Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble
Another Monday. (Shrug). Let’s go…
- Oil’s down below $39 /BBL [1]as of this morning; It may be lower now, I’ve not looked in a few hours, but it probably is. That price spike we saw last week? A memory, nothing more.
- I note Reynolds [2] reccomending the Canon Powershot SD770 for $159, [3] and I concur. Hell of a deal, that. The A590 [4] is a great deal, too. As for how long they last… I have an Powershot A95 that I’ve beaten up for years now, and had no real problems with. I’ve been adding accessories to that particular camera off of E-Bay over the years, and it’s proven to be well worth it. Matter of fact, that’s a fairly decent way to get into electronic photography , is to get a 95, or maybe even a 65 off Ebay or somewhere… and get yourself some accessories with it. There’s a number of them under a hun, last I saw.
- Speaking of photography, I’ve been lax in posting my own photography the last couple of weeks. I intend to cure the problem this week. I just wish it wasn’t so darned cold.
- Speaking of that, we’re in the middle twenties around here at the moment, but we’re expecting Zero or lower by midweek [5]. But if you think that’s cold, let’s try up in Sarah Palin’s neck of the woods, where they’re talking around 70 below. [6] Yikes! And of course with all the snowfall and cold in the nothernern sections of the country, and reports of record cold for that matter, popping up all OVER the country… we’re still worried about global warming… and appoint a socialist to deal with the “problem” as I pointed out earlier today [7]. Think about this; When we were told that the polar ice was melting, and we were being scolded, told we had to stop driving our SUV’s because we were killing off poor polar bears, it was all over the headlines. Now that we’re busy freezing our asses off, shoveling snow off the streets of Malibu in front of the Streisand mansion, and polar ice is back at 1979 levels and rising, [8] when the Russians are saying we’re heading for an ICE AGE because the sun’s output is down, we don’t hear about that in the dinosaur media quite so much, do we? Think of all this this way, gang… When the ‘crisis’ they’re supposedly trying to fix with added governmental power, obviously doesn’t exist, perhaps it’s just more government power they’re after, huh?
[9]From the land of the traffic camera, (The UK, of course… don’t you watch Top Gear?)… comes news that in France they have parking meters [10]that send cops a text message when your parking meter expires. Here’s the deal; clearly this is a profit making move on the part of the government there. If they were about law enforcement and fairness, wouldn’t they add a feature to send you a text message when the parking meter was about to expire? It’s little things like that that let you know what they’re really about. I’ve said for years that most traffic laws, including parking arrangements, were far more to do with making money for the government, then they had anything to do about the public good, specifically public safety. Chalk one more example up to that point.- John, over at Powerline, makes an important point: [11]
It is commonly said that by storing weapons in mosques and firing rockets and mortars from residential areas and school yards, Hamas is using human shields in Gaza, a war crime. But the truth is really worse than that. Hamas doesn’t endanger civilians in hopes that it will deter retaliation; it does so in the hope and expectation that civilians will be killed and wounded.
This tactic is part of a larger strategy to create tragedy and disaster, which the Palestinians have developed into something akin to an industrial process. They build tunnels, but they do not build bomb shelters. They do not, apparently, suspend classes in schools in the midst of bombardments. And Hamas, with the tolerance if not approval of most Gazans, uses schoolyards as launching zones for rockets and mortars. Think about it: is there anything about a schoolyard that makes it a particularly desirable place from which to fire ordnance? No. Hamas uses schools (and mosques, and residential areas generally) in this way in the hope that civilians, especially children, will be killed.
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James Joyner notes this too, [12] in yesterday’s New Atlanticist piece, and concludes:This is, of course, the nature of terrorism. But it strips from Hamas whatever legitimacy one might wish to accord them out of sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians. By flouting rules designed to protect noncombatants from the ravages of war, they themselves are making it more probable that their own people will be killed. From their perspective, that’s a feature rather than a bug, in that the Israelis will get most of the blame and thus more funding and recruits will come in Hamas’ direction.
Of course, the result of such deaths is that they have something more to blame the Israelis on. Oh, and Billy, since you mentioned it Saturday [13], that’s precisely what the NBC that you mentioned with the gruesome pictures of children, is all about. You’re absolutely correct in saying what you did, but let’s have a full understanding of why they’re doing what they’re doing to their own children. And while we’re on the subject, shall we raise the question about why NBC is playing the willing tool in displaying what they did?
- Speaking of events there, Hamas does say that they’ve been hurt. However, they also say that they will fight on. Which, in a strange way, goes to the point that I was mentioning yesterday [14] about a multi generational flight for the culture here in the west. We shouldn’t be giving up, because the enemies of western culture… both inside and outside this country… sure as hell are not going to. No matter how badly they’ve been hurt.
- Venlet points to [15] a Steyn post [16] saying:
Hamas is a mental illness masquerading as a nationalist movement.
That’s about as correct an assessment as I’ve ever seen. Think about it; if nationalism were really what is driving the Palestinians at this point, they would have accepted the deal offered them in the middle 90’s.
[17]I’ve been saying for a couple of decades now, that liberalism is about altering reality. So when I noticed by way of a Rick Moran piece [18] in American Thinker, that PETA trying to rename fish as “sea kittens” I wasn’t really surprised. News flash, PETA, you’re not going to make any impression it all on the Chinese, that way. And frankly, a lot of people are going to need to consume much more in the way of reality- altering substances to follow your ‘logic’ on this one. Oh, and, by the way, Rick... I dunno if you saw, but that article caught a mention on FNC on Baier’s program on Friday. Nice… Michelle Maklin notes the thing [19]as well, calling it “Comedy relief”. I dunno as I be quite so quick to call it that, Michelle. I will grant you, that it could be laughable , if these people weren’t using that very same logic in their voting choices, and the rather tragic results that logically spring from that.- On another topic, Michelle on Friday, notes [20]:
My syndicated column today looks at the MSM sneering over Joe Wurzelbacher’s trip to Israel sponsored by PJTV, recounts how The Fraternal Order of the Professional Journalist has squandered its own credibility, and exposes how liberal media elites have attempted to shut out conservatives from membership in the journalism club by redefining their craft based on ideological content.
Look, let’s not kid ourselves, Michelle. The ideological content of their craft is always been the entry point to professional recognition. It’s precisely why since the beginning of blogs the dinosaur media has always been sneering and condescending . It’s precisely why there has always been animosity directed twenty the Fox News Channel for example. Or any media, for that matter, which is not in Liberal lockstep. Did anybody really think that the reaction to Joe would be any different?
- So, big shock, Obama says he’s going to have to scale back on his pre- election promises. [21] Let’s look back just a little [22], courtesy of Sweetness and Light. All together, now… “I tried, I really did..” There seems something of a trend, here. Do you suppose Democrats will eventually get the idea they’re being hoodwinked? Nah… if they were that smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats.
- It’s good to hear, Billy. Very good indeed. I’d score this a win, as well [23]. I’ll take the good news where I can get it.
- In answer to some mail, yes, I’ve seen the (rather numerous) references to Atlas Shrugged these last few days. Most of the traffic appears to generate from a recent WSJ article [24]. The comparisons are apt, but I don’t know as they get the point across, because I think the average voter’s eyes tend to glaze over when you start in with Rand. It’s useful, of course, and quite correct… but sadly, Rand has been demonized to the point of diminishing the usefulness of Atlas in public discourse, I think. Use Atlas as a template, certainly, for factual discussions. For example, the outright huge number of people and businesses leaving California [25]behind. That letter I posted yesterday [26]would be another way to travel. Make no mistake of what I’m saying, here, please. Rand will eventually be vindicated. There’s no doubt in my mind on that point. But we’re going to have to bring this thing a little closer to the heart to sell it, in the near term. In other words, closer to their wallets, and their daily lives, and their own prospects for the future.