Month: February 2015

A quick note on civil disobedience.

The entire point of civil disobedience is to deliberately, openly, and publicly accept the penalties that come from breaking an evil law. You have to go to jail, in other words. The goal is to make people say “Wait. This guy is a good guy! And they’re putting him in jail for this stupid law?!? And what he did, that was illegal in the first place? Well, it shouldn’t be. That poor guy.”

Yes, that makes life uncomfortable for the person engaged in civil disobedience. Probably permanently so. But that’s the idea. That’s how you make people ashamed at the injustice, and at the system that created the injustice. If you’re not ready to take that step, fine. But you’re not this guy…

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust. and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

…so don’t pretend that you are.

Rep. Janice Hahn (D, California-44) bails out of Congress.

Normally I would say that Janice Hahn cut and ran, but CA-44 is a D+32 district.  That’s… pretty safe for a Democratic candidate. Anyway, we all missed this news from last week; and, her reasons for retiring? It is to laugh:

“The problem is, Washington is broken, it’s increasingly mired in political gridlock, and there’s virtually zero cooperation between the two parties. That’s not the kind of government I grew up with, and it’s precisely why I know I can do more for the Los Angeles region on the Board of Supervisors,” Hahn said in a statement announcing her decision.

Continue reading Rep. Janice Hahn (D, California-44) bails out of Congress.

Book of the Week: ‘Superego.’

Sure, sure, Superego (science fiction, hit man, interstellar politics) was written by Frank J Fleming of IMAO fame; and sure, he also wrote Punch Your Inner Hippie: Cut Your Hair, Get a Job, and Make America Awesome Again, which I interviewed Frank on and everything. But I liked Superego on its own merits. It’s a bit of a challenge to try to make a sociopath a sympathetic, let alone heroic, character without appealing to the reader’s dark side; and I think Frank pulled it off. Plus, it was funny and had a decent, fast-moving plot. I’d read more in the series, if Frank was planning to write them.  Check it out.

Continue reading Book of the Week: ‘Superego.’

:raised eyebrow: Of course Hillary Clinton is the inevitable *Democratic* nominee.

I can sum up this NYT article on the subject in one sentence: Nobody credible has signed up to run against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, and it’s getting to be too late for anybody to try.  That first part is particularly problematic for Democrats because they don’t have anybody really credible to run against her, either.  The crop of governors and senior Senators that might have hoped to run have retired, died, or been defeated in re-election bids; a couple are even sweating looming indictments. It is a measure of how poor the field is that Martin O’Malley almost shines in it; I assume that he’ll end up being the designated primary sacrifice, largely because the man is… remarkably optimistic and impressed with his own talents.

All of which means that the presumptive candidate on the Democratic side will probably be spending as much of the next year as possible hiding. She will have absolutely no practical reason to get out more, and Hillary Clinton doesn’t particularly like people much, so why complicate matters by displaying her personality to a wider world. …Yeah, it’s an exquisitely boring strategy that she’s come up with.  Your point?

Jeb Bush opts to enter the lion’s den at CPAC.

(H/T: Hot Air) I must say, this is a smart move: “As the American Conservative Union puts final touches on its annual political conference next week, they’ve offered potential Republican presidential contenders the option of a moderated question-and-answer session instead speaking from a podium to the thousands of activists in attendance… One White House aspirant taking the group up on the offer is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Republican sources told Bloomberg Politics.”  As long-time readers know, the RedState Gathering features something similar: our invited speakers are expected to take questions from the audience. We find that it works well, both from the candidates’ and the audience’s point of view, which is why we keep doing it.  Interesting that the ACU is trying something broadly similar at CPAC*. Continue reading Jeb Bush opts to enter the lion’s den at CPAC.

“The Man in the High Castle” has been greenlit by Amazon.

Cool. Now, don’t let it suck.

What if the Nazis had won? That’s the chilling premise of “The Man in the High Castle”, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, which became Amazon’s most-watched pilot ever and will now be expanded into a full series to be shown online.

The one-off trial episode of “The Man in the High Castle” was produced and shown as part of Amazon’s Pilot Season programme. A couple of times a year Amazon releases a batch of pilot episodes for potential new shows, and you vote for which one you want to see as a full series. The shows appear on Amazon Instant Video.

Via Ed Driscoll.