Eric Berger has the latest.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Hitler And Weinstein
As far as I can tell, Hitler hasn’t found out about Weinstein yet. Let’s try a little crowdsourcing to do the video. I’ll kick it off.
At the beginning, they’re talking about how the war against Trump is going, but they’re having problems raising enough campaign funds. Hitler tells then not to worry, Weinstein will come through after his next blockbuster film. They have to tell him that Weinstein has stepped down after being accused of sexual harassment and assault. So who does he ask to step out of the room for the rant?
In the scene where the one woman is comforting another, she can say something like “Don’t worry, there are still plenty of casting-couch scumbags in Hollywood who will give you a part. You might not even have to watch them shower or take in the @ss.”
[Wednesday-morning update]
OK, this is sort of what I had in mind, but I think there are other possible variants.
Trump And Obama
I’m thinking about writing a long piece about how similar they are in many ways. I’ve started a list:
Reverse midas touch
Die-hard cultish base
Big in pop culture
Inarticulate foot-in-mouth off prompter
Indifference/hostility to Constitution
Charismatic to Selective audience (related to cult above)
Reckless disregard for the truth
Travel expenses
Dunning-Kruger
Despised by members of his own party
Any others?
[Wednesday-afternoon update]
Here’s another one: They both waged war on the media, though different media (Obama’s main target was Fox News).
How Much Will BFR Cost?
Sam Dinkin runs the numbers. Looks about right to me. People really don’t appreciate how little of the cost of a launch is propellant, and once we fix that, how much we can reduce it.
The Risk Of Spaceflight
A few months ago I did a phone interview with Sarah Scoles. She finally wrote the piece based in part on it, over at The Atlantic. (Note, Apollo 1 astros died of asphyxiation, not from the fire itself, Columbia happened 17 years after Challenger, not 36, and it was the co-pilot who died on the VG test flight. I’ll blame her editor, since she clearly gets the last two right later in the piece. I assume they’ll fix it at least on line.)
The Collapse Of Cubism
This is from last week, but Lileks nicely filets, in his own inimitable fashion, some absurd social commentary on delivered unprepared meals.
Bump Stocks
They’re not worth banning, but no one really cares about them that much:
Bump stocks, says Mr. Valone, “are an amusement, because they don’t under normal circumstances turn an AR-15 or another rifle into a killing machine, because you can’t hit anything with it. Only when you are presented 400 yards away with a field of uninterrupted humanity would something like that even be effective.”
Hard cases make for bad law.
Must Pack Heat
A lot of idiots claim that the NRA wants everyone to be armed. They’ve never advocated that, as far as I know, but there is a case to be made for it.
[Update a while later]
It’s not new, but Glenn Reynolds co-wrote a paper on this a while ago.
Bonobos
Everything you know about them is wrong.
This reminds me of how the Samoans created a lot of cultural mythology by pulling Margaret Mead’s leg.
Gun Control
A message to the Left: Six reasons your “right-wing” friends aren’t coming around to your “arguments.”