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Category: Miscellaneous

Monday miscellany

Why you should always pay your website designer. George W. Bush cancels speaking engagement in Switzerland. If he’d gone he might have been arrested for war crimes. Speaking of which, I was poking around Wikipedia the other day and learned that the top U.S. representative at the Bretton Woods Conference (and with John Maynard Keynes one of the two most influential figures in the monetary agreement forged there) was a Soviet agent. Sheesh. I really do try not to fall into conspiracy theories. But that’s just strange. A lot of what this man did is just strange. Very smart, Mubarak.…

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Thursday afternoon miscellany

I don’t know whether the cops shot this guy in the back or in some other portion of his anatomy. But this is one case where most of us would agree they did the needed thing. America’s cutest dog? Hey, that’s a matter of opinion. But he’s certainly the most philanthropic. “We do not trust a government that sends thugs to kill us.” Death by GPS. It just keeps on keeping on. This didn’t kill anybody, but I think I’ve mentioned before that every GPS in the world shows my old Cabin Sweet Cabin as being three miles from where…

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Wednesday afternoon miscellany

Seen — or rather not seen — conducting routine traffic stops in Houston. What Cyclone Yasi would look like if it were over the U.S.. What odd timing that a storm that big actually is over the U.S. right now. But even folks in Chicago or Tulsa’s ice and snow should be grateful they’re not getting Yasi. Per Jackie Juntti in a recent comments section: The MSM finally starts covering Project Gunwalker — feebly, of course — and Mike Vanderboegh sticks it to ’em again and again. Some good dog news. A Labrador retriever can apparently be just about as…

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Monday miscellany

How Egypt switched off the ‘Net. And how Egyptians — and hacktivists the world over — are routing around the damage. (ADDED: And here’s yet another way — thanks to engineers at Google and Twitter.) “Anonymous: A net gain for liberty.” Dmitry Orlov is interesting and the wording of the headline may be misleading. But why should anyone have to have faith in any human institution? How about confidence, suspicion, contempt, etc. based on performance? “What is a gold standard?” Interesting to see the mainstream financial media finally beginning to address the question without immediately tossing out words like “fringe,”…

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Monday miscellany

The USA: Ninth freest nation on earth and proud to rank third among the “mostly free,” economically speaking. (Motto: “We take second place to none! But we take third place behind Ireland and Denmark.”) Deroy Murdock has a pretty good take on the news. (Although some of us might differ with what exactly “free trade” means. NAFTA? Gimme a break!) Via Joel. First thorough recap of “Project Gunwalker” I’ve seen. What, the ATF dirty? Causing the very problems it claims to want to solve? Nevah! You know all those new 1099 requirements in Obamacare? The ones everybody’s tearing their hair…

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BUYcott to support TJIC

Excellent idea from Top of the Chain via Borepatch: a BUYcott to support Travis Corcoran, aka TJIC. Top of the Chain sez: Massachussetts has arbitrarily decided that the writer of a blog, in exercising his First Amendment right to infringe on his Second Amendment right by disarming him. Travis is going to need money for the legal bills that are sure to follow. He runs an online comic book store. There are already comic book artists that are speaking out against him. What sweet irony would it be to buy something from Travis to help him make a living, that…

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Supernovas don’t blow on schedule

Hm. All that media noise you’ve been hearing about the star Betelgeuse going supernova — possibly right on schedule for the infamous year of 2012? Not so much. Supernova, yes. Some time in the next million years or so. Schedule, no. Nor will a supernova produce anything like “the twin suns of Tatooine.” But then, you knew that, didn’t you? Scary, though, how many people (including the well-paid media mavens at the Huffington Post) uncritically buy that brand of nonsense.

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Man loses first and second amendment rights in one swell foop

The victim in question was hoping this story wouldn’t get out. And I was hoping to get more information on what Travis Corcoran actually said on his blog — not just the out-of-context quotes the media chose so carefully — before running with it. (ADDED: See comments section for a link to a screen capture of the blog page; Corcoran has taken the blog down.) But since the story is well and truly out, and since a friend of Travis’ posted in an earlier comment section, I can only second what Joel has to say. A lot of commentors on…

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Itty bitty questions about quirks of human nature

Why do people take credit for their successes but blame their failures on everyone and everything else? Likewise, why do we believe our own flaws and failings deserve understanding, while other people’s screwups are all obviously the result of evil, irresponsibility, or habitual bad choices and they deserve exactly what they get? Why do people continue to believe that Republicans are the party of small government? It’s not like there’s no evidence to the contrary. Why, when a bank has four drive-up windows, will everybody line up at the one closest to the building? Why do people put “for sale”…

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Wednesday miscellany

Big surprise. Kids apparently don’t learn much in their first two years of college. “Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!” More on that incredibly learned border collie. (NY Times free subscription link.) Don’t you think the WSJ should have called BS on this? What a load of you know what. Oh yeah. That’s how to solve Europe’s problems: counterfeit. (And no need to point out that the Euro is already counterfeit. Don’t we all know …) More on the topic of the week. The last paragraph is freaking brilliant. Great Gary Marbut is at it again. The idea isn’t new: to…

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