Category: Ladd Ehlinger

Breakfast With Ehlinger

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by Smitty

Ladd is on his way back home, and we staged a coordinated attack on a brace of breakfast samplers at IHOP.

There were no injuries in the attack, and we fought the pancakes to a draw. Then we retreated with only a few weeks damage to our lifespans from all the bacon.

Ladd is truly an excellent American, and it’s great to know that there are a few of his ilk in the struggle against the herd of RINOs out there.

Godspeed, Ladd, and may we cross silverware again in that endless struggle for truth, justice, and decent breakfast.

They Truly Hate Liberty

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by Smitty

Ladd Ehlinger links Zilla of the Resistance in support of Donald Douglas, who has come under real-world attack for supporting the truth.

It is increasingly hard to give anyone on the Left the benefit of the doubt. On political questions, I am nearly at the point of thinking anyone on the Left is guilty until proven innocent. And even the evidence of innocence may be rigged. They campaign on transparency, then do precisely the opposite. Not acutely, but chronically, as though the truth were their urinal, and any semblance of classically liberal thought merely an act.

What to do?

First, I think we avoid being drawn solely into the moment. In the death throes of Progressivism, they are wildly wrecking as much as they can. Fools that they are, they live only in the present tense. Stay calm and adult. Remember that, after this societal kidney stone is passed, we still have to live with our actions. We that have a conscience and moral compass, that is. Expect the Left to lack such.

Second, don’t lose sight of compassion. There may be a tiny fraction of the Left that are salvageable. While dispensing 99% tough love to the 99% idiot crowd, keep the eye peeled for the 1% whose reasoning faculties are not totally shot.

Thirdly, don’t expect it to end soon. Progressivism may be dying, but, like some vast serpent in a Lovecraft story, it’s got significant thrashing to do. The Left wants you to give up and join the Cthulhu worship. Then there is the dirty diaper of debt that Progress leaves. It really isn’t clear to me that anyone knows just how bad things are, financially. Remember: they want you to despair. Resist we much.

Fourth, yawn at these appeals to foolish authority. The people that claim they can fix it are the people who have been tubing it for decades. If they sound stupid, or speak in contradictions (you have to tell your life story to fly, but can’t show government ID to vote) it is quite likely that they are stupid. Touching on #3 above, I frequently cite the Book of Exodus in the context of how long it is going to take to un-trash the American mind. These #OWS people are slaves, and they will beget slaves, but perhaps by the third generation we can again be a land of promise.

You Don’t Do Champagne Work On A Kool-Aid Budget

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by Smitty

I completely understand Ladd Ehlinger’s point here. When you’re trying to accomplish something artistic, tools do matter. As ancient commenter Solomon noted:

If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct. Eccl10:10

And why waste wisdom overcoming tool deficiencies, unless that itself is part of the art? All this is to say: Ladd has a point.

So, the bazillion dollar question is: how does one go from dead 0 to auteur? Jerry Pournelle has noted that, as a writer, you throw away your first million words. What is the corresponding duration of film, one wonders? Then again, some say you never ‘arrive’, to note Buddy Rich:

Late in his life, Buddy Rich was asked if he considered himself the world’s greatest drummer, and he gave an inspiring reply: “Let’s put it this way: I have that ambition. You don’t really attain greatness. You attain a certain amount of goodness, and if you’re really serious about your goodness, you’ll keep trying to be great. I have never reached a point in my career where I was totally satisfied with anything I’ve ever done, but I keep trying.”

One of the ironies of education, I’ve found, is that the best learning comes while teaching. That is, the effort required to translate some knowledge from my head to that of another has a massive clarifying effect.

But we often start with that Kool-Aid budget. And I submit that quite a few problems are heuristic in nature: you’ve just got to drink some Kool-Aid prototypes just to understand the problem enough to undertake the champagne work. At the risk of sounding a teeny bit Freudean, I was raised by such a perfectionist mother that she would regularly avoid trying things, knowing that the result would be sub-champagne. A major part of growing up was forgiving her that.

Maybe if you’re Mozart, you can toss off a Symphony #40 as Zeus toss out Athena from his brow:
For the rest of us, the process of elimination will have to do. And if a Kool-Aid budget is what you got, well, you go to art with the budget you have, not the budget you wish you had, to mangle Rumsfeld.

Update: linked by That Mr. G Guy.

Let’s Not Go Lefty Over Technology

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by Smitty

Twitter is cool. You should follow me. Also, you should follow Ladd Ehlinger, a cat most cool, who shared a tidbit about Twitter:

Multiple conservative Twitter accounts are complaining that they are spontaneously “unfollowing” other conservative Twitter accounts. I’ve had it happen to me, where my account has “unfollowed” people without my consent or knowledge. Simple bug? Maybe.
An anonymous source, who claims to be with Twitter, contacted me today claiming that there’s a “hacktivist” on Twitter’s payroll who’s having a little fun at the expense of his ideological opponents. I can’t confirm this as just a simple rumor or hoax, since the upper
management of Twitter is beyond impossible to contact.

I’ve been hit with this, too. However, I’ve also been surfing quite close to the ‘follow limit’, which seems to be around 91% follow/following, as far as I can tell.

Could some smarmy Lefty be playing tee hee hee games? It’s not impossible, but what would you do? There is no evidence, and, even if you had some information, would there be a court case? I haven’t read the Twitter service agreement either, but I’m confident the service is made available on an “as is” basis.

Should we be upset? Let me say that I have been tinkering heavily with software across all operating systems and licensing regimes for a decade, and I say: no. We’re capitalists, and we’re getting what we pay for. If a free service is sucky, then it bespeaks a business opportunity. It’s actually feasible to acquire some hardware, load some open source software, arrange for internet presence, and set up shop. Oh, staffing, funding and eyeballs? Let’s go back in time and locate rich parents.

Are we willing to pay for some service level guarantee? I might not mind, but the value of Twitter diminishes as people eject in favor
of FaceBook.

As with YouTube, conservatives need to put a bit of thought into the value of the political expression under consideration, and be willing to pony up some treasure to protect it. It starts to sound Lefty if we get screwed with by the hypothetical tee hee hee employee and then whine as though some entitlement had been tarnished.

HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP.

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Just now got in off the road, returning from Ohio where my wife’s parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. On the way — quite literally writing “on the road,” since the trip was seven hours — I composed a long post that I’ll put up later tonight.

But that’s going to have to wait a while, because I just logged on and saw this by Ladd Ehlinger and this by Dan Riehl. Both Dan and Ladd called me yesterday while I was driving to Ohio, but the cell-phone reception on the road was sufficiently crappy that I was unable to understand what they were talking about. And then I caught this link via Dan’s blog and . . .

HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP.

The blog-war aspect of this incident rather dwindles into insignficance when measured against the apparent willingness of a Las Vegas radio station to allow Mike Tyson to spew such filthy and derogatory racial stereotypes. Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clark writes:

Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson is under fire for “deplorable” and “stomach-churning” graphic sexual descriptions in a local radio interview about Sarah Palin’s alleged fling with Glen Rice.
The website, Mediaite.com, also leveled criticism at “Gridlock” hosts Mitch Moss and Paul Howard, of ESPN affiliate KWWN-AM, 1100/ 98.9 FM, for finding humor in Tyson’s shocking take.
“The fact that someone convicted of sex crimes even talked about it in such disturbingly gross ways”… and “so violently like this over mass media” raises serious questions, wrote Mediaite columnist Frances Martel.
Moss, who also serves as “Gridlock’s” program director, and Howard “cackled and guffawed in harmony at Tyson’s deplorable comment,” according to Martel.

Does FCC know about this? How about AttackWatch? Now that I think of it, have we heard from Jill Filipovic, Jessica Valenti, Melissa McEwan or any of the other feminists? Because if Sarah Palin weren’t a Republican, I think they’d probably be outraged by this.

UPDATE: Catching up, I see Jim Hoft wondering:

Is this it?  Is there anything else they could say about Sarah Palin?

Dunno. But if there is, they’ll say it.

UPDATE II: Greta Van Susteren calls out Tucker Carlson by name:

I keep asking myself, why would Tucker allow this to be posted on his website?  . . .
Tucker has daughters and a wife and I would think he in particular would not want to be a purveyer of smut (and this is actually more, this is violence against women) and allow this to be posted on his website.
I emailed Tucker yesterday and asked him about it.  He did not reply.  I wanted to know what action he was going to take about it since I really did not want to blog about it and felt some urge to protect him.  24 hours have passed and I have not heard from Tucker and it is still on the front page of his website.
So…I am calling him out on this.  This is not about whether you are in favor of Governor Palin’s policies or not — this is about whether women should be treated this way and whether this is journalism.  It is also about the willingness to stand up to a friend when he or she has gone way over the top and this is one instance where a friend has gone way over the top.
Tucker can’t hide behind ‘this is news, it was said by Mike Tyson and we are simply reporting it.’  It is not news.  This denigrates women.   He knows that, I know that, you know that. . . .

Much much more at the link, explaining how a story about what Mike Tyson said became a story about how the Daily Caller reported it.

UPDATE III: Tammy Bruce slammed Daily Caller on Twitter, as did Jedediah Bila, while Sissy Willis wrote a whole post about it.

UPDATE IV: Linked by Da Tech Guy and now a Memeorandum thread.


VIDEO: Ladd Ehlinger Strikes NY-9 With Surfing Rabbi and Dancing Weiners

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GO RED 9/13!

UPDATE: A new Sienna College poll shows Turner leading by 6 points, with a 38-point advantage among independents. Ace of Spades points out that Weprin’s vote for gay marriage might be hurting him among Orthodox Jews in the district.

UPDATE II: The latest poll — the second in the past week to show Turner leading — inspires these headlines:

Poll: Republicans On Verge Of Shocking NYC Upset
— Hotline On Call

Poll shocker: GOP up for Anthony Weiner seat
— Politico

PREVIOUSLY:

New From Ladd Ehlinger: Hitchhiker’s Guide To Freedom

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by Smitty


Narrator: Once Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the Roman Republic was finished. What little Liberty mankind had secured vanished.
Children: Aww!
Narrator: Not until the United States of America, nearly two millennia later, did humanity recover with a golden age of freedom.
Children: Yay!
Narrator: Sadly, as far as we can determine from surviving records, this was eroded during the rein of President Obama.
Children: Aww!
Narrator: Draconian laws and regulations chained mankind to a tyrannical government. Many opportunities were squandered to elect leaders to repeal these laws.
Kate Marshall: My name’s Kate Marshall… I’m in control of your money.
Narrator: As with the fall of the Roman Republic, it would take nearly 2000 years for mankind to recover its freedom.
Sound effect: Toilet flushing.
Children: Aww!
Title Card: Save the future. Every election in the nation matters now. Help keep liberal Kate Marshall out of Congress.

Disclaimer: Paid for by the Conservative Action Fund. Not Authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. This title card was forcibly placed here against the will of the filmmaker via the McCain-Feingold law, which is advocated by such useful idiots as Stephen Colbert, who through his satire advocates even more regulation of political speech.