tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51861832011-04-21T17:50:41.295-04:00This is a pseudonym. I am not the chowder-headed legislator from Omaha. Stop sending me your half-literate screeds of praise or condemnation.de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1151513981992567882006-06-28T11:47:00.000-04:002006-06-29T11:05:23.716-04:00

A New York federal court judge has finally done what should have happened sooner, which is slap down the infamous "Thompson Memo." Named for its author, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the memo has been used by thuggish prosecutors to pressure companies into abandoning employees accused by the government of wrongdoing, treating corporate funding of employee legal bills as evidence

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1151431460616630762006-06-27T14:03:00.000-04:002006-07-02T11:25:07.203-04:00

Dear American Pad & Paper, LLC,To begin, I would like to congratulate you on inventing the legal pad. Although it's an open question as to whether giving the nation's attorneys the ability to keep detailed notes is an example of value creation or destruction, the ingenuity you showed during the early days of your company is laudable. I'm sure your recent acquisition by a firm that focuses on

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1151159810276437852006-06-24T10:22:00.000-04:002006-06-24T10:36:50.286-04:00

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta resigned yesterday, four and a half years too late. Mineta will be remembered for proving definitively that even unaccomplished political hacks can leave their marks on history, and from the least prestigious of positions. After 9/11 Mineta dedicated himself to the proposition that a young unmarried first-generation immigrant from Saudi

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1151069620308078142006-06-23T09:04:00.000-04:002006-06-23T09:39:15.336-04:00

Perhaps only because it's been on my mind, but I've noticed a spate of articles this week that point to the extent to which big business is now dominated by politicians. I don't mean in the usual sense, that by which liberal societies slowly undermine their standard of living at the hands of a predatory class of rulers who legislate and appropriate ever-shrinking portions of national wealth. I

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150732566342867262006-06-19T11:54:00.000-04:002006-06-19T22:43:55.853-04:00

We are seeing, in the corporate world, the bitter fruits that spring from mortgaging the future to maintain, for the incompetent, the false prosperity of the present. The first instance on display is the sad United Auto Workers convention in Las Vegas (and how fitting, this, that they should gather in a city devoted to the notion that wealth should be amassed via luck rather than value creation),

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150492332596598192006-06-16T17:09:00.000-04:002006-06-17T00:53:52.540-04:00

It was like a double-slap this morning: first in The Wall Street Journal I read about Hugo Chavez-o-philes in the U.S. who have formed circles to demonstrate, write letters to the editor on his behalf, and generally gather to sip chai and denounce the totalitarian United States of America. Oh well, I tell myself, these are ignorant and small-minded people; one can hardly blame them.Then I see a

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150394181748523382006-06-15T13:54:00.000-04:002006-06-15T13:57:23.296-04:00

It being National Safety Month, a time when people in large organizations throughout America are deluged with emails and flyers admonishing them to close their file drawers completely and buckle-up, and when the people who work in places like this get their panties in a bunch, I think it appropriate to offer a defense of hazardous behavior, in the form of five postulates:1. Risk carries reward,

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150392257470922502006-06-15T13:09:00.000-04:002006-06-15T13:24:17.500-04:00

So the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that law enforcement officers executing a legal warrant need not knock before breaking into a home.Fair enough. I hereby announce that I no longer feel bound to keep my semi-automatic handguns in double-action mode.Seems to me that the knock-and-announce rule was always more to protect the authorities, rather than the right of a citizen to have his person and

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150317490448244612006-06-14T16:30:00.000-04:002006-06-14T16:38:10.463-04:00

Our native the-war-on-terror-is-failing chorus had to manage an abrupt change in tempo last week when the wicked Al-Zarqawi received his just desert. This advance is really a setback, you see; now we will suffer reprisals from angry terrorists.Because otherwise they would have spent their time trying to understand why people of other cultures do not share their affinity for beheadings, engaging

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1150295411006527552006-06-14T10:10:00.000-04:002006-06-14T10:30:11.066-04:00

Louis Capano, Jr., wealthy Delaware businessman and convicted accomplice in the obstruction of a murder investigation, wants to give money to a couple of Catholic prep schools to name buildings after his parents. Saintly ma and pa raised not one criminal, but four; Capano was, along with his brother Gerard, convicted of helping a third brother, Thomas, conceal the murder of Thomas's mistress. A

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1146164029191338462006-04-27T14:27:00.000-04:002006-06-28T11:47:27.330-04:00

Gary Hamel is the epitome of all that is wrong with the business professoriate. His best book was his first, Re-engineering the Corporation. Since then he's been responsible largely for drivel, exemplified by his nonsensical op-ed in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, whose editors ought to know better. In it he claims to have discerned in Google the keys to avoiding the strangulation of innovation

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1132669508540071162005-11-22T09:11:00.000-05:002005-11-22T09:25:08.550-05:00

Apparently Boeing is having a record year selling its latest aircraft, the Humongo-787 (that's the technical name; it's also known simply as the 787). And a number of these are going to Emirate Airlines, which is also a big Airbus customer. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but the thought crosses my mind that a lot of fat Saudi sultans are starting to think it's best to keep a ready air-travel

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1099314201304794062004-11-01T07:35:00.000-05:002004-11-01T08:03:21.303-05:00

As part of my continuing service to you, the loyal supporters of this wacky experiment known as The Ernie Chambers Project, I tracked and captured one of those elusive "Undecided Voters." Herewith is the transcript of my interview with this reasoned, thoughtful, deliberating animal. EC: "Thank you for spending some time with me today." UV: "I don't really have a choice. You've got me hogtied in

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098795280591968082004-10-26T08:41:00.000-04:002004-10-26T09:05:59.376-04:00

Here's Kerry yesterday, referring to the weapons that through some process of divination he is certain were lost after U.S. troops conquered Iraq: "Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up our airplanes and level buildings." So the current operational definition of weapons of mass destruction, courtesy of the Kerry campaign appears to be as follows: any weapon

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098793634006817342004-10-26T08:11:00.000-04:002004-10-26T08:27:14.006-04:00

Continuing a trend of attorneys general using their positions to make headlines and prepare runs for higher office, New York AG Eliot Spitzer has forced out Jeffrey Greenberg, CEO of insurance broker Marsh & McLennan, by threatening to file criminal charges against the company if Greenberg remained in authority. Spitzer is investigating Marsh (read: making allegations in the press and demanding

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098705857109458652004-10-25T07:51:00.000-04:002004-10-25T08:04:17.110-04:00

Here's John Kerry speaking at New York University on September 20th, opining on the Bush administration's contention before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the U.S.: "We now know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and posed no imminent threat to our security." Here's a Kerry spokesman just yesterday, regarding the revelation that tons of deadly weapons have gone

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098364496565110202004-10-21T09:01:00.000-04:002004-10-21T09:14:56.566-04:00

Imagine a Republican political candidate calling his opponent "incompetent," and "a phony." Now, imagine the Washington Post reporting this behavior. How would the Post do this? By offering plenty of space for Democrats to label the Republican "mean-spirited" and "divisive." Now switch the parties in that scenario, and you have John Wagner's slobbery piece on John Edwards in today's Post. Not

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098274071361183362004-10-20T07:55:00.000-04:002004-10-20T08:07:51.360-04:00

Don Gonyea on NPR this morning contrasted the attacks Bush and Kerry are making on each other in a manner that equates them. Kerry charges, he notes, that Bush will take away Social Security benefits from seniors, and reinstitute the draft. Bush charges, meanwhile, that Kerry will raise taxes, let trial lawyers dominate health care law, and be soft on terrorism. In Gonyea's framing, each side is

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1098101734445466032004-10-18T07:36:00.000-04:002004-10-18T08:15:34.446-04:00

The Racial Gap in Wealth, or, How Dozens of Journalists Don't Know the First Thing About How the World Works Headlines like this in the Washington Post abound today: Wealth Gap Widens For Blacks, Hispanics If you've been to college or been fed on a steady diet of nightly news (and isn't it a shame that either activity requires strong intervention in order to prevent disastrous

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1097870194404164542004-10-15T15:53:00.000-04:002004-10-15T15:57:37.243-04:00

I wonder how many other people who have boldly tried to reach the National Review Online site without a map have stumbled like I did across what may be the most mind-numbing blend of buzz-words and techno-dorkishness in existence on the Web.

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1097846108495105062004-10-15T08:56:00.000-04:002004-10-15T09:17:36.216-04:00

One might take the following points from much news media coverage of Christopher Reeve's passing: 1) Bush probably killed him by opposing stem cell research; 2) The only people who oppose stem cell research are big meanies who want Superman to remain in a wheelchair because they are twisted, bitter, cruel troglodytes who enjoy watching sensitive brave people suffer; and 3) Christopher would

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-1097842494360671692004-10-15T08:11:00.000-04:002004-10-15T08:14:54.360-04:00

Why the big gap between posts? Because I thought I could go on with other things, and keep my political views to myself. No such luck. So I need to get a few things off my chest. 1) John Kerry is a self-righteous, amoral, prevaricating twit. 2) George W. Bush's debate coach should be forced to watch Barbra Streisand's address to the Harvard Kennedy School while having his toenails yanked out

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-927733372003-04-17T08:22:00.000-04:002003-04-17T08:26:03.000-04:00

Hollywood Speaks and the Press Club Applauds Tim Robbins has a commanding voice, the kind of voice that suggests clear thought. In this he is a very good actor, because his recent speech at the National Press Club was what a logician calls "internally inconsistent." This is a polite way of saying that Robbins asserted, within seconds, both A and not A, to the applause of his marginally more

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-923574182003-04-10T09:16:00.000-04:002003-04-10T09:30:48.000-04:00

Shameful To understand what is wrong with The New York Times one need look no further than today's lead headline in the print edition: "U.S. Forces Take Control in Baghdad. Bush Elated; Some Resistance Remains." Compare this to every other headline in the English-speaking world today, for example: The Washington Post: American Troops Cheered by Crowds Jubilant at End of Repressive Regime The

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-922862702003-04-09T08:42:00.000-04:002003-04-09T08:42:57.966-04:00

Returning Fire I saw last night that some organization representing journalists is asserting that the U.S. soldiers who fired on their hotel in Baghdad have violated the Geneva Convention and should be investigated. This is in keeping with the totalitarian sympathies of the Left: rather than denounce the Iraqi government for torturing prisoners, Kofi Annan denounces the U.S.; instead of

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-919806072003-04-04T08:43:00.000-05:002003-04-04T08:43:23.810-05:00

Designated Bad Guy I root for the wrong characters. Take Archie Bunker, for example. I mostly agree with him, except for his borderline communist position on labor unions. Or consider Jack Nicholson, the excruciatingly obvious Designated Bad Guy (DBG) in "A Few Good Men." His speech on the witness stand in the final climactic scene leaves me misty: "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-918665022003-04-02T16:02:00.000-05:002003-04-03T09:13:40.000-05:00

Ouch From a commenter on Sgt. Stryker's observation that some French Iraqophiles have desecrated the graves of American and British WWII soldiers: "I am really getting to the point where I believe we should bring our war dead home. I know it would be a long and costly project, but frankly their soil defiles our dead."

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-918657282003-04-02T15:48:00.000-05:002003-04-02T15:48:37.513-05:00

Race to the Bottom The high priests of racial grievance were out in full force yesterday as the Supreme Court considered a challenge to the University of Michigan's use of racial preferences in admissions. If you have any doubt about which side The Washington Post is on, you need go no further than this breathless salute to the noble forces of diversity gathered outside the Court's walls. Having

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-917110702003-03-31T10:11:00.000-05:002003-03-31T10:11:31.840-05:00

Embedded There's been some handwringing among journalism's bishops and cardinals about the damage done to credibility as a result of "embedding" journalists with troops. People can't help but begin to feel close to those with whom they spend weeks in harsh situations facing a common enemy. What will this do to the objectivity of their reporting? Thus wail the Arbiters of Objectivity. I think

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-915446112003-03-28T08:39:00.000-05:002003-03-28T09:51:14.000-05:00

I got a note from Linda, who lives in Australia. Linda is against the war, and she proudly lists Australian actors who are also against it. Well that settles things. Pack it up boys, because Linda and a third-rate gaggle of pretty people down under say war is wrong. It's not just wrong, according to Linda, but it "has no reasoning." As the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, everyone is

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-914911462003-03-27T12:37:00.000-05:002003-03-27T12:42:25.000-05:00

The Holy Calling of Academia I am a member of an email list (called a "list-serv") of consultants and academics who study social networks. These people are largely U.N.-loving one-world types, as you might expect. The Coalition invasion of Iraq has inspired the usual snide commentary disguised as academic discussion. One professor recently wrote, for example, about the connectivity of groups who

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-914097872003-03-26T08:38:00.000-05:002003-03-27T12:29:52.000-05:00

Capitalists Vs. Capitalism I'm reading a wonderful book right now: Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists. An excerpt: "Instead of viewing destruction as the inevitable counterpart of creation, it is far easier for the politician to give in to the capitalist, who ostensibly champions the distressed by demanding that competition be shackled and markets suppressed. Under the guise of making

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-913446132003-03-25T08:58:00.000-05:002003-03-25T09:00:17.000-05:00

Right and Wrong It seems to me that this "No Blood For Oil" demand is a bit wrongheaded. I mean, it really turns on whose blood we are talking about, don't you think? Not that it is about oil, any more than the Starr investigation was about sex lies (Geraldo's coinage), or Playboy is about the articles. "No Blood For Oil" is merely a nefarious frame that inspires adherents to the religion of

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-913434702003-03-25T08:31:00.000-05:002003-03-25T21:31:40.000-05:00

Is It Me, or Blogger? I know, the stupid permalinks don't work. I even switched templates to try and make them work. Uncooperative little beasts. The size of those links on the right is a little unnerving as well. Oh well, this is what it's like when you're incognito, a man without a country. I welcome any advice, except that which is rude or anatomically unfeasible.

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-912770532003-03-24T08:16:00.000-05:002003-03-24T09:32:35.000-05:00

Dumb and Dumber Michael Moore epitomizes the worst of the American Dream, for he is shambling proof that a fool with camcorder and word processor can become both moviemaker and best-selling author. He owes his career to bitterness combined with ignorance and driven by ingenuity. In this he is little different from the hate-filled enemies of American whom he sought to comfort last night from the

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-912770152003-03-24T08:15:00.000-05:002003-03-24T08:15:17.793-05:00

Ghoul Saturday I made the mistake of switching the channel briefly to NBC. There I saw the squinty-eyed Katie Couric, leering at the family of a newly killed soldier from behind her clumpy eyelashes, trying to exude what must pass for tenderheartedness among the heartless and self-absorbed. Though she is the darling of Democratic housewives and a frequent subject of magazine covers, Couric

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-911303172003-03-21T11:22:00.000-05:002003-03-21T13:16:12.000-05:00

Lectures The squealing, according to The New York Times is widespread. France President Jacques Chirac claims that the allied action "will be fraught with consequences for the future." Chirac apparently dwells in an anti-matter dimension in which non-action has no consequences. You can understand how this delusion might be soothing to a country which rolled over and showed its belly not once but

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-911219392003-03-21T08:34:00.000-05:002003-03-21T08:36:29.000-05:00

Restraint I'm wondering what prevents the Iraq regime from using its chemical and biological weapons. Perhaps it doesn't have any after all. That's alright with me. If President Bush or Colin Powell or somebody else gets in front of reporters after this realization and says, "my bad," I'll be satisfied. I thought we should have eliminated Hussein and his regime the moment we discovered his plot

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-910626912003-03-20T10:33:00.000-05:002003-03-20T10:33:24.293-05:00

The Other Battle So the big battle is upon us. I don't mean with Iraq. No, I'm talking about the NCAA basketball tournament. And yes, I'm talking about men's basketball. When three-quarters of every women's team can dunk, and when most women's basketball teams can pay their own way so that male wrestlers and gymnasts don't have their programs erased in order to assuage someone's guilt over

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5186183.post-910552732003-03-20T07:54:00.000-05:002003-03-20T07:56:52.000-05:00

It's Already Been Broughten! Well, the long-awaited smackdown in Iraq is underway. We will receive no help from France or Germany, of course; they are consumed at present with how to explain what we are sure to find in abundance: devices labeled "Le Missle Launcher" and "Der Anthraxenator." How else to explain why the most capitalist (as opposed to entrepreneurial) countries in Europe, as

de-plush-dollnoreply@blogger.com