URLs du Jour

2009-04-16

  • David Friedman's post is headlined "How To Get Smaller Government" and I will quote it in its entirety:

    Move election day to April 15th.

  • Went to the Tea Party in Manchester's Victory Park yesterday. Had a good time, save for parking. Said hello to the Granite Groksters (and event co-sponsors) Doug and Skip, also the Weekend Pundit Dale Eddy.

    Noted that Doug and Skip were wearing official Granite Grok sweatshirts. Pun Salad has got to step up its game. Real soon now.

    Amy Kane has posted a great collection of photos from the event; they'll give you an accurate picture of the crowd's diversity, and the unique mixture of anger and humor on display. (Darn it, Amy, I almost introduced myself, but I wasn't sure that was you.)

  • Some days we are of the opinion that we'll be happy to witness inevitable death of the mainstream media; other days, we're persuaded that we'll instead be frickin' overjoyed. Today is an example of the latter, as MSM coverage of the Tea Parties has revealed a whole pile of sins.

    • Hugh Hewitt is all over CNN's Susan Roesgen, who apparently thought her reporting job involved confronting attendees who bore Obama/Hitler signs she found offensive.

    • Philip Klein notes that a few years back, Roesgen thought a Bush mask with a Hitler mustache was the height of wit.

    • But it's not just one CNN reporter; Greg Gutfeld notes CNN heartthrob Anderson Cooper on-air joking about "teabagging", and if you need the joke explained—your innocent geezer blogger did—Greg will do that too.

    • Paul Chesser reports on the Boston Globe's reportage; although you'd expect Boston media to pay a little more attention to local events with deep local historic roots, the Globe story was datelined … Frankfort, KY.

    • There's also a Globe connection as Matt Welch looks at the "fawning coverage" of Ben Affleck's new movie State of Play, which features a newspaper reporter hero.

      "Ben Affleck says (print) media matters," went the headline at the Boston Globe online. (Apparently "He Likes Us! He Really Does" was considered too cliche.) The Globe's first two paragraphs on Affleck junketry are about, naturally, the Globe.

      Priceless.

  • In theory, I have little argument with the government paying attention, within Constitutional limits, to dangerous nutbags, whether on the left or right. But the Minuteman demonstrates that the recent Homeland Security report on "right-wing extremists" was shoddily researched.

  • In other news, Ron Paul has advocated that Congress issue letters of marque and reprisal to deal with Somali pirates.

    I have no clue whether this is a good idea or not (see Ben Domenech for that) but I do know that it is a very, very, cool idea. And, it would be a refreshing change from so many of the activities of your Federal Government, because it is explicitly constitutional.

  • As a one-time physics major who appreciated the beauty of dimensional analysis, I laughed out loud at the following paragraph from this Fox news story about deathtrap small-car collision tests:

    The tests involved head-on crashes between the [Smart] fortwo and a 2009 Mercedes C Class, the Fit and a 2009 Honda Accord and the Yaris and the 2009 Toyota Camry. The tests were conducted at 40 miles per hour (17 kilometers per liter), representing a severe crash.

    The story is credited to the AP, but as near as I can tell from the Google, only Fox News attempted the metric conversion. If they'd only thought about it for three seconds (or for 7.9 kilograms per square coulomb) … (Via Language Log)


Last Modified 2012-10-08 8:39 AM EDT