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Monday, January 31, 2011

 
Busy Week

Enjoy a little Benny Goodman.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

 
Change!

N1ne Democrats in Lamar County, Texas flip to Republican.

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What The Greek Riots Looked Like

DailyPundit has photos.

(Hat tip to the Rott)

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Monday, January 24, 2011

 
There Walks A Lady We All Know

From a comment I left at Transterrestrial Musings, regarding the Piven affair:

You might be a leftist if you think Sarah Palin's "target map" sends subliminal messages that incite violence (does that make her visual aid the "Stairway to Heaven" of of this era?) , but an article in The Nation overtly calling for riots has no such influence.

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Who Is Frances Fox Piven?

Stanley Kurtz has a brief history. This is the centerpiece:

Calls for the escalation and manipulation of violent rioting have long been central to Piven’s strategy. Her 1977 book with Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, detailed the rationale behind the infamous crisis strategy of a decade before. The core argument is that the poor and unemployed are so isolated from the levers of power in America that their greatest potential impact is to withhold “quiescence in civil life: they can riot.”

So how did a book as old as Star Wars make it to today's news?

Piven is now a professor of political science and sociology at the City University of New York. She has also written for The Nation, "the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States" - and a decidedly left-leaning one at that. An article from last month grabs Kurtz's attention:

In her December 2010 Nation column, Piven wrote: “Local protests have to accumulate and spread — and become more disruptive — to create pressures on national politicians. An effective movement of the unemployed will have to look something like the strikes and riots that have spread across Greece. . . .” Given Piven’s strategic stance, it’s clear that she and The Nation are in fact calling for violence. Her denial of this lacks all credibility. Similarly, when The Nation’s editors defend Piven by referring to her support for “civil disobedience” and “street protest,” they are attempting to create the impression that Piven is a virtual disciple of Martin Luther King Jr., when in fact her longstanding strategy has little if anything to do with nonviolence.

In this post, Glenn Reynolds links this reminder of what the Greek riots looked like.

Glenn Beck is making an issue of the article, and leftists are telling him he's out of line. Excuse me? A lot of these folks are the same ones who went ballistic** over a visual aid with symbols that people unfamiliar with guns would mistake for crosshairs (note: Loughner was quite familiar with guns) - but a woman openly advocating rioting gets a pass?

(**I swear I didn't notice the irony until immediately after I typed that word.)

I wonder if anyone has asked retired University of Illinois at Chicago professor Bill Ayers what he thinks of all this.

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Suicide Bomber Attack At Moscow's Domodedovo Airport

Early reports say 31 dead, over 150 wounded.

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The Envelope, Please IV

Best 25 liberal movies ever made, as ranked by conservative John Nolte.

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The More You Tighten Your Grip, The More Businesses Will Slip Through Your Fingers

Illinois tax hikes drive away their first business from the tax rolls.

Hat tip to Princess Leia for the cultural reference in the title.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

 
Random Thought

How many of those folks condemning the use of gun-related metaphors have this in their music collections?

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Monday, January 17, 2011

 
Happy Civil Rights Day!

What I said then.

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Friday, January 14, 2011

 
I Cannot Say The Word "No" Enough Times To Express My Displeasure With This

This basketball stadium is an assault on the eyes.

What next, a vuvuzela section in the marching band?

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

 
Post Mortem

Read Jennifer Rubin's summary of what went wrong in the tidal wave of unhinged reactions to the Tucson shootings.

One problem, I will note, is that the Krugmans and Olbermanns could see only one possible motive for shooting a Democratic Congresswoman, and that there is only one general political class of Americans harbors that motive -as if liberals were incapable of offending other liberals.

Turns up Loughner had an obsession with Giffords dating back to 2007 - before there was a Tea Party, before Sarah Palin got national attention. And his frustration with the Congresswoman hinged on something that virtually nobody in politics pays attention to:

As Giffords clings to life and doctors watch swelling in her brain for signs of a continued miraculous recovery, her family, friends and political supporters are learning the chilling news that Loughner met the congresswoman at a similar event in 2007 and told his few remaining friends that he was not satisfied with her response to his question, which he intended to spur a discussion about the government’s manipulation of grammar.

Loughner’s friends tell reporters that when the alleged killer met Giffords in 2007, he asked her “How do you know words mean anything?" and that the congresswoman responded with a few phrases in Spanish, presumably thinking he was referring to the bilingualism of the border district, and moved on.

For a little more insight into the alleged shooter, check out this Mother Jones interview with Loughner friend Bryce Tierney.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

 
I Shouted Out, "Who Killed The Kennedy Miniseries"

When after all, it was Caroline and Maria.

(hat tip to Mick and the boys for the musical reference)

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A Town Where Michael Vick Could Get Elected Dogcatcher

In Reconvilier, Switzerland, the penalty for not paying your dog tax is stiff.

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

 
The Envelope, Please III

Top ten education quotes of the year, from EIA. At Number One:

"You will literally be fired, whoever you are. You must spend this money." - Maura Policelli, U.S. Department of Education's senior advisor for external affairs, describing what will happen to school officials who don't spend their stimulus money by the end of next year. (July 27 Thompson)

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Has The Rhetoric Of The American Left Ever Been More Vicious?

Required reading for the week: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel.

And there's this comment at Althouse's blog:

Anyone else find it creepy that new standard what me may and may not say is: How will it affect the behavior of an abviously crazy person who may or may not hear it?

And that standard is being set by people who are quite literally insane.

In that post, Althouse links Rush Limbaugh's long list of incidents the Left tried to blame on the Right.

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Sunday, January 09, 2011

 
Virginia Postrel's Star Trek Fan Survey

Right here.

Note: if you fail to enter the correct phrases for the Captcha anti-spambot filter, you'll get this warning: "Captcha verification failed. you may not be human. please try again." I bet the Klingons are not amused.

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Friday, January 07, 2011

 
Ripoff Du Jour

Spatula City reports that the Dallas Morning News will start charging $16.95/month (or roughly $4.24/week) for access to some of its online content. The service includes an iPad app.

Let's compare to the Wall Street Journal's subscription deal. Most articles can be accessed for free, but some (like certain guest editorial articles) require paid subscription. The weekly prices are:

Online Journal: $1.99
Print Journal: $2.29
Print + online: $2.69 (plus 2 free weeks, requires 54-week subscription)

This ain't gonna fly, DMN.

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Wednesday, January 05, 2011

 
The Envelope, Please II

Top eleven underreported stories of 2010.

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The Great Wall Of - Greece?

Okay, this really freaks me out - that Greece is trying to keep out illegal immigrants with a border fence. Nothing wrong with the concept - it just means that the Turkey must be in truly pathetic shape if a bunch of their citizens want to flee to their economic basket-case Hellenic neighbor.

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Monday, January 03, 2011

 
Predictions For 2011

Julian Assange will be cleared of all charges. He will be hired as the new head coach for the Dallas Cowboys, shortly after being seen entering Jerry Jones' house with a stack of playbooks under one arm.

Heated debates during the opening session of the 112th Congress will cause the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol to partially melt.

North Korea's saber-rattling will be met with economic sanctions and a threat to make a sequel to Team America: World Police.

Lindsey Lohan will compete on Dancing With the Stars, but will go into rehab in the middle of a tango.

A Wiccan group in Vancouver will announce plans to burn copies of Harry Potter books on July 31, author J. K. Rowling's birthday, claiming that the fantasy series makes their religion look lame by comparison.

Greece will attempt to balance its budget by selling Parthenon timeshares.

Running out of ideas, one of the major networks will announce for the fall season a reality show set in a Chilean mine.

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Year In Review

As only Dave Barry can do.

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The Envelope, Please

Ten worst predictions for 2010, from Foreign Policy.

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Saturday, January 01, 2011

 
From The Home Office In Knoxville

Top 10 Things Overheard At The Secret Bloggers' Other New Years Eve Bash

  1. "So, what do you think people will be saying about Ezra Klein's blog over a hundred years from now?"
  2. "Glenn's got a new way to find out how much his guests have been drinking - he sees how long it takes them to type 'indeed.'"
  3. "Someone get Drezner away from the karaoke machine!"
  4. "My blog is so obscure, MSNBC has more traffic."
  5. "Steve Green just crashed the HuffPo party - Arianna wants to know if we can spare some extra vodka."
  6. "At midnight we're dropping a large flaming donkey pinata."
  7. "Let me try that again...'indeed' has just one 'n,' right?"
  8. "Feeeeeelings, woh, woh, woh, feeeeeeeeeeeeelings..."
  9. "Want to head to my place and see my fiskings?"
  10. "Hey Glenn, your guest list just made WikiLeaks!

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