Frum: Modern Day Machiavelli?

I know that David Frum doesn't have many friends around here for his numerous and well-reported apostasies, but I did find this summary run-down of his current position on conservatism convincing. I'm not sure about his big claims surrounding gritty day-to-day politics, but his critiques of the profits-over-results conservative media entertainment industry are persuasive, in my view (and, to be fair and state the obvious, the political entertainment industry is not just a creature of the right, or something that was invented with Fox News--MSNBC is just as bad and frequently far worse).

Just to lay all my cards on the table, one of the reason's that I find National Review so difficult to stomach these days (other than what Jarrod might label a slouchy leftward drift on my part) is the fact that so many of NR's contributor's have bought into the model of conservative-thought-entrepreneurs. No doubt these will be lucrative years for many of them.

NFL Overtime

I have to agree with Brad Childress. If they are going to change the rules, they need to change them for the regular season too. It doesn't seem like a bad rule though. A coin toss and a field goal is kind of a lame way to end a football game.

New NFL Overtime Rules

So what do y'all think?

I don't have strong opinions either way. But... I'm interested to see how the change plays out. Will it make overtime games more exciting? Probably, but they were already pretty exciting. The rules sound to me like they build more risk into the equation; which is to say, you can't get a decent return, a good pass or two, and then run three times before kicking a field goal. Since they're going with it anyways, I'd like to see the rule in the regular season, so we could see Belichick going for it on 4th down in overtime to get a touchdown.

Toyota

I'm beginning to become a conspiracy theorist on the Toyota front. Government (with the UAW) takes over GM and Chrysler. All the sudden Toyota is the most evil corporation on the planet and just happens to be the most successful (and non-unionized) car company in the world.

Just a thought...

Exorcising Toyota’s Demons

The Toyota Tort Circus

Andrew Breitbart

Slate ran an interesting piece on Andrew Breitbart today.

Some money quotes:

"Bill Clinton comes in, and his entire M.O. is mowing down as much trim as he can. … Yet the feminists ignored Bill Clinton and they excoriated Clarence Thomas. That's everything to me."

Breitbart traces everything he despises about cultural liberalism to his college days. "When I told my parents I was an American studies major, they were like, 'That's fantastic! Did you read Mark Twain?' 'No, I didn't.' 'What did you read?' 'Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Michel Foucault.' 'They don't sound American!' 'They're not.' " Luckily, recalls Breitbart, "I was too drunk to be completely indoctrinated by it."

There's a maxim that Breitbart wants to be "the Arianna Huffington of the right." Nonsense, he said. "I'd rather be the Ted Turner of the right." The analogy is one of scale as much as politics. He doesn't just want to be a parasite and critic of the mainstream media. He wants to displace it.

"Mom: 'How's school?' 'Loving it.' 'How's that $30,000 a year going?' 'Oh man, I'm having a great time, thanks for sending me to college. It's really cheery stuff. I've read about raped black women in the South, there's women being used in [the] sex slave trade, men are really bad, and white men are even worse, and our Founding Fathers are a bunch of fucking fuckheads."

"I don't care if Andrew Sullivan dreams of me as a bear. He could torture me and I'd allow for it."

Well?

This is so nerdtastic I think only Nick can sufficiently explain it. I mean, pick out the obscure references:

ROGER WHITTAKER

He was Gordon Lightfoot before Gordon Lightfoot was Gordon Lightfoot:

Negative dodge!?

Too awesome to be fake:



I'm going to memorize some of these quotes to break them out when necessary:

"It's too hard!!!!!" "Ludicrous!"

"Our tanks can't tank with a 20% dodge nerf!!!!"

"The Blood Princes are ludicrous!"

"... negative dodge!?!"

"... obviously not because there's Borg!!"

For Bert (and maybe Nick)

Ron Paul's Son

Rand Paul is running for U.S. Senator from Kentucky. And thankfully, he's not named after Ayn Rand as I wrongly assumed.

Citizens United

While I think the Court got it right, I have a feeling it'll be a political boon to Democrats (albeit a small one). They historically get their money in large chunks, especially from unions. Corporations don't really have ideological reasons for supporting either party and do not support Republicans as liberals would have us believe, especially these days when corporations are lining up to get in bed with the Fed, White House, and the Treasury, not to mention large companies' interest in a tolerable amount of regulation to discourage competition.

For the most ridiculous take on the case, and to see predictions that won't materialize, and perhaps one of the most imbecilic commentaries I've ever had the patience to watch 11 minutes of see Keith Olbermann's rant. He says Citizens United is even worse than Dred Scott and Sarah Palin will be the pretty face of the new corporate fascism. I kid you not. Somehow the man gets dumber every time he opens his mouth. You'd think there'd be a floor at some point...

I'm the man. Haven't I told you?

‘Well, the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me.' -President Obama

Suck on that Bill Clinton

This is spectacular:

Worst decade ever.

Gladiator in England

Ridley Scott took a shot at Robin Hood with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett in the lead roles. Don't know what to think about this.

FACT:

"Bret McKenzie appeared as an unnamed elf in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". The Lord of the Rings fanbase dubbed the elf Figwit. McKenzie returned for a small speaking role in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" as the same elf of Rivendell, now named "Elf Escort".^[21] He informs Arwen that she 'cannot delay' after she has a brief vision of her future with Aragorn and their son."

Thanks, Wikipedia!

Also, thanks YouTube!

Christmas Present Idea for JB?

http://www9.printwarcraft.com/homepage.html

Do we make him a level 97 Ice Wizard or level 1 fisherman?

Nick?

you have a tough act to beat at the next competition:

Behold, the powers of prog!

The Secret of Science:



But don't get caught in a Floyd!

Gathering Storm

I've said my piece before on Robert Jordan; here's a review of mostly praise for Sanderson's first attempt to tie up the series. Sounds promising. Think I can just read that book without having to go back and start over? (I never read 8-11.)