AT POPULAR MECHANICS, lots of coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show and the Detroit Auto Show.
Archive for 2012
January 11, 2012
IN THE BARENTS SEA, a massive oil discovery.
BANKERS VERSUS CAPITALISM: When it comes to defending private enterprise, Wall Street is its own worst enemy, Irwin M. Stelzer writes at the Weekly Standard. That’s been true for quite some time.
MICKEY KAUS: Did The Cordray Recess Power Play Backfire? “Why is Barack Obama’s approval number sinking again on both Gallup and Rasmussen? He hasn’t been in the news much–something that often helps him. Instead the focus has been on the fussing and feuding GOP candidates, the so-called ‘clown car.’ Could it be that the President’s brilliant populist power play of making a questionable recess appointment to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau backfired? It certainly doesn’t seem to have helped. On January 2, the RealClearPolitics average put Obama one point underwater, with a disapproval rating of 47.8 and an approval of 46.8. He appointed Cordray on January 4. He’s now almost 6 points underwater.”
UPDATE: Reader Patrick Nugent writes:
Constitutionally suspect recess appointment moving the polls? I wish!
Now, a lavish Hawaiian vacation while most people are paring back on their kids’ presents… I suspect the family “political interventions” over the Holidays that the DNC promoted might not have achieved the desired results. I mean, the family is allowed a rebuttal, right?
Could be.
CENTRAL PLANNING FAIL: Nobody wants to live in Vietnam’s new cities.
Send ’em a copy of James Scott’s book.
GLENN GREENWALD NOTICES THAT BARACK OBAMA IS MY PUPPET: “What is most amazing about all this is that, a mere three years later, some combination of Israel and the U.S. are doing exactly that which Reynolds recommended. Numerous Iranian nuclear scientists are indeed being murdered.” And yet the “progressives” who were so upset by my blogging seem oddly uninterested in launching similar condemnations regarding Obama’s actual killing. Say what you will about Greenwald — and no, really, say what you will about Greenwald — but he is, at least, paying attention.
A cynic would conclude that all that moralizing “antiwar” talk back in the Bush era was just partisan twaddle or something.
UPDATE: A suggestion that Obama won’t really be my puppet until he starts pushing nanotechnology and life-extension. Give it time. . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader John Steakley writes:
Ha! GG is shocked – shocked! – that all is unfolding as you have foretold. Right about now would be the perfect time for:
“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational blog!”
Indeed.
THE LAST MODERATE DEMOCRAT CALLS IT QUITS.
HOW ROMNEY WON NEW HAMPSHIRE.
ROGER L. SIMON: Never trust a pundit, especially me.
Read the whole thing.™
I’M STILL HOLDING OUT FOR TRAVELLER: THE MOTION PICTURE: There’s a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons coming.
January 10, 2012
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: James Lileks on why people love the suburbs.
THE ARTIST AND THE BEAUTY OF PURE CINEMA: “It takes a lot of skill to be able to write and direct pure cinema, so it’s understandable that movie audiences experience it so rarely.”
THE GOP ‘FRENEMIES’ CLUB: Michelle Malkin on Romney and McCain.
ROMNEY’S NEW HAMPSHIRE VICTORY SPEECH ONLINE; takeaway soundbite here:
President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we have seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our Party and for our nation. This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy.
Though as James Taranto noted today, vetting Romney’s record as a businessman now does him several potential favors.
UPDATE: Bryan Preston adds, “All of these candidates and the one in South Carolina can deliver fine speeches. All of them. The question that isn’t being asked, but should be, is can they lead the country in the right direction? What do their records tell you about their ability to be greater than the sum of their words?”
BIGFOOT ALERT: Obama campaign buys Union Leader home page ad on NH GOP primary day.
He’s been doing that sort of thing beginning with the debates late this past summer. Given how predictable it is, if they haven’t done so already, this seems like it would be a fun topic for the GOP candidates to exploit, in-between destroying each other.
HEH, INDEED: Romney Accepts GOP Nomination.
GREAT MOMENTS IN DRUDGE JUXTAPOSITIONS:
I’m not sure if Clyburn sees that as a bug or a feature.
RELATED: Newt goes kamikaze.
NOT EXACTLY “UNEXPECTEDLY:” AP calls New Hampshire for Romney.
“Old tea-party goal: Stop Romney from winning the nomination. New tea-party goal: Stop Romney from winning all 50 primaries. Heart-ache,” Allahpundit quips at Hot Air, with a round-up of early results. What is unexpected is the truly dismal showing from Rick Perry. Only one percent?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, iPHONE — YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.
RAND SIMBERG ON the “Lunar Yellow Peril:”
I think that, when it comes to militarily useful lunar bases, the burden of proof is on those proposing them, and there’s nothing in Cal Thomas’s column to indicate that he’s given it any deep thought, except that anything the Chinese choose to do must be nefarious. I’ll take this threat seriously when I see it described, using real-world physics, and yes, show your work. Beyond that, I’d like an explanation of how a rival navigation system can “jam or make mischief” with our own, in a way that couldn’t be done much more cost effectively.
That is not, of course, to say that it isn’t in general worthwhile to have a lunar base. Bob Bigelow has been issuing warnings for almost a year that the Chinese want to claim the entire place, for reasons of national prestige. This would be in violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits claims of national sovereignty, though they could of course withdraw, and bribe the General Assembly to go along. And to me, the question is, how would they physically defend such a claim? The moon isn’t a small place (its surface area is equivalent to a significant fraction of that of earth’s continents). If there is such a concern, one way to preempt it might be to pass the Space Settlement Prize Act, which would force a recognition of private, but not governmental, claims and prevent anyone from claiming an entire body.
But both the Chinese and NASA are far from being able to affordably get humans to the moon, and until they dramatically change their modi operandi (and we get a new Congress), they’re going to remain so. What both government space agencies should fear is Bigelow and SpaceX establishing a lunar base, and rendering them both irrelevant.
Read the whole thing.
VIDEO: THE LIBERTARIAN YEAR IN REVIEW: Reason staffers talk 2011 with John Stossel.
RELATED: Victor Davis Hanson on 2011: Out with a Whimper, Not a Bang.
And if you haven’t read it, don’t miss VDH’s moving encomium to Christopher Hitchens.
BARACK HUSSEIN GINGRICH: In his Best of the Web column today, James Taranto writes that Gingrich is desperate, angry, “and he’s doing Romney a favor:”
By attacking now, Gingrich ensures that it won’t be the first voters hear about the matter, which will take some of the sting out of the Obama attacks. He’s also acting as a proxy for the president–call him Barack Hussein Gingrich–giving Romney the chance to practice and improve his defense, something he unquestionably needs to do.
Contrariwise, if Romney is incapable of learning to defend himself effectively, Republicans are better off learning that now, while there’s still time to nominate someone else.
Read the whole thing.™