Author: Moe_Lane

#rsrh Oh, by the way: the Tunisian government fell.

Why did we miss this?  I’m not sure, but I suspect that we’ll start hearing more about it, just as soon as the media figure out how it’s all Sarah Palin’s fault.

Anyway: taking a look at the situation, my first impression is it doesn’t actually look so great for Tunisia: the population got rid of their Dear Leader, yes – but it seems to be done by sheer unfocused frustration, and not because that it was part of any organized ideological and/or political movement.  Then again, the track record for those is spotty, so what do I know?  Seriously – if people have a good source on this (from somebody who genuinely likes America, please) that would be useful.

@asymmetricinfo : That’s what *I* said!

This is precisely what I said in private email – which was not to Megan McArdle, by the way; she’s being hyper-sane on her own – when this ludicrous Slate post about one-spacing was written!  My exact words were:

You may have my second space when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.  I don’t care if this upsets typographers.  I really and truly do not.

I don’t know why, but the fact that Megan independently came up with the same response that I did is immensely cheering.

Trying to erase ‘tear down this wall.’

It is my first instinct to treat this report of Ronald Reagan Jr’s… commentary… by simply letting it pass by without a response.  For those not wishing to click through, the boy (use of term deliberate) is indulging elderly liberal fetishists everywhere by making the claim that his father was suffering from Alzheimer’s as far back as the 1984 debates*, as well as ‘details’ regarding a supposed operation in 1989 that had even the US News & World Report doing some fancy footwork in order to avoid having to declare it a lie.  It’s the Left; it’s pornography; it’s Left-porn.  Outside of that particular niche market, its utility is… low.

So why even bother addressing it?  Simple: because Ron Reagan Jr picked his dates carefully.  1984 and 1986 are before 1987, which the boy made a point of explicitly referencing as being the year that his father should have resigned.  1987 is the year that the boy wants people to decide was a year where his father’s illness was clearly and obviously advanced.  1987 is the year where the boy wants his father to be dead inside.

The only problem is, 1987 is the year of the Brandenburg Speech.  You know: ‘tear down this wall.’

Continue reading Trying to erase ‘tear down this wall.’

I’m breaking my humanocentric rule, here.

Normally, my rule is “If it hurts a human being, it dies – and so does everything that looks like it within a mile radius.”  This rule has served humanity well, and I see no reason to just abandon it.  But when the critter that you are hunting takes your own gun away from you and shoots you with it… well, sir, you have let the side down.

Not only should the fox go free, it should be found, given medical treatment – and presented with the man’s firearm.  Only then may we extirpate the shame brought upon us by this unfortunate episode.

More here.

Asperger’s? They’re blaming this on *Asperger’s*?

Apparently, that’s one excuse being bandied about for the “home-grown jihadi” that the FBI just snapped up in Pennsylvania (reading between the lines, it’s an open question whether this one would have been able to get to his target without shooting his own head off).  Speaking as a geek, I know people with Asperger’s*.  Last time I checked, it’s not a condition that encourages people to go around murdering other people.  To put it mildly.

Moe Lane

*Also speaking as a geek, I know rather more people who have self-diagnosed themselves with Asperger’s, in lieu of obligating themselves to fully cope with the outside world.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter movie advances.

People apparently know my weaknesses: I was specifically sent a link to this report that they’re going ahead with a movie version of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  The guy who wrote it was also the same person who collaborated with Jane Austen in the classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: I’ve read AL:VH, and it’s… not a bad choice for a movie adaptation, really.  I mean, it’s one of those films where things are clear from the start: here is the beloved Abraham Lincoln, one of the chief gods in the American civic pantheon.  He will now kill evil vampires for you. There is very little need to expand on that further; hating that idea is almost like hating America itself.

And if you think that’s disrespectful, well: I’m pretty sure that if he was still around on opening night then Abe Lincoln would have been in the front row, laughing his ass off.  Then again, I also think that Austen would have loved P&P&Z, or at least the ninja.

SHARKS IN THE STREETS OF AUSTRALIA!

Sorry, but a (AoSHQ) headline like that deserves all-caps.  Anyway… bull sharks!  From the river!  Swimming through the flooded town!  Then local Australians captured and started riding them!

OK, I made that last bit up.  But “Australian riding sharks…” that just rolls off of the tongue, doesn’t it?  I’m surprised nobody’s tried that one in real life yet.

Scott Walker makes Wisconsin a sanctuary state.

…For Illinois businesses, that is: the new Governor is doing everything that he can to encourage a mass corporate exodus to Wisconsin, short of actually calling out the local National Guard to provide covering fire for the refugee columns.  This is less of an exaggeration than you might think: the official slogan that Governor Walker is using is “Escape to Wisconsin.”  They’re kind of serious about it, too: the Lt. Governor is going around and calling companies worried about the proposed Amazon* tax that’s about to destroy the business model of thousands of individuals and corporations in Illinois.

One thing that’s kind of entertaining about this situation  – well, there are many things that are entertaining about this situation – is watching folks attempt to push back on this by arguing that taxes are still technically higher in Wisconsin than they are in Illinois.  Indeed: the Democrats took the Governorship in 2002, the state Senate in 2006, and the state Assembly in 2008 – and then they promptly hiked taxes like they were, well, Democrats.  Which is a major reason why the state government flipped so overwhelmingly Republican in November – and why the lightning push to cut business taxes and regulation in January has Democratic screams of outrage for counterpoint.  I’m sure that Governor Walker would love to wave a magic wand and retroactively erase the bad business decisions of the Wisconsin Democratic party in an instant, but unfortunately this is the real world, where magic wands are not particularly known for working.  Believe me: if they did then the Democratic party would have invested in that technology years ago: it’s precisely the hardware that they need to make their economic policies work. Continue reading Scott Walker makes Wisconsin a sanctuary state.