AN ALERT FOR PORKBUSTERS AND SPACE ACTIVISTS ALIKE: Fight the “Space Launch System” Earmark!
Archive for 2011
April 27, 2011
CUTTING CARBS cuts liver fat.
TRUMP 1, OBAMA 0: So I was at the gym when they finally caved and released the birth certificate – and on both the Fox and the CNN monitors I saw Donald Trump, who quickly started talking about . . . gasoline prices. See, he knows how to keep the pressure on. Other GOP candidates might want to take a lesson. Maybe they could talk about milk.
UPDATE: Trump: Now Release Your College Records!
ANOTHER UPDATE: The White House may think it’s sprung a trap, but I think they waited too long. By now — as the polls from earlier this week showing how many independents thought Obama wasn’t born here, and which probably prompted the release decision, indicate — the damage is done. Even if people change their minds on the issue, for many the residual suspicion will remain: The thought that regardless of where he was born, there’s something shady about him.
Plus, from the comments: “Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don’t let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused.” It’s more about the gas prices and the milk. Media spin won’t change those.
Plus, reader Dave Converse emails: “Now that Obama has released his birth certificate, it’s clear why he waited: there was no immaculate conception!” That’s sure to disappoint some of his fans.
MORE STILL: Roger Simon: Why doesn’t the L.A. Times release the Khalidi tapes?
STILL MORE: Claim: Alterations show in Adobe Illustrator. How likely is that?
National Review Not buying the layers argument: “What’s plausible is that somewhere along the way — from the scanning device to the PDF-creation software, both of which can perform OCR (optical character recognition) — these partial/pseudo-text images were created and saved. What’s not plausible is that the government spent all this time manufacturing Obama’s birth certificate only to commit the laughably rookie mistake of exporting the layers from Photoshop, or whatever photo editing software they are meant to have used. It’s likely that whoever scanned the birth certificate in Hawaii forgot to turn off the OCR setting on the scanner. Let’s leave it at that.”
Plus, from the comments: “They’re not layers. Illustrator is simply able to interpret PDF image data and *present it to you* as layers.” That would make sense, but I don’t know anything about Illustrator.
IN THE MAIL: From Lars Walker, West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure and Faith.
HARSH WORDS AT CATO: Inside Every Leftist Is a Little Authoritarian Dying to Get Out. “This isn’t how it starts. This is how it snowballs. Paging Dr. Hayek…”
UPDATE: A reader emails: “How people that just want to be left alone ( TEA Party types ) can be called fascists, while the meddling do-gooder class are considered champions of freedom, has always eluded me.”
HAS THE PRESIDENCY gotten too big? Or is this just another manifestation of the ungovernable America meme?
UPDATE: Kyle Wingfield emails in reply:
In response to your question: The distinction I’d draw is that progressives said America was “ungovernable” because they didn’t like the rules, institutions, etc. that prevented them from expanding the federal government as they wished to do (e.g., the Senate’s filibuster rule). What I’m saying is that they’ve already built it too big, and that what we need is a more limited federal government for the president to preside over.
Well, that’s the sort of second-order knowledge problem that I’ve discussed in the past: A government so big you can’t even understand how it works, much less how it affects the rest of the world.
MORE ON the state pension crisis. I predict that it’s much worse than the states’ numbers indicate. There’s sure to be a lot of book-cooking there.
AT AMAZON, Top Deals In Electronics.
WATCHING THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMUNITY PIVOT: “Let’s just say I do not recall the same general approval for drone warfare even three months ago when it was all about Pakistan and Afghanistan. Or when it comes to Israel’s use of drones.” Well, anything Israel does is a human-rights violation ex definitio. It’s more complicated for the United States. We commit human-rights violations only when we act against our enemies. Other times, human-rights law requires us to blow things up and kill people. It just depends.
COMMERCIAL SPACE UPDATE: NASA to hold briefing with companies vying to carry astronauts into space.
CHANGE: Latest State To Curtail Public Employee Union Bargaining Rights: Massachusetts. “Not only has the Massachusetts state House passed a new law barring all PEUs from collective bargaining on health care, it passed by a veto-proof majority — because Democrats pushed the bill. . . . Yes, you read that right. Democrats in Massachusetts admitted that Scott Walker had the right idea all along. In fact, the Commonwealth believes that the ability to manage health care coverage will save taxpayers $100 million in the next budget year. And in another nod to Wisconsin, the House held their vote at 11:30 last night, hoping to avoid the kind of demonstrations that Wisconsin Democrats encouraged in Madison.”
ANOTHER MASSIVE FAIL FOR THE “INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY:” Global Condemnation, But No Action Against Bloody Syria Crackdown.
WORTH YOUR TIME IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN TECHNOLOGY: The Foresight Institute’s 25th Anniversary Conference At The Google Campus. Jim von Ehr — whom I’ve known long enough to know he’s a smart guy indeed — will be keynoting. (Bumped).
IS OBAMA TOO SMART FOR HIS OWN GOOD? Jennifer Rubin doesn’t think that’s the problem, exactly. “Come to think of it, this is what they said about Jimmy Carter.”
This just seems like another version of the “ungovernable America” meme. Or as Don Surber put it, “Big desk. Little man.”
MAN ARRESTED IN THE U.K. for singing “Kung Fu Fighting?”
WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER, JERRY POURNELLE’S ESSAYS IN GALAXY WERE A HUGE INFLUENCE. I’d say as big an influence on me as anything else I read. Now there’s a new edition of the collection, A Step Farther Out, available on Kindle. (Bumped).
THE CARNIVAL OF SPACE IS UP!
FEEL THE CHANGE: Obama To Choose Leon Panetta as next Defense Secretary. “Panetta, 72, served as chief of staff to President Clinton between 1994 and 1997. Previously he was director of the Office of Management and Budget. The California Democrat served in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.”
YOU’D THINK THIS WOULD HAPPEN LESS OFTEN IN THE AGE OF GPS AND CALLER I.D.: Police Storm Wrong House, Hold Judge At Gunpoint. “They said, ‘Come out with your hands up!’ She said, ‘I am Circuit Court Judge Ilona Holmes. I am armed.'”
TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS TO PROTEST at General Electric shareholder meeting in Salt Lake City.
MICKEY KAUS wants to kill off PolitiFact.
HMM: Wisconsin GOP says Dems using dirty tricks to fight recall effort. So is phoning up people who sign recall petitions a dirty trick? Would it get more press if Republicans were doing it to Democrats?