Sidebar item? No, it's The Captain.

Watch the first clip. Not only is Shatner a pretty good interviewer, but Kelsey Grammer's life turns out to have been a lot more tragic than you would have guessed.

He seems friendly with Grammer, who's an out and proud Republican. Does that mean The Captain is...?

Of course, there can only be one Number One:

I think this one should have been on the list:

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)
Post contains 95 words, total size 2 kb.

Pirates are trying to distract us all from Obama's housing plan.

Will you let them get away with it?

Pirates seized a U.S.-owned and Italian-flagged tugboat with 16 crew on Saturday in the latest hijacking in the busy Gulf of Aden waterway, a regional maritime group said.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said the crew were believed to be unharmed on the tugboat, which he added was operated from the United Arab Emirates.

...

"This incident shows the pirates are becoming more daring and violent," Mwangura told Reuters by phone.

Obama doesn't seem to be doing much about any of this except distancing himself from the situation, so as to avoid being Jimmy Carterized.

But he can't distance himself. He's the president, not a senator, not a community organizer, and not a candidate for president.

As I figured, Obama is seeking not to solve foreign policy crises through action, but to avoid giving them any press coverage by studiously refusing any comment, hoping to take the oxygen out of the story and hence limit how big it gets. Not solving the crisis, but merely trying to keep people from envisioning it as a crisis that needs solving at all.

By doing so he's signaled a reluctance to deal forcefully with the pirates, and, surprise surprise, they've become emboldened.

It's not like the GOP can make hay over this, however. It's not as if any Republican president ever said that weakness was provocative or anything.

Incidentally, I heard some pundit or analyst say a few days ago, regarding the captain of the last pirated ship held hostage, that "of course the Navy is not even considering the use of force at this time."

I didn't mention that because it wasn't clear to me if he was speaking in terms of his own bullshit speculation or if he actually knew something about the Navy's orders, as dictated to them by our Lightworker in Chief.

Let me point out the obvious: I sure the hell hope that the US Navy is at least considering the use of force against increasingly-bold pirates.

I would hope that the Navy "considered" stuff like that all the time. Indeed, I thought that was rather their whole deal, as the kids say.

Related; Mackubin Thomas Owens turns the useful post he wrote in the Corner into a full article at the WSJ. Mostly the same stuff I linked last time, but more formal and still worth a read.

Via Hot Air, with similar thoughts.

More: From Jenjhis' overnight thread, How to Stop Piracy.

There are several proposals but I think we can start and end with Arm the Crews. Apparently some of these pirates don't even carry guns.

Posted by: Ace at 08:23 AM | Comments (6)
Post contains 491 words, total size 3 kb.

Pay Attention, Socialists

What is the cost to repair flood damage to a State Park?

If you're the State of Hawaii, $4 million dollars and two years.

If you're a rational human being, on the other hand, it takes eight days, the labor of only forty people, and a dollar figure low enough to not be worth mentioning.

"We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part," Slack said. "Just like everyone's sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn't wait anymore."

Thielen has been waiting, too. She wants the legislature to approve her Recreation Renaissance project, a $240 million booster shot to help fix parks across the state. Without it, at least five state parks may be forced to close, and there would be no emergency repair money to fix Polihale State Park.

"We shouldn't have to do this, but when it gets to a state level, it just gets so bureaucratic, something that took us eight days would have taken them years," said Troy Martin of Martin Steel, who donated machinery and steel for the repairs. "So we got together -- the community -- and we got it done."

Fascinating.

They preserved their livelihoods themselves, instead of waiting for the state to 1.) confiscate the funds from other citizens and 2.) take its slow-ass inefficient time getting around to actually doing the work.

And yannow, due to something we'll call 'Labor Union Magic,' these projects rarely get completed at the quoted cost.

So they took responsibility for their own destinies and the job is done, quickly and cheaply, and everybody happy (except for some state workers, maybe).

Really. Fascinating.

I don't think there's any analogy one could draw, or any great lesson to be learned here.

So let's move along. What did you have for breakfast today?

Posted by: LauraW at 05:10 AM | Comments (2)
Post contains 337 words, total size 2 kb.

“bfwebster,” who runs a most excellent blog called And Still I Persist sends in a heartwarming tale from Vanity Fair about The New York Times on the Precipice. It brought a tear (of laughter) to my eye. The synopsis of the article:

With a doomsday clock ticking for newspapers as we know them, no one has more at stake than fourth-generation New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who is scrambling to keep his family’s prized asset alive. Some see him as a lightweight cheerleader, others as the last, best defender of quality journalism. Talking to company insiders, the author examines the nexus of dynasty and character that has brought the 57-year-old Sulzberger to the precipice.”

But any of the other three stories they have in the “morning links” sections are worthy of lengthy posts themselves (along with a most of their previous material I’m quite sure). I wish I could steal all of them. Along with the Vanity Fair article, the breakfast buffet includes:

1. An article from The Economist concerning the worldwide adoration of President Obama. However, many here at home believe that this ongoing love-fest means that those who should justifiably fear and respect AmericaÂ’s remaining power simply donÂ’t.

2. An article from “The American” (published by the American Enterprise Institute) regarding a push by state regulators in California to ban big-screen TVs in order to save Mother Gaia.

3. Finally, thereÂ’s a link to a N.Y. Post article titled Anti-Piracy 101 which outlines some sensible and practical policies for stopping this bullshit, or at least curbing it somewhat. Of course that means none of these ideas will ever actually be adopted. There used to be a guy around here who did a number of posts about The Laws of The Seas, but I canÂ’t recall his name or the last time I saw him.

Anyway, many thanks again to the guys at “And I Still Persist.” Good stuff. I also notice that no one has yet turned in their completed Cthulhus from yesterday. If you could have those on my desk by Monday morning that’d be great.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:38 PM | Comments (2)
Post contains 437 words, total size 3 kb.

And if it doesn't -- praise to Obama.

Posted by: Ace at 01:06 PM | Comments (2)
Post contains 46 words, total size 1 kb.

Mos Def is pushing the idea that "authentic" blackhood means stewing in ignorance, and Crouch isn't having any of it.

Note he refers to Mos Def by his given name -- Smith -- throughout the piece.

Not long ago, after reading a black political blog, I found myself moving along, link to link, until I went from SmithÂ’s making hilarious fun of another rapperÂ’s insipid lyrics to a very disturbing appearance he made with Cornel West in a discussion with Bill Maher on Real Time some time shortly before the presidential election. That was a gully-low moment.

I found it disturbing because it was the contrived Mutt and Jeff act of a public—or pop—black intellectual and a guy from the bottom. Successful people perform that act in order to prove that they are still connected to the community. While Cornel West pretended to sympathize with “where he was coming from,” the actor ran through the counterfeit lack of sense we see too frequently in those always trying to make it clear that they have not “left the ‘hood.” Their mask of brain rot allows them to genuflect in the face of ignorance.

Just a few weeks ago, Smith appeared on Real Time with Salman Rushdie and Christopher Hitchens, but his pretentious "brother from the projects" act did not go over well. His supposed courage to "express an unpopular opinion" was taken by Hitchens as an insult to the common intellectual knowledge that anyone should have about big issues in the contemporary world. Unlike those white Americans who have presented black illogic as a form of popular entertainment since the days of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver, Hitchens was not having it and challenged Smith to back up his purported opinions. This is something the British are much better at than their American counterparts. Stuck in his act, Smith wavered forward, sinking with every syllable he uttered. That's how it goes: When the right white people are encountered, contrived ethnic authenticity doesn't cut it.

...

Whether they actually mean to or not, Smith and West end up condescending to the ignorant and the irrational as if that backwardness is no more than a version of “black style.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Ignorance is a lack of information, not a genetic defect or a “cultural style;” and irrationality should be fought at every step. Irrationality powered the toxic tribal blob that swelled over Hitler’s Germany and swallowed up its citizenry as well as their murdered victims. The exact same thing can be said about Bosnia and Rwanda. Tribalism. It is what it is and does what it does and can be recognized if we are not decoyed by color.

Of course, Mos Def hardly has a monopoly on lunatic conspiracy theories.

I think Baldilocks was saying something similar here in the comments, some time ago.

Posted by: Ace at 12:40 PM | Comments (2)
Post contains 486 words, total size 3 kb.

Silly Brits. Pants-pissers. So afraid of terrorists, when they ought to be afraid of anti-tax protesters.

A desperate search was under way last night for the terrorist bomb factory from which a suspected al-Qaeda cell planned to launch a devastating attack in Manchester.

...

A dozen men are being questioned after raids that had to be rushed forward after Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the countryÂ’s most senior anti-terrorism officer, inadvertently disclosed details of the police plans.

...

Ten of the 12 men arrested on Wednesday were Pakistani nationals who entered Britain on student visas.

All were from the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, the heartland of al-Qaeda and mujahidin activity. They appear to have exploited a visa regime described by a minister last week as “the major loophole in Britain’s border controls”.

The men are being detained on conspiracy and terrorism charges, as well as suspicion of anti-obama activities.

Via the College Politico's required daily reading.

Posted by: Ace at 10:46 AM | Comments (5)
Post contains 177 words, total size 1 kb.

Obama: I'm thinking pineapple and ham would be nice. It's light and "Spring"-like.

Clinton: Well, you have to get Sausage. My Bill knows his pizza, and trust me, he's all about his sausage!

Obama: That does sound good. Now what are we gonna do about those Pirates?

Clinton: I think they like Caribbean Jerk.

HT Drudge Report, which, in turn, linked to The Root.

UPDATE: Slublog wonders if this (possibly photoshopped) photo could account for Obama's apparent desire to dream his afternoon away.

Deputy Under Assistant Administrator for International Shipping Pooh: "It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'"

And Drew M. reminds me that Winnie the Pooh is, actually, an Obama administration national security advisor:

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.
Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

Posted by: Jack M. at 09:33 AM | Comments (1)
Post contains 235 words, total size 2 kb.

Remember when the left used to accuse the right of being cowardly pants-pissers because we were all so a-scared of terrorists?

Well, it turns out we were just scared of the wrong thing. Turns out we should fear our scary fellow citizens who protest tax and spending hikes.

They're the real threats.

And it just so happens that a new website is dedicate to tracking "anti-obama activities."

Anti-obama activities? You betcha.

A site dedicated for American citizens monitoring and reporting all anti-obama activities taking place on the world wide web.

A site dedicated to the preservation of truth, justice and the American way.

Where true American citizens can monitor and report all anti-obama activities taking place on the world wide web.

This is a place where one can post and report on all activities, web sites and or blogs that would be considered erroneous, slanderous or detrimental to the newly elected President of the United States.

...

They are extremely scared of this, so please for the sake of the American way, join our cause and root out these sites and post them for all the world to see.

Anti-obama activities. Unreal.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the anti-obama party?

Thanks to LauraW.

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (5)
Post contains 251 words, total size 2 kb.

Everyone's goofing on ASU here, including Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan.

I guess I'm partisan, but I kinda get ASU's point.

Lots of elitist digs at ASU, too. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Comments (6)
Post contains 80 words, total size 1 kb.