Yeah, pretty much.
Jamie posted this at 1:19 PM EDT on Monday, October 26th, 2009 as CHANGE!
October 26th, 2009
The Eternal Campaign
Faster, Please
If it eventually goes to 90, it’ll be enough to justify a trip to Utah. Or any other state that dares to grant such freedom.
Apollo posted this at 12:55 PM EDT on Monday, October 26th, 2009 as Uncategorized
October 25th, 2009
Grumblings from Airstrip One
Some of our Oceania members across the pond seem bothered by the government doing its job.
Mr. Martin said he could not comment on her case because it was under review. But Ms. Paton said the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners, which monitors use of the law, found that the Poole council had acted properly. “They said my privacy wasn’t intruded on because the surveillance was covert,” she said.
Well I’d say. I mean, what’s privacy compared to the concern that this woman could have been enrolling her daughter in the incorrect school district? THE INCORRECT SCHOOL DISTRICT!!!1!
Apollo posted this at 12:55 AM EDT on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 as Liberty and/or Security
October 24th, 2009
Why Does the Navy Diss Americans?
So the Navy has some new recruiting ads running, like this one:
“The call to serve has no form, yet I have clearly seen it in the eyes of men and women infinitely more courageous and more driven than most.”
WTF? I’d like to think that our Navy does a lot of technical things. They launch missiles, calculate whether ships will float, and blow crap up. Concepts like “infinity” should not be alien to them.
But there they are making an advertisement tossing around the word like it’s meaningless. It could only be true if 1. Most Americans have zero courage and zero drive, but people in the Navy have some of each or 2. People in the Navy have infinite courage and drive, while most Americans have finite courage and drive. Surely sailors’ respect for their countrymen is not so low as to let them believe the first, and let us all hope that their self-awareness is great enough to not let them believe the second.
Worse than being stupid, though, that line doesn’t even sound good. “Infinitely more…than most.” It goes way over the top in the comparative, then adds the a phrase that makes the whole thing sound confused. If you’re going to make an indefensible over-the-top statement, backing down later in the sentence only draws attention to how ridiculous your first statement was.
They need to use a new ad agency.
Apollo posted this at 7:47 PM EDT on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 as Grumblin Mumblins
October 22nd, 2009
See Where it Leads You
The logical conclusions of carbon hysteria are hilarious. Unless you’re a dog.
Apollo posted this at 9:25 PM EDT on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 as Convenient Truth
Libel: Sullivan Style
The Insanity Czar has this libelous post concerning a recent video at NRO TV.
Its quite clear that Andrew either didn’t watch the video before posting that or watched it and intentionally spun the post so as to make NRO look bad.
Well done Andy.
Watch the video for yourself.
Jamie posted this at 3:16 PM EDT on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 as What Ever Happened to Andrew Sullivan?
Tenther Watch
From Reason:
Jamie posted this at 1:15 PM EDT on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 as Liberty and/or Security
October 21st, 2009
Quote of the Day
It’s hard to summarzie all the government pathologies wrapped up in this. After a year of using red light cameras in one Canadian city, the number of accidents at intrsections with cameras more than doubled. But the city did issue more than a $1 million in tickets (a few to red-light runners, but mostly to those who didn’t come to a complete stop before making a right on red).
So after a year of increasing the amount of harm done to citizens, and taking money from drivers for the most chickenshit offense that no cop would ever waste his time stopping a driver over, how did the program manager sum it up?
“Enforcement Services has promoted red light cameras as a means to reduce collisions,” Roth wrote. “While the collision numbers have not decreased significantly since the cameras have been installed, it is still the position of Enforcement Services that enforcement through the camera technology helps promote safe driving habits.”
“[H]ave not decreased significantly” is, I guess, how Canadians say “more than doubled.” And “promote safe driving habits” is Canucki for “cause wrecks.” Strange language, eh?
By the way, this isn’t about ragging on Canada. Too many American cities, including here in Berkeley on the Colorado, have decided that using accident-causing cameras as a means of extracting money from their citizens is a good idea. The scurge of governments disrespecting their citizens is an international one.
Apollo posted this at 4:53 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 as Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!, The Law Is An Ass--An Idiot, Toaster Update
October 20th, 2009
Will He Stand With Us?
VDH is spot on:
[G]iven that George Bush made a far more difficult choice that saved Iraq, it is hard to figure out why Obama cannot make a simple decision to send the troops requested by his commanders on the ground.
It is rapidly becoming obvious that the last 6 1/2 years of Democrats kvetching about focusing on Afghanistan instead of Iraq has been complete bull shit. They had no more intention of fighting in Afghanistan than they had of fighting in Iraq.
Some of us have understood this for years; the rest of the country is about to have a very rude awakening. And, I suppose it is worth mentioning in passing, millions of Afghanis will suffer because of it.
Apollo posted this at 11:56 PM EDT on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 as CHANGE!, Global War on Terror
October 19th, 2009
Quid Pro Quo
Ummm, duh?
Jamie posted this at 3:07 PM EDT on Monday, October 19th, 2009 as Barack Obama Couldn't Persuade a Bear to Crap in the Woods
Reveruhnd!
Megan echoes my exact thoughts on the latest Democrat/Obama bit of chicago style thuggery:
Threatening to strip their anti-trust exemption as a quid-pro-quo is the kind of thing that sounds cute until someone thinks up a way to do it to people on your side. Would it be okay for a Republican administration to threaten Democratic groups that say unpleasing things by promising to pass laws–however sound–that would decimate the fortunes of George Soros and other big backers? Or openly declare that if unions didn’t stop issuing reports in favor of a higher minimum wage, the administration would have to revisit Taft-Hartley?
I was often criticized by members of the right for my opposition to Bush policies like the USA PATRIOT Act and warrantless wire-tapping. The argument always boiled down to “Well I trust Bush to keep us safe.” Such feelings and arguments are easy to understand, until one points out that 50 years from now a president we don’t like could use those same policies against mere political enemies (see: this).
Jamie posted this at 12:34 PM EDT on Monday, October 19th, 2009 as Health Care, Liberty and/or Security
This is What Happens When Maoists Have Power
Does this bear any resemblance whatsoever to the promises our president made during the campaign, or the way that some David Brooksy-types assured us he would govern?
Or is this the Chicago-style politics we ignorant knuckledraggers on the extreme right predicted?
Just something to consider when thinking about who to believe in the future.
Apollo posted this at 9:40 AM EDT on Monday, October 19th, 2009 as Journalism, That's Not Change!
If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit . . .
I don’t know much about the “Oath Keepers,” but I do know how to spot hack journalism, and this is it. It’s difficult to to think of a better example of shoehorning an organization into a predetermined story line. This story leaves me firmly with the impression that, while I probably wouldn’t join it, this is just a right-wing organization getting smeared as “extremists” by the usual suspects who think anything to the right of Susan Collins’s left foot is “extremist.”
Apollo posted this at 7:49 AM EDT on Monday, October 19th, 2009 as Journalism
October 17th, 2009
Classy
Obama displays some true class.
Jamie posted this at 1:51 PM EDT on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 as Grace
October 16th, 2009
I Haven’t Independently Verified That David Shuster Is A Pedophile
So, just to clarify.
Apollo posted this at 6:41 PM EDT on Friday, October 16th, 2009 as Journalism