Posts Tagged ‘Vox.com’

LinkSwarm for December 2, 2023

Saturday, December 2nd, 2023

As promised, here’s a second LinkSwarm for your reading enjoyment and edification!

  • “The chief of staff for Department of Defense Education Activity schools in the U.S. was arrested last week during a two-day human trafficking operation in Coweta County, Georgia, according to local authorities. Stephen Hovanic, 64, of Sharpsburg, Georgia, was arrested Nov. 15 in a sting that netted 25 additional suspects on charges related to prostitution as well as drugs, weapons and warrants, according to the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office and its Police to Citizen Portal website.” Our country is in the best of hands. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • “NY retailers lost $4.4 billion due to organized shoplifting rings in 2022.” This is your city on Soros prosecutors.
  • Want to guess who polls show as the clear leader for the 2024 Presidential election?

  • I missed the announcement in August that Rep. John Raney, one of Dade Phalen’s school choice opponent/Ken Paxton impeachment supporters, is also not running for reelection. (Hat tip to reader David Besly.)
  • Your government in action: “A traditional Catholic family was allegedly ‘dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van’ earlier this year after the FBI “goaded” their 15-year-old son to post “offensive memes” online. The teen, a volunteer firefighter and altar boy, was then hospitalized on mental health pretenses, according to his father, Jeremiah Rufini. The FBI’s aggressive “investigation” only resulted in a misdemeanor conviction against the boy for breach of peace, but financially devastated the family with substantial legal expenses.”
  • Speaking of the FBI: “Inmate Who Shanked Derek Chauvin 22 Times Is Former FBI Informant Who Led Mexican Mafia Faction.”
  • “Disney on Track to Lose Nearly $750 Million Across 13 Films in Historic Year of Box-Office Flops.”

    The Disney Grooming Institute had the worst box office year imaginable in 2023. Couldn’t happen to a nicer den of thieves of children’s innocence.

    After losing $106 million on Lightyear (2022) and another $152 million on Strange World (2022) — both of which featured prominent gay plotlines aimed at little kids — the Disney Grooming Syndicate roared into 2023, hoping for a much better year. But…

    Thanks to Disney’s cratered reputation and string of terrible movies where good storytelling and relatable characters took a backseat to divisive politics, 2023 was an even bigger disaster.

    Snip. Here are his numbers condensed. John Nolte seems to be adding in market cost and going with 2X cost to breaking even, though usually I’ve seen estimates go with 2.5x production costs.

    • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania…Deficit: -$37 million
    • Chevalier [unknown, but with a $4.147 million gross, I’m pretty sure we can assume it lost money – LP]
    • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3…Profit: +98 million
    • The Little Mermaid [live action remake]…Deficit: -$40 million
    • The Boogeyman…Deficit: -$14 million
    • Elemental…Deficit: -$1.5 million
    • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny…Deficit: -$158 million
    • Haunted Mansion…Deficit: -$141 million
    • A Haunting in Venice…Deficit: -$39 million
    • The Creator…Deficit: -$68 million
    • The Marvels…Deficit: -$150 million
    • Next Goal Wins…Deficit -$20 million
    • Wish… Deficit: -$175 million

    Heck of a job, Bob! (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • Sure, people talk about horsepower, but it took Donut Media to dyno a horse. Turns out a horse produces 5.7 horsepower.
  • Tom Scott travels to Austin to view some of the nation’s last surviving moontowers. I did not know that Austin Energy was actually created to run the moontowers.
  • Mark Cuban is reportedly selling the Dallas Mavericks to Sheldeon Adelson’s widow.
  • “Vox Media Lays Off 4% of Staff in 2nd Round of Cuts This Year.” Well, that’s a start. I was unaware they owned The Dodo, maybe because three minute animal rescue videos on YouTube don’t require you to interact with their Coral commenting system.
  • The Polar Express Voted ‘Best Christmas Movie’ By Serial Killers.”
  • James Carville Vs. Wokeness

    Wednesday, April 28th, 2021

    It seems that once a year or so, James Carville wanders out of his den to warn Democrats that they’re blowing it by promulgating far-left policies the overwhelming majority of Americans reject, then sees his shadow and returns to his Trump Derangement Syndrome cave until next year.

    This year’s outburst came in the form of an interview with (ugh) Vox. Nonetheless it’s worth reading:

    James Carville: To me [Biden]’s biggest attribute is that he’s not into “faculty lounge” politics.

    Sean Illing: “Faculty lounge” politics?

    Translation: Illing is either not very bright or must feign ignorance for fear of being dragged by the social justice warrior types he has to pretend not to understand.

    James Carville: You ever get the sense that people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges use a different language than ordinary people? They come up with a word like “Latinx” that no one else uses. Or they use a phrase like “communities of color.” I don’t know anyone who speaks like that. I don’t know anyone who lives in a “community of color.” I know lots of white and Black and brown people and they all live in … neighborhoods.

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with these phrases. But this is not how people talk. This is not how voters talk. And doing it anyway is a signal that you’re talking one language and the people you want to vote for you are speaking another language. This stuff is harmless in one sense, but in another sense it’s not.

    Sean Illing: Is the problem the language or the fact that there are lots of voters who just don’t want to hear about race and racial injustice?

    Translation: “I must stay on the reservation. I must stay on the reservation. I must stay—”

    James Carville: We have to talk about race. We should talk about racial injustice.

    Translation: We’re screwed unless we can keep blacks pulling the (D) lever in overwhelming numbers, and constant talk of racism (and welfare state giveaways) are the only tools we have to do that.

    What I’m saying is, we need to do it without using jargon-y language that’s unrecognizable to most people — including most Black people, by the way — because it signals that you’re trying to talk around them. This “too cool for school” shit doesn’t work, and we have to stop it.

    There may be a group within the Democratic Party that likes this, but it ain’t the majority. And beyond that, if Democrats want power, they have to win in a country where 18 percent of the population controls 52 percent of the Senate seats. That’s a fact. That’s not changing. That’s what this whole damn thing is about.

    Sean Illing; Sounds like you got a problem with “wokeness,” James.

    If this were a cartoon, at this point a very dim candle would appear above Illing’s head

    James Carville: Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud.

    Absolutely true. Now let’s skip forward a bit.

    Sean Illing: Part of the issue is that Republicans are going to paint the Dems as cop-hating, fetus-destroying Stalinists no matter what they say or do.

    That might be because a significant fraction of Democrats are indeed cop-hating, fetus-destroying Stalinists, and they’re the ones driving the conversation. What was the last pro-life Democrat at the national level? Tulsi Gabbard? And it sure as hell isn’t Republicans marching with “All Cops Are Bastards” signs.

    So, yeah, I agree that Democrats should be smart and not say dumb, alienating things, but I’m also not sure how much control they have over how they’re perceived by half the country, especially when that half lives in an alternate media reality.

    For “alternate” read “those that refuse to march in lockstep with the Democratic narrative.” It isn’t Fox News reporters standing in front of burning buildings and declaring that the riot is “mostly peaceful.”

    James Carville: Right, but we can’t say, “Republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what, so let’s just run as out-and-out socialists.” That’s not the smartest thing to do. And maybe tweeting that we should abolish the police isn’t the smartest thing to do because almost fucking no one wants to do that.

    Yet it is Democrat-dominated city councils in places like Minneapolis, Portland and Austin that have actually voted to defund the police. So clearly someone does indeed want to do that, and they sure as hell aren’t Republicans.

    James Carville: Look at Florida. You now have Democrats saying Florida is a lost cause. Really? In 2018 in Florida, giving felons the right to vote got 64 percent. In 2020, a $15 minimum wage, which we have no chance of passing [federally], got 67 percent. Has anyone in the Democratic Party said maybe there’s nothing wrong with the state of Florida? Maybe the problem is the kind of campaigns we’re running?

    If you gave me an environment in which the majority of voters wanted to expand the franchise to felons and raise the minimum wage, I should be able to win that. It’s certainly not a political environment I’m destined to lose in. But in Miami-Dade, all they talked about was defunding the police and Kamala Harris being the most liberal senator in the US Senate. And if you look all across the Rio Grande Valley, we lost all kinds of solidly blue voters. And the faculty lounge bullshit is a big part of it.

    Sean Illing: If you’re a Democrat, you could look at the state of play and say, “We’re winning. We won the White House. We won Congress. We have power. It ain’t perfect, but it ain’t a disaster either.”

    James Carville: We won the White House against a world-historical buffoon. And we came within 42,000 votes of losing. We lost congressional seats. We didn’t pick up state legislatures. So let’s not have an argument about whether or not we’re off-key in our messaging. We are. And we’re off because there’s too much jargon and there’s too much esoterica and it turns people off.

    Some self-deluded “Oh we Democrats are the good people and Republicans are the bad people” babble snipped.

    James Carville: Let me give you my favorite example of metropolitan, overeducated arrogance. Take the climate problem. Do you realize that climate is the only major social or political movement that I can think of that refuses to use emotion? Where’s the identifiable song? Where’s the bumper sticker? Where’s the slogan?

    Are you high Mr. Carville? Environmentalism free of emotion? Does the name “Greta Thunberg” ring any bells? Have you never seen a Prius with a “Save The Whales” or “Save the Rainforest” bumper sticker?

    There are some good nuggets of truth buried in the Crazy Cajun’s commentary, but a lot of it is the same self-serving “oh we Democrats are just too pure for this world” bullshit that’s a naked lie right out of the gate. (Kavanaugh hearing, anyone?) Democrats overwhelming control of the majority of media outlets lets them continuously get high on their own supply, so much so that a simple revelation already realized by everyone outside that bubble (wokeness is a problem for Democrats) has to be treated as though it were some sort of controversial declaration for fear anyone not reacting that way will be dragged.

    LinkSwarm for December 20, 2019

    Friday, December 20th, 2019

    Although I know much of the Midwest has already been blessed with several feet of global warming, winter doesn’t officially start until tomorrow. In the meantime, finish up your Christmas shopping (if you haven’t already) and enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Brexit bill passes by huge majority. Britain is set to leave the EU by January 31, 2020. I’m putting this first because Brexit is far more important in the long run than the impeachment farce.
  • The amazing psychic powers of Instapundit. From 2017: “Trump knows that the press isn’t trusted very much, and that the less it’s trusted, the less it can hurt him. So he’s prodding reporters to do things that will make them less trusted, and they’re constantly taking the bait. They’re taking the bait because they think he’s dumb, and impulsive, and lacking self-control — but he’s the one causing them to act in ways that are dumb and impulsive, and demonstrate lack of self-control.”
  • Speaking of which: Washington Post reporters celebrate “Merry Impeachmas.” Brave firefighter, running toward fires…with buckets of gasoline.
  • “Unbiased Washington Post launches celebratory fireworks as Trump impeached.”
  • Is the whole impeachment sham battlespace preparation for the next Supreme Court nomination fight? (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • But is it even a real impeachment if Nancy Pelosi refuses to transmit the articles of impeachment to the senate? “After denying Trump any due process, Pelosi is now denying him a speedy trial.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Related:

  • Is Trump the only adult in the room?

    But then again, no president in modern memory has been on the receiving end of such overwhelmingly negative media coverage and a three-year effort to abort his presidency, beginning the day after his election.

    Do we remember the effort to subvert the Electoral College to prevent Trump from assuming office?

    The first impeachment try during his initial week in office?

    Attempts to remove Trump using the ossified Logan Act or the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution?

    The idea of declaring Trump unhinged, subject to removal by invoking the 25th Amendment?

    Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month, $35 million investigation, which failed to find Trump guilty of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election and failed to find actionable obstruction of justice pertaining to the non-crime of collusion?

    The constant endeavors to subpoena Trump’s tax returns and to investigate his family, lawyers and friends?

    Now, frustrated Democrats plan to impeach Trump, even as they are scrambling to find the exact reasons why and how.

    Most presidents might seem angry after three years of that. Yet in paradoxical fashion, Trump suddenly appears more composed than at any other time in his volatile presidency.

    Ironically, Trump’s opponents and enemies are the ones who have become publicly unhinged.

  • If you want to know how it’s playing out in America, check out this tweet from PolitiBunny, who was so hardcore #NeverTrump she voted for Egg McMuffin in 2016:

  • “Millions Of Voices Cry Out In Terror As Liberals Wake Up And Realize Trump Is Still President.”
  • “Political scientist makes surprising claim: Trump impeachment would guarantee his re-election in 2020.”
  • The House passes the USMCA free trade deal, and I expect senate approval to be quick. USMCA will have longer and more lasting consequences than the silly theater the Democrats put on Wednesday.
  • Of the 65 deadliest cities in America, over 90% have Democratic mayors, and over 70% have not had Republican mayors in a long, long time. The last Republican mayor of New Orleans left office in 1872… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Schlichter: “TIME’s Commie Nag Can Go Pound Sand“:

    Clearly Greta Thunberg is being exploited by her cynical puppetmasters, but equally clearly she’s a tiresome, bizarre Marxist scold whose exploitation of the hapless dummies who buy into the climate change hoax is part of what is an increasingly violent plot to undermine capitalism and freedom. Recently, the cretins at TIME, which shockingly still exists in 2019, named her “Person of the Year.” That’s appropriate, since 2019 has been a very annoying year.

    In 2029, after the world hasn’t ended but her usefulness has, she’ll be a Jeopardy question and probably shacked up with an unemployed performance artist named Björn in an Oslo suburb. Fun fact: “Greta Thunberg” is Swedish for “Cindy Sheenhan.”

    But today, we’re all supposed to fall over ourselves over Pippi Longnagging – at least that’s what our betters command – yet it’s unclear why. Teenagers are notoriously ignorant, and ones spewing recycled Marxism are the worst of all. But the idea is not that this tiresome truant is some visionary thinker. The idea is to leverage her youth and awkwardness to keep you from speaking the indisputable truth that she’s a weird brat who presses for an ideology that butchered 100 million people in the last century. And now, she is hinting she wants to run up that score.

    Snip.

    The other day, this malignant muppet “told cheering protesters … ‘we will make sure we put world leaders against the wall’ if they fail to take urgent action on climate change.” Now, maybe her English is bad, or maybe she’s just ignorant, but then again the murder of opponents is the Marxist way. Marxist? St. Greta? Well, let’s take a look at what was carved on the tablets she recently brought down from Mount Socialism:

    “Schoolchildren, young people, and adults all over the world will stand together, demanding that our leaders take action, not because we want them to, but because the science demands it,” she said. “That action must be powerful and wide-ranging. After all, the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all. Our political leaders can no longer shirk their responsibilities.”

    Wait, “the science demands” that we “dismantle” all our “[c]olonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression?” Now, what science exactly is that? Is it geology? Physics? Phrenology maybe?

    How stupid do they think people are? Very. And to judge by the judges at TIME, they’re often right. Maybe Greta never heard of Siberia or Cambodia, but we have. Screw that – if she wants to impose her masters’ Marxist fantasies on us, she’ll need to be packing something deadlier than “How dare you!”

  • “Poll Finds Most People Would Rather Be Annihilated By Giant Tidal Wave Than Continue To Be Lectured By Climate Change Activists.”
  • Indian Muslims Outraged Over Law Granting Citizenship to Refugees Fleeing Islamist Persecution:

    Muslims across India staged angry protests over new legislation that grants citizenship rights for refugees fleeing Islamist persecution in the neighboring countries.

    The Citizenship Amendment Bill, passed by the Lower House of the Indian parliament by 293 to 82 votes, opens the path to naturalization for the followers of six faiths, including Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, but excludes Muslims.

    Muslim mobs took to streets in several Indian cities, setting fire to vehicles, throwing stones, and hurling home-made bombs at security forces called in to restore order, Indian newspapers report. Left-wing student groups joined the protesters. They blockaded campuses in India’s capital New Delhi.

    On the one hand, 95% of the time it is in fact Muslims who are persecuting the members of other religions. On the other, the trend in India under Modi has been toward a Hindu religious-ethno state, and things there could turn very bad, very quickly for the Muslim minority there. Muslims constitute only 14% or so of India’s population, but 14% of 1.3 billion is still some 182 million people. And by “very bad” I mean “possibly Rwanda-level bad,” only at 10 times the scale…

  • French strike lengthens, including power cuts.
  • Poland may have to leave EU, Supreme Court warns.” Hey, I bet I know at least a couple of countries who would be happy to sign free trade deals if they did…
  • The astroturf funding behind the “transsexual rights” campaign.
  • MomsDemand never demands facts:

  • Minimum wage hikes killing jobs in California and Washington state.
  • Speaking of which: Vox sports writer complains that he’s being let go thanks to new California law after “1,304 articles.”

    I do not think it is a secret that Vox Media’s employment model has long been unsustainable. They use “contractor” designations to avoid all sorts of labor laws, including providing minimum wage and benefits — and they well exceed the intended use of “contractor.” I’ve published 1,304 articles in 8 years at Clips Nation. That’s not contract work. When I am on the site every day and have day-to-day oversight from corporate, that’s not contract work. Everyone, including SB Nation, has known that this model is unsustainable. While I won’t publicly disclose the numbers, and SB Nation limits our access to a lot of data, I am certain that Clips Nation generates enough revenue to support multiple employees, even when you account for the money that needs to support other aspects of the site (marketing, software, etc).

    The state of California is cracking down on companies like SB Nation who are exploiting the “contractor” loophole, as it well should. Unfortunately, Vox Media is predictably unwilling to cease being greedy. In order to attempt to protect their disproportionate and exploitative revenue share from team sites, Vox has decided to eliminate about 200 of these contractor positions — every contractor in California, including myself, Robert, and our staff writers, editors, and podcasters in paid roles — and replace them with a handful of full-time employees who are going to work as a team to run SB Nation’s 25 team sites in California.

    I doubt he knows how profitable Vox is. It’s entirely possible it loses money, like many online “media empires.” But I sincerely doubt Vox held a gun to his head those eight years. If he feels exploited for work he voluntarily agreed to do at the wages offered, he only has himself to blame. This is not to say that Vox doesn’t suck; it does. But this situation sucks not due to Vox, but due to the California state laws of which this freelancer so obviously approves.

  • Where is all the world’s cash disappearing to?
  • Google engineer fired for using a security hole to push political popup out as emergency message to the entire company. Trust me: Anyone who pulled such a trick at any other company would be fired toot quick, no matter the message. Hell, just pushing out a non-QAed emergency patch to production without C-level authority is a firing offense all on its own…
  • The SJW mob comes for J. K. Rowling for daring to suggest that biological sex is real and immutable.
  • Bad cop sentenced.
  • Here’s an interview with Burt Ward, Robin on the 1960’s Batman TV show, about some of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Nowadays he and his wife run a dog rescue center, where they’ve eventuality saved the lives of more than 15,000. Good on you, Burt.
  • Merry Christmas!

  • Vox Provides List of Clinton Foundation Donors

    Friday, May 1st, 2015

    From the blind-squirrel-finds-an-acorn department, here’s another rare interesting and useful piece from Vox that actually lists 181 major donors to the Clinton Foundation that also had business with Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

    Tidbits:

  • Microsoft/The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was the number one donor, giving at least $26,000,000, and possibly a great deal more, as no upper limit was reported.
  • The State of Qatar (and “related entities”) was the fourth largest donor, giving between $1,375,000 and $5,800,000. Rich Qatar individuals are also among the biggest backers of the Islamic State.
  • Goldman Sachs was the fifth largest donor, giving between $1,250,000 and $5,500,000. So much for all that “Occupy Wall Street” rhetoric from Democrats…
  • ExxonMobil was the ninth largest donor, and gave between $1,001,000 and $5,005,000. By liberal standards, shouldn’t this disqualify Hillary from talking about global warming ever again?
  • The “Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,” of which I was heretofore unaware, was tied for giving the tenth largest amount, between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000. They’re a Gates Foundation-backed entity that appears (from cursory research) to be pushing genetically modified crops (including those from Monsanto and Cargill) as a solution to Africa’s hunger problems. The question is why the money flows from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to the Clintons and not the other way around. Except, of course, for the fact that the money always seems to flow to the Clintons, and not the other way around…
  • Monsanto themselves gave between $501,250 and $1,006,000.
  • The American Cancer Society gave between $100,000 and $250,000. Why is the Cancer Society giving money to the Clinton Foundation? Has anyone asked?
  • Semiconductor equipment giant Applied Materials (for which I worked for four years more than a decade ago) gave between $100,000 and $250,000. Doing business globally, there are many reasons they could have sought favorable rulings from the State Department. However, some semiconductor equipment (specifically ion implanters, and possibly others) can be used (with modification) to enrich uranium.
  • This just scratches the surface on a Clinton Foundation scandal where new revelations seem to be dropping every day. But it’s a solid jumping-off point for additional research.

    Also, it offers a opportunity to troll liberals: “Do you think that Ted Cruz receiving money from Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil and Monsanto makes him a tool of big business?” Then after they answer…

    LinkSwarm for November 14, 2014

    Friday, November 14th, 2014

    There’s been so many people offering up so much information on “GruberGate” that I assume anyone reading this blog has seen coverage of it already. The fact that Jonathan Gruber not only lied to the American voters he called “stupid” about ObamaCare, but also got paid $400,000 to do it certainly adds insult to injury. As does the fact that both Nancy Pelosi and members of Obama’s MSM praetorian guard like Vox’s Sarah Kliff are now lying about Gruber’s central involvement in ObamaCare despite having cited him in that capacity earlier.

    In other news:

  • Some really interesting nuggets of midterm statistical analysis from Sabato’s Crystal Ball. (Hat tip: SooperMexican’s Twitter feed.)
  • Republicans did very well picking up governorships, including some in deep-blue states.
  • Scott Walker just keeps winning.
  • More on the theme: “Does Walker sizzle? Not exactly. Is he a particularly charismatic speaker? No, he isn’t. But does he sit upon a throne made of the skulls of his enemies? Yes, yes he does.” (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
  • Britain is poised to silence “extremist” speech. And who gets to determine what’s “extremist”? Why, the government, of course!

    Last month, May unveiled her ambition to “eliminate extremism in all its forms.” Whether you’re a neo-Nazi or an Islamist, or just someone who says things which betray, in May’s words, a lack of “respect for the rule of law” and “respect for minorities”, then you could be served with an extremism disruption order (EDO).

    Why do I get the impression that people pointing out Pakistani Muslim involvement in the Rotherham child rape scandals will be among the first targeted by this new law?

  • It’s not just the British who fail to investigate sex crimes: New Orleans police only investigated 14% of sex crimes.
  • Professional feminists have spent more time and energy denouncing video games than the sale and rape of girls in Nigeria and Iraq.”
  • “Honest, decent and intelligent people rightly perceive feminism as a limitless doctrine of fanatical hatred….Feminism isn’t about equality. Feminism is about hate.”
  • “Twitter has empowered leftist feminists to have a censorship field day.”
  • Just when the authoritarian left thought they had finally won the culture wars along came #GamerGate.
  • Time has a poll on which word should be “banned” in 2015. “Feminist” not only gets the most votes, it pretty much gets as many votes as all the rest combined.
  • Ted Cruz was right about the shutdown. It turns out that showing Republicans are opposed to horribly unpopular Democratic programs is popular with voters. Who knew?
  • Fake Maine hate crime ends up with accuser charged with “reckless conduct with dangerous weapon and driving to endanger.”
  • Democratic state Rep. Ron Reynolds’ barratry case has been declared a mistrial.
  • Islamist suicide bomber kills 50 at a high school in Nigeria.
  • Via Dwight of Whipped Cream Difficulties comes this Jim Schutze piece on how The Texas Tribune’s vaunted independence meant bupkis when it came to the Wallace Hall case.
  • China Vows To Begin Aggressively Falsifying Air Pollution Numbers.”
  • Price manipulation in the gold market?
  • Correction: Last week I gave the impression that Republican Carl DiMaio had won his California U.S. congressional race. That is what the early returns indicated, but he ended up losing a close race.
  • Here’s a dog story that will make your blood boil.
  • Vox Proves Its Cultural Criticism Is Just As Competent As Its Political Coverage

    Monday, September 29th, 2014

    Last night was the much-anticipated Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode. I enjoyed it, since it played very well with the bringing the Family Guy tropes into The Simpsons universe, right down to using Hans Moleman and Kang and Kodos. The episode was definitely elevated by the Homer/Peter fight, especially when Homer starts throwing a closet full of Emmy Awards at Peter.

    Naturally, Vox hated it, with “9 ways the Family Guy/Simpsons crossover was a blight on humanity.” (Hyperbole much?)

    It being Vox, they also got the description of #7 wrong: “Peter and Homer drank gasoline out of the hose when trying to steal it, then got turned into a German porn.” They weren’t trying to steal it, they were trying to “think like a car” to find Peter’s stolen car. And we know they didn’t steal it, because Homer actually says “Keep drinking! I prepaid forty bucks!”

    Oh, and #8 and #9 are both “this show is politically incorrect! Wah!”

    Vox’s whining just makes me enjoy the crossover that much more…

    (Which is not to say that either show is above criticism, since The Simpsons is clearly past its prime and needs a new infusion of talent. I stopped watching Family Guy when both the mediocre American Dad and the unwatchable The Cleveland Show (both of which got nods in the crossover) proved that Seth McFarland was spreading himself way, way too thin; he had about the same number of laughs spread out over all three as used to be in Family Guy. Maybe it’s back to being funny enough to be worth watching now.)

    Here’s the official crossover trailer:

    And here’s the full episode I’m sure Fox’s lawyers will get yanked just as soon as they discover it:

    Vox.com Gives Obama Horns

    Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

    We’ll save substantive analysis of Obama’s ISIS speech for another time. (Maybe.)

    What I want to focus on: Vox.com and/or the White House set decorator making it look like Obama should have “666” on his forehead (click to embiggen for the full evil effect):

    Now, I’m not one of those “Obama is the AntiChrist” nuts. And I realize that what looks like horns are merely folds in the ceremonial drapes (possibly window drapes) behind him. And his eyes probably look black because someone applied a standard photo filter to the picture (some iPhoto pics come out that way after applying the anti-redeye filter).

    But combine all that with the oddness of the bags under his eyes, the overall weird shadows on his face, and it really gives Obama a sinister, malevolent look.

    That’s why I saved a local copy to my HD, since I figure Vox will realize how bad it makes Obama look and replace it with one containing 95% less Satan by weight…

    Edited to add: This one seems equally horn-arific:

    Man, I can hardly wait for the lulz when Above Top Secret and InfoWars sink their teeth into this one…