Michael Bates: February 2009 Archives
"Now you can bring almost everything from TVs and computers to DVD players and more to any U.S. Best Buy store, and we'll recycle it. Best Buy does not charge a fee for recycling most consumer electronics. However, we do charge $10 for TVs 32" and under, CRTs, monitors and laptops, which is offset with a $10 Gift Card." (Via Hooah Wife, where Greta notes that Soldiers' Angels benefits from recycling electronics through Project KOPEG.)
Last hurrah from CPAC | conservativeintelligencer.com
J. Wesley is there, hobnobbing with his fellow conservative bloggers. Read back a ways for more coverage.
Plumb Bob Blog » Darwin Award Candidate
Test a taser on yourself? What could possibly go wrong? (Via Ephemeral Isle.)
RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Michael Steele's Empty Threat
Can an RNC chairman punish a sitting senator for straying from party policy? Not likely, says Jay Cost: "[A]n overwhelming majority of Specter's resources came from non-party sources in 2004, and the same will assuredly hold this cycle.... Party dollars are barely a drop in Specter's bucket. Arlen Specter does not need the Republican Party organizations - not the state party, not the RNC, and not even the NRSC. If anything, they need him. Michael Steele might be 'open to everything,' but the fact of the matter is that he's a paper tiger on this one. If Republicans are sick and tired of this, they need to focus on reshaping the rules that govern the relationship between party and candidates. Right now, they are geared almost exclusively for the benefit of candidates at the expense of the party."
Bounded Rationality: Masterpieces of American Photography - Philbrook Museum Exhibit
"If you have never seen an authentic fine art photograph, you are missing something you should experience. There is absolutely no comparison between a high quality fine art print and viewing photographs on a computer screen, or a print from the local Wal-Mart, or off your computer. Under the correct lighting, a fine art photograph is captivating.
"It is specifically why you owe it to yourself and your family to witness the breathtaking and inspiring works at the Philbrook Museum of Art. The Exhibit is titled Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography and will be here from now to April 26, 2009."
Ephemeral Isle: A Moral Compass Without a Needle
No sexual morality, please, we're British: "We do not know what is right and wrong; right and wrong is relative, although your child does need clear guidelines."
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - 25 Best Blogs 2009 - TIME
The multi-blog website of Oklahoma ranch wife and homeschooling mom Ree Drummond made TIME's top list of top blogs.
RealClearPolitics - HorseRaceBlog - Stay Classy, Jim Bunning! (or, Why I Hate the Party Primary)
Why is it so hard for a party to ditch a crooked, incompetent, treacherous, or embarrassing incumbent? "[The primary process] has become one of many mechanisms that effectively guarantee incumbents will be on the general election ballot. What this means, in turn, is that the party usually has to tolerate guys like Don Sherwood, Stevens, and Bunning. There is no 'low cost' way for Republicans to hold their incumbents accountable, which means only the Democrats do. And the same goes with Democrats when their incumbents behave badly.
"Simply put, primaries are good for politicians, bad for the parties, and therefore bad for the tens of millions of people who sympathize with one party or the other. For all the talk that I hear from partisans about keeping their leaders accountable, I hardly hear any discussion about the primaries - and how inefficient they are at keeping them in line. Once a politician wins election, it becomes much more difficult for the party to make him responsible to the party....
"I'm not saying a wide scale return to the convention process is the best idea - though frankly I think it has some merit - but I do think some changes to the process are necessary. What is needed is a way to make it less costly and less risky for the party to monitor and hold accountable its own elected representatives."
Knox to Detroit: Drop dead - Crunchy Con
Supplier to the auto industry sends a scorching reply to GM's request for help in passing an auto industry bailout: "The dream is over! The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded 'laborers' without paying the price for these atrocities and that the masses still will line up to buy our products.... We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. Time to pay for your sins, Detroit."
Homeschoolers Save Taxpayers Billions Per Year » The Foundry
"Across the country, 1.5 million children are currently being educated at home. Just how much would it cost taxpayers if these students enrolled in their 'free' public school? We conservatively estimate the cost to be between $4 and $10 billion annually. These savings will mount as the number of families choosing to teach their children at home grows." (Via Choice Remarks.)
Military Airplanes and UFOs -- U-2, B-2 Spirit and Nighthawk UFO Links - Popular Mechanics
The aircraft most often mistaken for flying saucers. (Via Joe Kelley.)
'You could call it in Braille' | Dodger Thoughts | Los Angeles Times
Confirms ump suspicions. (Via Dustbury.)
YouTube - How NOT to use PowerPoint!
Don McMillan presents worst practices.
"I guess the honeymoon is over when your elf wants out."
Awesomely Bad Tulsa Sculptures « Irritated Tulsan
There's a nude noodling sculpture in Philbrook! (Or should that be nudeling?)
Mark Evanier recommends seven great freeware programs including the unstumpable VLC media player, a duplicate killer, an empty directory killer, a startup optimizer, a bulk renamer, a font utility, and a bookmark converter.
The Dilbert Blog: Turd is the Word
I don't know what it means exactly, but the utterance of Pointy-Haired Boss in this unpublished Dilbert panel is a perfect expression of my mood today.
Pyromaniacs: An Interesting Morsel from an Old Magazine
An eyewitness account of the person and preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from Harpers Magazine, December 1858.
Flammable Pajamas Media « Dr. Melissa Clouthier
An outsider looks at the closure of Pajamas Media's blog network and makes a good point about why video doesn't work well with blogging. A commenter notes: "My argument against video is the same one I use against voicemail. Why would I want to sit and wait to listen for someone to get to whatever their point is when I have the option of reading it in 1/10th the time."
