Archive for 2008
November 27, 2008
DAMON ROOT on Eric Holder and the Second Amendment.
A REPLACEMENT FOR THE TERM “STIMULUS” that has the advantage of accuracy:
Let’s just call it what it is “taxpayer reaming.” “We’d like to propose another taxpayer reaming to go along with our last taxpayer reaming…”
Works for me.
ROGER SIMON: Happy Thanksgiving in Unhappy Times. I’m happy, and I haven’t even opened the wine yet.
IN THE MAIL: Andre Norton’s Search for the Star Stones. Andre Norton (actually, Alice Mary Norton) died back in 2005, and this is a reissue of The Zero Stone and Uncharted Stars, which I read many years ago. I liked ’em then.
THEY’RE AUCTIONING OFF autographed military SF novels to benefit Project Valour-IT. If you’re looking for a worthy cause, this is one.
DATING ADVICE FOR “HIMBOS” AND MUCH MORE — including Bill Whittle’s life as a sex object — in the latest Ask Dr. Helen video, free to everybody with no registration required.
JEFF JARVIS: “Let me make this clear: I did not say bullshit to Bill Keller. Not that I couldn’t, wouldn’t, or haven’t, but I didn’t. Nor did he to me.”
I GUESS THIS PROVES WE’RE IN A RECESSION: Final Super Bowl Ad Slots Not Selling. More evidence that we need a sockpuppet bailout!
WHERE THANKSGIVING came from.
FROM DAVID JOACHIM, some perfect turkey tips.
Plus, bacon-wrapped turkey! I’d like to say that it looks delicious, but, well, actually it looks like food for space aliens.
And, on a more realistic note, cooking turkeys on the grill. I’d try that, but I’ll be grilling 2 legs of lamb already, so the turkey will have to go in the oven. Obviously, I need a bigger grill!
ELIOT SPITZER GETS OFF WITHOUT PROSECUTION, and the complaint is that he was caught:
Members of the House Financial Services Committee say they have no evidence that the former governor, a hard-charging Wall Street regulator, was singled out by the federal government. But some members believe that unanswered questions about how Spitzer popped up on the radar of federal investigators speak to a broader problem: the potential misuse of power under the Patriot Act. Unusual money transfers by the governor triggered a “suspicious activity report,” or SAR, within the banking system, and it was through the money transfers that investigators discovered Spitzer was patronizing a prostitution ring. Some on the committee have long been concerned with the government’s practice of reviewing hundreds of thousands of SARs filed by banks each year, saying they could be used inappropriately by the government – say, for political reasons.
Or maybe they’re worried that it makes bribery and prostitution involving politicians more difficult? Meanwhile, at CNN, wondering why Spitzer got off easy.
MORE ON MUMBAI: A roundup of overnight developments from Jose Guardia.
UPDATE: More here.
TOM SMITH: “One thing I certainly don’t believe is that the government is likely to make productive investments with their stimulating spending. I suspect it will be like a lewd dance by an ugly person. It may be intended to stimulate, but will fail to do so.”
DOG BITES MAN: Glenn Greenwald notes that Joe Klein bends with the political winds.
Next: Andrew Sullivan is “excitable!”
MAN BITES WOMEN BITE DOGS IN IRAQ: “Eighteen females in northern Iraq who were associated with Al-Qaeda in Iraq suicide bombing cells turned themselves into Coalition forces on Nov. 26.”
The Telegraph (UK), and by extension the Drudge Report, are expressing wonder that, judging by the credit default swaps (CDS) market, “California is now priced as a greater bankruptcy risk than Slovakia 150.”
As a former resident of both states, I can testify that this is an unfair slap…at Slovakia.
Slovakia has a healthier political culture . . . .
November 26, 2008
FREE VIDEO: I talk with Michelle Malkin about Obama as a “third Bush term,” the future of the rightosphere and the cluelessness of G.O.P. apparatchiks, and much more.
“PROGRESSIVES” AND OBAMA: Buyer’s remorse?
THAILAND: On the brink of civil war?
INFLATION-ADJUSTED U.S. House Prices, 1975-2008. “We’re now in an era in which home prices are depreciating. Based on the graph above prices may have to decline an additional inflation-adjusted 15-25% to be back within historical norms.”
A KULTURKAMPF against Mormons?
LABOR UNREST IN CHINA: A harbinger of things to come?
THANKSGIVING CUTBACKS:
“Maybe you cut back on the (holiday) gifts a little bit, or maybe you don’t have as extravagant a Thanksgiving as you used to,” she said. “Maybe you don’t have a free-range bird as you’ve had in the past; maybe you go to a Butterball.”
My God, it’s the Great Depression all over again! And always has been at my house, I guess, since I buy a Butterball every year. To the likes of me, that counts as a premium turkey.
Of course, I’ll also be making the leg of lamb as usual, too, so we’re not suffering here.