Archive for June, 2010

Credit where credit is due:

Posted: June 9, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
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A few days ago I noted that Andrew Sullivan was making Charles Johnson look like his old self, but now Johnson has managed to grab a little bit of his old mojo back:

The British-based Reuters news agency has been stung for the second time by charges that it edited politically sensitive photos in a way that casts Israel in a bad light. But this time Reuters claims it wasn’t at fault.

The news agency reacted to questions raised by an American blogger who showed that Reuters’ photo service edited out knives and blood traces from pictures taken aboard the activist ship Mavi Marmara during a clash with Israeli commandos last week. Nine people were killed and scores were injured in the clash.

I’m looking at the Memeorandum thread and noticed one common thing few if any mention Johnson.

This isn’t a surprise, I don’t care for Johnson, I don’t like the way he treated my friend Stacy, or Pam or Peg and he has run in my opinion run his site like a cheap dictator, but in the end his position on Israel and his willingness to expose Reuters shows he still has a trace of the old Johnson in him.

Christians in general and Catholics in particular are very much into redemption. I’ve still got a little Pollyanna in me so I’ll include him in my prayers this week. Who knows.

Pundit & Pundetts highlights one importnat point

Posted: June 9, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
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about the Union defeat reminds us of. Basically how dollars that are supposed to be used helping members are spent elsewhere as this post from the morning bell highlights:

In his ongoing battle with teachers unions, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) recently told a town hall in Robbinsville: “My argument is not with teachers in New Jersey. My argument is with a union who collects $730 a year from every teacher and school employee in the union in mandatory dues. And if you don’t want to join the union here’s your option: you can be out. You pay 85% of $730 … to be out. It’s like the Hotel California. You can check in anytime you like but you can never leave. That raises for the teachers union, get ready, $130 million a year. What do they spend that money on? … $6 million in negative advertising against me since March 16th. Think about that. That’s a little over two months they have spent $6 million on New York TV and Radio, Philadelphia TV and radio to attack me. That’s dues money that is coming from their teachers, mandatory no choice, and from all of you because those salaries come from your property taxes and your state income taxes.”

Between that $6 million and the $10 mil blown in Arkansas I ask those in unions? With your pension funds doing poorly do you think those dollars could have been spent better? Why don’t you ask your leadership?

Hugh Slatery of Wizbang Dead at 53

Posted: June 9, 2010 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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His last post was on the EU and currency and is here, an excerpt:

Here is the gist of the debate between Treasury Secretary Geithner and EU Central Bank President Trichet: the United States can print money longer (and sustain deficits for a longer period) than the EU, but the end result is the same. The EU knows it is experiencing a currency crisis right now and may be choosing to face the music by reducing spending. The United States, on the other hand, is still in denial about this looming problem. As the Europeans take on the gut wrenching job of forcing spending cuts on their citizens because they are left with no other choices, our administration is encouraging more Keynesian non sense. Fortunately, the EU is saying “enough” to the Keynesian insanity. Why? Because they have history on their side and know in a very personal way how a currency becomes worthless and what happens as a result. Americans (with the exceptions of Southerners (and their creditors) left holding Confederate dollars 150 years ago) have no experience with the harsh reality that accompanies currency debasement. J P Morgan may have saved the country one hundred years ago but the size and scope of the problem today is several orders of magnitude greater.

Via Hotair. My condolences to his wife and family.

Blogging is a new enough phenom that the death of a blogger is still an oddity the time will come, sooner than a lot of us would like that this will be a regular occurrence and will gain the same attention as the death of an elderly retired actor who we remember in passing from many years ago

An oddity that the under 30 set might not realize…

Posted: June 9, 2010 by datechguy in fun, oddities
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I was channel surfing a couple of days ago and on RTV (retro tv) They has the pilot episode of the old Daniel Boone TV series staring Fess Parker.

Aside from being politically incorrect in many ways there is something that anyone my age or older would have not found odd.

An attack on the fort is launched by British and Indians to keep the colonists from advancing into Kentucky and building a new fort (which would eventually become Boonesborough). If you look at the scenes of the attack the majority of them come from the first rate movie Drums Along the Mohawk from 1939 staring Henry Fonda that I’ve mentioned before.

For decades this was very common, particularly in TV shows (F-Troop, McHales Navy, et/al) for various action scenes or crowd scenes to be recycled from previous movies. In an age before VCR’s, DVD’s, Blue Ray and live streaming it wasn’t all that noticed.

Those days however it is rarely done. One quick example. The movie Amistad has one small scene at the end showing a moment of the US Civil War. It didn’t get even a minute of screen time but I didn’t recognize any movie it came from and suspect a 2nd unit crew spent a day making that shot for that. Why? Because it they took a shot from say Glory a million movie fans would have recognized it like a shot and razzzed them about it.

Does this matter at all? Not really, it makes me feel like the old wizened retired artillery colonel who recognizes the horse holders but it’s an anachronism that will someday be unrecognized.

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