Vox Popoli

Rob Long on the financial disaster that is the television production business:

It’s fun to watch the color drain from the faces of these smart, entrepreneurial, risk-taking people when I tell them how much it costs to fail – and I mean fail, as in total loss – in the TV business….

Marc senses that what we’re seeing right now is a “rebuild” of the entertainment industry. And that may be the case. But it looks more to me, right now, like disruption. Like the current model of well-compensated, expensive failure – really kind of like the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy, around 1911, still riding around on horses, in bright red battle dress, about to face a cheaper, leaner, world – is about to get trampled on. I’m not sure rebuild is the word. Unless it’s what happens after “demolish.”

My Silicon Valley friends all shake their heads in amazement that the system has gone on so long.

I don’t care about the writers strike although I assume they’ve probably got a point, somewhere in there. I don’t like their industry or their product, although the points long raises does tend to make one ask that telling question… cui bono?

UPDATE – Okay, Scalzi makes it abundantly clear that the writers do indeed have a salient grievance:

Television networks not wanting to pay residuals on Internet viewings of their shows, because they’re “promotional,” even as they sell advertising on them? Kiss my ass.

Based on this display, BS should consider a career in the public schools:

The US public school system is one of the most richly funded in the world and also happens to be one of the worst performing educational systems in the world.

Funny how you are with those numbers. One might call it “intellectually dishonest”. Others might just say “math is hard for you isn’t it Vox?”

Check out the link BS provided – this is seriously what he cites in order to attempt proving that the USA isn’t “one of the most richly funded” school systems in the world.

“the U.S. devoted a greater share of public expenditure to education than all of the G-7 countries except Canada (Indicator 41). Further, relative to GDP per capita, the United States is among the highest spenders of the G-7 countries (Indicator 42). Finally, the United States outspent all of the G-7 countries except Canada on a measure of per student expenditure on primary and secondary education in constant U.S. dollars.”

Even with the fudged numbers provided – the USA has a high GDP per capita so using the relative figure rather than an absolute dollar-to-dollar per capita comparison tends to lower the USA’s relative position to less wealthy nations like Hungary – the USA has, well, one of the most richly funded school systems, exactly as I described it. Moreover, if private expenditures were included in the figure, this would likely send the USA to the top since the USA spends more on private education than any nation except Japan.

Regarding his defense of Nazi and Communist government-run schools, it would be very interesting to know precisely what other National Socialist policies BS advocates as well as which of the nine other pillars of the Communist Manifesto he deems worthy of support.

With critics like these, no wonder some people suspect I’m inventing them just to make myself look good. Math isn’t hard for me, but reading is clearly beyond Bob’s capacity. And about the only thing that anyone examining the numbers is going to say is “Wow, that Bob sure knows how to shoot himself in the foot!”

RM explains why he’s not buying the usual line this time:

The argument that we would be helping elect Hillary or some other socialist by not voting for the GOP candidate no matter who that candidate might be doesn’t work on me any more. For 30 years I told people to vote Republican. I pushed and prodded them, convincing friends and relatives vote for those I thought were good Republicans. I towed the party line telling people that all we needed was a Republican congress and Republican president to get this country’s fiscal house in order. That goal was achieved seven years ago.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY MADE A LIAR OUT OF ME!

And it’s not going to happen again! I am still registered as a Republican, and in fact, I am a party official in my county. My opinions are valued by others and many ask me my opinion and how to vote on issues and candidates.

It is obvious from current events and as stated in your article that I am only one of hundreds of thousands who have come to the conclusion that just preventing the worst candidate from being elected is not good enough. We will all certainly be judged by God by how we vote, just as I judge Fred Thompson by his vote to acquit Bill Clinton during the senate trial.

Fred, Rudy, McCain, Mitt the homosexualist advocate, you have got to be kidding! No way, never, ever, ever, will I support, promote, or vote for people of that quality. The Republican party has moved two steps to the left and those of us still representative of the old Republican party don’t need to form a new party, one only needs to look just a little to the right to find a political party that is now much more in line with the CONSTITUTIONAL values of the grand old party of the Gipper!

I left the Republican party a long time ago. Now, the Republican party has left its core support behind in pursuit of a “permanent majority” that was always a mirage. Basing a “conservative” strategy on winning the support of a massive influx of Mexican socialists – the two major Mexican parties, the PRI and the PRD, are both socialist parties – was about as absurd as the idea of establishing democratic government in the Middle East.

83 East Mesa WhiteTrash
73 Winston Reverends

76 Black Mouth Curs
49 Burns ICU

71 W.C. Silver Spooners
45 Masonville Marauders

60 Mounds View Meerkats
53 Greenfield Grizzlies

43 Cranberry Bogs
39 Village Valkyries

Finally got some much needed REVENGE against the alabaster bearded cow and dragged him down to join me in the league basement. Misery just loves company, don’t you know. Nate continues to sink lower into the abyss and the Silver Spooners pull Masonville back towards the pack as they make their move towards a playoff run. East Mesa is looking dangerous again, even though LaDainian Thomlinson isn’t running rampant like last year.

Meanwhile, in the real NFL, Vikings fans are wondering why Winter Park passed on the opportunity to grab Simeon Rice for the veteran minimum. It’s not as if our pass rush doesn’t need any help.

The Responsible Puppet recently announced his support for the various school levies in his area. I have no doubt that they passed, few Minnesotans have ever seen a tax they didn’t like. Very well, let us consider his justifications:

1. Teachers are generally good people and they aren’t paid enough.

2. It is the government’s job to pay for schooling K-12. And our nation is better because it does.

3. There are poor or uneducated people who can’t home-school.

4. Our school systems need to be improved, and not funding them is not going to help.

1. Teachers are massively overpaid. Other than politicians, there is no group of people who work so little, to so little positive effect, and are so handsomely overcompensated.

2. It is not the government’s job to pay for schooling. The high priority that Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler placed on government-funded, government-controlled schooling should suffice to demonstrate that in this regard, our nation can only be considered better off if you are a Communist or National Socialist.

3. This does not mean that government schools are the only option.

4. The US public school system is one of the most richly funded in the world and also happens to be one of the worst performing educational systems in the world. This absurd logic is no different than arguing that the Vikings should cure their quarterback problem by increasing the salaries of Tarvaris Jackson, Brooks Bollinger and Kelly Holcomb.

Childress must go

It was a bad week for the Vikings and, more specifically, for coach Brad Childress. Off the field, the team suffered one of its biggest embarrassments this side of the Love Boat fiasco, thanks to the decision to dock receiver Troy Williamson a game check for being with his family after the death of his grandmother. On the field, the Vikings suffered their first-ever shutout at the hands of Green Bay — and their worst regular-season blanking in franchise history….

Along the way, Childress took an unnecessary shot at unemployed veteran quarterback Jeff George, who wanted to play for the Vikings, only to sign unemployed veteran quarterback Koy Detmer, who on his best day couldn’t deliver the pig with the same velocity as George.

But the clincher could have been Childress’ revelation to Jay Glazer of FOX that the second-year head coach had sought out the advice of Colts coach Tony Dungy in determining whether to reverse course and pay Williamson. Though I’ve got no problem with Childress seeking input from Dungy or any other NFL head coach, disclosing the fact he sought Dungy’s advice wasn’t the wisest P.R. move, because it invites criticism from folks who might wonder whether Childress is fit to be the head coach if he can’t make up his mind for himself.

Childress is the classic long-time administrator who is completely unsuited for an executive position. He should be canned immediately. It is sickening how the Vikings have had top prospects like Tony Dungy and now Mike Tomlin pass through their coaching ranks while hiring zeros like Tice and Childress. They should go after Jason Garrett and go after him hard, then give up a first for Brady Quinn.

In other, more important news, it sounds as if AP will be okay:

A league source tells us that Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has an injury to the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, and that he is week-to-week.

The source says he won’t need surgery.

This guy quite liked the article:

I am really surprised WND allowed your article! Is there a change in the wind at World Net? Inquiring minds would like to know. Good work!

WorldNetDaily publishes a wide range of views. It always has. Joseph Farah has resolutely defended my columns, even when he openly disagrees with them, and the one time he suggested that I write something was when there happened to be a news story which he felt was in an area of my expertise. WND’s regular columnists disagree on a whole host of issues, as my past columns devoted to Michelle Malkin and Ben Shapiro should serve to demonstrate.

This lady, on the other hand, didn’t like it at all:

You are seriously mistaken!! You are the Liar. Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris will withstand the darts from the workers of Satan of which you must be!!! Thank God for TRUE Christians who can spot a LIAR when they see and or read one!!! Besides your picture showing who you “really” are, one can see by your writing that Jesus doesn’t and can’t reside in you! I hope you find the truth. Look in the Bible. There is the truth, not from you or Illana Mercer’s mouths!!! You better check who you are really working for, cause it isn’t God, dear!!! True Christians can spot another True Christian, and they can also spot the wolves trolling around in sheep’s clothing, in which you and Illana Mercer, and Phyllis Shlavely (or however you spell her name) are.

And here I thought George W. Bush was supposed to be the compassionate conservative Messiah. Clearly, he is not even fit to wrap Mike Huckabee’s burrito.

Roger’s Rules sums up the shabby career of a recently deceased writer whose name deserves to disappear. He could have simply reduced it to this sentence:

In fact, like almost all of Mailer’s books, The Armies of the Night is badly written—almost preposterously so.

I tried reading two of the buffoon’s novels many years ago. They remain among the very small minority of books that made me snort with contempt and put them down, unfinished and quickly forgotten. Like Tom Robbins, Norman Mailer will be one of those once-popular writers whose works will be regarded with confusion by the few readers of the future who happen to be so unfortunate as to accidentally pick up a copy.

Naturally, Christopher Hitchens thinks he was just spiffy. It figures. Both of them are the sort of loud-mouthed public bullies that I occasionally regret my hermit-like existence precludes me from encountering.

This is only one of the many areas in which postulating the non-existence of God turns out to have seriously unpredictable ramifications. American rights are predicated on them being given by a Creator, in His absence, they do not exist. And there is absolutely no scientific evidence for equality of any kind:

Scientists, for instance, have recently identified small changes in DNA that account for the pale skin of Europeans, the tendency of Asians to sweat less and West Africans’ resistance to certain diseases. At the same time, genetic information is slipping out of the laboratory and into everyday life, carrying with it the inescapable message that people of different races have different DNA….

Such developments are providing some of the first tangible benefits of the genetic revolution. Yet some social critics fear they may also be giving long-discredited racial prejudices a new potency. The notion that race is more than skin deep, they fear, could undermine principles of equal treatment and opportunity that have relied on the presumption that we are all fundamentally equal.

Note the correct use of the term “presumption”. It is fascinating to see the way in which ideological equalitarians, including scientists, are reacting in precisely the way that they suppose the religious faithful will act when the scientific evidence appears to contradict their religious beliefs. “Stop,” they beg, “just stop.” And so much for that romantic notion that “many sociologists and anthropologists have argued for decades” about race being “a social invention historically used to justify prejudice and persecution”.

We are all equal before God. If God does not exist, then there is no such thing as equality. That is the reality.

I recently banned a commenter who had accused me of lying about Sam Harris and his suggestion that it may be ethically justifiable to kill people for their beliefs. The commenter insisted that I had mischaracterized Harris’s position and quoted it out of context, however, after a reader emailed me an excerpt from an email exchange with Harris, it is clear that my characterization of his position expressed in The End of Faith was precise and correct. In that email exchange, Harris answered the question “what ‘certain beliefs’ justify unprovoked killing?”

The beliefs that are rattling around the brains of people like Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri. When you ask why would it be ethical to drop a bomb on these two guys, the answer cannot be, “because they have killed so many people.” They haven’t, to my knowledge, killed anyone.

So, Harris’s position is exactly what I described previously, a justification for lethal preemptive self-defense. Harris readily admits that he is not referring to a reaction, but rather an unprovoked action in response to a belief he considers dangerous. While one could make the case that both bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are guilty of killing in the same way that George W. Bush or a mafia don are guilty, Harris’s explanation explictly precludes that argument.

By the way, I should note that I exchanged email with Sam Harris prior to posting this and received permission to quote him on this; I may vehemently disagree with the man but that doesn’t justify making what was a private statement public. As it happens, Mr. Harris explained that he has posted exactly the same statement on his own web site, so he had no problem with my quoting either the email or the site.