If you’re going to go Christmas Caroling

Do it right.

Any Questions?

 

I don’t know what they’re selling, but I’m buying.

 

Courtesy agrapha.

TSA Roundup

Note: Henceforth, and as long as the TSA continues its peek and grope policy, airport security theater will be known as “gate rape”. And, while TSA has long meant Too Stupid for Arby’s, perhaps now it means Total Sex Addicts or Touch Some Ass. The Patriot Post suggests Thorough Sexual Assault.

Take your blood pressure meds, sit down, and contemplate the epic fail that is the TSA.

TSA encounter at SAN.

A hundred naked citizens. (But we can trust the TSA rent-a-cops more than U.S. Marshalls, right?)

Penn Jillette vs. the TSA – eight years ago

An emailer to Instapundit on why the TSA can’t, and will never, work:

I am a professor of management at a large state university in the southwestern US. I have done this for 15 years subsequent to a career in a Fortune 500 company. I read your site daily and always find something that makes me smile. Thus, I offer a couple of observations regarding your recent threads on the TSA screening debacle. Anyone that studies organizations or has spent time in corporate or large-government environments, understands why the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security were bad ideas. The expressed goal was to integrate all of the diverse elements associated with public security into one entity and make them work seamlessly. The only way to do this, however, is through fairly rigid bureaucratic rules and strict policy guidelines. How would you control the behavior of screeners in diverse places such as Minot and NYC? You do it through strict policy and procedures. You simply cannot permit discretion on the part of individuals as this would jeopardize organizational control of these people. This is why TSA seems mindless… the thinking is being done elsewhere, at the time the procedure is written. This is also why large-scale technical solutions like backscatter machines are favored. These are the only ones compatible with the organizational structures of TSA. I would think that even within the leadership of TSA you would get an admission that an Israeli-style security scheme is far more effective. The problem is scalability – and the bureaucratic nature of large organizations. The Israeli model requires allowing discretion on the part of the screener, which would require hiring employees capable of thoughtfully exercising it (better hiring, training, pay, etc.) and far fewer rigid policies and procedures. One more note. The trend in organizations for several years now is toward decentralizing, flexibility, and mass customization (the achieving of large scale efficiencies on an almost individual level). This is why I favor going back to doing security locally. Think local Fire Marshall vs the OSHA inspector. Who is really getting the job done?

How easy it is to circumvent the entire, worthless airport security theater. NB: I think he weakens his case with silly things like the Osama tee shirts and Hezbo flags. That’s just playing gotcha. If they had confiscated them or reacted to them Goldberg would rightly complain on free speech grounds. So ignore that part and contemplate the state of the art boarding pass forging device you probably have on your desk right now.

Then there’s the case of the woman suing the Too Stupid for Arby’s crowd for exposing her breasts in front of a crowd.

“One male TSA employee expressed to the plaintiff that he wished he would have been there when she came through the first time and that ‘he would just have to watch the video,'” the suit said.

If it’s still not clear why her breasts were a security threat, and you can stand a few F-bombs, please watch this orientation video.

This may help explain why, after years of bullying and idiotic kabuki at the airport the TSA has not caught one single terrorist, but at least twenty-three TSA agents have been fired for stealing from passengers.

Update:

Signs of resistance. Two pilots claim (correctly, of course) that current procedures violate the Fourth Amendment. Some airports are opting out of TSA bullying. They all should. Speaking of resistance, I forgot this earlier Jeffrey Goldberg post.

Sometimes Ron Paul is the crazy uncle you wish would just be quiet. But sometimes he’s right. Here he is very right:

No news story is complete, of course, without the Taiwanese animation version.

The updates just keep coming. Iowahawk spins Comply With Me.

Later update:

We were only following orders!

It will be time to abandon Facebook

if, and that’s still an if, Facebook was complicit in this.

Instead, he began going to an Internet cafe — a move that turned out to be a costly mistake. The owner …  said the blogger aroused suspicion by spending up to seven hours a day in a corner booth. After several months, a cafe worker supplied captured snapshots of his Facebook pages to Palestinian intelligence officials.

That quote makes it look like it was the internet cafe, not Facebook, who turned the guy in. I will be following the story closely. If Facebook was complicit, I’ll leave it and take as many friends as I can.

I’ll probably leave as soon as Diaspora is up in any case.

Britain Death Watch

I’ve been saying Britain is dead for years now. The corpse is still twitching, but barely.

Read Andrew Stuttaford’s post on the Islamic march through England’s institutions. Multiculturalism, as it does everywhere, kills people and countries.

Of course, England is not alone in its doom.

And, if you have the stomach for looking at a field littered with burnt corpses, you can always take a gander at this monument to the Religion of Peace.

I am now part of your vocabulary

Check out today’s A.W.A.D.

Descriptive Dialogue Track on Pixar Films

This email from Darla K. Anderson, producer of Toy Story 3, is excerpted here with permission. I think it’s a pretty spiffy thing to do. So, if you wonder what that menu is on your new TS3 disk, wonder no more.

With the release of Toy Story 3 and Cars Toons on Blu-ray & DVD today, we wanted to let you know about new functionality that we’ve added to our discs.

As you may know, our Theatrical releases go out with a narrative track option for the blind & sight-impaired members or our audience. Through our partnerships with Disney & WGBH, we were able to make the narrative track available on our DVD & Blu-ray & ITunes releases of Up. The positive feedback we received was amazing – especially from kids with sight issues who, until now had not been able to experience our films with their families in a way that felt inclusive to them.

For TS3 and Cars Toons – and going forward, we’ve made a slight adjustment based on feedback from Up. The note we got was that it was tough for a sight-impaired person living independently to access the track which was buried in the menus. To that end, when you insert your new Cars Toons or Toy Story 3 Blu-ray or DVD into your player, a menu card will appear with your audio choices, in conjunction with an audible chime.

The sighted user will select their audio preference from that menu card and have a traditional playback experience. For the sight- impaired user, they only need to hit the ‘5’ key (or ‘5’ + enter on certain players) on their remote, and they’ll automatically be taken to the narrated versions of Day & Night, Toy Story 3, or the Cars Toons Play All version.

We’re thrilled to be able to share our films with an even wider audience, and hope to continue this practice on all future Pixar releases.

Just wanted to let you all know.

JOTD

Something to keep in mind as you head to the polls.

An Indian walks into a cafe holding a shotgun in one hand leading a buffalo with the other.

“Coffee.”

The waiter pours him a tall mug. “Here you go.”

The Indian downs the joe in one gulp, wheels, aims, and blasts buffalo bits all over the wall. Then he just walks out.

The next morning the Indian returns with his shotgun and another buffalo.

“Coffee.”

The waiter says, “Hold on, there! We’re still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was that all about, anyway?”

The Indian smiles.

“Training for position in United States Congress. Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull, leave mess for others to clean up, Disappear for rest of day.”

California Ballot Propositions

I think I’m likely to vote according to Chuck DeVore’s recommendations. The only one I’m vacillating on is Prop 19. His concerns are valid, but I also wonder if it could end up hurting the Mexican drug cartels, and thus helping us. The rest seem pretty obvious.

Update:

The always reliable Tom McClintock has published his ballot propositions recommendations. He just put me on the “no” side of Prop 19. They disagree on Prop 22, which leaves me in a quandary. I may have to invoke the “when in doubt, vote NO” rule. Or maybe the “when in doubt, go with McClintock” rule. This could be tough.

Updated (and bumped):

Still not positive about Prop 22. Am finding Chuck’s argument about it being a wolf in sheep’s clothing more persuasive, and that fits my “vote no” default as well.

Other California items:

Governor: Meg Whitman. Why? Because she’s not Jerry Brown.

Senator: Carly Fiorina. Why? Because she’s not Barbara Boxer.

Attorney General: Steve Cooley, probably. Just make sure Kamala Harris doesn’t get the job!

The following are those who should be rewarded for their votes on gun rights. Correct and clear application of the Second Amendment is the most reliable litmus test there is in politics. It’s hard to find people on the right side of this issue who are wrong on other substantial issues.

Controller: Tony Strickland

Treasurer: Mimi Walters

Insurance Commisioner: Mike Villines

Congressional District 10: Gary Clift

State Assembly District 3: Dan Logue

State Assembly District 4: Ted Gaines

State Assembly District 10: Alyson Huber

State Assembly District 17 Cathleen Galgiani

State Assembly District 20: Adnan Shahab

State Assembly District 27: Linda “Ellie” Black

State Assembly District 34: Conny Conway

State Assembly District 36: Steve Knight (one of the few really good guys in Sacramento)

State Assembly District 60: Curt Hagman

State Assembly District 66: Kevin Jefferies

State Assembly District 72: Chris Norby

State Assembly District 73: Kiane Harkey

State Assembly District 74: Martin Garrick

State Assembly District 75: Nathan Fletcher

State Senate District 12: Anna Caballero

State Senate District 14: Tom Berryhill

State Senate District 18: Jean Fuller

State Senate District 34: Lou Correa

State Senate District 38: Mark Wyland

Anybody on the following list should be vehemently opposed in any case:

Jarad Huffman

Mariko Yamada

Fiona Ma

Tom Ammiano

Mary Hayashi

Jerry Hill

Paul Fong

Jim Beall

Bill Monning

Bob Blumenfield

Julia Brownley

Mike Feuer

Anthony Portantino

Gil Cedillo

Mike Eng

Isadore Hall

Bonnie Lowenthal

Warren Furutani

Wilmer Carter

Jose Solario

Marty Block

Manuel Perez

Noreen Evans

Darrell Steinberg

Leland Yee

Ellen Corbett

Alex Padilla

Curren Price

Ron Calderon

Gloria Negrete-McLeod

So get out there tomorrow and VOTE.

Marcel The Shell With Shoes On

Brilliant.

Republican in San Francisco

Brian is a friend, coworker, and crazy talented musician. Read the back story of the song. I can really, really relate.

Call Her Ma’am Again

David Zucker is sorry he ever donated to Barbara Boxer. Very, very sorry. Here is his apology.

Listen to the Professor

Not that they’d actually talk about the dangers of big government in China. Great spot none the less. Pass it along!

Capitalism. Is there anything it can’t do?

The Rent is Too Damn Up

Who Says Islam Is Totalitarian?

Well, I do, for one. And I’m apparently in good company.

I have nothing against the people. I don’t hate Muslims. But Islam is a totalitarian ideology. It rules every aspect of life — economics, family law, whatever. It has religious symbols, it has a God, it has a book — but it’s not a religion. It can be compared with totalitarian ideologies like Communism or fascism. There is no country where Islam is dominant where you have a real democracy, a real separation between church and state.

Religious Tolerance

This little history lesson from Kenneth Davis comes close to attacking a straw man. But the lesson is a valuable one. One of the worst things about most, if not all, religions is intolerance. When you have “the truth” everybody else is automatically “wrong”. It’s worth reading the whole thing to see just how and why the framers made sure ours was a secular government.

In his litany of religious intolerance in America Davis even soft-sells it.

At about the same time, Joseph Smith founded a new American religion—and soon met with the wrath of the mainstream Protestant majority. In 1832, a mob tarred and feathered him, marking the beginning of a long battle between Christian America and Smith’s Mormonism. In October 1838, after a series of conflicts over land and religious tension, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered that all Mormons be expelled from his state. Three days later, rogue militiamen massacred 17 church members, including children, at the Mormon settlement of Haun’s Mill. In 1844, a mob murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum while they were jailed in Carthage, Illinois. No one was ever convicted of the crime.

Boggs didn’t just want the Mormons expelled, he issued an “extermination order”. It wasn’t rescinded until 1976. (Still, I doubt you’ll hear a better name today than Lilburn Boggs. Gotta use that one in a movie script some day.)

Do read the whole thing for a reminder of just how beastly religious people have been to each other in this country, even starting hundreds of years before it was a country. Then rejoice that the constitution specifically keeps religion out of government both for the good of the country and the good of religion.

The Very Model of a Modern U.S. President

The brilliance of this piece is that it works either way. It could be one of those pro-Obama things that only looks anti-Obama, or it could be the most sly anti-Obama thing in weeks. Many commenters on YouTube apparently think He really is the very model. When I watch this I see His clueless arrogance on parade.

Like I said, brilliant.

It’s the Arrogant Cuttlefish!

Watch Obama spew ink in His response to this racist.

Note how, at least twice, He claims to have “passed” legislation. Man, with this guy it’s always about “me, me me”. Note also that He never actually answers the questions.

Not Rocket Science

I’ve long insisted that the constitution was not meant as a brain buster. It’s written in plain English, to the level of understanding of an average person. John Derbyshire got a great email from a reader who agrees.

To this day, I’m amazed at all the seemingly bright students in my class that never seemed to “get it.” I am convinced they made things more complicated than they needed to be because of an expectation that things had to be difficult. Indeed, I think it is a hallmark of lawyers to make things more complicated than they need to be — part of it probably to create a mystique that gives more apparent legitimacy to the profession and part out of a preening intellectualism, and I think it has long been this way with attorneys. But I think with the modern legal profession there is something more sinister going on. The “complexity” of the law (specifically of constitutional law) is in far too many instances merely a smoke screen for those that would use the law to achieve political ends for which our legal system was not intended and for which there would be no popular support. If Justice Blackman had stated in his Roe v. Wade opinion that “there is clearly no right to an abortion protected by the Constitution, but a majority of us justices feel there ought to be,” clearly that ruling would have no political legitimacy. Hence, we get double speak like “unenumerated penumbras” designed, I believe, to make the layman throw up his hands and say “this stuff is too complicated for me…but if the experts say there’s a right to an abortion in the Constitution they must be right. Heck, they went to law school!”

Ana One, Ana Two

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Saskatchewan Philharmonic.

Strangely Compelling

or merely strange? You decide.

Update: (And bumped)

The first copy of the video I linked to got taken down. Here’s a fresh one. I still have to watch this every few days.

He may talk like a thug

but at least He’s self-centered.

“If we turn out in strong numbers, then we will do fine. If we do not, if we are depressed and decide, well, you know, Barack’s not running right now, so I’m just going to stay home, then I’m going to have my hands full up here on Capitol Hill.”

The Socialist

The High Cost of Muslim Intolerance

Your must-read of the day.

Islamic Republics don’t work. The only one that has been established (not counting others that say they are but aren’t) is in Iran. The major problems were twofold. First, the radicals had too much power. Radical religious types are no fun, and you can’t argue with them because they are on a mission from God. Most people tire of this in short order. To speed this disillusionment, many of the once-poor and now-powerful religious leaders became corrupt. This eventually sends your popularity ratings straight to hell.

The Michael Bayifier

Now you can make any photo look like a frame from a Michael Bay movie! Awesome!

Just look what it did with my drivers license photo.

No Pressure

I’m sure you’ll want to go green after watching this.

See Instapundit: ECO-FASCISM JUMPS THE SHARK.

Update:

Iowahawk goes behind the scenes at Splodey, Youngblood, Gutz & Bones.

Really, most sincerely dead

Politically. I hope.

Imagine your life if you hadn’t seen this.

Never Complain About Your Commute Again

Update (and bumped):

YouTube pulled the video. Brace yourself for some potentially racy ads and watch it on LiveLeak.

My apologies for the late update. I thought I did this the other day, but the update didn’t take. Such is life with WordPress sometimes.