Isaac Schrödinger

Green shoots!

Why does it seem that people have to pay more for essentials? This article provides the two reasons: inflation and falling incomes.

Link via Instapundit.

Kal-El Returns

The new trailer for the Man of Steel is up.

The music and the imagery is very nicely done.

An epic with a soul

Vox Day:

In writing “A Throne of Bones,” I had two objectives of modest ambition. The first was to write a better epic fantasy than George R. R. Martin, or at least a better one than “A Dance with Dragons” turned out to be. The second is to demonstrate that by relying upon historical verisimilitude, conventional literary archetypes and traditional patterns of human behavior instead of modern secular ideologies and the current assumptions of the cultural zeitgeist, an author can expect to produce a work of literary quality that is observably superior to the vast quantity of sewage being published today.

I've read Summa Elvetica which is thoroughly entertaining but ends too soon. I'm glad to see that more books, set in the same world, will follow. I do wonder, is Vox writing a trilogy or does he have a greater series in mind?

Justice League villain

Marvel has been hammering DC with their movies in the last few years. DC, it seems, is gearing up their Justice League for the big screen to face off against The Avengers 2 in the summer of 2015.

This site has got information about the main bad "guy" in the movie. If true, then finally we'll get to see an unleashed Superman.

The right writers

John Hawkins selects the 50 best conservative columnists of 2012. Victor Davis Hanson should be at the #1 spot.

RACISSS future

Isn't it, er, odd that the election of Obama has coincided with the increased racializing of American politics?

Race has been damn productive for the career of B. Obama, President of the United States.

Indeed. The previous Democratic president was a former governor, a very knowledgable guy and a smooth speaker. Obama is black, cool, black, gives away free stuff!, black, cool and black. Obama is a lightweight who utilized white guilt and the color of his skin to the fullest. His legacy will be an exploding public debt, the Great Depression 2.0 and an Islamist axis spanning numerous nations in Asia and Africa.

More:

Maybe, just maybe, the GOP should, on the rare occasions when it has power, do something about, say, affirmative action. Of maybe it should mention during the Presidential campaign that it will nominate judges skeptical of racial preferences. Who knows? The GOP might even go all crazy and run a TV commercial showing your job application being crumpled up because you are the wrong race?

But, but, it's only "racist" when non-whites* get punished because of their race.

* This group includes Jews and Asians--the smart ones.

Is there a verbal rape rape?

Vox Popoli on the latest intellectual debate on The View:

[...] our vaunted philosophers failed to consider the most important question raised by the subject, which is whether or not abortion should be legally permitted in the event of a verbal rape resulting in pregnancy.

Thankfully I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.

No game

Vox offers commentary on General Petraus.

If the thousands of emails spent pursuing a younger woman who no longer saw him as useful to her wasn't enough, Petraus's behavior when confronted with a pair of aggressive social climbers seals the deal.

How did this guy climb the military hierarchy while being such a non-alpha?

The locust class

Mark Steyn:

Republicans think they're importing hardworking immigrants who want a shot at the American Dream; the Democrats think they're importing clients for Big Government. The Left is right: Just under 60 percent of immigrants receive some form of welfare. I see the recent Republican proposals for some form of amnesty contain all sorts of supposed safeguards against gaming the system, including a $525 application fee for each stage of the legalization process. On my own recent visit to a U.S. Immigration office, I was interested to be told that, as a matter of policy, the Obama administration is now rubber-stamping all "fee waiver" requests for "exceptional hardship" filed by members of approved identity groups. And so it will go for all those GOP safeguards. While Canada and Australia compete for high-skilled immigrants, America fast-tracks an unskilled welfare class of such economic benefit to their new homeland they can't even afford a couple of hundred bucks for the necessary paperwork.

That's just lovely.

Celebrities in the air

Glenn Reynolds links to a gallery of jets which are owned by people in Hollywood. I was surprised to learn about a jet plane that retails for $8 million. It's, of course, tiny but I thought the minimum price for such luxuries was around $20 mil.

Anyway, it's cool to know that I can afford one in a hundred years.

Locust nation

Vox writes about modern America:

Very few people are abstract or long-term thinkers. Most people want the wealth produced by a society with limited government distributed to them more generously by bigger government.

Future generations be damned. Of course, this can't last. The only relevant question is when it will end?

The decay continues

A three-year-old post about California's decline. Victor Davis Hanson has also written about the deterioration of society in his own part of California. The noxious combination of illegal immigration, an overloaded and thus broken melting pot, and white liberal guilt is causing havoc in the once golden state.

What can be done? It seems it's too late. The financial and cultural price has to be paid for decades-long dumb policies.

Asian Power!

This post reminds of all the lightning fast black dudes who keep on breaking speed records. Why don't other races, er, fair well? 

The answer is simple: racism. If only the Olympics and the World Championship events were not filled with those evil discriminators, then in no time, we'd have the speed records claimed by Chinese Cheetahs!

Me not lovin' it

The new Zero Value Meal.

People with no glory burn Old Glory

Obama's re-election gives hope to flag makers in Pakistan. Though, to be fair, Pakistanis will burn US flags no matter who the US president is.

Link via Jihad Watch.

Low IQ herd

A reader writes in to The Thinking Housewife:

I’m black, a registered Republican and voted for Romney during this week’s election. Prior to the election, my sister (who also supported Romney) and I discussed how so many of our family members without question were voting for Obama. These family members profess to having a strong Christian faith and values. Yet, they absolutely ignore the fact that Obama and the Democratic party supports gay marriage and abortion. Even though these are my family members, it’s still very baffling to me that one could so easily set aside their values without thought or personal conflict. And for no other reason than to support a candidate that shares the same skin color.

But, oddly enough, Romney is the racist because 60% of whites support him.

Truly multicultural

There was talk of the US presidential election at my work during lunch time. The topic of age came up and I commented that as people get older they become more conservative. So, older folks vote more Republican. One person replied that maybe they're becoming senile.

Anyway, here's the voter breakdown. One of the interesting stats is that married women voted 53% republican but single women voted 67% democrat. I guess the State is a generous sugar daddy.

Zero vs. Mitt

I don't think either candidate is interested in fixing the fundamental problem of scorching debt. Though, historically speaking, Mitt Romney should have the edge. I think he'll win and Obama will be kicked to the curb. It would be such a historic moment!

Four years ago, America elected the first affirmative action black president; now, it's time to fire him.

Update
REVENGE won. I was wrong.

Shocking!

Frontpage Mag:

Sharia law is a fake issue manufactured by Islamophobes. It’s a complete non-issue for everyone but the 50 percent of Muslims who want blasphemy laws, the 40 percent who want to live under Islamic law and the 12 percent who want to murder blasphemers. Oh and another 9 percent are undecided on the question of whether we should be hanging blasphemers or not.

That's in the USA, by the way.

Abnormal Americans

Tom Scocca:

There is a real, airtight bubble in this election, but it's not Obama's. As a middle-aged white man, in fact, I'm breaching it. White people—white men in particular—are for Mitt Romney. White men are supporting Mitt Romney to the exclusion of logic or common sense, in defiance of normal Americans. Without this narrow, tribal appeal, Romney's candidacy would simply not be viable. Most kinds of Americans see no reason to vote for him.

I find this quite amusing: Without that tribal appeal, Romney couldn't win. A spectacular number of blacks (90%+) voted for Obama four years ago and yet the "tribal" tag is being put on Romeny for appealing to 60% of whites.

Of course, if you support Romney, then you're a racist. For example, here's what Scocca has to say about Romney's "47%":

In white people's political English, "personal responsibility" is the opposite of "handouts," "food stamps," and particularly "welfare," all of which are synonyms for "niggers." This was Ronald Reagan's rallying cry, and it was the defining issue for traumatized post-Reagan white Democrats.

Wow. At least when Scocca was writing about most whites voting for Romney, he could use the racist angle. But now, when the issue is largely economics, it's also because those whites hate niggers!

It seems Obama is winning the majority of the asshole vote.

Fear, anger, hate ...

Ed Driscoll wrote about the Star Wars prequels. It seems that Episode 7 is on the horizon. This can only lead to, er, suffering.

Update
Vox Popoli: 

Not that George Lucas hasn't methodically gone about ruining his creation for decades, beginning with The Return of the Jedi and those damned Ewoks, but the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney pretty much guarantees that the franchise will never, ever, return to its erstwhile glory.

What terrible news for the younglings of today.

Two brave infidels

Scott on Cape Cod writes about Benghazi:

[...] due to their quick action and suppressive fire, twenty administrative personnel in the embassy were able to escape to safety. Eventually, these two courageous men were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers brought against them, an enemy force numbering between 100 to 200 attackers which came in two waves. But the stunning part of the story is that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty killed 60 of the attacking force. Once the compound was overrun, the attackers were incensed to discover that just two men had inflicted so much death and destruction.

What a contrast. The Muslims have tremendous hatred but they're so thoroughly incompetent that they can't even manage to murder two men of the West without losing dozens of their own. Just goes to show how different and effective this war of civilization vs. barbarism would be if the West recognized its enemy.

Dynomite!

Yahoo Sports:

Oregon all-everything back De'Anthony Thomas has been mentioned as a Heisman candidate and the above play shows you why. It's hard to find a player this dynamic in college football.

His performance in the video is very impressive.

Sandy will blow hard

It is coming:

On its current projected track, Sandy could make U.S. landfall on Monday night or Tuesday anywhere between Maryland and southern New England, forecasters said. Rain accumulations of up to 12 inches and heavy snowfall inland are considered likely in some areas.

As it merges with an Arctic jet stream, forecasters said Sandy has all the ingredients to transform into a "super storm" unlike anything seen over the eastern United States in decades.

I blame George Bush.

Seriously, I hope people don't lose electricity for too long.

What was DC thinking? The movie title is way too long.

The last scene in the trailer is cute.

Don't be an intelligent fool

Vox Popoli:

[...] the goal should not be to try to make the retards normal or the normals brilliant, (such efforts are futile), but rather, to endeavor to teach each group of individuals wisdom and strong moral character to the best of their capacity to understand and apply it. Even one conscientious and confident normal individual of good character can do wonders for correcting the ills caused by a gaggle of highly intelligent, evil-minded fools.

This reminded me of what Galadriel said in The Fellowship of the Ring: "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

Mmmmm

The first presidential debate was more amusing than I had thought.

Just devastating

Andrew Sullivan via Vox Popoli:

I'm trying to see a silver lining. But when a president self-immolates on live TV, and his opponent shines with lies and smiles, and a record number of people watch, it's hard to see how a president and his party recover.

Flaming Obama? So gay.

RACISSS!

The Big Zero provides the answers.

Gimme more!

Heartiste:

I swim among single women — mostly white, mostly educated and/or intelligent, in their 20s and 30s — and I can assure you they have a rock hard clit boner for Obama and leftie policies in general. Romney may as well be the anti-Christ when he’s not some buffoon at whom they happily lob insipid snark bombs. I can count on three fingers the number of unmarried girls I know who aren’t reflexively pro-O-face. And even among those women who might have some sympathies for anti-Gimmedat viewpoints, any hint that you were against eternally welcoming open borders to the third world would send them spinning into point and sputter orbit.

This is the reality we live in. It’s status whoring and self-righteous hypocritical white girl preening all the way down. The people have suckled on the Big Daddy Government teat for too long, and they ain’t giving it up.

It ain't going to be pretty when the money runs out.

Not Big Bird!

The video linked here is awesome. Romney, in the end, breaking into the now-famous dance routine is simply gold.

Magic

One of the greatest movies ever made, and one of my favorites, will be released on the big screen for only one day. Watch it if you have the chance.

No other movie director comes close to making the epics that were crafted by David Lean. It's incredible what he did: not having the benefit of computer special effects, he shot at real locations. His movies took years to make and one could see the hard work that went into making them.

Link via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.

Reynolds 2016

Glenn Reynolds provides his platform. I can't find much fault in it except that point #3 should be more aggressive: more departments / agencies need to be abolished.

Full of win!

Steve Sailer writes about the US military which has become quite, er, liberal with its decorations. Just compare the photo of fabulous Petraeus there with, oh, some random guy from the Second World War.

40% love the boot

Slate:

Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to ban the sale of 32-ounce sodas has hit up against some serious negative public opinion of late. First there was the Million Big Gulp March, in which a sprinkling of protestors showed up to protect the right to buy supersized beverages. More problematically for the mayor, a New York Times poll found that 60 percent of New Yorkers oppose the ban. The Times’ quote from Queens resident Bob Barocas bluntly summed up the opposition to the ban: “This is like the nanny state going off the wall.”

But fear not, there's always a better government solution.

Maybe it’s time to revisit a gentler approach to nudging New Yorkers to eat and drink more healthily by taxing sugar, fat, and other foods that help make America the fattest nation on earth.

That's the core view: Americans are children who need to be told what they can put in their fucking mouths gently nudged. I wonder what kind of nudging will take place when Obamacare comes into effect.

Dude!

Some greats make the funniest movies list here: The Big Lebowski, A Fish Called Wanda, and Grosse Pointe Blank.

A cut scene?

How the Dark Knight got his voice.

The journey begins

I consider it to be one of the greatest books ever written. Soon, we'll get to watch its translation on the big screen.

Evil rises

Vox Day:

The Obama administration’s responsibility for the Libyan debacle is threefold. First, its support of the so-called Arab Spring was a disastrous strategic miscalculation. Ruthless dictators such as Hosni Mubarak and Moammar Gadhafi had interests that were not necessarily in line with those of the United States, but neither were they particularly hostile to them anymore. And they both possessed a shared interest in keeping the global jihadists in line. As the assassination of J. Christopher Stevens less than one year after Gadhafi’s fall has shown, the removal of the restraining hands of the Arab dictators has freed the Muslim Brotherhood and inspired its cherished dream of a new caliphate.

Obama doesn't consider the Muslim Brotherhood as part of the problem. The coming years will paint him a bloody legacy.

USSA

Some religions are more equal than others.

Update
A classic profile in cravenness: The New York Times.

Spineless infidels

Jihad Watch:

Even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thinks that it if Muslims respond to something with murderous violence, it is up to the non-Muslims to change the way they behave so as to accommodate them. And so eleven years after 9/11, terrorism well and truly won: now if any group wants anything, they know that all they have to do in order to get it is rampage and riot and kill.

The West has created quite a perverse incentive structure for itself.  

Also, this film didn't "spark violent protests." The film has been on YouTube since 2011. Someone found the film and thought it would serve as a pretext for attacks on Americans on September 11.

Precisely. Just like the Muhammad cartoons which weren't used as an excuse for mayhem for many months since so few people were aware. When some Muslims got hold of the drawings, they spread them in their world and then blamed the cartoonists for "inciting" violence.

Debt is not your friend

Katie Brotherton:

There is great irony in pursuing freedom through education only to be shackled by crushing debt.

What good is an education which doesn't illuminate the reality of modern life in the US? Simple knowledge of history and economics should be enough to show that tuition fees have seen an insane increase while salaries have been either stagnant or dropping thanks to inflation.

Link via Instapundit.

Not equal

The Thinking Housewife:

The virility of black men is obviously a factor in their attractiveness to white women, just as the relative femininity of Asian women is attractive to white men.

A very good point.

The workers are doing fine

There has been a net increase of zero jobs in almost fours of the Obama presidency. It's stunning that the clown-in-chief is still popular enough to be running for a second term.

Link via Instapundit.

All you are belong to us!

That's basically what the Democrats seem to think.

Many wouldn't mind at all if profits were banned. One educated woman (ahem) says that we should have corporate losses.

Gimme gimme gimme!

America in only 50 years:

The growth of entitlement payments over the past half-century has been breathtaking. In 1960, U.S. government transfers to individuals totaled about $24 billion in current dollars, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By 2010 that total was almost 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation and population growth, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown 727% over the past half-century, rising at an average rate of about 4% a year.

Stunning.

The Republicans have been worse than Democrats:

Notwithstanding the criticisms of "big government" that emanated from their Oval Offices from time to time, the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush presided over especially lavish expansions of the American entitlement state. Irrespective of the reputations and the rhetoric of the Democratic and Republican parties today, the empirical correspondence between Republican presidencies and turbocharged entitlement expenditures should underscore the unsettling truth that both political parties have, on the whole, been working together in an often unspoken consensus to fuel the explosion of entitlement spending.

The Greatest Ponzi Scheme of All Time will end. The only question is when.

Link via Instapundit.

Loving the boot

Michael Totten:

My friend and colleague Benjamin Kerstein has published a number of books, and this summer he released what is perhaps the most blistering critique of the radical leftist ideologue Noam Chomsky ever to appear in book form. It’s called Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite and is a collection of essays, reviews, and take-downs that originally appeared on his blog of the same name during a three-year period from 2004 through 2007.

Here is Kerstein talking about Chomsky:

he is essentially the last totalitarian. Despite his claims otherwise, he's more or less the last survivor of a group of intellectuals who thought systemic political violence and totalitarian control were essentially good things. He babbles about human rights all the time, but when you look at the regimes and groups he's supported, it’s a very bloody list indeed.

When I started reading politics in my teens, this odd characteristic in anti-American writings would almost always be present: those who opposed American foreign policies supported totalitarian systems. Islamists, and their allies in the West, are prime examples.

Of course, one can oppose US policies without being an admirer of slavery but that quality is so very rare.

No substitute

Interesting comments in this post by Dr. Helen.

Romney tames a parrot

It's true. He said so!

Just plain racisss!

Check it out. Comment #10 wins.