MIKE GODWIN, COVER YOUR EARS. Feeling the results of gleichschaltung.
Archive for 2012
April 29, 2012
PROF. JACOBSON ON THE DANGERS OF “BLOGGER BURNOUT.” I’m still around. But I suppose it’ll get me too, someday. But today is not that day!
UPDATE: No, that doesn’t mean that I’m “grimly hanging on.” Quite the contrary at this point.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “I Have a Boyfriend, but I Want a Sugar Daddy, Too.”
AT AMAZON, Digital Deals.
THIS WEEK IN MOTORCYCLE NEWS: Naked Rider Gets A Ticket For Not Wearing A Helmet.
DURHAM COUNTY D.A.’S OFFICE still an embarrassment.
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS turn into inventors.
IS THE MAINSTREAMING OF SURVIVALISM, the product of economic despair?
CHANGE: Commercial Space Shuttle Replacements Complete Wind Tunnel Testing. “Two of the companies competing in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program have been busy in the wind tunnel. The overly secretive Blue Origin broke its silence this week with pictures of its unique capsule design and Sierra Nevada Corporation also released news of its Dream Chaser, completing scale model wind tunnel testing in Texas.”
TEST-DRIVING the new Audi S7. I drove the A7 last year and was quite impressed. The S7 should just be . . . moreso.
UPDATE: Reader Marc Greendorfer writes:
Interesting review you linked to on the new Audi S7. Likewise for your previous review on the A7.
We recently traded in our fairly new (2010) Audi A5 for a 2012 A7. I loved the A5, but it was my wife’s daily driver and for her 90+ mile daily commute, mostly on freeways, the smaller size and harsher ride of the sports oriented A5 was a problem. So with much regret on my part, she traded in the A5 for the A7.
The A5 had the 3.2 six cylinder with and the a7 has a 3.0 supercharged six cylinder with an eight speed automatic. We were always pleased with the mileage on the A5, especially given the level of performance it provided (usually in the low 20s in the city, high 20s on the freeway), but the significantly larger A7’s mileage is actually better that A5’s. City mileage is about the same but we’re getting a bit over 30 mpg on the freeway. I think a lot of this has to do with the 2 extra gears in the transmission, but it may also be that the 3.0 supercharged engine is more efficient generally. In any event, I was surprised to see the concern about fuel economy in your initial review of the A7, as it’s been a nice surprise for us.
And the rest of what you say about the A7 is definitely what we’re experiencing. It’s a big, comfortable, sporty ride with very adequate power and a lot of welcome tech features. The fact that it’s a hatchback (albeit one with a low roofline) makes it pretty much a do-everything vehicle for us. I suspect we will keep this Audi for a lot more than two years.
Sounds nice. Yes, the hatchback is a very useful feature.
IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint, 1636: The Saxon Uprising.
LOVE FOR SALE? Well, maybe internships. You know, I just pointed out that I don’t have interns at InstaPundit, but I was missing the whole revenue-model approach . . . .
Also, a larger lesson: “School no longer prepares kids to either get or keep jobs, and internships are springing up to fill the gap. This is partly an indictment of our educational system and partly a statement about how the job market is changing.”
THIS SEEMS QUITE WRONG TO ME AS A MATTER OF FIRST AMENDMENT DOCTRINE: Facebook “likes” aren’t speech protected by the First Amendment–Bland v. Roberts.
CAMPAIGN ADS: The Audacity of Bubba.
Former President Bill Clinton appears in a new Obama campaign ad suggesting that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would not have ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, even though Clinton himself repeatedly spurned opportunities to capture or kill the 9/11 mastermind.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon that Clinton’s appearance in the ad was “just astonishing.”
“It’s pretty preposterous to suggest that he ran an aggressive counter-terrorism shop,” Gerecht said of Clinton. “Far, far from it. The notion that President Clinton was focused on the issue, was aggressive on the issue and was willing to really put his presidency on the line to go after bin Laden is absurd.”
In a 2006 interview on Fox News Sunday, Clinton animatedly claimed he “worked hard to try to kill [bin Laden].”
The facts suggest otherwise.
Yes, Clinton blew his shot at getting bin Laden before 9/11 — and when that was dramatized in The Path To 9/11, the Clintons used their influence to ensure that the made-for-TV movie never aired again. And it still hasn’t. It’s not available on DVD, either. (For more on this see Blocking The Path To 9/11 with Andrew Breitbart.)
Of course, any commercial where Bill Clinton is talking about honor and integrity is automatically a joke.
DAMON ROOT: The New York Times Flipflops on Judicial Restraint. “Shouldn’t the Times’ editorial board try a little harder to avoid openly contradicting itself like that?”
They’re just phoning this stuff in now.
WHO NEEDS A BOTTLEOPENER, when you can use a Buttleopener?
TRANSPARENCY: FCC Approves New Rule on Political TV Advertising.
The Federal Communications Commission approved new regulations Friday requiring broadcasters to publish political advertising data online, a move that could shed light on who is trying to influence elections amid unprecedented campaign spending.
Television stations already are required to track purchases of political advertising and make the information publicly available, but posting it on the Web will make it easier to access. Only stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox in the top 50 media markets will be required to post data on new ad buys this year, with smaller stations expected to follow in 2014.
I’d like to see the New York Times’ advertising figures, too. Since they supported this rule, perhaps they’ll provide them. . . .
DOG-EATING PRESIDENT JOKES ABOUT EATING DOGS. Jim Treacher tweets: I win. No blenders were mentioned, however.
MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVER-GENEROUS PUBLIC PENSION PLANS: