U.S. ON PACE for trillion-dollar deficit.
Archive for 2012
March 13, 2012
BEING BREITBART.
March 12, 2012
BETRAYER, BETRAYED: Specter says Obama ditched him after he provided 60th vote to pass health reform. They deserve each other.
WHEN IT’S COOL TO HAVE A BLOG: Reading an advance copy of John Birmingham’s new novel, Angels of Vengeance, the latest in the Without Warning books.
TEN YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT: Eugene Volokh’s first blog post anywhere. He was guestblogging as I visited LA for a panel he put together with me and Mickey Kaus. I met Andrew Breitbart for the first time that day.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on Patio Furniture.
OOPS: Obama Fares Worse Among Women after Month-Long Contraception Mandate Battle. “The bottom line is that it’s not clear at all that the fight over the contraception/abortifacient mandate has hurt Republicans.”
UPDATE: So how’s that anti-Limbaugh campaign working out?
“The dust up over Sleep Train, along with the blowback suffered by Carbonite over that company’s public denunciation of Limbaugh… demonstrates that the iconic radio talk show host is dealing from a position of strength in the campaign to deprive him of advertisers. One tends to prosper when one advertises on Limbaugh’s show. But cross him, and one will suffer.”
Writes the lefty Drudge Retort, noting that Limbaugh hasn’t lost listeners (and has probably gained listeners, people who are “curious about what the fuss is all about”).
Stay tuned. Things don’t seem to be following the narrative here. More from Prof. Jacobson.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, reader William Moselle writes that he just quit HBO: “Had it for a decade or more. Loved it and ignored Maher. But the time came to make a bit of a statement, no matter how small, about the utter hypocrisy and double standards. Being Breitbart (in my own little way).”
I’d be interested to know how many people have done the same over the past week or so.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh my: Obama’s approval rating hits new low in CBS poll.
MORE: On HBO, reader Bill Ryan emails:
I tried to quit HBO yesterday and I was told I was getting it for free and I had been getting it for free since Nov. My wife talked to them about a TV package back then but had no idea we were getting HBO for free. I told them I wanted to quit anyway because of Maher and their anti-Palin movie and their left wing bias.
This reminds me of when I tried to quit the Denver Post. They kept delivering it for months afterwards even though I called them to stop delivery. They kept delivering and offered the paper free if I would buy the Sunday edition.
I wonder how many other “subscribers” to HBO are getting it for “free.”
Heh. I don’t know. I’d like to know, though.
STILL MORE: Reader Ray Toohey writes:
Hey Glenn, you asked who has canceled HBO recently. I’ve never had it, so I couldn’t cancel it. BUT I did have Carbonite.
I called them last week and said “cancel me as of today.” The guys response was, “does this have anything to do with the recent troubles?” Yep!
He said they wouldn’t refund my money (I only had a month left before renewing.) I told him I don’t care I just wasn’t interested in their service anymore due to their politics.
Dropped them and got IDrive. (following a recommendation from another of your readers). Enough is enough!
Keep up the good work!
And reader John Hickey emails:
Just a quick note to let you know I’m another one of those Brietbart types who cancelled my subscription to HBO. I was able to cancel with ATT Uverse on line, but I did follow up with an email to HBO listing “Game Change” and Bill Maher as a couple of reasons for leaving. They never gave me the courtesy of a response.
I am Breitbart!
Stay tuned. Plus, one more reader email:
One explanation for the Obama administration/media misstep in the contraception contretemps is that the decision makers may be thoroughly cocooned that they really could not see how this would play out.
I think it is entirely possible of Obama’s inner circle and (to a lesser degree) the MSM that a) they don’t know many practicing Catholics b) they really did not recall how much more often left wing commentators and entertainers had said things about right wing women that were far more vile than anything Rush Limbaugh said, and c) Sandra Fluke seemed like a person whose life story would resonate, because her story is so similar to about half of their circle of friends.
A little more contact with the real world would have led them to the cautionary advice that a) many Catholics _actually believe_ that forcing religious institutions to pay for contraception and abortion in health coverage is a violation of their religious freedom, b) the Left says horrid things about conservative women all of the time, and they really would lose a tit-for-tat on this subject and c) Georgetown law students who want free contraception are really not as awesome of a victim group as it might seem on first look.
I don’t think this will be the last time during this campaign that Republican “losses” and Democrat “wins” get revised in the court of public opinion.
No name if used, please.
Like I said, stay tuned.
And note this, from the New York Times:
At a time of rising gas prices, heightened talk of war with Iran and setbacks in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama’s approval rating dropped substantially in recent weeks, the poll found, with 41 percent of respondents expressing approval of the job he is doing and 47 percent saying they disapprove — a dangerous position for any incumbent seeking re-election.
Hey, wait, I thought those dumb Republicans had thrown away their chances last week.
And reader Eric Rauch writes: “I just canceled HBO with Directv and the young man knew why I was canceling before I had to explain it to him. He said HBO is getting canceled a lot because of Bill Maher and the Palin movie. If I understood him correctly he offered discounts for 6 months of HBO free. Of course I canceled anyway.”
Plus, from reader Leslie Eastman: “A business model in which you cannot even give away your product for free is full of fail.”
And reader Eugene Dillenburg emails: “I don’t see what the big deal is. All that’s happening is the conservatives want to ‘make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.'”
AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on sporting goods.
OLD MEN SHOULD BE DANGEROUS: 92-year-old man pulls gun on thieves. “He started climbing over the gate, and I told him not to climb over. He climbed over anyway, so I pulled a gun on him.” I love how the sheriff uses this as an excuse to ask for a tax increase.
A PETITION CAMPAIGN TO NAME THE NEXT AIRCRAFT CARRIER ENTERPRISE:
After this year the U.S. Navy will no longer have an Enterprise, which is why there’s a petition to name the next planned carrier, CVN-80, the USS Enterprise. Sign it, because we’ve gotten into the habit of naming our greatest warships after politicians, and not even dead ones — one of the newest carriers is the USS George H. W. Bush. Look, I voted for the guy, and he was a whole lot better than the current occupant, but nothing named by the U.S. government — not a building, not a scholarship program, certainly not one of the greatest warships built by mankind — should be named after a living person. Except for posthumous Medal of Honor recipients, it seems to me you should be dead for 50 years, preferably 100, before your name is even eligible to be considered for a naval ship.
I agree.
BOB ZUBRIN: America’s Energy Disaster.
TRAINING THE JEDI WARRIORS: “It’s more than just dancing around with a glow stick.”
“PET PARENTS?” You’re not a “pet parent.” You’re a pet owner. Unless you’ve committed an unnatural act that succeeded in spite of biology.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “Am I just his Booty Call?”
SCIENCE: SFPD Breathalyzer Error Puts Hundreds Of DUI Convictions In Doubt. “For at least six years, the police officers in charge of testing the 20 breathalizyers used by the Police Department did not carry out any tests on the equipment. Officers instead filled the test forms with numbers that matched the control sample, said Public Defender Jeff Adachi, throwing countless DUI convictions into doubt.” They should face jail time for that fraud.
INTRODUCING THE FIRST IKEA HOUSE.
I think the Clayton I-House deserves that title.
DON SURBER: Both the Washington Post and CBS whitewashed the bouncing of Louis C.K. from entertaining the Radio and Television Correspondents Association at their annual fund-raiser on June 8. “The downplaying of the use of the C-word by a liberal comes from the same newspaper that ominously warned Republicans that they must no longer listen to Rush Limbaugh’s show because he called a 30-year-old activist a slut.”
IT’S NOT JUST DETROIT: Walter Russell Mead: Blue Blights Empire State. “New York state and local politicians, egged on by public sector unions, have dug the state into such a deep hole that it will be hard to emerge. And the unions — along with the pro-bankruptcy wing of the Democratic Party — want to keep digging.”
CUTTING MEDICAL TESTING TIME AND EXPENSE with carbon nanotubes.
JIM TREACHER: As a guy I used to know used to say: “It’s the Internet, and we can fact-check your ass.” I miss that guy.
REVIEW: The 2012 Toyota Prius V.