WELL, HE DID PROMISE HOPE AND CHANGE: “Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America’s future. He is the best thing ever. . . . Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.”
Archive for 2010
October 8, 2010
MORE ON THE WORK OF Mario Vargas Llosa.
UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!
POLIWOOD LOOKS AT THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
BUNKER UP! The World’s First Everything-Proof Underground Luxury Community. “The structure in which we are now standing was built by AT&T in 1965 to protect telephone infrastructure from a nuclear attack, but now it can protect something far more important: me and my loved ones. For just $50,000 each—half off for kids—I can buy a fractional share of the Terra Vivos underground shelter network, a project that will include at least 19 more ‘community bunkers,’ each of them located within 150 to 200 miles of a major American city. Terra Vivos is a concrete-and-steel solution to the end times, whether brought about by climate change or nuclear war or even an unavoidable realignment of the cosmic order. Wherever I happen to be at that terrible moment, I’ll have a place to live the morning after.”
UPDATE: Reader Jason Fay is unimpressed:
This will never work. Everybody knows that some asshole will hide the fact that he’s been bitten by one of the zombies. The underground bloodbath follows soon after the outer doors are sealed.
(Plus, they disarm the residents! How stupid can these people be? Haven’t they ever watched a goddamn zombie movie? Pathetic!)
At least it’s not built by Vault-Tec, and there’s no Overseer.
WELL, SO MUCH FOR “RECOVERY SUMMER.” A look at today’s unemployment numbers.
6000 YEARS WORTH OF minerals on the ocean floor.
ALL YOUR ECONOMIC DECISIONS are belong to us.
REMEMBER, THEY’RE STILL COMMIES: Chinese Police Force Nobel Peace Prize Winner’s Wife To Leave Home. The winner himself, of course, is in a dungeon. Just because they sold you an iPhone doesn’t mean they’re for freedom.
UPDATE: Reader David Gerstman writes:
Last year Thomas Friedman was writing that America needed to be more like China and adopt one-party democracy.
Two weeks ago he told us that America needs to be more like China and adopt green technologies.
So now can we expect a Thomas Friedman column telling America to adopt the policy of harrassing the families of Nobel Prize winning dissidents? I guess not, we don’t have Nobel Prize winning dissidents here; political opposition is legal here. Still do you think that we might see a Friedman column soon condemning China? Or is China’s enlightened leadership above criticism in Tom’s benighted opinion?
They’re above criticism so long as he holds the Walter Duranty Chair at the NYT.
MEGAN MCARDLE: Two Years in, Obama Still Has an Unemployment Problem. “It’s been almost two years since Obama was elected, and payrolls are still dropping. The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, and unemployment stayed at 9.6% only because we’re losing workers from the workforce; people who don’t think that they can find a job are simply dropping out. Even though I was worried about a hard crash, I find it hard to believe that almost halfway through Obama’s first term, we’re still losing jobs.”
Try reading Federalist No. 62.
UPDATE: A reader — and high school friend — emails:
Obama doesn’t have an unemployment problem. He still has a job ( for now ).
I, and millions like me, have an unemployment problem.
Obama just likes to opine about other people’s difficulties … without participating himself. This appears to be the story of his life. The community organizer living in the big house.
Sigh.
PS: Federalist No. 62 sounds like a whiskey. Mmmmmm! Old Federalist!
Now there’s a way to popularize Constitutional literacy!
ANOTHER FLOP FOR LIBERALTARIANISM: Matt Welch on Austan Goolsbee and the White House’s covert war against libertarians. “There is I think zero doubt that the administration began a coordinated PR campaign against the Kochs by early August at the least, and that Goolsbee was just (consciously or unconsciously) doing his part. But wait, didn’t Planet Libertarian have higher hopes for the jauntily named economist (who you can see in a 1999 Reason piece declaiming Internet taxes)? Why yes it did.”
A LINK BETWEEN low testosterone and Alzheimer’s onset?
QUESTION TO FDIC: Do you maintain a special list of politically connected banks?
Answer from FDIC: We don’t have to tell you.
A NEW LAWPROF BLOG: The Cocklebur.
I SUSPECT THAT THIS MEANS HE WON’T BE AROUND MUCH LONGER, EITHER: Political Wire: Gates Called Donilon a “Disaster.”
UPDATE: Disaster or not, Donilon’s well connected: “He was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005, and his sole client was Fannie Mae. . . . His brother is Michael C. Donilon, a counselor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. His wife, Cathy Russell, is Jill Biden’s chief of staff.”
THE IRS AND THE LATEST LICENSING OUTRAGE. “Who would you rather prepare your taxes? A professional tax return preparer with over a dozen years experience in preparing tax returns for taxpayers without incident. Or me, an attorney who has never so much as taken a law school class or continuing legal education course in tax law, and gave up on doing his own taxes last year once he started needing to itemize his deductions. You probably think you’d prefer the first option, but the IRS says you’re wrong.” And the IRS undoubtedly has your best interests at heart . . . .
BAILED OUT CHRYSLER NAMED Most Polluting Automaker.
SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE? An Inevitable Slide for Americans’ Standard of Living.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? Sharpton Turns Against Audience Over Lack Of Obama Help. “Essentially calling them lazy and ungrateful, Sharpton has violated the first rule of talk hosting: never turn against the audience. Never, never, never. . . . Since Obama took office, Sharpton has found himself in the unfortunate position of defending him while the primarily African-American audience phones in to complain about the president’s performance. Over time, Sharpton has responded by gradually reducing call-in segments for political topics.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: A Prius Is Not A Swiss Army Knife.
SO I’M READY FOR PJTV TO install this software pronto.
WHY INFLATION matters.
IF YOU MISSED IT LAST NIGHT, check out my PJTV interview with Michael Walsh, about his new book, Rules for Radical Conservatives.
AT DAILYKOS, A CAMPAIGN TO load search engines with things damaging to Republicans.