What does Battlestar Galactica get right?
[Update a couple minutes later]
I liked this:
FP: And the worst shows for realistic space warfare?
CW: There are so many that are so bad. Star Wars is probably the worst.
I know that’s heresy for a certain generation.
Stephen Green says there is one.
The flag is not a prayer rug.
I hope that the president shows the country what I’ve been seeing for four years:
The president will allegedly be subject to time limits on Wednesday night, but his contempt for most such rules almost guarantees he will blow through every limit and dare the moderator or Mitt Romney to challenge him.
If either does, we will be treated to “tell No. 4,” the president’s feigned outrage that anyone would interrupt or question him. When this happens, his countenance displays a disapproving sneer and his voice clouds with displeasure. It is practiced. It is also profoundly anti-democratic and arrogant, and if he plays this card on this stage, it will backfire.
Watch as well for nonresponsive self-pity, verbal essays on how difficult it was when he took over and how hard he has been working. Self-pity and self-regard are not designed to endear him to the unemployed or even the economically fragile, so he will be coached to try to avoid displaying his sense of outrage at being thought a failure or “in over his head,” but the president’s sense of his own immensity is so great as to blow past such base political calculations.
Finally, watch for the parade of straw men, the president’s favorite rhetorical trick. He will set up arguments that have never been made in the service of Republican goals that have never existed, and then he will denounce both. If the appearance of a straw man serves as a trigger in a drinking game, many bottles will empty by the end of Debate No. 1.
And Romney should call him on them, just as Ryan did the other day. It’s very easy to get under this guy’s skin, and he ought to do it all night.
…why does the media act like he’s already president?
And if Obama is cruising to victory, as all of the bien pensant insist, then what’s he doing in Madison, Wisconsin?
…and her space fantasy.
Will he give the election to Obama?
Not if there are a lot of other people who think like Conor Friedersdorf. I’ve always thought that he’d be likely to pick up as many, or more disillusioned Democrats as Republicans, or even libertarians.
In this economy, I wonder how many people aren’t answering calls from pollsters because they’re afraid that the calls are from creditors? And how that demographic would skew?
…by progressives.
Government contractors have similar problems.
Chris Stevens is dead, Al Qaeda is alive.
[Update a few minutes later]
Surprise! The Nobel Peace Prize winner has not earned his award.
[Update a while later]
Dispatches from the war that nobody wants:
As everybody knows, there is no such thing as a global war on terror anymore. Instead we live in a harmonious world of interfaith comity with only the occasional criminal act that is quickly and competently handled by law enforcement officials. As a result we can cut our defense budgets and get on with the real business of life, which is to say watching TV, going to the mall and voting to re-elect the strategic geniuses whose wise decisions and firm but thoughtful leadership gave us this tranquil world order.
As we celebrate this new age of peace, understanding and joy, here are a few stories that might matter if we didn’t have such a wise and level-headed government in Washington that was bent on soothing and quieting what might otherwise be an aroused and worried public opinion.
Unfortunately, it’s not true that nobody wants it. The enemy does. They know that you can’t win if you don’t fight.