THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON THE CROW (Video):
Archive for 2022
October 31, 2022
WHO ARE YOU AGAIN, YOUNG MAN? AND WHERE’S MY PUDDING CUP, DAMMIT!!! Biden lost temper with Zelenskyy during June phone call when Ukraine leader asked for more aid.
Or maybe Biden remembered for a moment that the Ukrainians have a lot of dirt on him, and got frustrated.
LIBERTARIAN HORROR MOVIES: New video from Reason TV.
MORE “BAD LUCK” FOR SOUTH AMERICA ON THE WAY: Bolsonaro falls as South America tilts toward socialism.
After a bruising campaign, the leftist former president of Brazil Lula Ignacio Da Silva appears to have won back control of the Palácio da Alvorada, the Brazilian presidential residence. Lula defeated conservative incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by the narrowest of margins and is now poised to bring back socialist leadership to the world’s fourth-largest democracy.
However, the result was by no means a blowout for Lula and his Workers’ Party, which polls had suggested could win a landslide victory. In reality, Bolsonaro outperformed expectations just by taking the vote to a second round, while his Social Liberal Party maintained control of Brazil’s congress.
Nevertheless, the outcome marks an incredible comeback story for the 77-year-old Lula. All the more so because he was sentenced to 22 years in prison as part of the notorious Operation Car Wash scandal, though his conviction was quashed on a technicality, allowing him to realize his ambition of running again for the presidency.
The result will be warmly welcomed by the Biden White House, which inevitably favored Lula over the man who was regularly dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics.” They will see him primarily as a key ally in the fight against climate change given that Bolsonaro was widely criticized for his alleged failure to protect the Amazon. While Biden was serving as vice president, Obama praised Lula as “one of the most popular politicians on earth” in reference to his high approval ratings. After his term finished, Obama even lobbied for him to become the next president of the World Bank, although plans for this never materialized.
What could go wrong? I’m sure “Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle” will repeat in Brazil, right?
SHE COULD DRAG DOWN AN OCEAN LINER: Is Stacey Abrams Dragging Down Raphael Warnock and other Georgia Democrats? “Abrams isn’t as popular in Georgia as she is in the news media or entertainment industry — even among Democrats. Many Georgia voters think she has grown too big for her britches, to use a Southernism (come on, focus — that’s not a fat joke).”
DON’T GET COCKY: A Stunning Number of Americans Believe the Country Is ‘Out of Control’ Thanks to Democrats.
As Glenn likes to say, “Seriously, if you care about this election, you need to be out volunteering and donating. Commenting on the Internet doesn’t count.”
TO BE FAIR, WAXING HADN’T BEEN INVENTED YET: Ancient Snail From 99 Million Years Ago Discovered With Hairs Growing on Shell.
THEY’RE WORRIED, AND THEY SHOULD BE: The Atlantic calls for COVID amnesty.
First of all, let me get this out of the way: Emily Oster, the author of the article I am about to eviscerate, doesn’t deserve the scorn I am about to heap on her.
Honestly, that’s true. She has generally been a voice of reason on COVID policy, and even when I disagree I respect her. She supported policies I considered and consider appalling, yet she always shared her reasoning and her doubts. Plus she vigorously opposed the COVID excuse to destroy education, and that deserves great respect.
Yet I am going to dump on her anyway, because while she as a person and thinker doesn’t deserve ridicule, her latest article in The Atlantic surely does. And since I am (usually) more concerned with ideas than personalities I am going to take liberties here. Still, I sincerely pre-apologize to Dr. Oster, and I hope that she can be as forgiving to me as she asks us to be toward COVID fascists. . . .
I in fact hold no animus towards people who made mistakes early on during the COVID pandemic. Either for the people who dismissed it as a minor problem (it wasn’t exactly minor–tons of people died), nor those who feared it could be the next Black Plague (even early on it clearly wasn’t, but given China’s very scary behavior before COVID spread outside its boundaries, it wasn’t irrational to fear that it was super dangerous).
Given these facts, I am and always was inclined to be generous in forgiving initial mistakes made when the pandemic hit. We saw citywide fumigation in China, hundreds in body bags, the inevitable media hype for ratings, and the initial inclination to overreact rather than under-react to avoid disaster. How can you not be scared?
Then facts came out, and not too long after the initial panic. It was clear that the COVID-19 virus was nasty, but was no plague, nor even a 1918 flu virus. It was a seriously nasty bug that targeted certain vulnerable populations, but left most people with a period of illness followed by a relatively quick recovery. Even “long-COVID” was more similar to Lyme disease than anything else. Nasty, unfortunately, but we live with worse.
In other words, the wisdom of the viciously attacked–to this day, mind you–Great Barrington Declaration has been vindicated. Once data started rolling in and the true scope of its danger was known, COVID became a political cause for the Left, not a public health issue. Public policy and social behavior was no longer grounded in any connection to reality and became a political signifier, and every single awful consequence that has come from the use of COVID as a political cudgel to attack those of us who demanded a rational, measured response is entirely blameworthy. The people who did this must pay a price.
COVID fanatics deserve every single bit of the consequences that are coming for them, and far far more than they will suffer.
I agree 100%.
UPDATE: A friend comments: “Best I can do is military tribunals.”
AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, IT’S JUST A WARMED-OVER VERSION OF “SECOND LIFE.” Meta Betting the Company on Success or Failure of Metaverse.
SCHEDULED FOR 9:31 AM TOMORROW: SpaceX to launch Falcon Heavy rocket for U.S. Space Force mission.
RANDI WEINGARTEN AND THE TEACHERS’ UNIONS IN GENERAL SHOULD BE UTTERLY DISCREDITED POST-COVID:
IRONICALLY, IT COMES FROM A VACCINE: Poliovirus that paralyzed unvaccinated NY man in July is still spreading. “Most adults and children in the US are vaccinated against polio. Since 2000, the country has relied on inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is given in three doses before the age of 24 months, with a fourth shot between the ages of 4 and 6. Just the first three doses are 99 percent to 100 percent effective at preventing paralytic disease, though, and vaccination coverage rates report the percentage of 2-year-olds that have followed the recommended vaccination schedule for the first three shots. But, in pockets of low vaccination, such as those in several counties in New York, poliovirus—in this case, a revertant virus derived from an oral vaccine used abroad that transmitted among unvaccinated people—can continue spreading. In the CDC’s new study out today, health officials sifted through sewage surveillance data to see where and how extensive that spread is.”
A THREAD ON Space-Based Solar Power.
COURT: LICENSE REQUIREMENT FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL MANAGERS VIOLATES PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION. Great win for the Institute for Justice, and I’m proud that my law firm colleague Samantha Harris (whom the court labeled “entirely credible” — a good quote for your business cards!) and her property manager, Sally Ladd, were the victorious plaintiffs!
HEH: Can’t We Just Admit That Modern Art Is Garbage?
Actually, there’s some great modern art — but Sturgeon’s law applies to everything.
EXHIBIT A THAT FACEBOOK WORKS FOR THE FEDS: Micaela Burrow of the Daily Caller News Foundation reports that Facebook has a special access site where government officials can target what they consider to be “misinformation” on Facebook in order for it to be censored. Perfect illustration of how Big Government and Big Business go hand-in-hand.
GET IN SHAPE: New Balance Men’s Casual Comfort Cross Trainer. #CommissionEarned
WHAT’S RUSSIAN FOR “LET THE MIDEAST STARVE”? Russia pulls out of Ukraine grain deal.
NOW HE TELLS US: U.S. Transportation Secretary Realizes Autonomous Cars Aren’t Ready. Though I’m guessing that Mayor Pete comes to a lot of late realizations.
READER FAVORITE: Venado Concealed Carry Jacket for Men. #CommissionEarned
FINALLY, A SENSIBLE (AND PROFITABLE) REFORM PLAN FOR TWITTER:
Well, Elon — the ball’s in your court.