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Guiliani
As my libertarian and libertarian leaning friends have been bringing him up lately, here is a negative portrait of Rudy Guiliani.
And to expand on my bar rant of last night, he would make a great mayor (New Orleans needs one right now), and would probably make a great president if it were the year 1880. However, in our modern age presidents have far too much discretionary power, and pro-choice, thrice married, adulterous Catholics are far too good at living with contradictions to be trusted to keep their promises.
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Quick link round
- Puzzles and Mysteries from ZenPundit
- The Captain America Syndrome at the Washington Monthly. – They don’t actually call it that, but that’s what they’re talking about.
- This seems dirty, but it’s mostly medical. Quite funny though.
- Yet more Stirling engines
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I answer more questions no one asked
If bin Laden’s intention behind 9-11 was to draw us into a quagmire in Afghanistan, and instead we invade Iraq, then wouldn’t pulling out of Iraq and moving more troops into Afghanistan pull us into said quagmire?
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A belated Memorial Day post.
There have been many, many others like it around the blogosphere today, so I’ll just second this one from Scott Kelby.
Thanks.
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Photography Note
For good portrait shots with an SLR camera, make sure the focal length (zoom) is around 72mm (or 50mm if you’re using Nikon DX lenses, which most Nikons are). This minimizes lens distortion and ensures that the photographs actually look their subjects.
My magic portrait lens is set at this by default, and it’s a wonderful thing.
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Line of the moment
I came across this podcast of Steven Landsburg, author of More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics and found it quite entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed his earlier works, especially The Armchair Economist (much better than Freakonomics). In the excerpt it has this bit:
…If your common sense tells you otherwise, remember that common sense also tells you the earth is flat.
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Strange and funny
From the Wikipedia entry on Sam Peckinpah
Ray Bradbury tells the story of Peckinpah’s long interest in filming Bradbury’s novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. When Bradbury asked how Peckinpah intended to shoot it, Peckinpah said he would “rip out the pages and stuff them into the camera.” Bradbury sold the rights to another party, and the incensed Peckinpah sent Bradbury a gift: a potted cactus and a jar of Vaseline.
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Strange and funny
From the Wikipedia entry on Sam Peckinpah
Ray Bradbury tells the story of Peckinpah’s long interest in filming Bradbury’s novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. When Bradbury asked how Peckinpah intended to shoot it, Peckinpah said he would “rip out the pages and stuff them into the camera.” Bradbury sold the rights to another party, and the incensed Peckinpah sent Bradbury a gift: a potted cactus and a jar of Vaseline.
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The Grifters
I just finished The Grifters by Jim Thompson, one of the best hard-boiled crime dramas I’ve ever read. Told entirely in the first person, it’s the dark and evil story of crooks, marks and no innocence whatsoever. Notable in it’s absence is any objective description (well, there’s almost none). Almost no “it was raining”, “the night was cloudy”, etc. Lots of impressions, feelings and lies, but no independent reality.
Highly recommended.
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Michael Moore the inverted prophet
He did Bowling for Columbine, and the Democratic party changed positions on gun control, he did Fahrenheit 911 and Bush got re-elected, and now he has a new movie coming out on health care. Does that mean health care is going to be deregulated?