Americans being American

I got around to seeing the Friday edition of the Amazing Race and quietly wept for our country, or at least for the Racers representing us in different countries.  Everybody went to Paris and the Racers had to climb into a World-War II era plane and find the motto of the French Revolution which is "Liberte Egalite Fraternite."

After spotting these words from the plane, the Racers had to recite the words to a French judge and every one of them mangled the pronunciation beyond belief.  One of the Racers got the "liberte" and "egalite" part but missed the last part and, not knowing it, just stood there mute.

Really?  Is "Liberte Egalite Fraternite" that obscure?  I don't know, maybe.  But it kinda confirms my theory that the producers of the Amazing Race purposely seek out people who 1) don't know anything about foreign cultures 2) can't drive a stick-shift and 3) are afraid of heights for the eventual bungee-cord jump.

Chris Stevens did not

The Hill: "Ben Affleck had Hillary Clinton's private email address."

Teach me how to journal

This profane screed from Ace on the media has made my top-ten list for 2015.  Here's a semi-clean excerpt:

But Cultural Power is Political Power, and the fact that these imbeciles populate our Idiot Boxes and speak words to us at night puts them in a position where they can serve as the witch-doctors of a heathen, ugly, wicked tribe, if they choose to.

It's the job of journalists, some might argue, to report the news - the first edition of history - accurately and in an objective manner.  From Brian Williams, to Dan Rather, to Jayson Blair (just to name the pure fabulists) it's clear that they can't accomplish this simple task.  So why do we put them in charge of these Presidential debates?  What makes "journalists" more qualified than, as Ace puts it, the next guy sitting on a barstool?

In fact, let's put that guy on the barstool in charge of the next debate.  To paraphrase William F. Buckley, I'd rather have the first dozen names in the Boston telephone directory moderate the Presidential debates rather than the royalty of the American media.

That's a nice oil company you got there....

...it would be a shame if somebody called for a federal investigation.  International Business Times: "Hillary Clinton Demands Probe of Exxon After Oil Giant Stops Funding Clinton Foundation."

The mask slips, completely

There's not much I can add by way of commentary about the most egregious case of media bias since Candy Crowley actively shilled for Obama in the Presidential debates.

I'll just leave this commentary from media critic Howard Kurtz:

[T]his was an absolute trainwreck for CNBC. Many of the moderators' questions seemed to be snide, hostile, condescending, borderline insulting. And let me just make clear: I'm totally in favor of tough and provocative questions. When you do that, sometimes audience doesn't like it, sometimes the candidates don't like it. But a lot of the questions were not drilling down on facts or record or policy. When John Harwood says Trump, comic book campaign, or do you have the moral authority to be president? When Carl Quintanilla asked Marco Rubio -- who had a good night by the way -- are you a young man in a hurry? Shouldn't you wait a few years to run for president? It just validated what a lot of people think about the mainstream media -- and this channel is affiliated of course with NBC News -- that they cannot be fair to Republicans.

Eyes wide open.

Why so secretive?

In case you missed it the other day - and you probably did - Vox excoriated the House Science committee because they were looking for information from government agencies on how they've come to their conclusions on climate change.

Well, in the interest of openness, transparency, and fresh air (pun intended), these agencies have...declined to answer.  PJ Tatler: "NOAA Refuses House GOP Subpoena of Research Denying Pause in Global Warming."

I'm no climate scientist, but this seems suspicious.

Related - Mark Steyn: "The certainty of uncertainty."

Oooh...yeah...my bad

I must have watched this video 15 times.  Hockey player gets called for elbowing (I think) and goes to the penalty box.  He clearly says "bullsh-t" then sees the instant replay.

Politics makes strange bedfellows

I got a chuckle about how talking heads across the political spectrum were rolling their eyes at Hillary's false charge of sexism against Bernie:

National Review Corner: "2016 Officially Begins: Hillary Clinton Calls Critic Sexist."
Hot Air: "Morning Joe hosts (repeatedly) agree: Hillary’s claims of Bernie’s sexism are “pathetic”."

And then there's the left-leaning Cannonfire who laments how the screw of identity politics has turned:

Remember when anyone who called Obama a progressive poseur was considered an unhooded Klansman?
Remember when I was called a "racist" every minute of every hour of every day for weeks simply because I pointed out that Obama had lied about his opposition to NAFTA?
Remember when I was considered kin to George Wallace simply because I dared to mention the easily-proved fact that Obama did not denounce the Iraq invasion during his 2004 convention speech (or at any other time during his senate campaign)?

Yes, you were a racist then but now everyone's a sexist for opposing Grandma.  Who is a woman.

Western Massachusetts update

MassLive: "'Super Troopers 2' filming underway at Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts."  This is just a couple miles from my house.

Fake but awful

Megan McArdle: "If you like the truth, don't watch 'Truth'."

Related, on the journalism front: "Vice President Joe Biden accuses ‘people’ of very bad journalism."  Welcome to the party, pal.

The death spiral, as predicted

Wall Street Journal: "The Decline of ObamaCare."

ObamaCare’s image of invincibility is increasingly being exposed as a political illusion, at least for those with permission to be honest about the evidence. Witness the heretofore unknown phenomenon of a “free” entitlement that its beneficiaries can’t afford or don’t want.

It seems that younger, healthier Americans simply don't want to be coerced into buying expensive policies, even with subsidies.

Nobody beats the Wiz!

Tonight I stopped by at the Best Buy in the Hadley Mall - it's going out of business.  (Possibly due to Best Buy's underhanded practices.)  I guess it's just this store and not the entire chain, but it occurred to me that every electronic store I've dealt with in my life has eventually gone bankrupt.  There was:

Crazy Eddie
The Wiz  ("I'm the Wiz, nobody beats me!")
Lechmere
Circuit City
Best Buy (maybe)
Radio Shack (kinda)

It can't just be the Amazon effect since many of these stores were around well before Amazon.  The Wiz, I remember, had a pretty robust mail-order business.  There has to be some reason why these businesses shine bright then flame out.  Well, with the exception of Crazy Eddie, which was destroyed from within by fraud.  And INSANITY!

Rutgers, Rah!

I see the Scarlet Knights game will be televised tonight.  I'm feeling really good about their chances against....

Ohio State?!?  Never mind.

Nice work if you can get it

LA Times: "Critics say air marshals, much wanted after 9/11, have become 'bored cops' flying first class."

I used to travel a lot for my last job but I don't miss it at all.  This nonsense is all "security theater."

Profiles in tolerance

Williams College: "Hey, we're going to have a lecture series called 'Uncomfortable Learning' to expose students to a wider range of viewpoints."

Students: "That makes us uncomfortable."

Williams College: "Oh, nevermind then."

People died then Hillary lied

Hit and Run: "Hillary Clinton Knew All Along Benghazi Attack Had "Nothing To Do With The Film," Documents Reveal."

I missed the hearings because, you know, I work.  But I had not heard this information about the reaction of State department experts on Susan Rice lying on five Sunday morning news programs:

In a series of e-mails shown by Jordan, experts in the State Department’s Near East Affairs Bureau are shown reacting dubiously to Rice’s claim. “I think Rice was off the reservation on this one,” one wrote. “Off the reservation on five networks!” another responded. Another e-mail said the “WH [was] very worried about the politics. This was all their doing.”

It was two months before the election and the narrative was that Al-Qaeda was "decimated" so, in classic Clinton-style, it was time to lie for the greater good.

Clean water and electricity

That's what poverty-stricken nations need.  Bjorn Lomberg: "This Child Doesn’t Need a Solar Panel - Spending billions of dollars on climate-related aid in countries that need help with tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition."

Well, I don't like this article one bit

Ramesh Ponnuru in The Corner (!): "Why Hillary will likely win the White House."

Republicans have very little in the way of popular policy proposals to counter the appeal of liberalism.

There's something to this: the Republicans have done well in the off-years by opposing (unpopular) Obama policies but a Presidential candidate has to have a forward-looking, optimistic vision.  It's not enough to just knock down a terrible candidate like Hillary.

Pension crisis, Brazil-style

Hit and Run has an interesting blog post about runaway pensions in Brazil.

Here's the silver lining: there's a powerful incentive for elderly male pensioners to take on young wives.  It's called "the Viagra effect."

The future is coming

Website: Is Today the Day Marty McFly arrives when he travels to the future?