Bird Dog's down in Georgia for the weekend...
That's right. He's a Connecticut Yankee in King Southern's Court.
So, lucky you, I'll be doing the morning links today and Monday. Although I appear to be the only blogger in the Western Universe who believes it, I don't think Sundays should be filled with the same bad news that the rest of the week is, so I'll skip it.
Interesting News
Well, I suppose we should start with what many are calling 'The Scandal of the Decade'.
South Korean Media Question Bill Gates' Handshake with President
Korean media is abuzz over the question after the Microsoft founder was photographed Monday holding his hand in his pocket as he exchanged greetings with Park Geun-hye.
I just love this picture:
I can easily see myself doing the same thing. "Well, howdy, Prez, howzit goin'?" Real geeks really are on a different plane than most people, and royalty, prestige and position simply don't carry the same weight that tight code, a quicker boot-up time and a well-designed web site do.
I hope the Koreans understand.
Under the heading of James Taranto's "Two Papers In One!", we have:
Three Cheers for the Internet Tax! - Daily Beast, 4/24/13
Like to buy stuff on the Internet? If the House approves a first-ever online sales tax, you might soon be paying a premium—and that’s a very good thing, writes Daniel Gross.
The Real Problem With the Internet Sales Tax - Daily Beast, 4/24/13
...because after I wrote the first post, it became clear to me that most people who are writing about it do not understand why this is onerous for small business.
She's lying, of course, but this is The Daily Beast, so one would expect that sort of thing. In this case, it's a lie by omission, because what she's not telling you in the above sentence is that she's only referring to small-time online retailers, like those guys who try to make a buck reselling stuff on eBay and Amazon. And just what percentage of the industry, Ms. McArdle, is that?
1%? 2%? 0.00031%?
People who are saying this is no big deal aren’t thinking things through.
For further information on why this is no big deal, please read my post here.
And extremely good news from the food front:
Hostess Reopening Plants, Without Union Workers
Twinkies and cupcakes are back — and unions get screwed. It just doesn't get any better than that.
On the down side, there's bad news for the printer industry:
How The New $100 Bill Will Foil Counterfeiters
The Federal Reserve has mixed in new features to make the bill more difficult to replicate, like a blue security ribbon running down the front. When the bill is tilted, columns filled with the number "100" and tiny bells rotate. Tilt left to right and the columns move up and down; tilt up and down, the columns move left to right. The ribbon is woven onto the paper, not printed, making it tougher to duplicate. It's composed of thousands of lenses that magnify the marks and make them appear to move in different directions--not easy for a counterfeiter to remake in a basement.
This whole things smacks of a 'freedom of speech' violations and I'm sure the ACLU will immediately spring into action.
And, in a recent horrific event, the nation held its breath while we awaited the outcome of the...
Hostages on the Tarmac!
Hours before the federal spending sequester began on March 1, when President Barack Obama predicted that "People are going to be hurt," he did not add, Trust me, I'll make sure of it. But he might as well have, as this week's furloughs of air traffic controllers make obvious.
The furloughs reflect panic: Having exaggerated their early predictions that the sequester's small reduction in spending growth would seriously affect Americans, many Democrats are hell-bent to pre-empt those Americans from drawing two logical conclusions: If one level of cuts is this painless, then maybe we should make ... more cuts to expenditures. And while we're at it, maybe we should ignore the politicians who told us that if Washington lowered the spending growth curve ... the Earth will fly into the sun.
If you've been paying any attention to this fraud, you'll have noticed that the MSM jumped right on board, boldly touting the serious repercussions when government spending is actually lowered. If I'm reading this right, the evil Republicans caused little children to cry because their White House tours were cancelled and the odds of your being eaten by a bear at Yellowstone Nat'l Park have increased dramatically.
On the subject of 'Lying To The People', in case you didn't catch the two AGW links in my post the other day, both of them are excellent.
The Real Deniers of Climate Change
The Associated Press has assured us, though, that this cold spell is not only consistent with a warming globe, it is actually caused by global warming. The proffered explanation is that cold weather in Europe is a result of melting sea ice in the Arctic. If this special pleading strikes you as unusually tendentious, it is all in the best tradition of explaining away ex post facto any weather event that appears to contradict the ruling paradigm.
The Climate Circus Leaves Town
After two decades of steady and substantial global temperature increase from 1980 to 1998, the pause in warming is causing a crisis for the climate crusade. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The recent temperature record is falling distinctly to the very low end of the range predicted by the climate models and may soon fall out of it, which means the models are wrong, or, at the very least, something is going on that supposedly “settled” science hasn’t been able to settle. Equally problematic for the theory, one place where the warmth might be hiding—the oceans—is not cooperating with the story line. Recent data show that ocean warming has noticeably slowed, too.
That damn ocean. You just can't trust anyonething these days!
And I highly agree with this:
Publisher Targeted in Duchess Kate Topless Photos Probe
French news agency AFP reports that Ernesto Mauri, the chief executive of Mondadori France, the publisher of French gossip magazine Closer, Valerie Suau, a photographer at the regional daily La Provence, and La Provence’s general director, Marc Auburtin, are all under formal investigation for “breach of privacy” for allowing the photos of Duchess Kate sunbathing while on vacation to be taken and published.
If the Paparazzi Convention of 2012 gets nuked by some activist, I won't shed a tear. These have to be the scummiest people on earth. Their excuse is "But I gotta make a living!", failing to note that, at last count, there were approximately 7,304,346 different ways to make a living. All they're really saying is, "I gotta make a living... being scum." This strikes me as a serious mental disorder.
Speaking of which, I'm glad Rand Paul finally cleared the air on that drone business.
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky), commended by many for his dramatic thirteen hour filibuster against the use of domestic drones, told Fox Business Network on Tuesday he's OK with drone strikes on American citizens who, for instance, rob a liquor store.
"If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash. I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him. But it’s different if they want to fly over your hot tub..."
So, to review, it's perfectly okay if a drone murders someone over a crummy fifty bucks — as long as it doesn't fly over your hot tub.
This guy's coming across just like his dad; brilliant 75% of the time, a total moron the other 25%.
Political News
First Dog Bo Leads Hunt For White House Easter Eggs
In the video, the Portuguese Water Dog takes to the hunt with ease, tracking down the colorful eggs wherever they are hidden and then dutifully sitting next to his prizes.
So there is good news coming out of Washington these days.
Tracked: Apr 28, 09:34