was rolling my eyes from time to time.

Still, check it out. The cover unfolds out to a suitable-for-framing wall map!

Let me explain that TP VRA sneer I just did.

OK, maybe I need to explain this one a little:

Short version is, ThinkProgress is whining about gerrymandering again: specifically, they added up all the votes for Democratic House candidates, all of the votes for Republican ones, cried “A-HA!” at the way that the one was marginally higher than the other, and decided that it was all due to gerrymandering, GERRYMANDERING, I SAY!!!!!
Continue reading Let me explain that TP VRA sneer I just did.

BREAKING: Current TV still existed, to be sold to al-Jazeera!

Shocking, I know. For those who don’t remember what Current TV is… how the hell did you manage that trick? I’d love to scrub this useless piece of trivia from my mental hard drive. Anyway, this description of Current TV says it all:

Former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Cenk Uygur are currently its lead personalities. Current signed Keith Olbermann to be its top host in 2011 but his tenure lasted less than a year before it ended in bad blood on both sides.

Why then, this is Hell; nor am I out of it.

Via:

Moe Lane

Russia shrugs off Kyoto protocols.

Their reasoning is sound: if India, the PRC, and the USA aren’t stupid enough to sign off on bad science by reducing their energy production*, why should Russia? …Particularly since Canada’s off of the reservation.  Not to mention (potentially) various Russian satellite states. And… well, do we need more examples, really?

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

*Excuse me: ‘reducing their carbon emissions.’  Mustn’t offend Greenie religious taboo, of course.

Washington Post deigns to report on renditions again.

The Washington Post is almost believably shocked to discover that the practice of rendition has returned to Clinton-era levels:

…it is not known how many renditions have taken place during Obama’s first term. But his administration has not disavowed the practice.

Hot Air called this a ‘surprise.’ I know that they’re being sarcastic, because those folks were as aware of the situation with regard to rendition as I have been, for about as long as I have been.  Although I have to admit, I am slightly surprised by just how willing the antiwar movement was to roll over and show its belly on the subject of drone strikes; I assumed at the time that the Left actually meant it when they said that they had a problem with summarily executing jihadis.  Turns out that it’s apparently sexy to progressives when it’s a Democratic President writing out the kill list.

Go figure. Continue reading Washington Post deigns to report on renditions again.