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Check out my tinder account.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:20 AM | Comments (566)
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The Weekly Standard has a piece nicely illustrating my point on the last podcast about the government being the main obstacle to economic dynamism. Pity the poor bureaucrats.

Speaking of innovations that can spur the economy, have you heard about the crowdfunding project for a movie about Kermit Gosnell's house of abortion horrors? Well you wouldn't have if Kickstarter had their way.

And of course my favorite leftist boot on the neck of the economy comes from the greens, who just got the 5th installment of the IPCC's report on Global Warming or whatever they're calling it now. The Heartland Institute has a report from the climate realist side that rubbishes any claim of "consensus" (for whatever that's worth) but it's hard for people to hear about it when the newsertainment business propagandizes for the other side.

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Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:00 PM | Comments (747)
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For your non-eclipse needs

Posted by: CAC at 04:19 PM | Comments (132)
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Ace posted on Friday about two sentence horror stories, and Oregon Muse mentioned them again in the Book Thread.

So...how about an open thread for Morons' versions of them? more...

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[We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Open Thread down page, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic. Enjoy!]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge! Whether you have a question about equipment, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly astronomical journey.

This week, we enjoy a fantastic sight: a red moon eclipsed by our home, joined by the showstoppers of our solar system. Let's dive in!
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Posted by: CAC at 04:30 PM | Comments (56)
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Warning Shots

The left continues to soil itself over Florida's so-called "warning shot" bill.

Fortunately, we at the HQ know that anytime they talk about gun laws (a) they're virtually guaranteed to be wrong and (b) we can turn to Andrew Branca to get the real story:

Much of the discussion of SB-448 is replete with terms like “warning shot” and “stand-your-ground.” In reality, however, the law does not even mention the term “warning shot,” nor does it make any substantive changes whatever to Florida’s stand-your-ground law.

...

The bill is prefaced with a legislative statement that notes that people have been criminally prosecuted and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences under Florida’s “10-20-Life” statute for having threatened the use of force in circumstances where an actual use of force would have been justifiable under Florida’s self-defense laws (chapter 776).

In essence, the legislature is identifying as a problem the fact that prosecutors are sending defendants to prison for long periods of time for having threatened force, whereas if those same defendants had actually used force their actions would have been lawfully justified.

Be sure to read the whole thing.

Image h/t @ShivaPundit

Related, if you're on Twitter, you should follow Branca if for no other reason than to watch the pummeling the leftwing loons at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are about to receive.

Also, if you happen to be in the Indianapolis area, Branca's speaking at the NRA Annual Meeting beginning at 3:45pm on April 25th.

Gun Of The Week

(answer below) more...

Posted by: andy at 12:55 PM | Comments (192)
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I am torn between being somewhat amused, and biting back "You can't possibly be that stupid."

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:58 AM | Comments (206)
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C'mon in. Don't cost nothin'.

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(The interior of Rizzoli bookstore on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Credit Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times )

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Blue City Blues

Manhattan used to have a ton of bookstores, but now they're disappearing:

Rising rents in Manhattan have forced out many retailers, from pizza joints to flower shops. But the rapidly escalating cost of doing business there is also driving out bookstores, threatening the cityÂ’s sense of self as the center of the literary universe, the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers.

And rents in Manhattan are like nowhere else:

“They were unsustainable,” Ms. McNally said. “Small spaces for $40,000 or more each month. It was so disheartening.”

I remember Rush Limbaugh complaining about this years ago when he lived in an apartment in New Yord City. He said, you just have to adjust your thinking to understand the rent situation in NYC. And back then, it was only $10,000 per month.

Naturally, an exquisitely liberal publication like the New York Times isn't going to mention this, but New York City is one of the most rent-controlled cities in the world, where building owners are saddled with a bewildering array of housing regulations and rules about what kind of rents they may or may not charge their tenants. The idea that these burdensome housing regulations may be a factor behind the high rents simply does not enter into their minds.

Years ago, as one of my first purchases through the 'Conservative Book Club' (remember that?), I picked up Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies by William Tucker, who presented a large amount statistical evidence to prove a correlation between high rates of homelessness and rent control. Along the way, he spent a lot of time talking about NYC rent control and I was surprised to learn that Manhattan, now the home of $40,000/month rents, used to have so much housing that they practically had to give it away. Rents were affordable by practically everybody. Then they imposed rent control during WWII as a "temporary war-time measure" and that introduced distortions in the housing market that have become permanent. And nobody wants to repeal any of these regulations because too many politicians and legislators have used their positions of influence secured sweet, sweet deals for themselves (like a nice, upstairs apartment for $237.50 per month) and so there's no way they're going to want to change anything.

So the closings continue:

Independents like Coliseum Books, Shakespeare and Company on the Upper West Side, Endicott Booksellers and Murder Ink have all closed their doors.

And it's not just the little guys:

But now the chain stores are shutting down, too. Since 2007, five Barnes & Noble stores throughout Manhattan have closed, including its former flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, which was shuttered in January. Five Borders stores in Manhattan were closed in 2011 when the chain went bankrupt, vacating huge spaces on Park Avenue, near Penn Station and in the Shops at Columbus Circle.

I'm tempted to jeer at the wealthy Manhattan liberals who have brought this turn of events upon themselves. Still, I hate to see all these bookstores closing their doors, and I hope that somehow, the trend can be reversed.

PS- Rush also mentioned that he couldn't get a garbage disposal installed in his kitchen because of the contract the building had with the garbage-collectors' union.

The Boss Always Finds The Good Stuff First

On Friday, ace posted a link to these two sentence horror stories. Some of them are deliciously creepy. I'm trying to think of one myself, but only could come up with this, inspired by Lovecraft, and it's kind of lame:

As I was gazing at the old photo of my grandfather, I happened to think of those poor people over on the coast in Innsmouth who gradually turned into groteseque fish creatures as they got older. Wait, is that a gill behind his ear?

And here's one for AtC and MWR:

Last night I had this horrible dream of feeling a bunch of huge, hairy spiders crawling all over me. I woke up choking and had to pull a large wad of silk threads and an egg sac the size of a golf ball out of my mouth.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:55 AM | Comments (238)
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