Given the things Apollo likes, one wonders what MacArthur would make of these.
Hubbard posted this at 11:50 AM HKT on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 as Those Wacky Foreigners
April 21st, 2009
For Apollo
April 20th, 2009
Who Didn’t See This Coming?
The Obama Administration is thinking of putting restrictions on bailout loan repayment.
Why would they do that? Well because repaying the loans would prevent them from converting said loans to equity as a backdoor to nationalization.
Instead of letting the banks fail the Federal Government saw this as a path to more power and control.
I’m shocked.
Jamie posted this at 1:44 PM HKT on Monday, April 20th, 2009 as Bailoutistan
Original Sin and Susan Boyle
A misanthrope was working when he was asked, “Do you have some Ibuprofen?” His inquisitor, of course, was the Devil.
Hubbard posted this at 1:04 PM HKT on Monday, April 20th, 2009 as Devil and Misanthrope, Pop Culture Is Filth
In Which Apollo Is Proven Right…
Janeane Garofalo calls all TEA protestors racist, Olberman agrees with her. You can’t make this shit up people.
Regardless of what you think about these protests I think we can all agree that this has nothing to do with race. Then again it has been predicted on this blog (and elsewhere myriad times) that anyone disagreeing with Obama would become a defacto racist.
Interestingly enough when it was the other side protesting, Ms. Garofalo seemed to think that free speach and reasoned dissent was the hight of patriotism and democratic discourse.
What a bloody hypocrite.
Jamie posted this at 12:36 PM HKT on Monday, April 20th, 2009 as CHANGE!, Race
April 19th, 2009
Chop chop
It is a truth to be universally acknowledged that few pleasures in life are so exquisite as a book review hatchet job. Chesa Boudin appears to be the Communist equivalent of a Capitalist tool, as New York Times reviewer Dwight Garner observes:
Because of the interesting contradictions of his life thus far — son of militant radicals! Rhodes scholar! — you might expect Mr. Boudin to have interesting things to say about himself and perhaps even about the places he visits. If only.
His mistakes begin with his book’s epigraph. He’s chosen lines from Paul Theroux’s “Old Patagonian Express,” and they aren’t bad; they’re about how travel writers are “essentially optimists.”
But Mr. Boudin seems unaware that Mr. Theroux is, at heart, the obverse of an optimist; his writing’s baseline swat comes from its misanthropy, its cruel accuracy. And Mr. Theroux is an acid stylist, not at all the sort of writer Mr. Boudin wants to place up against his own bland sentences.
Enjoy Mr. Garner’s work, and make sure to read his conclusion.
Hubbard posted this at 12:39 AM HKT on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 as Belles Lettres, The Right Words
April 16th, 2009
Too Smart for Me to Understand
Why would you go out of your way to give a speech from a specific location, and then cover up the distinctive markings of that location? And, just as confusing, why on earth would Georgetown consent?
Obviously the White House doesn’t fear the “secret Muslim” rumor. A couple of weeks after bowing to the king of Arabia and protector of Mecca, he now insists on going to an explicitly Christian institution and covering up the name of Jesus.
Also: Using the Sermon on the Mount as a basis for his economic platform is tacky. Seriously, we can’t show the name of Jesus at a Catholic university, but we can base our economic policies on Christ’s teachings? Again, too smart for me.
Apollo posted this at 11:37 PM HKT on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 as CHANGE!
April 15th, 2009
Life in Napolitanistan
The Department of Homeland Security isn’t engaged in “ideological profiling,” except when it says that “right-wing extremism” is a security threat. I suppose if a police chief said his department wasn’t engaged in “racial profiling,” but then sent out a paper to all of his officers detailing the threat from “black street gangs,” the Obama administration and the mainstream press would accept that.
Apollo posted this at 8:40 PM HKT on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 as Liberty and/or Security
April 14th, 2009
Life in Texas
Police said they were called to a motel on Wednesday (local time) where several men from the Houston area were sharing a room. Police said a 35-year-old man allegedly passed gas in the room on Tuesday night.
Police said one of the other men became upset, picked up a knife and threw it at the 35-year-old man, who was cut in the leg. The suspect was accused of then stabbing the man in the chest.
I guess Tex-Mex doesn’t agree with some people.
Dorothy posted this at 5:23 PM HKT on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 as Deep in the Heart of Texas
Dolphins Versus Pirates
From xinhuanet, which may or may not be true:
Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.
The important question at hand: Who’s defecting, the ChiComs or the dolphins?!
Dorothy posted this at 5:17 PM HKT on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 as Animal Kingdom Strikes Back
Not Comparable
Apparently, Angelina Jolie is as beautiful as President Barack Obama is popular.
Dorothy posted this at 5:11 PM HKT on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 as Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, Pop Culture Is Filth
How Now Brown Cow
It seems like Vermont is going to do something sensible, namely decriminalize teen sexting. In the middle of the story, though, we get this:
Karen Salmansohn is an expert on talking with teenagers about smart choices. She writes books to empower girls, and says parents need to talk to their kids about the dangers of sexting — using their language.
“Don’t talk to them in language saying this is right this is wrong. That’s not going to get to a kid,” Salmansohn said.
“You have to talk them, you know what you think is cool isn’t so cool. You have to use the language of cool because that’s why they’re doing it.”
If the only thing standing between a teenage boy and pictures of his girlfriend’s boobs is the girl’s mother insisting that it’s not “cool,” I’m pretty sure he’s going to get the pictures.
Apollo posted this at 12:46 AM HKT on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
April 13th, 2009
Free Advice To Rush Limbaugh
Untie the other half of your brain. You need it.
Tom posted this at 9:18 PM HKT on Monday, April 13th, 2009 as Journalism, Possession by the Coultergeist
April 12th, 2009
Ginsburg and Foreigners
Is R. B. Ginsburg completely ignorant of American legal tradition, or is she making a facetious argument?
American hostility to the consideration of foreign law, she said, “is a passing phase.” She predicted that “we will go back to where we were in the early 19th century when there was no question that it was appropriate to refer to decisions of other courts.”
If I recollect my histories right, there was a particular reason American judges relied on “decisions of other courts” in the early 19th century. Namely, we were a new country whose legal system was almost entirely adapted from an old country’s legal system. Indeed, the fact that this is completely different from the sort of reliance on foreign law that Ginsburg advocates can be seen in the fact that Justices Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts feel no qualms about referring to pre-independence British law to interpret early American law, but heavily criticize Ginsburg’s use of modern foreign law. And indeed they should; two hundred years of American legal tradition, laid on top of several hundred years of British legal tradition, is an adequate source from which to draw interpretive insight into American law.
But I think elsewhere in the story we understand why she wants to use foreign law:
She added that the failure to engage foreign decisions had resulted in diminished influence for the United States Supreme Court.
The Canadian Supreme Court, she said, is “probably cited more widely abroad than the U.S. Supreme Court.” There is one reason for that, she said: “You will not be listened to if you don’t listen to others.”
How are American citizens aided by having our Supreme Court quoted in foreign cases? Are Canadians freer and more prosperous because of how widely respected their Supreme Court is? Of course not! The only people who benefit from that sort of international cite swapping are the judges themselves. I bet it’d make Ginsburg feel quite good about herself if one of her masterpieces was quoted in other countries. As an American citizen, though, I can’t remotely see how it helps us for our out-of-touch legal elites to be highly regarded by out-of-touch legal elites around the world. Is that what the Founders intended by creating an independent judiciary?
If not having our Supreme Court quoted in other countries is the price we have to pay to have judges who remain true to the American legal tradition and do not wish to impose on us the thoughts of those around the world with a lot less experience and success in self-government, then that’s a bargain I’d gladly strike.
Apollo posted this at 4:00 PM HKT on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 as I, For One, Welcome Our Judicial Overlords!
Getting to Her Head
I hope in 2012 she doesn’t try the “I’m just like all of you” campaign shtick again. Ordinary women don’t have their own traveling makeup “artist,” and have, at most, one personal chef. There’s a quote in the makeup “artist” story that perfectly sums up some of the differences between Michelle and Laura:
“It took Laura Bush four years to finally look good. It’s taken Michelle Obama two months. She wears fake eyelashes that are beautiful. She can’t do those herself.”
Yes, she’s found true beauty there. Toward the end of the story, there’s also this:
The Obamas privately paid for the travel expenses of the styling team, according to a spokeswoman for the first lady. But the high-profile jobs don’t pay much, say former White House stylists.
“You do it because you know you will have some prestige and you will be able to make money later,” Portelli said.
Um, isn’t that some sort of abuse of office? Getting cheap haircuts and personal care because you’re allowing the haircutters to profit off the prestige of your office? Abuse or not, I find it kinda sleazy for people as rich as the Obamas to take advantage of their position in this way.
Addendum: I know it’s probably not fair to go so far back in the past as 2007, but here’s Jezebel getting happy that Michelle was so self-confident she didn’t need makeup. From Michelle, before she rose to power: “I want people to get used to my face more naturally so that I don’t have to do that every day. Who’s got time to put eyelashes on and all that?” I guess we now know the answer: rich women without jobs. Here’s the story that quote is from.
Apollo posted this at 11:55 AM HKT on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 as CHANGE!
April 11th, 2009
How Smart is Smart Money?
On the cover of my May 2009 issue of Smart Money is this teaser: “It It Time to Dump Index Funds? p. 15″
Actually, that might have been a great story for the May 2008 issue. See also here. See also here. If you’re still on the train, I’m unsure as to why you would get off now.
Apollo posted this at 2:40 PM HKT on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 as It's Economics - Stupid!