Science And Society

Do I Smell A Class-Action Lawsuit?

To how many other people has Verizon been quoting their rates as 0.002 cents, when they meant $0.002? And of course, the stupefyingly defiant ignorance of basic mathematics is indeed frightening.

Via emailer Erik Max Francis, who notes:

Here’s the full customer service call recording on YouTube (which is long enough to get tedious but here it is for reference):

But here’s a YTMND entry that chops it up and only gets the juiciest bits (and despite most YTMNDs, isn’t obnoxiously flashy and annoying):

What’s interesting to me as a crank-watcher is how many people in the comments in the various blogs and places it comes up (like dogg.com and rec.gambling.poker) are actually siding with Verizon …

Space

Word To The Wise For The Launch

We’re not going up to see the launch tonight, because the probability is still only about 30%, last I heard, and we have to go to a company Christmas party down in Miami. But if anyone is planning to drive over there, don’t expect to go in to Titusville:

Normally considered a great place to watch a launch, the main thoroughfare through the town will be closed in both directions this evening for the city’s Annual Christmas Parade. Motorists should expect significant delays.

War Commentary

Our Friends The Syrians

Victor Davis Hanson:

Does anyone really believe that Syria and Iran, at least in the short-term, abhor chaos in Iraq? Iran fought a long war with Iraq, and fears deeply American scrutiny of its nuclear program. Only a perceived mess in Iraq keeps the attention of the United States and, indeed, the world community away from Teheran. Ditto Syria that does not want more Cedar Revolutions on its borders, given that democracies or the efforts at such in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey now surround this dictatorship.

There were three wars fought to destroy Israel before the Golan Heights were taken. The withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza did not lead to commensurate moderation on the part of the Islamists or dictators. And if the Study Group believes that Israeli concessions will result in Syria and Iran

War Commentary

The Myth Of Disengagement

Joel Himelfarb points out that we are talking to Iran and Syria, and have been throughout. We’re just not doing it the way they want us to:

The real issue today is that the Bush administration, which has been repeatedly burned in recent years when it tried to engage these governments, prefers discretion and holding lower-level talks. These regimes insist on holding well-publicized summits that yield them P.R. windfalls without forcing them to substantively change their policies.

They’ve got the speaking softly part down, but I don’t know if they have a stick of any size. And I agree with this wholeheartedly:

Based on the historical record, the advocates of U.S. engagement with these regimes are delusional. The record, from Carter to Bush II, strongly suggests that neither regime has any interest in cooperating with us in Iraq, and are more likely than not to view the Carter-Brzezinski-Hagel approach as a demonstration of American weakness.

Political Commentary

Now That Was A UN Ambassador

Jeanne Kirkpatrick has apparently died. No details.

She was eighty years old (not unusually old these days). I hadn’t heard that she was sick, but then, I hadn’t heard much about her at all in a long time, so maybe the fact that she was sick was why she wasn’t making much news.

Whenever Clinton defenders made the idiotic argument that conservatives didn’t like Hillary because they didn’t like strong women, she and Maggie Thatcher were always the two obvious rejoinders.

Like Oriana Fallaci, requiescat in pace to another fierce lioness.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s a memoriam from AEI.

[Update a few minutes later]

From her speech at the 1984 Republican Convention, about the time she changed parties:

They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do – they didn’t blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead.

But then, somehow, they always blame America first.

When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the “blame America first crowd” didn’t blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn’t blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don’t blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.

But then, they always blame America first.

And over two decades later, they still do.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!