This thread brought to you by William Carlos Williams and The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

(DonÂ’t be hatinÂ’ on this poem. ItÂ’s one of my favorites and Andrew Breitbart liked it, too!)

Take it away, WeirdDave:
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:46 AM | Comments (232)
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Team USA beat team Russia in Olympic hockey this morning. The USA won in a shoot out on a great goal by TJ Oshie. You can see the box score numbers here. I will post a video if I can. The game just ended ten minutes ago.

A Vine of the game winning goal below the fold. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:26 AM | Comments (296)
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Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

Read from the bottom up.

Volkswagen workers reject UAW in huge blow to union

One of the funniest things ever put in print:

During three days of voting, the UAW repeatedly complained of outsiders trying to influence and intimidate VW workers into voting against joining the union.

Imagine that. Outsiders coming in where they're not wanted. Stirring up trouble and intimidating people. The poor UAW wouldn't know anything about that, would they?

Posted by: andy at 03:00 AM | Comments (379)
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Happy day after Valentine's Day my pretties. We *heart* you all. (Well, most of you anyway.) Thanks for your contributions to keeping the posts current and the threads lively.

Today we bring to you a bit of tragedy, a reminder of the uniqueness of car design from years gone by, the start to a controversial race season, and a whole lotta How you doin'?.

First, and most importantly, comes news of the UAW defeat at VW's Chattanooga plant.

Volkswagen workers rejected the union by a vote of 712 to 626. The defeat raises questions about the future of a union that for years has suffered from declining membership and influence, and almost certainly leaves its president, Bob King, who had vowed to organize at least one foreign auto maker by the time he retires in June, with a tarnished legacy.

"If the union can't win [in Chattanooga], it can't win anywhere," said Steve Silvia, a economics and trade professor at American University who has studied labor unions.

Read the full story at the WSJ and revel in the sweet tears and the merriment at Twitter.

In very sad news, several Morons and Moronettes brought this article to my attention. It seems that a tragedy has befallen the automotive world.

The National Corvette Museum in Kentucky suffered a sinkhole which swallowed eight of their beautiful specimens. The video, at the link, shows the moment of collapse and it will make you cringe for what disappears down that hole. The good news, however; is that General Motors is stepping up to help restore the cars that were damaged. As the fella from GM says, thereÂ’s only one 1,000,000th Corvette to roll off the assembly line.

Countrysquire: I like old cars. Hell, I loveÂ’em. Sure, a new Camry will start every time you turn the key, not leak oil or boil over, and has a functioning air conditioning system. Still, todayÂ’s autos have been massaged in wind tunnels to the point that cars in there respective classes all look pretty much the same. Look at the greenhouse of the Ford Fusion, Toyota Avalon, and the just introduced Chrysler 200 and Hyundai Genesis. Same freaking car, and few have any character of their own. Before the big war, car manufacturers were doing their own thing and had stylists whose job it was to make each yearÂ’s new model stand out from the competition. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the cars of 1939.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 AM | Comments (138)
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Like I said: Every movie that made more than $30 million (not a huge sum) will be remade within the next ten to fifteen years. Every. Single. One.

This isn't a remake; it's sequel. Michael Keaton will return to play the ghost that... no one especially cared about.

Can I just say the obvious thing? Everyone watched Beetlejuice on cable not because it was a great movie, or because of the ghost Beetlejuice, but because:

1. Cable was still a new-ish thing and we just watched it for no good reason and Beetlejuice was on every single day. It was the "Rocky III" of ghost comedies. We were stupid and we didn't know any better.

2. Winona Ryder was hot. Not even a little hot. But like "Oh my God that girl is so hot" hot. So hot you'd watch a full movie just to see how hot she was, even though she offered a very flat performance. You'd watch to the end, just to see her pixie-legs in those gray stockings as she levitated into the air to do the calypso dance.

This was the only reason people watched Beetlejuice 30 times, and they're not going to capture that lighting in a bottle again:

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Posted by: Ace at 02:29 PM | Comments (913)
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Well, 'Rons n' 'Ettes, it's your friendly neighborhood Damn Dirty RINO again. I'm filling in for CDR M tonight since he came up with some cockamamie excuse about "defending the nation" or something. I don't know. But, inasmuch as he has friends who could "accidentally" drop an explosive payload on me from thousands of feet in the air at any time, I figured I ought to go ahead and do tonight's ONT. I may be lazy, but I'm not stupid.

Like everyone else, Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday of the year. It's the one holiday that seems immune to corporate exploitation, steeped as it is in Judeo-Christian tradition. And, as anyone who knows me will readily tell you, I'm all about that old-time religion. Sadly, contemporary culture seems bent on rejecting the ancient teachings of the Bible that have helped to sustain mankind for thousands of years -- particularly the verse in Peruvians 8:42, which tells us, "Honor thine life partner with baubles and sweets and flowers and cards and lavish meals and sparkling wine. Bedeck her in splendorous, yet scant garments that she may wear but once and cast aside never to be seen again. For, should thou forsake such worshipful genuflection, thine ears shall ring with vituperative hectoring forevermore."

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:04 PM | Comments (792)
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As promised ... or threatened, depending on how you look at these things ... we had CAC on this week to talk about elections, polls and all sorts of other fun topics. Enjoy!

Questions & comments here: Ask the Blog

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Follow on Twitter:
AoSHQ Podcast (@AoSHQPodcast)
Ace (@AceofSpadesHQ)
Drew M. (@DrewMTips)
Gabriel Malor (@GabrielMalor)
John E. (@JohnEkdahl)
Andy (@TheH2 and @AndyM1911)

Open thread in the comments.

[Ace:] Someone Suggested... we "reset" the site from all this gay talk with boobs.

Well, I don't publish boob pics. But you know who does? Andy, Dave, LauraW & co at The H2. Caution: Gigantic boobs.

Also, this is that video I mentioned in the podcast, when CAC brought up possible GOP Senate nominee Paul Broun.

[JohnE.]: Here are the videos I spoke about on the Podcast, by Australian scientist Derek Muller. The first asks if a large percentage of Facebook's official and legitimate advertising on the site is a result of fraud. Facebook appears to be okay with this because, of course, they're raking in money from it. The second questions Facebook's long term viability as a major force in the online world. I highly recommend watching these (they're about 8 minutes each); they're really interesting. You can also follow him here --> @veritasium.

Posted by: andy at 12:33 PM | Comments (101)
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This guy isn't quite in the NFL yet, but he's a prospect. Assuming he does get drafted, he'd be, as far as I know, the first acknowledged active gay NFL player.

Good, actually.

I know some people will say "Why tell anyone? Why put it in our faces?"

I think the answer to that is severalfold:

First, unless you acknowledge you're gay, you have to lie an awful lot to every day sort of questions -- "Would you be interested in meeting my friend's sister?" People get tired of lying, even if those lies are considered socially-acceptable (to the extent that some would rather be told a lie than be told that someone is gay).

Second, it's not as if there is no chatter about a gay person's sexual preferences unless he publicly announces it. It's not as if it's only his public declaration that makes the matter one of social interest.

"Is he gay?" is a very common question to ask about someone who seems gay. I know liberals; they ask this a bunch. They don't mean it an a bad way or anything, but yeah, people pick up on subtle signals and then speculate, among friends, if someone is gay or not. Conservatives of course ask it too.

Another argument that I think is misplaced is the claim that by saying he's gay, he's offering up lascivious details of his sex life and putting it "in people's faces." Well, saying he's gay implies gay sex, but as far as I know he's not talking about gay sex. If I say I'm straight, that implies straight sex or, alternately, alas, an appetite for straight pornography. But no one would take a statement of "I'm straight" as getting into the precise details of one's sexual practices and appetites.

I'm not "celebrating" the fact that this guy is gay, no more than I would celebrate my own unfortunately-disclosed enjoyment of Busty Lesbian Porn. I don't think any sexual appetite is really worthy of celebrating. These are animal impulses. I don't think they should be criticized, either. But I also don't consider being gay some kind of Ethical Choice to be praised. Gay say they're born that way, and I agree with that. So I don't praise someone for being gay, anymore than I praise someone for being tall.

But when I say "Good," I do mean this: I think lies are bad. I think someone feeling as if he has to lie, or should lie, is bad. There are some socially-acceptable "necessary lies" in the world -- the media gives itself a pass, for example, on what it considers a necessary lie, claiming to be "objective" and "nonpartisan" -- and while I would not rule out the necessity or acceptability of any lie, I certainly think that any lie begins on very infirm ground, as far as claiming the "necessity" of it.

Some lies may be so important as to be justified, but any lie must bear a heavy burden of proof to establish it as truly "necessary" and thus acceptable or advisable.

I don't think the pretense of gay people either claiming to be straight or resorting to clumsy evasions about their sexual interest is sufficiently vital to fall into the "necessary lie" category.

We should all have -- and I'm sure we all do have -- a heavy bias towards truth as the best policy, with lies limited to only those most absolutely necessary to spare someone's feelings or avoid serious conflict and the like. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (703)
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The Anchoress notes the outrageous proposal itself, which I mentioned a day or two back, and then notes the FCC seems to be walking back its anti-First Amendment plan.

From AdWeek:

The Federal Communications Commission is quietly changing course on a controversial study after parts of the methodology were roundly criticized by GOP lawmakers and commissioner Ajit Pai for encroaching into editorial decisions and content at TV stations. . .Regardless of the studyÂ’s intent, itÂ’s hard to fathom why the FCC sent its minions into newsrooms of the stations it licenses and ask questions about how stations exercise their First Amendment right.

The Anchoress counts this as a victory for standing on principle.

We'll see, though. This will be back. It will just mutate into a new form. This is what they want. They will never stop wanting it.

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (164)
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What is the problem with electric cars, marketing-wise? (Let's put aside their technical problems, and the problem marketing a vehicle with technical problems.)

Well, for a lot of possible buyers, an electric car represents a buy-in to a specific mode of life that is alien to them -- granola-crunchy, limousine liberal, soft-headed and soft-handed, and suspiciously European in taste.

This is especially a problem for a Cadillac electric car, as (I'm just speculating here) the Cadillac brand seems to appeal to two groups:

1. Older, wealthier business-oriented buyers, who are probably conservative in culture and politics.

2. Rappers.

Well, this ad is designed to appeal to category 1.

So here's what Cadillac does: They pitch to that exact demographic by making fun of stuff that more conservative people make fun of, chiefly, the French.

They do not sell the car on the basis of environmental impact. They sell the car on the idea that you'll be teaching the French a lesson in How to Be a F***ing Man by buying a f***ing electric car.

It's a ridiculous, brazen effort to turn the electric car from being an effete progressive's Trader Joe Run puttermobile into a red-blooded American's middle finger to socialist decay, and yet... well, you be the judge. It's a good ad, let's just say that. I don't know if they could ever possibly sell this idea, but the ad is as good a shot at it as I can conceive.

The actor here will be familiar to most of you; he's Neal McDonough. He's in everything. He was one of Captain America's Howling Commandoes; he played psychotic blond hitman Robert Quarles in Justified a season or two back. (It didn't end well for him there.)

He famously refuses to do any sex scenes (or, I think, even use profanity) in his roles because he considers that part of his Catholic principles. (On the other hand, he plays psychotic villains a lot, and so he does all the violence and menacing stuff.)

So here's Cadillac attempting the impossible: Trying to convince conservatives that an electric car is kind of a conservative thing.

It's impossible, and yet, I applaud anyone who attempts the impossible. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:05 AM | Comments (458)
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