10 to 16 inches of snow?

God help us all: nobody in Dizzy City is capable of dealing with the concept of frozen sky-water piling up to levels like that.  And may I note that there’s something sad about the fact that a person from NJ can mock anybody about their reaction to bad weather?

Also, this much snow seems a bit much, given that it isn’t even officially winter yet.  Is Al Gore flying back from Copenhagen via Dulles?

Democrats not enjoying their Congressional majorities: health care edition.

Howard Kurtz:

That splashing sound you hear is liberals jumping off the health care ship.

Moe Lane:

That murmuring sound you hear is conservatives not giving a tinker’s dam.

And why should we?  This entire situation came about because Democratic legislators decided that their opposite numbers were worth neither respect, elementary politeness, nor influence in the Grand New Order of the Democrats’ projected two-generation dominance of the American political sphere. They instead concluded that the combination of their Congressional majorities and a secular Messiah in the White House would entitle them to do whatever they darn well pleased.  So the Democrats played cheap rhetorical games to placate their more addled cheerleaders and buckled down to the serious job of gouging money out of the budget for their own districts’ gain (H/T: Instapundit).

Elections may have consequences – but, then so does choosing one particular policy strategy over another.  It’d be nice if the Democrats stopped whining about the results, thanks.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

GURPS Bloody Vorkosigan Saga. *Finally.*

How long has the GURPS community waited for GURPS Vorkosigan Saga? Let me put it this way: the editor started off his acknowledgment by apologizing for the delay. This roleplaying game sourcebook was in production for five years.  There were probably bets made on when, if ever, this book would ever see the light of day.  The only reason why all of this didn’t end in a frontal assault on Steve Jackson Games is that Bujold fans tend to be kind-hearted souls without access to kinetic energy weapons.

…I kid.  This book was a bit of a Jonah; everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and after a certain point you have to accept that sometimes that just happens.  And it’s nice to have a copy in hand.  But man, was this a wait.

Moe Lane

Correcting the record on Organizing for America.

(H/T: Hot Air) There’s an assumption here that should be challenged as a matter of course:

“We heard story after story from current Organizing for America volunteers about how they were getting disillusioned with Obama because he wasn’t fighting for the public option,” [Progressive Change Campaign Committee flack Adam] Green said. “Obama’s email list may soon become a hollow shell if he does not fight Joe Lieberman and insist that there be a public option.”

…’become?’ Organizing for America is a hollow shell.  It’s been a hollow shell from pretty much the moment that it stopped being a ‘sexy*’ campaign tool that didn’t actually require its members to do anything except hand over money and votes. See here and here and here and here and here and here and here for more commentary along those lines.  OfA will probably be very useful to the President when it comes time for his re-election – anybody still taking it seriously by then will be a prime source for campaign contributions – but as an instrument of enabling policy changes?

Let me put it this way: OfA wants people like me to fear it.  Not mock it.

Moe Lane

*For given values of ‘sexy.’

Crossposted to RedState.

The inevitable Al Gore + Global Warming Conference = SNOW! post.

Byron York wants to know what Republican legislators are doing in Copenhagen.

Getting snowed in, apparently.

As if on cue with former Vice President Al Gore’s arrival in Copenhagen, the site of the United Nation’s climate summit is expected to receive heavy snowfall and bitter cold temperatures. With a bit of amusement some have pointed to the arrival of the cold weather as an example of the ‘Gore Effect’.

In recent years, the term ‘Gore Effect’ has come to take note of unseasonable weather that seems to accompany the Nobel Laureate or when a significant global warming event is held. Since 2004 these coincidences occur with uncanny frequency.

Well, at least this way Al Gore’s killing less polar bears.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

What *does* happen if KSM walks?

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Ben Lerner asks a couple of questions that this administration doesn’t want to answer:

So what happens if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 masterminds, whose trials Attorney General Eric Holder has decided will take place in the criminal justice system in New York, get off on a technicality or are somehow O.J.-Simpsoned by a jury? Can we still hold them? If not, where do they go?

At its simplest, one of two things will happen:

  1. They get let go.  That means that the guy who planned the 1993 WTC attack and the murder of Daniel Pearl (to give just two examples) walks out onto an American street, free and happy.
  2. They stay locked up, and to the Devil with the court system.  No, I don’t [expletive deleted] know why captured terrorists were given legal rights and a trial if an unfavorable result was going to be ignored anyway, either.

Those are the options: media circus, or show trials.  The administration had better well hope they do a better job at handling this than they have at… well, everything… so far.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

2010 Dem Retirement Watch: Who’s your favorite?

And by ‘favorite’ I mean either ‘one you’d like to see gone’ or ‘one who is on the cusp.’  Watching either type try to decide whether they can hold out another two years for a Presidential election – and whether there’s any point to it, given the way that this President’s approval ratings keep shrinking – should provide us all with many hours of innocent amusement for the next few months.  Or not-so-innocent amusement.

My current candidate for the next round of spend-more-time-with-my-family?  Alan Mollohan, WV-01.  As Brian notes, Mollohan is a corrupt suckweasel who may get indicted soon; as Don notes, Mollohan is having fundraising troubles; and as Jim notes, people are lining up to get a stab at the privilege of challenging Mollohan for his seat. WV-01 is R+9; Cook lists it as competitive (“Likely Democratic“).  And (again) like Brian, I suspect that the DCCC’s going to want to spend its money elsewhere next year.

Interesting times for the Democrats.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Top 20 SF films?

(Via Nodwick) On the one hand, the movies on this list that I’ve actually seen:

Pitch Black
Star Trek
Spider-Man 2
The Incredibles
28 Days Later
Iron Man
The Dark Knight
District 9
Serenity

…are all excellent (in particular, Pitch Black making the cut pleased me). On the other hand, the omission of Cloverfield in favor of (pick your obscure film here) seems a bit raw.  On the gripping hand, I’m hearing that Avatar kind of sucks as anything except partisan agitprop.

Moe Lane