URLs du Jour

2019-12-16

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  • If you have done all your Christmas shopping, it's probably OK to check out Dave Barry Holiday Gift Guide for Christmas 2019. You probably won't be tempted, but better safe than sorry. Our Amazon Product du Jour is one example, the "Umbrella Jacket".

    This item is a “must-have” for the fashion-conscious individual on your gift list who wants to be protected from the rain and at the same time look like he or she is wearing one of those those cones that veterinarians use to keep dogs from licking themselves. This garment, which is made from 100 percent genuine sticky plastic, is basically a hood, which goes over the wearer’s head, attached to a plastic disc approximately three feet in diameter, which protects the wearer’s body while leaving the wearer’s hands free to make gestures, which is something the wearer will probably be doing often if he or she wears this garment in public.

    My current favorite presidential candidate. Despite this.


  • At the Epoch Times, Gerry Bowler requests Can We Please Stop Using the F-Word?. No, not that one. The other one.

    Fascism is a genuine ideology. Tens of thousands of Canadians died fighting it in its German, Japanese, and Italian manifestations in the Second World War, so it behooves us to know if it is still alive and well today. It was largely the brainchild of war-veteran Benito Mussolini who adopted the Roman symbol of the “fasces,” an axe in the centre of a bundle of rods, and a black-shirted uniform. His motto was Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato (“everything for the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”)—the perfect definition of totalitarianism.

    Not too tough to understand. It's a particularly virulent form of statism/collectivism. You're either driving the state bulldozer, or you're one of those being bulldozed.


  • David Harsanyi notices that Democrats Aren't Interested in Talking about Trump's 'Crimes' Anymore.

    The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out that Republicans have adopted a new line of defense during the impeachment hearings: Unlike former president Bill Clinton, the GOP argues, Donald Trump won’t be cited for an actual crime. A number of Democrats made a big show of offering their colleagues a civics lesson on the matter, explaining that impeachment isn’t contingent on the president having committed any obvious statutory offenses.

    It’s true! Democrats can impeach Trump for virtually any reason they see fit. Then again, as you’ve no doubt have heard, the impeachment is a political process. And Republicans would be negligent if they didn’t stress that the Democrats’ articles of impeachment lacked a single criminal accusation. Especially since Dem leadership has spent months alleging that it was a moral imperative to impeach Trump because he engaged in specific acts criminality.

    The House will do what it wants. My own CongressCritter has announce he'll vote for impeachment. I'd like to send him a nastygram saying "Well, I won't vote for you again!" But that would be dishonest, since I wouldn't vote for him anyway.


  • At Reason, John Stossel interviews my Aloha Sweetie. Tulsi Gabbard: The Anti-War Candidate. Interesting data point:

    Gabbard's staunch anti-war stance has led to accusations of disloyalty and even possible foreign allegiances, with 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton musing in October that a Democratic candidate was likely being "groomed" to play spoiler in the 2020 race. That candidate, Clinton warned without explicitly naming Gabbard, "is the favorite of the Russians." Gabbard shot back that she was running for president to "undo Mrs. Clinton's failed legacy." The fight seemed to work to Gabbard's benefit: After polling near the bottom of the field for much of the summer, the Hawaiian's numbers have shot up in the important early primary state of New Hampshire.

    The Democrats turned into Joe McCarthy so fast…

    Unfortunately, Tulsi has a number of dealbreakers for me. Here's one, aka "Let's Bring Back an Awful Government Regulation Act of 2019."


Last Modified 2024-01-23 3:13 PM EDT

A Hologram for the King

[3.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

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A Tom Hanks movie that bombed at the box office? How did that happen? Well, it's based on a Dave Eggers novel, and I would imagine it's very literary, and translating literary to cinematic is always problematic. Still, I assume they did their best.

Tom plays Alan, an aging salesman for an IT company, trying to sell a holographic chat system to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In a previous life, Alan was on the board of Schwinn, the bicycle people.

But that life is now Gone With the Schwinn.

(I beg your pardon for stealing an old Muppet Movie joke.)

Anyway, his marriage is kaput too, and he's on the hook for paying the college expenses for his daughter, and so off to Saudi Arabia. When he gets there, he has to deal with the bizarre local customs about alcohol, the extreme passive/agressive behavior of the Saudi bureaucracy, a sex-starved Danish lady, and a nasty cyst on his back. And he meets a nice Saudi lady doctor.

Not discussed: the regime's murderousness.

For Talking Heads fans, the opening scene is pretty great.


Last Modified 2024-01-23 3:13 PM EDT