Michael Feldman: Homophobe for the Obama Auto Task Force!

Wasn’t there a questionnaire to weed these sorts out?

Hey, if it had been a Republican staffer blithely assuming that ‘bending over’ was acceptable discourse in official negotiations we’d be seeing the pyre being built on the Capitol steps right now. We can have people dial back the outrage over what is said or written, or make to penalties for it apply equally to everybody; I’d personally prefer the former, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let the double standard pass unremarked.

Anyway, the revealed bit is at the end of this:


(See also MsUnderestimated & Hot Air)

Admittedly, I’m not bothering to do much with the ‘terrorist’ remark except to note it: that’s just the usual fearmongering and character assassination – and, honestly, by now I’m kind of used to it happening. This other bit, however… well. They’re usually quieter about that sort of thing.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Ah, the joys of the Maryland MVA.

A government entity with:

  • Hours of operation designed to suit it, not its erstwhile customers;
  • Limitations on when services will and will not be offered, seemingly picked at random;
  • A remarkably flexible definition of ‘full service’;
  • And an institutionalized disinterest in mentioning any of this to people who call ahead to avoid problems.

Just what I need for my daily life – and, really, I need even more of it!  In fact, I cannot wait until I have to depend on the government to make sure that my next emergency dentist’s visit goes smoothly.

Cannot. Wait.

Moe Lane

‘Automata.’

Penny Arcade can stop asking what people want. If they have an idea like this ready to go:

The second concept is Automata, nineteen-twenties crime fiction which unfolds in a time where “machine intellect” has been outlawed. It wasn’t always, certainly, and the problem of what to do with the existing “stock” of fully sentient, mechanical citizens endures. Detective Regal and his stenophone Carl Swangee traverse the margin where these worlds overlap.

…then they can just get on with it, and they can save the third one for later. Don’t get me wrong; Lookouts looks like it’d be fun. But to hell with fun; I want mechanical men noir, dammit.

Moe Lane

PS: Let me put it this way: I would buy this.

President Obama and the now-vex’d Bermoothes.

Heckuva job there, Barry.

You know, it’s not the fact that we’re apparently on the verge of toppling another foreign government that bemuses me, per se; toppling foreign governments is one of those things that the United States of America simply does, as a byproduct of our very existence. Whether or not that’s an inherently good thing is going to be a matter of some debate – particularly if you’re somebody who’s never lived under one or another of the unpleasant regimes that we’ve absentmindedly obliterated, over the years*. So I’m not particularly startled at the thought that it may be about to happen again.

Still. Bermuda?

Crockwell tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Bermudians are very concerned about the potential threat the Uighurs pose to the security and economy of Bermuda, and are outraged by the secretive and unilateral manner in which Bermuda premier Dr. Ewart Brown decided to accept the detainees.

“There’s a great deal of anxiety right now,” says Crockwell. “We have not received any information at all in terms of who these individuals are.”

“We hear reports that they have been associated with al Qaeda … that they were trained in terrorist camps,” as well as reports that the men are innocent. “So we don’t know” how much a security risk the former detainees pose. Crockwell says that the Bermudian people and members of parliament don’t know where the Uighurs are now being housed by the government.

“We think the premier, who made a unilateral decision, has put this country at risk. We believe that when there’s uncertainty we have to err on the side of caution,” Crockwell adds. Crockwell’s United Bermuda Party has already moved a motion of no confidence against Brown to remove him as the leader of parliament. He says that a “member of the backbench has stated not even the cabinet was informed of this decision,” which Crockwell described as a “unilateral autocratic decision made by one man who has created a national crisis for the island of Bermuda.”

Continue reading President Obama and the now-vex’d Bermoothes.

And today’s the day for the digital TV conversion.

I haven’t found a better description of this particular four-month-delayed boondoggle than this:

The FCC has spent too much money (from their expansive “lowest common denominator” budget that is funded by you and me) on people who can’t or won’t find the time to get a converter box, and this “problem” could have been solved cheaply by utilizing scientific principle that is “The Couch Potato Law of Motion”: An object at rest will remain at rest until it no longer gets television reception.

Still, do yourself a favor: when you run out to buy one of these when you realize that, yeah, really, they’re not going to delay this conversion again – go get one of these, too. The regular antennas don’t work a darn.

Crossposted to RedState.

Lo, look upon this Inter-net, viewers…

“It also has a… CD-ROM player.”

I shouldn’t mock; it’s not nice.  On the other hand, fifteen or twenty years from they’re going to be mocking our earnest prognostications about the future, so I might as well.  On the gripping hand, this video does remind me that I still need to pick up Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived…

Silicon Valley discovers that the deal has been altered.

Oh, it will be altered further. No point to wasting time praying otherwise.

Elections have consequences, tech industry edition. Michael Malone has the details about “The Obama Surprise”:

No segment of American industry did more than high tech to elect Barack Obama as President of the United States. The 2008 Obama campaign will go down in history as having made better use of digital technology than any before it. From a hugely powerful website to the reproduction of the “Hope” poster on thousands of Facebook pages to the President’s own ‘tweet’ on election night, Silicon Valley played a crucial role in the success of President Obama . . .and Silicon Valley naturally assumed that the new President would do the same in return.

It hasn’t quite turned out that way. . .

(Via Glenn Reynolds)

Continue reading Silicon Valley discovers that the deal has been altered.