Archive for 2016
March 25, 2016
THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED: What Kind of Mother Duct Tapes Her Babies and Tries to Sell Them on Facebook?
LEFT-WING FANTASY ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK TURNED OUT TO BE SO, SO WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING.
As did pretty much all of the sci-fi as metaphor movies that a Hollywood driven to nihilistic paranoia by the mere presence of Nixon in the White House cranked out during the 1970s, until the escapism of Star Wars rebooted an entire genre — and industry — in 1977.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: When is St George’s Day? Everything you need to know about England (and Ethiopia’s) dragon-slaying saint. “St George is not even exclusively England’s patron saint. His iconography and coat of arms can be found on flags in countries and cities across the world. Places including Portugal, Lithuania, Romania, Germany, Greece, Istanbul and Ethiopia also celebrate him.” Well, there used to be something called Christendom, where that sort of thing made sense.
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Tracey Emin has married a rock – but did the stone give consent?
EVERYTHING SEEMINGLY IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL: Man arrested for failing to return VHS; movie’s star Tom Green weighs in:
“The officer said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented the movie “Freddy Got Fingered” and never returned it.’ I thought he was joking,” Meyers told the news station.
Green tweeted in response, “I just saw this and I am struggling to believe it is real.”
Pretty much the story of every news article in 2016.
SO THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER SAYS THAT TED CRUZ HAS HAD FIVE AFFAIRS. On the one hand, they were right about John Edwards. On the other hand, the Enquirer is very close to Trump. On the gripping hand, post-Gawker maybe they’d be more careful about a story like this? Or maybe not. Stay tuned. I am cynical enough to expect that a story about a Democratic scandal will be better-sourced than one about a GOP scandal.
UPDATE: More here.
FAIL, BRITANNIA: UK man arrested for tweeting.
The Metropolitan police confirmed that a 46-year-old man had been arrested on Wednesday evening in Croydon on suspicion of inciting racial hatred via social media.
He is understood to be Matthew Doyle, a partner at a south London-based talent and PR agency, who tweeted earlier in the day: “I confronted a Muslim women [sic] yesterday in croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said “Nothing to do with me” a mealy mouthed reply.”
The comments, which followed Tuesday’s bomb attacks at Brussels airport and on the city’s metro system, were later deleted but sparked a furious response from other users of Twitter.
Doyle comes across as a jerk, but that’s no crime.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Viral Fire Crotch Dancer: My Vagina Survived! But My Thighs Got Scorched.
This isn’t the 21st century I was promised as a kid.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to ditch your beer belly without quitting booze.
Officially, I’m dubious. But in the interest of science I’ll continue drinking.
OFFER ACCEPTED:
Gone to Texas, as of last night — and it was certainly nice to arrive with a personal welcome from Gov. Abbott! (Also a pretty staggering bit of synchronicity, but there’s been a lot of that for me this week; more details to follow.)
IN THE MAIL: The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel.
Plus, today only at Amazon: 50-70% Off Classic Wedding Bands. What could be better than sealing your vows with a ring bought via an InstaPundit Amazon link?
And, also today only: 50% Off Select adidas MLS Gear.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1051.
EPA HAS A DISTANT RELATIONSHIP WITH TRUTH ABOUT ITS ‘SUCCESSES:’ EPA published a report earlier this week claiming its diesel emissions reduction program “greatly improved” air quality and public health, to the tune of improvements worth $13 for every $1 of cost. Ethan Barton of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group explains why if you believe that claim, EPA has got an incredible deal for you on a certain bridge in Brooklyn.
A FESTIVAL OF REPRESSION: Cuban dissident leader Antonio Rodiles spoke to Mike Gonzalez about President Obama’s trip to Castro’s socialist paradise.
Even if Obama’s speech galvanizes some brave Cubans to demand their rights, the Castro Pretorian guard will crush them with impunity. We know this because that happened while Obama was in Cuba. Sources on the island said some Cubans gathered spontaneously after the speech to demand the rights enumerated in it, only to be brutally repressed by the Castro security forces. Yet the president not only did not leave in protest, but he failed to voice any objections or even mention it, at least publicly.
Indeed, during the three days of the Obama visit, dissidents were beaten, arrested, dragged through streets, stripped naked, and threatened with the rape of their daughters. Dissident leader Antonio Rodiles, himself beaten and detained on Monday along with his wife, told me the Obama visit had occasioned “a festival of repression.”
As he prefers to do, Obama gave a nice speech and then attended to other, more pressing matters.
ONE REASON WHY CHRIS CHRISTIE NEVER CAUGHT FIRE AS A CANDIDATE IS THAT HE DIDN’T WAGE WAR AGAINST THIS IDIOCY: New Jersey nonsense: Actor faces 10 years in prison for using a prop gun in movie.
This kind of idiocy is also why we need a federal civil rights law to prevent such injustices in states barbaric enough to have such rules.
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SCENES FROM THE COMING MIDDLE-CLASS ANARCHY.
Shot: America to Establishment: Who the hell are you people?
—McClatchy headline, yesterday.
Chaser: 13 things to say to those flyover state hayseeds who never stop bashing Washington.
—Tweet from the Washingtonian yesterday, linking to an article illustrated by a Photoshop that flatters parasitical DC socialist bureaucrats (evidently the Washingtonian’s core readers?) by giving them the Clark Kent ripping off the suit to reveal he’s Superman pose.
And that McClatchy article begins with an enormous lie: “The people who spend two bucks for chili at the Courtesy Diner at Laclede Station Road can’t fathom why anyone would pay Hillary Clinton $225,000 to make a speech.”
I think it’s an extremely safe bet that the people who spend two bucks for chili at the Courtesy Diner at Laclede Station Road know precisely why Hillary Clinton is paid $225,000 per speech.
As economic analyst Gonzalo Lira warned in a 2010 Business Insider article titled “The Coming Middle Class Anarchy,” “Just like the poker player who’s been fleeced by all the other players, and gets one mean attitude once he finally wakes up to the con? I’m betting that more and more of the solid American middle-class will begin saying what Brian and Ilsa [the middle-aged all-American couple at the center of Lira’s article] said: Fuckit.”
Trump is a highly imperfect vessel to carry it, but I’d say those six italicized letters accurately describe the mood of the country right about now.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The Gonzalo Lira link was bad before. Fixed now!
BOARDING THE RIGHT TRAIN: “Nobody with any sense believes that the Donald is the perfect candidate for the presidency. But he is not the problem,” David Solway writes. “The problem is a culture that appears determined to sign its own death warrant, splintering into a congeries of special interest groups and reveling in a morass of identity politics, moral relativism and infantile grievances. The problem is the catastrophic legacy left by Obama on the racial, economic and foreign policy fronts, from which the nation may not recover irrespective of who the next president may be. The problem is the brace of leftist hacks and retreads vying for the Democratic nomination, one of whom will occupy the White House if fractious conservatives have their way. The problem is a Republican establishment vastly out of step with its core constituency and seemingly preoccupied chiefly with retaining its beltway perks and privileges.”
Read the whole thing.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: N. Korea boasts of big leap in arms with solid-fuel rocketry.
LIARS SELDOM DO, ONCE THEY’VE BEEN FOUND OUT: Rolling Stone rape hoaxer doesn’t want to answer questions anymore.
The woman known as Jackie who shocked the world with her lurid tale of being gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity party doesn’t want to answer any more questions as part of a lawsuit.
Filed by U.Va.’s associate dean of students, Nicole Eramo, the lawsuit alleges Rolling Stone Magazine, which published the false rape story, defamed her when it accused her of being cruel to sexual assault accusers. In late January, a judge ordered Jackie to turn over any and all communications between her and Eramo, as well as between her and the author of the article, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, that related to her accusation.
A judge has given Eramo’s attorneys seven hours to depose Jackie, but because of the sheer volume of communications between her and Erdely, and the fact that Eramo would have to share the time with Rolling Stone’s attorneys, the U.Va. dean is asking for another three hours. Naturally, Jackie and her attorney don’t want to talk anymore, and Jackie especially doesn’t want to talk about her rape claims. . . . The same Jackie who told an untrue story to the media now wants the media to leave her alone.
Yeah, well, too bad sister. Nobody needs to deal tenderly with your trauma, since you made the whole thing up. You should be facing jail time.