Archive for 2010

INTRODUCING THE NEXT-GENERATION Sony Cyber-Shots. I’ve always liked Sony cameras, especially the super-slim pocketable ones.

BILL O’REILLY SUPPORTS GUN CONFISCATION DURING WEATHER EMERGENCIES? That’s funny. O’Reilly calls the opposing position “extreme,” but such gun confiscation is illegal under federal statute, and as a matter of constitutional law; in fact, the city of New Orleans lost a lawsuit over gun confiscation during Katrina. But then, O’Reilly’s no libertarian, to put things mildly. And he’s consistently weak on the law, also to put things mildly. Still, he should have been better briefed for this show, as he came across looking like a fool, and making his “extreme” guest look sober and well-informed by comparison.

UPDATE: How radically anti-gun is Bill O’Reilly here? Even Barack Obama voted the other way. (Thanks to reader John Stober for the link).

ROMNEY GOES AFTER OBAMA.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Romney needs to get right on the gun issue, fast. Distance himself from the health care problems in Mass, too.”

GEORGE WILL: Don’t hate Sarah Palin, but don’t let the fact that others hate her cause you to give her more credit than she’s earned. That seems about right. To me, people’s reactions to Palin — particularly the extreme hatred she’s inspired in the left — are more interesting than Palin herself. She may, someday, be ready to be President, but she isn’t now. Heck, she’s barely more ready than Barack Obama was when he was elected. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates writes:

What could Palin do that she hasn’t already done to make herself qualified to be President, pull a sword out of a stone? I notice in the post before your Palin comment you linked to a report on a Romney speech – is he qualified to be President?

What about Joe Biden – if he were suspected of criminal activity, would he even be competent to stand trial? What are his qualifications to be next in line for the Presidency? Nobody ever seems to ask.

As to the idea that Palin was only a little more qualified than Obama – which of Obama’s mistakes do you think Palin would have made, and which things do you think he did correctly that she would have screwed up?

Okay, she’s a lot more qualified than Obama was. But that’s setting the bar way too low. In a natural career trajectory, she’d have been ready for the national stage in 2012 or, more likely, 2016. The McCain pick put her on too early. And while she’s surely a better and more experienced executive than Obama, she would, as President, face a much more hostile media environment and she’s still not up to handling that.

As for Biden . . . well, yeah. I assume Obama picked him as an insurance policy, the way Nixon picked Agnew. Of course, that didn’t work for Nixon, did it?

WHEN REPORTERS attack. Plus, Charles Jaco admits a stunning degree of sexual ignorance. Somehow, I’d have expected him to have a higher degree of knowledge on the subject. Who knew that all these lefty journalists were such choirboys?

SCHOOL SPIED ON STUDENTS AT HOME via laptop webcams? “The suit says Lower Merion School District officials can activate the webcams remotely without students’ knowledge. The lawsuit alleges the cameras captured images of Harriton High School students and their families as they undressed and in other compromising situations. Families learned of the alleged webcam images when an assistant principal spoke to a student about inappropriate behavior at home.”

UPDATE: Orin Kerr comments.

STEVE CHAPMAN on Obama’s slumping popularity. I think it’s more than just the usual end-of-honeymoon thing, personally. People note that Reagan’s popularity fell a lot in his first year — but Reagan got generally hostile media treatment, while Obama has enjoyed friendlier press than any President in history, and has still plummeted in the polls.

MICKEY KAUS: Unions Are Crippling Obama — Exhibit A. “A year was wasted on mindless union-demanded bureaucratic attempts to disingenuously replicate the labor market. Did Obama not know this would happen when he allowed the stimulus to be Davis-Baconized, or did he not care?”

ALEC BALDWIN’S Political Pass.

WHAT HAPPENS AT ABSOLUTE ZERO? Weird stuff.

POOR TEEN SLEEPING due to lack of blue light? I’ve wondered how much of the stereotypical “teen personality” is an artifact of insufficient sleep. . . . .

PREPARING FOR CYBERWAR. Systems should be resilient, and there should be backup means of communications that don’t depend on fancy computers. Shortwave, anyone?

CAR DISGUST: The 1969 Chevy Camaro? “Yes. The Chevrolet Camaro, one of the most iconic muscle cars of all time, is a car I loathe. In fact, it’s one of my all time least favorite cars.” Let the flamewars begin!