CHINA MIEVILLE: Five Reasons Tolkien Rocks.
Archive for 2009
June 16, 2009
SO IS ALCOHOL GOOD FOR YOU? Or are moderate drinkers just healthier to begin with?
CHEAP VIDEO: Reader Corey Appleby writes: “You’ve probably seen this, but Amazon has Creative Labs’ Vado HD camcorder on sale today for $129.99.” I hadn’t, but that’s a pretty good deal. It’s 80 bucks less than the Flip Mino HD, which gets similar reader ratings. (I’ve got the Flip Mino, and I know I promised a post about it, but for now all I can say is that it’s great for the price and works fine.)
UPDATE: Reader Don Brockette says the video quality on the Vado is so-so. On my Flip Mino it’s pretty good — not as good as my fancy Sony, but pretty good, and at a much lower price and smaller footprint.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reviews. Here’s one for the Flip Mino HD. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the Flip and the Kodak Zi6. And here’s a review of the Vado.
MORE: Review: Flip vs. Vado.
LOTS MORE IRAN-BLOGGING from Michael Totten.
SPEECH CENSOR defends Canada’s “Human Rights” Commissions. “Jennifer Lynch, the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, is oddly insecure in the face of criticism. . . . How dastardly of them to…present arguments. For her part, Lynch offers an astoundingly weak justification for censorship.”
JUST AHEAD OF THE DDOS ATTACKS: A Cyberwar Guide to Helping the Iranian Protesters.
BUILDING THE next generation of supercarriers.
MORE GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: VA officials grilled over botched colonoscopies: “Lawmakers sharply criticized the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday about why a national scare over botched colonoscopies earlier this year didn’t prompt stronger safeguards at the agency’s medical centers. Agency officials apologized for the continued weaknesses and told a House subcommittee that they would do better. . . . The strong reaction came as the agency’s inspector general reported that fewer than half of VA facilities selected for surprise inspections last month had proper training and guidelines in place. That was months after the VA launched a nationwide safety campaign over the discovery of errors at facilities in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee that could have exposed veterans to HIV and other infections.”
Obviously, there’s a simple solution to this problem. Fire the Inspector General!
ARE UNPAID INTERNSHIPS destroying America?
UPDATE: Rand Simberg weighs in.
PETER WEHNER: Let Us Not Comfort Cruel Men.
LESSONS from Mumbai.
HEH: Dr. Krugman: This Patient Needs More Bloodletting. “For now, I’ll just point out that Krugman’s case for additional stimulus uses the same logic as Caliph Omar’s decision about the good and bad books in Alexandria. If we don’t stimulate and the economy tanks, it’s because we’re not stimulating; if we stimulate and the economy tanks, it’s because we’re not stimulating enough. There’s no way to refute premises stacked in this way. . . . I don’t think he means to make a despotic argument. But that’s what it is. “
DRUDGE: ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE. “On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!”
UPDATE: Reader Paul Jackson writes: “I wonder if ABC will receive a trove of email complaints about this? I’ve already sent mine. I’d like to learn more, like if they plan on granting equal time to those opposed to the President’s agenda…..I kinda think not though.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Dan Riehl: “Hey, I know. Let’s give the Bush White House a few hours on ABC to make a complete presentation from policy advisers and military personnel to go through the run up, execution and corrections regarding the Iraq War. And explain why bringing modernity to the Middle-east actually is a part of the war against terrorism. The media always likes to get behind a war effort, anyway. Oops, sorry, too late for that. Bet they wish they had thought of it then.” Well, I’d tune in to watch the Doug Feith Show. Er, but you can listen to this. Doing the job the Legacy Media won’t!
I once had a girlfriend who quit journalism and went into PR “because it’s more ethical.” I think of that a lot, these days.
SWINE FLU UPDATE: An interview with “Dr. Flu.”
ANN ALTHOUSE ON NATIONAL HEALTH CARE AND LETTING THE BOOMERS DIE: “It’s one thing to deny the choice to die, quite another to deny the choice to live. The individual may not have a right to get killed, because the state’s interest in protecting people from coercion and abuse is a good one. But Kaus is concerned about a government that wants you dead — perhaps not by actively offing you, but by maintaining full control over the medical treatments you need in order to fend off death.”
IN THE MAIL: From Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. Now in a newly revised paperback edition, with fancy blurbs from fancy people!
Plus, from John Wasik, Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream. It’s looking to me that the most “unsustainable” part of the American Dream is its dependence on a self-disciplined and intelligent political class. . . .
BYRON YORK: Will Democrats Cover Up The Americorps Mess?
In dismissing Walpin, the president seemed to trample on the law — a law he himself had co-sponsored as a senator — that protects inspectors general from political influence and retribution. In addition, it appears that at least part of the reason Walpin was fired was for the tenacity he showed in investigating misuse of AmeriCorps money by a friend and supporter of the president, Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California. Walpin got the goods — evidence of Johnson’s serious misuse of federal dollars — and the inspector general ended up getting fired for his troubles.
So the Walpin case is just the kind of thing the watchdogs of good government in the House and Senate might investigate. But Democrats enjoy solid majorities in both houses, and thus control what will be investigated, and how any investigation will proceed. As the minority party, Republicans have little power to do anything.
They can make noise, and force media coverage, if they are willing to do so. And, of course, there’s the prospect of a Walpin civil suit. If this were a Republican administration, litigation — and discovery — would be a certainty.
AUTOCRACY: What’s happening to GM and Chrysler, Part I.
POLITICO: Stimulus Serves Up Obama Pork. “So how did a project that Democrats swore not to include as an earmark end up being paid for by stimulus money? The answer is a complicated tale of money, politics and power that could happen only in Washington.”
RUSSIA challenges the dollar.
LOOKING BACK at the Apollo program.
A LIBERTARIAN FANTASY: “Just think if Friedrich Hayek had been a sexy dame with big gazongas . . . “