"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
Moe Lane I mean, on the one hand it’s easy to mock the European Union about their latest translation problem. On the other hand, you try translating the entire legal code of a multinational political entity into a variety of languages, including Maltese (a language whose rank on the Most Popular Tongues list is in serious danger … Read more
… the Commissar linked to this narrative of a Ukranian* woman’s bike trip through the Chernobyl area. The translation is spotty, but easy to follow, and some of the pictures are subtly disturbing to even the most enthusiastic nuclear supporter (like myself, more or less). Well worth checking out, in other words.
And that, oh my droogies, is it for the night. From me, at least.
Turns out that Senator Kerry’s* apparently on the record as opposing the banning of ROTC from colleges that receive financial aid – which, as James Taranto helpfully points out, is already the law, but still. Taranto argues that this would be a good thing for Kerry to play up as a Sister Souljah moment (the various bans are mostly there because of the extremely hypocritical and discriminatory policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” existing in the US military**): I disagree. The last thing that Kerry wants to do is remind the gay community that he is already not the most vocal supporter of gay marriage out there.
Naughty, naughty, James.
Amygdala (who’s blogging up a storm today) provided a half-welcome bit of news about Firefly. I say ‘half-welcome’ because, like Gary, I’d like to have the show back instead.
Via BlogSFERICS we see this amusing tale – well, amusing to everybody except the poor LA Times reporter who wants people to make that he was writing about “an incomparably glorious and goofy pro-life paean” instead of “an incomparably glorious and goofy anti-abortion” one. One of those automatic replacement of phrases thing (the opera in … Read more
1). In a plea for attention, Chefyamabushi has linked to us. The egoboo that comes from being sought after for links, coupled with the fact that I’m lumping a bunch of blog-related links together, has led me to note this. And link him back, of course. Besides, he liked the kitten. 2). Has anyone else … Read more
Wonkette goes to some trouble to thoroughly debunk rumors (from Page Six of the New York Post, no less!) that Senator Kerry plans to give Terry McAuliffe the axe. I’m still trying to figure out whether she’s just making fun of Drudge’s often-hysterical (both of the major definitions apply here, actually) writing style or not. … Read more
Or, Why Johnny can’t spend George’s Soft Money.
Also from the Weekly Standard’s David Tell comes an article about certain rulings about McCain-Feingold – and why it’s continuing to have the same effect on Democratic soft money fundraising as a .45 caliber hollowpoint bullet has on the average human spine:
Jonathan Last takes the time out from committing HERESY!!!!! HERESY MOST FOUL, YES, MY PRECIOUS!!!!! (pause) Umm, right… anyway, he’s got an interesting article up about this years Oscars: Four out of the last five years the award has been given to a beautiful woman who has bravely turned herself into a hag. This string–Hilary … Read more
Spring training’s like, almost here, right?
Because there are actually films out there playing right now that have nothing to do with the death of Jesus Christ, and I’d thought that it’d be nice if we had some recommendations about them.
I feel much better (thanks to everyone saying kind words), but I’m tired. Must sleep; use these threads to talk amongst yourselves. (UPDATE) Fixed shouting problem.
…but I’ll take the karma hit to show a little schradenfreude about the lovely news that Ted “Terror Widows” Rall’s strips got tossed from the NYT’s website. You can read all the happy details at Rall’s own site – just turn your BS detectors all the way down first, because when I say Moonbat, I … Read more
Pejman Yousefzadeh hopes that the author of this article about peaceful reform in Iran* is correct: Iranian activists from all over the political spectrum are uniting over the issue of passive resistance and other methods of civil disobedience. A book published two years ago, entitled Winds of Change, has helped to inspire the movement: The … Read more
Thanks to Amygdala one of the central mysteries of the universe is explained: to wit, why the heck somebody thought that guitar-playing, off-key singing spong-monkeys would be useful in selling (admittedly-tasty) hot submarine sandwiches. God, I really am getting old. I must concentrate on the fact that somebody called these things hell lemurs – which, … Read more
…the official link to the site’s here. I agree, it does looks highly addictive; I especially like the internal politics version of the game. Very interesting. Moe PS: Favorite Google hit so far: postmodern pirates of the Caribbean. The possibilities are nigh-endless.
Is there a story behind this CNN sign? (Via Yahoo AP Or is it just a random local issue? I’m genuinely curious: I wasn’t aware that the Democrats were having a problem with CNN.
…so you’ll have to do without my priceless input in assessing this USA Today article on the UN report purportedly*confirming David Kay’s conclusion that Iraq had no WMDs before its liberation last year. Have fun; it beats talking about Super Tuesday, at least. Moe *I say ‘purportedly’ only because I haven’t read the actual report … Read more
Kerry’s going to be the Democratic candidate. Sure, he lost Vermont* and will probably lose Georgia**, but other than that, it was all him. Edwards is apparently going to bow out gracefully tomorrow; when that happens, the arcane art that is Democratic delegate selection will virtually guarantee Kerry’s elevation to candidate. So, that’s the end … Read more
Finally got around to adding Sitemeter; I’m keen to compare it to what the internal Typepad hitcounter is telling me. Also, upon the request of Jim Henley, here’s a XML syndication feed: http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/atom.xml It apparently works, so have fun with it. Otherwise, take this as an open blog technical thread. Opinions on whether I should … Read more
Both Who Knew? and Insults Unpunished like our mascot. Their banner art amuses me as well, so that’s all right, then. Interesting sites, the pair of them… and Jeremy also happens to appreciate the beauty of the words that sprang from Lord Buckley’s lips*, so it’s all good.
And you all get to suffer through it. My thanks for everybody who liked the Jabberwocky parody.
Moe
Over at dKos there’s a somewhat pessimistic thread about Democratic chances for Florida this election cycle. I’m not all that interested in discussing that, partially because it’s way too early to say that one state or another is or isn’t in play (shoot, Caesar’s latest map has Florida going blue and the election going to the Democrats), but mostly because I wanted to note something that I would have thought was obvious: to wit, that the only winning strategy is a fifty-state strategy.
Exciting, this is not. As it stands, Edwards is apparently significantly behind just about everywhere, Dean and Clark are out, Sharpton’s a joke and Kuchinich’s… actually, Kuchinich is probably doing pretty good for himself with this Real Presidential Candidate routine, given that his voter demographic probably has the highest percentage of nubile college students. Nice … Read more
Matthew Stinson (righteously) reminded me in comments below that he’s blogging from China, no less. This is his latest China-related entry: he’s a good blogger and posting from a fairly complicated place, so I heartily recommend that you check him out. Err. Assuming that you don’t already. Moe PS: We’re raising the bar after this: … Read more
…because that was a clean sweep, baby. Moe PS: No tuxedo: bad suit. No haircut; wild mane of hair. No bow tie; carelessly tied real tie. Top shirt button unbuttoned. Something that looked suspiciously like a Trek insignia on one lapel. Thanked everybody from New Zealand to JRR Tolkien in the speeches. Best of all, … Read more
The AP is reporting that President Aristide has left Haiti. PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti on Sunday, bowing to pressure from a rebellion at home and governments abroad, his Cabinet minister and close adviser Leslie Voltaire told The Associated Press. At least three other sources confirmed the information, including diplomats and a … Read more
Link to a couple of Tacitus posts and all of a sudden every site referral comes from there. I will therefore take it as a sign for… hmm, a poem seems appropriate, although I canna say why.
Thus, I give you a commemorative poem from my past blogging activity:
Instalanchy
(With apologies to… come on, everybody knows the poem I butchered.)
…blogging has become a part of the mainstream. Why do I say that? Easy: because somebody’s written a book telling us how to get rich from this hobby. While the Commissar has demonstrated his ability to succinctly both review the book and give his own, honest-to-Historical-Imperative* way to enrich his readers, I’d just like to … Read more
Well, seeing as all the cool kids over at Tacitus.org are posting from the road* (Tac’s in the Middle East and Mac’s in Prague), I thought that I’d do the same. ‘Course, in my case it’s a bit less glamourous, as I’m posting from my girlfriend‘s grandmother’s house… just outside of Pittsburgh, PA. An added … Read more
… that it’s a bad thing to blog just to give your readers something to read. I dunno if that’s true or not, but it’s been a busy week for me (had to actually concentrate on work for a change; oh, the horror), so here’s an open thread. If you’re strapped for a comment, I … Read more
Sasha and Eugene Volokh have put up a couple of interesting posts about the limits of Congress’ ability to strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction in a particular area. Well worth checking out. BTW, ‘interesting’ in this context translates to ‘I understood what the heck they were talking about’. You’ve no doubt noticed that I … Read more
I’ve been meaning to blogroll QandO for a bit, now, so I’ll introduce him with this post about Representative Corrine Brown. I’ll be honest: I couldn’t believe at first that any Congressperson could be enough of a fool to say “You all look alike to me” in public, but apparently she did. Brown has since … Read more
While I agree with John Cole that this article draws an incorrect conclusion from a tragic event – it’s about that poor woman who died of a heart attack while watching Gibson’s new film – I’m actually surprised that John might have expected anything like a different spin on events. I’d normally be unpacking a … Read more