Overnight Open Thread (7-16-2014)

Jonah Goldberg: Taking Exception to Exceptionism

"Why liberals have become so comfortable running down America is no doubt complicated, but I think one part of the answer is obvious. Liberals tend to equate patriotism with the government. Obama was supposed to usher in a glorious new era of European-style big government. He's failed, though alas not entirely. But in the attempt he aroused a populist movement - the tea parties - full of people who wore their traditional patriotism on their sleeves and tricorn hats. The forces of American exceptionalism proved formidable, taking advantage of our exceptional constitutional structure to thwart European social democracy. And liberal resentment over that fact is palpable."

Get Ready For the New Patriotism: Tax Patriotism 

"Congress should enact legislation immediately," Lew told a business conference in New York hosted by cable television channel CNBC. "We should have some economic patriotism here."

Lew's remarks came amid a wave of corporate deals known as inversions, in which a U.S. company shifts its tax home base to a lower-tax country by combining with a company based in that country. Popular destinations are Ireland, Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

So per the administration corporations do not have the right to free speech but they are expected to be patriotic by paying the extremely high US corporate taxes when they don't have to. Seriously the US does in fact have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Expect this to soon be applied to individuals.

In Defense of Rosie O'Donnell

I'm quite sure that Rosie wouldn't do the same for us but that doesn't mean we shouldn't push back against bullies on general principle.

Seriously. This is neither a snide super-clever post aimed at mocking her or a Voltairean moment of defending the right of someone to say something with which I disagree. This is a defense of someone who is being bullied by our moral and intellectual superiors.
If that implies chivalry on my part, so what?

The background is quite simple. Rosie O'Donnell took her family fishing. They caught a hammerhead shark and they were happy. This happened 11 days before a ban on fishing this particular subspecies of hammerhead sharks took effect.

David Shiffman wants to cost Rosie O'Donnell her job and the millions that go with it. Perhaps more. He tweeted the above picture. Slate used one with Rosie alone and not her minor children.

More important, he wants to intimidate anyone who follows her footsteps.

She did something legal.

It's now illegal.

You won.

Get off her case.

Clinton: The Musical

Get ready for it.

RSM: How To Get Raped At College

You can read the whole thing. One wonders how the world could be arranged so that 18-year-old girls can get drunk at parties and "grind" with football players without the players inferring from this behavior that the girls are interested in having sex.

...Alcohol is always involved in these stories, see? But colleges aren't willing to discipline kids for underage drinking. If you want to stop "rape culture," do something to stop "drunk culture."

Patterico: Two Interesting Intellectual Property Cases

John Wayne's family vs Duke University:

I come down on the side of the Duke with this one - partially because I hate universities, partially because I don't like lawsuits. But let's assume these two spokesmen are telling the truth. The Duke's legatees want to use the nickname "in connection with John Wayne's name, image or likeness" and the university wants to limit it to situations where it is "clearly linked to John Wayne's likeness." It sounds like the university wants to ban any mention of the Duke's nickname without an "image" attached - even if John Wayne's name is used. Bollocks. Patterico hereby enters judgment in the court of public opinion in favor of the Duke's legatees, and orders the president of that university to go soak his head.

And in the second case well I think by now it's been pretty well shown that Led Zeppelin was a talented band who also stole a whole lotta shit from other bands in their early days.

Obama Administration Bans Import of Izhmash & Kalashnikov (Saiga) Firearms

Technically the order only bans financial dealings with the companies but since that leaves no way to pay them for the guns, it's effectively a ban on anything made by these companies.

"If you take my gun, I will just print another one"

This seems like the first viable 3D-printed firearm receiver.

Weezer's 'Hash Pipe' Done Ragtime-Style

From the ever creative folks in Post Modern Jukebox. Seriously is there any style they can't play?

Ladies Home Journal, 1968

What Killed the Noid?

Surprisingly not unpopularity.

Did a Crocodile Take Down a Plane in Africa?

The Group knows what you did.

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posted by Maetenloch at 11:00 PM

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