AT AMAZON, a sale on typewriters. They still make those? As with VCRs, I’m tempted to buy a couple just to hoard against the day when they don’t . . . .

UPDATE: So I looked, and it’s hard to buy a VCR now that isn’t combined with a DVD player.

And speaking of obsolescent technologies, they’ve got magazine subscriptions for five bucks. Subscribe now, so your kids will remember what they were when they grow up . . . .

UPDATE: Several readers suggest I should get a manual typewriter and ribbons. They do still make ’em.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Ben Samuels doesn’t like that manual typewriter link: “Geebus, Glenn – did you read the reviews??? They say it’s a worthless piece of Chinese crap. You’d have been better off giving readers the link to a used Selectric.”

I replied: “I didn’t think anyone would actually buy one. I mean, good God. Maybe after an EMP attack you’d want a manual typewriter, except how much typing would you actually do?”

But if you want to buy a manual typewriter, you can probably get a good deal on a used one if you look. And for that matter, if you want an electric he’s right that you can probably still get a good used IBM Correcting Selectric II, which represented pretty much the peak of typewriter technology.

MORE: The inevitable followup email:

I know somebody who knows a guy who can get you a great deal on a sturdy 40 year old model that can handle superscripting.

Courage,
Dan Rather

Heh. (Via Brian Gates.)

STILL MORE: Rand Simberg emails this link on how to buy a used manual typewriter.

PJTV: Kruiser Control Turns One and Megyn Kelly Spanks A. Weiner.

DAVID BERNSTEIN ON THE FURTHER DEATH OF “LIBERALTARIANISM:”

The ongoing twenty minutes of hate against the billionaire libertarian Koch brothers for being, well, billionaire libertarians is yet another nail in the already well-sealed coffin of “liberaltarianism”–the attempt of some libertarians to ally with the progressive left.

The underlying premise of liberaltarianism was that libertarians could emphasize their policy positions that appeal to liberals but not conservatives–drug legalization, hostility to war and military spending, support for civil liberties and for gay marriage–while liberals, chastened by the Bush years, would tone down their support for big government in other areas.

The Kochs would appear to be the perfect liberaltarians–they support gay marriage, drug legalization, opposed the Iraq War, want to substantially cut military spending, and gave $20 million to the ACLU to oppose the Patriot Act (compared to a relatively piddling $43,000 to Scott Walker’s election campaign).

It’s not surprising that some demagogic “Progressives” would nevertheless choose to try to demonize the Kochs to defend the Democratic money machine that public employee unions represent (update: though note that the attack on the Kochs began last Summer). What is, if not surprising, at least a bit depressing, is how few prominent liberal commentators have spoken out against the ongoing attempted Emmanuel Goldsteinization of the Kochs.

Indeed, Hans Bader points out that even the ACLU, as noted a major Koch beneficiary, has helped organize anti-Koch rallies, though the Kochs involvement in small government economic issues seems rather far removed from what is supposed to be the ACLU’s core agenda. So much for liberaltarianism.

Yeah, it’s like the whole “liberaltarianism” thing was just a scam to neutralize gullible libertarians until after the election was over or something.

SANITATION: Carts one of dirtiest places in grocery store, study says. “Researchers say they actually found more fecal bacteria on grocery cart handles than you would typically find in a bathroom, mainly because bathrooms are disinfected more often than shopping carts.”

THREE-D PRINTING’S NEAR FUTURE? Download New Shoes and Print them out at Home.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Saving The Village In Order To Destroy It.

LATEST ZERO TOLERANCE IDIOCY: A Virginia middle school student has been suspended for . . . opening the door for a woman whose hands were full. Really, why not just abolish public education, if this is what it has come to?

UPDATE: Reader Christopher Bell writes:

I was struck by the juxtaposition within a few of your posts highlighting ridiculous ‘zero tolerance’ policies where no sense seems evident and prison rape where officialdom is quite content to look the other way. My less optimistic friends would suggest this is a sure sign of a society in self-obsessed decline, but could it be that it’s just driven by a growing bureaucratic class used to operating in the dark with an unearned benefit of the doubt from too many citizens busy trying to get by?

Following the Porkbusters model, we need not just an Army of Davids, but Armies of Davids to tackle more and more of these issues and expose more of this to light.

Yes, we need a zero-tolerance approach to bureaucratic idiocy and self-dealing.

HOW TO STEAM AND STUFF a Boston lobster.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on cellphones and accessories.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS ADMITS, HHS double-counted ObamaCare “savings.”

TRIFECTA: Bill Whittle, Scott Ott, and Stephen Green On Surviving The ManCession.

PRISON RAPE and the government. Shockingly, the Justice Department is not doing everything it can to address this problem, but rather seems to be trying to minimize attention.

ADVICE: 20 DIY Mistakes We’ve Made (So You Don’t Have To).

TAXPROF: How Same-Sex Couples Can File Joint Tax Returns for 2010.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Could Scientists Really Create a Zombie Apocalypse Virus?

WITH SURROGACY AND EGG DONATION, who is Mom?

MAN BITES DOG: Hispanic group calls for deployment of US troops on US-Mexico border.

REPORT: Libyan Internet Flatlined.

ULTRACAPACITORS for mild hybrids?

ANN ALTHOUSE: “If you were critical of Meade and me for refusing to wait in line and insisting on walking right into the Capitol building, then you need to read the judge’s order, which says that the restriction of access ‘violates the State Constitution.'” Plus, who was blocking access? The protesters: “I couldn’t tell if the protesters had set up the blockage themselves or if they had somehow colluded with the police, but I was truly outraged that private citizens were assuming the authority to restrict access to the public building.”

Related: Don’t believe doorkeepers. I just tell ’em the password is “swordfish” and go on in.

MICHAEL TOTTEN gets briefed.

IN THE MAIL: Bound in Blood and Moon Flower.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Campus Carry Likely To Pass in Texas, Elsewhere; University Officials Unhappy. Relax guys. Those people may not seem like your kind, but they’re not as threatening to your way of life as you think. Your worries that this will “change the culture” will soon seem bigoted and out of place as the integration process proceeds.

Is it just me, or is the notion that guns are especially dangerous on university campuses because they’re lawless and full of alcohol and drugs one of those arguments that “proves too much?” If campuses are really that bad, isn’t the problem, you know, bigger than just whether someone with a permit has a gun there?

UPDATE: Two further points. First the reporting at Inside Higher Ed is usually good, but this story is extremely one-sided, reading like a press release for the anti-campus-carry folks. Second, the university administrators here don’t do anything to further a reputation for critical thinking, since they keep stressing the danger of 18-year-olds carrying guns when, as is pointed out repeatedly in the comments, the permits are only available to those 21 and over. Credentialed, not educated . . . .

PAR FOR THE COURSE AT THE FDA, ALAS: A Cruel FDA Rollercoaster Ride for Women Taking Avastin.

CONTEMPLATING financial trading at picosecond resolution.