Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

More on that Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial last night which was so good that Murdoc refused to watch any more Super Bowl commercials.

At first Murdoc was “Wow! That’s Clint Eastwood!”

Then Murdoc was “Oh, my God…I think this is one of those Detroit Chrysler commercials.”

Looking online after the fact, Murdoc sees that there was a lot of talk about this beforehand. He wishes that he would have seen some of this so he would have been prepared.

But seeing Eastwood up there being a huckster for that crap was sure disheartening.

Murdoc doesn’t know why these “Detroit rocks” commercials drive him so nuts. But they do. I see firsthand a lot of what these celebrity spokesmen like Eastwood and Eminem are talking about, and the reality ain’t pretty.

(Aside: Who would would have ever thought we’d see “Eastwood and Eminem” in print?)

Halftime America! Clint Eastwood Makes It All Better! Ugh.:

So, bringing in the city of Detroit as some city on the ‘comeback’ after being knocked down, and blah blah blah, was a bit disingenuous as it fails to mention they knocked themselves out. Detroit and the American car industry would not have made it to ‘half-time’ if it wasn’t for the Bail-Out ™. They were carried by the taxpayer to half-time, beaten and bruised by building inferior products, bloated management and union mismanagement and over-the-rainbow promises to it’s retiring workforce.

Exactly. Especially the “blah blah blah” part. (via Instapundit)

I know that Eastwood has long been a solid Conservative in an environment where being open about being such a thing is usually fatal. And I know that this is just a commercial. And, for what it’s worth, I DO hope Detroit and the American automakers get their crap together. But this commercial is a crock, and it’s disappointing to see Clint Eastwood starring in it.

Actually, it’s more “disheartening” to me than “disappointing.” A little of the shine just disappeared from so many of those movies and characters that I like so much and, to be honest, have been influential on me in many ways.

I hope I’m just over-reacting and feel better about it tomorrow.

US won’t cut carrier fleet to fix budget: Panetta

Good news, if true:

Aboard The USS Enterprise: The United States will not cut America’s fleet of 11 aircraft carriers to help trim the budget deficit, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday, citing tensions with Iran as an example of why the massive ships are so critical to national security.

Panetta was addressing about 1,700 sailors headed to the Gulf this spring aboard the USS Enterprise, which after a half-century of service is about to embark on its final tour before being taken offline in November.

We’ll see. There is already a gap between the retirement of the Big ‘E’ and the addition of the USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78).

Obama’s Surrender of Afghanistan Continues Apace?

So let’s get this straight: we agree to release key Taliban leaders from Gitmo, and the Taliban “reciprocates” not by releasing the one American they hold hostage, but by agreeing to “open a political office…in Qatar?” Wow, what a sacrifice! So basically, what is happening here is that Barack Obama is begging the Taliban to do business with him.

Murdoc’s got some strong issues with what our goals in Afghanistan are, how we’re going to accomplish them, and what a “victory” there would look like. But that doesn’t mean he favors surrender.

Just Shut Up, Moron….

NTSB Chair Supports Cell Phone Ban With Lies & Obfuscation

Conservative columnist Mona Charen contacted the NTSB and found out that the 3,000 fatalities statistic actually was for all distracted driving. Of those ~3,000 fatalities, the agency considered 995 to be due to cellphone use. So NTSB Chairman Hersman was misleading the public, exaggerating the risk of cellphone use by a factor of at least three.

How many of those 995 were drivers using hands-free phones?

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: Also: There’s No Reason To Ban Cellphone Use While Driving

A 2009 NHTSA study found that 80% of all car wrecks are caused by drivers eating or drinking — not cellphone use — with coffee-guzzling the top offender.

Let’s see Washington ban coffee drinking while driving. The Second American Revolution would begin three minutes after it passed. It would be the first thing to unify all Americans since, well, ever.

Look, Murdoc is opposed to distracted drivers, and that includes drivers distracted by cell phones. He could be convinced that a ban on texting was appropriate. He would even listen to arguments in favor of banning hand-held phones, though it would be a tough sell. Bans on hands-free phones are just plain stupid. Especially at a national level.

Oh, and for all those who keep telling Murdoc how much worse things are now that everyone is yapping on their phone all the time:

According to federal data, traffic deaths have fallen from 2.1 per 100 million vehicle miles in 1990, when virtually no one had a cellphone, to 1.1 in 2009, when almost everyone does.

Republicans muscle tax cut bill through House

The Republican-controlled House has passed legislation sought by President Obama to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts through 2012. But the bill also includes a requirement for construction of an oil pipeline that has drawn a veto threat.

The Republicans “muscled” it through. That’s like getting enough votes to pass, but way meaner.

From a regular commenter here on MO:

I’ve been working with Chinese (mainland and Taiwanese) for close to 20 years now. I currently have a team of engineers in both mainland China and in Taiwan under my chain of command. I’ve spent months one-on-one with many of them as they have come here to the US for training, and I talk with them almost every day.

One thing I can say is that while they have a gazillion folks with engineering degrees, they have very few decent engineers. Good technicians, for sure. But give them a new problem, and nothing ever happens. I think this is more cultural than genetic, because there are quite a few decent engineers in Taiwan, who come form the same gene pool. They just have 40 more years of experience with capitalism under their belts, and they understand the importance of making a decision.

But the biggest problem with China, IMO, is the massive amounts of corruption. I mean, they make something like the Chicago political machine look like amateurs, and the US defense complex look like a bastion of honesty and logic. It’s horrible, and it permeates every aspect of life. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is easier to take out a Chinese aircraft carrier by dropping a duffle bag of 20 dollar bills on it instead of a 500 lb bomb.

Working with the younger Chinese (25-30 year olds) is pleasant. Some of them certainly “get it”. And once they open up, the first thing they complain about is the corruption, and the second is censorship. Third is pollution.

They will spend hours on the internet here, just reading stuff they can’t get access to over there. And as a general rule, they don’t trust their own military or even their police. Again, too much corruption. And they all know what really happened in Tiananmen square.

And while I am training them to take over my job (no, it’s not really that bad), I also derive great pleasure in exposing them to all sorts of political concepts and reading material. Everything from the Federalist Papers, to Bill Ayers, to Glenn Beck. They eat it all up. And I send them back home with a couple dozen copies of the US Constitution and a $5 bill to get them through customs. Yeah, it took me a couple years to learn that trick….

So all in all, I don’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about what the Chinese military might do to us. Too many of their citizens have already taken a bite from the capitalist apple, and they like the taste.

Insider: $56 Billion Later, Airport Security Is Junk

According to Ben Brandt, a former adviser to Delta, the airlines and the feds should be less concerned with what gels your aunt puts in her carry-on, and more concerned about lax screening for terrorist sympathizers among the airlines’ own work force. They should be worried about terrorists shipping their bombs in air cargo. And they should be worried about terrorists shooting or bombing airports without ever crossing the security gates.

Math Is Hard!

Chevy Volt:

You’re not saving any money whatsoever – at $46,000, the difference between the Volt and a Civic/Corolla/Sentra/any other comparably sized gasoline engine car in gas mileage is negligible. Even with gas at $4 a gallon and and an annual commute of 20,000 miles, the gasoline-only car getting 25 MPG would cost you $3200 for the year. Even if the Volt were 100% free, it would still take almost 10 years of driving to offset the cost differential.

There will always be people who spend the extra to feel good about what they’re doing to save the earth or whatever, but until these things become reasonable in a way that can be substantiated by mathematics, they’re not going to go mainstream.

I previously wrote When it’s financially better than the alternatives it will catch on…and not until and If people wanted cars with great mileage, they’d be buying them about this issue.

I hope we keep making headway on alternative fuels and hybrids and Mr. Fusion, but a lot of people seem to ignore reality when they push some of this stuff.

Reagan shooter wants more time outside hospital

The man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan is asking to spend more time outside a Washington mental hospital, but a government lawyer says John Hinckley’s request is premature and that he recently lied to cover up the fact he looked at books on Reagan and presidential assassinations.

Murdoc didn’t know that this guy already was allowed 10-day visits to his mother’s home. During one of them, he said he was going to a movie and instead went to a Barnes & Noble to look at books about Reagan and presidential assassinations. He didn’t know the Secret Service was watching him.

Here’s Murdoc’s simple one-step test to see whether or not increased freedom should be considered:

1) Is the subject still breathing?

If the answer is YES, it is premature to consider additional freedom.