Around The Blogs 2014-02-01

I've been hard at work on Maxwell Volume 3 this week, so I haven't been able to drop by as many blogs as often as I'd like.  Even so, several articles caught my eye.

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XBradTC has one of the Budweiser Super Bowl advertisements, 'A Hero's Welcome', plus a 'making of' featurette.  Interesting - even though I'm afraid that, to my palate, Budweiser tastes like it should be poured back into the horses they feature so proudly!  (I was brought up on German-style lagers and pilseners.  To me, most mass-produced American beers taste faintly of soap . . . )

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PDB opines that "being able to hit a dip can as far away as one can see a dip can is a pretty decent test of rifle and shooter".  For those who don't have dip cans to hand, he provides a printable target with five dip-can-size circles.  I'm going to have to try my hand at that.

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Francis Porretto examines the lack of respect by government for the rights of individuals, and points out:  "Whether it goes by licensure, permittage, or any other name, the imposition of State selectivity upon the exercise of one's rights is merely a back-door method for denying those rights."  True, that.

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Captain Capitalism points out 'How the Federal Reserve is Jesus Christ'.  He's not trying to be blasphemous, I think, so much as pointing out how the Fed is regarded with blind faith by Keynesian 'true believers', who intercede with it as fervently as people of faith do with God.  Funny, but also a telling commentary on the state of economic knowledge and wisdom (or the lack thereof) in this country.

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Paul Caron, better known as TaxProf, comments on 'Law’s Long Bitter Descent and its Tragic Human Toll'.  He points out that "... the legal world’s traditional business model is done. Decimated. Dead. It is NOT coming back ... without massive industry-wide changes – practicing law won’t be rewarding for MOST of the people jumping into the fray."  Sobering thoughts for those in that profession - and those who use their services.

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The Two-Way Blog at NPR reports that the man behind Oregon's infamous 'exploding whale' of 1970 has died.

Oregon highway engineer George Thornton, who in 1970 led an operation to blow up a dead beached whale with half a ton of dynamite, died this week at age 84. Thornton's decision resulted in a foul shower of whale blubber...

There's more at the link, including an edited, sharpened, cleaned-up version of TV footage of the massive explosion and the falling chunks of blubber.  They caused an impressive amount of damage to spectators' cars.

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Jeff Soyer reports that a New Zealand school tried abolishing all the petty rules and restrictions governing kids during playtime - and was very pleasantly surprised by the results.  Now, if we could just get our 'Nanny State' school authorities over here to do likewise . . .

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Daniel Greenfield points out that 'The Solution Is The Problem'.

The problem with our problems is usually their solution. If we were to take a closer look at many of our problems, it would turn out that many of them are actually solutions that were meant to solve those very problems. Our War on Poverty has spread poverty. Our attempts at fighting racism have perpetuated it. Our campaigns for energy efficiency invariably waste more energy than they save.

We tried promoting populism to solve terrorism in the Middle East and got even more terrorism for our troubles. The more resources we put into education, the more the educational system runs backward. Every attempt at creating jobs seems to vaporize more jobs than it creates.

Solving problems isn't a bad thing, but the place to start is at the problem, not the solution.

There's more at the link.  Thought-provoking and highly recommended reading.

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Finally, a liberal moonbat postulated at Tor.com (a science fiction publishing house) that:

I want an end to the default of binary gender in science fiction stories ... Post-binary gender in SF is the acknowledgement that gender is more complex than the Western cultural norm of two genders (female and male): that there are more genders than two, that gender can be fluid, that gender exists in many forms.

My friend Larry Correia was utterly unable to resist the temptation to fisk this drivel all the way there and back again.  He went on a magnificent rant, demolishing the opposition left, right and center.  They then made the mortal error of trying to wear him down, which gave him the opportunity for an even more humiliating smackdown.  You'd think they'd have learned not to aggravate the big man by now, but no, apparently they haven't.

I love that guy . . .

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That's all for this week.

Peter