COMMENTS TEMPORARILY CLOSED - MIGRATING FROM HALOSCAN/ECHO TO DISQUS
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Just In Time For Christmas
Posted by Alan at
12:20 PM |
Old comments migrated to Disqus, currently working outtechnical issues
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Goodbye, Dad
My father Charles Kenneth Henderson passed away yesterday, nine days after his 77th birthday. I'll be taking a blogging break for the rest of the week.
Posted by Alan at
12:45 AM |
Labels: Obituaries
A Year Of Thanksgiving
- Majel Barrett gave us many fond Star Trek memories.
- Frank Borman,James Lovell, and William Anders gave us a fond lunar orbit trek memory.
- Somali pirates didn't win 'em all.
- The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be built.
- Ricardo Montalban gave us many fond memories, two of them in Star Trek.
- Patrick McGoohan celebrated freedom and the individual spirit in his TV series The Prisoner.
- It really is possible to run a corrupt Chicago politician out of office. At least this one time.
- Denmark's score on the Index of Economic Freedom rises above 80% for the first time in the Index's history.
- Rep. John Boehner is doing his job.
- Paul Harvey entertained us with many stories.
- The natives are restless. And the restlessness is growing. And growing.
- Jack Kemp cut our taxes.
- Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum made a really cool acquisition.
- Teh Bush administration protected us from terrorists.
- Almost everything's bigger in Texas, earthquakes being a notable exception.
- Remembering those who gave their lives in combat for the US.
- Socialist representation in the European Parliament takes a dive.
- Reagan voiced a dream for East Germany.
- George Orwell gave us one of the definitive novels on totalitarianism.
- Ed McMahon entertained us.
- Member of European Parliament Daniel Hannen inspires many on nboth sides of the Atlantic.
- It really is possible to run a corrupt Honduran politician out of office. May that nation's checks and balances continue to endure.
- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins gave us one of the greatest moments in human history.
- The GOP has an alternative to ObamaCare.
- Les Paul made great guitars.
- Robert Novak made great political commentary.
- Rose Friedman inspired.
- While much of Ted Kennedy's legislative career was destructive, he did get a few significant issues right.
- It really is possible to get a Congressional majority to cut ACORN's access to the federal trough.
- American taxpayers will not be soaked to fund the 2016 Olympics.
- Somali pirates don't win 'em all, part deux.
- Conservatives made gains in this year's elections.
- Reagan's dream for East Germany came true.
- Fossil fuels are plentiful.
Labels: Blog traditions, Holidays
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Life Imitates A Steven J. Cannell Production?
Remember the A-Team? In every episode, some victim who for whatever reasons couldn't seek justice through official channels would seek out a band of underground mercenaries. Hannibal Smith and crew would put together wild plans to upend the bad guys, always unorthodox and often not quite legal.
The real-life A-Teams don't tool around in a cargo van stocked with automatic weapons. Media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart sends teams to catch alleged ACORN crimes on video tape and dumpster-dive for incriminating evidence. An anonymous hacker or hackers accessed computer files from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, files cited as evidence of scientific fraud.
Are there other A-Teams out there waiting in the wings?
If you have a problem, and no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...
Posted by Alan at
10:20 PM |
The real-life A-Teams don't tool around in a cargo van stocked with automatic weapons. Media entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart sends teams to catch alleged ACORN crimes on video tape and dumpster-dive for incriminating evidence. An anonymous hacker or hackers accessed computer files from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, files cited as evidence of scientific fraud.
Are there other A-Teams out there waiting in the wings?
If you have a problem, and no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...
Labels: Crime, Media, Politics, Television
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Extinction Of Fossil Fuels Has Been Exaggerated
On more than one occasion, as George Will explains.
(Hat tip to LGF commenter freetoken, and to Google search)
Posted by Alan at
10:30 PM |
(Hat tip to LGF commenter freetoken, and to Google search)
Labels: Science
A Question For The Catholic Leadership
Hey, if you guys will refuse communion to people who support abortion, could you get around to refusing it to redistributionist politicians on "thou shalt not steal" grounds?
(Hat tip to Spatula City for the link.)
Posted by Alan at
7:15 PM |
(Hat tip to Spatula City for the link.)
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Uh Oh
Posted by Alan at 9:20 PM |
Friday, November 20, 2009
Should Geithner Resign?
Congressman Ken Brady wants Tim the Enchanter to step down.
My reaction is: what in the heck would this accomplish? How could the Treasury Secretary accomplish ANYTHING positive for the economy when Ali Bama and his thieves are trying to sack us with massive taxes and massive debt via their health care and cap-and-trade proposals? And how in the heckity heck could we expect Obama to hire a competent replacement?
The direction of the economy won't change unless first the composition of Congress changes.
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
My reaction is: what in the heck would this accomplish? How could the Treasury Secretary accomplish ANYTHING positive for the economy when Ali Bama and his thieves are trying to sack us with massive taxes and massive debt via their health care and cap-and-trade proposals? And how in the heckity heck could we expect Obama to hire a competent replacement?
The direction of the economy won't change unless first the composition of Congress changes.
Labels: Politics
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Question
Why did HeroBuilders.com makes its Nancy Pelosi action figure look young enough to be the Hillary action figure's daughter?
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
Labels: Curiosities
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Heroes - Peter And Nathan's Excellent Adventure
(Episode: Brother's Keeper. Spoilers ahead.)
"Nathan" confides to Peter that he's worried about his weekend blackout. Peter is puzzled, but doesn't seem overly worried. The Haitian shows up and privately gives Peter a storage facility key - and warns him not to bring Nathan; he wants Peter to learn a secret. Peter disobeys and brings Nathan's anyway. The storage room contains a box - a casket, with the real Nathan's body.
(How long did Angela plan on keeping the body there?)
"Nathan" touches the body and gets a flash of the final death scene - Parkman and Sylar were present. They seek out Parkman, learning that he tried to commit "suicide by cop," and is in critical care and under guard in Midland. They go, and Peter aids Parkman's recovery with his healing power.
Matt tells them the real story about Nathan's death, and warns "Nathan" not to touch him. The Sylar mind takes over Parkman and tries to convince "Nathan" otherwise. A cop shows up, and in the scuffle "Nathan" and Matt make brief physical contact. The Sylar mind has returned to his original body, but "Nathan" is still in the driver's seat.
"Nathan" and Peter fly out a window (Peter grabs the flying ability, thus losing the healing power), and "Nathan" wrestles with the awful truth. Meanwhile, Matt escapes, using mind mojo to convince a cop he's dead. So let me get this straight - the cops will report that Parkman died, and his body disappeared somehow?
Tracy discovers the hard war that anxiety attacks make her lose control over her power. She freezes a cup, nearly herself in a previously-warm bathtub (while visiting Bennett's, and finding Claire there) and Claire herself. Tracy accidentally breaks off a foot, but Claire regenerates it back before it can be thawed and replaced.
Tracy considers running off to the Sullivan Carnival, and chats with Samuel late in the show. He has in mind some undisclosed-to-viewers mission involving her power...
Eight months ago, Mohinder had discovered a film from his father's Coyote Sands gig. Samuel Sullivan was born at the compound. A film reel reveals that the imminent presence of others with abilities magnifies Samuel's own powers. His brother Joseph, who Mohinder visits, knew of this and worked to keep his brother from finding out.
But Samuel eavesdrops on the conversation. Samuel visits Mohinder's motel room while he is burning the film reel. Out of spite Samuel telekineses pebbles into Mohinder's chest like a shotgun blast, killing him.
At least that's how the scene went until Hero changed history. At present-day Samuel's instruction, re retrieves the film reel and replaces it with another. After Samuel leaves, Mohinder finds that he's wearing a kevlar vest - Hiro witnessed the attack in his first attempt to time-travel to the room (missing the planned time by ten minutes).
To keep Samuel from getting wise, Mohinder must disappear. But Mohinder doesn't want to - so Hiro forces the situation by arranging his institution at a sanitarium under an assumed name, along with a prescription of constant medication that keeps Suresh half-conscious. Hiro is good at imprisoning people - recall how he boxed up Adam Monroe for a time. Hiro dutifully delivers the film to Samuel, but he's not ready to free Charlie just yet...
Hold on a sec...Samuel thinks he kills Mohinder in a motel room, his death doesn't make the papers - and Samuel isn't suspicious? Maybe he thinks Angela's cabal found him before anyone else did.
What mission does Samuel have for Tracy? What will be Hiro's next errand? When will Sylar get his mind back? Will the Sylar mind have conversations with a ghost Nathan, like his previous exchanges with Matt? What alias will Matt assume, now that he's officially dead and missing? Will Micah and Monica ever show up this season? What will Claire do with that frozen foot? Stay tuned.
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
"Nathan" confides to Peter that he's worried about his weekend blackout. Peter is puzzled, but doesn't seem overly worried. The Haitian shows up and privately gives Peter a storage facility key - and warns him not to bring Nathan; he wants Peter to learn a secret. Peter disobeys and brings Nathan's anyway. The storage room contains a box - a casket, with the real Nathan's body.
(How long did Angela plan on keeping the body there?)
"Nathan" touches the body and gets a flash of the final death scene - Parkman and Sylar were present. They seek out Parkman, learning that he tried to commit "suicide by cop," and is in critical care and under guard in Midland. They go, and Peter aids Parkman's recovery with his healing power.
Matt tells them the real story about Nathan's death, and warns "Nathan" not to touch him. The Sylar mind takes over Parkman and tries to convince "Nathan" otherwise. A cop shows up, and in the scuffle "Nathan" and Matt make brief physical contact. The Sylar mind has returned to his original body, but "Nathan" is still in the driver's seat.
"Nathan" and Peter fly out a window (Peter grabs the flying ability, thus losing the healing power), and "Nathan" wrestles with the awful truth. Meanwhile, Matt escapes, using mind mojo to convince a cop he's dead. So let me get this straight - the cops will report that Parkman died, and his body disappeared somehow?
Tracy discovers the hard war that anxiety attacks make her lose control over her power. She freezes a cup, nearly herself in a previously-warm bathtub (while visiting Bennett's, and finding Claire there) and Claire herself. Tracy accidentally breaks off a foot, but Claire regenerates it back before it can be thawed and replaced.
Tracy considers running off to the Sullivan Carnival, and chats with Samuel late in the show. He has in mind some undisclosed-to-viewers mission involving her power...
Eight months ago, Mohinder had discovered a film from his father's Coyote Sands gig. Samuel Sullivan was born at the compound. A film reel reveals that the imminent presence of others with abilities magnifies Samuel's own powers. His brother Joseph, who Mohinder visits, knew of this and worked to keep his brother from finding out.
But Samuel eavesdrops on the conversation. Samuel visits Mohinder's motel room while he is burning the film reel. Out of spite Samuel telekineses pebbles into Mohinder's chest like a shotgun blast, killing him.
At least that's how the scene went until Hero changed history. At present-day Samuel's instruction, re retrieves the film reel and replaces it with another. After Samuel leaves, Mohinder finds that he's wearing a kevlar vest - Hiro witnessed the attack in his first attempt to time-travel to the room (missing the planned time by ten minutes).
To keep Samuel from getting wise, Mohinder must disappear. But Mohinder doesn't want to - so Hiro forces the situation by arranging his institution at a sanitarium under an assumed name, along with a prescription of constant medication that keeps Suresh half-conscious. Hiro is good at imprisoning people - recall how he boxed up Adam Monroe for a time. Hiro dutifully delivers the film to Samuel, but he's not ready to free Charlie just yet...
Hold on a sec...Samuel thinks he kills Mohinder in a motel room, his death doesn't make the papers - and Samuel isn't suspicious? Maybe he thinks Angela's cabal found him before anyone else did.
What mission does Samuel have for Tracy? What will be Hiro's next errand? When will Sylar get his mind back? Will the Sylar mind have conversations with a ghost Nathan, like his previous exchanges with Matt? What alias will Matt assume, now that he's officially dead and missing? Will Micah and Monica ever show up this season? What will Claire do with that frozen foot? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, November 16, 2009
Heh
Reason Magazine's newest spokesman.
Posted by Alan at
4:50 PM |
Labels: Media
One Of The Reasons I Can't Tell The Difference Between American Unioninsm And racketeering
I'm not kidding.
Allentown, Pennsylvania Boy Scout Kevin Anderson decided to do a good deed. He noticed that the walking path in Kimmets Lock Park had incomplete sections along the Lehigh River - so he decided to complete them himself.
The Service Employees International Union Local 473-395A objected to Anderson horning in on its (taxpayer-subsidized) monopoly over local park improvements (emphasis added):
Posted by Alan at
4:25 PM |
Allentown, Pennsylvania Boy Scout Kevin Anderson decided to do a good deed. He noticed that the walking path in Kimmets Lock Park had incomplete sections along the Lehigh River - so he decided to complete them himself.
The Service Employees International Union Local 473-395A objected to Anderson horning in on its (taxpayer-subsidized) monopoly over local park improvements (emphasis added):
Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.
"We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano told the council.
Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.
(Hat tip to Michelle)
Update: From NRO: "In related news, the Teamsters are filing an injunction against Santa Claus."
Labels: Politics
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Separated At Birth
The February 16 cover of Newsweek Magazine (which I discovered just now via Ed Driscoll), and the logo for the Socialist Unity Party, the ruling party of Communist East Germany.
Posted by Alan at
10:55 PM |
Labels: Curiosities, Media
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Year That Was, 1989
Hat tip to Bowling for Soup.
----
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Honecker built the wall
He thought that he had it all
Head of the GDR, oh
Wife's in the Politburo
His dreams were smithereens
By October 16
He was the Number One man
What happened to his plan?
He was the head of party
He was the head of state
He shook his Commie fist
Dissidents he sealed their fates
His own SED
Is now the enemy
Miffed by his corrupt life
And nothing, has been...
All right since
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
(1989)
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Pozsgay read the Marxist classics
He knew every creed
"Class struggle," "Labor theory"
"From ability to need"
But Hungary was whammed
Economy was jammed
Thought he'd try a hand
To come up with a new plan
Where's the full stores
Like the ones in the West?
And what's with those East German guys
And weekly unrest?
When did Polish dissidents
Get on the TV?
What ever happened
To Comintern, Five Year Plans
(In the streets were)
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Ceaucescu hates these times
He wants to make it stop
"When did the Berlin Wall
Become a pile of rocks?
And tell me why did Prague
Surrender to that playwright?
Please make this stop
Stop, STOP"
(tick tick tick)
"Please no more..."
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Update: Minor lyrics tweaks:
Posted by Alan at
5:00 PM |
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Honecker built the wall
He thought that he had it all
Head of the GDR, oh
Wife's in the Politburo
His dreams were smithereens
By October 16
He was the Number One man
What happened to his plan?
He was the head of party
He was the head of state
He shook his Commie fist
Dissidents he sealed their fates
His own SED
Is now the enemy
Miffed by his corrupt life
And nothing, has been...
All right since
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
(1989)
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Pozsgay read the Marxist classics
He knew every creed
"Class struggle," "Labor theory"
"From ability to need"
But Hungary was whammed
Economy was jammed
Thought he'd try a hand
To come up with a new plan
Where's the full stores
Like the ones in the West?
And what's with those East German guys
And weekly unrest?
When did Polish dissidents
Get on the TV?
What ever happened
To Comintern, Five Year Plans
(In the streets were)
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Ceaucescu hates these times
He wants to make it stop
"When did the Berlin Wall
Become a pile of rocks?
And tell me why did Prague
Surrender to that playwright?
Please make this stop
Stop, STOP"
(tick tick tick)
"Please no more..."
Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Woo Hoo Hooooo!
Lech Walesa, and Havel
Way before Obama
There was Ronnie and Gorby
And Russians still in Hungary
The Commies from the old school
They think the change is way uncool
They're all dissatisfied
With 19, 19, 1989
Update: Minor lyrics tweaks:
- And "From ability to need" -- "From ability to need" (one too many syllables in original)
- But something didn't pan -- But Hungary was whammed (verse needs Hungarian reference for audience unfamiliar with Imre Pozsgay; original song referenced 80s band Wham in this line)
- Economy was whammed -- Economy was jammed (need rhyme for "whammed")
- Why did the Czech government -- And tell me why did Prague (way too many syllables in original)
- "Don't bring back..." -- "Please no more..." (sounds better to me)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Heroes - Something Wicked This Way Comes
(Episode: Shadowboxing. Spoilers ahead.)
Peter learns that his healing power exhausts himself seriously when he uses it. He uses it to reduce the seriousness of injuries as he brings casualties from a train collision to the hospital.
Emma uses her professional training to stitch up a patient and, later with Peter present, to treat a girl afflicted with pneumothorax. Peter learns that she was in med school, and dropped out after her young nephew drowned while she was babysitting him. Emma seems to be considering going back to school.
The Sylar consciousness is determined to get to New York to find Peter, the last person he remembers (the two were fighting) before finding himself in Matt's body. Matt manages to slow him down - he can use his ability against Sylar as Sylar had done to him. He arranges for his service revolver to get packed, which gets detected at LA International Airport baggage screening.
Sylar gets out of the mess, lands Parkman's name on the no-fly list, and rents a car to drive cross country. The tire goes flat, a man comes to assist, and Sylar decided to kill him, to demonstrate that he can take the world hostage to get Matt to spill the beans on what happened to his body.
In Midland he stops at the Burnt Toast diner, scene of Hiro's last history-changing mission. Sylar insinuates to Matt that he'll kill the diner owner if Matt doesn't talk. Matt relents. Sylar says he'll kill everyone involved (meaning Matt, Angela, and Bennett) when he gets his body back.
(I thought more people knew about it, including Peter. Is my memory playing tricks, or is Matt lying about the number of people who knew?)
Matt gets Sylar to scribble a death threat on a napkin. Cop cars swarm the place and all draw on Sylar as he leaves. Matt plans to kill himself and the Sylar consciousness. Matt makes Sylar make a sudden move as if he's drawing a gun, and cops shoot. He's not dead, though - he's being taken away by ambulance.
Meanwhile, Claire manages to convince the two sorority pledges that they didn't really see her get impaled, that the water bottles they were supplied with were drugged. Gretchen fears for her life and decided to drop out of college.
Noah Bennett and the Haitian (who we now know is named Rene) come to assist. Bennett searches Becky's room at the sorority and finds one of those freaky compasses - and Becky. At the same time Claire is being visited by Samuel. We learn that Bennett had visited her father's house when she was five, out to "bag and tag" her father, who had some sort of energy-blast type of power. Bennett shot the man dead in self defense; young Becky's invisibility manifested itself as she tried to hide from Bennett. Becky is out for revenge against Noah.
Bennett is forced to leave when girls enter Becky's room. He finds Claire with Samuel, they talk, Bennett cuffs Samuel to take him away. Becky shows up invisibly to thwart the sbduction. In the fight Bennett is about to shoot (at Samuel or at Becky?), but Claire tells him to stop. He puts the gun away, and the two leave for the carnival.
Back at the carnival, Samuel promises his continued support to help Becky get her revenge. (We've seen his own taste for that sort of thing.) Lydia pulls him aside to tell him about a new problem: Sylar is gone. At the beginning of the episode Sylar woke up with Nathan's body and memories, and flew away before anyone at the carnival could spot him. At the end of the episode he visits Peter, and says he thinks he's in trouble.
Does "Nathan" remember any of the events while he resumed Sylar's form? Will the Sylar mind escape police custody? Will college dropout Gretchen notice when the Burnt Toast Diner makes the news again? Stay tuned.
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
Peter learns that his healing power exhausts himself seriously when he uses it. He uses it to reduce the seriousness of injuries as he brings casualties from a train collision to the hospital.
Emma uses her professional training to stitch up a patient and, later with Peter present, to treat a girl afflicted with pneumothorax. Peter learns that she was in med school, and dropped out after her young nephew drowned while she was babysitting him. Emma seems to be considering going back to school.
The Sylar consciousness is determined to get to New York to find Peter, the last person he remembers (the two were fighting) before finding himself in Matt's body. Matt manages to slow him down - he can use his ability against Sylar as Sylar had done to him. He arranges for his service revolver to get packed, which gets detected at LA International Airport baggage screening.
Sylar gets out of the mess, lands Parkman's name on the no-fly list, and rents a car to drive cross country. The tire goes flat, a man comes to assist, and Sylar decided to kill him, to demonstrate that he can take the world hostage to get Matt to spill the beans on what happened to his body.
In Midland he stops at the Burnt Toast diner, scene of Hiro's last history-changing mission. Sylar insinuates to Matt that he'll kill the diner owner if Matt doesn't talk. Matt relents. Sylar says he'll kill everyone involved (meaning Matt, Angela, and Bennett) when he gets his body back.
(I thought more people knew about it, including Peter. Is my memory playing tricks, or is Matt lying about the number of people who knew?)
Matt gets Sylar to scribble a death threat on a napkin. Cop cars swarm the place and all draw on Sylar as he leaves. Matt plans to kill himself and the Sylar consciousness. Matt makes Sylar make a sudden move as if he's drawing a gun, and cops shoot. He's not dead, though - he's being taken away by ambulance.
Meanwhile, Claire manages to convince the two sorority pledges that they didn't really see her get impaled, that the water bottles they were supplied with were drugged. Gretchen fears for her life and decided to drop out of college.
Noah Bennett and the Haitian (who we now know is named Rene) come to assist. Bennett searches Becky's room at the sorority and finds one of those freaky compasses - and Becky. At the same time Claire is being visited by Samuel. We learn that Bennett had visited her father's house when she was five, out to "bag and tag" her father, who had some sort of energy-blast type of power. Bennett shot the man dead in self defense; young Becky's invisibility manifested itself as she tried to hide from Bennett. Becky is out for revenge against Noah.
Bennett is forced to leave when girls enter Becky's room. He finds Claire with Samuel, they talk, Bennett cuffs Samuel to take him away. Becky shows up invisibly to thwart the sbduction. In the fight Bennett is about to shoot (at Samuel or at Becky?), but Claire tells him to stop. He puts the gun away, and the two leave for the carnival.
Back at the carnival, Samuel promises his continued support to help Becky get her revenge. (We've seen his own taste for that sort of thing.) Lydia pulls him aside to tell him about a new problem: Sylar is gone. At the beginning of the episode Sylar woke up with Nathan's body and memories, and flew away before anyone at the carnival could spot him. At the end of the episode he visits Peter, and says he thinks he's in trouble.
Does "Nathan" remember any of the events while he resumed Sylar's form? Will the Sylar mind escape police custody? Will college dropout Gretchen notice when the Burnt Toast Diner makes the news again? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Monday, November 09, 2009
The Eighth Henderson Prize For The Advancement Of Liberty
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here's a 1962 documentary about the wall:
This is ABC news video of its fall:
The Henderson Prize awards key groups and individuals who contributed to the downfall of the Communist regime of the German Democratic Republic, and to the reunification of Germany.
Readers will note the absence of a certain Soviet premier from the list of awardees. I'm postponing his award. As stated in the post: "This occasion will be shared by individuals outside the Warsaw Pact (and outside West Germany) who contributed to the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism." I also want more time to research whatever prodded Gorby to dump the Brezhnev Doctrine and to institute his famous glasnost and perestroika reforms.
Posted by Alan at
12:30 AM |
This is ABC news video of its fall:
The Henderson Prize awards key groups and individuals who contributed to the downfall of the Communist regime of the German Democratic Republic, and to the reunification of Germany.
Readers will note the absence of a certain Soviet premier from the list of awardees. I'm postponing his award. As stated in the post: "This occasion will be shared by individuals outside the Warsaw Pact (and outside West Germany) who contributed to the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism." I also want more time to research whatever prodded Gorby to dump the Brezhnev Doctrine and to institute his famous glasnost and perestroika reforms.
Labels: Henderson Prize, History
Friday, November 06, 2009
Fort Hood Shootings
Yesterday I couldn't think of an example of a political scandal that imposes costs other than financial. It's beginning to look like a military scandal has done so.
A man voices pro-terrorist sympathies and doesn't get kicked out of the Army?
Posted by Alan at
12:55 PM |
A man voices pro-terrorist sympathies and doesn't get kicked out of the Army?
Terry Lee, a retired Army colonel who knew Hasan, told Fox News about a story he heard secondhand. He said a fellow colleague had told him that Hasan had made "outlandish comments" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and US involvement in them and that "Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"[He] made comments about how we shouldn’t be over there – you need to lock it up, Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee added.
Initial claims that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack seem to have been confirmed.
Nobody has confirmed this is the Nidal Hasan who made a pro-terrorist comment on Scribd - Michelle Malkin has that story among others in her bloggage.
It looks a whole lot like an Islamic terrorist attack. Or maybe it's revenge for that poor performance review.
Labels: Crime, War on Terror
Thursday, November 05, 2009
More About Lesson Two
I really should have elaborated. Corruption is a winning issue when voters perceive they are paying for it. Use of taxpayer funds for private purposes is a classic example. Embezzling taxpayer funds (as in the case of the Post Office scandal of the 1990s) is another.
Costs imposed by scandals to voters can come in some form other than financial. I'm at a loss for a real-life example at the moment, so I'll come up with a hypothetical local-setting example, with financial and then-some costs: politician takes bribes to look the other way while a construction firm builds its latest project under code, the building later collapses, killing a dozen or so.
People will react to scandals that hurt people other than themselves, but not as readily as the stuff that flies in their own faces.
The 1992 House Banking Scandal fits in a different category: an outrageous privilege that normal citizens and not even non-politician millionaires would be able to get away with. Let's call it the "it's good to be king" classification of scandals.
Check kiting without penalty is essentially an interest-free loan. It bore no costs to the taxpayer (not directly, anyway - ask someone who knows banking better than me if there are any indirect costs), but voters don't trust someone that careless with their own checkbooks with drafting trillion-dollar budgets.
Bribery is another prime example. Rod Blagojevich is Exhibit A.
So why didn't the Chinese campaign finance scandal have any legs? Isn't campaign money from a foreign government essentially bribery? There are two reasons for this. First, lots of people have a difficult time believing that this sort of thing could actually happen outside of Joe McCarthy's hallucinations or a Tom Clancy novel. More importantly - bake this into your brains, folks - people cannotbe adversely affected by adversely react to events they cannot grasp.
The scandal had too many moving parts for average folks to keep track of - and only parts of the scandal involved the Chinese government. The PRC is totally absent from the post memorable vignette: the 1996 Hsi Lai Temple political fundraiser. John Huang, Charlie Trie, and Johnny Chung do? Some may recall Hsia (pronounced "shya") was associated with the Buddhist temple fundraiser. (Did the ACLU ever weigh in on that? I don't recall ever hearing a peep from them.)
This also explains the limited effect of Whitewater. The general public has only a vague notion that some kind of real estate scam took place. Most Americans can't even name the real estate development - Castle Grande - that is central to the scandal. In short, it was a shady real estate development that illegally acquired funding from the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan; when it tanked the S&L collapsed - a Bernie Madoff shell game on a relatively small scale.
The Clintons were either innocent victims (they were Whitewater Development Company investors), or they were involved in at least some the illegal doings. This leads to another principle to Lesson 2: there's gotta be a smoking gun that the general public can easily spot. If there are such smoking guns regarding Whitewater and Madison Guaranty, they're not well known. Putting them in the pages of an Ann Coulter book is not going to reach the unconverted. (Believe it or not, I don't own any of her books.)
One more principle: the target audience must perceive the scandal as something bad. No-brainer, huh? Think again. The people who get huffy over Iran-Contra can't gain any converts because their opponents believe a) that Ollie North's activities helped to rescue Nicaragua from Communism, and b) Ollie found a legit loophole in the Boland Amendments - the US government couldn't give aid directly to the Contras, but it could deal with a foreigner (Manucher Ghorbanifar) who promises to fund the Contras. A lot of people don't see any problem with North Korea acquiring those two light-water nuclear reactors because, as MSNBC reports, they represent "a type of nuclear reactor that cannot be easily used to make bombs." (It's a mystery what North Korea is doing with any of its power generation.)
There is an exception to this rule, which I will cite in my summary of these musings:
Posted by Alan at
4:20 PM |
Costs imposed by scandals to voters can come in some form other than financial. I'm at a loss for a real-life example at the moment, so I'll come up with a hypothetical local-setting example, with financial and then-some costs: politician takes bribes to look the other way while a construction firm builds its latest project under code, the building later collapses, killing a dozen or so.
People will react to scandals that hurt people other than themselves, but not as readily as the stuff that flies in their own faces.
The 1992 House Banking Scandal fits in a different category: an outrageous privilege that normal citizens and not even non-politician millionaires would be able to get away with. Let's call it the "it's good to be king" classification of scandals.
Check kiting without penalty is essentially an interest-free loan. It bore no costs to the taxpayer (not directly, anyway - ask someone who knows banking better than me if there are any indirect costs), but voters don't trust someone that careless with their own checkbooks with drafting trillion-dollar budgets.
Bribery is another prime example. Rod Blagojevich is Exhibit A.
So why didn't the Chinese campaign finance scandal have any legs? Isn't campaign money from a foreign government essentially bribery? There are two reasons for this. First, lots of people have a difficult time believing that this sort of thing could actually happen outside of Joe McCarthy's hallucinations or a Tom Clancy novel. More importantly - bake this into your brains, folks - people cannot
The scandal had too many moving parts for average folks to keep track of - and only parts of the scandal involved the Chinese government. The PRC is totally absent from the post memorable vignette: the 1996 Hsi Lai Temple political fundraiser. John Huang, Charlie Trie, and Johnny Chung do? Some may recall Hsia (pronounced "shya") was associated with the Buddhist temple fundraiser. (Did the ACLU ever weigh in on that? I don't recall ever hearing a peep from them.)
This also explains the limited effect of Whitewater. The general public has only a vague notion that some kind of real estate scam took place. Most Americans can't even name the real estate development - Castle Grande - that is central to the scandal. In short, it was a shady real estate development that illegally acquired funding from the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan; when it tanked the S&L collapsed - a Bernie Madoff shell game on a relatively small scale.
The Clintons were either innocent victims (they were Whitewater Development Company investors), or they were involved in at least some the illegal doings. This leads to another principle to Lesson 2: there's gotta be a smoking gun that the general public can easily spot. If there are such smoking guns regarding Whitewater and Madison Guaranty, they're not well known. Putting them in the pages of an Ann Coulter book is not going to reach the unconverted. (Believe it or not, I don't own any of her books.)
One more principle: the target audience must perceive the scandal as something bad. No-brainer, huh? Think again. The people who get huffy over Iran-Contra can't gain any converts because their opponents believe a) that Ollie North's activities helped to rescue Nicaragua from Communism, and b) Ollie found a legit loophole in the Boland Amendments - the US government couldn't give aid directly to the Contras, but it could deal with a foreigner (Manucher Ghorbanifar) who promises to fund the Contras. A lot of people don't see any problem with North Korea acquiring those two light-water nuclear reactors because, as MSNBC reports, they represent "a type of nuclear reactor that cannot be easily used to make bombs." (It's a mystery what North Korea is doing with any of its power generation.)
There is an exception to this rule, which I will cite in my summary of these musings:
- Corruption as a political issue works best when the harm the corruption inflicts on the voter can be illustrated.
- The evidence of corruption must be made clear to the general public.
- The average voter does not devote hours to research a single news story. Complex corruption scandals must be broken down into a brief summary that stresses the most critical wrongdoings and evidences thereof.
- Know your audience. The purpose of campaigning is to reach the unconverted. Do not harp on a scandal that the unconverted do not find scandalous. One exception: if you can point out a consequence of the scandal that the audience has not foreseen, and that the audience does indeed oppose.
Update: Boldface statement is reworded for clarification.
Happy Birthday To Me
And also to my other blog.
Posted by Alan at
1:40 PM |
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Lessons From Yesterday's Elections
Lesson One: Obama's economic policy is the winning issue for the Republican Party. Look to the California 10th Congressional district special election. The district has been solid Democrat since 1996, and voted two-to-one for Obama - yet the Republican candidate picked up 40% of the vote. If Republicans can gain ground in California's Bay Area, they can gain even more in far less blue regions.
Lesson Two: corruption is a winning issue - well, except in Chicago. (I'm dead serious about Chicago.)
Lesson Three: as I commented at the Volokh Conspiracy, candidate selection should go to the party grassroots, not the party elite - even in a special election:
Posted by Alan at
1:30 PM |
Lesson Two: corruption is a winning issue - well, except in Chicago. (I'm dead serious about Chicago.)
Lesson Three: as I commented at the Volokh Conspiracy, candidate selection should go to the party grassroots, not the party elite - even in a special election:
I caught a bit of Rush Limbaugh today and he pointed out a mistake that everyone should have caught: the candidate was selected by smoke-filled back room deal and not by primary. He’s absolutely right on that. Candidates must be picked by the party grassroots, not the party leaders. Legislators represent the public at large and not elites, after all. Voters resent being treated like children being force-fed their medicine.
I guess that’s why they call it the Empire State...
VC commenter James N. Gibson observed: "Also, it seems the vote turnout was low: somewhere around 130,000. Just a few years ago the vote was 225,000 and the district supposedly has 650,000 people." There's a definite connection between low voter turnout and Lesson Three. Voters had three choices: the Democrat, the hand-picked choice of party plutocrats (try to say that three times without spitting), and the late-entry upstart. You want greater turnout, you run a candidate who was first vetted by the party grassroots.
My comment concluded with these bits of advice:
Hoffman didn’t have time to mount a decent campaign, but he’s got plenty of time for next year’s race. He should hold town hall meetings — especially in districts that didn’t vote for him. As any Republican should, [he] should seek to identify issues where those voters differ from Bill Owens, especially those that hit people’s pocketbooks.
In the meantime, the NY-23 grassroots should organize a campaign for new state GOP leadership. Do political parties have recall elections?
Hoffman 2010! Who's with me?
Labels: Politics
Heroes - Excursion In Texas
(Episode: Once Upon a Time in Texas. Spoilers ahead. The episode revolves around several Season One episodes; to refresh your memory refer to the Heroes Wiki article on Charlie Andrews.)
Hiro has gone back in time to save Charlie from Sylar, arriving just hours - if that - before the incident. He encounters another surprise visitor from his time frame: Samuel, who warns Hiro that while changing history can avoid the "butterfly effect," precautions must still be made. On separate occasions he gets Past Hiro to go back in time to Charlie's birthday party, to preserve their first meeting. He also gets Ando to stay at the diner and wait for past Hiro's return; IIRC, it was nighttime when Hiro got back.
In the diner's back room, Hiro freezes time (in a pretty huge radius) just as Sylar is about to attack. He loads Sylar into a bus and then goes back to Charlie. She's safe from Sylar, but not from her tumor.
Hiro seeks help from an unlikely source: Sylar. (Note that the two have not met yet, in unaltered history.) Hiro tracks Sylar down, uses his ability to avoid Sylar's telekinetic attacks, and makes a deal: he will tell Sylar his future if he fixes Charlie. Sylar agrees. He is able to arrest the tumor with telekinesis without seeing it, or even opening her skull; his intuitive aptitude ability is not visual in nature. Charlie's tumor is healed. Hiro lives up to his end of the bargain, telling Sylar in vague terms that he will kill lots of people but in the end he will die alone. (Hiro does not know about the Sylar/Nathan masquerade.)
While this is going on, Bennett is investigating the Sylar murders with Lauren, someone we've never met before. Because Company policy was always "one of us, one of them," she is undoubtedly a mutant; we never see her ability. Both discuss openly the idea of having an affair, but they nip their temptations in the bud; Bennett hopes to tell his wife and children some day about his dual life.
Charlie and Hiro argue about his changing the past; she is horrified that he must keep Sylar alive to keep time from going "kablooey." They eventually reconcile as she begins to accept the events.
She leaves the diner, Hiro follows, and finds she's not there - but Samuel is, and he says he's taken Charlie to the present-day carnival - where the two wind up shortly after Hiro shoves Samuel.
The ailing time-traveling carny Arnold is now dead, suffering the same brain hemorrhages as Hiro. He had pulled off two missions: sending Samuel back to Texas, when and where he knew Hiro would eventually wind up, and sending Charlie to a time and place that only Samuel knows about. She is being held hostage, to coerce Hiro into undoing certain past events.
The last scene flashes back eight weeks into the past; Samuel apologizes to Mohinder Suresh, who lies dead in a carnival trailer. Evidently Joseph Sullivan, the man whose funeral opened the season, is not the only fatal casualty Samuel wishes to undo...
How did Suresh get involved with the carnival? How did he get killed? How did Joseph get killed? How will Hiro react when he meets present-day Sylar at the carnival? Will he grasp Sylar's amnesia, and take advantage of it to have Sylar "operate" on his own tumor? Will Lauren resurface? When and where is Charlie? Does she get to eat pancakes for breakfast? Stay tuned.
Posted by Alan at
9:00 AM |
Hiro has gone back in time to save Charlie from Sylar, arriving just hours - if that - before the incident. He encounters another surprise visitor from his time frame: Samuel, who warns Hiro that while changing history can avoid the "butterfly effect," precautions must still be made. On separate occasions he gets Past Hiro to go back in time to Charlie's birthday party, to preserve their first meeting. He also gets Ando to stay at the diner and wait for past Hiro's return; IIRC, it was nighttime when Hiro got back.
In the diner's back room, Hiro freezes time (in a pretty huge radius) just as Sylar is about to attack. He loads Sylar into a bus and then goes back to Charlie. She's safe from Sylar, but not from her tumor.
Hiro seeks help from an unlikely source: Sylar. (Note that the two have not met yet, in unaltered history.) Hiro tracks Sylar down, uses his ability to avoid Sylar's telekinetic attacks, and makes a deal: he will tell Sylar his future if he fixes Charlie. Sylar agrees. He is able to arrest the tumor with telekinesis without seeing it, or even opening her skull; his intuitive aptitude ability is not visual in nature. Charlie's tumor is healed. Hiro lives up to his end of the bargain, telling Sylar in vague terms that he will kill lots of people but in the end he will die alone. (Hiro does not know about the Sylar/Nathan masquerade.)
While this is going on, Bennett is investigating the Sylar murders with Lauren, someone we've never met before. Because Company policy was always "one of us, one of them," she is undoubtedly a mutant; we never see her ability. Both discuss openly the idea of having an affair, but they nip their temptations in the bud; Bennett hopes to tell his wife and children some day about his dual life.
Charlie and Hiro argue about his changing the past; she is horrified that he must keep Sylar alive to keep time from going "kablooey." They eventually reconcile as she begins to accept the events.
She leaves the diner, Hiro follows, and finds she's not there - but Samuel is, and he says he's taken Charlie to the present-day carnival - where the two wind up shortly after Hiro shoves Samuel.
The ailing time-traveling carny Arnold is now dead, suffering the same brain hemorrhages as Hiro. He had pulled off two missions: sending Samuel back to Texas, when and where he knew Hiro would eventually wind up, and sending Charlie to a time and place that only Samuel knows about. She is being held hostage, to coerce Hiro into undoing certain past events.
The last scene flashes back eight weeks into the past; Samuel apologizes to Mohinder Suresh, who lies dead in a carnival trailer. Evidently Joseph Sullivan, the man whose funeral opened the season, is not the only fatal casualty Samuel wishes to undo...
How did Suresh get involved with the carnival? How did he get killed? How did Joseph get killed? How will Hiro react when he meets present-day Sylar at the carnival? Will he grasp Sylar's amnesia, and take advantage of it to have Sylar "operate" on his own tumor? Will Lauren resurface? When and where is Charlie? Does she get to eat pancakes for breakfast? Stay tuned.
Labels: Heroes, Television
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
The Envelope, Please IX
From American Thinker: Top ten moments in moderate GOP history
This list really should be expanded to include such gems like Nixon's price controls and regulatory expansion, Dubya's welfare spending, the GOP support for illegal alien amnesty, and TARP.
Posted by Alan at
12:20 PM |
This list really should be expanded to include such gems like Nixon's price controls and regulatory expansion, Dubya's welfare spending, the GOP support for illegal alien amnesty, and TARP.
Labels: Politics
Monday, November 02, 2009
My Reaction To The Scozzafava Withdrawal
The biggest loser is Newt Gingrich. He touted Scozzafava as someone who "fits the district," and she was polling third. The aye of Newt doesn't make such a great political potion, does it? Any reputation he had as one with his finger on the pulse of the political winds has been shattered.
Every Republican must run on a platform for lowering taxes and spending. Scozzafava did not support those goals. Even the Democrats slammed her on spending.
For those who haven't been following the story, Michelle Malkin has a rundown on key controversies. I'm especially angered by her support for card-check, the bill that would eliminate the secret ballot in union drives.
Posted by Alan at
3:15 PM |
Every Republican must run on a platform for lowering taxes and spending. Scozzafava did not support those goals. Even the Democrats slammed her on spending.
For those who haven't been following the story, Michelle Malkin has a rundown on key controversies. I'm especially angered by her support for card-check, the bill that would eliminate the secret ballot in union drives.
Labels: Politics
Today's Blogger Quiz
Can you tell Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos apart from Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs? Which one said this?
Posted by Alan at
1:50 PM |
GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava has bowed out of the NY-23 race, leaving religious right/tea party candidate Doug Hoffman nearly tied with Democrat Bill Owens.
The far right (led by James Dobson, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, etc.) is testing its grip on the Republican Party with Hoffman’s candidacy. At this point it looks like a death grip.
And which one said this?
One thing is for certain - the impact of the NY-23 saga on the fate of the GOP will have far more long-reaching effects than the simple question of who wins on Tuesday. The Republican establishment that at least pretended to speak to all Americans is deeply, deeply wounded, and a wild-eyed, exclusionist, birther religio-beast is taking its place.
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