Clipfile - November 12, 2010

“When the right-thinking folks get it wrong, it’s never their fault.” - Glenn Reynolds

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 16:47:28 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

Smitty gets called up

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:07:15 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

Would it were so...

Rich Galen has hopes that with a new congress:

...that pesky Article I of the U.S. Constitution might be given a shot of adrenaline.

Article I begins thus:

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Not in the Oval Office; not in the Departments and Agencies; not in the offices of the many Czars within the Executive Office of the President, but in “a Congress of the United States.”

But that would mean congress taking responsibility and accountability for government actions!  As the Brits say, not bloody likely...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:38:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 113 words, total size 1 kb.

Jeffrey Goldberg stumbles over the obvious

Goldberg:

It is a source of continual astonishment to me that pilots — many of whom, it should be pointed out, are military veterans who possess security clearances — are not allowed to carry onboard their airplanes pocket knives and bottles of shampoo, but then they’re allowed to fly enormous, fuel-laden, missile-like objects over American cities.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:35:00 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

Clipfile - November 8, 2010

“‘Ethics’ in modern practice has simply become a method of evading actual ethical behavior by creating a checklist of Don’ts which are almost entirely unrelated to the actual ethical transaction; compliance with this silly list of Don’ts allows actors to violate the real ethics of the profession like there's no tomorrow.” - Ace

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 18:50:40 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 58 words, total size 1 kb.

My biggest problem with daylight savings:

Convincing the cats to reset.


Previous grumbles:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:02:42 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 24 words, total size 1 kb.

So MSNBC bounced Olbermann for donating to Democrats...?

Big deal.  He can always go to work at NPR.  I bet Vivian would just love him.

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 22:31:49 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

Mark Twain on mathematical extrapolation

Roberta has put up a post in which she marvels at

...how short a time it took for statistical analysis of mass behavior of large groups to be considered with an eye to predicting and possibly manipulating the outcome.

Her citations of a couple of pre-World-War-II projects give me an excuse for hauling out this 1883-vintage example of mathematical prediction which still should stand as a lesson to us all.

(As Mr.Clemens spends a couple of pages setting things up, you’ll find it all  below the break.)

more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:51:41 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 870 words, total size 6 kb.

They’ve moved

The gang at doubleplusundead is now here. 

Posted by: Old Grouch in Meta at 16:26:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

Do I detect a sign of celebration?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:18:34 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.