HOW BRITAIN became rotten.
Archive for 2012
June 25, 2012
THE GIGAPIXEL CAMERA IS BORN. “Don’t hold your breath for a consumer version. The camera is housed in a bulky box that needs its own power supply to operate. Each gigapixel photo takes up nearly 3 GB of memory, on par with a 2-hour HD movie. But gigapixel tech does have promise for science, ranging from tracking microscopic cellular activity across an entire organism to telescopic star activity in the night sky. Perhaps even CSI’s fancy zoom and enhance features will become a reality.”
REVIEW: Spotify’s Mobile Internet Radio.
A MILITARY WIFE’S “battling bare” campaign.
IN THE MAIL: No Going Back.
A FREE SPEECH VICTORY for Aaron Walker, who is now free to blog about Brett Kimberlin.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Is The Country Unraveling? “Nowhere is the Obama model of massive borrowing, vast increases in the size of the state, more regulations, and class warfare successful — not in California or Illinois, not in Greece, Spain, or Italy, not anywhere. Culturally, Obama might at least have played the Jimmy Carter populist and eschewed the elite world that had so mesmerized Bill Clinton. Instead, Obama proved a counterfeit populist and became enthralled with the high life of rich friends, celebrities, high-priced fundraisers, and family getaways to Martha’s Vineyard, or Costa del Sol. He somehow has set records both in the number of meet-and-greet campaign fundraisers and the number of golf rounds played. As Obama damned the fat cats and corporate jet owners, he courted them in preparation to joining them post officium.”
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: In Saudi Arabia, “Witch Hunt” Isn’t Just A Metaphor.
Absurd and even contemptible as this sort of claptrap sounds to most Americans, these beliefs are not something we can wisely ignore. When formulating our foreign policy, we must take into account the fact that many of our interlocutors believe utterly absurd things and are willing to act upon them. Simplistically projecting our own Western sensibilities onto international actors is not a basis for sound geopolitical strategy. We must rather take seriously the values and conceptual systems of those we wish to engage diplomatically if for no other reason than to understand how they will perceive and respond to our acts.
Second, incidents like these remind us what real theocratic bigotry looks like. Jumpy American liberals who see theocracy behind every Mormon temple, Baptist convention or Catholic church are as ridiculous and over the top in their way as the Saudi witch hunters are in theirs. Both groups whip themselves into frenzies of terror over imaginary threats; both groups make ridiculous accusations; both groups mistake shadows for truth.
Indeed.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI: Hollywood’s White House:
John Carter, Battleship, The Dictator, Dark Shadows—add Barack Obama’s campaign to the list of Hollywood bombs shelling the 2012 summer box office. Like them, Obama for America is in the red, and reviews are not positive.
Obama’s reelection is the ultimate studio production, a sort of political It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World that costs millions, features a cast of thousands, and stars some of the biggest names of the day. However, like all screwball comedies, things are not going as the protagonist intends. The entertainment industry has captured Obama’s presidency, and shifted the national agenda onto terrain familiar to California and New York liberals, but unfavorable to the independent voters who will decide 2012.
Having alienated practically all of business and Wall Street, the president has come to rely on film, fashion, and music donors. He raffles off tickets to dinners with George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker, and backstage passes to see Marc Anthony. Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has given $2 million to the Obama super PAC Priorities USA, even as his studio is under SEC investigation for alleged bribery of Chinese officials.
The most recent list of contributors to the Democratic National Committee resembles a promo for a bad episode of Hollywood Squares: “Kirk Douglas, Billy Crystal, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, and Burt Bacharach.” That last name is worth mulling. To paraphrase another million-dollar Hollywood donor to Obama’s super PAC, here is a new rule: When one relies on the composer of “What’s New Pussycat” for money, it may be time to say a little prayer for one’s campaign.
Read the whole thing.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: WaPo: Lawmakers reworked financial portfolios after talks with Fed, Treasury officials. “The lawmakers, many of whom held leadership positions and committee chairmanships in the House and Senate, changed portions of their portfolios a total of 166 times within two business days of speaking or meeting with the administration officials.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Law Grads Face Brutal Job Market.
LIVEBLOGGING the ObamaCare decision at ScotusBlog.
UPDATE: No healthcare decision today. Teases!
MORE: Reader Bruce Goldston has a paranoid theory: “I think the decision is to uphold the Act, and that it has been leaked to Obama. Knowing he will prevail, Obama wants to kick the SCOTUS around a little so that when the decision comes out he can preen (‘The Peacock President’) and claim credit for pushing the court to see things his way. It’s the Chicago Way.”
But is this too paranoid? Maybe not. . . .
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Sports & Outdoors.
IN TODAY’S NEW YORK POST, I criticize the Dems’ preemptive attacks on the Supreme Court.
JOHN HAWKINS: “The Best Quotes From Citizen K: The Deeply Weird American Journey of Brett Kimberlin.”
JEFF CARTER: The EU Cannot Hold Together.
THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: GROUND ZERO FOR CHANGE. “The old model of increasing budgets and raising tuition — without cutting costs — is unsustainable. Students and their families are suffering. The in-state tuition for U-Va. already takes up nearly 20 percent of the median household income. That’s why U-Va. should be viewed as ground zero in a national struggle for excellent and affordable education. While the university board’s opaque process in removing Sullivan is regrettable, the board is right to be concerned about the direction of the university.”
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: WaPo: Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms.
If Congress made fewer laws, there’d be fewer opportunities for corruption. I’m just sayin’ . . .
SOMEHOW, THE HOPE-AND-CHANGE STUFF ALWAYS SEEMS TO END IN HIGHER TAXES: Winners of ‘Dinner With Barack’ Will Face a $560 Tax Bill.
#WARONMEN: Fewer Men Graduate College: Obama says it’s a “Great Accomplishment.”
UPDATE: Somehow, this video seems related.