Saturday, November 14, 2009
Separated At Birth
Labels: Curiosities, Media
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Year That Was, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Honecker built the wall
He thought that he had it all
Head of the GDR, oh
Wife's in the Politburo
His dreams were smithereens
By October 16
He was the Number One man
What happened to his plan?
He was the head of party
He was the head of state
He shook his Commie fist
Dissidents he sealed their fates
His own SED
Is now the enemy
Miffed by his corrupt life
And nothing, has been...
All right since
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
(1989)
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Pozsgay read the Marxist classics
He knew every creed
"Class struggle," "Labor theory"
And "From ability to need"
But Hungary was whammed
Economy was jammed
Thought he'd try a hand
To come up with a new plan
Where's the full stores
Like the ones in the West?
And what's with those East German guys
And weekly unrest?
When did Polish dissidents
Get on the TV?
What ever happened
To Comintern, Five Year Plans
(In the streets were)
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Ceaucescu hates these times
He wants to make it stop
"When did the Berlin Wall
Become a pile of rocks?
And tell me why did Prague
Surrender to that playwright?
Please make this stop
Stop, STOP"
(tick tick tick)
"Please no more..."
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Update: Minor lyrics tweaks:
- And "From ability to need" -- "From ability to need" (one too many syllables in original)
- But something didn't pan -- But Hungary was whammed (verse needs Hungarian reference for audience unfamiliar with Imre Pozsgay; original song referenced 80s band Wham in this line)
- Economy was whammed -- Economy was jammed (need rhyme for "whammed")
- Why did the Czech government -- And tell me why did Prague (way too many syllables in original)
- "Don't bring back..." -- "Please no more..." (sounds better to me)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Heroes - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Peter learns that his healing power exhausts himself seriously when he uses it. He uses it to reduce the seriousness of injuries as he brings casualties from a train collision to the hospital.
Emma uses her professional training to stitch up a patient and, later with Peter present, to treat a girl afflicted with pneumothorax. Peter learns that she was in med school, and dropped out after her young nephew drowned while she was babysitting him. Emma seems to be considering going back to school.
The Sylar consciousness is determined to get to New York to find Peter, the last person he remembers (the two were fighting) before finding himself in Matt's body. Matt manages to slow him down - he can use his ability against Sylar as Sylar had done to him. He arranges for his service revolver to get packed, which gets detected at LA International Airport baggage screening.
Sylar gets out of the mess, lands Parkman's name on the no-fly list, and rents a car to drive cross country. The tire goes flat, a man comes to assist, and Sylar decided to kill him, to demonstrate that he can take the world hostage to get Matt to spill the beans on what happened to his body.
In Midland he stops at the Burnt Toast diner, scene of Hiro's last history-changing mission. Sylar insinuates to Matt that he'll kill the diner owner if Matt doesn't talk. Matt relents. Sylar says he'll kill everyone involved (meaning Matt, Angela, and Bennett) when he gets his body back.
(I thought more people knew about it, including Peter. Is my memory playing tricks, or is Matt lying about the number of people who knew?)
Matt gets Sylar to scribble a death threat on a napkin. Cop cars swarm the place and all draw on Sylar as he leaves. Matt plans to kill himself and the Sylar consciousness. Matt makes Sylar make a sudden move as if he's drawing a gun, and cops shoot. He's not dead, though - he's being taken away by ambulance.
Meanwhile, Claire manages to convince the two sorority pledges that they didn't really see her get impaled, that the water bottles they were supplied with were drugged. Gretchen fears for her life and decided to drop out of college.
Noah Bennett and the Haitian (who we now know is named Rene) come to assist. Bennett searches Becky's room at the sorority and finds one of those freaky compasses - and Becky. At the same time Claire is being visited by Samuel. We learn that Bennett had visited her father's house when she was five, out to "bag and tag" her father, who had some sort of energy-blast type of power. Bennett shot the man dead in self defense; young Becky's invisibility manifested itself as she tried to hide from Bennett. Becky is out for revenge against Noah.
Bennett is forced to leave when girls enter Becky's room. He finds Claire with Samuel, they talk, Bennett cuffs Samuel to take him away. Becky shows up invisibly to thwart the sbduction. In the fight Bennett is about to shoot (at Samuel or at Becky?), but Claire tells him to stop. He puts the gun away, and the two leave for the carnival.
Back at the carnival, Samuel promises his continued support to help Becky get her revenge. (We've seen his own taste for that sort of thing.) Lydia pulls him aside to tell him about a new problem: Sylar is gone. At the beginning of the episode Sylar woke up with Nathan's body and memories, and flew away before anyone at the carnival could spot him. At the end of the episode he visits Peter, and says he thinks he's in trouble.
Does "Nathan" remember any of the events while he resumed Sylar's form? Will the Sylar mind escape police custody? Will college dropout Gretchen notice when the Burnt Toast Diner makes the news again? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, November 09, 2009
The Eighth Henderson Prize For The Advancement Of Liberty
This is ABC news video of its fall:
The Henderson Prize awards key groups and individuals who contributed to the downfall of the Communist regime of the German Democratic Republic, and to the reunification of Germany.
Readers will note the absence of a certain Soviet premier from the list of awardees. I'm postponing his award. As stated in the post: "This occasion will be shared by individuals outside the Warsaw Pact (and outside West Germany) who contributed to the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism." I also want more time to research whatever prodded Gorby to dump the Brezhnev Doctrine and to institute his famous glasnost and perestroika reforms.
Labels: Henderson Prize, History
Friday, November 06, 2009
Fort Hood Shootings
A man voices pro-terrorist sympathies and doesn't get kicked out of the Army?
Terry Lee, a retired Army colonel who knew Hasan, told Fox News about a story he heard secondhand. He said a fellow colleague had told him that Hasan had made "outlandish comments" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and US involvement in them and that "Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"[He] made comments about how we shouldn’t be over there – you need to lock it up, Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee added.
Initial claims that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack seem to have been confirmed.
Nobody has confirmed this is the Nidal Hasan who made a pro-terrorist comment on Scribd - Michelle Malkin has that story among others in her bloggage.
It looks a whole lot like an Islamic terrorist attack. Or maybe it's revenge for that poor performance review.
Labels: Crime, War on Terror
Thursday, November 05, 2009
More About Lesson Two
Costs imposed by scandals to voters can come in some form other than financial. I'm at a loss for a real-life example at the moment, so I'll come up with a hypothetical local-setting example, with financial and then-some costs: politician takes bribes to look the other way while a construction firm builds its latest project under code, the building later collapses, killing a dozen or so.
People will react to scandals that hurt people other than themselves, but not as readily as the stuff that flies in their own faces.
The 1992 House Banking Scandal fits in a different category: an outrageous privilege that normal citizens and not even non-politician millionaires would be able to get away with. Let's call it the "it's good to be king" classification of scandals.
Check kiting without penalty is essentially an interest-free loan. It bore no costs to the taxpayer (not directly, anyway - ask someone who knows banking better than me if there are any indirect costs), but voters don't trust someone that careless with their own checkbooks with drafting trillion-dollar budgets.
Bribery is another prime example. Rod Blagojevich is Exhibit A.
So why didn't the Chinese campaign finance scandal have any legs? Isn't campaign money from a foreign government essentially bribery? There are two reasons for this. First, lots of people have a difficult time believing that this sort of thing could actually happen outside of Joe McCarthy's hallucinations or a Tom Clancy novel. More importantly - bake this into your brains, folks - people cannot
The scandal had too many moving parts for average folks to keep track of - and only parts of the scandal involved the Chinese government. The PRC is totally absent from the post memorable vignette: the 1996 Hsi Lai Temple political fundraiser. John Huang, Charlie Trie, and Johnny Chung do? Some may recall Hsia (pronounced "shya") was associated with the Buddhist temple fundraiser. (Did the ACLU ever weigh in on that? I don't recall ever hearing a peep from them.)
This also explains the limited effect of Whitewater. The general public has only a vague notion that some kind of real estate scam took place. Most Americans can't even name the real estate development - Castle Grande - that is central to the scandal. In short, it was a shady real estate development that illegally acquired funding from the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan; when it tanked the S&L collapsed - a Bernie Madoff shell game on a relatively small scale.
The Clintons were either innocent victims (they were Whitewater Development Company investors), or they were involved in at least some the illegal doings. This leads to another principle to Lesson 2: there's gotta be a smoking gun that the general public can easily spot. If there are such smoking guns regarding Whitewater and Madison Guaranty, they're not well known. Putting them in the pages of an Ann Coulter book is not going to reach the unconverted. (Believe it or not, I don't own any of her books.)
One more principle: the target audience must perceive the scandal as something bad. No-brainer, huh? Think again. The people who get huffy over Iran-Contra can't gain any converts because their opponents believe a) that Ollie North's activities helped to rescue Nicaragua from Communism, and b) Ollie found a legit loophole in the Boland Amendments - the US government couldn't give aid directly to the Contras, but it could deal with a foreigner (Manucher Ghorbanifar) who promises to fund the Contras. A lot of people don't see any problem with North Korea acquiring those two light-water nuclear reactors because, as MSNBC reports, they represent "a type of nuclear reactor that cannot be easily used to make bombs." (It's a mystery what North Korea is doing with any of its power generation.)
There is an exception to this rule, which I will cite in my summary of these musings:
- Corruption as a political issue works best when the harm the corruption inflicts on the voter can be illustrated.
- The evidence of corruption must be made clear to the general public.
- The average voter does not devote hours to research a single news story. Complex corruption scandals must be broken down into a brief summary that stresses the most critical wrongdoings and evidences thereof.
- Know your audience. The purpose of campaigning is to reach the unconverted. Do not harp on a scandal that the unconverted do not find scandalous. One exception: if you can point out a consequence of the scandal that the audience has not foreseen, and that the audience does indeed oppose.
Update: Boldface statement is reworded for clarification.
Happy Birthday To Me
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Lessons From Yesterday's Elections
Lesson Two: corruption is a winning issue - well, except in Chicago. (I'm dead serious about Chicago.)
Lesson Three: as I commented at the Volokh Conspiracy, candidate selection should go to the party grassroots, not the party elite - even in a special election:
I caught a bit of Rush Limbaugh today and he pointed out a mistake that everyone should have caught: the candidate was selected by smoke-filled back room deal and not by primary. He’s absolutely right on that. Candidates must be picked by the party grassroots, not the party leaders. Legislators represent the public at large and not elites, after all. Voters resent being treated like children being force-fed their medicine.
I guess that’s why they call it the Empire State...
VC commenter James N. Gibson observed: "Also, it seems the vote turnout was low: somewhere around 130,000. Just a few years ago the vote was 225,000 and the district supposedly has 650,000 people." There's a definite connection between low voter turnout and Lesson Three. Voters had three choices: the Democrat, the hand-picked choice of party plutocrats (try to say that three times without spitting), and the late-entry upstart. You want greater turnout, you run a candidate who was first vetted by the party grassroots.
My comment concluded with these bits of advice:
Hoffman didn’t have time to mount a decent campaign, but he’s got plenty of time for next year’s race. He should hold town hall meetings — especially in districts that didn’t vote for him. As any Republican should, [he] should seek to identify issues where those voters differ from Bill Owens, especially those that hit people’s pocketbooks.
In the meantime, the NY-23 grassroots should organize a campaign for new state GOP leadership. Do political parties have recall elections?
Hoffman 2010! Who's with me?
Labels: Politics
Heroes - Excursion In Texas
Hiro has gone back in time to save Charlie from Sylar, arriving just hours - if that - before the incident. He encounters another surprise visitor from his time frame: Samuel, who warns Hiro that while changing history can avoid the "butterfly effect," precautions must still be made. On separate occasions he gets Past Hiro to go back in time to Charlie's birthday party, to preserve their first meeting. He also gets Ando to stay at the diner and wait for past Hiro's return; IIRC, it was nighttime when Hiro got back.
In the diner's back room, Hiro freezes time (in a pretty huge radius) just as Sylar is about to attack. He loads Sylar into a bus and then goes back to Charlie. She's safe from Sylar, but not from her tumor.
Hiro seeks help from an unlikely source: Sylar. (Note that the two have not met yet, in unaltered history.) Hiro tracks Sylar down, uses his ability to avoid Sylar's telekinetic attacks, and makes a deal: he will tell Sylar his future if he fixes Charlie. Sylar agrees. He is able to arrest the tumor with telekinesis without seeing it, or even opening her skull; his intuitive aptitude ability is not visual in nature. Charlie's tumor is healed. Hiro lives up to his end of the bargain, telling Sylar in vague terms that he will kill lots of people but in the end he will die alone. (Hiro does not know about the Sylar/Nathan masquerade.)
While this is going on, Bennett is investigating the Sylar murders with Lauren, someone we've never met before. Because Company policy was always "one of us, one of them," she is undoubtedly a mutant; we never see her ability. Both discuss openly the idea of having an affair, but they nip their temptations in the bud; Bennett hopes to tell his wife and children some day about his dual life.
Charlie and Hiro argue about his changing the past; she is horrified that he must keep Sylar alive to keep time from going "kablooey." They eventually reconcile as she begins to accept the events.
She leaves the diner, Hiro follows, and finds she's not there - but Samuel is, and he says he's taken Charlie to the present-day carnival - where the two wind up shortly after Hiro shoves Samuel.
The ailing time-traveling carny Arnold is now dead, suffering the same brain hemorrhages as Hiro. He had pulled off two missions: sending Samuel back to Texas, when and where he knew Hiro would eventually wind up, and sending Charlie to a time and place that only Samuel knows about. She is being held hostage, to coerce Hiro into undoing certain past events.
The last scene flashes back eight weeks into the past; Samuel apologizes to Mohinder Suresh, who lies dead in a carnival trailer. Evidently Joseph Sullivan, the man whose funeral opened the season, is not the only fatal casualty Samuel wishes to undo...
How did Suresh get involved with the carnival? How did he get killed? How did Joseph get killed? How will Hiro react when he meets present-day Sylar at the carnival? Will he grasp Sylar's amnesia, and take advantage of it to have Sylar "operate" on his own tumor? Will Lauren resurface? When and where is Charlie? Does she get to eat pancakes for breakfast? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
The Envelope, Please IX
This list really should be expanded to include such gems like Nixon's price controls and regulatory expansion, Dubya's welfare spending, the GOP support for illegal alien amnesty, and TARP.
Labels: Politics
Monday, November 02, 2009
My Reaction To The Scozzafava Withdrawal
Every Republican must run on a platform for lowering taxes and spending. Scozzafava did not support those goals. Even the Democrats slammed her on spending.
For those who haven't been following the story, Michelle Malkin has a rundown on key controversies. I'm especially angered by her support for card-check, the bill that would eliminate the secret ballot in union drives.
Labels: Politics
Today's Blogger Quiz
GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava has bowed out of the NY-23 race, leaving religious right/tea party candidate Doug Hoffman nearly tied with Democrat Bill Owens.
The far right (led by James Dobson, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, etc.) is testing its grip on the Republican Party with Hoffman’s candidacy. At this point it looks like a death grip.
And which one said this?
One thing is for certain - the impact of the NY-23 saga on the fate of the GOP will have far more long-reaching effects than the simple question of who wins on Tuesday. The Republican establishment that at least pretended to speak to all Americans is deeply, deeply wounded, and a wild-eyed, exclusionist, birther religio-beast is taking its place.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Seventh Annual Blogger Costume Party
Little Miss Attila awaits rescue. (Lifeboat)
Mark Steyn recruits Ingrid Bergman to spy on a group of Nazis in Rio de Janeiro - he suspects they're plotting something in connection with the 2016 Olympics. (Notorious)
Tyler Cowen still prefers old-fashioned film cameras. (Rear Window)
Steve Green wishes he hadn't gone out for that country stroll. (North By Northwest)
Iowahawk is his own mother! (Psycho)
Tammy Bruce has absolutely had it with PETA. (The Birds)
Labels: Blog traditions
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Must Reading
Labels: Politics
Heroes - Town Without Pity
Bennett's plan to get Jeremy in the clear shatters. The boy has a rap sheet (details unknown), and the sheriff will release the boy only to next of kin. He enlists Tracy to pose as his aunt. After some difficulty they succeed, but angry townsfolk confront the three. Jeremy touches one belligerent man on the chest; the man collapses, bleeding at the nose. Jeremy refuses Bennett's pleas to heal the man, and turns back toward the jail.
Before the release Tracy encountered Samuel. The two are transported back to the carnival. It is uncertain if his ability to manipulate earth can effect a sort of teleport, or if this was the work of the power of one of the other carnies. Samuel tells her that the carnival could be Jeremy's home. He gives her a compass to "point the way."
The next morning, Bennett and Tracy find Jeremy dead in the street. Without the sheriff's knowledge Deputy Gill took him out of the jail and had an accomplice drag him to death. Tracy tells Bennett not to call on her again, and while in her car alone she pulls out the compass.
In the final scene Samuel appears in town and causes the sheriff's office to collapse.
Meanwhile, Matt thinks he's found a way to incapacitate Sylar's mind - with alcohol. But he is ultimately duped; Sylar "slipped into the driver's seat" after Matt passed out. Undoubtedly Sylar will now put full effort into finding his body - and his powers.
The sorority sisters kidnap Claire and Gretchen and bring them to a slaughter house for a creepy treasure hunt; the first to find it gets to sit out Hell Week. After Gretchen is nearly struck by a hanging chain, Claire suspects that someone is trying to kill her - possibly someone with powers. Gretchen responds with one of the best one-liners of the night: "That sounds like some crazy-ass conspiracy theory... which pretty much describes your entire life."
The four girls gather together, and separate again - at which time Gretchen is attacked again, strangled by a chain. Claire fights the assailant, and is impaled against a metal hook or something on the wall. Claire still manages to land a blow that shuts off the attacker's invisibility. Exposed, Becky flees. The other pledges enter, not seeing Becky but seeing Claire impaled - and they witness her healing.
What is Becky's next move? What is the Sylar mind's next move? Will Tracy join the carnival? Will she meet the Sylar body? Will Bennett suspect mutant foul play regarding the sheriff's office collapse? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, October 26, 2009
Random Holiday Thought
Labels: Culture
Newt Gingrich Will Never Be President
If he does run in the primaries, he's gonna be among the first to drop out. His endorsement of a hard leftist in an historically Republican Congressional district has forever doomed his presidential potential. I can't see a way for him to regain the trust of the party's base.
Update: Heh.
Labels: Politics
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Breakdown Of A Media Miscommunication
In comments I delved into the story, barely staying within character count limits. Given the site's seething Limbaugh Derangement Syndrome - Charles Johnson lashes out at Rush's handling of the story - I am not taking my commenting privileges for granted. My entire comment appears below.
After that comment I noted the date of Jumping In Pools' post: August 25. How did a nearly two-month-old post on an obscure blog make the news? I wonder if they have any tips for making my obscure blog more noticeable...
Note how the MediaMatters video concludes [link to MM post cited in LGF, link here]:
RUSH: I have had quotes attributed to me that were made up, and when it was pointed out to the media that the quotes were made up, they said, "It doesn't matter! We know Limbaugh thinks it anyway." Sort of like Dan Rather said, "I don't care if these documents are forged. I know that Bush did what he did at the National Guard. I don't care if the documents are forged." I don't care if the Limbaugh quotes are made up. So, I can say, "I don't care if these quotes are made up. I know Obama thinks it. You know why I know Obama thinks it? Because I've heard him say it."
Rush begins with a jab at MSM hypocrisy, opining that they'd never let him get away with employing the rationale of the race libelers and the Ratherites. Unlike those fake stories, Rush sez, the jumpingpools piece has an element of truth - Obama didn't write that, but he thinks that. Rush continues:
Again, 2001, FM radio station interview in Chicago when he was a state senator in Illinois.
OBAMA 2001: If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that, uh, I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch counter and -- and order and as long as I could pay for it I'd be okay. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.
RUSH: Now, he's talking about the Warren Court "never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth." So we've got a supposed piece from his college thesis at Columbia where he complains that the Constitution didn't talk about the distribution of wealth. So we know that it's on his mind. So even if he didn't say it, I know he thinks it. That's how it works now in the media. And I do know he thinks it because I just heard what I heard, and so did you. Let's see.
The conclusion of the segment also catches my eye:
RUSH: I'm also told that the blog containing the passage on Obama's thesis is a satire blog. [He's misinformed there - the post was satire, no the whole blog] So I shout from the mountaintops: "It was satire!" But we know he thinks it. Good comedy, to be comedy, must contain an element of truth, and we know how he feels about distribution of wealth. He's mad at the courts for not going far enough on it. So we stand by the fabricated quote because we know Obama thinks it anyway. That's how it works in the media today.
Once again Rush satirizes MSM journalistic standards (where emphasis is added).
One thought: isn't this a weird topic for satire? Good satire combines truth with outrageousness, like Doug Adams' Vogons. [For the uninitiated: Vogons] The part of the jumpinginpools quote I heard wasn't all that outrageous. Aren't all welfare statists miffed that the Founders didn't put redistribution explicitly in the Constitution? Doesn't the alleged quote sound like something a lefty academic would actually write?
Then I remembered something: I hadn't read the original blog post. It turns out to be a mixture of newsy-looking stuff and gems like this:
Entitled Aristocracy Reborn, this paper chronicled the long struggle of the working class against, as Obama put it, "plutocratic thugs with one hand on the money and the other on the government."
The title should have been a dead giveaway - leftist central planners would never identify themselves as aristocrats (even though they are). The "plutocratic thugs" line also seems too honest to be real. [I mean that the line too honestly reflects leftist perceptions, not that those the left perceives as "plutocratic thugs" really are plutocratic thugs.]
There's also a line about the "single mother of four working three jobs" - that should also have been a dead giveaway.
Henderson Prize Announcement
No fair guessing in comments who's getting it. Shh!
Labels: Henderson Prize
Yet Another Take On The Mao Remark
She’s been attacked for extolling Mao’s political philosophy in a speech at a high-school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one’s own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?
Mao or no Mao, you can't expect statists to inspire individual achievement.
Labels: Philosophy, Politics
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Monty Python Theory
You know, I think I was right when I said that there’s a Monty Python clip for everything this Administration does. . . .
Looks like the Monty Pythonization of politics goes beyond the Executive branch:
Jews For Pork?
But if they [the ADL] really want to combat the stereotype that Jews are good with money, why not publish a list of wasteful projects supported by Jewish members of Congress?
What brought this on was two South Carolina Republicans who took this approach to praise Senator Jim DeMint:
There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.
This is the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario. You can't say bad stuff about Jewish culture, and you can't say good stuff either. And if you cite the Protestant work ethic instead of the Jewish work ethic, you offend Jews and other non-Protestants. I'm sure Bill Donohue and Richard Dawkins will back me up on this.
I wonder what Mao would say...
Labels: Culture
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Heroes - Sylar's New Home
Samuel attempts to nudge Sylar into regaining his memories. He catches glimpses of a few memories - belonging to Nathan. Lydia's precog radar is quite selective; she sensed Bennett's renewed interest in heroes, but she's totally in the dark about the source of Sylar's identity crisis. (I thought was a Sullivan family member - she isn't.)
The heavy artillery is brought out: a guy with the ability to cause people to see their past in reflective material. In the hall of mirrors Sylar sees several of his past murders, and the accidental killing of his mother. He calls himself a monster.
Samuel arranges for the officer pursuing Sylar to win tickets to the carnival. He eventually encounters Sylar in the hall of mirrors, sometime after the memories incident. Sylar tries to warn the cop off, trying to save his life. He accidentally shocks the officer, but not lethally. Sylar refuses to kill, but Edgar comes in and kills the cop in his signature fashion.
Sylar is now part of the family, but Edgar is not happy - he is jealous of Lydia's interest in Sylar.
Bennett and Peter track down an old Company subject, a boy who can heal. They teleport to Georgia, where they find dead bushes, a dead bird, and Jeremy's dead parents. Jeremy's power has a flip side: he can drain life as well. Jeremy threatens with a shotgun. Bennett approaches him up the stairs unarmed. Peter teleports between the two, and the shotgun goes off, firing into Peter's chest. Bennett encourages Jeremy that he can still heal if he controls the power; Jeremy heals Peter. Peter absorbs the power and takes conventional transportation to DC while Bennett stays behind. Bennett rigged a couple of things to make the death look like asphyxiation, to save the kid from legal trouble.
Before his trip Peter had told Hero about Emma's power. She wants it to go away; Hiro initially has difficulty engouraging her to accept it. A talent show flier gives Hiro the idea to put on a magic show for the hospital children. Emma walks in and he calls on her to assist in his next trick - placing a sheet in front of her and making her disappear. He makes time and everything but him and Emma freeze, and she is awed seeing the colors frozen in time. She is encouraged to give the abilities another chance, and she hides behind a privacy screen to complete the trick.
Afterward, they talk in the hall, and Hiro involuntarily vanishes. Earlier he had spoken of a wrong he sought to correct: Charlie Andrews' death. She tells Peter when he arrives.
Will Hiro save Charlie? Will Sylar see any Sylar memories that do not involve bloodshed? What is the Parkman-hosted Sylar consciousness up to? Will Bennett enlist Jeremy in the mutant-hunting business? Will they use his powers to give the Georgia peach crop a little boost while they're around? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, October 19, 2009
Two Different Takes On Anita Dunn's Mao Remark
And what of the advice itself?
In 1947, when Mao Tse Tung was being challenged within his own party on his plan to basically take China over, Chiang Kai-Shek and the nationalist Chinese held the cities, they had the army. They had the air force. They had everything on their side, and people said how can you win? How can you do this? How can you do this? Against all the odds against you, and Mao Tse Tung said, you know, you fight your war, and I'll fight mine, and think about that for a second.
Most fights against the odds lose. Mao's remark offers no guide to bettering those odds. In endeavors of competition, I'd turn to a different Chinese source for that sort of thing.
Labels: Philosophy, Politics
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Quote Of The Day
Any bets we'll be seeing pro-Limbaugh signs at future Rams games?
If the Left wants to have a dialogue on race so badly, why don't any lefty noteworthies do some serious dialoguing with Limbaugh? Or is lecturing more your style?
Update: Another great quote, linked by Tammy Bruce:
What is even more pathetic is that the NFL has shown greater tolerance for murderers, drug dealers, rapists, and dog killers than a talk show host.
Update: It gets better. The article Tammy linked is here. Author Elisabeth Meinecke quotes an unexpected Limbaugh supporter - Keith Olbermann:
"There're now gonna be character tests for sports owners? There'll only be three of them left," Olbermann said. "Unless they beat the Vikings Sunday, as of next Thursday, it will have been a full year since the Rams won a game. My God, if Limbaugh wants to buy them, far be it for me to tell him he’s flushing his money down a rat hole."
Hm, I wonder how Ted Turner would score on that ideology test. He'd probably get a Nobel Peace Prize.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Heroes - Night Of The Living Sylar
Peter and Emma, each in their own way, have disconnected themselves from the outside world. We already know his struggles. Emma blames herself for a yet-unexplained death. The two meet again, as Peter saves her from getting run over by a bus - and absorbs her ability.
(Due to last season's events he can absorb only one power at a time, which means he lost Edgar's super-speed.)
They meet again, as a children's chorus sings the theme to The Greatest American Hero. He tells her about people with abilities, and she seems to eventually believe him. He asks her out, and she shies away.
Later at home she discovers that her ability can be used as a weapon - the lights from her cello playing crack the wall in her apartment when she gets angry.
Peter gets a visit from ailing Hiro in his last scene. If the plot is consistent, Peter now has Hiro's time-travel power.
Meanwhile, Claire and Gretchen visit Mrs. Bennett's old sorority. During a conversation a flagstaff nearly misses a girl Claire is talking to; Gretchen is the only one near the flag. Afterward, Claire confronts Gretchen with an earlier discovery - her obsession with Internet pages about Claire and about Annie's death.
Gretchen knows she's suspected of having to do with the flagstaff mishap, and she denies it. She does confess to being absorbed with Annie's death - and to having a crush on Claire. She kisses Claire, and before they can say anything about what just happened the sorority gals show up to announce that both have been accepted.
Samuel is plotting to separate heroes from the rest of the world and bring them to his fold. We learn through flashbacks his agent regarding Claire: sorority official Becky, this season's Person Who Deserves To Be Bitten By Mr. Muggles. Becky can turn invisible. She's been socially isolating Claire from her rooommates, pushing Annie out the window and creating wedges between Claire and Gretchen. Becky dropped the textbook that drew Claire's attention to Gretchen's surfing, and dropped the flagstaff to draw suspicions toward Gretchen.
The "Stepford" quip about the sorority is more right than Gretchen realizes...
Sylar emerges from his would-be grave. A cop sees him. A disoriented guy in dirt-covered clothes and a bloody t-shirt with a bullet hole in it kinda looks suspicious, so he's taken in. Sylar has amnesia, most of his consciousness currently residing in Los Angeles. A psychologist, Madeline, tries to coax memories, with little success. The arresting officer sends her away, and informs Sylar that they found his police records - Gabriel Gray, wanted for murdering his mother. Under stress, Sylar uses force projection to slam the cop through the glass barrier. He escapes, and hijacks Madeline's car with her at the wheel.
They eventually stop, and she talks him into surrendering. Police cars show up, and the pull guns. Sylar's hands start sparking, and they shoot him in the chest. The force throws Sylar into Madeline, and both tumble down the hillside. She witnesses his regeneration ability and tells him to run. The cops pursue with dogs (unaware of her abetting his escape), and eventually lose his trail; undoubtedly the dirt with Sylar's scent is manipulated by someone who can do that sort of thing. Sylar stumbles across the Sullivan carnival where Samuel welcomes him to his "new home."
Will the writers get it right and have Peter absorb Hiro's power? Will he absorb a properly-functioning time travel ability, or the messed-up version that's slowly killing Hiro? Will Gretchen be too terribly disappointed when and if she finds out that Claire likes kissing guys (like she did when she was hiding in a swimming pool last season)? How will Becky separate the two if they're part of the same sorority? Will Angela have some prophetic dreams about Nathan/Sylar's fate? Will Fox News report rumors that Nathan is secretly meeting with a secret girlfriend in South America? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, October 12, 2009
Columbus Day Has Come And Gone
Posted by Alan at 11:55 PM | |
The Latest Media Slur
[responding to metrolibertarian] That's not an accurate statement:
LIMBAUGH: It's not reasonable that you should understand the insanity that local and state and federal bureaucracies are doing. It's perfectly normal and understandable that none of what they do would make sense to you. My question -- OK, a 1 cent sales tax to fight gang violence. What do you spend the money on to fight gang violence? Afterschool program -- don't we already have afterschool programs? Don't we already have -- what do you call it, extracurricular events? Midnight basketball -- I mean, we've done it all. We've taken the favorite sport of gangs, and we put it at midnight to get them on the basketball court. We had 100,000 new cops with Clinton -- we've done it all. And the problem still is out of control. Liberalism doesn't work.
Ironically, Media Matters (who transcribed the cited quote) vindicates Limbaugh. The phrase "sport of gang members" would imply a sweeping generalization about basketball, that B's membership is dominated by G. Limbaugh said the reverse, that G plays basketball more than any other sport. And it's true - most American gangs are inner-city phenomena, and the sport played by most inner-city folks, criminal or otherwise, is basketball. There isn't room in the inner city to play any other major sport.
Limbaugh simply questioned the notion of using the gangs' sport of choice as a means of dissuading them from crime.
Labels: Media
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Final Thoughts On Obama's Nobel
More thoughts: I haven't taken the Nobel Peace Prize seriously since I researched its history in 2002 - but I feel offended anyway. Why? Isn't that like being offended by the Lenin Peace Prize? No. The now-defunct Lenin Peace Prize was meaningful only to Communists. The Nobel pretends to be meaningful to everyone.
I don't take the Nobel seriously, but the Nobel committee does - and I expect its members to act like it. The lamest of Nobel awards have always been able to point to some concrete endeavor - League of Nations actvities, the Paris Peace Talks, the Oslo Accords. Never before has the Nobel been awarded for such vague and nebulous excuses. No formal peace plans. No signed treaties. No formal campaigns of some nature. It's a most blatant political charade.
Labels: World
Friday, October 09, 2009
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR ICE-RIDDEN NORWEGIAN MINDS?
This is a real news story, not The Onion.
I have long been critical of the Nobel committee for awarding untested peace plans. Obama hasn't even done that.
Adding to the farce, the deadline for the nomination process was February 1. Obama had been president eleven days.
At least they didn't give him the Nobel for Economics.
Update: I just emailed this rant accompanying a link to this post. The first sentence is the subject title.
Has any element of Western civilization ever been this freakin insane? Where's my Oscar? Where's my Deming Prize? Where's my Heisman? You don't have to do a damn thing to win a prize. Pay up. I deserve it. Everybody deserves it.Prizes for everyone! A trophy in every garage!
Update: In record time, WBAP Dallas/Fort Worth has cranked out a Nobel parody song. All WBAP parodies listed here. I like this line" "Better grab it and go, I think Oslo knows the Olympics nixed them too."
Labels: Curiosities, World
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Hey CNN, Fact-Check This
“Seniors!” House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) said. “Run for your lives! Obama is coming to kill you! He will kill all of you!”
(Latter link via Dodgeblogium)
Labels: Humor
Oops
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Heroes - Nathan Petrelli's Chappaquiddick
This episode's theme is turning over new leaves - and old ones. Hiro makes numerous time-travel attempts to stop the self-destructive behavior of a suicidal coworker who has a penchant for photocopying his butt when he has too much sake. Hiro finally stops Tadashi from jumping; he confides in his terminal illness, and offers two bits of advice: 1) do something you love, and 2) don't keep secrets from family. Hiro follows his own advice and confesses to his sister about his terminal illness. During the conversation, a sudden headache makes him teleport involuntarily, in front of Kimiko and Ando.
Tracy sees New York governor Robert Malden and quickly gets her old job back. She has second thoughts; prodded by her recent traumas what she wants in life is to help others and not play moll to a self-serving politician. Stress temporarily destabilizes her physical form - her hands uncontrollably turn into water for a moment - and she decides to quit Malden's service.
Claire tries to encourage her dad to overcome his current unemployment. The pep talk lifts his spirits, but what starts the wheels turning is a visit from Peter. Peter exposes his arm to show the compass tattoo, which has now mysteriously vanished. Bennett seems to have no interest in Peter's adventure, but in his last scene he is sifting through news stories, including one titled "The Compass That Saved The World."
We see another glimpse of Lydia Sullivan's precog ability - she knows that Bennett has renewed his interest in people with abilities. We also see that Edgar doesn't share his brother's vision of expanding their little mutant commune.
Angela decides to help "Nathan" get over his "midlife crisis" with a box of boyhood memorabilia. A baseball cap triggers a horrifying memory flash - a bleeding woman in a swimming pool. It was his old girlfriend Kelly Houston, who had allegedly left home for London, never to be seen again. Her mom Millie is a longtime friend of Angela's. He visits Mille briefly. A walk by the pool, armed with the area gets the whole story: the two were on the diving board together and both stumbled into the pool; Kelly's head hit the edge of the pool, the blow killing her.
Nathan learns the truth from Angela; the Haitian had covered up the memory, of course. (Too bad the Kennedy clan didn't have a Haitian to help them cover up skeletons...) Nathan confesses to Millie, who says she doesn't believe him, and tells him to leave.
In a parking garage Nathan calls the police department and asks for homicide, and abruptly changes his mind and puts away the phone. A man, who we find is working for Millie, assaults and kidnaps Nathan, takes him outdoors somewhere, tosses the unconscious man into a shallow grave, shoots him several times, and covers up the grave. At the end of the episode Sylar emerges from the grave.
If the shooting turned off the Nathan delusion, and if Sylar's mind is in Matt's body, then the Sylar in the grave must be an amnesiac.
Did Millie know the truth of her daughter's disappearance all along - and does she have her own motives for keeping it hidden? Did Nathan/Sylar's murderer leave the cell phone? Will Sylar start calling the numbers on speed dial? Who will be the first to discover he's back to his original physical form? Where did Hiro teleport to? Will Tadashi swear off sake and photocopiers for good? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
It's That Time Of Year
If there were a genuine peace prize out there that went strictly to people who measurably made some corner of the world more peaceful, would any events of the past year qualify?
Labels: Curiosities
Monday, October 05, 2009
Heroes - The Lunatic Is In My Head
During a drug bust Matt discovers that Sylar can use Matt's own powers - against Matt, who hallucinates evidence of a child kidnapping and murder. Fortunately Matt can use his mojo to make his partner (and the suspect) forget what happened. But now he knows he can't be sure what's real and what's not while Sylar is in his head.
Claire eventually lets Gretchen in on the secret, and Bennett comes to trust Claire to handle Gretchen on her own.
A new hero emerges - Emma, a deaf woman who sees sound waves as pretty colors. Others do not see the colors.
Samuel undertakes his mysterious mission to meet Peter, posing as fictional accident survivor William Hooper. A process server brings papers to Peter; "Hooper" claims Peter's bravery dislocated his shoulder. The two meet twice; in the hospital, and later in the park, where after a somber conversation about grieving "Hooper" drops the case and shakes Peter's hand. Before the second meeting Samuel sneaks into Peter's apartment and "photoshops" himself into a news photo of the accident, having supplied himself with a batch of ink before his trip into the city.
Samuel proceeds to visit a mansion, and asks the lady of the house if he can take a look around the cottage; his parents were once household servants. The lady politely refuses. Later, Peter and other rescue workers arrive on the scene; the mansion has been completely engulfed in a sinkhole. Samuel watches from the shadows as Peter discovers a tattoo on his arm (undoubtedly from ink transmitted by Samuel's handshake) - a wildly spinning compass.
Will Peter remember the real-life compass that behaved in the same manner? How long will they drag out the purpose of Samuel's mission? Will Emma's cat ever cross paths with Mr. Muggles? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Friday, October 02, 2009
Heh
Posted by Alan at 11:40 PM | |
It's Rio!
On behalf of American taxpayers, I'd like to thank the International Olympic Committee for sparing us.
Labels: Sports
Speaking Of Forked Tongues
Labels: Curiosities
Green Man Speak With Forked Tongue
Labels: Politics
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Olympic Battle
My preference is Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Stick a needle in the eyes of all those tinhorn dictators (and our tinhorn president) who sniffed at its lawful impeachment proceedings.
Heroes, Season Premiere
The episodes aired last week Monday. I've been busy, so I'm just starting to catch up on Heroes. I have not watched this week's episode yet.
We're introduced to a new set of characters - the Sullivans, a carnival-operating family of mutants. The elderly Arnold has an ailing time-travel ability (never demonstrated). Samuel has telekinesis; according to Heroes wiki, the ability is limited to "earth and other minerals." Whatever tattoo ink he uses conforms to those limits, as he uses it to put a choke hold on Edgar, who has super speed.
Lydia Sullivan presents a plot conundrum. She appears to have an Isaac Mendez-like precog ability that manifests itself in images; she beings out the images with tattoo ink injected into her back. Heroes Wiki says she is an empath - the same power as Peter's. That would explain how she can manipulate the ink like Samuel. Precog she would have acquired from someone else. But why doesn't she have Arnold's?
Samuel is seeking out a time traveler, as Arnold's power is fizzled. Somehow he gets his wish. Hiro involuntarily travels back to the carnival, when it was in Japan 14 years ago. He meets Samuel, who knows who he is, and who convinces Hiro that he can change individual historical events while avoiding the temporal butterfly effects that dominated earlier seasons.
Hiro changes one event. It was this day when he, Ando and Kimiko visited the carnival, and Hiro caused an accidental Slushy spill that ruined Kimiko's dress. She blamed Ando for the incident, and hated him ever since. Present Hiro gets in the way of the flying Slushy. The accident prevented, Kimiko and Ando fall in love at the carnival, and have been a romantic couple for 14 years. One wonders why they never got married; maybe it wasn't expedient during her father's lifetime, given Ando's low spot on the totem pole.
"Nathan" - who is really Sylar - is starting to discover Sylar's powers; he accidentally telekineses a coffee cup and pops off an electric charge from his hands. We don't know quite what's going through his head. He tries to contact Peter, who won't respond to his phone call. Earlier, Nathan speaks to Angela about feeling detached from his past; knowing the truth, she tries to convince him it's a normal midlife crisis.
She contacts Matt Parkman, telling him of the conversation, and trying in vain to enlist him into reinforcing the Nathan delusion on Sylar. The experience has left a side effect on Matt; in Star Trek terms, he has Sylar's katra. (One suspects that the irony is intentional; Zachary Quinto played Spock in the Trek reboot.)
Sylar appears in several "hallucinations." He wants his original body back. Living in Matt's head, he knows that Matt has been trying to get away from his powers. Sylar needs Matt's ability to get back, so he's manipulating Matt to accept his powers again.
Claire is in college now, in Arlington VA. Her dorm-mate Annie is an overconfident Type-A sort who makes the late Arthur Petrelli look like a slacker. Claire meets Gretchen, an Austin native who remembers Claire's name from the news about the cheerleader murder. After a party, Claire discovers Annie has plummeted out the dorm window to her death.
Gretchen wants to investigate; both suspect a murder, and Claire doesn't remember seeing a suicide note that the authorities found on her pillow. Gretchen suggests testing the suicide theory by dropping a cadaver of Annie's weight out the window. Claire talks Gretchen out of swiping a cadaver, but when everyone's asleep Claire (surprise) uses herself as the crash test dummy. The fall does indeed look like a suicide - but Gretchen has now witnessed Claire's power...
Following the theme of killing off annoying characters...Danko saves Noah from drowning in his car at Tracy's hand. He wants to team up with Noah to kill Tracy. Noah in turn tries to get Tracy to back off from Danko, promising to make Danko forget about her. He keeps his promise, with help from The Haitian's ability. Tracy shows up at Danko's, and discovers quickly that Danko has no memory of her. While at the door Edgar Sullivan shows up in Danko's apartment, kills Danko with Gurkha knives, and fights Tracy until he finds he can't kill her.
Ed runs off, and Bennett eventually arrives. He examines the scenem, and finds the intruder's apparent interest: a key, located in Danko's abdomen. (Say what???) It leads to a safe deposit box, which Bennett retrieves with Peter in tow. Edgar shows up, and Peter gets his power and drives off Edgar. The box contains a compass that seems to detect people with abilities; it spins crazily in Peter's hand but acts normally in Bennett's. Edgar eventually gets the compass, wounding but not killing Bennett. (Edgar did not want to kill again; Samuel had coerced him into the mission against Danko.)
At the end Lydia displays three faces on her back: Claire, Sylar and Peter. Why these three?
Update: I forgot to mention one key plot development - Hiro is terminally ill, apparently tied to the artificial reacquisition of his powers via Baby Parkman's ability last season (the nosebleeds started then), and apparently something diagnosable by a conventional doctor. Will Hiro find a cure?
Labels: Heroes, Television
Outlawing Charity
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Another PRC Tribute
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Today's Musical Treat
Posted by Alan at 4:45 PM | |
Unhappy Anniversary
Will it do something similar for the Republic of China (Taiwan)? Or the Cultural Revolution? Or the Great Leap Forward, which produce history's deadliest famine?
One Small Step For Congress
Labels: Politics
Friday, September 25, 2009
Olympia Snowe Has A Good Idea
Let's do this with all Congressional bills. And bill amendments, too - no more last-minute surprise amendments.
Labels: Politics
Arm The Photon Torpedoes
I have another plan - tell him that the aliens are awash in wealth and less advanced than we are.
If we're going to have a looting-based economy, we might as well do it like Rome and loot the barbarians instead of the locals. The Roman Empire stood for a thousand years...
A Question For Anticapitalist G20 Protesters
Labels: Economics
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Steven Den Beste's Modest Proposal
SDB Amendment 2 is an improved wording of the US Constitution's Amendment 2.
SDB Amendment 3 is silly: "Hanging as a form of capital punishment is permitted under the Constitution of the United States, provisions of Amendment Eight notwithstanding." It was a standard form of execution at the time of the Founders - and at the hands of Washington's army. Better to clarify the meaning of "cruel and unusual."
SDB Amendment 4 needs amending: "No court in the United States shall be guided by precedents established by courts in other nations or by international tribunals..." English common law (prior to 1776) is a part of our legitimate legal precedent.
SDB Amendment 7 (ban on carbon dioxide taxation) belongs in statute, not the Constitution.
I'm not too keen on SDB Amendment 8: "In lawsuits where lawyers work on contingency, the lawyers collectively may not receive a greater percentage of the award than any single one of the clients they represent." I don't approve of artificial price floors (or price ceilings, for that matter), and to be consistent this should not be spread to the legal profession. I would (via statute) require all lawyers to state their fees up front.
I agree totally with SDB Amendment 9: "It is double jeopardy for a defendant to be criminally tried in both State and Federal court for the same event..." Yes, even if it's OJ.
SDB Amendment 10 is interesting: "Neither the federal government nor any state or locality may pass any law or implement any policy which discriminates against or in favor of any person on the basis of race, gender, or national origin." First, note that this prohibits government discrimination, not private-sector. He either supports the right to private-sector discrimination (perhaps as the logical conclusion of the First Amendment right to assembly), or prefers to deal with it in statute.
That said...is all government discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and national origin bad? I would certainly not want gender-desegregated restrooms at the courthouse next time Dallas County calls me in for jury duty. Immigration law by its nature discriminates against national origin. Can anyone think of other legitimate loopholes for such an amendment?
Tell me this...how relevant would government discrimination be if the federal government hadn't ventured so far out of its constitutional bounds?
Labels: Law
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Happy Birthday, Adam West
Labels: Music, Television
