25 most recent entries:
No stake, no political death (Nov 21 2008 23:05 GMT)
OK, sorry, one more — The word on the street is that Senator Hillary Clinton has accepted the position of Secretary of State for the Obama Administration. Tammy Bruce is upset about this because She officially surrenders her independent political power and will officially carry the water for a misogynist who bullied her out of the race in the first place. Personally, I read it differently. Who is going to be the White House Chief of Staff, the guy who routes people around and decides who sees the President?
Where has the Navy fun gone? (Nov 21 2008 22:35 GMT)
One last hit before I head off for vacation (where I will likely have network access but no time to use it) — I saw this article on the Indian Navy blowing away some Somali pirates via Brothers Judd and it just left me thinking two things — First, Go India! Second, why is it left to India to do this? Why aren’
Imponderables (Nov 21 2008 15:51 GMT)
The words “flammable” and “imflammable” “
Shipping Policy (Nov 20 2008 19:48 GMT)
I ran in to this article on how the Obama Administration was going to pick Penny Pritzker as Secretary of Commerce. Pritzker, of course, was a player in the subprime crisis with a failing bank and all. The interesting part is that this story went out last night, ran in to a wall of criticism, and has now been scrubbed off the Inter-Tubes. Just like the required community service for high school and college was changed after it was mocked. So maybe the Obama Administration will be something new, the Beta Government.
Wealth Elevators (Nov 20 2008 18:26 GMT)
I heard a report on NPR this morning about the International Space Station celebrating its 10th year and $100B spent. I remember Skipper arguing that no nation would build an orbital elevator that wasn’t economically viable because it might well cost $100B. I just had to laugh.
Yes, I am obsessing but not about what you think (Nov 20 2008 03:21 GMT)
I have been quite caught up in learning some new code slinging technologies these last few weeks. I am in the midst of upgrading my Movable Type plugins to version 4.2 because we’re using that in another project and I figured it was about time to look at upgrading (I’m still running 3.
Who's the bigger Socialist? (Nov 20 2008 03:13 GMT)
Our Mr. Eagar wants to make a bet on whether President Bush or President-Elect Obama will end up nationalizing more of the economy. I think that’s an interesting wager and am happy to take him up on it. However, we must be careful about what we mean by nationalizing.
Obama Tracks (Nov 15 2008 04:21 GMT)
For my own personal records, I am setting up this post to record the slow accumulation of bits and pieces of President-elect Obama. Feel free to pay no attention, as I don’t intend for this to add up to a full indictment for quite a while, but every bill of particulars starts with a single item. I will start with four categories Contra-Factuals:Things said or strongly implied by the Obama campaign that turned out to not correspond to reality.
Luna Tech (Nov 14 2008 20:33 GMT)
I want to congratulate the nation of India for impacting a space probe on the Moon from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Nicely done!
Post-production maintenance (Nov 10 2008 16:43 GMT)
I was reading a science fiction story this morning which involved “uterine replicators” which are basically artificial wombs. Naturally most women think the technology is wonderful as they can have children without the physiological costs and medical risks of pregnancy. But it left me wondering —
Another world of politics (Nov 08 2008 23:42 GMT)
One interesting thing I heard recently was a group at the local university who are going out and recording insects. SWIPIAW took us all over to the local natural resources department for their 150th anniversary expo and that was in one of the booths. I thought it was very cool. They’ve got decades of work to go but their claim is that insect sounds are as regionally and species distinctive as bird calls.
What difference an hour makes (Nov 05 2008 18:01 GMT)
I did find some humor in these two back to back posts at Brothers Judd — Multiple Factors Pushed Voters to Obama which ignores its own cite to claim that it was anti illegal immigration sentiment that damaged McCain, the second biggest backer of amnesty. Mccain lost because of his feckless response to the financial crisis which provides a completely different totalizing explanation. I think that, while McCain made numerous mistakes, and was fighting a very uphill battle, his biggest failing was his inability to articulate any coherence in his political stances. It was just a grab bag of things, and if you want that sort of mish-mash Obama said it a lot better.
Vacation from Reality (Nov 05 2008 17:40 GMT)
Well, that was a crushing night. That makes a clean sweep for my electoral contributions (in time and money) — every single cause I backed lost. Two GOP primary candidates The general election Presidential candidate The income tax repeal in Massachusetts The Illinois Constitutional Convention Bill Russell (vs. Representative John Murtha) This is why I almost never buy individual stocks and stick to index funds.
Another excess of free markets (Oct 27 2008 15:31 GMT)
Via WizBang is this heart warming story about how the management of the NY Times could drive it in to bankruptcy. It’s worth reading, but to me the money quote was this — His cousin Michael Golden, vice-chairman of the company […] oversaw the sale of the old New York Times headquarters on 43rd Street?
Political dysfunction (Oct 27 2008 03:15 GMT)
Speaking of the Illinois Governor, “The” Rod Blagojevich, his latest escapade is sadly indicative of our dysfunctional political class, of which Illinois state politics is a cutting edge example. The Rod spent his first four years upsetting most (if not all) of the major political factions in the state while demonstrating a near pathetic level of actual governorship. Yet he won a near landslide victory (50%-39%) re-election1.
Should have plead the 5th (Oct 14 2008 02:21 GMT)
I read this post a while back and was amused to see the same study show up over at Brothers Judd. I pointed out that counter analysis to Judd and he did not react well. Being a person of low moral character, I couldn’t resist taunting the prisoner, but I thought I would cross post here before it got memholed. It winds up with Judd writing It’
I am sure some one has brought this up before (Oct 13 2008 00:54 GMT)
A common scenario in many science fiction novels is a stellar diaspora followed by something Really Bad happening to Earth (nuclear war, runaway nanotech, asteroid bombardment, the Sun going nova, etc.). What I want to know is, what would that mean for the Second Coming1? 1 First for our Jewish readers.
Humble servants vs. Elite rulers (Oct 12 2008 18:06 GMT)
Another thing I found while cleaning out the mental attic was this post over at Harry’s Place. The post is basically aghast the Senator McCain has the audacity to call Senator Obama “elitist” when McCain married an heiress and owns lots of houses.
Fair competition (Oct 12 2008 14:02 GMT)
I have been meaning to write about some various articles I read over the summer about how humans would do in a multi-species Olympics. Naturally, the articles have humans getting crushed. However, this is done by having the Gaian Olypmics be humans vs. every other species on the entire planet. Shouldn’
Carter II Watch (Oct 12 2008 02:01 GMT)
One thing that is a major concern from the FMO08 is a “regulation bubble” where massive regulations are passed in a hurried and completely unexamined way and remain to burden the economy and its recovery with little to no actual benefit (Sarbanes-Oxley comes to mind). One that would be interesting to watch with regard to political fallout would be this one — A wide range of sweeping changes to the 401(k) system were proposed Tuesday at a hearing on how the market crisis has devastated retirement savings plans.
And gasoline prices are too low (Oct 12 2008 01:57 GMT)
I think people can disagree about the degree to which the CRA contributed to the Financial Meltdown of 2008. But Orrin Judd’s latest theory seems totally disconnected from reality — Indeed, the problem was created by the rates charged by the borrowers and then central banks cranking rates to fight a non-existent inflation. That’
Palinsulated (Oct 10 2008 21:13 GMT)
I think Governor Palin is well placed for 2012, regardless of what happens in the 2008 election. The base loves them some Palin and even if Senator McCain goes down humilatingly I just don’t see any of it sticking to Palin. My reading is that the base thinks it wouldn’t even be close without her.
It's all in the spin (Oct 10 2008 21:10 GMT)
If Bush had pointed out that Saddam Hussein was not only a warmongering genocidal megalomaniac who supported terrorism and had been working on nuclear weapons for decades (with more success than any Western intelligence agency had thought possible), but also the effective CEO of his nation’s oil companies, Oliver Stone would be making “Why We Fight” pictures. —
Here, it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place (Oct 09 2008 16:24 GMT)
McCain was booooring! We?re gonna lose! Welcome to your new socialism, start stocking up on ammo? OMGWTFBBQOBAMAWONTHEDEEBATE!!!
Lady-like politics (Oct 08 2008 16:06 GMT)
I saw reference to this article from Time magazine in several places. It starts off with Ah, women, the consistently, tragically underestimated constituency. What the Democrats learned during the primaries and the Republicans might now be finding out the hard way, I learned at my very academic, well-regarded all-girls high school: that is never to discount the ability of women to open a robust, committed, well-thought-out vat of hatred for another girl. Women are weapons-grade haters.
|
