Archive for 2009

HALF-PRICE Swiss Army knives and more. I didn’t realize that Ken Onion did “tactical” knives — I only knew him via kitchenware.

SUZANNA LOGAN: God, Guns, Guts, and CNN’s Idiot Reporters. I’d like to know the name of these “some people” she keeps invoking. I think it would be Carol Costello. . . . .

TUCSON TEA PARTY UPDATE: Robert Mayer writes:

Thanks for linking to the Gila Courier article about the protest yesterday! There is always some great video at the Jon Justice show website:

The two I recommend, the first from the beginning and the second from the end, are here:

Link 1

Link 2.

Thanks again for covering this!

Meanwhile, reader Deborah Durkee writes: “I just saw a link at www.realclearpolitics.com about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of AZ (someone featured in the post on your site about the Tucson, AZ picketing of her office over health care). I thought you might be interested in this: ‘The most cash-rich Frontline Democrat is Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who has $1.2 million in her campaign account.'”

Yeah, you can do a lot with amateurs — picket, demonstrate, show up wherever the Rep. does in the district, etc. But, ultimately, you have to get into actual politics: Raise money, run primary challengers, etc. That’s the next stage for a lot of Tea Party organizations.

UPDATE: A followup from Robert Mayer:

Thanks for posting up those videos! There is one candidate who has really stepped up to challenge Gabrielle Giffords. His name is Jesse Kelly (www.votejessekelly.com), and he has both raised the most money, gained the most early support, and attended pretty much every event we’ve put on. He’s a big tea party supporter and this is definitely a factor in his early support among many tea partiers.

We’ll see what holds in the future, but I believe that any primary challenger who lives where an effective Tea Party organization exists would do well to latch himself on to the ideals of the movement. He or she will gain early donors, hardcore volunteers, and a access to thousands of voters.

Good advice.

DID SOMETHING hit Jupiter?

NEW YORK TIMES: Governors Join G.O.P. in Concerns on Health Bill. “Despite President Barack Obama’s assurance that a revamping of the United States health-care system would not swell the federal deficit, his goal of quick congressional passage seemed to grow a bit more tenuous on Sunday as Republicans dug in their heels while governors in both parties raised concerns that they will be handed costly new Medicaid obligations without the money to pay for them.”

Related: Democrats Grow Wary as Health Bill Advances.

HMM: 2010: A new space odyssey beckons: The world is on the verge of new manned exploration of the solar system – and, this time, environmentalists are backing it.

James Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia theory, said: “I strongly support space travel. The whole notion of Gaia came out of space travel. It seems to me any environmentalist who opposes space travel has no imagination whatever. That gorgeous, inspirational image of the globe that we are now so familiar with came out of space travel. That image has perhaps been of the greatest value to the environmental movement. It gave me a great impetus.

“There are the unmanned spacecraft, which are relatively inexpensive, that I certainly think should continue. The more we know about Mars, for example, the better we can understand our own planet. The second sort, the more personally adventurous sort of travel, offers great inspiration to humans. And, were it not for space travel we’d have no mobile phones, no internet, no weather forecasts of the sort we have now and so on. There’s a lot of puritanical silliness about it.”

Less puritanical silliness, please.

IT’S EDUCATIONAL: They carry guns.

MASSACHUSETTS HEALTH PLAN PUSHES FOR CAPITATION. Megan McArdle comments: “Capitation looks attractive, because it discourages doctors and hospitals from doing too much. But, as with all good things in life, it has a few downsides.”