This is a couple weeks old, but I don’t think I linked it at the time, and it’s well worth a read, from Sarah Hoyt.
Gun Control
No, “feel good” remedies won’t solve the problem. As noted over there, an attempt to confiscate Americans’ guns would be tantamount to the government making war on its own people. It would not end well.
[Update a few minutes later]
No, there were not 273 “mass shootings” by any sane definition. There were nine.
Kale
Is eating it raw bad for you? I always cook it, but now I’m starting to get concerned about other cruciferous veggies. Is cole slaw a problem?
Why We Must Go To The Stars
Thoughts from Sarah Hoyt. Yes, some empires gave colonialism a bad name, but as she says, all life does it.
BFR
Gwynne apparently had some interesting things to say about the plans. They’re going to (as some have surmised) built a production facility at LA Harbor, because transportation from Hawthorne would be too unwieldy. And it also makes sense that they’d use Bolsca Chica as the first launch site. Particularly if they use an off-shore platform that won’t require solidifying the soil at the launch site. Haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure it will easily fit through the Canal.
[Update a while later]
Meanwhile, in China, a private (?!) company wants to copycat them. I take this more seriously than the government program.
Hearts
…can now survive outside the human body. Of course, this doesn’t solve the problem of where to get the hearts. We need to be able to grow them.
Faster, please.
The Blockchain
What life might be like on it.
Not sure this was the 21st century I was looking forward to.
MGM Resorts
The first lawsuit has been filed against them for the Vegas shooting. There will be more, and they’ll have to settle. Three days of “Do Not Disturb” and no attention paid to all that luggage going in and none coming out does appear to me to be negligent. Particularly since it seems to have been a comped room. I think the real lesson here isn’t about gun control, but better security in high locations near entertainment and event venues.
[Friday-afternoon update]
Karl Denninger is unhappy and unimpressed with the Vegas authorities. To put it mildly.
Harvey Weinstein Destroyed Hollywood
What does this all mean? Hollywood is worse than you thought it was, even than I thought it was. And I worked there for years, observing things close up. These people — led by Weinstein as the local Henry VIII, now decamped for Europe for an Anthony Weiner-style rehab — have solidified themselves as some of the biggest hypocritical fakes in recorded history, deceiving themselves even more, if that’s possible, than they deceive the rest of us.
Can you imagine how it’s going to be watching this year’s Oscars as they coop up awards while making political pronouncements on whatever cause strikes their superficially conventional (but personally sick) fancies, especially if those causes express veiled contempt for the morals of those clods in flyover country who are supposed to be their audience?
Speaking as a member of the Academy since the 1980s, I won’t be watching. It’s over for me, especially since Joan Rivers is no longer with us to lend a certain amused cynicism to the vulgar orgy of self-congratulation. And I suspect I won’t be alone. Hollywood has become the new NFL. People will soon be turning it off.
As he says it’s an opportunity for conservative investors. Which they’ll miss.
[Thursday-morning update]
More thoughts from Allahpundit:
Middle America has always suspected the movie industry of being a den of perverts, cutthroats, and sociopaths. Now here’s Weinstein apparently proving it’s worse than everyone thought. And as more comes out on others, it may get worse still.
Yep.