Annoyed by the derision she gets for expressing "right-leaning libertarian views," she decides to annoy back and declare herself a capital-R Republican.

Her journey to the Dark Side is almost complete. (She can't be Sith until she embraces the "c" word.)

That's sort of the way it goes. When in DC, meeting with a couple of DC-area commenters and readers, we were talking for a bit about liberalism being the default setting for someone's politics, and how it takes a while for someone born into that default setting to get comfortable affirmatively rejecting liberalism. First comes the half-step of announcing a third party affiliation (for me it was being an "independent" or "moderate;" for many it's being a "libertarian") and only after a time saying, "Ah, the hell with it. Who am I fooling? I'm a Republican."

Not that there's no such thing as libertarianism. It's a real political system (or so I'm told). It's just that this country has a very binary political structure, and, at some point, most do have to decide which of the two parties is closest to their personal policy preferences.

Or, in reality: Which of the two parties annoys you the least, or whose bullshit is least objectionable. A lot of it is a gut-level feeling of sympathy or, more commonly, antipathy.

I'm not the strongest conservative on the blog-dial as far as beliefs, but I'm so damned turned off by the worse aspects of the standard liberal personality profile I come off a lot more strident than I actually am.

There's a bit more there about the need to attack liberals versus, as Ann Althouse says, the need to expose "nasty lefty" commenters' "lack of character, brainpower, and substance... [sarcastically] Yeah, more nastiness, that's what we need."

I'm afraid I don't really see much of a difference there, Professor. Reminds me of my favorite line in Love & Death:

"Are you afraid of death?"

"I'm not afraid of death... but I fear it."

"That's an interesting distinction."

I suppose the distinction in in the word "nastiness," but one person's snark is another person's Unwarranted Attack On My Very Humanity.

At any rate, glad to have her aboard.

I can't post her picture, because once or twice it's amusing, the third time on it's technically cyberstalking.

Posted by: Ace at 08:32 AM | Comments (30)
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I hope this isn't the singularity:

Computer hardware experts have claimed to be developing a device the size of a sugar cube, to record and store high resolution video footage of every second of a human life within two decades.

...

Prof Nigel Shadbolt, president of the British Computer Society and professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton, said: "In 20 years' time it will be possible to record high quality digital video of an entire lifetime of human memories. It's not a question of whether it will happen; it's already happening."

...

"Imagine having a personal companion that whines at you three times a day, telling you that you are eating the wrong things and that you spent more than you earned today. The scary thing is it might be foisted on us," The Telegraph quoted Lynch as saying.

...

Some of the feared that the advent of "human black boxes" combined with the extension of medical, financial and other digital records will lead to loss of privacy and a dramatic expansion of the nanny state.

No, really baby. I turned the human black box off. Look, it's off: see? The blinking green light means it's off.

Thanks to PetiteDov.

Posted by: Ace at 07:47 AM | Comments (18)
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I don't know if I have a problem with the basic idea. But anyone who has a website that gets any kind of traffic knows there are simply far too many comments/hosted pages/etc. to patrol.

The principle seems unobjectionable to me. It's just impossible to actually keep up with everything that may be connected to a website. And I actually did report kid-porn spam commets to the FBI.

But if you miss a kid-porn link or post, or don't keep proper records, you have to rely on the government's discretion in not prosecuting you:

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.

The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders.

...

After child pornography or some forms of "obscenity" are found and reported, the Web site must retain any "information relating to the facts or circumstances" of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.

...

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting requirements. But McCain's proposal is liable to be controversial because it levies the same regulatory scheme--and even stiffer penalties--on even individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

"I am concerned that there is a slippery slope here," said Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "Once you start creating categories of industries that must report suspicious or criminal behavior, when does that stop?"

Instead of fines for noncompliance, why not offer bounties of $1000 or even $5000 for tips that lead to the shut-downs of kid-porn sites?

Posted by: Ace at 07:27 AM | Comments (32)
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Rah Emmanuel parses Clintonishly, denying he ever "saw" the emails, but dodging the question of whether he "knew" of them.

CNN first reported Saturday that Mr. Emanuel, the incoming chairman of the Democratic caucus, was "informed" but never saw the e-mails that Mr. Foley sent to a former page in the summer of 2005.

An Emanuel aide yesterday confirmed to The Washington Times that DCCC staffer Bill Burton told the congressman about the Foley e-mails in fall 2005. The aide said Mr. Emanuel took no action because the e-mails were mentioned in passing as a "rumor" about Mr. Foley.

On Oct. 8, Mr. Emanuel was put on the spot during his appearance on ABC's "This Week."

"Did you or your staff know anything about these e-mails or instant messages before they came out?" host George Stephanopoulos asked. Mr. Emanuel interrupted with "No."

"George -- Never saw 'em," he said twice.

When Rep. Adam H. Putnam, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and a guest on the show, started questioning Mr. Emanuel, the DCCC chairman blanched.

"What you guys want to do is take your dirty laundry and throw it over the fence and try to blame other people for the problems," Mr. Emanuel told the Florida Republican.

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, called the news "stunning," and accused Mr. Emanuel of letting a "predator roam free" for "cold, calculated political advantage."

Guess they really were concerned about the welfare of Congressional pages.

Posted by: Ace at 07:19 AM | Comments (8)
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Not a lot that fans don't know, but a nice little piece. This is a good way to put it:

With Conan, Howard created a protagonist whose name is almost as familiar as Tarzan's. In his influential essay on Howard, Don Herron credits the Texan with begetting the "hard-boiled" epic hero, and doing for fantasy what Dashiell Hammett did for detective fiction. Suddenly, the world--even a make-believe one such as Conan's Hyboria--was rendered seamier and more violent, and Howard described it in spare rather than lush prose.

The thing is, he actually was a pretty damn good writer.

I sure wish I had a computer with more processor speed, so that maybe I could play the first-person decapitator/massively multiplayer online eviscerator Conan game coming out this year.

Posted by: Ace at 06:36 AM | Comments (15)
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If you're guy, at least.

Shrinks your wing-wang, too.

Someone get eight thousand bottles of soy milk to Moby, stat.

Posted by: Ace at 06:23 AM | Comments (32)
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Well, I can't win, but I could come in second. And beat Michelle Malkin.

My six neglected illegitimate children -- my "L'il Bastards" -- want you to vote.

And, you know, vote for other people, too.

Posted by: Ace at 06:19 AM | Comments (14)
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Killing people is a Constitutional right of free expression, you know.

Curiously, some liberals are in favor of gun control at home but expansive rights to buy guns for terrorists overseas. Or, you know, even here at home.

I praise the decision myself. I'm sick of The Man repressin' my right to commit or support murder for ideological or religions ends.

Did I just wake up in Nazi Germany? I'm allowed to kill people I don't like, aren't I?

In related news, solicititation to murder was just enshrined as a First Amendment right. Judges have decided it falls under the constitutional protection to engage in commercial speech.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (49)
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Because we can't have students exposed to real world things like competition and achievement.

H.S. Halts Publication of Honor Roll
Needham High Cites Stress On Students As Major Reason

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Needham High School has abandoned its long-standing practice of publishing the names of students who make the honor roll in the local newspaper.

Principal Paul Richards said a key reason for stopping the practice is its contribution to students' stress level in "This high expectations-high-achievement culture."

The proposal to stop publishing the honor roll came from a parent. Richards took the issue before the school council, which approved it. Parents were notified of the decision last month. Richards said he received about 60 responses from both parents and students and the feedback has been evenly split for and against.

Richards said one parent with three children attending Needham High told him publishing the honor roll is a constant cause of stress in her family. According to that parent, one of the three students routinely made the honor roll while the other two did not.

Another parent who didn't want his name used said his two youngsters, a senior and a junior at Needham High, both consistently received honors and high honors. He said he, "took special pride in opening the newspaper and seeing his kids names." He said he could also see how the publishing of names could put stress on other kids who did not make it.

Richards said publishing of the honor roll represented "an unhealthy focus on grades." He pointed out that there are lots of other ways that students achieve, such as in clubs, musicals, concerts, athletics and community service.

He said the ranking of students solely based on grades goes against the school's overall mission which is to "promote learning."

Maybe they should stop publishing the results of HS football games, too. Athletes, too, are victims of stress to win and outperform their opponents.

The whole article is at Fausta's blog.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (43)
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Because we can't have students exposed to real world things like competition and achievement.

H.S. Halts Publication of Honor Roll
Needham High Cites Stress On Students As Major Reason

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- Needham High School has abandoned its long-standing practice of publishing the names of students who make the honor roll in the local newspaper.

Principal Paul Richards said a key reason for stopping the practice is its contribution to students' stress level in "This high expectations-high-achievement culture."

The proposal to stop publishing the honor roll came from a parent. Richards took the issue before the school council, which approved it. Parents were notified of the decision last month. Richards said he received about 60 responses from both parents and students and the feedback has been evenly split for and against.

Richards said one parent with three children attending Needham High told him publishing the honor roll is a constant cause of stress in her family. According to that parent, one of the three students routinely made the honor roll while the other two did not.

Another parent who didn't want his name used said his two youngsters, a senior and a junior at Needham High, both consistently received honors and high honors. He said he, "took special pride in opening the newspaper and seeing his kids names." He said he could also see how the publishing of names could put stress on other kids who did not make it.

Richards said publishing of the honor roll represented "an unhealthy focus on grades." He pointed out that there are lots of other ways that students achieve, such as in clubs, musicals, concerts, athletics and community service.

He said the ranking of students solely based on grades goes against the school's overall mission which is to "promote learning."

Maybe they should stop publishing the results of HS football games, too. Athletes, too, are victims of stress to win and outperform their opponents.

The whole article is at Fausta's blog.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 11:14 AM | Comments (49)
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