- Yes, Schadenfreude is so ignoble. But: Former N.J. police chief gets a SWAT visit. Over a “personnel issue.” (H/T DB)
- And since David Codrea doesn’t seem to be doing them at the moment: here’s another “only one” for ya. Tragic one. Who hires creeps like this? Oh, any old PD looking for a good intimidator.
- Geronimo: birth of a resolute leader.
- Paul Bonneau finds a use for the U.S. Constitution after all.
- Oh, Texas! You are making some interesting moves. Yes, you are.
- Why is the media ignoring a “cyber Pearl Harbor”?
- The disposable life of a confidential informant.
- Only Kevin D. Williamson and P.J. O’Rourke got it right about The Donald’s presidential announcement.
Yes, BHM was down
You may have noticed that BHM had problems yesterday. These were due to a major site overhaul and server move that should eventually produce good results (especially for mobile users).
But the upgrade was handled … um, gracelessly. We bloggers were caught by surprise (I was in the middle of posting at the moment things went unexpectedly haywire) and at least one reader reported getting a message that the site downage was due to a February 2010 upgrade. I gather there are still a few improvements to come, but things should be calmer today.
Very interesting move by Texas. I’m going to ask my state representative to introduce a similar bill here next session. (I’m serious about that.)
As to Trump, P.J. O’Rourke does indeed have it right (as usual), but Kevin Williamson, no so much. His entire article is essentially about Trump’s bankruptcies. The problem is, Trump himself has never declared bankruptcy. Yes, a number of his business entities have, but that’s not uncommon. All his development projects are in separate legal entities for precisely that reason. And most such bankruptcies are of the Chapter 11 variety, which merely provides a breathing spell to reorganize the company and restructure the debt. It’s not a liquidation, and most creditors get paid (eventually).
O’Rourke nailed it: “Putin, Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Khamenei, ISIS, the Taliban, and Hamas will be paralyzed with fear. Who knows what this lunatic will do?” What better basis can there be for selecting a president?
I would agree that P.J. O’Rourke has it right about Trump. However I believe Trump will have traction for a while just because of name recognition and sheer enertainment value.
Mr. Murphy’s faith in government is touching.
Gov. Abbott isn’t worried about some “Mission Impossible” gang breaking in. When the Fed is looted it’ll be by the folks in D.C. who hold the keys.
All those retirees, all those contractors, those tech startups, and all the people who don’t want to live in a flat, dusty, backward sovereign wasteland when 25 percent of the economy has suddenly vanished; they’re all going to leave Texas (I’m sorry, The People’s Christian Theocratic Republic).
Yup. [spits] Horrible place. Like that other hell-hole, Hardyville. [twirls six-shooter] So there’s no reason for folks from Los Angeles and New York City to make the trip to check us out. [tips hat] So if y’all pardon me, we got this shindig planned for the 500 workers in our new jewelry manufacturing plant*. I have to figure out which Hill Country wine goes with chicken-fried steak, German potato salad, and refried beans.
* http://www.jamesavery.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=OurStory
Meanwhile, in Colorado: 9-year-old retriever protects family from moose.
I read one time that the name Geronimo might have come from the Mexicans’ calling out to St. Jerome when he attacked them.
Sure hope the Texans can pull it off.
Sir John Glubb noted in his essay that one would think that the citizens of the Byzantine Empire would stop quarreling among themselves to deal with an external threat but they didn’t, and the “Ottomans moved in and administered the coup de grace.” The Chinese threat here takes a back seat to all our internal squabbles. We seem, sadly, simply to be following the script of a decadent empire. Now the big news is the TPP http://www.eagleforum.org/publications/column/no-wonder-obama-wont-let-us-read-tpp.html I can’t think of another empire that has been brought down intentionally by its “leaders.”
I remember a few years ago Trump made a lot of noise challenging Obama’s qualifications to be president. Then Obama produced another questionable document. Trump boasted that he had made Obama produce his birth certificate. I wondered at the time, and still wonder, if Trump’s whole purpose to start with was to give Obama an air of legitimacy.
I don’t know about calling that case schadenfreude. Does it qualify as that if the person in question is an asshole? Maybe the correct term is not schadenfreude, but just getting some of his own medicine.
http://www.livescience.com/17398-schadenfreude-affirmation.html
I do not smile when I see somebody pulled over by cops. But I smile to read this story, even if he didn’t get the “cops shot his dog” treatment.
Thanks for citing my little article. It just struck me a couple of days ago. I keep hoping to patch up an alliance between Constitutionalists and anarchists – at least temporarily, during the coming Revolution. What happens after is another subject altogether.
As someone who lost a significant (to me) amount of gold in the egold/1mdc fiasco, I guess I’m a bit cynical about this Texan version of egold. Are they really going to stand up to the Feds? Are they going to keep their nose out of what people buy and sell with their Tex-gold? It seems doubtful…
But yeah, just another hit on the legitimacy of empire, which is all to the good.
On the “cyber Pearl Harbor”:
“We will likely be feeling the damage from this catastrophe for years to come.”
Who is this “we”? The ruling class maybe. The cronies, sure. Sorry, I don’t give a rat’s ass about it, because I don’t think this army of spies out there manipulating the world is doing it in my interest. “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, anyone?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
I don’t have much use for informants, even if they are victims of the System. How much harm did Sadek do to others?