Feel Like A Dinasaur?

So this is something that happened:



Of course a large and more lethal meteor will never hit us. Because of Bruce Willis.

What Waging War on a Noun Looks Like When Kafka Writes the Script

David Axe write on War is Boring and elsewhere. He is also front and center in the movement to use comics as a means of reportage. In both media he is, I think, interesting and worth paying attention to.

However, his most recent comic concerns The Army of God, that merry band of sociopaths active in Africa which was briefly "trending" on twitter and is not roundly and soundly ignored by most of us. Axe's comic, or more precisely its profits, caught the eye of a little-known Federal Agency: the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

They have seized the money, refused to release it and, what is even better, are not required to explain or justify their seizure. Why, you ask? National Security!!! and the War on Terror and other related nouns.

I for one feel safer knowing that a bunch of folks I have never heard of can grab the money of a hardworking and, one assumes, underpaid journalist whose career is dedicated to casting light on parts of the world most of us would just as soon forget.

Happy New Year.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

The Senate passes a flawed bill that offers at least some hope of working.  The Crazy Caucus in the House say nay. Why? Leave it to Nan Hayworth to explain it all:

"We were elected and then re-elected as a majority to bring the federal government to the right size, to respect every tax dollar," said Hayworth, who lost her re-election bid.

She lost, for what it is worth, to an ex-Clinton adviser who, one assumes, is on board with the flawed Senate bill. So in other words, even when the crazies lose they win.

Happy New Year.

UPDATE:

After all manner of unnecessary drama and name calling the bill passed.

Let The Healing Begin

In the current The New Yorker there is a profile of Kid Rock, who I think is a bit of a twit, that mentions a video he made with his pal Sean Penn, whoI think is a bit of a twit. Here is the video, which suggests that my claims of twitness are perhaps witless:



You mileage may vary.

The Romney Tax Plan Explained

Mitt Romney or some one closely linked with his campaign have finally unveiled his tax plan and I for one find it incredibly compelling

When Facts Don't Matter

Romney and his supporters are being done in by facts or more precisely their disdain for facts, truth, justice, and -- dare I say it? -- the American way.  There are however intellectual enterprises of real value in which facts get in the way. For example Charles Babbage to Tenyson on truth and beauty:

Sir:

In your otherwise beautiful poem "The Vision of Sin" there is a verse which reads – "Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born." It must be manifest that if this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death.

I would suggest that in the next edition of your poem you have it read – "Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1 1/16 is born."

The actual figure is so long I cannot get it onto a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.

I am, Sir, yours, etc.,

Charles Babbage

Romney out to give poetry a whirl when is being president of these United States doesn't pan out.

The Nanny Plutocracy

So Bloomberg's ban on 16 oz or greater sugary drinks in certain location and in specific kinds of containers passed. It is, we are assured, an attempt to deal with the obesity crisis in these United States. It seems like an attempt to stop people smoking by limiting the pack size to 10 cigarettes, which is to say silly, a waste of time, and generally a misuse of the state legitimate regulatory function.

Unequal Forces

From The New Yorker comes this image of one or another of the recent conventions:

Seems about right.

Untheoretical Slippery Slopes

Over to the NRO's Corner they are all a twitter about religious liberty and threats to it. Meanwhile in the real world spurious claims of religious liberty provide bigots with ammunition to be bigots. For the third year in a row a "Christian" church holds an white only conference and its

founder of the church, Rev. Mel Lewis, complained that this year’s uproar shows a disrespect for religious liberty.

That's right the freedom to practice your religion as you see fit now carries with it the right not to be called a narrow minded bigot. When you think about the state's recent successful trial of Catholic Church officials for child raping and continued investigation of same is, perhaps, a violation of their religious liberty. If pangs of conscience are licit reasons for medical practitioners and pharmacists to refuse provision of legal drugs and procedures, surely the same religious liberty protects the Catholic hierarchy from fulfilling its moral and legal responsibilities to its parishioners.


And that is the problem with the rights misrepresentation of religious liberty, which does not exempt religious institutions from licit laws and regulations. This is an attempt to return to a world in which the church was an independent agent and rival with state for sovereignty. It is, in other words, an attempt by the "social conservatives" to out do the neoliberals, who - after all only want to go back to the 19th century, by returning us to the 18th or possibly the 17th century.

Bikes Explain Everything

I have long thought that expanded cycling would lead to a better world. It seems, however, that bikes also explain long lasting enmity between nations:

SPIEGEL: Mr. de Winter, why do the Dutch hate [Germans]?

De Winter: Of course we don't hate you, but the rivalry is the inheritance of the Nazi era. The Dutch couldn't forgive Germany for occupying their country. You stole our bikes. SPIEGEL: Your bikes?

Affordable Health Care

I wonder what percentage of human beings presently living in these United States, long my her mountains remain enpurpled, came into the world without the aid of some kind of medical personal? Surely the fact that the birthing of babies is best achieved under the supervision of doctors or midwives is strong evidence that we all participate in the health care "market" at one point or another by virtue of being born, as it were, free.

The Real Solution

When it comes to Greece it's time to think big:

I'm Voting

for Canada:



via