Thursday, October 28. 2010
Thursday morning links
These misguided bozos want to control the weather: Prozac for the Planet
Fantasizing about a Global Climate Control Center
Improving men:
If women married men for who they actually were, there would be far fewer marriages.
Effusive praise for Jane Eyre
The elections:
Every Democratic president from here on out will have to reckon with the possibility that an ambitious liberal agenda in his/her first two years is apt to produce utterly crushing losses in the House.
They don't care. They got what they wanted.
Ariz. Law Requiring Voters Prove Citizenship Is Struck Down
Why not let everybody on the planet vote in our elections?
How they do elections in Illinois
How they do elections in Las Vegas
VDH: Obama is the Great Divider
Related, Post-Racial President Offering Up Racially-Charged Dog Whistles For Black, Hispanic Voters
Robin tries to have a calm, rational discussion with a Lefty:
I read something a while back about the Dalai Lama, which I thought was fascinating. He was asked what he says to "his enemies," to persuade them; that is, those who disagree with him about Tibet. He said that he doesn't argue with his enemies. That surprised the interviewer, who asked why. The Dalai Lama answered that it was a waste of his time and his energy. He doesn't want to absorb their aggression. I thought this was a profound lesson, and one that I have tried my best to follow ever since.
The DL got that right.
Obamacare doomed to fail, by design
Correct. We've been saying that for over a year.
Who do Lefties hate most? Their fellow Americans.
Correct. We have also been saying that for years.
Democrats' game plan: fake tea party candidates.
There is hardball and there is sleazeball.
Voting Liberal is genetic?
Balderdash.
Coyote: Way Past Time to Open Up to Cuba
Driscoll on Nazis, via Fausta:
...we�ll linger in Hollywood just a bit for some comedy gold from Rob Reiner. Yes, the actor turned director turned anti-smoking obsessive quasi-government official gets his inner Garofalo on and has the Orwellian � and staggeringly clapped out � observation that the folks who want to shrink government and reduce its interference in our daily lives are secretly the folks who in the 1930s built one of the most massive welfare states of all � and I don�t mean FDR.
National Socialists is what they were. Why it's called "right" I do not understand. Nazi Germany was a socialist police state, and every bit as deserving of the Left's repect as Mao, Pol Pot, or Fidel.
Univision Set to Become Top U.S. Broadcast Network
The Globe goes to bat for Barney Frank
WSJ: The EPA wants to take away 7% of U.S. power generation.
Climate Craziness of the Week: Save the planet, combine your emails into longer messages
Or why not just have the government charge 37 cents per email? That would be good for Gaia.
Little Willingness to Cut Back Among Those Who Get Government Benefits:
Roughly one-quarter of Americans say they receive some form of cash benefits from the government, and most are not willing to sacrifice any of that money to help cut the size of the federal budget.
"If women married men for who they actually were, there would be far fewer marriages."
I don't recall the author, but years ago I read somewhere that men marry in the hope that the woman will remain the same, and women marry in the hope the man will change.
#1 Mystery Meat (Link) on 2010-10-28 07:34 (Reply)
I have to agree that Jane Eyre is the best novel ever, and a work of genius for first-person narrative. It is a consuming work.
#2 D on 2010-10-28 07:53 (Reply)
Robin and the Dalai Lama sound a lot like Lincoln:
"Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite."
http://weblog.theviewfromthecore.com/2009_02/ind_005674.html
#3 ELC (Link) on 2010-10-28 09:59 (Reply)
"Why not let everybody on the planet vote in our elections?"
Remember how then-Senator Obama went to Berlin to court the all-important German-national vote?
By the way, I'm a Canadian living in Canada with no legal connection to the US at all, either through residency, business or family connections.
I do love popping down to Vermont whenever I can though.
I guess this means I'm fully eligible to vote too!
#4 JJM on 2010-10-28 10:05 (Reply)
Univision is unlikely to become the top rated network, for a variety of reasons. Though there is ONE reason why it may.
1. Growth of Spanish speakers is set to level off in about 2012. This is pretty well documented. It's one reason Univision was sold off a few years ago - the growth curve was diminishing.
2. If Spanish speakers don't keep growing, Univision has to adopt a "Spanglish" policy of airing shows. It may have already - but it used to have a Spanish only dictate. Still, this would only allow it to compete directly with the top networks, not surpass them.
3. Univision is a hegemonic monster in its space. That is, Spanish language broadcasting. The best stuff comes from Mexico, Televisa in particular, and they have it all locked up. They literally have little or no real competition.
The main reason they COULD become #1 is this:
US broacasting and cable has become so niche, so broken up, and so BAD - just OVERWHELMINGLY BAD - that people are viewing less and less TV.
Univision's "Telenovelas" are not Soap Operas in the traditional sense. They have endings. They have story arcs that feed into the everyday feelings of people in a way Soap Operas don't. As a result, their programming connects in a more meaningful way with its audience. This make Univision a trusted and reliable "friend" in a way no US network is.
But I still think it's unlikely.
If I watched TV, I might disagree with you.
#5.1 Gringo on 2010-10-28 15:16 (Reply)
I made a few sincere efforts toward changing my sweetheart after we married. I quickly realized several things.
1. I didn't have a right to make her change.
2. The changes I hoped for would far more burden to her than blessing to me.
3. It wasn't going to happen anyway.
Quit trying.
I have noticed one thing: no matter how wide our sheets and blankets, if it's chilly, I will not be able to keep much. "One good turn gets most of the covers..."
#6 Geoff Brown on 2010-10-28 14:59 (Reply)
In prozac for the planet, it is obvious the writer is a true believer in AGW. It always amazes me that liberal arts majors who never had a physics or math course will repeat talking points and staunchly promote AGW. Of course, in the 1970s the same type of people were declaring we were all going to die from global cooling.
#7 Ray on 2010-10-28 15:41 (Reply)
The Dalai Lama is a fraud. The guy is a Tibetan Al Sharpton, plying a shtick that gets him five-star hotels, and meetings with heads of state and movie-star celebrities, and lots of dough. If the Chinese ever vacated Tibet, there isn't one chance in a million that he'd leave off being the international superstar faith hustler Dalai Lama to go back to being head of a tiny, isolated third world country no one could give a rats ass about. This phony is the anti-Mandela.
#8 joe on 2010-10-29 06:59 (Reply)
In reply to [ Top level ]#1: Mystery Meat on 2010-10-28 07:34 #2: D on 2010-10-28 07:53 #3: ELC on 2010-10-28 09:59 #4: JJM on 2010-10-28 10:05 #5: Rick on 2010-10-28 13:41 #5.1: Gringo on 2010-10-28 15:16 #6: Geoff Brown on 2010-10-28 14:59 #7: Ray on 2010-10-28 15:41 #8: joe on 2010-10-29 06:59