Even Fox News' Ed Henry either took a dive or just doesn't bother reading #PhonyScandal news.

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 AM | Comments (241)
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Not sure if anyone is going to ask him about CNN's huge scoop on Friday. That might result in news, and we can't have that. The only news should be Obama's sixty three thousand speeches.

Live stream here.

Here are some stupid things Jay Carney might say about the CIA intimidating agents off of speaking to Congress, if anyone in the press is so daring to ask a question about it.

Frankly I wouldn't be all that surprised if CNN's White House reporter ignored his company's own scoop.

Thusfar... One reporter is badgering Carney a bit about whether the Al Qaeda "core" is "on the path to defeat," as Obama loves to say. Carney is insistent that the Al Qaeda "core," which is the Afghanistan/Pakistan branch, is "on the path to defeat." (Really?) But that there is some Variety Pack Al Qaeda, perhaps Diet Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda Free, which might not be fully "on the path to defeat."

UPDATE: CNN REPORTERS "FEARFUL" THAT PUSHING BENGHAZI STORY WILL COST THEM ACCESS: Perhaps the White House has issued its own Stream of Threatening Chatter.

Some CNN reporters are reportedly fearful now that their access to the White House will be hampered following their probing into a story that members of the Obama administration would prefer remain uninvestigated.

“Access is a very serious consideration when it comes to stories that could adversely impact a show, correspondent, or network’s relationship with the administration, a campaign, or any political leader,” one source with insider information told Mediaite.

“I would suggest it’s not an accident that those who have been given a lot of access to the president have generally been AWOL when it comes to stories that might reflect poorly on him,” the source, who did not wish to be identified, continued. “It’s the name of the game. And it’s bad for everyone trying to do this job the right way.”

Those reporters have reason to fear for their access to AmericaÂ’s executive branch. Some suspect that reporters who soft-pedal or underreport stories uncomfortable to the administration receive preferential access to White House officials.

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (213)
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As the video below shows, this technology is sort of old -- they had a working model at least as far back as 2009.

But the manufacturer just did a press conference about the technology, which is being used across the world now, so it's news again.

One chilling detail: The company that makes the Powered Exoskeleton is called "Cyberdyne." I've seen this movie, and I don't like the way it ends.

Also, I've seen Terminator: Salvation, and I don't like the way that one begins, ends, or middles.

Cyberdyne and Tsukuba University began hospital trials of the HAL suit in 2012 in Japan.

By October 2012 HAL suits were being used by 130 different medical institutions across the country.

In February this year, the HAL system became the first powered exoskeleton to receive global safety certification and it has now received a EC Certificate of Conformity in Germany.

This means it has passed the German safety standards of the TUV Rhineland agency and is allowed to be sold in the country.

Here's an old report on the tech. It's very cool.

@daveintexas notes that an American company is likewise in the Powered Armor game.

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Posted by: Ace at 11:28 AM | Comments (122)
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Eleven! Eleven is heaven!
Ah ah ahhhh!

You see those devotional candles over there, baby?

I got those beat. In my pants.

Another woman has come forward with accusations that San Diego Mayor Bob Filner made unwanted advances -- this time at a church fundraiser in La Jolla to heighten awareness about refugees from Africa.

...

"Oh you're so beautiful, you're so beautiful," said Filner, by [the married] Estill-Sombright's account. "I want to take you out. This is a private invite, not a social invite."

There's a headline at the top of that page, too, noting that 77% of San Diegans want Filner gone.

He's like ObamaCare with a visible erection.

Posted by: Ace at 09:59 AM | Comments (109)
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Via Google you can see the original headline, a bit of a downer for cocooned liberal partisan news consumers, but Politico decided the real news was that ObamaCare messaging has now gone local.

The first headline was not inaccurate -- one lone Cultist showed up for the Exalted and Ancient Rites of Communal Health.

So why the change from Interesting News to Uninteresting Non-News? Well, it's possible the White House complained. And it's possible Politico readers complained -- they don't want the news, they want a uniformly partisan messaging center they can link for their friends on FaceBook in order to Win Political Arguments.

And that's what the news is, isn't it?

Via Lachlan, thanks to @slublog.

Funky Link: I don't know what's going on but the Google Cached links are now returning the New and Improved Politico story.

Posted by: Ace at 08:26 AM | Comments (225)
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Sigh.

You can't even get through the first paragraph of the piece of crap WaPo piece linked above without getting bombarded with lies, but I'll fisk a little of it anyway.

First, let's set the stage. All purchases of guns from or through federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) are subject to the Brady Act, which established the background check requirement (Note: a permit is allowed to substitute for a NICS check in certain states). All of them.

And the BATFE provides the following helpful tidbit about interstate private sales in language so plain even a reporter should be able to understand it: "Please note that if a private person wants to obtain a firearm from a private person who resides in another State, the firearm will have to be shipped to an FFL in the buyerÂ’s State. The FFL will be responsible for record keeping."

Private sales between individuals residing in the same state do not require a background check. The left's rallying cry against all such sales used to be "gun show loophole", regardless of where the sale actually took place, but since that didn't work, it looks like it's time to try "Internet loophole".

So, on to the first graf ...

The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun show loophole.

Oh, my aching head. If you buy from an FFL or out-of-state seller over the Internet, you have to undergo a background check. If you buy from an in-state private seller, you don't. How f'ing hard is this?

More help from BATFE: "A person may only acquire a firearm within the personÂ’s own State, except that he or she may purchase or otherwise acquire a rifle or shotgun, in person, at a licenseeÂ’s premises in any State, provided the sale complies with State laws applicable in the State of sale and the State where the purchaser resides."

A new study by Third Way , a centrist think tank with close ties to the Obama administration ...

Hahahahaha. Centrist. Is there really any reason to read on?

Hell, even Politico's dutiful recitation of the "study" results called the group "left-leaning". more...

Posted by: andy at 12:47 PM | Comments (125)
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The other day I endorsed Nancy Mace in her run against Lindsey Graham. My one caveat was "unless someone better comes along". Well, it turns out others are coming along. Whether or not they are better than Mace is unknown at this point but the fact that they are running at all could be the key to unseating Graham.

At first glance, when gaming out GrahamÂ’s chances of surviving a multi-candidate primary and going on to win re-election, the logic seems simple: the more competitors, the merrier.

For a lawmaker who has long raised the ire of some rank-and-file conservatives with his deal-brokering and occasional breeches from Republican orthodoxy, there is a benefit to splitting the Tea Party vote into as many parts as possible.

But this line of reasoning has a potential flaw: South Carolina electoral law stipulates that a candidate must win at least 50 percent of the primary vote to avoid a runoff, and GrahamÂ’s chances of reaching that threshold could become even more difficult with additional names on the ballot.

And in a one-on-one runoff , all bets are off for Graham, who would likely have to fight tooth and nail for his political survival.

I didn't realize that South Carolina was a runoff state. That makes things interesting.

As the story notes, David Dewhurst crushed Ted Cruz by 11 points in the initial primary last year but in the runoff, the passion of the insurgents coalesced around the surviving challenger and Cruz won the nomination by 14% in the runoff.

Could it happen next year in South Carolina? Keep hope alive!

Posted by: DrewM at 07:14 AM | Comments (204)
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Trust our government to create an artificial shortage of the second most common element in the entire universe.

If you can't get the hicks in the sticks to vote your way, the obvious solution is to move the hicks into the cities where they'll be more reliant on government "help", and thus more liable to vote as the Democrats wish them to.

Millennials, let me rephrase this in words you hip kids can understand: You're going to be made to pay for Grandma's new hip and Grand-dad's boner pills, whether you want to or not. ObamaCare isn't meant for you devil-may-care kids; it's meant for the geezers and chronic sickies. But you're young and strong and can be squeezed like tender young oranges, and still naive enough to think that Uncle Sugar is doing it all on your behalf. The irony? Uncle Sugar is going to make you pay for this monstrous new program even though you're probably still living with your parents and working a part-time job to pay off your student-loan debt. I'll bet that this isn't what you were expecting when you pulled the lever for Obama back in the heady days of 2012, huh? Suckers.

I just hope the Millennials who voted for Obama remember this little maxim: a government powerful enough to give you everything you want is also powerful enough to take everything away from you. And it will, sooner or later.

The political left likes to speak of government-funded entitlements as "rights", but of course they're not. Governments cannot grant "rights" to their citizens; they do not have that power. What rights you have, you are born with. All a government can do is protect those basic rights. (Or not, as the case may be.) Health care is not a "right". It is a privilege we have come to take for granted. Even the poorest Americans have access to healthcare that kings of old could not have dreamed of. We all -- rich and poor alike -- marinate in wealth and luxury unthinkable even a couple of generations ago. Yet somehow this unparalleled wealth and freedom is not enough. We begrudge the time and effort it took to build and maintain the world we have now. We demand our "right" to receive things we have not earned, right now, simply on the basis that we are alive and drawing air. Besides being immoral, this notion has a more basic flaw: it is completely unsustainable. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. You cannot draw more energy out of a system than what goes in. Sooner or later, the battery will run down.

Coleman Young: the man who killed Detroit. His Majesty the King Barack Hussein Obama is bringing the same game and attitude to the White House, and with pretty much the same results. (This article might be paywalled; if so, just type the article's headline into Google and that should take you to a readable copy.)

I guess we can call this the "new normal": a piddling 1.7% rise in GDP is now considered "brisk". Yet reality bites our ever-psychotic business press as jobs numbers "disappoint". Maybe we can say that the economy is "briskly disappointing".

Chicago joins L.A. as finalist in the "Who Goes Broke Next?" Loyal Order of the Terminally Boned (LOTB) sweepstakes.

John Bury at Burypensions wonders when the NYT will find someone competent to do financial reporting. Dude, the NYT is not about accurate reporting; it's about giving Democrats political cover. This was pretty hilarious, though:

DetroitÂ’s bankruptcy and the problems facing its pension funds offer two important lessons to other communities. One is that state and local governments need to do a much better job managing retirement funds. The other is that they should not pre-emptively reduce hard-earned benefits at the first sign of trouble.

No more Social Security at 62? This might bother me more if I expected to receive any SS benefits at all. Or if I thought I'd actually be able to retire before I drop dead. (At least I'll have that much in common with rich people.) Some day we'll be reminiscing to the young 'uns that there was actually a time when people stopped working and just took it easy for the next twenty or thirty years. It was a time of miracles and wonders.

This is something that is true of both religious and non-religious charity: it sometimes does more harm than good. Charity can be an enabler of bad behavior on the part of the recipient -- that's why charity bereft of a moral component (as that provided by NGO's and government aid programs) is often ineffective. Just look at the untold billions of dollars of "charity" pumped into places like Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa over the decades -- it's hard to divine any long-lasting good coming from it. It boils down to incentives. It's hard to convince a poor person to plant and harvest their own rice or grain when they can just wait and be handed free bags of the stuff by foreign aid workers.

This is just too hilarious for words. Given that most of the victims were probably Obama voters, I can only give a Nelson Muntz-style HA HA!

Civilization is more than economics, to be sure. But a civilization cannot thrive without a healthy economy, and economic success -- individually and collectively -- hinges on a certain set of values and behaviors. We shorthand these values as "bourgeois", but ultimately it's more about a sense of personal responsibility, a sense of being the master of one's own fate. We are in dire peril of losing sight of these values and behaviors.

Perhaps our next big step toward being even more civilized – a step that has yet to be taken by a minimally sufficient number of people – will be when we come to regard those who lust to hold political power as being ethically indistinguishable from pickpockets, shoplifters, and card sharks. Our civilization will leap forward if and when it finally comes to pass that the young person who announces to his or her family a desire to enter politics is regarded by his or her family in the same way that mom, dad, Aunt Dolly, and Uncle Jimmy today would regard a young person who announces his or her ambition to become a successful house burglar.

UPDATE: Via Andy, noted NYT economist and Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman discovers that math is hard. Krugman corrects, noting humbly that "I confused x and 1/x", and then blames the error on the distortion field created by his hatred for Republicans.
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Posted by: Monty at 04:12 AM | Comments (195)
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Happy Monday. Today is National Underwear Day, so wear some.

ISYN, obnoxious congressional troll Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is exploring a presidential bid. In January, he threatened to quit the GOP if his fellow congressmen held up Sandy relief for the purpose of excising the portions sending money to things like, say, fisheries in Alaska instead of areas actually hurt by Sandy. He was also one of the few GOP congressmen to join the President's push for gun control.

In related news, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump are heading to Iowa this weekend. So is Claire McCaskill.

I'm not sure that we covered last week's Guardian scoop on NSA's XKeyscore capabilities here at the HQ. We might have, but I don't recall and after the Guardian's asspull on PRISM I think we're all learning to take its "scoops" with a large grain of salt. The XKeyscore claims are now falling apart, just like the PRISM ones did. There's more at Volokh Conspiracy.

GOP governors are not enthusiastic about a government shutdown. The shutdown threat, btw, as well as more general discussion about Obamacare defunding, was a big part of our most recent podcast (iTunes or MP3 link).

In celebration of the selection of the 12th Doctor, Jon Gabriel found some pretty amazing Doctor Who trivia.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (204)
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Slightly Late. Sorry, this is Ace. I didn't post this yesterday on the actual Hiroshima anniversary. But the Nation's Robert Scheer is once again writing the same column he's written 1000 times before, that Hiroshima represents the largest-scale terrorist attack in history. (No link; again, same crap he writes all the time.) So I wanted to make sure this got up. Now I'll turn you over to @comradearthur/ArthurK.

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(reposting from the last 2 years, slightly updated)

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked 68 years ago. 32 years ago Paul Fussell wrote this important essay, 'Thank God for the Atom Bomb'.

21 year old 2nd Lt. Fussell commanded infantry in WWII France. Later, he had to sit around waiting to invade Japan and die. That was the general expectation of the vets of the European theater - they didn't think they'd survive Japan.

Then Aug 6th happened.

When the atom bombs were dropped and news began to circulate that "Operation Olympic" would not, after all, be necessary, when we learned to our astonishment that we would not be obliged in a few months to rush up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing while being machine-gunned, mortared, and shelled, for all the practiced phlegm of our tough facades we broke down and cried with relief and joy. We were going to live. We were going to grow to adulthood after all.

The point of this post is to entice you click on the above link and read the essay. These excerpts give you a sense of the essay but don't include every example and argument. That's why you should Read The Whole Thing.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:35 AM | Comments (162)
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