Posted
8/23/2003 11:34:27 AM
by Edward Driscoll
BECAUSE FOGDOG WORKED SO WELL: "Amazon Testing Online Sporting Goods Store".
Posted
8/23/2003 10:54:16 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SIMON SAYS SAYONARA: "GOP Candidate Simon Quits Calif. Recall".
Posted
8/23/2003 12:41:05 AM
by Edward Driscoll
JUST LIKE "DOONESBURY". BUT FUNNY: Finally added Day By Day to the Links page. For those new to this insightful (and very, very funny) cartoon, here's an interview with Chris Muir, its artist, by Dean Esmay.
Posted
8/22/2003 11:58:38 PM
by Edward Driscoll
GOOD NEWS OF THE NIGHT: President Bush signed the recess appointment of Daniel Pipes today.
Posted
8/22/2003 09:29:51 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE BRUTAL GALLIC SUMMER: Mark Steyn writes that "Iraq may be on the edge but France has hit rock bottom abyss".
UPDATE (8/23/03) Glenn Reynolds has more on France's clusterfrog.
Posted
8/22/2003 07:04:13 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE OUTRAGE OF THE NIGHT, as spotted by Charles Johnson. Utterly astonishing. I used to think that AP was a notch above Reuters.
I was wrong.
UPDATE: If you ever watched PBS's Ethics in America series of (literally) roundtable discussions in the late 1980s (please tell me you did--I have a feeling I'm the only person in America who ever watched this show, which is probably still rerunning to this day), you may have seen the 1989 episode where the host asks Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings if they would take sides in a war against America. Foreshadowing precisely CNN's role in the first Gulf War less than a year later, both said not a chance: we're reporters; we're neutral. (As Charlton Heston once famously asked CNN, "Who do you think you are? Switzerland?")
Ironically of course, like CNN, the BBC, and Peter Jennings, AP has a unique, and rather slanted definition of "neutral".
If I was Fox, I would repeat the clusterfarg that Johnson documents over and over and over.
Posted
8/21/2003 03:30:47 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE POWER OF THE PLEDGE: John Fund says that for Schwarzenegger, merely saying "no" to tax hikes isn't enough.
Posted
8/21/2003 03:29:16 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE WRIGHT STUFF: He may be dead for over 40 years, but Frank Lloyd Wright may yet get to build in Iraq. The plans are already drawn--wouldn't it be great to see them implemented?
Posted
8/20/2003 06:58:08 PM
by Edward Driscoll
I TALKED TO R2-D2 TODAY: Yes, just another day in the Galactic Empire, talking to everyone's favorite astromech droid.
Err, actually, I talked over the phone with Don Bies, who is Lucasfilm's chief droid wrangler, and the man who operates R2-D2's radio controls, when actor Kenny Baker isn't actually inside R2. (Basically, whenever R2 rolls, he's radio controlled by Bies. When he walks, it's more likely to be either be Baker, or increasingly, digital animation.)
The interview is for the debut issue of Servo, a magazine devoted to robotics. The article will be about robots in the movies, and I wanted to find out the details behind what makes Artoo tick. Incidentally, Bies mentioned that there is an R2 builders' club on the 'Net, if you need someone to co-pilot your X-Wing.
(Why yes, it was hard keeping my inner Star Wars geek under wraps. But fortunately, Bies says he's used to that when he does interviews.)
Here's the Servo Website; I'll let you know when the issue actually debuts in your local galaxy.
Posted
8/20/2003 01:27:29 AM
by Edward Driscoll
AND NOT EVEN SUSAN OLIVER FOR COMPANY: According to The New York Times, beginning on September 5th, magician David Blaine will spend 44 days alone in a cage:
a Plexiglas box, 7 feet long by 7 feet tall by 3 feet wide, suspended over the Thames River in London. He will have just a set of clothes and a blanket, no food, and will receive only water via a feeding tube. He will have pens and paper to keep a journal (perhaps to be published later) and very little else to keep his mind occupied. His bodily functions will be handled with a small backpack containing diapers and a tube to urinate in.The Times' story ends with this bit, which seemed to describe the stunt in appropriately snarky fashion:
Less than three weeks before his highly publicized deprivation begins, Mr. Blaine sounded confident, if a little biblical. "I believe it is completely possible to exist peacefully with absolutely nothing, as it was in the beginning and as it will be in the end," he said. "It will be a public isolation that I will have to endure by adapting and surviving as an animal would. On instinct." And of course on television.
Posted
8/19/2003 05:17:10 PM
by Edward Driscoll
PABLUM: I haven't seen the actual ad yet, but the text of Arnold Schwarzenegger's first television ad is online.
It's pure pablum, without an ounce of substance. But given Arnold's enormous stardom, and the simple fact that he's not Gray Davis or his lieutenant, it may be enough, especially if Arnold can convince his Republican challengers to drop out and (ideally) endorse him.
Posted
8/19/2003 04:57:19 PM
by Edward Driscoll
SURREAL QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Occasionally, we are forcibly reminded that human beings have created an environment in which, in some ways, we have less control than ever before; after all, the lack of power is, by definition, powerlessness. Meanwhile New Jersey, the most densely populated state (in case you hadn't noticed), wants very much to allow the hunting of bears. No one seems to have considered the obvious alternative: instead of issuing hunting permits, call a moratorium on building permits. Permanently.Anna Quindlen, obviously exploring Keith Richards' double-hardcore, super-secret stash of medicinal powders and brew.
Posted
8/19/2003 12:35:56 PM
by Edward Driscoll
I HAD HOPED that with the unfortunate passing of Art Cooper, GQ might have moved at least a little to the center with their politics, rather than staying firmly in the camp of Manhattan-based liberalism.
I was wrong--but I'm not very surprised.
Posted
8/19/2003 12:30:40 PM
by Edward Driscoll
IS SOCIAL SECURITY WELFARE? Good post, (with a link to an even better essay on the Ludwig Von Mises Institute Website), on Reason's "Hit & Run" blog.
Posted
8/19/2003 11:28:36 AM
by Edward Driscoll
LOSERS: If you have to go to these extremes to make your point, you've already lost the argument.
(If I see foie gras on the menu tonight, I'm tempted to have it merely to spite these criminals.)
Posted
8/19/2003 11:15:12 AM
by Edward Driscoll
WHOSE NEWS: Charles Paul Freund of Reason asks (rhetorically), "Is the BBC reporting breaking stories? Or telling morality fables"?
Posted
8/19/2003 11:10:22 AM
by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Art Laffer, the supply-side economist who's "Laffer Curve" helped Ronald Reagan craft his tax-cuts, is similarly ambivalent. Last Sunday, he flew to Los Angeles and met with Mr. Schwarzenegger and his policy team. Mr. Laffer says he was "tremendously impressed" with the actor, but without seeing specific policy proposals will not lend any support to his candidacy. Mr. Laffer jokingly told Arnold that he was thrilled that Mr. Buffett was picked as an economic advisor, that is until "I learned that he meant Warren instead of Jimmy."John Fund writes that by bringing in Buffett (Warren, not Jimmy), Arnold has his work cut out winning over California conservatives.
Posted
8/19/2003 09:16:40 AM
by Edward Driscoll
MICHAEL POWELL OF THE FCC has unusually terse words for AOL today.
Posted
8/18/2003 02:52:36 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE GREAT BLACKOUT OF 2003!!! Rich Galen steps back, runs the numbers, yawns, shrugs, and declares, "it was the equivalent of a snow day", despite of how the media tried to spin the story.
UPDATE: Speaking of spinning, now Al Qaida is claiming they were responsible!
Nice try boys, but our fuses can blow without any outside help.
UPDATE (8/19/03): James Robbins writes:
Claiming credit for what appears to have been the product of a fluke equipment failure in Ohio is a sensible move for al Qaeda. The communiqué is a psyop, aimed at the United States to some extent, but more importantly, at the faithful abroad. Al Qaeda needs to show that it is still relevant and can mount significant attacks on the Crusaders, and claiming credit for the largest power outage in U.S. history is as good a way to demonstrate puissance as any.Robbins adds, "If there is a lesson al Qaeda can draw from this event, it is that they will have to do something a lot more spectacular than even this massive power outage to get the country's attention."
Posted
8/18/2003 02:36:25 PM
by Edward Driscoll
BUSTA WHINE:
Posted
8/18/2003 02:32:38 PM
by Edward Driscoll
SHADES OF THE PEPSI SYNDROME: Scott Ott "reports" that "Expert Traces Path of Blackout Surge".
Posted
8/18/2003 02:23:44 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THROUGH 2008: Yahoo reports that "Despite a two-year playoff drought, the Denver Broncos and coach Mike Shanahan agreed Monday on a three-year contract extension through 2008."
Posted
8/18/2003 02:20:54 PM
by Edward Driscoll
JOHN PODHORETZ: "Bloomberg has done just fine during this crisis. But that's because he had Rudy's plans to work from".
Posted
8/17/2003 11:47:19 PM
by Edward Driscoll
CAN THE POSTAL SERVICE SURVIVE? Probably--it's long been a financial sinkhole, and will continue to suck up taxpayer support for a long time. But James Gattuso has some suggestions on how to move it beyond the Cliff Claven era.
Posted
8/17/2003 09:11:12 PM
by Edward Driscoll
ECONOMIC MUSCLE BUILDING: Larry Kudlow writes:
Not one in a thousand media commentators recognize that the big-bang bond sell-off in the United States is actually an international phenomenon, one that signifies the potential for an economic growth recovery throughout the world.If that recovery happens (at least in the US), John Hawkins writes, "Bush is going to be extraordinarily difficult to unseat." UPDATE (Monday 8/18/03): The Washington Post reports, "Dow at 14-Month High; Nasdaq Up 2 Pct". ANOTHER UPDATE: "Somebody please take away Tom Daschle's belt & shoe laces".
Posted
8/17/2003 07:40:11 PM
by Edward Driscoll
DE-SADDAMIZING IRAQ'S TEXTBOOKS: "It's a big job", writes Joanne Jacobs, whose blog is newly on Movable Type.
Posted
8/17/2003 04:52:12 PM
by Edward Driscoll
TOTAL RECALL: Forget Gray Davis. Is it time to recall the state of California itself?
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