Speaking of matters governmental that seem laughable from a distance but are hellish portents: here’s the latest from that bastion of central planning, Venezuela. Yes, it’s a joke to think about soldiers being sent to force retailers to sell only at what some pol or ‘crat thinks is the “fair price.” But not so funny a joke, eh? And how familiar is this? The problems that Maduro says he is trying to combat – price speculation, hoarding of goods by manufacturers and distributors, abuse of Venezuela’s currency system, contraband flowing into neighboring Colombia – all exist, Venezuelan political analyst Luis…
Category: Miscellaneous
It’s time for another Amazon Christmas-shopping list. Today’s theme: warmth and light. That covers a lot of territory, with some items for preppers, and some cozy things for anybody at all. Here we go: 1. Natural Comfort Microfiber Comforter — a lightweight “down-alternative” comforter that’s gotten rave reviews. 2. If you or somebody on your Christmas list has all-electric heat (as we in the Northwest tend to), an indoor propane emergency heater is handy to have. I know from experience. The Mr. Heater Portable Buddy and Big Buddy are old reliables. Mr Heater makes something bigger, too. And there are…
Her name is Adriana. No surname revealed. You know her better as the original smiling face of the Obamacare website. She now claims she’s being “cyberbullied.” What she really means is she’s become part of the political joke around The Big Failure. Cyberbullying? Hyperbole. We’re not talking death threats or threats to reveal her innermost secrets. We’re talking snide commentary. Still, I felt sorry for her. I figured she was just some stock photo subject or a model who signed a release without knowing how her mug was going to be used. Not her fault she became the Face of…
Man. Only in a police state does anybody need to publish — or take — advice like this. The Southern Poverty Law Center gets more stupidly weird every year. So when is the MSM going to catch on? From Clark at Popehat: “A Modest Argument About Police Culture Culminating in a Reference to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.” Chase isn’t the only bank in trouble. How much longer will it be before these “troubles” finally have their natural consequence? (Via S.) Why the Brits (though presumably not the British readers of Living Freedom) love Big Brother. The Obamacare Dozen. That is,…
I’m home. Which at the moment seems a decidedly mixed blessing. It was a great getaway. I’m glad to be here (and very grateful to the friend who came over and turned the heat on hours before I arrived), but not at all ready to return to the world of bad news. While I get ready to face reality, here’s a funny trapeze act for you. Die Maiers — trapeze from Joachim Mohr on Vimeo. I’ve never linked a Vimeo video before, but this isn’t on YouTube. Hope it works.
Okay, I started out the week telling you I was working on something that required Thought. Yeah, well. Try that while you’re deadlining and spending the days having parts of your house reduced noisily to rubble, being unexpectedly without both power and plumbing for much of the time (and listening to the plumber blame the carpenter for plumbing screwups and the carpenter explain why he needs to take an extra day and a half on the job playing electrician), and … well, ETC. Lots and lots of ETC. Whether I’ll be able to return to the Deep Thought blog, I…
I’m still working on that blog post that requires Deep Thought. But with a deadline approaching, a construction project pounding away next door, a guy tearing a derelict bathroom out of my place, and Ava having gone insane from all the people around who won’t throw tennis balls*, Deep Thought is as impossible right now as endorsing Obamacare or v*ting for Michael Bloomberg. So for now here are some links. Here’s one of those news stories that’s no surprise at all to us political cynics realists but is still pretty stunning considering the MSM source: the Obama administration has known…
Alas, last week’s Amazonism bleg was pretty much a bust. Only three people signed up for a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. Regular sales got a brief boost, but have again dropped to below-normal level. Since you guys have always jumped in when a boost was needed, I have to assume a lot of readers are just too poor or too nervous about the future right now to be buying stuff. Or maybe people are backing off e-commerce because of the NSA/Snowden revelations. (Several commenters who sell on eBay or Amazon mentioned that their sales had plunged, too.) Whatever.…
This has been making its way around the gunblogs. I wasn’t going to link it because I’ve never had reason to care what the head of Interpol thinks about anything. But reader L.A. tipped the balance. And really, it’s quite something when the honcho of a global police agency comes out in favor of a well-armed citizenry — and recognizes that the only alternative is making us all “safe” via a lock-down security state. 2016: Looking back on Obamacare. Seattle is using eminent domain to seize a valuable property from a 103-year-old lady. It’s currently a privately owned parking lot.…