#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: GOOGLE MAY JOIN YAHOO IN DIVORCING THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE over the horrible “Protect IP Act.”
Archive for 2011
November 5, 2011
CALIFORNIA’S HIGH SPEED RAIL DEBACLE: $100 BILLION ESTIMATE COULD BE TOO LOW. “A bullet train business plan released Tuesday notes that the system cost of $98 billion could jump an additional $19 billion depending on the route and construction features.”
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Occupy What?
Occupy Wall Street follows three years of sloppy presidential name-calling — “millionaires and billionaires,” slurs about Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, profit-mad, limb-lopping doctors, introspection that now is not the time for profits and at some point we should cease making money, spread the wealth, punish our enemies, and all the old Obama boilerplate. Someone finally got the message about the evil 1%.
When Ms. Pelosi and President Obama voice support for the protestors, we enter 1984. Does that mean that the Pelosis now pull their millions out of Wall Street, that the First Family eschews the 1% at Martha’s Vineyard and Vail? That Obama turns his back on Wall Street cash, and, for once, accepts public funding for his 2012 campaign? Postmodern class warfare is an insidious business, and hinges on its advocates not looking in the mirror.
No wise politician should invest in the bunch like those rampaging in Oakland. Their nocturnal frolics are a long way from Woody Guthrie’s Deportee, the Hobos’ “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” and the world John Steinbeck fictionalized. It is the angst of the wannabe class, overeducated and underemployed, which chooses to live not in Akron or Fowler, but in tony places like the Bay Area or New York, where annual rents are far more than a down payment on a starter house in the Midwest. Being educated, but broke and in proximity to the wealthy of like upbringing and background, are ingredients for riot.
I saw videos of youths burning things in Oakland, but was told that it “was a small minority” and atypical of the protest. Not long ago I saw no clips of anyone spitting at black congresspeople wading into the Tea-Party demonstration, but was told they did and that it was typical of tens of thousands of racialists on the Mall.
Funny, that.
UPDATE: “Anarchists for statism.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Occupy Protester Arrested In $10M Arson Fire.
#OCCUPYHOLLYWOOD: DAVID POST: How About Occupy Hollywood? “One of the obvious dangers of the Internet Age is that we’ll be so distracted by everything going on around us — lots of it interesting, complicated, and even important (not to mention all the stuff that’s idiotic and unimportant and fundamentally uninteresting) — that we will fail to recognize the truly important stuff when it comes along. The IP bills that Congress now has before it — the Senate version of which is known as PROTECT-IP, the House version as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), sometimes known as the “E-Parasite” bill — are deep and profound threats to the Net and to our freedom on the Net. If anyone has good ideas about how to fight back other than to stand on the street-corner, as I am doing now, and shouting to the rooftops, I’d be interested to hear them.”
IF YOU MISSED IT ON PJTV YESTERDAY, here’s the YouTube version of my interview with Harman Kaslow, producer of Atlas Shrugged, Part I, out on DVD Tuesday. Part II will be out next summer.
THAT’D BE SWEET: Oakland: Shotgun-wielding developer for Mayor?
NOT SO HAPPY WITH the Simon Property Group. (Via Tam).
UPDATE: For people who don’t regularly read Tam — shame on you — the backstory is Simon Properties’ hostility to gun owners.
CNBC: Has Occupy Wall Street Had Its Day? It’s starting to make Dems look bad, so watch the press coverage evaporate.
LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Court Affirms Prof’s $350k Award Against Law School for Fraud in Tenure Buyout.
RAND SIMBERG: What Are The Chinese Up To In Space? “As milestones go, this could be seen as a small one. After all, China merely performed a feat that Americans achieved more than 45 years earlier (and its space station is about the size of the Salyut 1 Russia flew about 40 years ago). There was a key difference, though: While the first American docking was with a manned Gemini capsule and an unmanned Agena upper stage, the Chinese performed the entire operation with unmanned spacecraft—a feat that the U.S. had never actually performed until recently, and a tribute to the intervening decades of technological development. The question now is: What does China’s recent success say about its goals in space? . . . Chinese leaders openly want to have a manned space station by the end of the decade, and this demonstration is crucial to that goal for two reasons.”
THIS IS COOL: Hubble directly observes the disc around a black hole.
JOHN HINDERAKER: Is Democrats’ Demagoguery Fueling Anti-Semitism?
UPDATE: OccupyBoston invades Israeli consulate. “Still, the whole event illustrates the way the Occupy movement has become a forum for people to air whatever pre-existing grievance or agenda they have, even if it has nothing to do with Wall Street. And how readily a protest against bankers can elide into one against the Jewish state.”
JAMES TARANTO: Sexual Harassment Stories: A report from the field illustrates both the need and danger of regulations. “The fallen nature of man is gender-neutral. Some men are pigs, and some women are liars. Current sexual harassment law deals justly and effectively with the former at the cost of allowing the latter to do great harm to innocent men. The presence of both sexes in the workplace makes necessary some combination of laws, policies and customs to regulate sexual behavior on the job. But the principle of heads-she-wins-tails-he-loses does violence to both justice and equality.”
Plus, advice to women: “Most women need to date men they work with. If you are in your mid-twenties with a good job, you probably spend more time at work than anywhere else. And most of the men you meet are through work. And you have a biological clock ticking loudly. So it would be absurd to restrict yourself to non-work dating. It’s too inefficient in an area that has a tight deadline.”
UPDATE: Don Surber:
Liberals cannot complain.
Paula Jones shut them up on the subject of sexual harassment in 1998 when — after years of ridicule — Paula Jones made Bill Clinton give her every dime she asked for to settle out-of-court a lawsuit in which he perjured himself, which would cost him his law license and almost cost him his presidency.
What can James Carville say about Herman Cain? “Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find”? Suddenly not only are chickens coming home to roost, but they stand ready to peck some eyes out, if necessary. . . . Politico blew it by not showing any patience on the story. Instead of developing the story, they rushed headlong with basically nothing.
Liberals cannot press the issue. They have no credibility. They blew it by standing by their man in 1998. I knew this day was coming. Surprisingly, I am neither happy nor satisfied. It is what it is.
Of course, they’ll complain anyway.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Howard Stern Defends Herman Cain: “I Think It’s A Smear Job.”
November 4, 2011
#WIKIPEDIAFAIL: Star Parker page deleted from Wikipedia?
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Palin reminds Occupy protesters: Obama gives the fat cats their cat nip.
MICHAEL YON has some cool night pics posted.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, A LAWLESS WHITE HOUSE WOULD STONEWALL AND PLEAD EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE: AND THEY WERE RIGHT! “President Obama’s attorney sent a letter to Congressional investigators on Friday, saying the White House would not cooperate with a subpoena requesting documents related to its doling out a $535 million loan guarantee to now bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.”
YEAH, FOXMAN’S BECOME A DISGRACE. Or, more likely, was one all along and is just showing it more now. ADL’s Hypocritical Abe Foxman Executes a Perfect Clintonian Deflection. He’s a Democratic hack, posing as a crusader against antisemitism. No one should take him, or the ADL, seriously.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, PEOPLE WHO CRITICIZED THE WHITE HOUSE’S WAR STRATEGY WOULD BE PUNISHED. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Gen. Peter Fuller removed from duty as a top Afghanistan commander for remarks to Politico.
Remember when “Listen to the generals” was the Dems’ buzzphrase?
AT AMAZON, the Holiday Toy List.
JIM TREACHER: Joe Biden conspicuously silent on Occupier sex-crime spree. “Remember when all Joe Biden could talk about was rape? He kept saying the Republicans aren’t backing the American Jobs Act because they want everybody to get raped? Then he clammed up about it for some reason. But we’ll always have the memories. Good times. As the media tries to feed the embers of a sex scandal despite a distinct lack of A) sex or B) scandal, let’s take a look at our good friends in the Occupy movement who are giving ol’ Sheriff Joe something to cry about. In less than two months, they’ve already racked up an impressive list of rapes, sexual assaults, and other assorted sex crimes across the country.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Video: Are Police Giving OWS Protesters a Free Pass?
MORE: Giuliani: Occupy Wall Street Will Take Obama’s Presidency Down.
“I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Rudy Giuliani said at the Defending the American Dream Summit. “It would not have happened, it would not have happened but for his class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse because it’s going to get worse and worse, where it came from. Barack Obama. He praised it. He supported it. He agrees with it. He sympathizes with it. And as it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama’s neck that will take his presidency down.”
Once it starts hurting him, the media oxygen will be withdrawn. In fact, that’s already starting to happen.
I love the part about how Moore was “escorted to his waiting SUV.” Sounds like a one-percenter to me!
STILL MORE: Reader Kim Sommer emails: “The POTUS didn’t seem to mind the term Obamacare. Let’s push Obamaville in describing the encampments.”
IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S POST ON SOUTHERN MANNERS, reader Jill Wildermuth writes:
As a recent (female) Yankee transplant to the south, I can’t speak of past southern manners, but I can speak of what I’ve seen and experienced since I’ve been here. It’s been nothing short of culture shock, in a wonderful way. I work in a retail store where it’s occasionally required of me to help customers out to their cars with heavy packages. I have no problem with this, but I have yet to seen a man let me take the heavier box, and if I try to, they won’t let me. My male co-workers won’t curse in front of me, or even discuss “inappropriate” subjects without first saying “excuse my language” or “pardon me for this”. I routinely have customers tell me not to worry about helping them with heavy packages, and that I should make the guys carry them. I’m called “ma’am”! (And occasionally, “darlin'”, which is also perfectly acceptable.) I’m treated like a lady wherever I go, not just another random customer. I rarely have to open a door for myself, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been offered assistance to my car when my arms are full after grocery shopping, from both men and women alike.
And the women are no less polite and warm-hearted. They’re happy to have a quick chat or offer an opinion on something if asked by a random stranger. They’ll politely catch your attention if you’re dropped a penny or a piece of paper from your purse to return it. They seem to have a big, wide, authentic smile and a kind word for everyone. They say “Please” and “thank you”, and mean it. And most shockingly, those mothers who bring their young children with them into the stores actually discipline them to make them behave, and will even apologize to the employees if their kids are being unruly.
I’m amazed and grateful for a culture that teaches such manners. If this is a decline in southern manners, then I can only imagine what they were like at their peak.
Shh. Don’t tell anyone. Stories like that one from the NYT are plants, designed to discourage immigration from the North.
UPDATE: Reader Bruce Webster writes: “I’ve lived in Texas twice — two years in Houston (1979-81), and 18 months in Dallas (1998-99). The phenomenon is real. There is a cultural graciousness that permeates all ages. It doesn’t mean there aren’t jerks there (though I suspect a lot of them are transplants), but it does mean that there are genuine good manners everywhere. I think it’s the guns. :-) ..Bruce.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kevin Menard writes: “As a long term (30+) transplant, will you stop this? We got too many Californians and New Yorkers here already. Austin is damned near unlivable with them. Tell the truth: Lynchings! Religious Fanatics with guns! Mexican gangs! Asian gang wars! Deliverance is real. They shoot your pets, there are no dentists, and no one can read. Yankees are targeted for abuse and mistreatment; their cars get stolen and their children kidnapped. Californians are hunted in a 50 week long season. Fire ants, poisonous snakes, large hairy spiders, coyotes that eat your poodle, wild hogs that eat your cats! Lots of biting bugs…. Stay home where it’s safe!!!”