Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Santa Claus

5 Comments

Goes to rehab:

Shock horror! Guilty as charged! Santa Claus smokes! He also breaks and enters, travels without a passport, violates the terms of goodness knows how many countries’ airspace, and doesn’t pay taxes. He is overweight and he has little plan to do much about it. He’s a terrible drunk, at least in Britain and Australia, where he is left sherry; and in Ireland, where he is traditionally provided with beer. He fails on the diversity and equal-protection fronts, too. His name, “Santa Claus,” comes from the Christian tradition, and yet he presumes imperiously to shower gifts on all the world’s children. Well, actually not all of them. Being a dastardly Manichean sort, Santa divides children into “naughty” and “nice” categories and allocates their gifts accordingly. Moreover, his offerings are desperately unequal: Some children get more and nicer gifts than others. In some households, parents do not receive any at all.

Really, he should be locked up.

Business, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Heresy

Lileks goes to Universal:

And then. Oh. My. And then you are suspended in the largest open space you can possibly imagine, flying. Over a forest. Under a bridge. The wind is in your face and you cannot see yourself attached to anything and the disorientation is utter and complete. I thought: well, this is everything I hate, isn’t it? So enjoy.

It was nothing I would ever willingly do, and it was spectacular. My God – you crashed through roofs, were spat upon by spiders, blasted by a dragon, something big like the limbs of a tree reached for you, and the spectacles moved with such speed it was difficult to discern the real from the filmed. By the end I’d given myself over completely to the experience, and was flying over the water to the very castle I’d entered an hour before, and it was the most utterly exhilarating thing I’d never really done.

There’s more.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Motherhood

23 Comments

Here’s an interesting commentary by Scott Pace and…Eric Anderson. I would have thought that an unlikely combination. Note the lack of specifics, including a monster rocket. Which is a good thing, I guess. It’s basically just “Obama’s space policy sux, and Romney’s will be great.” I’m thinking it’s not likely to move anyone’s vote.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s the counterpoint lauding Obama’s policy. I have to say that I agree with the criticism of Romney. If I were a single-issue voter on space, I’d vote for Obama, except for the fact that his general economic policies are harmful for small business and startups, which would make it harder to develop a privatized industry.

Business, Economics, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Economic Brilliance

26 Comments

…of Obama supporters:

Let’s say that you have the ability to print your currency using your computer printer, and every merchant accepted your printouts as a valid exchange for goods and services. You need to pick up your dry cleaning? You printout a $20 bill and your cleaners hand over your garments without question. Same would be true for your mortgage, groceries, car note, etc. Your creditors even accept your printouts as payment on your debts.

Given this, how can you ever be broke? Answer, you cannot be broke. The U.S. government is not in debt simply because it can create currency to pay off the debt, and our creditors gladly accept our currency as payment on our debts. You see, the world needs our dollars because the world needs oil, and in order to buy oil, you need dollars, which means that the world needs to stockpile dollars, and that means that the U.S. can print all of the money that it wants without incurring massive hikes in interest rates to attract lenders.

This person is serious.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!