Has James Cameron started one?
You Want Torture?
This is torture.
[Wednesday morning update]
Jack Cafferty isn’t a big fan.
As Wolf says, tell us how you really feel about her.
Yo, Comments Spammers
If you’re going to try to slip through a generic comments post saying that “I never expected to see this on a Friday night,” or “Wednesday,” it would behoove you to actually post it at the time that you didn’t expect to see it. Not that the very premise isn’t stupid.
I mean, what does the day (or night) of the week have to to with the contents of the post?
Idiots.
Thankfully, it makes filtering the morons easier.
A Golden Oldie
What with the overblown Harry Reid thing (Democrats are hyper race conscious? I’m shocked, shocked), I thought I’d replay a little spoof I wrote back in the Trent Lott days.
And for the record, yes, I do think that what Lott said was worse than what Reid did. Of course, I saw it as a good excuse to get rid of a dud of a majority leader. And I want Reid to stay and continue to do damage to his party, to ultimately minimize the damage that it does to the country.
The Proersecution Continues
Apparently frustrated with the light sentence on the first conviction, the federal prosecutor has indicted Courtney Stadd on new charges.
Resurrection
Lee Valentine is reactivating the moribund Space Studies Institute, recently moved from its original home in Princeton to Mojave. I wonder where the conference will be this fall? All previous ones have been in Princeton (and have always been known as the “Princeton Conferences”).
Logical Fallacy
In a review of a movie trailer (and a forties movie reviewer) by Lileks:
Let me just go on record as believing that it is not a good or necessary thing to make comedic action movies about 12-year-old girls who shoot people in the head. Because this is what I think of when I read a quote about the loss of dignity and importance – the way a culture, not individuals, loses its sense of dignity and importance by finding opportunities to leach the innocence from anything previously regarded as sacrosanct.
The comments on the HotAir thread are full of the usual scoff-talk – why, comics were once considered corrupting to children! Elvis was forbidden to be seen from the waist down! Piano legs were covered by Victorians! Christians chopped peeners off Roman statues! and so on. If there was once a standard now seen as silly and puritanical, it must mean our current standards are the same.
This is the same fallacy as that engaged by someone who, in response to a critique of his loony ideas cries, “They laughed at Einstein, too!” To which the rational rejoinder is, “They also laughed at Soupy Sales.” It’s an unjustified extrapolation, and a more robust defense is required.
Diversity-Driven Disasters
I blame that progressive, George Bush.
Really. I think that the Mineta nomination and retention was one of the stupidest (among many) things that he did.
The problem is, of course, that the alternatives (Gore or Kerry) would have been even worse. And at least he tried to rein in Fannie and Freddie, against the successful opposition of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
Almost Home
I’ve been driving all day, but am taking a break for the final leg. We’re climbing up the Cajon Pass from Victorville, and are on the home stretch. And I’m using my new Verizon AirCard, which works great here, but there was no signal in the outback of Utah.
Double Standard Alert
He’s right:
If Romney had used the phrases “light-skinned” and “Negro dialect” his religion and his religion’s history in this matter would have been noted high up in every story.
But Romney is a Republican. It’s only Republican Mormons who are evil.
Really, Reid and Pelosi are embarrassments. I’m glad that they’ve become the public face of the Dems in Congress. Long may they reign, until November. Hang in there, Harry.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Gee, the Black Congressional Caucus is totally down with the “light-skinned Negro” thing. Who would have thought?
[Evening update]
Here’s a handy flow chart to parse and analyze pseudo-offensive racial (and sexual, and gender) statements.
[Monday morning update]
Can someone please explain to me exactly what it was that was so offensive about what Harry Reid said? At least to Barack Obama? Because I’m not getting it. If he owes anyone an apology, it’s the American voters that he slandered and implied were racists. Forgiveness from the president is meaningless.
[Update a few minutes later]
I agree with Roger Simon. Reid isn’t a racist — he’s a hack. And a fool.