I just read the silliest article. “What if the Germans had won the First World War?” by Martin Kettle. Who’s Martin Kettle? Why, the son of two prominent communist activists! No idea if that has anything to do with his thinking. Wealthy people who call themselves communists are by definition silly, so it makes sense…
The Golden Age of Duh
December 26, 2013
In some ways it’s a scary time to be alive. A huge number of people will believe whatever you tell them, as long as it fits in with their preconceived notions. Yesterday Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghan ambassador to the US from 2003 to 2010 and current Diplomat in Residence at Johns Hopkins University, tweeted…
The Great Ham Debacle of 1993
December 20, 2013
When I read news articles and listen to the radio, the one constant is the state of confusion people have about what motivates the bad decisions we see being made daily. Our government is utterly dysfunctional, companies do really crazy things that alienate their customers, individuals mess up their lives to a level of parody,…
A funny thing happened…
December 18, 2013
When I say a funny thing happened, I don’t mean funny like this. I mean, really unusual. A few days ago, I got an e-mail asking about my Great-uncle Colonel Curtis Yarnell Kimball, O.B.E., U.S. Army (ret.) Here he is being awarded a medal by Field Marshal Bernhard Montgomery in Munich, April of 1945. At…
Actions have consequences
December 17, 2013
It’s my new obsession: actions have consequences. Always be aware that what you do today may haunt you for the rest of your life. The proudly communist, rabidly anti-gun, pathologically Republican-hating, completely dead loser who attacked Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, on Friday 13, 2013, was a huge fan of the The Anarchist Cookbook,…
A study in contrasts
December 16, 2013
Howard Stern gets paid $95 million a year. He has a net worth of $500 million. Here’s how he makes his money. Elderly Man Wins Sex with Hookers, Chokes to Death Hours Before Prize The 86-year-old winner of Howard Stern’s “I Want to Get My Grandpa Laid” contest was sadly unable to claim his prize…
Smarm versus snark
December 15, 2013
I followed a series of links in pursuit of the claim that more and more publications and writers have chosen to stop producing negative book reviews. Though I don’t read my reviews, it’s only because they aren’t written for me. I know what’s in the book. If the review is negative, what am I supposed…
When headlines do not match stories
December 9, 2013
A reader sent me the link to this story: “Viewing News of Trauma Worse Than Experiencing It.” The problem is that the story doesn’t say that. After the Boston marathon bombings, people who spent six hours a day scouring media for updates were more traumatized than those who were actually there, a US study suggested…
The perfect end to 2013
December 9, 2013
Most people would tell me to not link to this, but Tila Tequila has come out as a Nazi sympathizer and supporter of Hitler. It’s the perfect end to 2013. What a ridiculous, awful, exhausting, painful, depressing circus of failure, lying, and dashed hopes this year was. So 2013 deserves as its denouement Tila Tequila…