The purge mentality at ARI appears to be alive and well; and it seems that the doctrine of Rand’s inerrancy in matters of philosophy has been extended to include an assertion of Peikoff’s inerrancy in matters of history of science. More info here, here, and here.
David Kelley said everything that needed to be said about this sort of crap back in 1990.
Inadvertently funny line from a press release for the new Americanised Torchwood:
His choice of career is significant. Someone like Rex could make a fortune in Wall Street, or Hollywood. But choosing the C.I.A. says a lot about him: that for all his swagger, he does believe in justice.
I was just watching part of a Congressional presentation on C-Span honouring the slaves who built the u.s. capitol – not by making restitution to their heirs, of course, but by setting up some sort of plaque. What especially bugged me was the speakers’ continual references to expressing “thanks” and “gratitude” for the slaves’ “sacrifices” and “contributions.” If I take your wallet at gunpoint, it would be rather a euphemism to call your handing it over a sacrifice, and what I owe you is not gratitude. (Of course the language of sacrifice and gratitude is also used in connection with conscript soldiers shipped off to die in lands they’ve never heard of.)
I just saw Olbermann calling for Rick Barber to be imprisoned for exercising his right to free speech. I wonder what percentage of anarchism that is?
From an info page about the 1996 Doctor Who tv-movie:
Due to complicated licensing and ownership of the telefilm, no North American (a.k.a. Region 1) home video release has occurred in either VHS or DVD formats as of 2009, and no such release is expected in the foreseeable future. Ironically, several of the featurettes on the UK DVD were produced specifically for US audiences.
In fact, to compound the irony, the entire movie itself was specifically geared toward American audiences – which, incidentally, was one of the reasons it wasn’t as good as the recent BBC revival. Still, I imagine American Who fans would buy it if they were allowed to.
Among our President Incarnate’s various witticisms at tonight’s White House Correspondents’ dinner was this gem:
The Jonas Brothers are here; they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans; but boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?
I think jokes about murder would be in better taste if they weren’t coming from an actual murderer. But hey, if Pakistani children are fair game for Obama’s predator drones, why not the Jonas Brothers?
This is the same kind of moral imbecility that our previous president displayed when he mugged for cameras while pretending to search for WMDs in the Oval Office, thus making light of his fraudulent pretext for a war in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have pointlessly died.
Well, I guess you can call that continuity of government ….