Reading Graphs

By | | , ,
Leave a comment

There’s a blog, Political Calculations, which is immensely satisfying to a highly political data junkie such as myself.  So it’s a good blog, but the proprietor really hoses his interpretation of this graph:

[government spending] has literally “gone vertical” during the last two years.
In mathematical terms, that’s the sort of thing you see when you divide any number by zero. Applied to the chart above, that means that the relationship between the change in total government spending and the typical income earned by an American household from year-to-year is now “undefined.”

The problem is that this is a bivariate graph, and the concept of slope in terms of dy over dx does not apply.  More precisely, it has little meaning, and manifestly … Continue reading →

Weiner Tells Friends He Will Step Down – FoxNews.com

By | |
Leave a comment

With Huma just back in from overseas, he will probably have to bend over to pick up his dick on the way out.

The New York congressman, who has faced three weeks of scandal over pictures he texted to women he communicated with on Twitter and Facebook, had been facing a revolt from Democratic leaders, who had planned to meet Thursday to consider whether to strip Weiner of his role on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

via Weiner Tells Friends He Will Step Down – FoxNews.com.

Congressman Weiner’s office initially had no response to the report, but he did tweet “O ya, did sombdy say STRIP WEINER? Jumbo dog w/EVERTHNG right here! #NoReally”.

… Continue reading →

New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events – FoxNews.com

By | | , ,
Leave a comment

Well, Apple, I certainly hope that the purpose of this patent is to lock away the technology.  Hint, hint.

A patent application filed by Apple, and obtained by the Times, reveals how the software would work. If a person were to hold up their iPhone, the device would trigger the attention of infra-red sensors installed at the venue. These sensors would then instruct the iPhone to disable its camera.

via New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events – FoxNews.com.

Stunning and obvious potential for abuse.  Why not surreptitiously install the infrared things wherever a well-connected entity feels like ensuring no evidence exists?  And don’t bother me about the whole world not being exclusively on iPhones.  Once something like this is functioning and legal, it’s everywhere.

… Continue reading →

Constitutional Law I: Could the President be held in contempt?

By | |
Leave a comment

Why here’s an interesting blog post, which you might stumble across if you were oh, say, searching for it.

The short answer is yes, but there are a few different steps to the relevant analysis…

via Constitutional Law I: Could the President be held in contempt?.

This post is actually from 2008, but no less apropos for its age.  Read the whole thing.

Long Resignation Letter from a Good Man in Hollywood

By | |
Leave a comment

If the headline grabbed you, the letter will probably be good reading for you. If not, no explanation of mine can make it so.
I just want to express my appreciation for another Hollywood guy taking a stand on his own integrity. Thank you, Lionel Chetwyn.

We, privileged to work in the entertainment industry and enjoy the bounty our chosen career bestows on success, should never imagine ourselves the arbiters of what is permissible in the public square.

via Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » BREAKING: Lionel Chetwynd’s Open Letter of Resignation to Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors.

… Continue reading →

Newt Finished Again, Rasputin-Like. Sigh.

By | |
Leave a comment

How many times do we have to slay this shuckster’s career? He’s been not f-f-fading away since 1998. We already lost him as a credible candidate for any office. We already lost him as an intellectual support asset. Now we cannot seem to get his bloated political corpse off our beach.

An ABC News story details his most recent career-ending debacle as a bit of money-shuffling between charities and for-profit companies, all of which seem to bear his name. And pay him. Why, the Gingrich charity buys books from the Gingrich company! Boxes of books. Presumably these will be given to Gingrich children on Christmas. Just sign the receipt, Johnny, and then Santa gets a nice tax deduction.

A reporter tried to question him about it:

“I’m not … Continue reading →

There Is No S'Poon

By | |
1 Comment

You may have heard that that one Lesbian blogger is really a man, baby:

LONDON (AP) — A 40-year-old American man living in Scotland said Monday he’s sorry for posing as a Syrian lesbian blogger who offered vivid accounts of life amid revolt and repression in Damascus, a hoax that has exposed the difficulty of sifting truth from fiction online.
…
Paula Brooks of lesbian news website Lezgetreal.com, which encouraged Amina and republished her blog entries, said she feels like a “patsy.”

You may have heard that that one Lesbian blogger is really a man, baby:

Later Monday, The Washington Post reported that an editor of lesbian news website Lezgetreal.com — who encouraged Arraf and republished her blog entries — was a man … Continue reading →

The Great Wait Has Begun

By | | , , , ,
3 Comments

The Wait

America’s friends and enemies alike are waiting for the results of the 2012 election as much as Americans themselves.  Perhaps more.  Much is at stake, but for many reasons, the most valuable tactic of delay is the least-mentioned.  The clock is running out on Obama, and those who can wait are holding out in civil fashion for better days.  Those who cannot are scrambling to survive.  But if Obama wins in 2012, all bets are off.

Abroad

The American right is not much given to complaining about its government overseas, so that the perennial threats made by famous but inconsequential people to move abroad are not a feature of unpopular democrat administrations.  Neither are tens of thousands of YouTube videos and online still photos with perky … Continue reading →

Re-activation of "Tea Party = Nazi" Meme

By | |
Leave a comment

In the spirit of Congress, an omnibus post:

Re-activation of “Tea Party = Nazi” Meme

The media is scared again.  Have you noticed an uptick in references to Nazis when media people discuss the Tea Party in the last week?  I have.

You can tell what their current marching orders are by the little “core dumps” scattered in their meltdowns.  Most of them are useless flacks, you see, and many when pressed on issues will resort to dumping not only what they were instructed to say, but will reveal what their instructions actually are.

Now this sort of thing does not require actual rooms with leaders issuing directives on what to say, or online gatherings where the meme of the week is selected before being promoted as if … Continue reading →