Category Archives: Political Commentary

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, War Commentary

Our Moral Betters In The NBA

10 Comments

But I’m dubious about this: “The thing is, LeBron, we’ve come to expect more of you. You’re obviously an intelligent person, a compassionate person and a socially conscious person. At this point in your life and career, it’s part of your brand.”

I don’t have much experience with Mr. James, hating the sport that he plays as I do, but it is not at all obvious to me that he’s an intelligent person. I don’t think he’s getting the big bucks for his brain.

[Update a while later]

[Mid-morning update]

[Afternoon update]

Yes, Mr. James, all you had to say was that “America is a free country.” But you’re a dumb ass.

[Update a while later]

Treacher: Why should I care what he thinks about China, or anything?

History, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The War In The Middle East

6 Comments

…remains undeclared.

We haven’t declared war on anyone in almost eight decades, but we’ve been in almost continual fights, and lost thousands of troops. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a voting issue for Congress. As Stephen Green says, the main two terrible things we did after 911, were the authorization of military force, and the Patriot Act. And it seems that Westphalia is dead.

[Update a few minutes later]

An interesting take on what’s going on in Syria.

It will be ironic if the Kurds finally end up with a homeland after all this.

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

California’s Planned Blackouts

25 Comments

Jim Meigs explains.

I just read that they’re cutting power to the Berkeley campus, which could be a disaster for researchers who need to keep things in the fridge, if they don’t have backup generators.

And you know what isn’t the problem? Climate change. Or at least not anthropogenic climate change. Drought is the natural state of affairs for the place. The 20th century was unusually wet, and a lot of policy decisions were made on the assumption that this was a normal state of affairs.

We’re on So Cal Edison, not PG&E, but we’ve heard that SCE might be planning the same thing. Unclear if we’ll be affected if they do.

[Update Saturday morning]

Californians learn that solar panels don’t work during power blackouts. More policy idiocy, and they’re compounding it by requiring every new home to have them. I can’t believe the state I’ve lived in for four decades, with such an innovative history, has become so effing stupid.

[Bumped]