August, 2012 archive
The Eastwood Speech 1
The comment (here’s an example) misses the point.
The Republicans didn’t invite Clint Eastwood to speak. Clint Eastwood was just a vehicle.
They invited Dirty Harry. Anything else was gravy.
Why Pols Lie 0
Ronald E. Riggio, blogging at Psychology Today, has a simple explanation:
He goes on to explore very briefly those psychological reasons.
If you pay attention to politics–or maybe especially if you do not pay attention until an election nears–this should be required reading.
Bloggus Interruptus 2
When you log into a website, the site drops a cookie in your browser cache identifying you as logged in.
Somehow, this beast managed to set my browser not to accept cookies, so I could not log in.
I have set my screensaver to lock the screen when it senses “cat.”
Endless War, the Lobby 0
Back in the 1930s, there was the “Merchants of Death” theory. Indeed, some of the first “Saint” novels were set against the background of that theory.
It is now widely considered to be discredited.
Ryan’s Lyin’ 0
Dick Polman takes a scalpel to Paul Ryan’s speech and dissects the (biggest) lies one-by-one. Here’s a nugget:
You can’t make this stuff up.
But Paul Ryan can.
Ryan’s Rope-a-Dope 0
Der Spiegel is not improessed.
But that doesn’t shake Ryan’s convictions. In terms of hypocrisy, he is a worthy heir to those Republicans who condemn the state but are happy to use it when they want to ban something that does not fit into their worldview. Ryan, who is supposedly so skeptical about government, has supported more abortion restrictions than his party colleague Todd Akin, who recently caused a scandal with his remarks about “legitimate rape.”
Read the rest.
QOTD 0
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.
Misty Waterlogged Memories 0
The Chincoteague ponies actually live on Assateague Island, just east of Chincoteague. Assateague, though, does not have a chamber of commerce. All it has is ponies, a glorious beach, deer, and bunnies.
(It used to have human residents, too, but not for many years; my father’s mother taught school there back in the 1910s before she married my grandfather.)
But soon no more:
“The biggest threat, ultimately, to these seashores is that they will be largely or even entirely covered by the ocean,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and an author of the report, “Atlantic National Seashores In Peril.”
But, hey! there’s no such thing as global warming.
H/T Susan for alerting me to this story.
Facebook Frolics, You Are Pwned Dept. 0
Facebook is messing with its privacy settings again with a view towards duping you into giving away your deepest darkest.
The wise Facebook user will check his or her settings immediately or, better, just get the heck out. Otherwise, you are zucked.
If I didn’t use Facebook to pimp this blog, I would have left it long ago. For years now I’ve put almost nothing but blog posts up there (First Son said that my Facebook page was “a very weird internet place”) and, even before that, I knew that the internet is a public place and exercised due care. I try to behave when I’m in a public place. It fools people.
Via the Network Security podcast, which you should subscribe to if you don’t already.
Vodka of Distinction 0
Warning: Some language.
No doubt this was served here.
Build It and They May Come (but They Certainly Won’t Pay) 0
Virginia Beach’s latest attempt to gin up an excuse to shovel money to developers involves vague rumors of an NBA team’s possibly maybe someday coming to town. The city has already spent the better part of $1,000,000.00 on this, mostly on the q. t.
It’s a bunch of sound and fury signifying that promoters want to raid the public treasury, despite the reality that the tales of an economic boom resulting from pouring public money into pro sports invariably turn out to be somewhere on the continuum between fantasy and hokum. Here’s a nugget from the Minneapolis Post (much longer analysis at the link):
Something about the sight of large men playing with small balls turns the minds of mayors and other local Babbitts to frat-boy-tailgate-party-anticipating mush.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, status quo ante.
(snip)
Today’s report showed the number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 5,000 in the week ended Aug. 18 to 3.32 million.
The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
Bloomberg’s “experts” were closer than usual to hitting their number.
Which reminds me of the classic definition of an “expert”:
- “X” is the mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity.
- A “spurt” is a drip under pressure.
- Thus an expert is an unknown drip under pressure.
A Picture Is Worth 0
This picture purports to be about the London Daily Mail, but I think it’s about Fox News.
QOTD 0
Dorothy Parker, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
I don’t have to attend every argument I’m invited to.
