REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
Archive for June, 2010
June 29, 2010
ANDREW BREITBART IS A GENIUS: Reward: $100,000 for Full ‘JournoList’ Archive; Source Fully Protected.
Yes, the mainstream media that came together to play up the false allegations that the “N-Word” was hurled 15 times by Tea Party participants at the Congressional Black Caucus outside the Capitol the day before the “Obamacare” vote, is the same MSM that colluded to make sure the American public accepted the smear, and refused to show the exculpatory videos that disproved the incendiary charges of Tea Party racism.
Ezra Klein’s “JournoList 400” is the epitome of progressive and liberal collusion that conservatives, Tea Partiers, moderates and many independents have long suspected and feared exists at the heart of contemporary American political journalism. Now that collusion has been exposed when one of the weakest links in that cabal, Dave Weigel, was outed. Weigel was, in all likelihood, exposed because – to whoever the rat was who leaked his emails — he wasn’t liberal enough.
Read the whole thing. And, you know, if you’ve got the emails, well . . . .
DAN MITCHELL: How To Tell When Government Is Too Big.
INVESTIGATE THIS: “This is a scandal that, thanks to Rubin, von Spakovsky, and Adams, is now hiding in plain sight. The basic facts of the case were captured in real time on video (above). Yet other than a few posts by Dave Weigel regarding the Civil Rights Commission’s hearings in the case on the Post site, I cannot find a trace of it in either the Washington Post or the New York Times. While justice has been politicized in a most disgusting manner in the Obama administration, the mainstream media have averted their eyes and moved on.”
MY THOUGHTS ON MCDONALD: The New Normal: The Second Amendment After Heller and McDonald.
SOME FLYING CAR PROGRESS. Not really the Jetsons yet, though.
CRACKING DOWN ON strategic mortgage default. “A strategic default is a valuable piece of information. It tells the bank about your attitude towards credit, and whether or not you are willing to make strenuous efforts to repay your loans. People who will make heroic efforts to repay loans at great personal cost to themselves are, in fact, better credit risks than people who act as if credit is nothing more than an exotic option, which you can repay if advantageous, or walk away if not.”
IMPORTANT PENIS NEWS: On The Trail of Tutankhamen’s Penis.
AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED, IT’S ABOUT TIME: Discovering the virtues of the wandering mind.
PROGRESS: Top-Down Nanotech.
TENNESSEE’S DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR signs a tough new immigration law.
RADLEY BALKO: Police Blackout: Law enforcement agencies in Northern Virginia say you have no right to know what they’re doing. Just fund their pensions and shut up.
GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ABOUT THE PLUG-IN PRIUS: “So far, the Inside Line team has racked up more than 500 miles in the plug-in Prius and the experience has to be considered somewhat of a let down. The team has averaged 62 miles per gallon, a good number for sure, but one that many drivers of the more conventional Prius have easily achieved on a regular basis. . . . Given the plug-in’s slightly improved efficiency, one would have to drive 215,100 miles to make up for the additional cash laid out to start, but even that figure fails to factor in the cost of charging the Prius. Dependent upon the cost of electricity, a plug-in Prius will likely cost more to drive than its more traditional hybrid counterpart. The plug-in Prius might not be a wise investment, but Inside Line still adamently believes that it’s one of the best hybrids available.”
FROM RUSSIA with love.
HOPE: Consumer Confidence Plunges In June. “Recovery Summer, or Recovery Bummer? Economists are beginning to wonder whether we’re heading into a double-dip recession, or whether the first one ever really ended.”
Anecdotage: A woman who works at a local used bookstore told me they’re not selling nearly as many hardbacks as they used to — people won’t spring for them any more, even at the reduced prices. That doesn’t sound like a recovery to me.
NRA ON DISCLOSE ACT: We had to put the Second Amendment ahead of the First.
LET’S NOT IGNORE Al Gore’s second chakra.
Related: Feminism dies from global warming?
IN THE MAIL: John Birmingham’s new book, After America. I actually read it as soon as it came in, and it’s a worthy sequel to Without Warning.
POLITICO: Democrats quietly cheer high court gun ruling. “Democratic candidates across the map figure they have one less issue to worry about on the campaign trail. And they won’t have to defend against Republican attacks over gun rights and an angry, energized base of gun owners.”
NICK GILLESPIE: Libertarians write their own invitation to the party.
VERONIQUE DE RUGY: The Cost Of Public-Sector Unions.
IN MASSACHUSETTS, Democratic candidates starting to attend Tea Party forums.