Month: January 2013

Tweet of the Day, I Agree With The NYP Headline Writers edition.

It’s a beautiful thing, really.

NO! Anthony, I was talking about the situation! Put it back! Put it back*!

Via Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt.

Moe Lane

*I quote Robin Williams: “When in doubt, go for the d*ck joke.” Which is not as good a life lesson as “Cocaine is God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much f*cking money,” but it’ll do.

DARTH MOUSE DECREES: No more 3-D Star Wars for you!

You are not worthy of such a boon!

…You know: between this, JJ Abrams being tapped for directing the new trilogy, and Disney bringing in Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt to do the writing… all f*cking hail selling out to the Mouse.  Lucas should have took the money and run YEARS ago.

Via AoSHQ.

Michael Moynihan does not think things QUITE through.

There is a remarkable disconnect here.  Which is a shame, because otherwise it was a pretty good essay on the way that the moralistic (mostly) Left keeps cheapening the language (not that Michael Moynihan would put it that way).

“It’s a movie! It’s a movie! It’s a movie!” an exasperated Mark Boal told The Times of London last week. Boal is the journalist turned screenwriter behind Zero Dark Thirty , a gripping dramatization of America’s decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden. And unless you have retreated to a cave in Tora Bora, you’ve likely heard that the film’s depiction of torture [he means ‘waterboarding’ -ML] has engendered so much controversy that it has been denounced by politicians, pundits, and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[snip of various stuff, eventually ending up on the TV show Girls, and Lena Dunham’s circle of friends.]

What is alarming, though, is that the most toxic charge in public life—the accusation of racism—demands a rather low burden of proof, and there are no sanctions to be levied against those who deploy the charge carelessly.

Because if Lena Dunham is racist, then what does one call David Duke?

I dunno, Michael Moynihan – hey! If waterboarding is torture, then what does one call cutting off fingers with a custom-built machine?

Moe Lane

*Can* the LA Dodgers dodge California’s new taxes?

Interesting thing from the LAT Times here about revenue sharing between Major League Baseball and the LA Dodgers.  Background: MLB teams are supposed to toss in a third of their local TV revenue into a pot so that smaller-market ball clubs can get a piece of the national pie.  This actually makes pragmatic sense; smaller clubs get a revenue stream, and larger clubs don’t have to worry so much that the next city over will get a baseball franchise that will be competing for the same fans.  However, technology marches on, and with it new wrinkles.  Case in point: Continue reading *Can* the LA Dodgers dodge California’s new taxes?

Organizing For Action Too unorganized to secure its own domain name.

As God is my witness, I was trying to be nice about Obama for America / Organizing For America / Organizing For Action / Oafs Farting Around / whatever else it is that they’re calling themselves these days – anyway, I was trying to be nice about the fact that the latest iteration of the group was having trouble getting itself up and running, or even upright.  Partially because even the best led group in the world can have tremendous difficulties with its launch (so imagine how much trouble OFA’s going to be in, organizationally speaking!) – and partially because the risk of karmic backlash was just too high for casual mockery.  I’d need to have something special happen before I was prepared to point and laugh.

:pause:

This will do. Continue reading Organizing For Action Too unorganized to secure its own domain name.

Media Matters for America: GUN FELONS.

Well now.

A staffer at left-wing Media Matters for America committed numerous felonies in the District of Columbia and around the country by carrying a firearm to defend the organization’s founder, David Brock, The Daily Caller has learned.

According to a knowledgeable source, multiple firearms used to protect the Media Matters founder were purchased with Brock’s blessing — and apparently with the group’s money.

So, why did an ostensibly non-profit organization allegedly flout DC gun laws – some of the most vicious in the country, mind you* – while at the same time working so hard to inflict those laws on the rest of us? Oh, right, because Media Matters for America is a hypocritical bunch of progressive mercenaries who just cash the checks, man. And clearly the laws shouldn’t apply to them.

Via

Moe Lane

*Unless you’re David Gregory (translation: “white”).

Pro Bowl.

This has to be seen to be believed. Of course, I’ve never actually seen the Pro Bowl. Is this normal?

Yes, feel free to get out your frustrations about the Pro Bowl. I’m gathering that the ability to so express one’s frustrations is more popular than the Pro Bowl itself.

Copyright wars: “Glee” rips off Jonathan Coulton’s cover of Baby Got Back.

[UPDATE]: A reader notes that I may be being unfair to Mr. Coulton, as there is evidence that he at least attempts to avoid giving gratuitous offense to people not of his partisan faction. I therefore retract the comment, with a polite apology.

Short version: Jonathan Coulton created a cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s immortal Baby Got Back, back in the day (he’s using the song under a license; this will be important later). The song is pretty much how you’d expect John Denver would do the song on an acoustic guitar after John had smoked himself half-mellow; it’s entertainingly transgressive, people had a good chuckle, most of us forgot about it.

Moving along: so, eventually Glee – yes, that show – apparently decided to cover Coulton’s version themselves without bothering to even tell him.  Shamelessly (click the link and listen for yourself). How shamelessly?  Well, here’s their (alleged) response to Coulton (bolding mine)?

MORE MORE UPDATE 1/25: Well, they aired it, seemingly unchanged. And it’s now for sale in the US iTunes store. They also got in touch with my peeps to basically say that they’re within their legal rights to do this, and that I should be happy for the exposure (even though they do not credit me, and have not even publicly acknowledged that it’s my version – so you know, it’s kind of SECRET exposure). While they appear not to be legally obligated to do any of these things, they did not apologize, offer to credit me, or offer to pay me, and indicated that this was their general policy in regards to covers of covers. It does not appear that I have a copyright claim, but I’m still investigating the possibility (which I consider likely) that they used some or all of my audio. I’ll write something longer and more detailed about this when I can get my head together about it probably in a couple of days. Thanks for your support, but please continue not to burn anything down.

Continue reading Copyright wars: “Glee” rips off Jonathan Coulton’s cover of Baby Got Back.