This is arguably the worst music video ever made.
There's a good point, though. Even where it isn't required by law, you should move over and not hit emergency services of any kind when they're operating by the side of the road. As the son of a volunteer fireman who often worked car wrecks, I am grateful that somehow nobody accidentally killed my father when I was growing up.
Tell Us How You Really Feel
I saw one of these signs not too far from the house. If somebody in this neck of the woods will spend $30 to express this sentiment, it's deeply felt.
My favorite political sign this year continues to be this one:
I'm a big fan of the Hillary for Prison signs, too.
My favorite political sign this year continues to be this one:
I'm a big fan of the Hillary for Prison signs, too.
Income Flat for Most Americans
Flat for decades, but declining since 2007. The headline is that this explains Trump and Sanders. It's a general problem for someone like Clinton, who is running as the establishment candidate. That's a hard sell right now, even if you didn't have her high personal negatives.
What's more difficult to explain is the delta between President Obama's personal approval ratings, and the right track / wrong track polling. If more than sixty percent of Americans regularly think the country is heading in the wrong direction -- currently over two-thirds -- how is the person normally credited with the greatest personal responsibility for the direction of the nation still about 50/50? George W. Bush's low was 25%, which closely tracked the 23% low for the "right track" figure toward the end of his presidency. You'd expect Barack Obama to be in the same territory. Why isn't he?
If I were to venture a guess, it would be that people aren't telling the truth about how they feel about his performance. Perhaps many people aren't even telling the truth to themselves.
What's more difficult to explain is the delta between President Obama's personal approval ratings, and the right track / wrong track polling. If more than sixty percent of Americans regularly think the country is heading in the wrong direction -- currently over two-thirds -- how is the person normally credited with the greatest personal responsibility for the direction of the nation still about 50/50? George W. Bush's low was 25%, which closely tracked the 23% low for the "right track" figure toward the end of his presidency. You'd expect Barack Obama to be in the same territory. Why isn't he?
If I were to venture a guess, it would be that people aren't telling the truth about how they feel about his performance. Perhaps many people aren't even telling the truth to themselves.
A Very Good Piece from Vox
No irony here, and no sarcasm. This is a self-critical look that deserves respect for its clear-sightedness. If we had more of this reflectiveness, we would have a better political culture.
Skippy's List
I can't believe this has never been linked here. (Maybe I just couldn't find it.) So, without further ado, here is a link to and brief excerpt of the "List of 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the US Army."
Explanations of these events:
a) I did myself, and either got in trouble or commended. (I had a Major shake my hand for the piss bottle thing, for instance.)
b) I witnessed another soldier do it. (Like the Sergeant we had, that basically went insane, and crucified some dead mice.)
c) Was spontaneously informed I was not allowed to do. (Like start a porn studio.)
d) Was the result of a clarification of the above. (“What about especially patriotic porn?”)
e) I was just minding my own business, when something happened. (“Schwarz…what is *that*?” said the Sgt, as he pointed to the back of my car? “Um….a rubber sheep…I can explain why that’s there….”)
To explain how I’ve stayed out of jail/alive/not beaten up too badly….. I’m funny, so they let me live.
The 213 Things….
2. My proper military title is “Specialist Schwarz” not “Princess Anastasia”.
7. Not allowed to add “In accordance with the prophesy” to the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me.
8. Not allowed to add pictures of officers I don’t like to War Criminal posters. [He was an illustrator in a Psyop unit ... ]
33. Not allowed to chew gum at formation, unless I brought enough for everybody.
34. (Next day) Not allowed to chew gum at formation even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.
35. Not allowed to sing “High Speed Dirt” by Megadeth during airborne operations. (“See the earth below/Soon to make a crater/Blue sky, black death, I’m off to meet my maker”)
36. Can’t have flashbacks to wars I was not in. (The Spanish-American War isn’t over).
83. Must not start any SITREP (Situation Report) with “I recently had an experience I just had to write you about….”
202. Despite the confusing similarity in the names, the “Safety Dance” and the “Safety Briefing” are never to be combined.
203. “To conquer the earth with an army of flying monkeys” is a bad long term goal to give the re-enlistment NCO.
205. Don’t write up false gigs on a HMMWV PMCS. (“Broken clutch pedal”, “Number three turbine has frequent flame-outs”, “flux capacitor emits loud whine when engaged”)
Texas to Talk Secession
It's an increasingly reasonable idea, which explains its increasing visibility. Just consider the possibility of a Clinton victory in November and its effect on the Supreme Court, which would mean the death of the Constitution as an instrument limiting Federal authority. Would you want out of a union governed by an unlimited Federal government?
Well, maybe not: resistance is still possible through impeachment, which can reach Supreme Court Justices as well as Presidents. Likewise, resistance is possible through state-driven Constitutional conventions.
All that said, escape would look like an increasingly attractive option for anyone who could manage it.
Well, maybe not: resistance is still possible through impeachment, which can reach Supreme Court Justices as well as Presidents. Likewise, resistance is possible through state-driven Constitutional conventions.
All that said, escape would look like an increasingly attractive option for anyone who could manage it.
Another Lose/Lose Proposition on Clinton Emails
This should be fun.
In a motion filed Tuesday, attorneys for Vice News reporter Jason Leopold formally protested the classified declaration the FBI filed offering U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss additional details about the ongoing FBI investigation into how classified information wound up on Clinton's private server, which hosted the personal email account she used in lieu of a government one during her four years as secretary of state.So, either the Justice Department has to prove that classified information was indeed present... or it has to provide an account of why it would be too damaging to show it in open court. That should make it really fun when it comes time to explain why they aren't prosecuting her.
Leopold's attorneys argue that the Justice Department violated normal legal protocol by failing to seek advance permission from the court or notice to the other side before filing the unusual "ex parte" pleading.
"Because Defendant submitted the declaration ex parte for in camera review without prior permission from the Court, or opportunity for Plaintiff to be heard, there is no public record justifying the need for such secrecy of the portions that are not classified, or for the court to rule on the lawfulness of the Defendant’s nondisclosure," lawyers Jeffrey Light and Ryan James wrote.
The protest gained some traction late Wednesday afternoon when Moss ordered the Justice Department to file publicly a redacted copy of the secret filing or "show cause why" that isn't possible. He gave the government until April 26 to do that.
Boom of the Month Club
A great idea for the man who has everything, but can always use more ammo for it.
No, Of Course We Can't Compromise
But if we could, pretty much every Republican would be OK with this. Even as a Democrat of the Jacksonian faction, I have to say that I can see some virtues in this proposed design.
How Much Astroturf is Out There?
A woman named Candace Owens accuses the "Gamergate" fantastic duo of staging a "sexist, racist" attack on her. If she's telling the truth about her evidence, and I have no way of knowing one way or the other, she's got a strong case.
I see a lot of stories like this via InstaPundit, whom I assume is raising them for the same reason I'm raising this one -- not to assert that this kind of thing is the usual condition, but to ask how common it is. How many of these claims of oppression are created by the very people claiming to be oppressed to justify their narrative?
Some, obviously. Not all of them, equally obviously. The fact that we're asking the question raises the danger of the availability heuristic: are we overestimating the incidence because, now that we're looking for it, we're seeing it everywhere? The legitimate cases we're not looking for are still out there, but at the moment these cases we're looking for are prominent in our minds.
Candace Owens thinks she has a solution, at least a partial one.
Men, Misogyny, and Gaming. Retrospectively, that was the one thing that was apparent in every single message I received, even down to the e-mail addresses used... My initial suspicion was that Zoe perhaps tipped the gaming community off and they were now coming down on us: hard. However I exited that suspicion when I received this anonymous e-mail that morning, alerting me of a 4chan.org planned attack to debunk our kickstarter efforts... It was another male. He was tipping me off, and simultaneously threatening me against continuing our campaign. He said he “wasn’t doing it to warn [me]”, and yet clearly, “he” was. But that wasn’t what stood out to me.... What stood out to me was the fact that this e-mail came in to my personal e-mail address.... which I had only given to Zoe when she reached out to me via twitter.The argument here is that a few people -- perhaps as many as twenty -- are operating a vast network of fake online identities. It looks like the ringleaders portray themselves as radical feminists, but the fake identities they're leveraging are presented as men. Men who are racist, sexist, and hateful. Men who, in other words, exemplify the charges being raised against 'men' by these same women.
I see a lot of stories like this via InstaPundit, whom I assume is raising them for the same reason I'm raising this one -- not to assert that this kind of thing is the usual condition, but to ask how common it is. How many of these claims of oppression are created by the very people claiming to be oppressed to justify their narrative?
Some, obviously. Not all of them, equally obviously. The fact that we're asking the question raises the danger of the availability heuristic: are we overestimating the incidence because, now that we're looking for it, we're seeing it everywhere? The legitimate cases we're not looking for are still out there, but at the moment these cases we're looking for are prominent in our minds.
Candace Owens thinks she has a solution, at least a partial one.
The Founders and the Shadows
In popular history, clandestine operations, and their control by the executive, are a cancerous growth that began in the 20th century with the so-called “imperial presidency” and the rise of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. This is fiction. Unfortunately, this fairy tale account of American history is gospel in far too many quarters. It was accepted as fact by the Church Committee in the 1970s, resurrected again in the majority report of the Iran-Contra Committee in 1987, and now finds renewed life on the libertarian right. As Jefferson noted, for the founders, the “laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger,” overrode traditional standards of conduct or any written law.
USMC: Actually, Women Won't Have To Do Pull-Ups
Back in the Grand Old Days of Commandant Amos -- you know, 2012 -- the Corps was going to do away with special tests for women. Women wouldn't have to do as many pull-ups as men to get as good a score (and promotions are based in part on PFT scores). But they would have to do at least three pull-ups to stay in the Marines.
Now, well, no.
Now, well, no.
The plan never made it off the ground, though. Data collected in 2013 found that 55 percent of female recruits couldn’t meet the minimum requirement. A study of 318 female Marines found that the women could complete 1.63 pullups on average. Roughly 20 percent of those Marines could only hit three pullups if they used their lower bodies in a[n illegal] "kipping" motion....It is a huge benefit to whom, exactly? To the Corps? Or to those women who can't meet the minimum standards that we were assured would never be lowered? I can see how it's a huge benefit to them to remove the danger of them failing just because they can't pass the test.
“I think this is a great way to implement the change as it gives an incentive to increase a score without the fear of failing the PFT," Col. Robin Gallant, II Marine Expeditionary Force’s comptroller, said of the proposal. "As women work on them to increase their score, they can be confident that they won't fail a PFT. I think this is a huge benefit and I'm glad it might become a reality."
Doctor Jones, Call Your Office
A major step forward in Chinese history and philosophy, thanks to tomb robbers adventurous archaeology.
Waco, Plus Badges
A huge difference in this deadly clash between motorcycle clubs -- one of them, the Iron Order, is a police-oriented club. The clash was broken up without recourse to rifles, which could be explained by any number of factors.
Less easy to explain away: the DA is declining to file any charges against the Iron Order members who started the fight and fired the first shot.
UPDATE: Denver PD asked for first degree murder charges, DA refused.
Less easy to explain away: the DA is declining to file any charges against the Iron Order members who started the fight and fired the first shot.
UPDATE: Denver PD asked for first degree murder charges, DA refused.
Quit Describing Her Accurately!
On the heels of yesterday's journalist asking Bernie Sanders if he isn't making Donald Trump's argument by telling the truth about Hillary Clinton's campaign financing, the Wall Street Journal points out that the effect of Sanders' critique is to paint Clinton as a uniquely corrupt figure according to Democratic Party standards. They are the party of campaign finance reform. If Clinton and Trump win their respective nominations (which is still far from certain, especially since we have yet to hear from the FBI), they will be taking an electorate that sees corporate money as the root of all evil into an election with the worst possible standard-bearer. How do you ask the committed progressives and liberals, as opposed to the patronage racketeers, to vote for the very emblem of Being In The Pocket of Wall Street?
It's having an effect. Trump is further ahead among Republicans than Clinton is among Democrats -- she's under the 50 percent mark in a two-person race, and it's tightening.
UPDATE: Not that she's doing Herself any favors with her inaccurate descriptions, either.
UPDATE: The New York Post is claims she's lowering expectations.
It's having an effect. Trump is further ahead among Republicans than Clinton is among Democrats -- she's under the 50 percent mark in a two-person race, and it's tightening.
UPDATE: Not that she's doing Herself any favors with her inaccurate descriptions, either.
UPDATE: The New York Post is claims she's lowering expectations.
Priorities
From the Duffel Blog:
“When he said the name ‘Operation Hajji Stomp,’ you could have heard a pin drop in the briefing room,” said one officer present at the meeting. “The BC [battalion commander] lost his... mind, screaming about local sensibilities and a complete lack of understanding for basic human decency. It was pretty bad.”
Generational Appropriation!
Actually, when you put it that way, you realize that this is the only way we ever raise children who aren't complete barbarians. If kids didn't steal from their parents, we'd have to start civilization over from scratch in every generation. Maybe that 'cultural appropriation' thing is similarly valuable?
A tip from the comments: up the playback speed to 1.25 and hear the difference between rockabilly and psychobilly.
A tip from the comments: up the playback speed to 1.25 and hear the difference between rockabilly and psychobilly.
Waco Update
According to this source, 13 of 16 entrance wounds in the Twin Peaks "biker shootout" case were in the .22 caliber range. Well, .22 caliber -- or 5.56mm, the chambering of the rifles the police were using.
The interpretation is that the police shot almost everyone. That's a stronger claim than I've heard from the ballistics so far, but one that has been corroborated by witness accounts. Of course, the witnesses were all arrested, and face felony terms just for being there -- even the ones who didn't have a gun or shoot a round, given that the prosecution has decided to prosecute this as an organized criminal 'association.'
The interpretation is that the police shot almost everyone. That's a stronger claim than I've heard from the ballistics so far, but one that has been corroborated by witness accounts. Of course, the witnesses were all arrested, and face felony terms just for being there -- even the ones who didn't have a gun or shoot a round, given that the prosecution has decided to prosecute this as an organized criminal 'association.'
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