Die Hard: Definitely a Christmas Movie
Posted By: DVC, 12/22/2023 10:32:36 AM
There will be no political commentary from me this week. This week is going to be all about Christmas. Today, I need to dive into a debate that has been raging for 35 years without a satisfactory resolution. Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? I’m an engineer. It’s impossible for me to give a simple answer if I can dream up a more complicated one. So bear with me. I think determination of whether a movie fits the Christmas genre depends on more than its musical score and the timing of its release. The plot has to include certain critical elements common to all Christmas movies.
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China is a serious threat to America’s dominance in the world, and when America’s dominance collapses, so does America’s lovely standard of living. Nothing happening within the U.S., especially on Biden’s watch, will change that. However, China is at very profound risk from its internal problems. The latest one to catch the headlines is China’s continuing and, indeed, accelerating demographic collapse.
China famously instituted its one-child policy in 1979 when it was afraid that its population growth was out of control. Not only did the policy have the effect of lowering the birth rate, but it also decimated the number of female babies being born.
Ram Channels Cher — But Not for Long
9 replies
What if you could turn back time — to 2008 — and buy a brand-new half-ton truck like they used to make them? One without the “assistance” and other “technologies” that come standard with the new ones, like it or not — but with a standard 8-foot bed that’s increasingly hard to get … and for thousands less than what they’re selling the new double-and-crew cab short-bed trucks for today?
[snip]
Better to get out your checkbook — because for a time, you can buy a brand-new 2008 Ram 1500 Classic with a regular cab with an 8-foot bed and a standard 3.6-liter V6 without “eTorque technology” for $32,345.
Obama Destroyed Martin Luther King’s Dream
10 replies
Monday was a holiday dedicated to the memory of the greatest American civil rights leader of the 20th century: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But while the airwaves were covered with shallow tributes to the man, in 2024 it’s clear this country doesn’t honor his legacy.
Not anymore. Not for some time now.
This is likely to be something of an explosive column, and it will draw comments from all over the spectrum, so perhaps it’s most useful to begin by defining exactly what King’s legacy is.
And while the man was complex and his message multifaceted, the moment that made him great was a speech given at the National Mall in Washington
Trump's blowout win in Iowa sure does
send a message about those politicized prosecutions 10 replies
send a message about those politicized prosecutions 10 replies
One wonders what it's like to be Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Leticia James, or Fani Willis waking up to watch CNN this morning.
Here's CNN:
Former President Donald Trump’s huge win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday enshrines one of the most astonishing comebacks in American political history.
Losing one-term presidents almost never mount subsequent successful primary campaigns, much less pull off landslides that demonstrate utter dominance of their party. Trump transformed the GOP in his populist, nationalist, nihilistic image in 2016. By claiming 50% of the vote in the biggest win in caucus history
Most Iowa GOP caucusgoers refuse to accept President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and say they would view former President Donald Trump, whom CNN projected will win the caucuses Monday night, as fit for office even if convicted of a crime, according to CNN’s entrance poll for the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.
Trump’s victory highlights his strength among key groups that form the bulk of the GOP electorate, according to the entrance poll. Roughly half of Iowa caucusgoers described themselves as “very conservative,” and nearly half identified as part of the MAGA movement, referring to the “Make America Great Again” slogan popularized by Trump in 2016.
Have you ever driven a Tesla? I have. It’s a lovely car to drive because it accelerates quickly, handles well, and is stocked to the brim with cool gadgets. In a sane world, rich people would buy it and other electric vehicles (EVs) for fun and, as competition drove the price down, ordinary people would think about them, too. But we don’t live in a sane world. We live in an insane world in which our governments are forcing us to buy EVs to “save the climate.” That’s why it’s important to focus on just how awful EVs are
Last summer, my Legal Insurrection colleague Vijeta Uniyal reported that despite U.S. sanctions, China was building up its chipmaking capabilities at breakneck speed by importing manufacturing equipment at a record pace.
However, later in the year, the U.S. indicated it was planning to update new chip restrictions on exports to China related to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. This came as China implemented its own restrictions on minerals needed to produce semiconductors and other advanced technology.
Now comes news that the Netherlands has blocked the export of equipment to China, which it needs as part of its chipmaking process.
“Affirmative Action lowers the standards wherever it touches.”
-Martin L Gross
The above observation by the late sociologist Martin Gross is especially relevant today after the president of one of the most esteemed universities in the world resigned in disgrace after her serial plagiarism was exposed. The genesis of the policy that led to her hiring can be found in a 1968 memo that then-Xerox CEO Joseph C. Wilson wrote in which he directed his hiring managers to hire underqualified and outright unqualified minorities in the name of “diversity.” Using Claudine Gay’s example as a case study, we can now clearly see the dismal fruit of this well-intentioned but sadly naive policy.
[snip]
Now comes more good news for those who are concerned about inefficient and costly wind farm projects being thrust on Americans by green energy barons. The Osage Nation took a European wind farm company to court and prevailed…and now the operating windmills have got to be dismantled and removed per court order.
A federal judge has ordered Enell Energy to remove an 84-turbine wind farm in Osage County, with a final ruling that ends more than a decade of litigation over illegal mining on the Osage Reservation. Court documents estimate the cost of removing the turbines at $300 million.
The Electric Car Con Explained
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Is electricity a source of energy? Most people will answer yes, which is incorrect. Electricity carries energy but it is not itself a source of energy, which in the U.S. is supplied 60% by natural gas and coal, 18% nuclear and 22% renewables (hydro, solar and wind).
The related question is whether cars are a major consumer of energy and hence a significant contributor of Co2 emissions? Again, most people believe both statements are self-evidently true, hence the importance of moving to electric cars.
In fact, cars (light-duty transportation) account for less than 5% of global energy demand, with U.S. cars accounting for 19% of the global car fleet,
Useless Degrees, An Analysis
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For a long time now, the debate has raged as to whether it’s worth going to college anymore. The libertarian view on this question has typically been along the lines of… if people are foolish enough to waste money on worthless degrees, the world will soon enough teach them another lesson. While valid, that view ran aground on the Democrat vote-buying scheme to insulate those with useless degrees from the consequences of their poor choices and indebtedness, with our tax money.
The cynical motives behind this ploy aside, I very much doubt many students enroll in college with the intention of eventually being bailed out by their fellow citizens.
Why is it easier to find lies in the media about “climate change” than truthful information? Why is honest reporting on the environment an outlier instead of a rule?
Media parrots have said for decades that humans, and our use of natural resources are killing the planet, and that oceans, species, and forests are dying. They report on future predictions, but rarely on scientific facts—so I thought I would fill the vacuum.
We have been told that we are responsible for irredeemable destruction in the Great Barrier Reef, but that is not true. The reef is making a “comeback,” yet we don’t see that story
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that Israel cannot defeat Hamas — that there is no “military solution,” and that Israel will have to accept a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu reportedly rejected the idea.
NBC News reported Wednesday that Blinken, and Biden, are therefore trying to work around Netanyahu — the democratically-elected leader of Israel — in a departure from the Biden administration’s posture as the supposed defender of democratic ideals:
Blinken told Netanyahu that ultimately there is no military solution to Hamas, according to the officials, and that the Israeli leader needs to recognize that or history will repeat itself and violence will continue. But,
Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that “American democracy could end with the election” of former President Donald Trump.
Holder said, “I think a second Trump term, and this is something voters need to keep in mind, a second Trump term would have a politicized, weaponized United States Department of Justice.” He continued, “You have to look at what it is they’re talking about. That is the Trump campaign, the former president himself and think of the America they’re trying to create. You would have a president who is beyond the reach of the law,
Rice University is offering an 'Afrochemistry' class that promises to analyze science through a 'contemporary African-American lens'.
Marketed as 'the study of black-life matter', a play on words merging science jargon with the Black Lives Matter movement, the course begins this semester.
The course description on the university's website explains students will 'apply chemical tools and analysis to understand black life in the US' and 'implement African American sensibilities to analyze chemistry'.
'Diverse historical and contemporary scientists, intellectuals, and chemical discoveries will inform personal reflections and proposals for addressing inequities in chemistry and chemical education,' it read.
Brooke Johnson, a Rice graduate with a PhD in chemistry from Princeton hired last August as part
Many Black activists are agitating for two things.
One, they want reparations for the enslavement of some of their ancestors centuries ago, a small fraction of which is to be paid by the people whose ancestors were the enslavers, and a large fraction of which is to be paid by people like me whose ancestors back then were raiding rival clans in the Scottish Highlands without ever setting eyes on a Black person in their entire poor, nasty, brutish and short lives.
Two, they want to reinstitute racial segregation. They want Black dorm buildings in college, Black classes, Black this and Black that,
An article by New York Post legendary gossip columnist Cindy Adams reports Barack and Michelle Obama are angling to replace Joe Biden with former First Lady Michelle as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee.
Obama world was rocked when Donald Trump short-circuited the Obama revolution to remake America when he defeated would-be Obama successor Hillary Clinton in 2016 and has taken merciless revenge on President Trump ever since. Barack Obama is thought by many to be the behind the scenes power of the Biden presidency. But with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris having some of the worst polling numbers
New evidence confirms there’s a storm brewing in the Democratic Party.
A source from Barack Obama’s inner circle just leaked that the former president is worried that Biden “very well could lose.”
Meanwhile, David Axelrod – a key political strategist for Obama – warned Biden that his campaign needed to ramp up ASAP or he should drop out of the race altogether.
“I understand [Biden] was irritated because I raised concerns that many, many Democrats had,” said Axelrod. “And again, my feeling is either get out or get going.”
But Obama and Axelrod are not alone in this assessment.
A Wall Street insider and frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago recently went public
As Lincoln Brown reported for PJ Media yesterday, John Kerry massively expanded his carbon footprint to journey to Davos for a luxury getaway in order to lecture the peasants, as Avi Yemeni puts it, on their own carbon footprint. At a Davos speaking engagement, Kerry had the following to say regarding the intersection of democracy and Climate Change™:
If you wound up with a different President who was opposed to climate crisis, I got news for you. No one politician anywhere in the world can undo what is happening now...The only issue for all of us is not whether or not we can get or will get to a
To combat chronic absenteeism, bipartisan
Ohio lawmakers propose paying kids to
go to school 27 replies
Ohio lawmakers propose paying kids to
go to school 27 replies
The bipartisan sponsors of a new bill to target chronic absenteeism want to model a piece of advice from novelist Jean Shepherd: “In God we trust, all others pay cash.”
In a proposed two-year pilot program, Republican state Rep. Bill Seitz and Democratic Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, both of Cincinnati, said cash transfers would be sent to kindergarteners and ninth graders. [SNIP] According to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, prior to the pandemic, kindergarteners considered chronically absent – missing 10% or more of a school year for any reason – registered at 11%. In the last school year, the rate ballooned to 29%.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a veiled rebuke to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday night, pushing back against Blinken’s claim that Israel could not defeat Hamas in Gaza, and that it should accept a Palestinian state.
Without naming Blinken specifically, Netanyahu criticized those who, he said wanted to tie Israel’s hands and said that Israel could not win. On Wednesday, reports emerged that Blinken had told Netanyahu last week that Israel would not succeed in destroying Hamas’s military capabilities — an assertion at odds with Israel’s ongoing military success, and strong Israeli public support for the war. Blinken and the Biden administration also want Israel to accept
The intrigue over who Donald Trump will pick to be his vice president on the 2024 Republican ticket he's presumed to be leading is growing. A recent report placed Rep. Elise Stefanik, a moderate House member from New York, near the top of the list. Then there's Nikki Haley, who has reportedly been under consideration for a while, even as she remains in the primary race. On that front, when the Trump campaign had a chance to put the Nikki Haley issue to bed once and for all, they chose not to, instead only ruling out Vivek Ramaswamy.
What that says is that the former president's closest advisors
Emails have leaked showing a tense exchange between Fani Wilis and Donald Trump's defense. Trump is facing RICO charges brought by Willis in Georgia, a move that has left some legal scholars scratching their heads. The back and forth began after Steven Sadow, who is Trump's lead lawyer on the case, sent an email saying that he doesn't understand why the prosecutorial team won't respond to his requests. One of Willis' underlings then shot back by playing the race card.
The recent tense exchange unfolded in a group email thread that includes prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case. It began when the lead lawyer for Mr. Trump in
President Joe Biden has competition for his ‘meaningless’ write-in campaign. Former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky is asking his fellow Granite State Democrats to skip writing Biden’s name on their ballots and instead take part in his anti-Israel write-in campaign called “Ceasefire.” Announced Wednesday with a Zoom press conference, Ceasefire is Volinsky’s campaign pushing New Hampshire voters to write in the word “Ceasefire” on their ballots in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary. The plan, which may cause headaches for town clerks and election moderators across the state, is meant to protest Biden’s support for Israel in the war with Hamas.
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And....on a somewhat lighter note, just for fun.