No, like Al Gore, it did not create the Internet. It didn’t even create Facebook.
From Brain Waves
…to synthesized speech. This could be a huge breakthrough for people locked in (one of my personal nightmares).
Colorado
Why would any state want the rest of the country to determine its electoral votes? Why even have states (which, like the Electoral College, the Left hates, at least when they lose). Sadly, this insanity is probably Constitutional, but the Founders would weep.
A Third Of A Century
Today is my birthday, which also means that it’s the anniversary of the loss of the Challenger and its crew (and the beginning of the long drawn-out end of the Shuttle program). Hard to believe it’s been that long.
Light And Scattered Blogging
We’re closing on the house (just signed yesterday, and should get funds next week) and Monday’s my birthday (and the 33rd anniversary of the Challenger loss), so we’re splurging on a trip to Vegas this weekend. Be good in comments.
Climate Models
When are they useful?
Venezuela
So God was Venezuelan. But the ruling class became corrupt, and wrecked the place. This was part of a disappointing global pattern, as many social democrats, many of whom had been active in the late Cold War fight against Communism, were corrupted, both in Latin America and Europe. The list of such leaders includes Nicaragua’s Carlos Andres Perez and European socialist anti-Communists such as Mario Soares (Portugal), Felipe Gonzalez (Spain), and Bettino Craxi (Italy), as well as Czech followers of Vaclav Havel.
Most of those countries have long since voted out the corrupt governments with which they were afflicted, but Venezuelans were not so fortunate. Not only was the economy ruined, but their rulers joined the ranks of a world-wide alliance aimed against the United States, Israel, and the West European democracies. Just look at the global lineup for and against Maduro today, and you can see it, just as General Mike Flynn and I wrote in our best-seller, The Field of Fight. Here is Maduro’s team: Cuba, Turkey, Russia, Iran, China, Nicaragua, and Hezbollah, Iran’s terror proxy. One will get you ten that North Korea is in there too.
That is the correct way to look at the turmoil in Venezuela. It isn’t just an internal affair; it’s part of a world war. You have surely noticed the reports of aircraft arriving in Caracas from Russia and other friendly countries. And you can bet that the Iranians and Russians are telling Maduro how to cope. You know what they’re saying: kill the ringleaders and arrest everyone else.
Yes, the war against communism never really ended with the fall of the wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It just took on a new form. And now much (more) of the Democrat Party are on the other side.
[Saturday-morning update]
The Covington Pile On
This is how the Left destroys itself. I’d sure like to think so.
Via David Bernstein, who notes:
Conor asks why so many on the left get caught up in politically counter-productive overreaction to the Covington kid. A lot of it is revenge fantasy against some obnoxious jerk from middle or high school. The “smirking” Covington kid (or Brett Kavanaugh before him) becomes a stand-in for the hated adolescent alpha, who probably was as bad as they remember. They couldn’t retaliate properly then, so they publicly join a twitter mob that fantasizes about committing violence, while engaging in doxxing designed to effectuate it. Of course, Nick Sandmann was not actually one’s high school tormentor, and getting caught up in this sort of psychological drama is a good way to alienate those who notice the gap between the vitriol and the evidence purportedly justifying it.
It was pretty obvious to me.
[Friday-morning update]
Treacher: “I’m about ready to buy a MAGA hat just to spite these child-hating A-holes.”
[Bumped]
[Update a couple minutes later]
The politics of aggressively standing. Yes, there is nothing he could have done to avoid criticism. Because hat.
[Saturday-morning update, before we head to Vegas]
The Left’s culture of hate. It’s not accidental. And this is why the Founders distrusted democracy. And rightly so.
[Update a while later]
Long term, how do we live with these human dumpster fires?
while SOME liberals did at least admit that they got the story wrong, most of them doubled down and continued portraying an innocent 17-year-old kid as a racist and a Nazi. When the pushback on that came, the basic response came down to, “He’s a smiling white kid wearing a MAGA hat, therefore he deserves everything he gets.”
It would be nice to make it into a joke by calling it what it really is, a “hat crime,” but it’s not funny. If you’re willing to falsely brand a kid as a racist, a Nazi, and a horrible person because he stood there and smiled while some weirdo beat a drum in his face, where do we go from there? Do we declare every person who wore an “I’m With Her” shirt to be a pedophile? If Joe Biden wins the Democratic nomination in 2020, is it acceptable to try to destroy the lives of random liberal teenagers for wearing “I’m With Joe” shirts?
This is the world liberals are dragging us into with their myopic vision, unquenchable hatred for people who disagree with them, and their raging intolerance. Is this good for the country? No way. Will it produce a better America? No. Is it entirely possible that this sort of thinking could lead to increasing amounts of political violence? Absolutely, because you can’t live in harmony with people who think there’s no punishment too great for people who wear hats designed to support their political opponents. We keep hoping against hope that saner heads will eventually prevail on the Left, but so far voices of sanity are few and far between.
Yes.
Judging You By Your Drink Order
Not sure I care what the bartender thinks of me, but I’ve never ordered any of these, except a mojito once, when out with friends in Puerto Rico, in a place where they were the specialty. Not sure I understand why craft beer is on the list, though. I’ve certainly never ordered a light beer; what a waste of money.
Climate And Natural Disasters
Note that despite the phrase “climate-influenced natural disasters,” this article at SciAm doesn’t actually provide any evidence of it.