O’REILLY BLOWS IT AGAIN. So I mentioned last week that O’Reilly’s comments on gun confiscation during an emergency flew in the face not only of the constitution, but of explicit federal statutory law. I just watched the followup episode on DVR and he doubled down on this position, never acknowledging the statute at all. I don’t know who’s briefing him on this stuff, but he’s now embarrassed himself twice in a row on the subject.
IS CONSERVATIVE THE NEW GAY? Not until people at CPAC start dressing better . . . .
MISLEADING HEADLINE: The New Scientist headlines it this way: Even in the virtual world, men judge women on looks. But, in fact, the study found that men were kinder to real women than to “overtly sexualized” CGI females. So a more accurate headline would be something like Men more empathetic to real women than to sexbots. But that doesn’t fit the stereotype, I guess.
NEW YORK TIMES: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs. “Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.”
GUN SAFETY ADVICE for Russ Carnahan.
UPDATE: Some question in the comments on whether the newspaper story is accurate, or whether this is a simulator. Should that matter, or should you follow good safety practices on a simulator, too? I’d give a pass on the eye and ear protection, I think, but not on the downrange-safety business — too easy to form bad habits. However, the story doesn’t say it’s a simulator and in fact seems to say the opposite.
CPAC STRAW POLL: Just one percent list stopping gay marriage as a top priority. Even abortion only made #5 on the list, and a distant #5 at that. Small-government fiscal conservatism seems to be the clear “big tent” on the right these days.
UPDATE: Oops, #5, not #4.
TURN ON YOUR TV if you want to watch a space shuttle landing. There won’t be many more chances . . . .
JIM TREACHER has been missing out.
DID YOU MISS CPAC? Don’t worry — PJTV has it covered.
PATTY MURRAY looking vulnerable?
PUSHING FOR SCHOOLS TO HAVE automated defibrillators.
STEPHEN GREEN: The Week In Blogs, NSFW Edition.
ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS reach highest level since World War Two.
Related: Jews leaving Swedish city because of attacks by Muslims.
Plus, Malmö Syndrome. “Malmö Syndrome is not new or unique to Malmö. Wherever one finds ‘pro-Palestinian’ demonstrators — whether secular leftists or Islamists — one finds blatant and often violent anti-Semitism.”
SO AS I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK, I ordered this Sony pocket camera the other day. It came on Friday, and while I think my Lumix is still the best small camera I’ve owned, the Sony is really excellent, especially in low light, and fits easily into a pocket. The HD video also seems to be pretty good. Here’s a sample photo.
CNN POLL: Majority Think Government Is Broken. By “majority,” they mean “86 percent.”
THEY’RE REALLY PUSHING Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths.
STILL GOING ON: Tea Party Rally draws 1,000 in San Diego.
UPDATE: Schwarzenegger says the Tea Party movement is going nowhere. I dunno — how big a crowd can Schwarzenegger draw these days . . . ?
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dusty Raftery writes: “Well, he’d probably be able to draw 1,000 Tea Partiers, if you know what I mean.” Heh. Indeed.
FROM JOHN STEELE, a big roundup and timeline on DoJ and the Yoo/Bybee report. (Via Jonathan Adler.)
Can I call ‘em, or what?
UPDATE: Ed Driscoll: “Andrew Breitbart said at the Nashville Tea Party convention this month, the legacy media has two templates for coverage of Republicans and conservatives: Watergate and racism. Similarly, the MSM also has two templates for liberal presidents they wish to prop up: Camelot and gridlock.”
DEM HIRES PALIN TO SPEAK, Valerie Jarrett is not amused. But you can’t argue with star power: “A prominent Democrat is vice chair of a group paying Palin 100k to raise money for a parking lot. The speech sold out on the first day.”
OBVIOUSLY, ANDREW BREITBART NEEDS TO START UP “BIG E.U.” PRONTO: A comic book featuring the adventures of two fictional European Commission bureaucrats is being sent to homes and schools at a cost of £200,000 to the taxpayer. “The EU seems to think it can buy itself popularity, but instead it simply makes itself look more out of touch and wasteful.”
MARKDOWNS ON MOBILE RADIO. Good for disaster-prep; GMRS requires a license, though, while FRS does not.
NOAH POLLAK: Did Israel Just Acquire A Strategic Bombing Capability?
UPDATE: Dan Friedman writes: Res Ipsa Loquitur.
G.E. / HITACHI PUSHING nuclear waste reprocessing.
IMAGES IN THIN AIR, using swarms of autonomous LED helicopters.
CLIMATEGATE: The World’s Biggest Story, Everywhere But Here.
UPDATE: “About what?”
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY: Drug could prolong men’s sexual staying power.
COMPARING THE UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS with Administration promises.
LOOKING AT THE HAITI FLIGHT LOGS: “Church of Scientology ministers landed, as did AP reporters, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and diapers from Canada. But a French portable hospital and planeloads of doctors with medical supplies were diverted to the Dominican Republic.” So, Anderson Cooper in ahead of doctors? That’s helpful.
UPDATE: Chuck Simmins emails:
I can’t let the implications pass, Glenn.
Port-au-Prince airport has one runway and very limited ramp space. At the time that the Air force Special Operations people landed, it had two tow bars and two fuel trucks with planes parked in any open space.
The Air Force set up a landing pattern based on priorities created by the government of Haiti. Those priorities also were heavily dependent on the aircraft operator having followed procedure and registered, the ability of the airport to unload the aircraft in a timely manner and the room available at the airport.
Planes arrived without having asked for clearance. Planes arrived with loads that would take six or more hours to unload. Planes arrived when there was no room on the ground for them. Planes arrived without fuel to take off. Every single one of these problems were handled by the Air Force and the Haitians that they were working with.
One aircraft that landed the first day took six hours to fuel with the primitive facilities the airport had. The Air Force squeezed planes in for landings where they had bare feet on either wingtip.
According to the Air Force, the field hospital arrived without clearance and unloading it would have taken the airport out of service for hours.
http://northshorejournal.org/out-of-the-night-sky-air-force-secures-port-au-prince-airport
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2634785/kentucky_national_guard_opens_haiti.html
It is very easy for the media to nitpick, especially since it concerns our military. Yet, there was not one NGO, not one other nation or international agency, capable of the response given by the United States military to the people of Haiti in their time of need.
Tell it to Anderson Cooper. . . .
SUPPORTING STEVE JOBS? California Senate Passes Amazon tax. What’s next? Washington State putting an excise tax on iPods?
Well, no. The email I got suggested that Steve Jobs is smiling about this, and he probably is, but California has been grabbing at this revenue for a while. I realize that some states have tried to come up with clever theories to get around it, but I still think that this is unconstitutional under the Quill case. (Full disclosure: I consulted for the winning side in Quill.) But since California citizens are liable for use tax, why not try to force Amazon to disclose their purchases instead of trying to force Amazon to collect the tax itself? I’m guessing that California politicos don’t want the backlash from mailing a new tax bill to millions of voters in an election year. Which suggests a possible response from Amazon, perhaps . . .
But, really, I think the Internet sales-tax issue is one that should be resolved, if at all, by Congress, which clearly has the power to do so.
UPDATE: Reportedly, Rhode Island’s “Amazon Tax” has killed jobs but produced zero revenue. I wonder how much the politicians care. It seems as much a control thing as a revenue issue, really. They just can’t stand the thought that people aren’t paying tribute.
DAVID BELLAVIA ON IRAQ: Our Mission Is Finally Accomplished . . . Does Anyone Care? “What we achieved in the face of an implacable enemy, overcoming many in our own government willfully ignorant of our struggle, is what I believe to be the defining moment of my generation. The veteran today is the embodiment of what it means to be an American. Even when our valor was used for political sport, we continued to serve quietly. This is truly without precedent.”
SALMAN RUSHDIE on Amnesty International.
IN THE MAIL: From Travis Taylor, The Science Behind The Secret: Decoding The Laws of Attraction.
GLENN BECK’S MESSAGE TO THE GOP AT CPAC: “It’s not enough to not suck as much as the other side.”
ER, NO YOU DIDN’T: “Yesterday, I also met Professor Glenn Reynolds in the XPAC Lounge.” I didn’t go to CPAC this year. Do I have an impersonator?
UPDATE: Hey, please don’t be mean to her. It’s not her fault that somebody pretended to be me. I apologize for the mean people who apparently followed my link, as it wasn’t my intention to cast any blame here, except on whoever was impersonating me. I just thought I should note that someone apparently was. And Adrienne, I’d be happy to meet you in person sometime when it’s really me!
ANOTHER UPDATE: Robert Racansky emails: “Maybe it was you, from the future. Or a robot replica, like an Instanator infiltration unit.” Well, if future-me is hanging around out there I could use some advice on where to put this year’s 401k money . . . Also, Powerball numbers.
PSYCHOLOGY: Diagnosing Gollum.
CHARLIE COOK: Health Care Is Obama’s Iraq.
TIM CAVANAUGH ON BIOLOGICAL TRANSHUMANISM: Wake me up when men get pregnant. “Unlike airy notions of frozen brains or cyborg implants, biological enhancement has thousands of years of history behind it, in the form of agricultural hybridization and animal husbandry.”
Cyborg implants are hardly an “airy notion.” Heck, I’m already married to a cyborg.
MARK FRAUENFELDER UNVEILS THE JACKET DESIGN for his new book, Made By Hand: Searching For Meaning In A Throwaway World. I like the cigar-box guitars.
ANDREW BREITBART punches back twice as hard.
“SHODDY PARTISANSHIP” AND A CALL FOR A LEAK INVESTIGATION at the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
CREDIT CARD NEWS: “A new era in the vexed relationships between colleges, credit cards and students begins Monday, when most of the new provisions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 take effect. The law provides new protections to students and imposes new requirements on colleges and alumni groups that offer credit cards.”
UPDATE: From the comments: “Why is it OK for students to have thousands of dollars of debt from college, but it is not OK for it to be credit card debt? I guess it is OK for the university system in this country to rape you.”
YOUNG VOTERS WANT SPIRITUALITY, BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELIGION. Well, that’s because religion often tells you to do things you don’t want to do, or to refrain from doing things you want to do, while spirituality is usually more . . . flexible.
WELL, IT’S A LIBERTARIAN YEAR: Ron Paul wins CPAC straw poll.
ARE DOLPHINS INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO DESERVE BETTER TREATMENT? Or do humans just want them to be?
AT AMAZON, Top Deals In Electronics.
THOUGHTS ON Asperger’s and morality.
GEE, DO YOU THINK? White House begins groundwork to avoid blame for tax increases. That’s going to be tricky, though, given that he promised not to raise taxes on people making less than $250K a year.
WHERE DID THE GLOBAL WARMING GO? The President Explains It For You.
JOHN FUND: Democratic incumbents are running scared and the fear factor is only intensifying. “The nonpartisan Cook Political Report released a new update on the 2010 elections yesterday. A full 54 Democratic seats in the House are now rated as “highly competitive,” with nearly half already seeing the GOP challenger running even or ahead of the Democratic incumbent. Only six GOP-held seats are in play as possible Democratic pickups. Republicans need to win 40 seats to take back control of the House. Nervousness in Democratic ranks will be heightened even more by Cook’s finding that a total of 95 Democratic seats are potentially vulnerable — almost two-fifths of the entire Democratic caucus.”
HMM: Deflation? “The prices of US goods and services, excluding food and fuel, fell last month for the first time since 1982 as aggressive measures to stimulate economic growth failed to inflate the cost of living. The core consumer price index fell 0.1 per cent in January, labour department figures showed , as prices for new cars and housing dropped from the previous month. Prices including food and energy rose a less-than-projected 0.2 per cent.” On the other hand, producer prices jumped more than expected, so what does that mean?
SPAIN BLAMES ECONOMIC CRISIS on “Anglo-Saxon conspiracy.”
ROGER SIMON: The Zernike Kefuffle: Clinging To Racism. “So what’s the deal with this clinging to racism – or racial accusations – on the part of some liberals? Well, I think it reflects a significant and growing insecurity that they are no longer the cool guys. Via the Tea Party movement and other things, libertarianism – a rather attractive and even hip ideology – is taking over the right. People who love freedom are drifting rightward leaving the left with moribund unions and big government, neither of which seem to work. Liberals don’t have much of a belief system anymore and not enough reason to think highly of themselves, as they used to. Something’s wrong. Therefore, the other side has to be bad.”
Related item from Dan Riehl: “I’d bet money that were Zernike to hear similar rhetoric with the same dialect from a friend or colleague, she wouldn’t give it a second thought, let alone mis-characterize it as racist. One way or another, that is what they do to all of us on the Right. And whether they do it intentionally, or not, doesn’t matter. We can’t allow them to keep getting away with it. We need the Andrew Breitbarts and Jason Matteras of the Right; they deserve our encouragement and support. They can help us move this movement forward in ways we never have before. The Left realizes it. So, don’t expect them to relent. Standing up to the Left always puts a target on your back. It’s long past time for the Right to shoot back.”
You know, I was telling the Insta-wife last night that I thought Breitbart’s “despicable person” call-out of Zernike marked a sea change in responses to bogus charges of racism. I believe I was right.
VIDEO: Andrew Breitbart confronts Max Blumenthal at CPAC.
UPDATE: Some background here. “Breitbart’s having a good week at CPAC, isn’t he?”
TOM BLUMER: Big Business As An Opponent Of Free Markets. “But for two serendipitous events, they would have sold us out.” Free-market capitalism is great for everyone besides the capitalists, so it’s not surprising they prefer a cozy arrangement with the government . . . .
FLASHBACK: The joys of the Flexible Flyer.
UPDATE: Reader Byron Matthews shares a memory of the wheeled version, the Flexy-Racer. I had a nasty accident on one of these when I was four, going down a steep concrete driveway. Serious road-rash; the scars on my knees and elbows are still barely visible today if you know where to look. And I do. . . .
CHARGING KEITH OLBERMANN WITH homophobia and transphobia.
A NEW WORLD: So yesterday afternoon I wondered if my new camera had come from Amazon. Did I go out and check the garage? No, I clicked on Amazon, where it said “Delivered — Garage.” Then I went out to the garage . . . . Yes, it’s the 21st Century.
RESPONDING TO OLYMPIC BULLYING with poetry.
SCOTT JOHNSON: The Case of Rashad Hussain, Part 2.
EVIDENCE THAT NORTHEASTERN PROFESSOR JACK LEVIN DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT: Reader John Galvin sends these data on education:
Boston: High school or higher: 78.9%
Huntsville: High school or higher: 85.7%Boston: Bachelor’s degree or higher: 35.6%
Huntsville: Bachelor’s degree or higher: 36.1%Boston: Graduate or professional degree: 15.3%
Huntsville: Graduate or professional degree: 12.7%So Huntsville AL beats Boston in 2 out of 3 categories and isn’t far behind Boston in the third, especially when you consider all the college teachers, lawyers and doctors in Boston.
Less casual bigotry in Huntsville, too . . . .
UPDATE: I see that Levin has apologized, though not publicly.
WHITE HOUSE declaring “legislative war?”
MOE LANE NOTES THE PRECEDENT: Pitchforks, torches now acceptable for political demonstrations. “Feel free to pass that around the next time somebody has the vapors about a Tea Party protest…” Yes, as I noted yesterday it seems an unwise precedent for them to establish.
UPDATE: Reader Gregory Taggart writes: “Hey, where were all the African Americans at that protest? I didn’t see any; therefore, the left is racist. (For that matter, where were all the people who could act or read their lines?)”
Not just an all-white mob with torches and pitchforks, but worse: a no-talent all-white mob with torches and pitchforks! Well, remember, they’re union workers so they’ve always been opposed to paying them according to their, uh, performance . . . .
ARIZONA: The dark side of special tax deals.
UPDATE: Related: Indictments in Iowa.
GOOGLE: Making $500M a year from typos? Nice work if you can get it.
IN THE MAIL: From Thomas Goetz, The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine.
GREEN SHOOTS: Okay, maybe not in the economy, but in my front yard now that the snow’s melted.
KICKED OFF A FLIGHT FOR BEING TOO SMELLY? John Scalzi is okay with that: “If you reek so bad that more than just the people next to you notice, that’s not at all unreasonable. You’re all in a flying tube with recycled air for hours. Other people shouldn’t have to marinate in your feculence.”
SPARTACUS, TEA PARTY LEADER, whatever.
SHOCKER: BARACK OBAMA, contradicting himself on ACORN.
JOANNE JACOBS: The Boy Gap in education. “It’s time for schools to focus on the widening gap in reading and writing skills that leaves so many boys unprepared for success in college or vocational training.”
A LIST OF THE 2009 Nebula Award nominees. Scalzi’s there.
COULD THIS REALLY happen to you?
YOO AND BYBEE CLEARED, but Jennifer Rubin is unhappy with DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility. “At times the work of OPR itself seems to have violated the professional standards it was charged with enforcing.”
DAN MITCHELL: Tax Havens Are Not Money-Laundering Centers.
HUFFINGTON POST: Feds Bullied Kerik Into 4-Year Term, Hurting Us All.
GUY BENSON: The New York Times Owes Jason Mattera An Apology.
Plus, some Kate Zernike history. More on that embarrassing incident here.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD on Al Gore’s contribution to the climate-change debate.
OKAY, I’VE NEVER BEEN THAT BIG A FAN OF MITT ROMNEY, but I kind of like the idea of a President who can apply “the Vulcan grip” to a rapper.
Hmm. So, Romney a Vulcan, eh? It would kind of explain some things . . . .
UPDATE: Stephen Gordon writes:
Truth imitates fiction. Spock puts a Vulcan death grip on a punk rocker: Link.
Now Romney puts the Vulcan death grip on a rapper. This puts me on the side of the Vulcans both times!
It’s usually smart to side with the Vulcans. But of course, true Trek fans know that there is no “Vulcan death grip.” It was just an invention to fool gullible Romulans. Spock’s nerve pinch merely produces temporary unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, regarding Romney, reader Chris Newbury writes: “If he’s really a Vulcan and can also do mind-meld, maybe we should be considering him for CIA director rather than President.” Beats waterboarding.
WALT MOSSBERG: The “Magic Jack” is overhyped, but it works.
FROM BIG JOURNALISM, a challenge for Kate Zernike of The New York Times: “Identify with time stamps where Mattera uses the ‘Chris Rock voice.’”
THE DAY EVERYTHING CHANGED: Remembering Rick Santelli’s rant, where one man dared to speak truth to power, and broke the spell.
THE CONTRACT FROM AMERICA: Dana Loesch Interviews Dick Armey at CPAC.
Nothing about cheese decentralization, though.
RUNNING AGAINST HER WOULD PRACTICALLY BE RACIST: Princella Smith announces for Congress. “Princella Smith, 26, will announce on Saturday that she is running for Congress in Arkansas’s 1st District. Some would say she is too young. Others might point to other potential hurdles: She’s running in eastern Arkansas, a district that hasn’t elected a Republican since 1872 in a Southern state that has never elected a black person to a congressional or state-wide office.” Given the Democrats’ stated concern for diversity, I guess they won’t run anyone against her if she wins the primary.
SPACE UPDATE: NASA plans more outreach to Muslim countries. “NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to ‘find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries’ as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.”
AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.
SO HERE’S A QUESTION: Would a default on Treasuries accomplish what the Balanced Budget Amendment was supposed to achieve, by forcing the government to spend no more than it takes in? With more collateral damage, of course. . . .
UPDATE: Well, I was hoping for a thoughtful email from an expert, but instead I got a typically intemperate blog post from Bruce Bartlett. Bruce, I’m not trying to turn the United States into Zimbabwe. That would be the guy in the White House, whom you seem surprisingly anxious to defend.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Bruce Bartlett updates:
Mark Thoma thinks I am taking Reynolds too seriously. He’s probably right that Reynolds himself was not serious in his suggestion. But I have heard the same idea advanced seriously on numerous occasions among conservatives. I would note that a Fox News poll on October 1, 2009 found two-thirds of Americans saying that the debt limit should not be increased.
Well, yes, that’s why I raised the question — not a suggestion — to begin with. This has not prevented a schoolyard pile-on by lefty bloggers like Andrew Sullivan, of course, but I expect no more from them.
And I’ll note that while a Senator, Barack Obama opposed raising the debt limit, calling it a sign of “leadership failure.”
THE JOYS OF ICELANDIC ELF SEX.
DIVERSITY: CPAC boos speaker for condemning invite to gay conservative group. “The One’s agenda has vaulted fiscal conservatism to the top of the list of right-wing priorities; with even Darth Cheney sanguine about gay marriage, social issues simply don’t have the same bite that they used to.”
MORE CHEAP HDTVs.
GREG GUTFELD: People Died, WaPo Lied.
I’m struck by how boringly predictable a respected journalist like Capehart can be.
I use “respected journalist” just for fun. Capehart is a tool.
I mean, seriously dude, you couldn’t have resisted, for a moment at least – that urge to… go there?
Look, I know you hate those damn teabaggers, but linking them to this horrible crime seems like a parody of jackasses like yourself. Maybe that was your goal: your comments were just an elegant satire on left-wingers! In that case, bravo. . . . In order for Capehart to link Stack to the tea parties, he had to deliberately omit key parts of the suicide note. You know, the stuff where Stack bashes Republicans, Bush, our current state of health care (which he says kills thousands), and of course, capitalism.
These people seem to labor under the apprehension that they have some remaining moral or intellectual standing. They don’t.
SEPARATED AT BIRTH MANUFACTURE?
CLEARING IEDs with an explosive whip.
