CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Government shutdown: Do national parks really need to be barricaded? The people must be punished until the regime gets its way. Just remember: The House keeps passing bills to fund this stuff, bills with nothing about defunding ObamaCare in them, and the Democratic Senate keeps killing them.
Archive for 2013
October 4, 2013
21ST CENTURY OUTLAWRY: Copper Thieves Live Life On The Edge. “The lights went out across the University of California at Berkeley campus the other day, in an incident that included an explosion and fire with two-story flames that injured four and sent one person to the hospital. The probable cause was the theft of a considerable amount of grounding wire from the campus electrical system. (When you do cutting edge physics and so forth, you need a pretty heavy-duty electrical system.) . . . The thieves may have used heavy machinery to unearth the wire before they stole it. Nor is this the first time that something like this has happened; robbing power substations and similar installations seems to have become nearly epidemic. . . . During much of the Great Recession, copper thieves systematically stripped foreclosures and abandoned houses of their valuable wiring, but that source is running low. Rather than shift to some other line of business, some of the more organized gangs seem to have set their sights on live power lines. This seems completely insane, because it is.” This seems kinda third-worldish to me.
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Marriage group sues IRS over leak of private donor list.
MORE TROUBLE FOR AMERICA’S MOST PROMINENT MALE FEMINIST: Pasadena City College Asks Hugo Schwyzer To Resign. “The request comes on the heels of Schwyzer’s arrest last week for suspicion of driving under the influence following an accident that left a woman injured. The professor told the Star News he would not resign until January, when he is scheduled to begin receiving his disability retirement benefits. Schwyzer has been on leave this semester for mental health issues, which he’s discussed openly on social media. He’s called himself a fraud for ‘conning’ his way into teaching women’s studies, although he did not study it in graduate school, and for having multiple affairs with students. Last month, he said he had continued to sleep with students, even though he’d previously claimed that he stopped doing so in 1998.”
SHUTDOWN THEATER: Govt. Websites Shuttered: The ‘Anti-Science’ Administration?
And yes, the obligatory Chris Mooney — call your office!
You know, if all these government services can be shut down whenever a President wants to score political points, why are we even thinking about getting the government into healthcare?
JAMES TARANTO: Could Republicans Be Winning? The Dems have made some surprisingly maladroit moves.
One reason this column was wary of congressional Republicans’ government-shutdown strategy against ObamaCare is that it seemed unlikely to succeed. ObamaCare is unpopular, but so are government shutdowns, and both the president (for structural reasons) and the Democrats (for ideological ones) would appear to have a natural advantage in such a confrontation. Hence the Democrats’ “victory” in the last two shutdowns, in 1995 and 1996.
It may still turn out that way, but we’ve been surprised this week at the Democrats’ tactical maladroitness. As Josh Jordan quipped yesterday on Twitter: “Since the shutdown began, Obama and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid have taken tough stands against the two most villainous groups: WWII veterans and kids with cancer.”
And, shockingly, it even got a bit of press coverage. That has to be making them nervous.
I BLAME THE DEMOCRATS’ VIOLENT ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Republican Congressman Sean Duffy Assaulted.
“A random individual, unknown to the congressman, began screaming at him and grabbed his arm,” said spokeswoman Cassie Smedile in a Thursday morning statement. “Mr. Duffy was unharmed. He reported the incident in compliance with House security procedures. Congressman Duffy has requested no further action be taken and there will be no further comment on the matter at this time.”
The confrontation may have stemmed from frustration over the federal government shutdown, according to sources.
They told me if I supported the Tea Party, violent yahoos would be attacking members of Congress. And they were right!
QUELLE HORREUR: Lobbyists denounce push to limit their access in shutdown.
The American League of Lobbyists on Thursday blasted a Democratic lawmaker for proposing that lobbyists be banned from congressional office buildings during the government shutdown.
Monte Ward, the League’s president, said Rep. David Cicilline’s (D-R.I.) call to restrict lobbyists’ access runs counter to the Constitution.
“Banning any constituent or citizen from the United States Capitol and the congressional office buildings to keep them from meeting with their elected officials is unconstitutional,” Ward said in a statement.
“While we respect the Congressman’s frustration for his constituents, we urge him to remember that all citizens, including lobbyists, have a First Amendment right to redress their grievances. Even though the federal government has shut down, the Constitution and Bill of Rights still stand.”
Ward said the shutdown is inconvenient for K Street as well.
Related: KKK’s Gettysburg rally canceled because of government shutdown.
What fresh horrors remain to be unveiled in this Shutdown From Hell?
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: “Why Am I No Longer Horny?”
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Capitol Hill shooting instantly brings out douche reactions from Dave Weigel, Matt Yglesias and Markos Moulitsas.
October 3, 2013
SHUTDOWN THEATER UPDATE: Freeing The Smoky Mountains. Apparently, they’re only putting out barricades and CLOSED signs at the most popular tourist attractions. It’s as if the whole thing is just for show or something.
AT AMAZON, New Releases In Designer Jewelry.
Also, deals on bestselling Runners’ GPS Units.
And, Men’s Retro Sneakers Under $75.
Also, a reminder: InstaPundit is an Amazon affiliate. When you do your shopping through the Amazon links on this page, including the “Shop Amazon” tab at the top or the searchbox in the right sidebar, you put a little money in my family’s pocket at no cost to yourself. Just click on the Amazon link, then shop as usual. It’s much appreciated!
AT BALKINIZATION, Ilya Somin is guestblogging about his new and important book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, which just came out from Stanford University Press.
THIS IS PRETTY COOL: The Hollywood Reporter Got Buzz Aldrin To Review Gravity.
REASON TV: The Ultimate Government Shutdown Video.
RESEARCH: Testing Seattle’s Porn-Friendly Public Libraries. “Like many people on this deadly, dying sphere, pornography is often the only thing that keeps me going—I’m probably watching it as you read this. I’m also a frequent library patron, but before this week, these two interests rarely overlapped.” (Via Brittany Gardner’s page on Facebook, where a mutual friend asks, “Have the janitors signed off on this?”).
THE ATLANTIC: High-School Sports Aren’t Killing Academics. “Research shows that schools with strong athletic programs have higher test scores and lower drop-out rates.”
IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO make Twitchy. Especially as I was a comparative late-adopter with Twitter.
HERE’S MORE ON THAT BIZARRE CAPITOL HILL INCIDENT that left a woman driver dead. Apparently all shots were fired by police, not by her. Still not at all clear what was going on.
JOHN FUND: In last government shutdown, GOP blinked just as Clinton was about to fold:
Deeply ingrained in the psyche of every congressional Republican is the government shutdown of 1995, for which Republicans were blamed. While many Republicans now believe the shutdown was a mistake, more think the problem was that the party lost its nerve.
Former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, now host of ABC’s This Week, has validated that view. In his memoir, he wrote that Democrats, until then holding out against the Republicans’ budget-limiting efforts, were close to blinking. “Clinton was grumpy, the rest of us were grim,” until suddenly news came that Senate majority leader Bob Dole and House speaker Newt Gingrich were blinking first. “Whether the cause was hubris, naïveté, or a failure of nerve,” Stephanopoulos explained, “the Republicans had blown their best chance to splinter our party; from that point on, everything started breaking our way.”
Read the whole thing.
SURE, THAT MAKES SENSE: How a Purse Snatching Led to the Legal Justification for NSA Domestic Spying.
I RECOMMEND DOING SQUATS AND DEADLIFTS: Study: Texting-While-Slouching Is Causing an ‘iPosture’ Epidemic. No, seriously: Nothing is better for your posture, especially if you pull your shoulders back properly at the top of the movement on deadlifts.
Meanwhile, the Insta-Wife reports on her experience with a standing desk.