2013 archive
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Free enterprise, except when it isn’t.
(snip)
Traditional auto dealers applied the emergency brake last year when Tesla initially sought approval for a sales location in Virginia.
The president of the state auto dealers association, Don Hall, said his group doesn’t oppose Tesla, it just wants the company to heed Virginia rules of the road for car buyers’ own good. What would happen, Hall wondered, if Tesla failed and left cars in circulation without the network of service technicians to maintain them, such as those at franchise dealerships?
Because car dealers always think of the customer first.
The God of Shove 0
Joseph Margulies reflects on the place of religious belief in the Civil Rights Movement and the contradictions between the God of Love and the God of Shove. A nugget:
America’s civil religion will be with us always, but we must listen to the form it takes. Today, tens of millions of Americans merge an angry God with a chest-thumping nationalism to justify endless misadventures in the war on terror, thereby giving political cover for the apparently limitless expansion of the national security state.
Quadrennial Athletic Marketing Extravaganza Fail 0
If you wonder why I’ve given up on the Olympics (and most other endeavors of the Athletic Industrial Complex except baseball), look no further than this item in Bob Molinaro’s always excellent column in my local rag.
Afterthought:
Who defines “overly erotic,” Miss Grundy or Miss October?
Amateur Hour in the Regency Theatre 0
Follow the money.
Now you see it, now you don’t.
Round and round it goes, where (or when) it stops, nobody knows.
Confirmation of the transactions adds another layer to the connections between Jonnie Williams Sr., the Star Scientific executive who has lavished gifts on Gov. Bob McDonnell and his family. Those gifts are now part of state and federal investigations.
Much more at the link.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Gutting out the vote in North Carolina.
It ain’t pretty.
Bubble Boys 0
What the Booman said.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Well, that worked out pretty much as expected.
There’s no there, there.
The Surveillance State 0
Bob Cesca points out something that this morning’s headlines about NSA snooping seem to have overlooked.
I mention this not because I’m a big fan of the vacuum-cleaner style “surveillance” instituted under President George the Worst, but because I am not at all a fan of having the vapors over something that anyone who has been paying attention has known about for a decade:
More importantly, this was an internal audit, which means… oversight!
Oh. You say you haven’t been paying attention . . . . Never mind.
Also, see DD’s Law.
Theft of Services 0
A. P. Ticker on the attempts to destroy public schools in Philadelphia:
It’s not just in Philly, pholks.
Reince Cycle, Reprise 2
Reg Henry thinks that Reine Pribus may be overlooking the benefits to the Republican Party of reducing the number of 2016 Republican debates.
This strikes me as a good idea. The world would be a better place — nay, the party itself would be a better place — if Republican debates were kept to a minimum.
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*Is anyone else besides me suffering Clinton fatigue?
“The Medical-Industrial Complex” 0
At the Bangor Daily News, Philip Caper notices that the phasing in of the Affordable Care Act is drawing new attention to the price of health care in the United States. A nugget:
The MBAs have taken over. We are all paying the price.
Read the rest.
Droning On 7
Dan Simpson, writing at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, suggests that uniformed gamers’ raining robotic death from the skies may not be working out quite as intended.
He clutches at his pearls a bit about the recent temporary embassy closings in parts of the Middle East, but, on the whole, his column is worth a look.