Author: Moe_Lane

Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

It’s a few years old, but the inside blurb promises that Sentry Peak is going to be the weirdest American Civil War novel that you’ll ever read; and while that may or may not be strictly true, it’s certainly up there. Take a look at the cover for confirmation of that. First of a series.

And so, it being Sunday we say goodbye to Zodiac.

Moe Lane Continue reading Book of the Week: Sentry Peak.

Word of advice for 2012 convention planners?

Pick somewhere easily accessible via train.

In the wake of the terrorism attempt Friday on a Northwest Airlines flight, federal officials on Saturday imposed new restrictions on travelers that could lengthen lines at airports and limit the ability of international passengers to move about an airplane.

The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike.

But several airlines released detailed information about the restrictions, saying that passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. It was not clear how often the rule would affect domestic flights.

Ooh, ooh, I can answer this one! The answer is “A lot!” After all, the people making the rules here don’t actually have to suffer under them, so there’s no negative feedback loop to keep them from saddling us with onerous travel restrictions designed to hide the fact that the system did not, in fact, work.  So expect the geniuses currently running the government to make sure that that the rules are blindly applied across the board; it beats thinking, right?

For more, see The Agitator, via RS McCain; and Hot Air.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

It’s Dave Barry’s Year in Review time again.

Highlight of the New Year season, in my not-humble-at-all opinion.  A taste:

But the big political drama takes place in Washington, where David Souter announces that he is retiring from the Supreme Court because he is tired of getting noogies from Chief Justice Roberts. To replace Souter, President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor, setting off the traditional Washington performance of Konfirmation Kabuki, in which the Democrats portray the nominee as basically a cross between Abraham Lincoln and the Virgin Mary, and the Republicans portray her more as Ursula the Sea Witch with a law degree. Sotomayor will eventually be confirmed, but only after undergoing the traditional Senate Judiciary Committee hazing ritual, during which she must talk for four straight days without expressing an opinion.

The man’s still got it; apparently, nobody can figure out where he hides it, so they can’t take it away anyway.

DHS Director Janet Napolitano: “the system worked.”

I… I… I…

…words fail me.  Via Hot Air Headlines:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.”

Moe Lane

PS: No, not even profanity.  It’s that bad.

Crossposted to RedState.

Cognitive Dissonance Watch: Marc Ambinder and Obama golf.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I could care less that the President played golf in the aftermath of the attempted airplane atrocity.  I might feel differently if there was anything that he could have usefully done – or, for that matter, if there was anything useful that I could rely on him doing – but there wasn’t, and I can’t, so the POTUS can go ahead and tee up.  Less harm done, all around.

That being said, watching Marc Ambinder try to tap-dance around the President’s failure to immediately engage the situation – without Ambinder once referring to ‘My Pet Goat*’ – by declaring it to be part of a deep strategy is almost as much fun as watching his own comments section betray him by quoting Jim Geraghty in response.  I swear, it’s like the Left doesn’t take into account modern information storage technology when they write their columns.

Moe Lane

*Hey, just because I don’t use that title as part of a rather sad fetish scenario doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize that said scenario is a cherished part of many antiwar types’ Special Time.  Or that I don’t recognize that they now have to start thinking fast if they want to keep using it.

Crossposted to RedState.

Paragraph of the Day, post-Christmas hangover edition.

Although I suspect that the majority of the people reading this didn’t go as overboard this year on Christmas as they have in the past.  Anyway, Samizdata (via Ed Driscoll, in reaction to what was an atypically dumb UK Times article):

It may seem a Scrooge-like message for this time of year to point out that you cannot spend money that you don’t have; businesses cannot invest money that has not been already saved, and that interest rates must reflect the balance of supply and demand for savings. The “Austrian” economic insight that money is a claim on resources, and that two people cannot hold the same claim on a resource at the same time, needs to be relentlessly rammed home.

Because the alternative, of course, is to have objective reality do it for you. And the thing about objective reality? It’s rarely gentle.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Anybody see the Sherlock Holmes flick?

Howard Tayler liked it, Aint It Cool News ditto, Rotten Tomatoes seems to be having a disagreement between fans and film critics.  I’m on the cusp between deciding to see it now and waiting until DVD, and this is one film where I’ll be unhappy about the latter if I like the film; it looks like it’ll be more fun to watch on the big screen.  Anybody go see it yet?

Fifth year anniversary of the Asian tsunami.

Prayers for the victims and their families, of course.

Countries across the Indian Ocean have been marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed almost 250,000 people.

In Indonesia’s Aceh province, where 170,000 died, thousands held prayers in public mosques and private homes.

On Thai beaches, Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners held pictures of loved ones lost five years ago.

Moe Lane

PS: And pay attention in geography class.

A 10-year-old girl saved her family and 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami because she had learnt about the giant waves in a geography lesson, it has emerged.

[snip]

In an interview with the Sun, Tilly gave the credit to her geography teacher, Andrew Kearney, at Oxshott’s Danes Hill Prep School.

She said “Last term Mr Kearney taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis.

I can’t think of a single thing to say that would add to that.