les pensées insouciantes

Lapdance of Danger, Or Big Trouble In Steamy Tampa | Ricochet.com

Hilarious — and likely spot-on — advice for anyone attending either of the upcoming conventions.

This outing with the boys in the steamy tropical night of a late August in Tampa sounded so good on the front end. But this is where it gets sporty.

See, the minute you got out of the car, some folks in a van parked across the street got you on video.

Who cares who they work for? The media? BuzzFeed, prepping for a piece called, “18 GOP Well-Fed GOP Delegates Walking Into Seedy Strip Clubs?” The DNC? Talking Points Memo? MMFA? Some Democratic SuperPAC? OFA? It doesn’t matter. Hell, for all you know George Soros is sitting in the back wearing a mumu, muttering commands to them and smelling of Ben Gay and borscht.

But count on it. They will be there. We live in the era of the tracker, and the ultimate gotcha is guys, getting in trouble because millions of years of evolution coupled with our bad judgment about inappropriate women led you to this.

So yeah, they’re watching for guys in rental cars wearing RNC lanyards. They’re playing Spot-The-Delegate and every single face on that video is going to be peered at long and hard. And in the age of Facebook, Google Image Search and good old detective work, they’ll know who you are soon enough.

And inside? Whether it’s from the club making a deal with the same people (a known fact of Tampa strip club history) and providing their video feed, or just an enterprising Democratic intern on the Best Job Ever filming you with his tiny GoPro or phone camera, you and your friends will get captured in mid-lapdance. You will remember the fun differently the next morning.

Why? Because the next morning, as you reach for your vibrating phone on the nightstand, the hangover grinding through your head and your guts, it takes a moment to focus. You swing your feet to the floor, staring at the text message from your wife.

“Call me. You’re on YouTube.”

# Politics

We make fun of San Francisco and San Francisco values, but I’m very concerned for the future because San Francisco is actually spreading out. The State of California, which is sinking beneath the waves, is literally at the state level controlled by San Franciscans. Our Governor Jerry Brown is from San Francisco, our Lieutenant Governor [Gavin] Newsom is from San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the House is from San Francisco, the Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is a real, I think — and from my perspective it worries me — a real up and comer…who is very left-wing is from San Francisco, both our Senators are from San Francisco, and this small area with very left-wing values, that are not reflected throughout the rest of the state [Ed. or the rest of the country, for that matter], is the political artery to California and often California is the political artery to the rest of the country. So, I think San Francisco, for all of the mocking that has been done about San Francisco values, in many ways I think a cultural coup d’état is going on and that it’s a very powerful city and a center of politics in this country.

— Author Wesley J. Smith

So, given California is the biggest shit-show in the Union, beyond effectively bankrupt, and going down faster than a high-speed ~~boondoggle~~ train, this should be about as damning a denunciation of the far-Left politics and ideology of “San Francisco” possible, no?

Pelosi’s the shortest-lived House majority in fifty-five years

France: The California of Europe™

‘Racist’ is the new ‘doody head.’ It’s overused. Overplayed. It doesn’t zing as much as it used to because it’s used out the wazoo. And guess what? White Liberals are the people who throw it around the most…I think Black people sometimes look up at a racist and just shake their head and walk away and go ‘I know this tired story, I’m moving on…’ White Liberals are the ones who camp out on it like they’re champions of the world, and it’s getting a little tired.

Andrew Breitbart takes podium, addresses media at disgraced Rep Anthony Weiner’s Press Conference

Such a baller.

Andrew Breitbart: Ain’t Got No Time For Shuckin’ and Jivin’

RIP.

Danny DeVito as “Larry the Liquidator:”

“Buggy Whip” speech from Other People’s Money.

I’ve posted this before, and it’s beyond belief that he even needs one within his own field, but if Mitt Romney needs a defense of his tenure at Bain for the upcoming debates, he could hardly do better than the above speech.

Also:

Jim Pethokoukis:

There is a huge net benefit for society from Schumpeterian capitalism, but there are losers, as economist Michael Cox of the Dallas Fed points out in this great article (and table) on creative destruction at the Library of Economics and Liberty:

A society cannot reap the rewards of creative destruction without accepting that some individuals might be worse off, not just in the short term, but perhaps forever. At the same time, attempts to soften the harsher aspects of creative destruction by trying to preserve jobs or protect industries will lead to stagnation and decline, short-circuiting the march of progress. Schumpeter’s enduring term reminds us that capitalism’s pain and gain are inextricably linked. The process of creating new industries does not go forward without sweeping away the preexisting order. … The disruption of lost jobs and shuttered businesses is immediate, while the payoff from creative destruction comes mainly in the long term. As a result, societies will always be tempted to block the process of creative destruction, implementing policies to resist economic change.
Attempts to save jobs almost always backfire. Instead of going out of business, inefficient producers hang on, at a high cost to consumers or taxpayers. The tinkering short circuits market signals that shift resources to emerging industries. It saps the incentives to introduce new products and production methods, leading to stagnation, layoffs, and bankruptcies.

Most Americans Still Have No Idea How Bad the U.S. Economy Is

Merry Christmas!

Hope Santa brings you a new pair of underwear.

You’ll need it after reading this…

(#44. Oy.)

On “Civil Disobedience”

Civil disobedience may be justifiable, in some cases, when and if an individual disobeys a law in order to bring an issue to court, as a test case. Such an action involves respect for legality and a protest directed only at a particular law which the individual seeks an opportunity to prove to be unjust. The same is true of a group of individuals when and if the risks involved are their own.

But there is no justification, in a civilized society, for the kind of mass civil disobedience that involves the violation of the rights of others—regardless of whether the demonstrators’ goal is good or evil. The end does not justify the means. No one’s rights can be secured by the violation of the rights of others. Mass disobedience is an assault on the concept of rights: it is a mob’s defiance of legality as such.

The forcible occupation of another man’s property or the obstruction of a public thoroughfare is so blatant a violation of rights that an attempt to justify it becomes an abrogation of morality. An individual has no right to do a “sit-in” in the home or office of a person he disagrees with—and he does not acquire such a right by joining a gang. Rights are not a matter of numbers—and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.

The only power of a mob, as against an individual, is greater muscular strength—i.e., plain, brute physical force. The attempt to solve social problems by means of physical force is what a civilized society is established to prevent. The advocates of mass civil disobedience admit that their purpose is intimidation. A society that tolerates intimidation as a means of settling disputes—the physical intimidation of some men or groups by others—loses its moral right to exist as a social system, and its collapse does not take long to follow.

Politically, mass civil disobedience is appropriate only as a prelude to civil war—as the declaration of a total break with a country’s political institutions.

— Ayn Rand

“The Cashing-In: The Student ‘Rebellion’”

From Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

House Passes "Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act" Crowdfunding Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a variety of measures intended to make it easier for small businesses to raise money. The most notable of the bills, which have had wide bipartisan support, would create an SEC exemption for crowdfunding.

The crowdfunding bill, called the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, would allow companies to give out equity stakes in exchange for investments of up to $2 million.

The stakes wouldn’t count against the SEC’s famous 500-shareholder rule. And individual investors would be capped at putting in $10,000 or 10 percent of their annual income.

This is very exciting.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Patrick McHenry [R-NC10], passed 407-17, with 9 not voting.

You can view the bill here.

Just For Reference™, the 17 Naye votes, all Democrats, were:

Georgia:

GA-5 Lewis, John [D]

Illinois:

IL-9 Schakowsky, Janice [D]

Maryland:

MD-4 Edwards, Donna [D]

MD-7 Cummings, Elijah [D]

Massachusetts:

MA-1 Olver, John [D]

MA-6 Tierney, John [D]

MA-7 Markey, Edward [D]

MA-8 Capuano, Michael [D]

MA-9 Lynch, Stephen [D]

Michigan:

MI-5 Kildee, Dale [D]

MI-15 Dingell, John [D]

New York:

NY-5 Ackerman, Gary [D]

North Carolina:

NC-1 Butterfield, George [D]

NC-4 Price, David [D]

NC-12 Watt, Melvin [D]

NC-13 Miller, R. [D]

Ohio:

OH-10 Kucinich, Dennis [D]

The bill now has to pass the Senate before being signed into law.

(Source: allthingsd.com)

Infographic: The Obama Economy - By The Numbers

I mostly consider myself a libertarian and I was inspired to create the infographic out of a general frustration with the current economic environment. While I don’t solely blame President Obama for this, I do believe his policies have lengthened (and in many ways worsened) this downturn. Although the infographic is implicitly critical of President Obama, I wanted to avoid opinions and evaluate the hard numbers set against statements and promises he has made in the past.

— Web designer and developer John Ekdahl

Been making the rounds.

Empirically, pretty damning.

Recall: