The Weekly Winston: Middle East Edition

The Winter of Our Discontent and the September Of Obama’s Incompetence.

News you can use: Looking at cute animal pictures at work may boost performance.

How is an e-reader like an octopus?  No, that’s not a joke.  Apparently we’re studying how octopuses use ink to improve e-readers.

Libya Timeline shows an administration that can’t shoot straight and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence falls on its sword to preserve the administration.

OBAMA’S ECONOMIC FATALISM: I’ve seen this among my lefty acquaintances.  They assume decay is inevitable.  I think it comes from economic illiteracy and first-world-guilt (which in turn comes from not knowing that wealth can be created, so more economic illiteracy).  Couple that with Obama’s world-bestriding ego, and you have a recipe for disaster.

UPDATE, FROM READER ERIC SCHUBERT:
In several related ways, I see the liberal pessimism Sarah Hoyt describes
as a classic case of projection:

1. The Blue Social Model is in decline. If you’re heavily invested in it,
then the socioeconomic trends that are moving us away from it are
devastating to your self-worth. Contrast that view with the Whiggish
Optimism (leavened with a heavy dose of the Doctrine of Original Sin) that
we see with Walter Russell Mead’s blog.

2. If her liberal friends are gentry liberals who have career paths that
are in decline, then the rise of successful upstarts in unrelated fields
undermines the status of her liberal friends.

3. Racism, sexism, and homophobia are fading rapidly as roadblocks to
personal happiness and professional success. How does a liberal feel
superior and smug when all but the most narrow-minded accept diversity?

Eric Schubert
Katy, TX

YOU MAY QUOTE WITH ATTRIBUTION

Eric — Most of my friends are novelists, wedded to the old model of doing fiction-business.

For a change I don’t know this person.  But I got this book from Amazon when it was free, and enjoyed it, so I think it deserves mention.  In The Blood: A Genealogical Crime Mystery should entertain anyone who is interested in either genealogy, historical mysteries or cozies.  Pleasant diversion if you’re having a lazy Saturday.

What’s behind the poll dances?  Zombie explores.

Obama phone humor.

Found on facebookAnd in terms of electoral campaign, go you and do likewise metaphorically speaking.  The individualists always fail to organize, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be effective.  Look at the teaparty.

I also can’t afford THIS.

Where would four more years of this lead us?  I have children.  I can’t afford this.

What Do Propofol, Helium and Manganese Ferro Alloy Have In Common?  We’re running out of all of them

This is somewhat old, but just too cool.  The question is, how do you find the tiny maidens to feed it?

This feels wrong.  It just does.

Celebrating a lost decade in housing!  Whoo Whoo….

To every woman who thinks there’s a giant conspiracy of males to keep them down — it’s true.  And the sneaky men are even in your brain!

It’s an adorable cross-eyed cat!  Because life is about more than just politics.  (And if I dressed even one of my cats in one of those outfits, I’d be dictating my books the rest of my life, because I’d no longer have fingers.)

Internet bullies aren’t trolls.  They’re disgusting cowards!

Fran Tarkenton on What Is Wrong with the Koch Brothers: “Since their business began, the Koch brothers have been part of the value-creating class, not the crony class of business owners.”

Poll Madness on the Hugh Hewitt Show: Qunnipiac’s own Peter Brown admitted to me on August 2 that a 9 point Democrat turnout advantage “is probably unlikely,” but his latest poll didn’t correct for this absurd sample, which still has 9 point Democratic turnout advantages in their Ohio and Florida numbers and 11 points in Pennsylvania.  So, like Zogby, Strategic Vision and the Minnesota Poll before them, Quinnipiac seems destined for the heap of ruined reputations when Ds and Rs vote in roughly equal numbers on November 6.  The lefties out in defense of Quinnipiac were the same ones who were loving on the exit polls on Election Day 2004, and on the Research 2000 ginned up for Kos or the Strategic Vision polls of questionable validity.  If pollsters cannot defend their sample, the warning flag is out. Stick with gallup and Rasmussen.

The New Media creates new paths to success. Randall Monroe of XKCD fame is one of the people who made it in an improbable way and this interview with him is fascinating. Personally, I read XKCD to avoid my kids disowning me.  (Yes, we’re an enormously geeky family.)

A universal striving towards freedom.  Oh, okay, fine.  That’s an excuse to post it. (Though the point could be made.)  It’s a cool article, about ants.

Everything you wanted to know about elections but were really, really really afraid to ask.  And if you’re not afraid you should be, because this is a piece by Frank J. Flemming.   Swallow whatever you have in your mouth, then read.  You’ve been warned.  We’re not responsible for sprayed monitors or damage done to nasal passages by hot coffee.

Jay Cost: Yes, Most Polls (The Ones The Media Prefers) Are Giving Obama a Phantom 3-4 Point Edge — from Ace of Spades.  Read the whole thing and pay particular attention to what Ace says:

I fret myself. I feel like I’m on tenterhooks. I want Romney to break big so I can relax.

I think a lot of us have this bubbling frustration and anxiety, and we wind up blaming Romney for not just winning this already.

Pay attention to it because I’m starting to get snarky at the backseat campaign driving in blog comments.  And no one wants me to get snarky.