Sometimes, I miss Tony Blair.

Say what you like about the man – and there is quite a lot to say about him – but he and his government had precisely zero interest in letting the Lockerbie bomber walk free under the open sky. Even if doing so might have meant holding up an important oil deal:

During Blair’s 2007 visit, BP signed its exploration deal with Libya’s National Oil Corporation. “This is a welcome return to the country and represents a significant opportunity for both BP and Libya to deliver our long-term growth aspirations,” said Tony Hayward, BP group chief executive, who signed the contract with Blair looking on.

The prisoner transfer agreement — and specifically the fate of Megrahi — were inextricably linked with the BP deal. Six months after Blair’s trip, and with Gordon Brown in No 10, the Libyans were frustrated that the prisoner transfer agreement had not even been drafted. The BP contract was also waiting to be ratified.

The key reason for the delay in the prisoner transfer agreement was Megrahi. Lord Falconer, who was Blair’s justice secretary, had told the Scottish government in a letter on June 22, 2007 that “any prisoner transfer agreement with Libya could not cover al-Megrahi”.

(H/T AoSHQ) The Brown government (which took power five days later) was… somewhat easier to persuade. While they attempted to take the same line that Blair did, the Libyans were able to get them to back off on keeping Megrahi from even being considered for prisoner transfer; and shortly thereafter, BP got its contract.  Continue reading Sometimes, I miss Tony Blair.

Not precisely the trailer for Inception.

…although here you go:

Anyway: did Leoncardo DiCaprio stop sucking as an actor while I wasn’t paying attention? He doesn’t normally star in films that I’d watch – Gangs of New York was the last one, I think (and, come to think of it, he was good in it) – but he seems to be continuing to have a decent career, which suggests a certain competence.

This is how they see you (image may be NSFW).

[UPDATE]: I’ve had a copy of the image sent to me that includes the URL.  The Google cache for the site is here; as you can see, not only did the image originate from the site, but the author him/herself was present at the Reston Town Hall, writing posts about it.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think that we’ve established that the flier found below represents a deliberate attempt by the Left to incite racially-motivated hate against the Right.

I apologize in advance for the ugly and graphic nature of the image that will be available for viewing after the fold: I would prefer not to show it, but unfortunately somebody decided that it was suitable for distribution after the Reston, VA Town Hall – and I can’t actually talk about it without showing it. Continue reading This is how they see you (image may be NSFW).

Gallup mutters about relationship between Dow, approval ratings.

Clearly in reference to Jim Cramer’s I’ve-been-saving-this-for-months revenge clip* of a few days ago, the Gallup organization would like you to know that there’s no historical relationship between a President’s approval rating and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

None at all.

Absolutely zero.

Mind you, that wasn’t the argument that got made – Cramer was arguing that this specific President’s disapproval ratings (via Gallup!) were being reflected in the S&P 500 going up – but nonetheless, Gallup felt the need to do that analysis.

Well.  Thanks for letting us know.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I see the large holes in Cramer’s theory.  So does Cramer, probably.  It’s still funny that Gallup felt the need to do some repair work here. Clumsily. Continue reading Gallup mutters about relationship between Dow, approval ratings.

I’m still trying to decide whether The Colony is worth checking out.

The latest in reality shows: The Colony: It’s Post-apocalyptic Virus House!

The premise: There’s been a massive plague that’s killed off most of the human population, and these ten survivors, all strangers, have to try to start rebuilding from scratch, using only what they know about the world and what they can find in the warehouse they’ve chosen as their home and the areas around it. There is very little to eat, the water has to be filtered because the main source is the poisonous and sludgy Los Angeles River, which is hardly even a river anymore, so much as it’s a chemical runoff ditch for the whole city.

The excerpts I’ve seen so far here and here are producing a fine level of scorn and derision from my wife the engineer; the bit about ‘controlled experiment’ alone was good for a three-minute rant. Also: biker gangs, and it’s apparently the aftermath of a biological outrbreak – but no zombies. Aside from the unwillingness to go Full Metal Gonzo with the premise, well, everything is better with zombies.

Moe Lane

The Men Who Stare At Goats Trailer.

My only real worry about this movie:

…(based on the non-fiction book of the same name) is that it may end up being another Burn After Reading: a movie whose trailer promises something that’s a good deal funnier than the actual movie delivers.  I’m hopeful – the title is inspired, and should have hopefully forced the script writer, director, and actors to live up to its promise – but you never know.

As to the merits of the programs described in either movie or book: I figure that if we had troops who could kill goats with their minds we’d have heard about it by now.  Forget keeping it quiet: the US military would mass-deploy that on a black-box basis just as soon as the results were replicable.

Moe Lane

Two Americas Watch: Antonio Villaraigosa (D).

(Via Deceiver) There’s the America where Los Angeles is in the middle of an ongoing drought, and is thus subject to strong water restrictions – which are being pushed by its mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa (D). Then there’s the America where the mayor of Los Angeles was – illegally – watering his own lawn while everybody else’s was dying. And how does he explain this discrepancy? Heavy sleeping.

No, really, that’s what Villaraigosa said.

“The sprinklers are so loud in your back yard, you can hear them from the street. How could you or your household staff not have heard them?” [NBC4’s Joel] Grover said.

“I sleep very heavily and I couldn’t hear it,” said Villaraigosa, who noted that overall water use at his home has decreased.

Continue reading Two Americas Watch: Antonio Villaraigosa (D).

More on the tasered marmoset.

Excuse me: more on Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D, NH). This is some quick little footage of NH Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte (R) having a good laugh at Shea-Porter’s confused gracelessness:

Couple that with this earlier report on the encounter and one is left with the impression that the tasered marmoset Member of Congress is just a little bit lost, these days.  Being in Congress is apparently a lot less fun than she thought it’d be (I assume that’s one reason why she ducked meeting with her constituents for so long).

Well, easily fixed.

Crossposted to RedState.