Month: June 2013

California picks the WRONG DANG OCCUPIER to go Full Metal Orwell on.

Background: California Occupier anti-bank fetishist got into a pissing match with one of Bank of America’s corporate security honchos; the latter had the former arranged for vandalism after the former kept supplementing his anti-BoA rants with chalk slogans on the sidewalk.  This is nettle versus wasp territory, here: the Occupier acts incredibly entitled and the security guy seems a little too happy to use his connections to fuel the Occupier’s persecution complex. Anyway, the Occupier’s now facing jail time and fines and is not very happy that the judge won’t let him turn the whole thing into a free-speech debate.

I’m trying to find the right balance, here.

  • On the one hand, vandalism charges are there for a reason.  The idea is to inculcate a respect for public and private property by creating punishments for people who deface either (whether temporarily, or permanently).  The First Amendment doesn’t actually give somebody the right to write rude things about me on my own wall.  Or even nice things about me.
  • On the other hand, thirteen years of jail time is a steep potential penalty for writing slogans on the sidewalk in water-soluble chalk*.
  • On the gripping hand, this is California and an Occupier is fighting with a Bank of America corporate drone and there’s not a damn thing about any of this that has anything to do with me and mine** and Tea Partiers in the same situation would have gotten permission from the relevant individuals before breaking out the chalk and frankly there are about three thousand Occupiers who are infinitely more deserving of a good, solid vandalism charge or two.  Or six. Or twenty.

Continue reading California picks the WRONG DANG OCCUPIER to go Full Metal Orwell on.

All right, which one of you jokers created the Vegan Sellout List?

Because there’s no way that anybody would be so stupid as to create for real a website that openly admits that it exists to sending people hate mail.  This has got to be a elaborate practical joke.

…Right?

Moe Lane

Via Legal Insurrection.

PS: It’s a little hard to mock something when it has already comprehensively self-mocked itself, twenty times over.

The Libertarian Purity Test.

I am linking to this because I am half-morbidly curious to see how many of my readers will score several quantum levels more libertarian than my officially Softcore Libertarian 30. I suspect most. Sorry, guys: I like a non-privatized legal system and the heady decadence of state-sponsored Batmanning.

…Is that even a word?

Via

Tweet of the Day, @ABFalecbaldwin Begins His Inward Death Spiral edition.

This is… unfortunate, what is apparently happening to Alec Baldwin.

Normally I don’t subscribe to celebrity gossip, but this guy wants to play politics, so what the heck: I’ll return the favor. Free hint, dude: don’t engage in homophobic slurs against a writer for observing out that your wife was tweeting during a funeral. Also… well. I should show compassion; I may be in that man’s shoes, some terrible night.

@katiecouric: Let them eat less cake.

There are two answers to this. The first answer is “No”…

…and the second answer involves a hearty wish for Ms. Couric to take her proposal; fold it until it is all corners; and then shove it somewhere that will not be covered by standard healthcare plans, once Obamacare is implemented. If you have ever wondered why some people suggest that the country is divided in an Imperial Capital district, and everywhere else; well, here’s Exhibit A.  Continue reading @katiecouric: Let them eat less cake.

Why the Democrats are about to HAMMER young people on student loan rates.

You’d think that the Democrats would be capable of basic constituency services.  But apparently not:

Senate Democrats battled among themselves over student loans Thursday, holding dueling news conferences about the right way to prevent interest rates from doubling in four days.

It was an unusual situation for the party with an issue on which it has typically been united. And the split all but guaranteed that the chamber will blow past the July 1 deadline, when new student loan applicants who receive need-based federal aid will see their interest rates rise from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

Basically, the mess here is due to a combination of ham-handed incompetence and a basic petty inability to compromise*. To drastically over-simplify: the President wanted a deal on student loan rates;  Senate Republicans are happy to oblige the President, given that Obama is willing to give away a bit, for a change (and the alternative is the House Republican plan, which both Obama and the Senate hate); Senate Democrats got their noses out of joint on the subject; and now they’re yelling at each other and having dueling press conferences and generally doing what Washington, DC does best.  Which is to say, nothing – but nothing is being done in a dynamic and very earnest manner that assures people that Issues Are Being Addressed**. Continue reading Why the Democrats are about to HAMMER young people on student loan rates.

*Other* QotD, I Almost Admire The IRS’s Chutzpah edition.

You have got to be kidding me:

New IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel appeared on his 34th day on the job to brief the [House Ways and Means] committee on his review of the agency’s activities, but he didn’t add much to the conversation — other than asking for a bigger budget, which prompted scorn from Paul Ryan.

I’m surprised Congressman Ryan didn’t throw his dry eraser at Werfel’s head.  I mean, that was just stupid of the new commissioner.  And if Werfel thinks that he’s having a bad day now, just wait until 2014 when he’s suddenly the scapegoat for every bad thing that happens with Obamacare’s implementation – which is to say, everything about Obamacare’s implementation.

I’d feel bad about that, except that nobody made him take the job.

QotD, Somebody *Did* Die In The Aaron Hernandez Story edition.

I haven’t been following the Aaron Hernandez story – short version; he’s a football player for the New England Patriots who is being accused of murdering a guy – but this looked interesting.  The Orlando Sentinel apparently decided that the takeaway from this story is:

To review:

Aaron Hernandez, Biggest Loser.

Tim Tebow, Big Winner.

Which led Ace to note:

I shouldn’t make a big deal but it is strange the guy analyzes the Hernandez Situation chiefly from the perspective of lineup changes on the Patriots.

That it is, that it is.

Moe Lane