Apple says never worked with NSA on iPhone hacks | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Apple Inc has never worked with the U.S. National Security Agency and is unaware of efforts to target its smartphones, the company said in response to reports that the spy agency had developed a system to hack into and monitor iPhones. Germany's Der Spiegel reported this week that a secretive unit of the NSA, which is under fire for the extent and depth of its spying programs around the world, makes specialized gear and software to infiltrate and monitor a plethora of computing devices, including mobile phones."Yeah, that's the ticket! Read More......
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Apple: We Just Make Crappy Software
Happy Weimar!
‘Looks Like Weimar Germany’: The Viral Photo Out of Connecticut That’s Giving Some Gun Owners Chills | TheBlaze.com: "Connecticut gun owners are rushing to register certain firearms and ammunition that will be considered illegal contraband in the new year. Under a wide-ranging gun control law passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, they have until Tuesday to submit the paperwork with the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. “Holy crap. Looks like Weimar Germany,” Twitter user @votermom said of the photo."
Monday, December 30, 2013
Spot The Dictator
Spot The Dictator | Zero Hedge: "The following brilliant collage of actual photos put together by Frank Schallmaier at the Dutch Volkskrant, shows two things: a narcissistic, megalomanical, self-absorbed supreme ruler of a socialist paradise and another guy who apparently has an identical taste in propaganda pics."
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Barry Christmas
Moonbattery » Open Thread: "Via LMAObama.com and Infidel Bloggers Alliance, on a tip from R F."
Permanent Access
NSA can reportedly bug computer equipment before it reaches buyers: "Don't think that the NSA always has to wait until people are using technology to start snooping on it. Spiegel has obtained documents which claim that the agency's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) group can intercept computer equipment orders and install tracking hardware or software before the shipments even reach their buyers. The division can target a wide array of hardware, too. Another NSA section, ANT, reportedly has a catalog of tools that can install back doors in everything from Cisco and Huawei network systems through to hard drives from most major manufacturers, including Seagate and Western Digital. Some of these bugs can give the NSA "permanent" access, since they're designed to persist if the owner wipes a device's storage or upgrades its firmware. The leak suggests that the targeted manufacturers aren't aware of what's happening; Cisco and other firms tell Spiegel they don't coordinate with the NSA."Read More......
Friday, December 27, 2013
The Speech Police
Ace of Spades HQ: "Our current social understanding of free speech is this: You can speak your mind freely if you have a large enough army of supporters to pressure a company into resisting pressure from a large army of Speech Police.Read More......
This is not free speech. This is free speech as an exceptional thing -- only for those with a wide, passionate following -- not as a routine thing.
A&E is a cowardly organization. First it puts Robertson on "indefinite hiatus" under pressure from one group of people, then it puts him back on the air because they've been pressured by a somewhat larger group of people.
At no point did they trip over anything resembling a general principle of speech free from "consequences" of broad application."
Not So Hot At 45
Students put AccuWeather long-range forecasts to the test: "Though these results are based on a limited dataset that spanned only one season (essentially, meteorological autumn) and only maximum temperatures were considered, they are remarkably consistent with the experience of seasoned mid-latitude forecasters: Beyond about 10 days, climatology (on average) is as good as, if not better than, any deterministic forecast."
But don't worry your pretty head now, their 100 year forecasts are worth betting trillions on! (H/T Joel at OpenSnow) Read More......
The Tyranny Problem
Moonbattery » 2013: Best and Bleakest: "Because many of us make mistakes that can have bad consequences, some intellectuals believe that it is the role of government to intervene and make some of our decisions for us. From what galaxy government is going to hire creatures who do not make mistakes is a question they leave unanswered. — Thomas SowellRead More......
This country has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem and a tyranny problem disguised as a security problem. — Joe Rogan
Republicans spent a lot of time whining that, if Obama was prepared to negotiate with the Iranians, the Syrians, and the Russians, why wouldn’t he negotiate with the GOP? Well, the obvious answer is Rouhani, Assad, and Putin don’t curl up in a fetal position at the first tut-tut from Bob Schieffer or Diane Sawyer. — Mark Steyn"
Checked, And Way Too Good
Instapundit » Blog Archive » IT’S FUNNY WHEN STEREOTYPES SELF-CONFIRM: Obamacare’s Pajama Boy: ‘I am a liberal f***.’ “…: "IT’S FUNNY WHEN STEREOTYPES SELF-CONFIRM: Obamacare’s Pajama Boy: ‘I am a liberal f***.’ “A Liberal Fuck is not a Democrat, but rather someone who combines political data and theory, extreme leftist views and sarcasm to win any argument while make [sic] the opponents feel terrible about themselves. I won every argument but one.” Yeah, the one where you showed your face. He also hates “conservative gay pricks.” In other words, he’s pretty much exactly what you figured when you saw his picture. Most self-revelatory remark: “I’m afraid it would be the ultimate surrender if I knew the truth.” Or maybe this one: “We have no morals, and we will attack you.” So he’s ready for his MSNBC co-anchor slot.Read More......
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:36 am"
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Me-Me-Me-Me
Merry belated Me-mas | Power Line: "A.F. Branco posted this seasonal cartoon — “Merry Me-mas” — at Legal Insurrection on December 16, but I didn’t catch up with it until this morning. This one stings. In case you missed it, here it is."
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Merry Christmas to all who are serving and have served our country in the military!
Merry Christmas to all who are serving and have served our country in the military!: "(Thank you to Robert Arvanitis for that wonderful second image.)"I can't top this so here it is:
Monday, December 23, 2013
A Columbia State O Mind
Wonderful things hiding in my inbox: "That the attack on the Robertsons has nothing to do with gay issues and everything to do with their overall politics is nicely illustrated in this poster:"
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Forty One Years Ago ...
... seems like an eternity.
Remastered, Stabilised Apollo 16 Footage Of The Lunar Rover Looks Just Beautiful: "A remastered, stabilised clip of Nasa's Apollo 16 astronauts driving a Lunar Rover on the Moon back in 1972 has brought renewed attention on the fact that, you know, astronauts have driven on the moon. Yes the fact that humans ever landed on the Moon at all is, arguably, cool enough. But it is also true that, while there, we also took some pretty decent video footage. And now it's looking better than ever."
Bah. Just oppressive imperialistic white men. And did you know that in Sweden they are oppressing a different population? Read More......
Manufactured Outrage
Found it on Facebook (actually, found two things on Facebook): "We’ve become a profoundly un-serious nation. It’s one thing to be lighthearted; it’s another thing to be lacking in any ballast. The world burns around us, and we pander to GLAAD’s manufactured outrage."
Trust
Twitter / AHMalcolm: Obama lists all the things ...: "Obama lists all the things he knows nothing about. There've been quite a few."
The Left Ducks
Instapundit » Blog Archive » ADRIENNE ROYER: Why Duck Dynasty Threatens The Left. “The surprise should be how liberals dismisse…: "DECEMBER 21, 2013Read More......
ADRIENNE ROYER: Why Duck Dynasty Threatens The Left. “The surprise should be how liberals dismissed the rise of Duck Dynasty until this fall, when it was too late to stem the show’s popularity. Once it became evident that this family held so much influence, the left suddenly realized they faced the first threat to their decades-long monopoly on popular culture.”"
UPDATE: From the comments: “When Phil Robertson was 50 years old, the Congress and President of the United States signed a law in Defense of Marriage that refused to recognize gay marriage. Now A&E thinks that point of view is so awful that it cannot air someone who agreed with Bill Clinton.” Or Barack Obama, before 2012.
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:54 pm
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Hoo Boy
Ace of Spades HQ: "From RD Brewer at Twitter, it looks like someone ticked off the lighting crew. I don't even care if it's real, it's crafty."
The End of the Beginning
Moonbattery » The End of the Beginning: "Bill Whittle explains why the liberal media that created it will no longer be able to prop up the farcical presidency of Barack Hussein Obama thanks to ObamaCare:"
Everything Must Be Gayed
As a warm up Steyn brings back Bob Hope:
National Review Online | Print: "Here are two jokes one can no longer tell on American television. But you can still find them in the archives, out on the edge of town, in Sub-Basement Level 12 of the ever-expanding Smithsonian Mausoleum of the Unsayable. First, Bob Hope, touring the world in the year or so after the passage of the 1975 Consenting Adult Sex Bill:But then there's this:
“I’ve just flown in from California, where they’ve made homosexuality legal. I thought I’d get out before they make it compulsory.”"
The asphyxiating embrace of ideological conformity was famously captured by Nikolai Krylenko, the People’s Commissar for Justice, in a speech to the Soviet Congress of Chess Players in 1932, at which he attacked the very concept of “the neutrality of chess.” It was necessary for chess to be Sovietized like everything else. “We must organize shock brigades of chess players, and begin immediate realization of a Five-Year Plan for chess,” he declared.The spirit of Ernst Rohm lives on... Read More......
Six years later, the political winds having shifted, Krylenko was executed as an enemy of the people. But his spirit lives on among the Commissars of Gay Compliance at GLAAD. It is not enough to have gay marriage for gays. Everything must be gayed. There must be Five-Year Gay Plans for American bakeries, and the Christian church, and reality TV.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Stalin Smiling
Paglia: Duck Dynasty uproar 'utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist' | The Daily Caller: "Paglia went on to point out that while she is an atheist she respects religion and has been frustrated by the intolerance of gay activists. “I think that this intolerance by gay activists toward the full spectrum of human beliefs is a sign of immaturity, juvenility,” Paglia said. “This is not the mark of a true intellectual life. This is why there is no cultural life now in the U.S. Why nothing is of interest coming from the major media in terms of cultural criticism. Why the graduates of the Ivy League with their A, A, A+ grades are complete cultural illiterates, etc. is because they are not being educated in any way to give respect to opposing view points.” “There is a dialogue going on human civilization, for heaven sakes. It’s not just this monologue coming from fanatics who have displaced the religious beliefs of their parents into a political movement,” she added. “And that is what happened to feminism, and that is what happened to gay activism, a fanaticism.”"Read More......
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Third Amendment Explicated
Moonbattery » Gun Control for Dummies: "Who better than a dummy to put the Second Amendment in the context of the rest of the Bill of Rights in terms even a moonbat could understand?"
Barack Dukakis
Mid-Week in Pictures: The Pajama Game Special Edition | Power Line: "Some things just can’t wait for the weekend. Like Michael Dukakis riding in a tank. Or the PR geniuses behind Obamacare putting out the Pajama Boy ad. Did Christmas get moved up on the calendar, or did we skip straight to April Fool’s Day?"
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
He Can Get Away With Anything Can't He?
Found it on Facebook: Americans and assault weapons: "How blessed to be Obama, when you’re never troubled by your own hypocrisy. As with any good narcissist, it’s always the truth at the moment that you’re saying it:"
Monday, December 16, 2013
Welcome To The Tinfoil Apocalypse (Google Edition)
Instapundit » Blog Archive » TWEET OF THE DAY: Google motto 2004: Don’t be evil Google motto 2010: Evil is tricky to defin…: "DECEMBER 16, 2013The ones they bought look more like Terminator to me... Read More......
TWEET OF THE DAY:Heh. So long as they’re more Bolo than Terminator.
Google motto 2004: Don’t be evil
Google motto 2010: Evil is tricky to define
Google motto 2013: We make military robots
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:16 pm"
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Confidence
Instapundit » Blog Archive » GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Public Confidence in Britain’s NHS At Record Low. “Three damning reports l…: "DECEMBER 15, 2013Did I forget to mention that monopolies -- did I forget to mention that government is a monopoly by definition? -- love to con you that they have feedback mechanisms just like private enterprise but of course they actually don't when you look closely?
GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Public Confidence in Britain’s NHS At Record Low. “Three damning reports last night laid bare the crisis in NHS hospitals, maternity units and GP surgeries. One investigation revealed that a quarter of new mothers were abandoned by their midwives during labour, with some left to give birth on the floor or in corridors. The second found that mistakes deemed so serious they should never happen are being made in hospitals five times a week. And the third survey said thousands of patients have all but given up trying to secure appointments with their family doctor.”
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:04 pm"
They think everyone is named "Mark" and unfortunately with all the brainwashing levers they control they're largely correct... Read More......
That's Not My Job, Man!
Read More......Another prescient post from the past: "The same principle of failing to invest specific people with responsibility — and thereby creating a responsibility vacuum — holds true when the government sucks responsibility away from people and distributes it into its vast machinery. Suddenly, individuals aren’t responsible — and you can’t find the clerk with the cash when you need him.I wrote those words long before the Obamacare fiasco revealed itself in its full glory to the American people — and long before we learned that part of the problem was that no one was in charge. Obama didn’t talk to Sebelius, Sebelius didn’t talk to her people, and the people tasked with the work were pushed aside when they tried to talk to anyone. For each of them, when it came to taking responsibility, the controlling ethos was “That’s not my job, man!”"
My sister once worked with a secretary who felt put upon. No matter what one asked her to do, she came back with a single answer: “That’s not my job, man.” Since she was working for a private company, she was fired as soon as the company felt that it had protected itself against a potential wrongful discharge lawsuit. In the federal world, this same gal would not only have lifetime employment, she’d be teaching taxpayer-funded seminars on avoiding direct responsibility for anything.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
It's Good For The King
Instapundit » Blog Archive » SPYING: White House to preserve controversial policy on NSA, Cyber Command leadership. “The Obama …: "SPYING: White House to preserve controversial policy on NSA, Cyber Command leadership. “The Obama administration has decided to preserve a controversial arrangement under which a single military official is permitted to direct both the National Security Agency and the military’s cyberwarfare command despite an external review panel’s recommendation against doing so, according to U.S. officials. The decision by President Obama comes amid signs that the White House is not inclined to place significant new restraints on the NSA’s activities and favors maintaining an agency program that collects data on virtually all phone calls of Americans, although it is likely to impose additional privacy-protection measures.”Why change something that's good for you? Read More......
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 12:48 pm"
On Deck: North Korea
Belmont Club » Majesty: "Scratch any communist country — or communist party — and you will find aristocracy. Nicholas Eberstadt, writing in the Washington Post explains how “Pyongyang Royalty” works. There is a ruling house in North Korea and indeed one reason why the regime was stable for so long, Eberstadt argues, is because its Royals observed an unwritten rule never to execute each other. It is a rule that Emperor Kim Yong-un has just broken."RTWT. This is a masterpiece from Richard. I can't recommend it enough. Read More......
Welcome To South Africa
Sultan Knish: Friday Afternoon Roundup - Coverage Mandate is Freedom: "As a Communist, Mandela had always envisioned a one-party state.
“Under a Communist Party Government South Africa will become a land of milk and honey. Political, economic and social rights will cease to be enjoyed by Whites only. They will be shared equally by Whites and Non-Whites. There will be enough land and houses for all. There will be no unemployment, starvation and disease,” Mandela wrote.
Today South Africa has a 26 percent unemployment rate and a 17 percent HIV rate. Among the 18-34 age group, 56 percent of whites, 53 percent of Indians and 43 percent of those of mixed race want to leave the country. Among blacks the number is only at 33 percent which still means that a third would like to leave."
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Coincidence Or Corruption?
Ace of Spades HQ: "Considering the very real connections with Bill Elliott in this series of events and his audit and its timing and your subsequent series of contacts by the IRS, what do you draw from their behavior toward you each?Wow. I think I know the answer to that one. Click through and read it all... Read More......
Tucker: I feel a bit like Catherine Englebrecht right now. Catherine and her husband are Tea Party patriots who were systematically targeted by the IRS, ATF, FBI, and OSHA for a 'long train of abuses' over a three year period in what is arguably the most egregious abuse of this administration's power over law abiding citizens as of yet on record.
After listening to Lois Lerner plead the 5th during congressional testimony and then conveniently 'retiring' early and then listening to the IRS chief counsel use the term 'I don't recall,' no less than 80 times during congressional testimony, I no longer believe in coincidences. I believe Bill and I are both being targeted for exercising our first amendment rights by accurately criticizing Barack Obama's disastrous health care law."
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
The Sad Selfie Day
The visible manifestation of narcissism in the White House — or how not to behave at a memorial service *UPDATED*: "It is a very sad day for America when this vulgar, exhibitionistic, narcissistic couple stands before the world as our representatives. It is what it is, though. Those who hate America will still hate it. And those who love America will feel sympathy for her sufferings. UPDATE: Brilliant headline at Drudge:"
Monday, December 9, 2013
Directive 10-289 Watch
Examiner Editorial: Obamacare will end up forcing doctors to take patients | WashingtonExaminer.com: "Being the smart politicians that they are, they may already have contingency plans to do just that. As National Review Online's Kevin Williamson pointed out recently, “In the long run, the fact that physicians have a choice about whom they see and where they practice is the most significant challenge to the full implementation of Obamacare. The logical thing -- politically and economically -- is to eliminate that choice. You don't have to formally nationalize the health-care industry; you just nationalize 40 percent of each physician's practice and call it his ‘fair share.' ”Read More......
In the meantime, unless their rebellion magically goes away soon, expect in coming days an increasing flood of criticism of physicians from Obamacare’s backers. They will never admit Obamacare causes a doctor shortage, so they will demonize them to set the stage for nationalizing them. They’ll probably call it something like the “National Health Service.”"
Sunday, December 8, 2013
The Indictment
Du'O. Read More......NBC's Todd Reveals The One Phrase That Undermines The 'Whole Idea Of Government As A Solution' | Independent Journal Review: "“That is an acknowledgement that, ‘You know what? If this was a government operation for a long time and it failed, now we’re bringing in the private sector folks.’ I mean, that is an indictment on the whole idea of government as a solution, frankly…”Yes, Chuck, it is. Now, if could only get the “progressives” to realize it. Before it’s too late, that is."
The Cargo Cult O The MacGuffinized Feather
Obama and the magic feather: "There have been some interesting attempts to explain the curious psychology of the Obama years, in which an executive office that was already too powerful seized incredible new powers, while conducting an unprecedented semi-nationalization of an entire industry... but the President himself is held completely innocent and blameless for everything that happens. There's a stunning cognitive dissonance between the nearly religious belief of Barack Obama's followers that he's a superior, elevated being, the smartest man ever to hold the Oval Office - a belief he happily encourages while nourishing a cult of personality, and occasionally remarking that he's better qualified to do every job in the Administration than whoever currently holds it - and the absolute refusal to hold him responsible. "RTWT. Read More......
The Hidden Agenda
Ace of Spades HQ: "And whatever other topics the fetid swamps of your minds can imagine."
Equality Today
Drug tests for welfare recipients: "I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes & the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem). What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. So, here is my question: Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?"Read More......
Whoops!
Father of Modern Finance Warns US, Europe: 'None of Their Debt Is Credible,' Recession in 2014: "One of the fathers of modern finance and a winner of this year's Nobel prize for economics said the bloated deficits of the United States and European nations may lead to a worldwide recession.Thank god he's just another mean Republican dimwit so we don't have to listen... Read More......
Eugene Fama, whoe "shared the economics prize for research into market prices and asset bubbles" with Robert Shiller and Lars Peter Hansen, told Reuters on Saturday that the markets may not find the debts of European nations and the United States to be credible."
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Pearl Harbor Becomes Caught In The Memory hOle
Sultan Knish: A Date That Will Live Forever in Infamy: "Early copies of President Roosevelt's upcoming speech to Congress likewise warn the American public of the dangers of overreaction.Read More......
"We are not at war with Japan," it says. "We are at war with a tiny handful of extremists who are attempting to drag the Japanese people into a conflict. But we must keep a cool head and not allow them to win by provoking a war. We will defeat this enemy, but we will do it by not fighting them.""
The "Crackers" Are Not Extinct
Is Black Underperformance A Result Of The Welfare State? - Investors.com: "Depressing news about black students scoring far below white students on various mental tests has become so familiar that people in different parts of the ideological spectrum have long ago developed their different explanations for why this is so.You can find the decoder ring to my title here in the sixth para. Read More......
But both may have to do some rethinking, in light of radically different news from England.
The Nov. 9-15 issue of the distinguished British magazine "The Economist" reports that, among children who are eligible for free meals in England's schools, black children of immigrants from Africa meet the standards of school tests nearly 60% of the time — as do immigrant children from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Black children of immigrants from the Caribbean meet the standards less than 50% of the time.
At the bottom, among those children who are all from families with low enough incomes to receive free meals at school, are white English children, who meet the standards 30% of the time.
"The Economist" points out that, in one borough of London, white students scored lower than black students in any London borough."
A Tale O WikiLaws
Obama paves the path to removing Obamacare « Hot Air: "The President delayed some portions of the bill. He claimed that he wouldn’t enforce others imposed on the health insurance companies. HHS is now proposing to make new changes to alter a provision of Obamacare known as the “risk corridors” program, channeling more money to insurers who no longer think they can pull a rabbit out of this particular hat. And all of these actions are making changes – either directly or in de facto enforcement – to a piece of legislation passed through Congress and signed by his own hand.Hmm... Read More......
In the old days, you needed to go back to the well and make changes through the legislative process. By Klein’s reckoning, those days are past. Getting the bill through once is sufficient, and after that the Executive Office can just tailor things as needed. Such tailoring could obviously include directing the appropriate offices and functions to simply ignore the whole thing, no? It sort of takes the idea of presidential signing statements to a whole new level. And who would have guessed that Barack Obama would solve this puzzle himself?"
Heh
Denier land: How deniers view global warming | Watts Up With That?: "Thanks to Skeptical Science and ScienceFrontier for making this video possible. We can now see the error of our ways."
Witch! Witch!
The NSA’s Witch Hunt | Hoover Institution: "Why do I think there are only 100 terrorists in the country? Consider the Transportation Security Administration. In the TSA’s own tests, TSA employees caught 40 percent of the bombs present on passengers and in luggage (for a 40 percent sensitivity). Astute readers will notice that the lousy success rate for the TSA’s screening combined with the lack of airplane hijackings over the past decade can mean only one thing: There just aren’t that many motivated terrorists in our society.Do you float in water? That person just drowned. Wait -- were they a witch or not? Read More......
If we consider that there have been two attempted hijackings in the post-9/11—and present TSA—era, then we can assume that two potential hijackers were caught beforehand. In other words, four tried and half were caught, leaving two who successfully entered their planes: the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber. Interestingly, there have been exactly zero successful attempts, primarily due to passenger activism. The TSA is not the only bulwark against in-air terrorist activities; we must include flight crews and motivated passengers. It appears, therefore, that the TSA’s actions and all those security lines we have endured over the years have likely prevented zero or close to zero hijackings."
Memory hOle In The Won
ACLJ: Obama was one of the 'outraged' before he wasn't | The Daily Caller: "“Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it,” Obama added days later when he announced the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, due to the controversy, days later.What firing of the IRS director? Well, because he was about to retire anyway and it was all for show.
Thursday night however, Obama was more frustrated with the people who expressed outrage at the targeting during an interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews. (Related: ‘Suddenly Everybody’s Outraged’ Obama dismisses IRS targeting of conservatives, which he called ‘outrageous’ in May)
“If, on the other hand, you’ve got an office in Cincinnati, in the IRS office that — I think, for bureaucratic reasons, is trying to streamline what is a difficult law to interpret about whether a nonprofit is actually a political organization deserves a tax exempt agency. And they’ve got a list, and suddenly everybody’s outraged,” Obama said, going on to express dismay that even “so-called progressives” were “outraged at the possibility” of targeting."
The one talent I have to credit Obama with is keeping all these lies organized with a straight face. He is a truly talented psychopath.
And he has the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect powerfully on his side for those few non-Deltas in the population. Which leaves all seven of us to watch and marvel at the panem et circenses. Read More......
Friday, December 6, 2013
MacGuffins Lost
Ace of Spades HQ: "And this isn't a new phenomenon, either. Since the beginning of this movie, the fanbois have cared very little for MacGuffins (notice they don't care how many thousands of Americans have died in Afghanistan), but have been intensely interested in the Hero's emotional response to it all.RTWT ... Did I forget to mention you should RTWT?
You root for the Hero to win because you like the Hero -- not because you're particularly invested in the Hero's actual goals. And you despise the Villains simply because they're standing in the way of the Hero's triumph.
Chris Matthews sums up, neatly, his only genuine interest in American politics for the past five years:
“We have real people in this country with real power and status who have used that status of power to hurt the country so they could hurt the president.”Only the Hero matters. The MacGuffin never does.
The Hero is our hopes and dreams. And the Hero has come to us; he has come amongst us."
UPDATE: And then I found this which has just appeared from Bill Whittle. What a powerful compare and contrast exercise:
It seems that virtually every culture has independently invented, on their own from the depths of the Collective Unconscious (which is likely hard-wired into the human brain) the same exact story -- the same myth – told again and again and again.Also RTWT of course. And let me guess, you haven't read Le Bon's "Psychology of Crowds" yet have you? Read More......
It’s The Journey of the Hero, and it is amazing to me how perfectly it is retold and re-invented and yet remains exactly the same, because the Journey of the Hero speaks to the deepest heart in each of us.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Perfect
Instapundit » Blog Archive » COMPARE AND CONTRAST: “Obama has a web site that doesn’t work and drones that kill people. Amazon h…: "COMPARE AND CONTRAST: “Obama has a web site that doesn’t work and drones that kill people. Amazon has a functioning web site and drones that deliver gifts.”Read More......
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:50 pm"
Sonder
This Powerful Video Explains Individualism in a Way That Most Liberals Can Understand | Independent Journal Review: "The author of this video John Koenig coined the term “sonder” to describe “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” It is a fascinating bit of film.Nicely done.
As an additional comment, this is why many people are individualists: they believe each person is unique and has the right to live his or her own life free from the coercion of others. When someone forces others to do things against their will, they are stealing a part of their lives, and destroying their ultimate capability. And yet that is what today’s elites propose to do for hundreds of millions of people. Just a thought, feel free to draw your own conclusions."
Another Example Of Putting "Broke" In Perspective
Know a Liberal in Denial of How Bad Our National Deficit Is? Show Them This. | Independent Journal Review: "This was originally posted in 2012, but it still does a great job of explaining the national deficit. SHARE this simple video with anyone who is in denial of just how bad our government’s spending has gotten."
Heinlein On Obamadeath
Robert A. Heinlein - Wikiquote: "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."Read More......
Bad Luck (Periodic Reprise)
Robert A. Heinlein - Wikiquote: "Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.Read More......
This is known as "bad luck.""
Monday, December 2, 2013
COTD: It All Makes Sense Now!
Belmont Club » Accidental Hero:There's more... Read More......
"Kinuachdrach
It all makes sense now!
Barry wanted that deal with Iran so that Iranian oil could flood the global oil market, driving the price down, and bankrupting all those evil American entrepreneuers who had outwitted his bureaucrats and found ways to frac for oil in the US. And if Iran ends up nuking Israel as a side effect ... well, Barry's view is that will just show all those Jews who voted for him who really is boss."
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Silicon Chasm: The New Feudalism
Silicon Chasm: "While I was driving with Berkey around Atherton, Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University and author of The Great Stagnation (2011), published a new book, Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. There, Cowen bluntly predicted what he called “wage polarization.” The increasing ability of computers to perform ordinary tasks will inexorably transform America into an income oligarchy in which the top 15 percent of people—with skills “that are a complement to the computer”—will enjoy “cheery” labor-market prospects and soaring incomes, while the bottom 85 percent, that is to say, 267 million out of America’s 315 million people, will be lucky to find Walmart-level jobs or scrape together marginal “freelance” livings running $25-a-pop errands for their betters via TaskRabbit (say, picking up and delivering a pair of designer shoes from Nordstrom) or renting out their spare bedrooms (if they have any) to overnight lodgers via Airbnb. That is, if they’ll be working at all. “There are many other historical periods, including medieval times, where inequality is high, upward mobility is fairly low, and the social order is fairly stable, even if we as moderns find some aspects of that order objectionable,” Cowen writes in his new book.In case you are still under the sway of the propagandists: RTWT. Read More......
In other words, what is coming is the “new feudalism,” a phrase coined by Chapman University urban studies professor Joel Kotkin, a prolific media presence whose New Geography website is an outlet for the trend’s most vocal critics. “It’s a weird Upstairs, Downstairs world in which there’s the gentry, and the role for everybody else is to be their servants,” Kotkin said in a telephone interview. “The agenda of the gentry is to force the working class to live in apartments for the rest of their lives and be serfs. But there’s a weird cognitive dissonance. Everyone who says people ought to be living in apartments actually lives in gigantic houses or has multiple houses.”"
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