Archive for 2014

MICKEY KAUS: A NOTE TO NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMS: “Here’s why I think New Hampshire Democrats should vote against Jeanne Shaheen on Tuesday. I know this is a tough sell, and you’re maybe sick of any kind of sell. I’ll keep it short. . . . Opponents of the Vietnam War (I was one, like most of my college cohort) spent a lot of time destroying the careers of perfectly decent liberal Democrats whose one sin was going along with Lyndon Johnson’s escalation. Hubert Humphrey is only the most obvious casualty. It was worth it because the war was a big mistake. Likewise, a massive immigration increase and the surrender of control over our borders is a big mistake. Yet unlike with Vietnam, there is virtually no debate within the party, certainly none at the Senate level. If a sturdy, popular figure like Shaheen loses her seat over it — in a swing state, to a longshot carpetbagger! –we are likely to get that debate. It won’t be the end of Shaheen. She can run for something else, or join the administration. But it might be the end of the party’s poisonous discipline on immigration — and the beginning of at least a temporary fix for our deepest economic anxieties.”

YEAH, WITH EBOLA CHILLING RECRUITING PROSPECTS, THE LAST THING WE WANT IS TO MAKE THE MILITARY LOOK LIKE FUN: 4 Utah Guard soldiers disciplined for bikini film shoot. And who’s the “senior official” who gave them the green light when (s)he shouldn’t have? Any discipline there?

PILOT ERROR? Rocket plane’s tail activated prematurely in fatal crash. “A team investigating the fatal test-flight crash of a Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship found that its rotating tail, designed to ease reentry into the atmosphere, was activated prematurely, and said pilot error could not be ruled out.” Well, stay tuned.

KIND OF A METAPHOR FOR AN ENTIRE PRESIDENCY, REALLY: One Day in an Elevator With Obama, Then Out of a Job.

Plus: “He said one of the Secret Service agents had told him that it was remarkable that Mr. Obama had talked to him, considering it had taken the president two years to acknowledge the agent. . . . Now unemployed, he looks back with sadness on the day he met the president.” So do we all.

VALUE OF A LAW DEGREE? One million dollars. Dr. Evil voice optional.

ARE WE TOO SPOOKED ABOUT AUTONOMOUS CARS? “Assuming the steering wheel stays and we’re allowed to use it whenever we choose, a driverless car basically becomes a robot chauffeur—and who wouldn’t love that occasional luxury?” I think that’s a transitional stage. My expectation is that at some point it will become illegal to drive by hand.

READER BOOK PLUG, From readers Jordan Hunter and Owen O’Neill, The Morning Which Breaks.

EVERYTHING OBAMA TOUCHES. . . . US Proxies Surrender in Syria. “The US waited far too long to back proxies in Syria while the Islamic State and the Nusra Front spent years building up their strength and conquering territory. Throwing support behind anyone but the Kurds at this point is too little too late.”