URLs du Jour

2018-05-23

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

  • Proverbs 12:5 is another good/bad contrast where the parts don't really match up:

    5 The plans of the righteous are just,
        but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

    It follows (I suppose) that the righteous should not take advice from the wicked about plan implementation. Good to know. Because, otherwise, I would totally do that.


  • Slashdot has the big news today: Giant Predatory Worms Are Invading France.

    In a Peer J study published on May 22, "Giant worms chez moi!" zoologist Jean-Lou Justine of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, entomologist colleagues, and Pierre Gros, outline a discovery that "highlights an unexpected blind spot of scientists and authorities facing an invasion by conspicuous large invasive animals."

    "Large", in this case, is "about 10 inches". You may sneer, but that's big for a flatworm. You might want to stock up on Amazon's Product du Jour.

    Needless to say, the French have already surrendered. "Je souhaite la bienvenue à nos seigneurs de vers plats."


  • Geraghty had a good Morning Jolt yesterday. Take home points: (1) if you were bothered by Hillary's flouting of security, you should be bugged by Trump's cellphone shenanigans too; (2) Democrats in Alabama have some weird choices in the upcoming primary; (3) Netflix has signed up Mr. and Mrs. Obama to a production deal. Geraghty has a sneak of one of the new O-series coming to your screen:

    Even Stranger Things: A group of innocent, adorable, bike-riding kids stumble onto a series of sinister government conspiracies — VA hospitals leaving veterans dying waiting for care, the Internal Revenue Service targeting Tea Parties for extra scrutiny and hostile treatment, insufficient security at consulates in hostile countries, massive data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management, loan guarantees to solar-panel companies that collapse. The kids learn that because of a nefarious government experiment in the 1980s, all of these programs are invisible to the eyes of anyone of cabinet rank or higher.

    I am a loyal Netflix customer, but (seriously) this is unseemly.


  • At Reason, Matt Welch has a little list: 9 Times John McCain Slams Conservative Media in New Book.

    Today is publication day for John McCain's career-capping book, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, co-written with longtime speechwriter Mark Salter. I have written here previously about the book's surprising (though unsurprisingly unreflective) admission that the Iraq War was a "mistake," and also its unrepentance about accusing Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) last year of "working for Vladimir Putin."

    The combination of the book, the forthcoming Memorial Day HBO documentary John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the busy end-of-life arrangements are producing what Politico media columnist Jack Shafer calls "the last McCain swoon" from America's political journalists. "Not even Derek Jeter and David Ortiz were flurried with as much confetti when they departed," Shafer acidly observes.

    Pun Salad stands by its decade-long evaluation of John McCain: I'm sorry he's dying, I appreciate his military service, I shudder at his POW experiences, but he's an asshole.


  • Via Steve MacDonald at good old Granite Grok, there's a Michael Graham report at NHInsider on a study from the Family Prosperity Initiative: Maine Vs. N.H. Shows “More Government Means More Poverty”

    The annual Family Prosperity Index is out and, while New Hampshire didn’t make the Top 10 (it’s ranked #16), the study’s authors did use the Granite State to make their case for more economic liberty vs. reliance on government. They used the case study of New Hampshire and its neighbor, Maine (FPI ranking: #39).

    Back in 2011, an advocacy piece posing as a "news story" in my local paper, Foster's Daily Democrat, about Maine's allegedly-superior "social services" got me pissed off enough to write a letter to the editor. I think it still holds up. I relied heavily on a 2010 Amity Shlaes article, now tucked away behind the Bloomberg paywall.

    The Family Prosperity Index, by the way, is interesting reading not just for the NH-vs-ME thing. You want some bad news? New Hampshire's demographics are a disaster, a population getting smaller and more wrinkled. NH ranks #47 (!) overall. But the entire Northeast is in bad demographic shape, especially the New England part: MA is #44; RI is #45; CT is #46; ME is #49; and VT brings up the rear in fiftieth place.


  • And the Babylon Bee reports on the Title X controversy: Democrats Warn That Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Reduce Access To Essential Campaign Donations.

    The Republican proposal to withdraw Title X federal funding from Planned Parenthood could cause a dangerous drop in the abortion provider’s campaign contributions to liberal political candidates, Democratic leaders sternly cautioned during a press conference earlier today.

    “Planned Parenthood does much more than perform abortions,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “They provide crucial services to marginalized Democrat candidates, like spending over $30 million to support pro-abortion candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.”

    I suppose the clue-impaired Facebook/Twitter/Snopes/Politifact gang have already labeled this as fake. No, Nancy didn't say that.

    But she was almost certainly thinking that.


Last Modified 2024-01-25 9:51 AM EDT