Open Thread III: The Search for Content

Posted by: andy at 04:22 AM | Comments (204)
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At 10:31 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Monday, Aug. 6 EDT) the Curiosity Rover will attempt to land on Mars. It will be real interesting if they can pull off that landing which has been dubbed "Seven minutes of terror". You can follow the landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:58 PM | Comments (604)
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Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ~ Galatians 6:7 (KJV)

In that first video from Drive-Thru Douche Adam Smith, he was all giddy about getting a "free water" from Chick-fil-A.

In all the excitement and mockery, I had missed this piece by Jim Treacher about the origins of the water thing.

You might’ve wondered why this world-class tough guy was so eager to get a free cup of water from them. “Free water, free water.” He couldn’t stop saying it. He was so stoked about getting his free water.

Now we know why free water from Chick-fil-A is so important, courtesy of a young lady named Jackson Pearce. She posted this to YouTube last week, and it has over 600,000 views ...

Treacher embedded the video and also helpfully transcribed it to spare you from having to listen to this idiot.

There’s this Bible passage, Proverbs 25:21: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” So if you are not a fan of Chick-fil-A’s stance on hate, on August 1st I suggest you go there and ask for a large water. If they say that you need to order something, cite Proverbs 25:21. I mean, technically, if they’re operating on “Biblical principles,” they should give you an entire combo meal if your stomach growls, but let’s keep it simple. Just ask for a large water and nothing else. If they give it to you, then you just got a few pennies of their profit and less money goes to their hate foundations. And if they don’t, then I guess they’re not even operating under their perverted version of “Biblical.”

If you do this, by the way, please videotape it and load it to YouTube, and IÂ’ll put it as a response in this videoÂ…

In the non-apology apology I posted this morning, Il Douche confirmed that this is exactly what he was doing.

Treacher continues:

As long as weÂ’re throwing Bible verses in peopleÂ’s faces, why donÂ’t we look at Proverbs 25:22 as well? Just for kicks.

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

I'd seen reports of Chick-fil-A handing out water to people who were protesting them, so the chances of their giving Smith his free water seemed pretty good. I guess it never occurred to him or this Pearce goofball that the free water might come with a healthy dose of smiting.

Oops.

Posted by: andy at 01:30 PM | Comments (598)
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From Politico:

“The president and Democrats in Congress move into the August recess with clear momentum on the question of who to trust on taxes and, more broadly, whose economic agenda will benefit the middle class,” Plouffe wrote in the memo obtained by POLITICO. “Over the coming weeks, there is an opportunity to build on this momentum . . . .

One rhetorical technique is to portray your weaknesses as the opposite of what they are. So, for example, we have "Cap'n Crunch stays crunchy in milk." No, it doesn't. In fact, it gets a little soggy.

I knew Al Gore was an airhead long before he ran for president, but when he ran, there were a lot of stories being pushed that went along this line: He's just so smart, sometimes he likes to go off and think about things. Sure he does.

That kind of rhetorical stance is meant to head off criticism.

Lately, we've heard the Obama campaign ask: "Does Romney even understand how the economy works?" That happens to be the question people are starting to ask about Obama.

So, in keeping with that technique, Plouffe just writes a memo (obtained somehow by Politico, somehow) stating that Democrats have the momentum on taxes and the economy. Rasmussen differs: Trust on issues, Romney 49%, Obama 43%. I couldn't find a chart, but I would guess the gap has been growing.

That's some kind of momentum. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 12:29 PM | Comments (183)
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140,000 troops, backed into a corner of the Korean Peninsula, made their final heroic stand against the invading North Korean Army, and held the line. Pusan was a 140 mile defensive line surrounding southeastern Korea, including the port of Pusan. For the next 45 days, UN forces withstood multiple attacks from ten divisions of North Korean troops equipped with artillery and hundreds of Soviet T-34 tanks. Their stand bought precious time, for the Army to regroup, refit and launch a crippling counterattack at Inchon.

MacArthur's 8th Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Walton Walker (posthumously awarded his 4th star after his death in a jeep accident in December of 1950) rallied his forces to hold after crushing defeats in Osan and Taejon which virtually wiped out the 24th Infantry Division.

On July 29, a few days prior to the Pusan stand, Walker issued his famous "Stand or Die" order:

We are fighting a battle against time. There will be no more retreating, withdrawal or readjustment of the lines or any other term you choose. There is no line behind us to which we can retreat.Â…There will be no Dunkirk, there will be no Bataan. A retreat to Pusan would be one of the greatest butcheries in history. We must fight until the end.Â…We will fight as a team. If some of us must die, we will die fighting together.Â…I want everybody to understand we are going to hold this line. We are going to win.

Walker constantly observed the conditions on the ground around the perimeter, using L-19 light aircraft to fly over the trouble spots, and move his forces into position and blunt enemy assaults. USAF air supremacy allowed him to retask his troops as needed during daylight hours.

Their sacrifice bought the precious time needed to counterattack, and drive the North Koreans back. The failure of the North Korean Army to drive the UN forces into the sea brought Communist Chinese Forces into the fight, and another 2 and a half years of bloody struggle.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:31 AM | Comments (40)
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What do you do if you're a major television network under criticism for lame coverage of the Olympics? The Olympics you spent a ton of money to acquire the rights to cover, in the hopes of boosting advertising revenues with exclusive coverage of a major sporting event.

Well, some would suggest you adapt and modify your programming. Lay off of the silly interviews and back stories, and instead broaden your coverage of the events, try to capture the spirit and enthusiasm of it all.

Or, you could just step on your dick.

They chose, poorly.

via @adamsbaldwin on Twitter.

UPDATE: I'm being told (educated actually) advertising slots are scheduled well in advance of events, it's not easily changed. So I'll call it unfortunate and go watch some track and field stuff. And instead of claiming NBC stepped on their dick, I'll try to keep an eye out for mine.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:38 AM | Comments (296)
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It's hot enough to melt streetlights in Oklahoma City. We're all gonna die!!11!.

Oops. It turns out those globes were melted by a fire in a nearby dumpster. Alarmists hardest hit. Again.

But isn't this story the perfect metaphor for the usual behavior of the globaloney believers?

Just like when weather isn't climate, except for when it is, they picked a data point that supports their belief and accepted it with no critical thinking applied. What's the melting point of the material? Why are the globes only melted on one side? Why don't the other two globes show any signs of melting?

Who cares, as long as you can beat up teh eevilll Jim Inhofe with it, right?

Even if you don't apply science, can you not apply some common sense? What's the daily high temperature been in OKC? ~115 degrees? It's reasonable to think those globes are made of a pretty durable plastic formulation, not unlike plastic car interior parts. Car interiors routinely get ~25 degrees above ambient temperature in the summer due to the ... wait for it ... greenhouse effect, yet they don't melt. Why is that?

And of course, there are members of our unbiased media who can't even bring themselves to admit an obvious error.

Reality based community, huh?

(Another good piece on this at The Daily Caller.)

Update: Keep reading for an exclusive picture of two more globes associated with a rising temperature. more...

Posted by: andy at 08:43 AM | Comments (144)
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It seems Il Douche from the Chick-fil-A drive-thru has a new video out. When something billed as an apology has a 7+ minute run time, you're doing it wrong.

Posted by: andy at 03:37 AM | Comments (369)
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It is little wonder why libtards hate fracking. Natural Gas, Not Corporations, Killing Solar Power.

Burning coal to produce energy costs only $0.05/kWh. The real kicker though, is natural gas, which can be used to produce electricity for even less than $0.04/kWh. The bottom has dropped out of natural gas prices over the past four years. Gas costs less than one quarter of what it did in 2008.

So long as natural gas stays this cheap, and with the advent of advanced hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") techniques it may remain cheap for years (and maybe even decades). Thus, it will take solar a while to become competitive in the free market.

Posted by: CDR M at 05:53 PM | Comments (585)
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That was back in 2009, and the media lefties still haven't listened to ordinary Americans (never mind conservatives!) or learned a thing about why this is all happening, in the intervening three years. Not one thing.

It's hard to overstate how out of touch these people are.

Andrew Breitbart called them "decadent bastards," because they are. So smug. So condescending. So closed-minded and certain of their superiority.

Anyway, just a little trip down Memory Lane. Hope you enjoyed.

Posted by: LauraW at 03:17 PM | Comments (228)
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