Thursday, 13 December 2007

In Passing

Any way the wind blows


Awww... aren't they cute? Not.

#1:
For six years, Central Intelligence Agency officers have worried that someday the tide of post-Sept. 11 opinion would turn, and their harsh treatment of prisoners from Al Qaeda would be subjected to hostile scrutiny and possible criminal prosecution.
...
The Congressional intelligence committees, whose leaders in 2002 gave at least tacit approval for the tough tactics, have voted in conference to ban all coercive techniques, and they have announced investigations of the destruction of the videotapes and the methods they documented.

“Exactly what they feared is what’s happening,” Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, said of the C.I.A. officials he advised in that job. “The winds change, and the recriminations begin.” – New York Times
#2:
For years, Congress had been pushing lenders to lend vigorously in poor neighborhoods and to avoid redlining. This effort worked--only too well.

Now Congress has discovered “predatory lending.” – Jim Lindgren at Volokh Conspiracy
Congressional “support.” Good 'til the next poll.

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Monday, 10 December 2007

In Passing

The MSM's push continues


Via Daily Pundit, Time's Mark Halperin continues the push:

If Huckabee wins Iowa, then it is easy to imagine Romney losing New Hampshire — which means McCain could win New Hampshire. At which point, the three men who looked most likely to be the GOP nominee only six weeks ago (Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson), would be 0-2 in the first-in-the-nation contests. At which point, we would have have more of a wide-open situation than we have now, which is saying something.
Of course, no one has won anything, yet.

Previously: Pay no attention to the gang on the press bus

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 04:13:39 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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In Passing

No! You've got to be kidding!


The problem with a report like this is, it's no longer possible to reject it out of hand.  There's more than a suspicion that it might be true.

Tony Palmer, who has won more than 40 awards including Baftas, Emmys and, uniquely, the Prix Italia twice, criticised the director-general after the BBC turned down a documentary of his. The film, about English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, has been produced by Five instead.

Palmer said he received an extraordinary rejection letter from a BBC commissioning editor explaining that, 'having looked at our own activity via the lens of find, play & share', it had been decided the film did not fit with 'the new vision for [BBC] Vision'.

Bizarrely, Palmer said, the letter concluded: 'But good luck with the project, and do let me know if Mr. V. Williams has an important premiere in the future as this findability might allow us to reconsider.'
 -- David Smith and Mary Riddell, The Observer
The Beeb says it has "no record" of the proposal or the rejection.

Stay tuned.

Via: Instapundit

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 02:30:47 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friday, 07 December 2007

In Passing

Memo to James


I bought The Book. (scroll down, to "New book buying incentive.")

At the Barnes and Noble down the block, as it turned out.[1] They had three copies, plus one of Regrettable Food and one of Mommy Knows Worst. Could have ordered on the web, but I suspect that the chains still put more stock in their brick-and-mortar sales numbers than their e-commerce ones. I fancy my in-store purchases as my way of doing my bit to encourage wider availabilty of the authors I like.

And it was everything I expected (it's Lileks, after all).

I still need my own copy of Interior Desecrations (gave one, which I found shelved in the "Art/Architecture" section, as a gift last year).

------
[1] Don't give me any static about "why not your independent bookseller." Don't have one. My other choice is Border's. Hey, at least it wasn't Costco.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:31:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Tuesday, 04 December 2007

Linkage

Meet the new committee, same as the old committee

In the latest episode of the continuing saga of the SFWA copyright flap...

The Board of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has reinstated Andrew Burt as chairman of its copyright committee, despite the recommendations of the group that was chartered to investigate SFWA's work on copyright in the wake of August's illegal and damaging campaign against the text-hosting site Scribd. - Cory Doctorow

Best Link Roundup (and a good place to start):

Authors and others:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:40:52 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Monday, 03 December 2007

In Passing

Working class need not apply


Connecting dots...
Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel:

...It's not driven by the lunch-pail concerns of those workers struggling to make it in an increasingly high-tech, information-based, outsourcing U.S. economy -- though it does pay lip service to them.

Rather, gentry liberalism reflects the interests and values of the affluent winners in the era of globalization and the beneficiaries of the "financialization" of the economy. Its strongholds are the tony neighborhoods and luxurious suburbs in and around New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and West Los Angeles...

Chiefly drawing on Wall Street, Hollywood and the Silicon Valley, this year's Democratic presidential candidates have raised 70% more money than their GOP counterparts, according to the Wall Street Journal. The securities industry, which awarded Republicans 58% of their campaign dollars in 1956, gave the GOP only 45% in 2006. In the newest sectors of the securities industry, most notably hedge funds, Democrats are favored. This year, hedge fund managers have given 77% of their contributions to Democrats in congressional races, reported the Journal.
Eric Scheie:
So, the Democratic Party — the party of the working class — is broadcasting tonight’s debate from an elitist network run by billionaire Mark Cuban that requires expensive equipment and high monthly charges to access.

What’s up with that? Is this a signal that despite the egalitarian rhetoric, that they’re actually the party of the rich and famous? Imagine the outcry if the GOP broadcast its debate from fancy network that ordinary people couldn’t access. There’d be cries that the Republicans were in a “gated community.”
(sings:) “Who needs to be a mil-lion-aire? YOU do!”


Via: Instapundit 1.2

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In Passing

Running out of TIMES?


Muslims who wonder why non-Muslims are often baffled, angered, even frightened by some governments’ interpretation of Islamic law need only look to the cases of two women in Saudi Arabia and Sudan threatened with barbaric lashings...
What one Muslim leader, Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain, said about the Sudan case can also be applied to the Saudis’: “How does this help the cause of Islam? What kind of message and image are we portraying about our religion and our culture?” - New York Times editorial: “Lashing Justice”
Or, “Guys, we can’t keep on making excuses for you if you keep on doing the inexcusable.”

Later: Washington Post writers remain clueless.


Via: Instapundit and Instapundit

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:17:13 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Saturday, 01 December 2007

In Passing

Attention Blogspot-ers: Feature reduction


Blogspot bloggers who also use Blogger's comments will probably want to note that when it redesigned the  comment entry form Google removed the text entry field that allowed us non-account[1] commenters (e.g., those using a nick without logging in) to enter our blogs' URI to create a link on our nick.  Since I have no Blogspot (or Google) account, on any future Blogspot comments I make my name will no longer link to the oldgrouch.mee.nu site.

If your site is affected (and this bothers you)  you might want to consider getting a real blog host.



Redesign first noted by C.G. Hill, who today is channeling Marty Robbins.

UPDATE 071224 05:39:  Hey, it's back
------
[1] Maybe "no-account" commenters?

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:17:33 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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