I DON’T CARE FOR THE LOOK: The 2016 Volkswagen Passat.
Archive for 2015
September 22, 2015
A 700 HP . . . . Hyundai Tucson?
HILLARY CLINTON OPENLY ADMIRES CONTROVERSIAL POLITICIAN WHO GAVE NAZI MEMORABILIA TO JOURNALISTS:
Shot: “Marco Rubio to attend fundraiser hosted by man who owns a signed copy of ‘Mein Kampf.'”
—Drive-by headline at the Politico, today.
Chaser:
FDR was livid. [The] succession of irritations [from John O’Donnell of the New York Daily News] had become too much. The war had been going badly, the pressure was great, and Roosevelt reacted. At his December 18 [1942] press conference, Roosevelt shocked the correspondents when he handed Earl Godwin [of the Washington Times-Herald] the German Iron Cross to give to the absent O’Donnell. The Iron Cross was a symbol of O’Donnell’s aid to the enemy. The incident did not stop there. When O’Donnell returned from the war in 1945 and along with another Patterson-McCormick correspondent asked for credentials to attend While House press conferences, the president said no because of “their isolationist, anti-British, anti-Russian pens.” The response became public when the Philadelphia Record reported that Steve Early threatened resignation before Roosevelt finally yielded.
—A passage from the 1990 book FDR and the News Media by Missouri School of Journalism historian Betty Houchin Winfield, which I quoted in a 2010 post at Ed Driscoll.com titled “Springtime for Roosevelt.”
(And then there are the “art” collections of Obama’s former press secretary and this prominent Hillary fundraiser…)
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: Black Lives Matter And So Does Free Speech. Sadly, some of the student commenters don’t seem to get it.
HILLARY CLINTON’S EMPIRE OF DIRT: Victor Davis Hanson writes, “The more she castigates others, the more she convicts herself:”
Hillary Clinton has developed a strange but habitual tic of railing and remonstrating about hot-button issues and egregious behaviors that offer windows into her own plagued soul, past and present. It is as if Hillary has become an ailing Johnny Cash singing “Hurt” — draped in black at the end, a faint simulacrum of his once combative self, seeking new resonance through a rocker’s lyrics for the confession of his own sins: “I wear this crown of s— / Upon my liar’s chair.”
In her Freudian calls for solutions to the sort of ethical and moral transgressions that have defined her own long career, near the end of it, Hillary Clinton seems to be asking in vain of her dissipating cadres of true believers, “What have I become?”
Answer?
As she limps along, wounded, on the campaign trail, her flat, half-hearted sermons are best translated as, “You could have it all, / My empire of dirt. / I will let you down. / I will make you hurt.”
Read the whole thing — though, I must admit, I’ll still trying to wrap my brain around the notion of VDH quoting Trent Reznor…
SAFETY: Cycling 101 Needn’t Be Collision Course. “Cycling as recreation, sport and transport has exploded in recent years, with continued growth likely as more locales install bike lanes and bike-share programs. But as you might expect, with that growth has come an increase in bike-related injuries.”
Yesterday, I passed a cyclist going the wrong way in the left lane on Kingston Pike, one of Knoxville’s busiest multilane thoroughfares. You never used to see that, but lately it’s become common. There seem to be a lot more idiots out there on bicycles.
SPINNING SYNTHETIC SPIDER SILK.
THE POPE OF MONTECRISTO: Michael Ledeen writes that “The story of Cuban cigars is a good metaphor for the failure of Communist tyranny, and I think it’s shameful that the first Jesuit pope in history apparently intends to talk mostly about the weather instead of freedom:”
Back in Camelot days, Cuba produced the world’s best cigars. JFK smoked them, as did his press secretary, Pierre Salinger. It was said at the time that the president instructed Salinger to obtain a huge stash of cigars from the vuelta abajo in order to beat the imposition of the embargo. I always believed that story, and I’ve got a footnote for it. Years later, when Salinger was working as a reporter for ABC News in Paris, we had lunch one day and he showed me his personal supply of his personal Cuban cigars: they had a “Pierre Salinger” band (as I recall, they were Churchills from Partagas).
Americans have been forbidden to import Cuban cigars ever since, but this is apparently about to end as one of the elements of Obama’s deal with the Castros. When I heard the pope was headed for Havana, I wondered if the Castros were planning to give him a box of “Francis” cigars. And I also wondered if anyone had briefed him on the current state of Cuban cigars. Which is, let us say, not what it once was.
I spend a fair amount of time in Europe, where there is no Cuban embargo, and thus you can buy all the Cuban cigars you want. I’ve had some, but for the most part I’ve given them up. The Dominicans and Nicaraguans are much better cigars nowadays. The great Cuban cigar makers brought tobacco seed with them when they fled Castro’s tyranny, and over the course of the past half-century they have gotten better and better. More important, they have good quality control, whereas the Cubans don’t.
As P.J. O’Rourke once wrote, “It’s impossible to get decent Chinese takeout in China, Cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba, and that’s all you need to know about communism.” And the story about JFK and his cronies hoarding Cuban cigars before banning them reflects almost as poorly on Camelot. But then, the left have always loved their drawbridges.
IT’S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO DISTINGUISH LEFTISM FROM SHARIA: Syracuse Pulls Kiss Cam After Complaint It Encourages Sexual Assault.
A LONG TIME AGO, IN GALAXY FULL OF SOCIALIST JUSTICE WARRIORS FAR, FAR AWAY: “Don’t Like Gays in ‘Star Wars’? You’re a Homophobe:”
Star Wars fans anxious to see “Episode VII: The Force Awakens,” get a taste of the new universe in a new book, Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath. But not all fans are rejoicing — many are panning the book — for bringing sexual politics into mainstream science fiction. Don’t worry about all the haters, though — they’re evil homophobes with the Empire.
This was — truly — the author’s response to criticism on his blog. To anyone with the gall to question his inclusion of not one, not two, but 5 gay characters, Wendig wrote, “You’re not the Rebel Alliance. You’re not the good guys. You’re the f**king Empire, man. You’re the sh**ty, oppressive, totalitarian Empire.”
Well, not everybody wants to be the sh**ty, oppressive, totalitarian Vietcong.
A YEAR INTO THE AIR WAR AGAINST ISIS: The U.S. has won battles, destroyed targets, and saved towns from ISIS—and it may be no closer to winning the overall war. It’s almost as if Obama isn’t super-interested in winning the war.
RICHARD EPSTEIN: The Donald’s Dangerous Populism.
Populism, like Trump, is a symptom. Most people prefer not to think about politics, and to let things be run by reasonably competent people who are reasonably motivated by the public good. Populism arises when that’s not the case. Like heavy turnout at a condo association meeting, it’s a sign of trouble at the top.
“MOMS LIKE ME,” NEW NRA AD FEATURING DANA LOESCH:
You can meet Dana, along with Glenn, Roger L. Simon, Stephen Green, Ed Morrissey, Kevin D. Williamson, Mark Rippetoe (and, err, me!) at Bullets & Bourbon in the Dallas area in early December. Details here.
IN THE MAIL: From William F. Buckley, Jr., The Unmaking of a Mayor.
Plus, today only at Amazon: Up to 72% off BBC Historical Documentaries and Period Dramas.
And, also today only: Up to 50% Off Select Logitech PC and Home Accessories.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 866.
ED REGIS: Let’s Not Colonize Mars:
In the early years of the 20th century, zeppelins filled with flammable and explosive hydrogen were all the rage in Germany, a reckless infatuation that ended with the eruption and crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Sometimes, technology is a triumph of wild-eyed enthusiasm over the unpleasant facts of the real world.
Today we are witnessing a similar outburst of enthusiasm over the literally outlandish notion that in the relatively near future, some of us are going to be living, working, thriving and dying on Mars. A Dutch nonprofit venture called Mars One aspires to send four people to Mars by 2026 as the beginning of a permanent human settlement. In the United States, the nonprofit Inspiration One has plans for a two-person team to fly within 100 miles of the planet, launching from Earth in January 2018. And the entrepreneur Elon Musk, who runs a rocket company called SpaceX, has said he hopes to send the first people to Mars in 11 to 12 years.
Unfortunately, this Mars mania reflects an excessively optimistic view of what it actually takes to travel to and live on Mars, papering over many of the harsh realities and bitter truths that underlie the dream.
Well, nobody said it would be easy, but (1) The only real connection to the Hindenburg is that Regis just published a book about zeppelins; and (2) The negative tone of this piece kind of reminds me of the New York Times editors’ take on Robert Goddard’s rocket experiments.
MEET THE MUSLIM ISLAMOPHOBES who agree with Ben Carson. “Carson almost literally quoted Islamic doctrine and prominent Muslim leadership, and for this he is labeled a bigot.”
MILO YIANNOPOULOS: Here’s Why the Progressive Left Keeps Sticking Up for Pedophiles. “Aggressive public displays of virtue are where the morally deplorable hide. The trend of social justice warriors with closets full of skeletons is common enough to be a meme at this point. It might even be part of the job description. Whether by cleansing progressives of sin through virtue signalling, or simply enabling them to hide in plain sight, slacktivism provides a welcoming environment for scammers and the unsavoury, which is why progressives protect their own: they know it could be any of them next.”
DO THEY ALL HAVE LONG-TIME DEMOCRATIC MACHINES? Why Is Murder Spiking in Certain Cities?
ROGER KIMBALL: The Race, Post-Walker.
IF YOU ARE INSUFFICIENTLY AWARE OF DEPRESSING NEWS, PLEASE CONSIDER…