Category Archives: Media Criticism

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Clinton Foundation And Hillary

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Yes, she’s very likely guilty of the bribery statutes.

But as Professor Foley notes, don’t expect Clinton-appointed prosecutors to do anything about it. We’re turning into a banana republic without the bananas.

[Sunday-morning update]

The Clintons’ favorite way of lying:

I need not dwell on the implausibility of roving bands of ninja-like naughty toddlers — or lone-wolf munchkins — breaking into nice homes to scribble on the upstairs walls and then depart leaving no other trace of their schemes. I simply bring this up to say that my daughter’s “a bad girl did it” gambit is a wildly more powerful and resolute claim of innocence than “you have no smoking gun.”

Yes. “You can’t prove it, copper” isn’t much of a defense in the face of the obvious, but the media continues to perversely admire them for how adroitly they can get away with corruption and lies. In a way, of course, they never would if the Clintons were Republicans.

[Bumped]

[Update a couple minutes later]

I should note, as a bonus, there is more disquisition on the merits of a President SMOD over a President Cthulthu at that last link. Including arguments over electability:

For starters, Cthulhu will never get the Evangelical vote. As a demonic beast who claims, if not sovereignty over, then at least co-equal status with the Almighty, Biblical conservatives will never pull a lever for some squid-faced Baal-wannabe. I can see Ralph Reed’s attack ads now.

Indeed.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

My New Kickstarter

17 Comments

I’m having trouble uploading the video to the Kickstarter page (they’re figuring out what the problem is, hopefully), but meanwhile, here’s a higher-quality version of it on Youtube. I’m not thrilled with audio quality (it sounds sort of like I’m in an echoey lecture hall), but I don’t have a sound studio, just a Sennheiser headset.

[Update a few minutes later]

Oops. Just noticed, it looks like I lost the end credits. Have to look into what happened there.

[Update a while later]

For some reason, I hadn’t included the final credits in the build. Here’s the new version.

[Update a while later]

Sorry transitions are so choppy. I’m sure it has something to do with Youtube’s post-processing.

[Monday-morning update]

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

Medical Health Records

8 Comments

Another ObamaCare failure:

Let’s force doctors to spend a lot of money to become technology dependent and adopt electronic health records when the old way of doing things was working just fine. And hey–as a bonus, our health information is now more vulnerable to hacking and we can lose some privacy along the way! Electronic health records haven’t saved a single life or a single dollar, but they have created a lot of expense, confusion, and tremendous demoralization for our health care providers. It wasn’t broken, and it shouldn’t have been “fixed.” If the Republican Congress was smart, it would repeal this onerous, useless provision of Obamacare.

There are a lot of things the Republicans would do if they were smart. On the other hand, I can understand why they don’t want to repeal this abomination piece meal. They need to scrap the whole thing and start over, but it won’t happen until we get someone in the White House who actually understands markets and actually gives a damn about others.

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

One More Chance For Justice At The IRS

4 Comments

The House has sent a letter to the new Attorney General:

Specifically, the committee provided documents that show three acts by Ms. Lerner that may have violated criminal statutes. One, she helped to target only conservative organizations, thereby robbing them of equal protection and due process. Two, she may have impeded the Treasury inspector general’s investigation of the matter by giving misleading statements. Three, she risked exposing (and may have exposed) confidential taxpayer information by using her personal email address to conduct official business.

And that’s only what we know so far. Congress’s problem is that the IRS has stonewalled it at every turn. The Treasury inspector general, J. Russell George, has become tentative after all the Democratic criticism of his probe. It seems the Justice Department is the only body with the powers to shake loose some answers about what happened.

The Ryan letter asks Ms. Lynch to tell him the status of that referral, and Speaker Boehner chimed in with a statement calling for the new attorney general to prove to Americans that “justice will be served.”

Ms. Lynch’s response will be enormously telling about her view of her job.

It will. But don’t hold your breath.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Bernie Sanders’ Rape Fantasies

3 Comments

Some thoughts from Ace:

I think it’s pretty stupid to demagogue people over statements like this, honestly. I know where Sanders go this from: He got it from Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, supposedly a book containing all of women’s private fantasies (she says she surveyed women), and rape was indeed a major part of the female sexual imagination, she was surprised to find. (Psychologically, it has been explained to me that women feel guilty about sex, but still enjoy sex; the fantasy of being under someone else’s sexual control allows the woman, in fantasy, to enjoy sex, because she’s not making any of the decisions that she would otherwise feel guilty about.)

I don’t know if I buy any of that; I’m just remarking that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this.

I do know that if I wrote that paragraph not in response to Bernie Sanders, there’s a pretty good chance that the left would demagogue me and Speechcraft Trial me as a Thought Rapist.

And that’s why we must do the same to Bernie Sanders, and make him defend these So Problematic You Guys words.

The left has drawn us all into its insecure, neurotic, grasping, wanting, stupid, paranoid darkness. They have effectively criminalized it to say anything other than “Women are just terrific” and “everything is awesome!”

They are broken, warped people inflicting their psychic tumult on the rest of society.

Yes, tit for tat is exactly the right strategy. Except maybe we need to (in someone’s words) punch back twice as hard. But they won’t stop this Alinskyite BS until it causes them sufficient pain.

Economics, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Space History, Technology and Society

The Rashomon Of Apollo And Shuttle

13 Comments

Stephen Smith has a lengthy review of John Logsdon’s latest book.

As he notes, the dual myths of Kennedy as space visionary and Nixon as space villain don’t stand up to any sort of realistic historical scrutiny. In fact, with Apollo, Kennedy set us up for decades of failure, in terms of making spaceflight economically realistic.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Global Cooling

6 Comments

A study predicts decades of it ahead.

Cold is much more deadly than heat, by an order of magnitude.

I have no more confidence in this prediction than I do of predictions for warming (and particularly predictions of catastrophic climate change). The lesson is a) the climate can always be counted on to change, b) we don’t really know what the future holds for climate, c) we need to be prepared for anything, which means maximizing economic growth and d) (related) we need to stop fantasizing that carbon dioxide is a magical climate-control knob.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

“To My Liberal Jewish Friends”

2 Comments

An open letter:

The president’s sophistry demonstrates a simple but profound truth: his commitment to the progressive values of tikkun olam is governed by its own “red lines,” and is entirely utilitarian. Which again raises the question: what was his purpose in stressing this shared progressive commitment in his address to you, and what was his purpose in subtly reminding you of the costs of failing to abide by its terms?

The answer, I hope, is obvious. On June 30, Obama will likely conclude a nuclear deal with Iran. This will spark a faceoff with Congress, which has already declared its opposition to the deal. Congress will inevitably pass a vote of disapproval, which Obama will inevitably veto. In order to defend that veto from a congressional override, however, he must line up 34 Senators—all Democrats. This calls in turn for a preemptive ideological campaign to foster liberal solidarity—for which your support is key. If the president can convince the liberal Jewish community, on the basis of “shared values,” to shun any suspicion of alignment with congressional Republicans or Benjamin Netanyahu, he will have an easier time batting down Congress’s opposition to the deal with Iran.

Progressive values have nothing to do with what is truly at stake in this moment of decision. Only one final question really matters: in your considered view, should the Islamic Republic of Iran be the dominant power in the Middle East, and should we be helping it to become that power? If your answer is yes, then, by all means, continue to applaud the president—loudly and enthusiastically—as he purports to repair the world.

He was really speaking for President Jarrett, I think.