Claire

A most remarkable movie

Published April 11, 2015 11:27 am by Claire

A Most Violent Year
Available on DVD and Blu-ray

I watched A Most Violent Year on DVD last night and found it a most remarkable movie.

It’s not the most technically astonishing movie I’ve seen lately (that would be Birdman). It’s not even the most chilling crime thriller (that would be Nightcrawler). It’s not even the best acted (which would be Whiplash). I occasionally didn’t buy some of the plot points and I thought 20 minutes could easily have been trimmed out of it.

Nevertheless, it was remarkable — and in a good way. Why? Because its protagonist is an independent businessman and a man of honor determined, against great odds, to do everything right.

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Rainy Friday afternoon check-in

Published April 10, 2015 1:51 pm by Claire

I’m having one of those “brilliant” blogthoughts that just hasn’t gelled yet, thus the “lite” posting. Today I’m spring cleaning and making beef jerky. The house is filled with a wonderful honey-teriyaki-beef-pepper aroma. Haven’t made jerky since moving into this place because this house doesn’t have an oven and I didn’t think the dehydrators I have for fruits & veggies were quite powerful enough to handle drying meat. But I tossed a folded flour-sack dishtowel over the vents to keep more heat in and they’re doing just dandy. Can’t wait to sample the product. Speaking of sampling the product, a…

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Thursday links and an update on Joel’s siding bleg

Published April 9, 2015 7:27 am by Claire

The poor WaPost is worried about the “growing insurrection.” So very, very much the poor WaPost fails to understand. Just how bad is the growing growing student loan mess? More info on why the DoJ is so desperate to conceal info about its stingray searches and interceptions. Oh, there’s so much to hide! What? You didn’t already know this? And this, too: “When everything is a crime.” UPDATE on Joel’s siding bleg. He’s getting there, but could really, really use another $400. Just that much more. Yeah, I know it’s tax time and the fedgov thinks you should give your…

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Beadboard scrounge

Published April 8, 2015 1:07 am by Claire

It’s been a year since I’ve scrounged anything good from the woods. Then it was the foundling end table (which got improved and which Commentariat member Pat eventually dubbed “Doorway to the Sun”). This afternoon I brought home a small heap of equally unprepossessing but potentially useful stuff I found in a newly dumped trash heap. To wit: This is tongue-and-groove beadboard from somebody’s old house. Depression-era, I’m guessing. Probably wainscotting from a kitchen or bathroom judging by the bits of ancient wallpaper clinging to it. This small amount isn’t enough for anything by itself, but I’ve got this ceiling…

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Tuesday links

Published April 7, 2015 7:06 am by Claire

Seems cops and the U.S. Justice (sic) Department will go to amazing lengths to hide their newest tracking methods from us. A must-read for philosophical Libertopians: “Welcome to the Arena in the Clouds” by Max Borders. Guerrilla civic improvement. (H/T AG) It takes 13,000 words for the Columbia Journalism Review to say it and those words are thoughtful and worth reading. But bottom line: in their zeal to confirm an agenda, Rolling Stone’s staffers chose to mistake the behavior of a manipulative liar for the behavior of a poor, traumatized victim. (To their credit, RS and writer Sabrina Erdely cooperated…

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Joel’s siding bleg

Published April 7, 2015 6:00 am by Claire

He’s asking for less, but can we make it $1,500 for Joel’s siding bleg? You know how construction projects go. You think you’re looking at $700 and the next thing you know … But anyhow, he’s also had some good news, with neighbors coming across with part of the supplies.

Monday links

Published April 6, 2015 1:39 am by Claire

MamaLiberty reviews Jackie Clay’s Summer of the Eagles. Somebody in the mainstream media finally questions whether it’s right to destroy mom & pop businesses that aren’t sufficiently politically correct. Glad ordinary folk don’t even need to ask questions like that. Back when the RICO statutes were first passed, libertarian alarmists predicted that they’d be so misused that the feds would soon be busting penny-ante poker games. Well, it seems they’ve been misused for just about everything except that. But here’s one of the most creative turns of the RICO story. David Boaz notes that the final stage of socialism is…

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Mandatory v*ting: that much closer to the third world

Published April 4, 2015 1:47 am by Claire

Drat! I told Jim I’d include his latest in yesterday’s links post. Then I forgot. So here you go. A question follows. President Obama recently suggested that mandatory voting could cure some of the ills of American democracy. Mr. Obama observed that compelling everyone to vote is one way to “encourage more participation” — perhaps the same way that the specter of prison sentences encourages more people to pay taxes. While there are many good reasons to oppose mandatory voting, compulsory balloting could help Americans recognize what their political system has become. Mr. Obama declared that “the people who tend…

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Ding dong

Published April 3, 2015 3:32 pm by Claire

Sarah Brady.

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Mea culpa

Published April 3, 2015 9:24 am by Claire

The other day I posted at TZP about the dangers of mainstreaming bigotry and the folly of modern leftists thinking that their bigotry is somehow superior to the bigotry of others. I was stunned when about half the reader response implied that I was opposing freedom of association. Thanks to a comment by PB, I went back and realized I’d written this phrase in the final paragraph of the article: “discrimination is wrong.” That’s simply a dumb statement. Discrimination is not wrong, certainly not categorically wrong. It’s obviously something people do every day and something a free society would just…

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Author: Claire